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All right, Chelsea fans, welcome back to another episode. That's right. The London is blue podcast. Hopefully your favorite Chelsea podcast in all the land anywhere where podcasts are available, Apple podcasts, Spotify, YouTube brands doing a great job making sure that they end up on there. Dan, one of your hosts here today, no Nick, no Brandon aforementioned, but we are about the head into a massive summer of podcasts and we are getting it started. Temperatures are rising. Beach shorts are being acquired. Sun shades are going on because Chelsea's on a beach right now and it's about the new manager. It's about new players. It's about in comings and outgoings and who better to assist as we talk about scouting potential players that Chelsea might like to add in reinforcing one key area in midfield. Then our good friend Sam, CFC Central. So Sam, are you ready for summer season? Hello, Dan. Okay, first of all, it is summer all year long where I am. It's extremely hot. Yeah, it is. I mean, I live on basically like I live right next to the sea. So it's it's a ceilingy hot. It's humid, unbearable. So I'm not really looking forward to the hottest months of the year. In fact, the game of thrones was short in India and somebody said, we're into this coming first season, everything would end. So I think like, you know, I'm in that horrible position where I'm sweating. I can't exist without an air conditioner. But other than that, hoping and wishing that this season finally ends and we have something a little bit of a break. I think we fans more than anybody else needs a preseason to sort of recharge and come back next season, you know, trying to get all our support behind the team. So hoping that everybody else is on the same page and fingers crossed that good things are in store. Yeah. Look, it is about to be a very interesting summer, one where it feels like the margin for error is minimal and the amount of winds compared to L's the club wants to pick up is going to need to be heavily in favor of the dubs. But this episode is going to focus on some scouting that Sam has done in an area of key need with the midfield. So midfield, mania, we've done episodes like this before where we've had a chance to take a look at some of those names that are being linked with Chelsea, not saying that any of them are confirmed to be coming to Chelsea or further down the line. These players that are frequently mentioned in conversations. So this is just the amoose bush for a larger player profile if at when any point some of these players or any of these players end up at Chelsea. But we want to thank everybody for supporting the show. The five star views and Apple podcasts and Spotify. Have you done that before? Great opportunity to do it. You know, as you're getting ready for your summer vacation, your break away from Chelsea, five star view is going to help us mentally break. And then also you can support the podcast through Patreon. That's a great way to help us too. But look, we're going to get right into talking about the state of Chelsea's midfield. And Sam, I want to set the stage and I'm just going to run through who Chelsea have, you know, going in kind of chronological order of when the contract is expiring and then get a snap reaction on just overall health. If you are Dr. Sam and you are giving an evaluation, what is the health of this position? And so we'll start with Angola Conte, 32 years old, contract expires in June. There's been conversation even media coming out that he would like to be a part of the project. We have Dennis Acaria, who's currently on loan from Juventus. His contract expires at the end of the season. He would be likely going back to Juventus. We'll see how their situation is shaping up. Ruben Loftus-Chiek, his contract expires next summer, June 30th, 2024, currently 27 years old. In the end of the year, he's a contract, which is 29. His contract, along with Mason Mount, 24, also expire in 2024. Connor Gallagher, Lewis Hall, are the two individuals whose contracts expire in 2025. Connor Gallagher, 23, Lewis Hall, 18, even though Lewis Hall is classified as a left-back on transfer market. He is very much a center mid by design whose debut ties when needed. His contract expires in 2028, and then rounding out our midfield, Enzo Fernandez, who June 30th, 2031, his contract with Chelsea expires because we broke the contract game at 22 years old. Enzo is the longest contracted player in Chelsea at the moment. So Dr. Sam, give us your evaluation. I've heard the list of, I guess, player symptoms that we have in terms of contracts, age, profile. Where are we at? What's the health of the midfield? I think it's like opening someone up and realizing they only have one lung. I think that's the diagnosis that I get with my expert medical opinion, but I think that's where we're at. I tend to look at the starters that we have in midfield in Golo Conti has been, obviously, when he's extremely fit, when he's available, one of the best players in the world. Even when he came back from injury, he was spectacular for a long time. In a very, very bad team, he was arguably looking like one of the best players around. So, except him, Mateo Kowachic has declined horribly. I think his performance has gone down. I do sympathize with the fact that he said, after the World Cup, he was extremely drained, and it's been a long, long season. He's effectively also had a lot of injury troubles, which may be related to the amount of games that he's played, because he was also part of the tough runs that we've had in the past two years. With the conditioning and the fitness issues at the club, I think there are deeper issues that have hampered him, but in very brutal terms, his performance has just haven't been good enough. We lost Joe Gignon, but we haven't replaced him or any of the two starters who have declined. So, I mean, I look at the other guys, a lot of young potential, but again, Hall hasn't been given a chance. Chukumeka hasn't been given a chance. Mount has been injured for a while. So, it does look like they're either missing one part of a very essential respiratory system completely. And while Enzo is just being, you know, pumping overtime to compensate for the rest, you know, he still hasn't had a rest. I think he started every single game. Not good. I think when I look at this, I feel like we do require experience. We do require at least two starters to come in, but we might not have the funds or the pulling power this summer to make it happen. It is going to be tricky, and as we take a look ahead to the tactics, so if we're under the assumption and we've not heard anything to the counter that Risha Pachitino is Chelsea's next manager, we've done podcasts about it, but obviously has not been officially announced. Maybe something to happen at the end of the season once Frank has finally been removed of his temporary position at the club. But there's some thoughts that you put together here, Sam, about just what do we want to think about in terms of the midfield construct where Pachitino is going to likely use? How does it operate? And maybe do we have within our current crop the right type of players to build around for the way that he intends to or likely place? I mean, I'm going by the assumption that I have everything that I'm basing on right now is just stuff that I've seen him execute at Tottenham and at PSG. Now, he's been out of management for a year. A lot of times people take the baticles and come back completely refreshed with new ideas. He's been speaking at a lot of conferences. He's spoken at Sky Sports and I think with the high performance podcast as well. Some very interesting ideas on what he could do when he comes back. So, this is just purely on what he's done. He's genuinely just tried to stick with a 4-2-3-1 mostly. He's also fluctuated with a 3-4-2-1, with a 4-3-3 in other systems. But the 4-2-3-1 is essentially, I would say, the progenitor of what he tries to execute. From there in midfield when you've got a double pivot in the engine room, there is balance. There is usually one midfielder who's tasked with taking progression duties, somebody who's either carrying it between lines and connecting midfield to the attacking midfield and the attack, or he's just passing it and progressing it to one of the attacking midfielders who drops in to collect in spaces and then gets the attack underway. And the other midfielder is somebody who functions almost as a half-pack. He's got a dual responsibility of slotting into the back four and making a back three, so becoming that extra centre back, while also being somebody who's providing cover in transition, offering some kind of shielding, also sometimes contributing to counter presses, winning the ball back high. So there has been a little bit of a distinction in the profiles that he tends to have. Rarely seen both of them being ball winners, like he's played Eric Dyer and he's played Dali Ali in a double pivot. So you've got one guy who's effectively a centre back, who played it right back, specializes in interceptions, tackles playing there. And then Dali Ali, obviously, who was a midfielder, who was great at carrying the ball, arriving late. So that kind of balance has been very visible through his team selections, not just his players, but also at PSG. So he had Dyer and one Yammer as half-packs, at Spurs, and then Harry Winks, somebody who could pass the ball through, playing almost like a register kind of role. And then you had Dambelli, who I would say was world-class under Pochettino, and Musa Sisopo, who was bought as cover because Dambelli had a lot of injury issues. So all of these three guys are either good at carrying the ball or just moving it forward. And PSG had ended Herrera, and Tenilo, he also had Ithrisa Gay, who performed that half-pack duty, where they were able to be defensive midfielders, but also slotting back as the third centre back and providing some extra defence. So they had that. And then Verati was arguably one of the best at receiving in the first phase, progressing the ball with carries and end-width passing, and you had Peritas and winal them. So there is a distinction. He generally likes that dichotomy in midfield. And when I look at our profiles, we do have variety in that sense. When I look at ends of Hernandez, somebody who is extremely progressive, I mean, he is top of the Premier League for progressive passes. So he does have that to work with, but what we are missing is the other side. Somebody who is able to offer the defensive side. I think that ball-winning specialist has been missing after Kanate's decline and Mattich leaving. So I think that's been a huge hole that we haven't been able to fill. And that's, I think, something that the club hierarchy and Pocht, you know, both, will be targeting to make sure that the midfield unit looks strong before we go into next season. All right. So plenty to consider about setting up for next season in terms of the type of midfielders that Risa Pachitino is going to want and how that bounces with our current crop of players. There's also a lot of assumptions that we could currently make about the players who may or may not be here next season. Again, if we go through the list and go, a Kanate has publicly expressed an interest in wanting to be here, whether or not the contract gets renewed, that would be something that we would keep an eye out for in the very, very near future is the carry on likely to remain here. Ruben Loftich-Chik is an individual who has been rumored to be a target for AC Milan, would represent a profit on the books, but you're likely spending more or potentially having to promote someone to keep this place. Maybe someone like Louis Hall, who's a little less developed in terms of his professional football and career, but we give you some of that flexibility. Ruben Loftich-Chik is another one who likely doesn't seem wanting to renew has had performances on the downturn and maybe someone who is looking for a new opportunity. Then we do have a massive question around Mason Mount in terms of what happens to him with a lot of signs at the moment suggesting that it is going to be extremely difficult to walk back to a scenario where he is at Chelsea next season. So I think with all that said, it's likely that you keep Ingolo Conte, Connor Gallagher, Louis Hall, Chuck Omega and Enzo. And still probably need to reinforce two individuals into this position. Sam, especially you maybe consider that one of these individuals like Chuck Omega or Hall potentially goes on loan to secure more minutes than they were able to obtain this season. I would agree so definitely. I think what we do have is an overload of the box to box slash eight kind of profile. I think we have them in space. When you look at Connie Chukomekka, when you look at Mason Mount, for example, he's arguably not going to play in a midfield too. He hasn't done that. Even Tukel used him further forward in the 3, 4, 2, 1. He was not part of the double midfield engine room. He was more in the advanced role. So I think that's where maybe Pochettino also sees him in the 4, 2, 3, 1 as somebody in the number 10 role or maybe on the right hand side like Christian Erickson played, trying to disrupt play from the wide positions by drifting in inside. So I think that's very easy. So when I look at the profiles in the score, with Andrei Santo's out on loan, all these guys are more of the progressive kinds. I expect Chukomekka to be somebody who's extremely good at carrying the ball, very strong in terms of very captain, Thoram kind of player, somebody who's able to offer what Enzo can't do, through passing. Enzo is not a very good carrier, but when I look at Chukomekka, very, very good. Santo's also somebody who offers that, also offers other things, but predominantly a very good carrier as well. So we've got a lot of progressive guys, it's just the defensively strong elite ball winning caliber of central midfielders that we lack. And I think ideally if I had the money to spend, I would go and buy two of those. But most probably with the prices involved in buying these players, I think only one of them will come through the door. All right, well, we're going to get into those names that you put together. And I don't think there's going to be a lot of shock about the individuals we're talking about. And we'll be right back after this break from our sponsors and we'll get into all of those names. Are you missing out on your favorite shows because it's not available in your region? Trying to keep your private time private? Well, let me introduce you to NordVPN. If you board up the US Netflix, why not just take it for a spin in the UK using NordVPN and a click of a button, you can do just that. 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My link, NordVPN.com forward slash London is blue to get your subscription started today. Alright so we're going to go through four players. And we talked about them before Sam, individuals that would add an element of just any strength into our midfield in terms of turning it back into the type that can be the basis on which Chelsea work to get back into European competition next season, work to go deep in cup runs and potentially play an upset role in winning one and even get back into a top four convention very quickly with a with a rebound season that we all want to desperately see. So the names are Declan Rice, Moistice Giseido, Manuel O'Garte and Romeo Lavia. So those are the four names we're going to go through. And I think we want to start with Declan Rice and at this time has been rumored or connected to basically every major club in need of a midfielder because of the qualities and whether or not people do or don't want him at the club is not necessarily the conversation we're having here today. We're talking about the skill sets and why he would be a valuable addition if you were to come to Chelsea. So I leave it to you to help make the case and maybe change some opinions, some minds about why Declan Rice would be a great signing for Chelsea. I think if I had to pick one, I had to pick like the number one signing, I think Declan Rice would be somebody who I would immediately pull out as the ideal ball winning central midfielder that you could find. It's obviously for multiple reasons, but I just want to start with how difficult this role is under Pochettino. You've basically got to have a central midfielder who's comfortable as a defensive midfielder has some kind of competency in centre back positions defending and building out from the back, but also like for example, having some defensive competency while defending out right. But experience as a full back or a wide midfielder also great because that's everything that this central midfielder has to do in defensive transitions. You've also got to have somebody who's offering some kind of progressive support to ends of an end is in our team, you can't just rely on one outlet to constantly progress prey. I mean, to end those credit, he's been doing it phenomenally well, but we still have to see what happens when a team actively tries to shut him down. They've tried, but he's done very well, but there will be games that he will be quiet. So you want somebody to offer some level of progressive support defensively elite in Pochettino's side. Also somebody who can help in the counter press or somebody who can move quickly into the attacking third win the ball back, but also very good at defending transition. So it's a multi purpose role. And when I look at Declan Rice, he picks almost every single box and he's done that over a four to five season sample size, which is an extremely good healthy sample size to have. So when I look at him, I see somebody obviously who played as a centre back at a cadm-y level. He's played as a DM recently for us time. He's also played as an eight. He's played in a two man system. He's played in a three man system, comfortable slotting in a centre back. He's also slot in as as you know, the white centre back and help push the left back forward Darren Crasswell was pushing forward when he was slotting in at left centre back. And just his way of playing, I think when I look at the level of intelligence and aptitude that this guy has when he's reading play, when he's telegraphing opposition moves so good, you know, he's just so switched on to any danger that arises almost can't be like in the way that he understands where to position himself and when to push up and when to stay back. So, you know, a lot of numbers also sort of reflect that. I mean, in the past three of the last four seasons, he's been top 10 in interceptions in the Premier League. He's first in the Premier League this season, he was sixth the season before and in 1920 he was third. So, consistently very good. He's also a two footed tackle, able to tackle with either foot. Usually stays on his feet and he's got a very good reach. You know, he's got a very lanky sort of limbs to help him get to balls and stretch without going down. And he's got these lovely nuances which he uses in tackling. So, he's got a nice hook tackle where he's able to steal the ball by hooking his foot around the player and from the other side. If he's standing on the left of the player, he's able to hook the ball on the right foot of the opposition player. And he's able to also deceive sometimes when he's tackling so he uses his standing foot like the planting foot to almost trick the player to think into like he's going to tackle with one foot and then he uses the other foot to win the ball back. So, he's clever. He's developed his techniques to win the ball back. He's also doing it at a consistently good level. You know, I've also noticed that this time like, you know, West Ham haven't done well as a team. So, he's obviously been under the course quite a lot, but even in a potentially relegation sort of side for predominantly most of the season, he's been the standout player. He's somebody who stood out in big games against Liverpool, for example, just stood his ground and dictated what his team should do. You know, somebody who doesn't hide when it's a high-press situation, those are the kind of players that we've been lacking. You know, it's not just what he's doing on the field with his contributions on the ball, but it's just the influence that he's exerting. And obviously, people will be rolling their eyes saying, you know, that's not quantifiable. And, you know, that's just poetry at work. But genuinely, I think it speaks a lot about his influence, his leadership skills, his ability to hold ankle, essentially in the middle of the field that West Ham have sort of survived the drop. I think without him, they would have gone down 100% in my eyes. They would have definitely gone down. So, if you've got a player of that defensive aptitude, somebody who's, you know, top five, top 10 for recoveries and ground duels in every single season, in the past six seasons, endlessly able to recover and recycle possession, he's also got the experience of playing in a variety of systems. He's also played with more progressive central midfielders. When you look at, you know, he's played with Souschek, who isn't really the best defensive partner to have somebody who constantly pushes up into the opposition box to try to get at the end of headers. And he's also played with Bellingham, who makes those box to box runs, tries to be the guy who's winning the ball up high. He's been the selfless guy who's just stood back and allowed those players to do their playing while he's shielding the defense. He's making sure that he's able to anticipate and win the ball back either by staying back or going ahead. So, when you're looking at somebody who can do both, who has performed a role to a very high level over an extremely large sample size, I cannot see beyond Declan Rice, ridiculously consistent, hardly ever injured. He's got a lot of minutes in his legs. I think in the 1920s, he played every minute of every game in the Premier League. And he's done that whenever he's been available, he's played. So his influence is non questionable, his skills, his asset. The reason why Bayern Munich, the reason why Arsenal, the reason why every single side, like you mentioned, wants a reliable central midfielder is looking at him, speaks volumes. So I think he would definitely be my number one. Yeah, when you take a look at the matches played to starts, essentially, since 19, at in the 2018-2019 season, 38 matches played, 37 starts, 40 matches played, 40 matches started, 35, 35, 50, 48, 48, 44, and has effectively played 224 matches, starting 243 in total. And 20,404 minutes in total. And that's across all competitions. You know, when West Ham had always had some level of competition outside of the domestic ones. And so, yeah, definitely 24-years-in-game. So I know. Absolutely, absolutely wild. It is going to be a real challenge for Chelsea to offer a similar level of cache at the moment. I think that is going to be the big challenge that we don't have Champions League football next year. Maybe the wage structure is a little bit different within the way that the bonuses are working now with, you know, requirement for Champions League or for qualification to play a part in the incentive structure. So definitely feels as if we want Declan Rice, you're going to have to have an extremely impressive package and it feels like you're operating from a deficit. So if we take out Declan and maybe move to Moises, Chysetto, if Chelsea are not able to get Declan a player, I think you and I and many others feel would be a really great addition. Moises Chysetto was a name that we saw in January when Chelsea were going after Enzo Fernandez, a eye-wateringly shocking price that's biting into a sour sweet was quoted. He went up in value exponentially in the way that only Brighton can do. And I think fans at that point were like, we don't want another Brighton player. We've been burned a little too much by Brighton over the past six and a half, seven months. We want to get out of that business. We don't necessarily want Moises Chysetto. But I do think, and I think you'll make the case here, Sam, that it is hard to deny how good and how quickly he has come into being one of the elite midfielders in the Premier League. I'm going to be very honest, Dan. Initially, when I saw him play like up until I think the beginning of last season and maybe the first couple of games has been been porter was in charge when I was watching him. I was like, he's a good player, but he's nowhere close to the price that's being quoted for him, arguably just Brighton being Brighton and trying to flip him for a very good price. But the more I've watched him over the course of the season, the more it's becoming apparent that this guy is staggering, the good. He has the potential to be an old on midfield, general, I would say. He's only 21, and he's also improving at a very good rate. Under Dessert, he's pulling off. Last couple of games he's played as a right pack. He's also sort of functioning as a first phase guy, able to receive under pressure, releases it, has that sense of that power, the sense of when to release it, when to hold it, looks completely unfazed when he's in those situations. Then he's also able to offer his primary strength, which is just the ability to be a pure ball-winning destroyer in midfield. I think he's got that sense of, I think, almost a kind of, I would say that, or of being a box-to-box influence, somebody who's able to offer a very large-spanning influence. He's also a big fan of Angola, can't they apparently idealise him, but no surprise in the way that they play. He's somebody who's, I think, extremely good in terms of the defensive side of the game, but it's also the way that he's improving other aspects that make me think that he's going to be probably worth the price that's being quoted. I don't think any player's worth 90, 95 million. I think we've got now good sample size of players that have been bought for 9500, and those that are going to be a complete and unfettered success. But I think if you have to go for an elite midfielder, then Tacking Rice and Kaisader would probably be the two that you would want to bet good money on. Yeah, very, very interesting in the way that maybe opinions of him have changed, particularly as Brighton under Dzerby have really become a different force altogether, particularly as they push in the last part of the Premier League season here to maintain their spot in the top six so that they can make sure that Europe is not in question asked to villa right behind them, but currently three points adrift from them. Brighton do have a game in hand though. They're only at 36 played on time of recording in May at 23rd. So definitely, again, I think a similar situation, there are other large clubs that are rumored to be interested in Moises, Caesedo, whether that's in addition to going after someone like Declan Rice or as their primary target. And so again, it is going to be challenging for Chelsea to pull off a deal though we have found, seemingly a way to work with Brighton and give them the necessary compensation. And we've learned that if you kind of pay what Brighton are asking you for, you can get a deal of done with them. And so maybe this is something where West Ham have notoriously been extremely difficult for Chelsea to negotiate with. If you're facing the option of getting Declan Rice or getting Moises, Caesedo, you know that negotiating with West Ham is more difficult than with Brighton, maybe Moises, Caesedo just for the nature becomes the player that you make the investment in. So that could be some of the additional considerations that come into play Sam. Absolutely. And I think it's a rare profile. I've been scouring for the next central midfielder that we've probably going to try and recruit into our ranks. And it became increasingly clear that the kind of midfielders that we've been trying to get, I think that just does not cut it anymore. You want somebody who is obviously physically extremely well suited to ape, executing the kind of multipurpose duties that we talked about, especially in Portugal's system. But also somebody who is extremely quick of mine, you know, and quick with their ground speed. I think a lot of central midfielders, especially defensive kinds that we've seen tend to lack a little bit of their explosiveness. We've seen obviously Georgie in your first hand somebody who is obviously trying to defend by keeping the ball and making sure that distances were short and you didn't have to defend in in wide open spaces, which in many games we weren't able to offer him. And he wasn't able to offer the kind of defensive knew that we needed in large spaces. So I think moving away from that and coming to say Moises, Caesedo, who's so quick, when Brighton do lose the ball, the amount of distance he covers in half a second. I think that's something that's been actively sort of engaging my brain. I'm like, this is something that I need to look at. Somebody was able to offer counter pressing recoveries, somebody who's able to track back at extreme speed, keep up with the fastest Premier League quality wingers and in wide threats. When you look at Caesedo, he's somebody who's able to offer that. Almost like a cantators. You don't see cantators getting dribble past in his prime. You don't see him getting out muscled or outwitted. And Caesedo is pretty much the same thing. He looks like he understands the attacker's intentions well. He's equally good at not just going to the threat, but waiting for the threat to come to you. And I think when you're up against somebody like Caesedo, who's extremely quick, very smart, able to keep enough distance to know that if you're trying to dribble past him, he's going to catch up. There's no way you're outrunning him. Then you cause all sorts of problems. And you tend to do the one thing that kills transitions the most. You tend to delay it and you tend to slow it down. And then when you have enough bodies at the back, there's a smaller chance that you get hurt on transition. So he's somebody who's doing that as well as Declan Rice. They both have almost identical numbers in terms of quality and quantity for ground duels. Both of them, I would say, are decent in the air. Caesedo is like both of them compete for one aerial dueler game, but have around 64% of on the success. But where I see Caesedo being different is that when the ball is uncontested in the air, Rice tries to go for the ball while Caesedo tries to go for the man. You will often see him absolutely rugby tackle whoever is in front of him, try to physically jar them, throw their balance off, and then contest for the loose ball, usually when it's close to ground. So somebody who engages the man well, very physical. It's a reason why he's earned up so many cards. He's got 61, he's got 61, he's also got nine yellows. But that ratio is pretty healthy compared to somebody like Emmanuel Lugarti who we will talk about. The fact that he's able to foul often, and he's almost earning one yellow card, sorry, one yellow card to seven fouls, which is I think a pretty good number. So he's able to disrupt play. He's able to do it intelligently, able to do it smartly. And that's the kind of player who makes a difference when the game is in its most volatile component, in its most chaotic game state. So that's what makes Caesedo, I think, a very valuable entity. When I'm looking at him, the speed at which he functions, the speed at which his brain functions, the way he's able to execute actions, he's also able to provide like rice. People were talking about rice saying he's not good in terms of on the ball stuff. He's not able to execute good stuff in a possession side. But he's been top two in progressive passes and progressive carries over the last two seasons. He was able to offer both and Caesedo is able to do that as well. He's very good when carrying the ball, has enough strength to avoid contact, to sort of get away with it, absorb it altogether. So he's offering those components as well. He has a very good pass percentage rate in the opposition half as well. So technically, security is everything that you need in terms of fundamentals from a good proactive defensive-minded central midfielder. So I think when that amount of money is being asked for him, I can understand why, there are not many who can offer what he's offering in the Premier League. And I think if you've got to pay for the best, then you've got to stump out the gas. And that's where we find ourselves in, unfortunately. Yeah, it is not going to be a cheap summer, maybe not spending as much dollar for dollar or pound for pound. But the individuals that we should be going after are going to be a little pricier because you are trying to pay for the best individuals in that position to catapult Chelsea back to where they belong. But we're going to take our last ad break when we come back. We are going to talk about Manuel Garte and then Romeo Lavia as the two other individuals that Sam has so graciously scouted for us. But we'll be right back. Bet you didn't see this coming. I hope you're ready to hear editor Jake's voice for a while in the ads. Ha ha. This time we're coming with shady rays kick off the new year with new gear built to last. Our friends at Shady Rays have been covered from the sun to the slopes with premium polarized shades, customizable snow goggles and more. Shady Rays is a world-class sunglasses company independently built that'll have you thinking you're wearing some of the world's top brands that you already know. Thoroughbred frames and extremely clear optics. 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So I think you willed him into being on Chelsea's summer transfer list or in consideration being scouted reports of scouts being in Portugal for Chelsea to evaluate the player. Manuel Ugarte who currently plays for sporting. Just we talked about him before. Make the case again though, give people the rundown of why he would be a very smart and true signing from the Chelsea brass. I'm actually very very happy for this one because I think it is sort of like minor validation to my own fragile sort of self confidence that hey you're not bad. I mean you're just you're finding a decent player and thinking and sort of looking at their potential a year, year and a half before they start making it into good time. And I remember watching him initially and I was like he is flawed. He does have a lot of things to do to improve and to get to a level where he's considered in the top conversations for a defensive mind. It's him but his numbers back then they're popping out. His application, his almost one track approach to being a wrecking ball was pretty impressive to see. And what struck me was even with the amount of mistakes he was making, didn't care. Just got back up and kept absolutely hammer and tongs. Just kept on going, trying to win the ball back, trying to make things happen. And in a possession dominant side, I mean most defensive midfielders, most midfielders performing their duty tend to be a little stand or fish tend to be a little more wise with their positioning. And then what was very unique about him was that he almost played like he wanted to offer a vice grip to the opposition every single time suffocating pressure, almost making sure that he's killing transitions at the root. So not a surprise to see him come from that to here. I mean he's jaw palenia who is playing over him as now sort of move to Fulham and he's got now full season under his belt as a key starter. And it's been great to see his progression. Somebody who's now had the confidence to become not just a backup player, which is why sporting got him in the first place. But somebody who's now got enough belief in him to say, you know, I'm going to do my job well, I have seen him now for about like a good 10, 15 games this season. And he's fantastic. His numbers explain what he's all about. I mean, he's arguably Europe's most tenacious ball winner in terms of quantity. Just very good in recovery is in his ground deals. I think he competes in almost two, two and a half ground deals more than Keiss Edo and Rice is about 7.5 deals per 90 minutes and he's winning somewhere around the same month 58 to 59%. So even with that volatile nature of going for almost every single challenge, he's still, you know, maintaining that win percentage and he's is brutally effective when doing it. And again, somebody who reminds me a lot more of content than a man. Somebody who's extremely geared into winning the ball on the front foot. You want him to have that level of impetus to go out there and pick his moments to pick his position and absolutely destroy things before this snowball into something big. And it's something that separates him from Keiss Edo and Rice, which is why I would say Bugatti is probably wondering under the top two because he's yet to learn the most subtle nuances of defending. I don't think he's somebody who likes playing on the back foot. He's not somebody who has the patience to wait for the attacker to make a move, which is why sometimes when you see him come up against the clever breed of attackers. I saw him against Keiss Edo when he was playing against Juventus. And there was a moment where he delayed a little bit and then he hesitated and Keiss had left him on the floor. And then those are the moments where I think that he can at the age of 22. I think he can improve and he can program himself to be a little more cautious. Because again, like I said, he is a physical specimen. He is extremely quick. He is very strong. He is also in terms of recovery pace. You see him make a tackle. And the way he springs back up, the speed at which he's able to recover is astounding at times. So he's able to almost like can't he perform two defensive actions in the space of a couple of seconds, which is excellent. So I think he needs to trust those abilities more. I think he will get there 100%. It's just that maybe it will take a season, season and a half before he beds into the pace of the Premier League. He's done extremely well in the Champions League in the Europale League against Arsenal and Juventus. But to play against that level of competition day in day out, I think will be a good learning curve for him. So again, somebody who's available for almost 40, 50 million less than Rice and Keiss Edo. But he's also, I would say, a ring under both of them. He still has to learn those nuances of defending. I would say in possession, he can be better. There have been times where he's been caught with his back to the goal when he's been receiving. When he's dribbling, he tends to be very one track. Again, somebody who charges forward, tries to break through lines, sometimes loses the ball. So those things need to be refined a little bit, need to be tweaked a little bit. But again, the ingredients, the basic things that I want for a fantastic recipe are all there. So I would say Ughate, when I'm looking at that, again, very, very good to watch. I would say for 52 million pounds, if you're getting that level of defensive midfielder in a starting position, I would be pretty happy. I think Ochitino would be able to nurture him into a better player and turn him into from a 50 million to 100 million player. So hopefully that's if we miss out on the talk to guys, then I would say this is the third guy that I would go after. He again has some issues with discipline. He follows a lot. It goes to ground very, very often does a lot of sliding tackles and goes in hard. He's got 11 yellow cards in 31 games in the league. And he's also missed out on some key fixtures because of suspensions. And he can't afford to do that in a big club. You can't go into a Champions League quarterfinal or whatever, on a yellow card, every single leg. I mean, he missed, I think, the round of 16 and then he missed the quarterfinals against Juventus and against Arsenal. So both first legs he missed because of suspension. So he needs to be a little more cautious of that. He needs to tone it down a bit. I would say not be that rash. The aggression is good, but maybe just tone that foul tendency down a bit, a couple of notches. But otherwise, I think he's a fabulous player to watch. Again, a ball winning specialist, not the kind of midfielder who can offer you a little bit of everything like Mateo Kowajj, which somebody who specializes in winning the ball back and killing transitions. So I think that's exactly what Anandas needs. Will he fit into Pochettino's system is a different question. I think he might not be as good a fit as the other guys that we've noted, but still a very, very good option for that price. And like you said, someone who at the price that he offers is someone, particularly with a release clause, that it would be a quicker type of deal to get across the line. So if Chelsea were thinking about moving swiftly and attacking the window once Rochelle Pochettino gets announced and is a Chelsea, that this would allow them to potentially move quickly on midfield, likely of two individuals they would want to sign, and then focus on the other positions of need. We've heard rumors of striker and goalkeeper as the two other top areas. And so yes, Chelsea can do multiple things at the same time, but getting an item checked off the list also lets you plan for some of those outgoings as well. As we round out this episode, we get to last but not least, you have the Southampton midfielder in Lavia, who has just watched his team go down back to the championship. But it does feel like there is going to be not necessarily a stampede, but there are going to be several clubs interested in the player heading into the window. And we know that Chelsea do have former man city, former Southampton individual and Joe Shields, who may or may not be interested to bring him to a third club or bring him to a second club, rather, from the time that he spent across those two getting a chance to keep an eye on Lavia. So we'll see if Chelsea's role of every director gets one seems to come to fruition. But this is an individual who seemingly some members of the technical team are high on him as a less of a ready made, but more of a growth opportunity for the midfield position. I mean, if every director gets one play off from the previous clubs, can we get Holland? I mean, he's... Yes, there you go. I mean, I think that's a play that I get. It's too easy to keep on doing it with city. You got to go play the Premier League in hard mode with Chelsea. You don't know who your manager is going to be in three weeks. You don't know which players are going to be contributing at a high level. It is the absolute mystery box that you would be walking into. And you could see, is the number nine curse actually real? You would get a chance to ward that off yourself. Wouldn't that be the best way to conquer football? Erling Holland, let's go. I wouldn't mind the other Argentinian as well. I mean, Alvaraz is there. So, I mean, if you've got an Argentinian manager and you've got a number nine who obviously will be a little frustrated, that his strike partner is breaking scoring records and doesn't want to stop the strike partner is the Terminator. It's like you're Sarah Connor and this is Arnold. Okay? There's not really a comparison for their level of output. And so, yeah, look, if Alvaraz wants to come, he would be another individual that I would happily welcome. Absolutely. And I think Joe Shields, he's listening to this podcast, I think should move from Southampton to Manchester City when focusing his thoughts on players we should bring. But like, jokes apart, I think LaViere has shown some glimpses of pure quality in obviously the Premier League's bottom side. It's not been easy, but you could see, I mean, even at the age of 18, he was when he started the season, he's now 19. A lot of good things. Again, at his age, the things that you want to work with, with in a midfield, I think he has it in spades. It's why Manchester City are reportedly very keen on getting that buyback clause and sort of like using it to get him back for 40 million. And Calvin Phillips hasn't worked out very well. So I think there is an interesting opening there in case he wants to go back. But obviously they've also got Maximo, Maximo Perone from the Argentinian League this time to sort of fill in that midfield cap. So I think he might be an interesting option, which might prevent the move for LaViere. But yeah, there are a lot of things to dissect here. He's probably the one that I watched the least out of the other guys. But the stuff that I watched of him, it seems like his strongest qualities seem to be on the ball, like he's extremely good when weaving out of pressure. When he's the amount of calmness and composure at his age that he has on the ball is extremely good to see. He knows exactly how to carry it out. He has this lovely sort of almost winger-esque education of how to shift the opposition player's center of gravity with shoulder-faint or just shuffling his feet across and then moving in the other direction. Does it so well? I think his take on success percentage must be pretty good. But I think on the ball, when he's carrying it out, when he's dribbling, when he's linking play, he's extremely good. He's also somebody like a lot of defensive-minded sentiment-feelers aren't. I think he's very good in the first phase when you use him as somebody who's receiving with back-to-goal and able to connect the dots in the first phase and build up. I think he's very, very good. He can get even better. The fact that he can carry and he can pass under pressure is a very valuable trait to have. Almost like a variety, I would say, shot bursts and able to connect the ball and sort of move. So I think he's got those in possession qualities that are stand out for me. He's also very good in offensive dudes when he's sort of taking the initiative when he's reacting well after ball losses. When he's going into challenges, he's strong. He's also physically very competent in terms of his dual, especially his ground duels. He's doing very well. I think same numbers as Kysedo and Rice in Agate somewhere around 58-59%. So obviously in a pretty bad sight, he's got a lot of chaos going on around him where he had to defend a lot of transitions but still managing good numbers, good quality, good quantity and seems to make good decisions for his age. It's just that when I look at stuff out of possession is when it can get a little dicey. He can be positionally naive. I've seen him get in sort of caught in no man's land very often and he's just stranded and he's either not engaging nor is he staying back and enclosing spaces. He's just in the middle and then he has to run back. He's also not a very domineering presence in terms of in a possession site. If you need that central midfielder to be able to win the ball back and recycle possession and stop transitions, he's not somebody who I see can offer the full range of what you want from that central presence. Obviously Pep for example has completely flipped it by now going with five centre backs. So he's got John Stones and Rotary in the middle. So two centre backs like obviously Prodigy has played centre back with Spain but a six feet four and a half inches guy and John Stones winning the ball back. So you negates a lot of that but if you had to play somebody like a Romeo Lapla in the middle close to the opponents goal to try and win the ball back. It's a bit of a question mark for me. He can get better but the fact that he's pretty poor in the air, numbers wise, quality wise and quantity wise is a bit concerning. He's not like Ughate where he's not jumping because he doesn't want to jump. It's like he jumps but he's not good. He's not got that level of competitiveness in the air. So that's something that I worry about. I feel like it's still too early to say that he's a defensive midfielder or a defensive minded midfielder. I think he profiles closer to a Kova sich for me than an Angola Gante. So I'm not sure Lavia is the right guy. He's not somebody that we need. The only thing I would say he has over the other three guys is that he's played predominantly in a three man midfield at the base of midfield. So he looks like he can play as the number six and he has had some very good performances in that role. So he's done that. He's also played in a two next to James Ward Brows. So he's played both systems. So gives Pochettino the option of going 4-3-3 with a guy who is very good in the first phase, able to offer good possession qualities and decent when he's an offensive duel. So if you consider his age and the fact that he's played for a very, very bad side in Southampton, then there is obviously a lot to work with, especially again at his price. When you look at a Gartes price and you look at Lavia's price, it just depended on what Pochettino sees and how much he thinks he can improve the player. And there have been some interesting stories, anecdotes about that happening in the past. So in Gem Balag's book The Brave New World, he talks about how Pochettino and Raman Planas were at Español and they were trying to hunt for a forward because a lot of the players were injured in the forward position so they didn't have a striker. And Pochettino just asked, I think Raman Planas asked Pochettino, what about that? Argentinian Italian striker who we saw at a tournament like a year and a half, two years ago, when you were in Argentina, what about him? And Pochettino was like, yeah, that guy was really good. We should get him. And they signed the player and when they signed Osvaldo, Pablo Daniel's Waldo, they realized he was completely out of shape. He was lacking confidence. He was physically absolutely shortened. He didn't have anything in terms of the quality that they had seen a couple of years before. And Pochettino and Planas shared a look saying, we are absolutely screwed. I think the blue money on a husband. But they started training him and they made him run his butt off. And Osvaldo was the guy who said that he makes you train a dog and then you want to kill him, but it works. And he ended up scoring quite a lot at his panel. I think he had a goal every two games or something. And then he joined Pochettino at Southampton, but things went a little bad. But I think that just tested him into the fact that if Pochettino sees a young player and sees that he can improve him, then Pochettino does it. So depending on if we don't get rice or caissero, if either of these two players is where Pochettino sees he can improve one to a very good level, I think he should be given the chance to do so. Or just give him the chance to look at somebody like an ethanampadu or even convert somebody like a Trev Chaloba, who's played in midfield to slot into that role, something that we're seeing now it manages the city, using centre backs to play in centre midfield. If you've got two guys who've played in that role, then why go for a 50 million midfielder when you can look inside and try to make that conversion happen? Great points all around. And look, there are going to be more names that get connected to Chelsea in the midfield position, particularly as names come off the board, as players leave the club. And we're going to keep you posted on anything that's been going on and anything that does go on at Chelsea across the summer. But we want to thank you, Sam, for so much initial research to get us started to put us on that beach and have us thinking about the good things that could come Chelsea's way next season. We think about incoming players to partner up to Enzo to be a part of Chelsea's midfield revival on the Marisio Pochettino. But yeah, thank you so much. And make sure to get a little bit of rest since Sunshine before we get on to our next episodes looking at other positions of need. Thank you so much. I think I'm getting a little too much sunshine. I mean, absolutely being toasted to a medium well or well done here. But you know, hopefully you get some nice sun, get to enjoy yourself after a long harsh winter. And yes, lots of course to do. I think we will be talking a lot more about centre forwards, arguably even goalkeepers, and a couple of interesting episodes that we have lined up, hopefully in the coming few days. But as always, then an absolute pleasure and thank you for having me and hope everyone listening in is having a good one. Yeah, we hope that everybody is staying safe and well when they can. But until next time, Chelsea fans, you know what to do. Keep a blue flag flying high.

#1037 | CFCCentral on Poch's Future Chelsea Midfield - Rice, Caicedo, Ugarte, & More #CFC