🔵View from the Bridge - Chelsea FC news and analysis🔵Talking the talk
Maresca talks about Flamengo whilst Chelsea talk to Gittens and Kudus. Madueke's future is in doubt, why Mudryk's isn't, and the replacement they already have
👋Good morning Blues. It’s gameday! Chelsea are in action tonight so we have all the preview content as well as transfer updates and tournament round-ups from View from the Bridge on Friday.
📰Headlines
The biggest (mostly non-transfer) Chelsea news.
🔵Chelsea face Brazilian side Flamengo in Philadelphia tonight (Friday) in what is expected to be their hardest Club World Cup (CWC) group match.
Manager Enzo Maresca has spoken to the press ahead of the game:
⮑"It's not easy. This is the reason why we will try to rotate players. It's for the other teams [as well]. We will try to do our best and win the game.”
⮑He added: "The feeling that we have, it's like pre-season. The reason why is because we finished our season in Europe and then days off, then start again. It's not pre-season, it's the Club World Cup. We are here to go as far in this competition."
⮑On selection, he said: "No injuries at the moment. We need to rotate players. I'm not saying we will rotate 10, 11 players. We cannot play every game with the same players."
🔵Mykhailo Mudryk has been charged by the FA over doping offences and could face a four-year ban - Matt Law, The Telegraph.
Maresca said: “We haven't spoken since [the Conference League final]. There is nothing I can add. I don't have more information."
⮑He added: "We had already one entire season without Mischa [Mudryk]. We are going to decide to go for a winger [with or without him].
“In both cases, we have Madueke and Neto as proper wingers, then we try to adapt with Tyrique [George]. It's a position we need to improve."
🔵Club co-owner Mark Walter is set to buy NBA giants Los Angeles Lakers for almost £7.5billion - Martyn Ziegler, The Times.
Walter is part of the Clearlake Capital-Todd Boehly consortium and is involved in MLB side the LA Dodgers as well.
Last result: Chelsea 2-0 Los Angeles FC (Neto 34’, Fernandez 79’) - FIFA Club World Cup
Next fixture: Flamengo (FIFA Club World Cup) - Friday, June 20, 7pm.
💸Transfer talk
Cutting to the chase with the gossip you actually need to know, rather than sheer speculation.
🚨 A fresh offer to Borussia Dortmund for Jamie Gittens is being prepared after two bids were rejected earlier this month - Bobby Vincent, football.london.
🚨Noni Madueke would be available for sale at the right price this summer and discussions with West Ham over a move for Mohammed Kudus have continued without a bid - Jacob Steinberg, The Guardian.
Kudus has an £85million release clause but West Ham are not open to a part-swap deal.
Matt Law has also explained that Arsenal are among the clubs monitoring Madueke, but stresses he has not been put up for sale or offered around.
⮑Maresca was asked about Madueke and said: "Noni is our player. In this moment, you can read much speculation. We consider Noni as our player for next season."
🚨Caleb Wiley has agreed to join Watford on loan next season after spending the second half of 2024/25 there - Luca Bendoni, Sky Sports.
⚽Cobham to Kingsmeadow
Catching up with the women’s and academy sides.
👏Aggie Beaver-Jones, Maika Hamano, and Wieke Kaptein have all been nominated for the PFA Women’s Young Player of the Year award - Emily Keogh, ESPN.
📞CFCW defenders Naomi Girma and Ashley Lawrence have been called up for the USA and Canada, respectively, ahead of the second lot of June internationals - Chelsea FC.
😢Katie Cox conceded four times for England Under-19s in a damaging loss to Portugal on Wednesday at the U19 Women’s Euros.
Lexi Potter played the full game with Lola Brown and Chloe Sarwie left on the bench.
England face Spain next on Saturday at 6pm knowing only a win will guarantee them a place in the next round.
😮Things are just as precarious for the men’s U19s and their Chelsea hopefuls as they find themselves in a spot of bother in Group B of the Euros.
They produced a crazy 5-5 draw with Germany on Tuesday after going 5-1 down having left Harrison Murray-Campbell on the bench.
He came on, as did Shumaira Mheuka. Kiano Dyer played the full match. England’s last game is today at 6pm with only a win certain to secure a place in the knockouts.
😨The Men’s Under-21s are through to the next round despite losing 2-1 to Germany on Wednesday.
Teddy Sharman-Lowe was once more an unused sub.
They play Spain in the quarter-finals on Saturday.
✅Zak Sturge, who left Chelsea on loan to join Millwall in January, is set to move to The Den permanently this summer - Charlie Gordon, The Express.
👀Inside SW6
A look at what has been going on at the club and a noticeboard for events and other tidbits.
In a shorter section today…
😡Maresca is ready to risk the anger of FIFA by rotating his Chelsea side in the coming group matches - Kieran Gill, Daily Mail.
FIFA want full-strength XIs as much as possible to maintain whatever competitive integrity there is at the CWC but with big squads, high heat, and fatigue to guard against, Maresca could go against the rules.
Gill says it’s unclear how FIFA have planned to police the issue, though.
In his ‘Chelsea Confidential’, he adds that Morgan Rogers is still a transfer target.
🏆Liam Delap has been shortlisted for the PFA Men’s Young Player of the Year award thanks to his season at Ipswich Town - Beth Lindop, ESPN.
📆On this day…
A look back in club history to something memorable.
From not having anything exactly for Tuesday’s edition, we have two on the money today.
💙On June 20, 2019, Petr Cech returned to the club in a directorial role. He was unveiled at Stamford Bridge again as the Technical and Performance Advisor.
Cech was seen as influential in several transfers in the following years and fronted up outside the stadium during the European Super League protests.
🤗Last summer it was Sandy Baltimore putting pen to paper after a move from Paris Saint-Germain.
She went on to have a fine year and was Player of the Match in the FA Cup final last month.
👏Supporters’ Trust
A noticeboard dedicated to you, the fans. This is your community area and your space, so please get in touch to be featured.
📌⮑To have your own say, offer feedback, or promote a Chelsea-related event, please get in touch using this form - it’s the only way of definitely having something featured in this newsletter!
🗓Next season’s Premier League fixture list was released on Wednesday.
The general consensus is that it’s a kind start (at home to Crystal Palace and then very London-based for a while) before a really tricky finish.
For a full breakdown, NiiNiiFC (AKA Blue Lions TV), has you covered with all the scheduled ins and outs of the season ahead.
🏟A mini-friendly tournament with Bayer Leverkusen and Milan between August 8-10 has been confirmed.
The VisitMalta Weekender, as it is called, will be just days before the PL starts and is now the only confirmed matches for Chelsea after the CWC.
CFC will face both European sides with a day of rest in between.
😆Talking of Cech from earlier, he is hosting two ‘An audience with’ sessions at Clapham Grand in London later this year. On October 7 and October 14, he will be discussing his life and career.
🖥Talk from the terraces
This is the part where we show you what is being said about Chelsea by other fans, pundits, or analysts.
⭐After Estevao Willian once more stood out for Palmeiras during their 2-0 win over Al Ahly on Thursday, it’s worth flagging this timely profile that Liam Twomey and Jack Lang delivered on the Brazilian winger ahead of the game.
Reflecting on his opening match against Porto but also analysing how he might fit in at Chelsea, they say:
“Estevao has had many more decisive matches for Palmeiras in the dazzling first 18 months of his professional career, but the Porto defence still bore witness to the qualities that compelled Chelsea to move so quickly to secure his signature last year: the silky dribble, the probing eye for a pass, the sharp movement into scoring positions, the keen awareness of space.”
🎙As promised on Tuesday, Liam and Straight Outta Cobham delivered a triumphant return podcast so for a late Flamengo preview and some inside insight into the trip to America so far…
🤝Cole Palmer and Delap are already showing signs of their previous Manchester City academy link-up and Sam Blitz from Sky Sports believes that the partnership will get the best out of both players.
In an interview with their former coach at City, Brian Barry-Murphy, Blitz reports:
"I think they're so linked because of the ability of one to serve the other. You'll have seen Cole speak recently about how he wants to play forward, be expressive and aggressive. Liam is the one who will be willing to make those movements.
"At City, we would always speak about Liam having no reason not to make the run because Cole will find you. It'll be very interesting to see how that will manifest itself under Enzo Maresca."
🤔Nicolas Jackson to Manchester United? Well, tactics expert Umir Irfan thinks so.
He wrote on X: “United grab Mbeumo on top of Cunha, I think a clever thing to do would be to ask about Nico Jackson, with Chelsea having signed Delap & looking at further wing/9 hybrids.”
Maybe that’s one to ponder over.
🔍With more on Jackson, Daniel Childs (AKA Son of Chelsea) has suggested that the striker could be used in his old position on the left wing to create a bond with Delap.
“Jackson’s dribbling would need to improve, and you are effectively taking a player who has operated as a focal point and asking him to stand near the touchline, when his natural tendency is probably to drift inwards and look to link up just outside the box,” he writes.
But is there merit in it? Childs thinks so and his full analysis can be read here.
😬And finally, after bringing you the Women’s Super League rule change proposals on Tuesday, The Cutback and Flo Lloyd-Hughes have dug a lot deeper on what it all means and whether it is right or not.
In this excellent piece, you can see why the WSL was in need of change.
💭View from the Bridge says
Our take on the latest Chelsea news.
This week has grown more dramatic as it went on, from the ‘meh’ CWC opener to fixture reaction, Madueke transfer debates, and Mudryk being charged.
This is normal in the world of Chelsea. Maresca simply needs to keep ploughing through it, even if it’s far from simple to do so!
Flamengo will be a tough opponent but a good one for Chelsea and a rotated team with new players coming in. It’s an opportunity to prove a point.
As ever, check back in next edition (Tuesday, June 24) for the latest around the club with yet another match to look back on and also forward to!
📸Picture of the week
A standout snap from the world of Chelsea.
This week has been a little dry for standout images. There are several from the LAFC game, including Pedro Neto celebrating with a kiss and Delap hugging his new teammates.
That’s all very wholesome, but a personal favourite was this of Maresca during the second half as he stands and watches on with a load of pure sass.
🗣Who am I? I’m Tom Coley, a senior football writer for football.london and a Chelsea nut. I’ve been writing about the club for more than eight years now and have followed them for almost two decades.
I’m chronically online, scouring the news for Chelsea stories, so I’ve taken it upon myself to do the hard yards and compile it all into one place for you. Coming in twice a week, I’ll have all the latest Chelsea news and analysis right to your inbox.
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