🔵View from the Bridge - Chelsea FC news and analysis🔵Once you go Delap...
£55million is the price as Chelsea start the CWC with a win, talk to another winger, and an icon retires.
👋Good morning, Blues. Please excuse the length of this edition. The Club World Cup has started, the transfer window is open again, and there are plenty of young Chelsea stars in action for their countries.
📰Headlines
The biggest (mostly non-transfer) Chelsea news.
🔵Chelsea started their Club World Cup campaign with a 2-0 win over Los Angeles FC (LAFC) last night. Goals from Pedro Neto and Enzo Fernandez got the job done in Atlanta after Enzo Maresca went with a strong lineup.
Neto was a standout, while Liam Delap impressed off the bench. Noni Madueke struggled - Bobby Vincent, football. London player ratings.
Speaking after the game, Maresca reflected on a good start and a positive performance:
⮑"Very good result. At this stage of the season, it's normal you have to manage these kinds of things. Overall, the performance was good, and we won the game."
⮑On Delap, he added: “Absolutely [happy with his performance]. The good thing about Liam, he knows the way we want to play, so the process is quite quick.”
Delap himself got plenty of attention post-match. He said:
⮑”It's a really happy feeling for me. I'm so excited to be here. To play and contribute in my first game is a good feeling."
🔵Meanwhile, the transfer window opened for business again on Monday. It will now run until September 1, giving clubs two-and-a-half months to complete deals.
A reminder, Chelsea can only register new players for the knockout stages of the CWC.
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.
🚨Chelsea have enquired about the availability of Lyon left-winger Malick Fofana - Loic Tanzi and Hugo Guillemet, L’Equipe.
Nothing is advanced yet but the 20-year-old is valued at around £40million.
🚨Manchester United have spoken to the agents of Hugo Ekitike for an update on his summer situation - Fabrizio Romano, CaughtOffside.
🚨Elsewhere, Benfica are interested in re-signing Joao Felix this summer, admits manager Bruno Lage - Alexandre Goncalves, Foot Mercato.
🚨It’s a bit light on actual transfer updates, so to spare you the gossip, we’ve cut this section right down.
Instead of empty rumours, here’s what Maresca said about Chelsea’s plan for a new left-winger before the LAFC match - Simon Collings, London Evening Standard.
And if you’re interested in what Claude Makelele thinks on the Chelsea window so far, he spoke to BBC Sport reporter Nizaar Kinsella.
And in the absence of genuine transfer activity, this is a good time to direct you to Simon Phillips from Si Phillips Talks Chelsea, who always has the latest updates with plenty of exclusives on his own page.
⚽Cobham to Kingsmeadow
Catching up with the women’s and academy sides.
❓The WSL is set to have a host of changes from the 2026/27 season, including more clubs and a play-off system - Kathryn Batte, The Telegraph.
⏳Former CFCW midfielder Melanie Leupolz has retired, aged 31 - Ali Rampling, The Athletic.
Leupolz won the WSL four times with Chelsea as well as the Bundesliga twice. She also claimed Olympic Gold and the 2013 Euros with Germany.
She said: “After many intense and emotional years in professional football, I have made a difficult decision to retire this summer. It hasn’t been an easy decision."
🙌Three CFCW youngsters started for England Under-19s at the Euros in a 2-1 win over the Netherlands on Sunday night. Lola Brown, Katie Cox, and Lexi Potter all played in the opening game victory - The Chelsea Spot.
🏆For the men, the U19 Euros are also underway in Romania with three Cobham graduates playing for England in their 2-2 draw with Norway on Saturday evening.
Kiano Dyer, Harrison Murray-Campbell, and Shumaira Mheuka all started. Mheuka won a late penalty resulting in the equaliser.
⮑Jesse Derry is one to look out for, according to Chelsea Youth, who says there is an expectation he could join from Crystal Palace this summer.
England U19s are in action again tonight (Tuesday) at 6pm against Germany. You can watch full coverage HERE. (For those not in the UK, check out the other broadcasters).
🏴Meanwhile, Teddy Sharman-Lowe was once again an unused substitute for the Under-21s as they drew 0-0 with Slovenia on Sunday evening.
He has also agreed a deal to join Bolton Wanderers - Pete O’Rourke.
👀Inside SW6
A look at what has been going on at the club and a noticeboard for events and other tidbits.
🏟Chelsea have agreed to play a pre-season friendly with Milan in Dublin on August 10 - La Gazzetta dello Sport.
There are no other matches after the CWC confirmed yet. Chelsea aren’t expected to leave Europe once they return from America in July.
👀Estevao Willian enjoyed a fine start the CWC as he picked up the peculiarly named Superior Player of the Match award for Palmeiras after their 0-0 draw with Porto on Sunday.
He had a fine match on the right wing and might have scored. Some were critical of his end product but others complimented his display - Aditya Gokhale, GOAL.
The 18-year-old has been talking about his future at Stamford Bridge this week - Victoria Leite, ESPN Brazil.
⮑"It means everything. It's a dream come true for me. I've always dreamed of playing in Europe alongside the best.”
👏Another young Chelsea winger, Geovany Quenda, scored twice for Portugal’s U21 side on Saturday as they beat Poland 5-0 at the Euros.
✈Kendry Paez has flown out to America to join the Chelsea players for training at the CWC. He isn’t in the squad for the competition and won’t be playing, though! - Ben Jacobs.
💲Chelsea want offers of around £55million per year from front-of-shirt sponsors to cover the men’s and women’s team - Lukasz Baczek, Sportico.
📆On this day…
A look back in club history to something memorable.
🤫Full disclosure, the search for Chelsea and a memorable June 17th event didn’t come up with much. However, there are a few other things since Friday’s edition to flag.
After SoccerAid on Sunday, we can reflect on former CFCW player Ellen White becoming the first woman to score in the charity match when she got in on the act at Stamford Bridge last year, although that was on June 9.
🆕On June 14, 2018, CFCW announced that Sophie Ingle would be returning to the club after five years away. She went on to win the WSL five times.
🔙In a bigger flashback to 2001, there must be something about successful midfielders and June 14, because that was the date when Chelsea confirmed Frank Lampard had joined.
211 goals, one UCL, three Premier Leagues, and plenty of unforgettable moments later, it was quite a good deal, you could say!
👏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!
📆Keep an eye on Wednesday because that is fixture release day for the Premier League.
We already know that the opening weekend will be from August 16/17 but who will Chelsea face? What will the run-in look like? And when is the trip to Three Point Lane (AKA, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium)?
🍻A reminder, the London is Blue Podcast is continuing to host live events and supporter meetups this week in America for the CWC. They sold out on Saturday in New York and had another successful time in Atlanta for the LAFC match.
The final scheduled event is on Thursday in Philadelphia.
🖥Talk from the terraces
This is the part where we show you what is being said about Chelsea by other fans, pundits, or analysts.
💪The CWC has been mocked by many but it does hold an important part in Chelsea’s summer, especially without a proper pre-season.
So who has the most to prove, to gain, and maybe even to lose? The Athletic took a look.
“Let the battle to be Chelsea’s first-choice striker next season commence,” writes Simon Johnson.
“After two years of being virtually guaranteed to start up front every week when fit, Jackson finally has some genuine competition for his place.”
He adds: “Jackson, 24 on June 20, has shown plenty of potential as a centre-forward since joining from Spanish club Villarreal for just over €35million in the summer of 2023, but a return of just 24 goals in the Premier League across his two seasons is not enough for a team with Chelsea’s ambitions.”
⚽How did the new striker axis work on Monday? Liam Twomey wrote on full time whistle in his analysis:
“There was no goal, and little in the way of direct goal threat from the polarising figure at the tip of Maresca’s attack, but plenty of examples in the first half of Jackson doing Jackson things…
“Delap’s penalty-area fortunes were similarly mixed during his short cameo, but he provided one flash of his direct quality when he rounded his LAFC marker, drew Lloris towards him, and then cut the ball back for Fernandez, who was only denied a tap-in by a last-ditch block.”
On that note, there hasn’t been an episode of Straight Outta Cobham for almost two weeks but after this game, it might be worth checking back on Monday (the usual first release date) for some more reaction from The Athletic.
⭐After taking a look at new midfielder Dario Essugo last week, CFC Central (AKA Sam) now has an updated scout report on Andrey Santos, two-and-a-half years on from his first look at the Brazilian.
“Supremely press-resistant, Andrey thrives under heavy pressure & in tight spaces, using clever exit balls to flip the pressure on the opposition,” he writes on X.
“He shows a great eye for an early killer ball, especially with throughballs into space. Keenly attuned to runs/options & almost always chooses the right one. A bit too ambitious at times but upside far greater than drawbacks.
“In one of Europe’s youngest sides, captained and organized Strasbourg to a season that exceeded all expectations. Relishes leading, vocal and constantly relays important details to teammates across the pitch. Natural leader.”
🙏According to Kieran Gill (Daily Mail), Maresca has been ‘trying to translate this tournament’s importance to his stars in private.’
Jacob Steinberg in The Guardian continues on a similar trend: “This is the never-ending season but Chelsea show no sign of wanting to slow down,” he writes.
“It is not ideal that Chelsea’s Premier League campaign will be compromised if they go all the way in the US – the final is less than a month before the start of the domestic season – but there is no point grumbling about fatigue.
“The reality is that Chelsea, whose endurance will also be tested by participation in the Champions League, are where they want to be.”
💭View from the Bridge says
Our take on the latest Chelsea news.
It was quite a nice six days off without transfers and the attention being back on the football is a relief. The summer window is enough to drive anyone crazy.
As for the game, Chelsea were fine in what was closer to a pre-season match than elite competition, as FIFA want you to think.
There is a delicate balance to strike moving forward with team selection, trying to win, and planning for a summer without a proper pre-season.
For now, Delap looked sharp off the bench. Madueke was rusty, but is that a surprise given he’s out of position and probably shattered? And there’s no need to worry about Andrey Santos just yet.
As ever, there are plenty of questions but as the next four weeks go on, some answers will start to become clear.
🗣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.
Edition number: 3
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