🔵View from the Bridge - Chelsea FC news and analysis🔵A quiet place
A quiet few days for Chelsea...no, seriously.
👋Good morning Blues. It’s a much quieter edition today with attention now building ahead of the Club World Cup last-16. View from the Bridge has you covered with everything that has gone on.
🗞Headlines
The biggest (mostly non-transfer) Chelsea news.
🔵Chelsea know their route to the final of the Club World Cup (CWC) after the group stage concluded - Ewan Ross-Murray, Sports Illustrated.
It is Benfica up next in the last-16 after Wednesday morning’s 3-0 win over ES Tunis secured safe passage to the knockout stage.
Palmeiras or Botafogo will be the potential opponents in the quarter-final.
🔵The Chelsea Supporters’ Trust (CST) have confirmed they will be joining the Football Supporters’ Association’s ‘Stop Exploiting Loyalty’ campaign - Bobby Vincent, football.london.
90% of voters were aligning with the movement after being misunderstood and unappreciated by the club.
🔵From this morning, changes to the CWC squad, including new signings, can be confirmed. The registration window remains open until July 3 - Tom Coley (me!), football.london.
🔵Chelsea’s ownership is still keen on buying Sporting CP and adding them to the BlueCo multi-club network - Adam Williams, The Chelsea Chronicle.
Last result: ES Tunis 0-3 Chelsea (Tosin 45+3’, Delap 45+5’, George 90+7) - FIFA Club World Cup group stage. Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia.
Next fixture: Benfica (FIFA Club World Cup last-16) - Saturday, June 28. 9pm. Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte.
💸Transfer talk
Cutting to the chase with the gossip you actually need to know, rather than sheer speculation.
🚨Jamie Gittens was not included in Borussia Dortmund’s CWC match against Ulsan HD. He is said to have been ill but a move to Chelsea is now getting ‘close’ - Fabrizio Romano.
🚨Kepa Arrizabalaga is set to complete his move to Arsenal imminently after completing his medical - Nizaar Kinsella, BBC Sport.
🚨Milan sporting director Igli Tare is planning to start next season with Mike Maignan despite talks with Chelsea and only 12 months remaining on his contract - Lorenzo Bettoni, Football Italia.
“Maignan is not leaving, he will be at Milan next season too,” Tare said.
⚽Cobham to Kingsmeadow
Catching up with the women’s and academy sides.
🗣CFCW icon Fran Kirby has opened up on her decision to retire from international football ahead of the Euros this summer - Flo Lloyd-Hughes, The Cutback.
“I'm really excited” she said. “I think obviously going through that period of making the announcement — making the decision to do it — there was sadness, but I think now, as the weeks have gone on, it's more excitement about watching the girls and what's going to come next.”
😡Johanna Rytting Kaneryd has started the intra-club fighting talk before the Euros as she is set to come up against some Chelsea teammates - Chelsea FC.
“It’s special when you go up against your club team-mates at a tournament,” she said. “It's definitely different. You train with the girls every day, and then suddenly, you’re playing against each other.”
“During the game, you don't really think, you just play. Everyone is the same, as soon as the referee blows the whistle, you can relax. You can be friends again.”
😁With Teddy Sharman-Lowe being on the bench for England Under-21s latest, he spent the entire game as a substitute as Lee Carsley’s side reached the final of the Euros with a 2-1 win over Spain.
They will face Germany in a bid to retain their crown on Saturday at 8pm.
👀Inside SW6
A look at what has been going on at the club and a noticeboard for events and other tidbits.
This section is a bit longer than usual given the lack of news elsewhere. Included are some more stories which just don’t cut it for the main headlines.
🙏Paul Canoville has written a post online to confirm he is ‘recovering at home at my pace’ after being taken to hospital earlier this month.
❌Wesley Fofana will not be added to Chelsea’s CWC squad despite being in America with his teammates - Kieran Gill, Daily Mail.
😩Estevao Willian has admitted he is struggling to keep his attention on Palmeiras with a move to Chelsea on the horizon - Ben Jacobs.
"Going to Chelsea is a dream come true. Knowing that I need to focus here first, it's not easy. As the move gets closer, both the anxiety and the butterflies start to kick in. But I want to leave Palmeiras on good terms, with my head held high, knowing that I did my best."
🟥Nicolas Jackson will miss the Benfica match after FIFA upgraded his ban to two matches - ESPN.
🙌The CFCW Under-16s are looking for a new assistant coach and are hiring for the position on a part-time, 14 hours a week basis.
A UEFA B Licence is essential for the role, as is FA Safeguarding and First Aid qualifications.
📆On this day…
A look back in club history to something memorable.
🤝Nothing of note happened on June 27, but for June 26, there was the announcement of Emmanuel Petit as a Chelsea player.
He joined from Barcelona just over 24 years ago. The Frenchman would go on to play 76 times for the Blues before retiring in 2004.
🏆Five years tomorrow, Chelsea beat Leicester City 1-0 in the FA Cup during the Covid-19 lockdown. Ross Barkley scored.
👏Supporters’ Trust
A noticeboard dedicated to you, the fans. This is your community area and your space, so please do get in touch to be featured.
For once, there is nothing to add here. But if you want to get involved then try the link below.
📌⮑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!
🖥Talk from the terraces
This is the part where we show you what is being said about Chelsea by other fans, pundits, or analysts.
✅With Delap making a good early impression at Chelsea, he has been described by Jason Burt of the Telegraph as the “best centre-forward since Diego Costa.”
“The curse is over. Chelsea have their No.9, wearing the No.9, looking like a No.9, playing like a No.9. There should be no more concerns over that shirt harming careers, as happened to forwards from Fernando Torres to Alvaro Morata. Liam Delap is the real deal.”
And Liam Twomey of The Athletic has continued to maintain the positivity around the Englishman.
“Chelsea’s big pre-Club World Cup signing has not performed like a player feeling his way in new surroundings,” he says.
“Delap has looked confident at the point of Maresca’s attack from the moment he replaced Jackson as a second-half substitute against LAFC.”
Twomey added of Chelsea’s tournament so far:
“Maresca has had some notable successes, but he also has problems to solve and some mistakes he should avoid repeating if this Club World Cup campaign is going to continue well into July.”
Want to know what fellow fans are saying about the game? Chelsea FanCast with David ‘Stamford Chidge’ Chidgey, Jonathan ‘JK’ Kydd, Tom Glover, and Garry Hayes have you covered.
😣Also in The Athletic, Mark Cary has profiled Benfica and the threat they might cause Chelsea.
“Take note, Maresca, Levi Colwill and Marc Cucurella — Benfica like to combine down their right channel,” he warns.
“Maresca will be encouraged to see that those wide areas are not impenetrable, if only his players stretch the pitch with purposeful running.
“With the pace, directness, and natural left-foot provided by Noni Madueke on the left of Chelsea’s attack, the 23-year-old England forward could use [Leroy] Sane’s second-half performance as a blueprint as he tries to unlock [Bruno] Lage’s defence.”
👀Victor Osimhen is a name that simply will not go away for Chelsea. Even though a move for the Nigerian this window looks unlikely, the prospect of such a Chelsea-coded striker is tantalising.
To explain his rise and all of the links to Stamford Bridge, Rahman Osman and Ed Aarons dug into the African king.
❓With a possible Alejandro Garnacho and Christopher Nkunku swap on the cards, BBC Sport’s Tom McCoy has taken a dive into the numbers to see who might get the better deal.
“While Nkunku has been kicking his heels in west London over the past two years, Garnacho has been a regular for United, starting 53 league matches in that time,” he analyses.
“The Argentine is also nearly seven years younger than Nkunku and has an excellent record of being available, having not missed a single game through injury in 2024-25.
“Who gets the best end of any deal probably depends upon what they are looking for. A winger ticks boxes for Chelsea while United are in need a goalscoring striker. If both play at their best, they will be assets.”
💭View from the Bridge says
My take on the latest Chelsea news.
My, my. Apart from the win over Tunis, which was low-key to say the least, this has been the quietest week of View from the Bridge so far.
It was busy for Tuesday but other than the game, there has been very little else really of note since.
Things are just bubbling under a little with Gittens and the rest of the CWC, so maybe more is around the corner.
With the weather (in the UK and America, at least) being so nice, it has been a bit of a relief, in truth. Some will want more action and proactiveness in the market but for now, the sense of calm is quite reassuring.
Catch you on Tuesday, when there will either be celebrations or panic depending on the Benfica result!
📸Picture of the week
A standout snap from the world of Chelsea.
Here are a few shots of Chelsea players and staff making the most of the fans in America during a heatwave posing new challenges for everyone involved.
🗣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: 6
Total subscribers: 571