🚨 Don’t Judge Ronaldo by Today-Remember the Monster He Was at Man Utd & Real Madrid:
🗣️Mikel Obi
"I don’t agree with Jay-Jay Okocha’s take on Ronaldo. Too many people are judging him only by the player he is today, completely forgetting the Ronaldo of Manchester United and Real Madrid.
That version of him was pure fire. His dribbling was insane, his pace, power and confidence were on another level. He was simply unstoppable.
Till today, I still use Ronaldo as the example I show my 5-year-old son. Trust me when I say this: there will never be another player quite like Cristiano Ronaldo in the history of football."
Marc Cucurella: Chelsea bought him from Brighton in 2022 for around £56m + £7m in add-ons. After 4 seasons at the club, Chelsea sold him to Real Madrid for around £47.5m + £4.3m in add-ons.
Andrey Santos: Chelsea signed him from Vasco da Gama in 2023 for around £10.5m–£11m. After 3 seasons as a Chelsea player, including loan spells where he developed, he was sold to Manchester United for around £48m + £2m in add-ons, with Chelsea also keeping a 10% sell-on clause.
Trevoh Chalobah: An academy product who joined Chelsea as a child, meaning there was no transfer fee to buy him. After spending almost 20 years at Chelsea and making 150+ appearances, he was sold to Como for around £25.7m + £5.1m in add-ons, with a sell-on clause retained.
Tyrique George: Another academy graduate, joining Chelsea as an Under-8, so again there was effectively no transfer fee. After several years coming through the academy and making his senior breakthrough, Chelsea sold him to Everton for around £18m + £6m in add-ons, while also retaining a sell-on clause.
Jimmy-Jay Morgan: Chelsea bought him from Southampton in 2023 for around £3m + add-ons. After 3 seasons with the club, mostly developing through the academy and loan spells, he was sold to West Brom for around £4m, with a sell-on clause included.
Now look at the bigger picture.
Chelsea have generated £140m+ from these five permanent sales alone, and this is where I think the club deserves serious credit.
We always talk about how much Chelsea spend, but the selling side of the operation is becoming seriously impressive.
Santos: roughly £11m → £50m potential package.
Chalobah: academy product → £30m+.
George: academy product → £24m potential package.
Morgan: roughly £3m → £4m.
Even with Cucurella, Chelsea have recovered a huge portion of the original investment after four seasons and more than 150 appearances.
This is what a sustainable squad-building model should look like: buy, develop, compete, increase value and sell at the right time.
Chelsea are no longer just spending big.
We’re getting very, very good at selling too.
🚨 Ronaldinho is coming OUT OF RETIREMENT and will be announced as a new signing for the club he now part owns, Italian third tier side Ravenna - according to @TheAthleticFC 😳
He reportedly wants to score one final goal in his career, and to do it in a competitive game 👀
He last played professional football in 2015 for Fluminense 🤝🇧🇷
"DOPENATION, you guys don't have a foresight. Sarkodie and Shatta Wale are the most useless and båd luck people on earth and anything they affiliate themselves to, they try to bring it down with their båd luck and jealousy, look at what has happened to Kojo Blak after making a song with Sarkodie, that boy never enjoyed his time"
~ Tiktoker, Darlington Adams wårns Dopenation on their affiliation with Sarkodie & Shatta wale
🇦🇹🗣️ David Alaba: "Franck Ribéry is my big brother. When I arrived in Munich 15 years ago, I was still 16. When I arrived in the first team, he was one of the first players to look after me, support me. He was giving me advice on how to do every training session and how to improve in every game, he was always there for me, I will always be grateful.
When you're a young player and a great player like him comes up to you and says, 'sit next to me in the locker room', that's very important at a young age, and I'm still grateful to him for that.
He taught me to always be hungry and I still think about that now. Never stop working hard."
🚨🔵 One reason I feel Drogba's numbers weren't high and he didn't get the respect they deserve is because he wasn't Chelsea's main penalty taker. Lampard took most of the penalties, and those goals boosted his numbers.
That's why I don't want the same thing happening to João Pedro.
Palmer is an excellent penalty taker, but I wouldn't mind him giving João some of the responsibility this season. If João is going to lead the line as our No. 9, give him every opportunity to build his numbers, compete for the Golden Boot and grow in confidence.
We've seen how much penalties can help a striker's goal tally. Haaland and Igor Thiago have both benefited massively from being thier team's main penalty taker, and those extra goals can make a huge difference in a Golden Boot race.
I want João Pedro to have that opportunity.
Give him the penalties, let him chase the Golden Boot and maybe, just maybe, he's the one who finally breaks the Chelsea No. 9 curse. 🔵🔥