Red, White & Blues FC | Butterfly Tattoos, a Mid-Episode Signing, and City Circling Chalobah’s gone, City want three of ours, Chelsea completed a transfer while we were literally recording, and we made a tattoo pact on air. Normal Thursday. We open the only correct way — laughing at Arsenal, who apparently believed they had a shot at Vinícius Júnior right up until he pointed out he isn’t tired of winning Champions Leagues yet. From there it’s a rumor-mill episode, because there’s exactly one confirmed piece of Chelsea business this week and about fifteen things that might be. Jason delivers a full monologue on why transfer season is the footballing equivalent of being cornered by someone describing their dream. And then, halfway through the Enzo conversation, Fabrizio broke a deal live and we had a new signing before the episode ended. Farewell, Trevoh Chalobah The one concrete thing: Chalobah is officially a Como player, €30m plus €6m in add-ons. He’d been at the club roughly twenty years and BlueCo never knew what to do with him — treated like an afterthought, shipped out on loan, brought back, never quite trusted. Neither of us pretends he was world class, but that was always fine. He was an excellent role player who could cover injuries, give you cup minutes, and actually loved Chelsea, and you need those in a squad. He was better than Disasi, better than Badiashile, and frequently better than Fofana. Thanks, Trev. Enjoy Italy. BlueCo got their £30m of pure profit. The Rumor Mill: Osimhen, Diogo Costa, and Too Many Defenders Tottenham have made an offer for Victor Osimhen, so naturally Chelsea might go back in for Osimhen — because they have a toy and now we want the toy. That’s three summers running. It fell apart on wages last time, he’s two years older, and nothing about the math has changed. More interesting: Portuguese reports have Chelsea in talks for Diogo Costa and ready to match his €60m release clause, which is the one goalkeeper move we’re both fully on board with, even if he’d be inheriting the same shambolic back line. On which — do we need more defenders? Yes, but we still have Disasi, Badiashile, Tosin, Mamadou Sarr, and Aarón Anselmino sitting there, and only the last two have youth as an excuse. Badiashile’s linked to Napoli, Tosin reportedly has “lots of interest” per Fabrizio (please, take him), and Crystal Palace have submitted a loan with an obligation to buy for Disasi — take it, take five pounds, just get out of the Disasi business. Move those three and you’re left with Fofana, Lacroix, Colwill, Anselmino and Hato covering in, which is enough. Sell this summer, clear the deadwood, buy quality next year once we’re back in the Champions League. The Butterfly Tattoo Pact Then the bad news: Chelsea are reportedly leaning toward a transfer or loan for Mudryk to Strasbourg. We said on Monday we’d riot, and we meant it — this administration was already dead to Jason, and he’s not sure what’s past dead. Daniel’s position is that if Mudryk leaves, the title dream is gone, Champions League is gone, we’re in the Conference League, we might not qualify for Europe at all. His actual vision for the season: Chelsea win the league by three points because Mudryk comes off the bench to score a 90th-minute winner against Arsenal in a 2-1. And so the pact, arrived at independently by both of us, which is what almost thirty years of friendship does to two people: if Mudryk stays and Chelsea win the league, we both get the exact butterfly tattoo. One cheek each. Possibly a wing apiece so we can moon people in formation. The one loan destination we’d actually enjoy is Coventry, purely to watch Frank Lampard coach up Mudryk — and it’s genuinely nice to see Lamps is a good manager after all, just one who was handed two impossible situations at Chelsea. City Want Three of Ours, and Has Enzo Peaked? Manchester City have been linked with three Chelsea players in one day: Malo Gusto at £75m, Pedro Neto around £70m, and now Enzo Fernández, with Rodri reportedly off to Barcelona and Maresca wanting Enzo as the replacement. The Gusto number is Chelsea pricing a player so he doesn’t sell — City said interested, but absolutely not at 75, which is what anyone with a footballing brain would say. Neto’s number, by contrast, is priced to be paid, and the official line that he’s “a very important part of the squad but the price would have to be right” translates cleanly as: we’ll sell him tomorrow to a big enough sucker. Neither of us will miss Neto, a player who does almost nothing with an enormous amount of talent and whose main skill is spamming crosses without knowing where they’re going. The Enzo conversation is the meatiest thing in the episode. Has he peaked? Jason thinks roughly yes — 20 goal contributions a year is his ceiling, and last season’s 10 goals and 4 assists are attacking-midfielder numbers, not the Fàbregas-style controller you’d want beside Caicedo. That’s exactly why the pivot fails: Caicedo drops to a fifth defender, Enzo pushes forward, and Chelsea simply cede the middle of the pitch, which is what Maresca did to us all season. Lavia is the right profile, if Lavia could ever string together ninety minutes, which in three years he hasn’t. We both like Enzo, both think he plays hard for the badge — and both suspect he’s a mercenary who’d play just as hard for City’s badge the moment they pay him. And Then We Signed Someone Mid-Episode Pep Chavarría to Chelsea, broken by Fabrizio while we were recording: €19m plus €2m in add-ons, flying for a medical, signatures the same night. A 28-year-old left back from Rayo Vallecano who has never been capped by Spain. Daniel’s verdict is blunt — this is not a Xabi Alonso signing, this is 100% a BlueCo signing, and the idea that every arrival this window is an Alonso pick is a narrative the club is happy to let run. In fairness, Chelsea genuinely don’t have a left back since Cucurella left; Hato can do it but is better at left center back, and Palestra can technically cover. The question is whether we’ve just bought a starter or a very expensive backup. Elsewhere in the Juventus match: Hato started at left back, Palestra and Quenda linked up well on the right and Quenda had a strong first half, Fofana has publicly announced he wants to prove he can be the player we thought he was before the injuries — which mostly tells you he knows what the rest of us know. The squad is bloated, more players keep arriving, and the thing Chelsea are worst at is the thing they most urgently need to do. As Jason puts it: BlueCo aren’t bad at selling players, they’re bad at buying them, and then they have to sell the bad players they bought, and nobody wants them because they’re bad. Programming Note The live Thursday show didn’t happen this week and probably won’t next week either — most likely we kick it off properly when the season starts. We need a name for it, so drop suggestions in the comments. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit redwhitebluesfc.substack.com
