Daniel and Jason each independently rebuilt Chelsea from scratch — same £1 billion budget, same rule: only sign players who were actually available during BlueCo’s tenure. What they found out about their own club is not flattering. We’ve been threatening to do this episode for about a year, and we finally sat down and did it: rebuild the entire Chelsea squad using only transfers that were realistically available since BlueCo took over in the 2022–23 window through last winter. Same rough budget as the real thing — just under £1.5 billion, since that’s what’s actually been spent — and we did it completely independently, without comparing notes beforehand. The Rules Nothing unrealistic. No Erling Haaland, no Kylian Mbappé — just players Chelsea could conceivably have gotten given the timing and their wage structure. Beyond that, anything goes. Defense: A Back Four That Could Have Played Together for Four Years Both of us kept Levi Colwill without question. From there it diverges into “what if” territory: Cristian Romero (Cucurella’s Tottenham countryman) as one option at center back for the money Chelsea actually spent on Wesley Fofana, alongside cheaper alternatives like Gleison Bremer and Josko Gvardiol — both of whom were on the table for less than what Chelsea paid for Axel Disasi or Benoît Badiashile. At left back, it’s Marc Cucurella against the tantalizing alternative universe where Chelsea signs Nuno Mendes instead — now arguably the best left back in the world — plus a nod to keeping Ian Maatsen around instead of selling him off. Midfield: The Two Nobody Argues With Moises Caicedo and Cody Palmer were the two names both of us kept without hesitation — Caicedo for £116m looks like one of the better bits of business BlueCo has actually done, and Palmer, whatever you think of the scouting behind it, has been the one genuine coup. From there, the discussion opens up into names Chelsea could have had for a fraction of the outlay on Romeo Lavia, Dário Essugo, or Carney Chukwuemeka — including a free transfer for Christian Eriksen that was floated on this podcast for months before Chelsea ignored it. Wide Areas: Same Brain, Same Answer Independently, we both landed on Raphinha for the left wing — a name Chelsea were actually linked with around the same price point. The right wing is where it gets painful: Chelsea’s actual buy in that window was Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, while Michael Olise was there for the taking and slipped away purely over wages. We also dig into whether Olise or Pedro Neto is the better player today, and what it means that Chelsea ended up paying more for the worse option. Strikers: João Pedro Stays, But Look at Who Got Away João Pedro remains the starter in both our rebuilds, but the exercise turns up striker options Chelsea could have had for less than what they eventually spent — Dominic Solanke, Alexander Isak, Victor Osimhen, Viktor Gyökeres, and Jørgen Strand Larsen all get a mention as players who were on the market at some point during BlueCo’s reign and went elsewhere. The Bench, and the Real Numbers We round out both squads with backups at every position — Matheus Nunes, Adam Wharton, Youri Tielemans, Martín Zubimendi, and even Granit Xhaka (available for a fraction of what Sunderland reportedly wants for him now) all show up as realistic squad depth options. Then we do the sobering part: laying out, window by window, everything BlueCo has actually bought and sold since 2022 — and it is a genuinely rough list to read back. Almost a billion and a half spent, barely half of that recouped in sales, and a scouting department that, by our count, has produced maybe six good buys and three academy graduates in four years. Everything else is filed under “just terrible business.” 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
