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.”

Red, White & Blues FC | Chelsea Transfer Wrap-Up

Daniel and Jason are (mostly) done with the World Cup — Norway’s the adopted team now, sorry England fans — and turn their attention back to a busy week of Chelsea business: a departure, an official arrival, and the Enzo Fernández situation that refuses to resolve itself.

We’re keeping this one tight this week (we say that every week), but there’s a lot to get through: a sale, a long-awaited official unveiling, a couple of loans out, and the Enzo saga rumbling on in the background while Argentina are still alive in the World Cup.

Andrey Santos Departs for Manchester United

Chelsea sold Andrey Santos to Manchester United for £48 million plus £2 million in add-ons and a 10% sell-on clause — a solid profit on the roughly £15 million Chelsea paid for him. We go back and forth on whether this is a good deal or a bad one, and land on: it depends entirely on what Santos becomes. If he turns into what Chelsea hoped, this is a disaster. If he stays league-average, it’s a great bit of business. We also get into why selling to a “top six” rival feels different than selling to a mid-table club, and why we’ve mostly made peace with the “no selling to Prem rivals” taboo being dead.

Quenda Is Finally Official

After what felt like months of open-secret reporting, Geovany Quenda’s move to Chelsea is officially confirmed — and yes, we question why the club waited to bury this announcement right behind the Santos sale news. We’re excited about his fit as a left wing-back in Xabi’s system, especially paired with a (hopefully healthy) Estêvão, who’s reportedly back in training after a hamstring issue.

Outgoing Business: Tyrique George, Jesse Derry, Harrison Murray-Campbell

Tyrique George heads to Everton for £18 million (rising to £24 million with add-ons and a 15% sell-on clause), and we make the case that he was arguably better than both Alejandro Garnacho and Jamie Gittens before Chelsea went out and bought both of them anyway. Jesse Derry is off on a season-long loan to Sporting after signing a new contract, and Harrison Murray-Campbell joins newly promoted side KV Kortrijk in the Belgian Pro League. We also give BlueCo credit — genuinely — for consistently attaching sell-on clauses to these young departures.

The Enzo Fernández Situation

This one’s not going away. Enzo still hasn’t committed to the club, Real Madrid and Man City have both publicly denied interest, and with Argentina still alive in the World Cup, nothing can really move until the tournament ends. We talk through the risk of him missing the start of the season entirely once reintegration and match fitness are factored in, why we think Xabi Alonso is the only person who can actually win him over, and whether he should keep the vice-captaincy after everything that’s happened this summer (our answer: yes — stripping it would be exactly the wrong move).

Rumors: Garnacho, Chalobah, and the Center-Back Search

Garnacho is reportedly free to leave with Chelsea seeking £40 million — a number we find absurd given his season. Trevoh Chalobah’s future is still parked at a £30 million valuation with no real movement. And we dig into the center-back and left-back links (Maxence Lacroix, Como’s Jacobo Ramón, and Rayo Vallecano’s Pep Chavarría) with a theory that the whole thing smells like a BlueCo negotiating tactic more than a real pursuit.

Daniel and Jason set Chelsea aside for a night to talk World Cup — the Balogun red card fallout, Trump’s fingerprints all over FIFA, and why this might be one of the best tournaments in years.

We’re taking a break from Chelsea business this week because, frankly, the World Cup has eaten our lives. Between Cape Verde nearly taking down Argentina, England-Mexico going down as one of the matches of the tournament, and an all-time stinker from Spain-Portugal (Roberto Martinez remains undefeated at ruining things), there’s been no shortage of storylines. We get into all of it, plus why this tournament — despite the pre-cup doom and gloom about ticket sales and logistics — has turned into a genuine success.

The Balogun Red Card

The biggest controversy of the week: Folarin Balogun’s red card against Belgium got walked back, letting him play tonight instead of serving his suspension mid-tournament. We go back and forth on this one hard — was it technically a red card by the letter of the law? Probably. Was there any malicious intent? Not even close. We dig into the FIFA rulebook quirk that let this happen (deferring the suspension rather than rescinding it), and why this isn’t as unprecedented as people are claiming — Ronaldo got the same treatment earlier in this tournament, and Garrincha’s eerily similar situation from the 1962 World Cup gets a full airing.

Trump, FIFA, and the Optics Problem

We can’t talk about the Balogun decision without talking about Trump, who wasted no time taking credit for it. FIFA’s insistence that an “independent committee” made the call doesn’t survive contact with basic FIFA history, and we spend a good chunk of the episode on how corrupt the optics are — even while admitting we’re thrilled to have Balogun back for tonight’s match. It’s a two-minds situation: we know it’s shady, and we still want the win.

Is This the Best World Cup in Years?

Once we get the controversy out of our system, we talk about why this tournament has exceeded every expectation — the crowds, the celebrations (Norway’s row routine, England belting out Wonderwall in the Azteca), and the sheer logistics of running a World Cup across a country the size of the United States. We also get into some genuinely bad officiating (the Paraguay-France match deserves its own trial), the golden boot race between Haaland, Messi, Mbappé, and Kane, and — because we couldn’t make this up if we tried — Jordan Henderson breaking his arm jumping over an advertising board after the England-Mexico match.

We close out with our prediction for USA-Belgium tonight and a look ahead to Friday’s match if the US advances.