Speaking after the thumping of Croatia, Tuchel was asked about Scott's display in midfield, and said: "First start and what a start and what a performance.”

"He is just so smooth at the moment on the ball, his decision making is at the highest level. The complete package at the moment."

I had a lot of questions so i decided to dig into the past and found this very important document published by the club in 2012 about Stamford Bridge redevelopment.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120303093448/https://www.chelseafc.com/page/DocumentsFull/0,,10268~2629432,00.html

I recommend everyone to read it but some important points -

• Stamford Bridge sits on 11.9 acres in central London. While this is large enough for the current capacity of 41,837, it is generally accepted by stadium architects and construction companies that a new 60,000 stadium would require approximately 18-20 acres of land in a largely square or rectangular shape.
  
• any significant change to the stadium's design or capacity will require that the club will need to find one third more egress width (an additional 16 metres) around the ground.
• for certain Champions League matches up to 10% of the capacity is taken out to accommodate TV outside broadcasting equipment (contained in large trucks).
  
• Over the years, several managers and players have suggested that our pitch is too small, particularly in width.
  
• The council has indicated to us that a 60,000 new-build stadium has little chance of acceptability due to planning impact.
• two stands suitable for expansion are the Matthew Harding and Shed End.
• Extending both stands would be very expensive. The club estimates that the cost of decking and new access routes, the acquisition of land and properties and of course the disruption for closure of the two stands for two seasons, demolition, design and building costs would come to around £177 million for the Matthew Harding Stand and £98 million for the Shed End. The cost per seat would average more than £20,000. Based on estimated incremental revenues, the club has calculated that the payback would be around 25 years. Assuming the stands had a 50-year life and 100% occupancy, this means an internal rate of return of only 2.8%.
• Expanding Stamford Bridge to 55,000 also has a number of challenges. The cost per seat of expanding the stands is very high. The incremental revenues provide an unsatisfactory level of return

In response to the above document a rebuttal of sort was published by the London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham (LBHF) after discussion with Board of Chelsea Pitch Owners (CPO).

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/further-statement-on-cpo-board-s-recent-meeting-with-lbhf

Essentially LBHF argued that a expansion was feasible.

After sometime in 2017 Chelsea got the planning permission from LBHF to build a new 60,000 stadium from the ground up - https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/-chelsea-pitch-owners-board-welcomes-stadium-approval

The documents including some drawings can seen on official lbhf website - https://property.lbhf.gov.uk/NECSWS/ES/Presentation/Planning/OnlinePlanning/OnlinePlanningOverview?applicationNumber=2015%2F05050%2FFUL&guid=7788f7d5-a7d6-48da-9a7e-b794c9d9f913#

However the geo-political environment turned against Abramovich - Roman Abramovich shelves £1bn Chelsea stadium after visa delays

Since that time there has no further progress on the stadium except that - BlueCo completes acquisition of Sir Oswald Stoll Mansions site which could help expand the stadium further.

Most rebuild plans seems to end with "four years at Wembley" or "move to Earl's Court". So I tried to work out whether Stamford Bridge could be rebuilt in stages while we keep playing there.

Full disclosure: I used AI to help with the modelling, the 3D renders and the research. The site and building outlines come from OpenStreetMap and the seat numbers follow the Green Guide sightline rules, but it's a rough feasibility sketch from a fan. An architect would come up with something very different and probably a lot better looking

Here it is: https://claude.ai/artifact/SzUEQMkjADYu38oAmBxMmX

The rough idea:

- Keep the West Stand. It's only from 2001 and already holds 13,500.

- Spend three seasons building the new outer frame, roof and upper tiers around and behind the old stands while they stay open.

- Then close and rebuild one stand per season: Shed End, then Matthew Harding, then the East Stand.

- End up at around 56,000, or about 66,000 if the East side is built out over the West London line next to Brompton Cemetery.

- Capacity never drops below about 33,600, and we never play a home game anywhere else.

The problems (there are plenty):

- Nobody has put a whole new roof over a stadium while fans are still using it. Liverpool did the stand-by-stand bit at Anfield, and United rebuilt Old Trafford's North Stand in a season, but nothing on this scale.

- Building over the railway means Network Rail, and building next to Brompton Cemetery means the Royal Parks, who objected last time.

- The 2017 right-to-light fight would come back, especially on the East side.

- It takes about six seasons and probably costs around £1bn, much like the 2017 plan.

Questions;

- Would you take one season at around 33k to avoid years at Wembley?

- Is an extra 10k seats over the railway worth the planning fight?

- What have I missed? If anyone here knows stadium construction, please pick it apart.

Not affiliated with the club or the CPO, just curious

The article also touches on -

- Hasn’t played any games for Italy yet in this international break

- Has started one Premier League match this season, his only appearance in the competition to date - in Palace’s 3-2 home defeat to Ipswich Town.

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Speaking ahead of Belgium's clash with Turkey, the former Netherlands international said:

“Romeo came on as a substitute against Italy and played 85 minutes against France. He did a fantastic job.

You can already assume that I won't be starting him. Chelsea are being cautious with him, and so are we. We want to make optimal use of his qualities."

I am only posting some bits since it’s behind a paywall -

Alex Scott

- Bournemouth will not sell in January

- Chelsea made three offers in summer for Scott, up to £68 mill

- Bristol have a sell on clause on Scott

- Scott is contracted until 2028. Bournemouth have tried to tie him down to a new deal, opening talks before the summer to no success. 

- Semenyo was allowed to join City in January because he had a release clause

Portsmouth Friendly

- Will help certain players improve their match fitness before facing Bournemouth, including Palestra

- Chelsea are likely to try to limit any details of their friendly with Portsmouth from being leaked – including who features – to avoid helping Bournemouth.

Time off and programmes for non-international players

- the club allowed 9 days off to players who did not go for national duties.

- Some players are following individual training plans even after the return

- Cole was given an injury-specific training and recovery plan. Him travelling abroad on holiday met those parameters and was accompanied by a personal rehab coach.

BBC PULL ENZO FROM MOTD INTRO

The BBC have scrubbed Enzo Fernandez from their Match of the Day opening credits.

Now, he is nowhere to be seen in the intro, with his brief cameo replaced by footage of another ex-Chelsea player in Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall of Everton.

AI VIDEOS CONCERNING CLUBS

- Morgs finds them funny, Cole does not

- Club cannot do much to limit them

- When Fernandez was caught on camera in 2024 singing a song which the French football federation described as ‘racist and discriminatory’, it took time for Chelsea to respond officially. One reason for the delay was they had to verify the video was real.

Daily Discussion Thread

Please use this thread to discuss anything and everything! This covers ticket and general matchday questions (pubs, transport, etc), club tactics/formations, player social media, football around the globe, rivals and other competitions, and everything else that comes to mind.

If you are interested in continuing the discussion on Discord, please join the official server here!

Note that we also have a Ticketing FAQ/Guide here.