Lord

Acknowledged.

Preseason is as much as about off-the-field preparation as on-field squad conditioning. This is so much more important for a new manager coming from outside England who has to begin afresh from the most basic of things like "where to live" to the more complex "players to sell and players to buy", and myriad other things that come along with a new manager: tactical shift, new training methods, new backroom staff, building player-manager rapport, interactive sessions and so forth. I am not trying to paint a doom and gloom picture, but to scornfully disregard the entire fiasco with "they have been back for TWO days..... and had ONE training session with Conte" is reflective of the lack of discernment of the complexities involved with getting a foreign manager. The training session should have never happened with Conte. That is also disrespectful to the man who won us the Premier League title. Again, to reiterate, this is not the end of the world, and hopefully we will play exciting and better football next year, but the entire thing could have been handled better and wrapped up much earlier, if the Board was not haggling over what is essentially peanuts in today's transfer market.

Whatever has transpired in the last few weeks is utterly shambolic for a club of Chelsea’s stature. We have ceded time and preparation compared with all our direct opponents, not to mention the confusion and uncertainty engulfing all players and support staff, and the damaging mental footprint that brings, when players should have been up and running with physical conditioning and tactical mentorship by now. No footballer can be focussed when his own future in the playing-eleven or even staying at the club for that matter is not completely certain. There would be many here who would still defend the board’s ineptness in closing out the Sarri/Conte fiasco as we are not aware (or entitled to know, as some have put) of many of the ongoing problems, but I am convinced that Marina Granovskaia’s haggling over a few million has cost us many times more.

That wasn't my question. Why cant we channel funds abroad? Makes zero sense.

And why is that?

And the club just released a new video with players training that showed Conte at least three times in 1 minute.

There are reports (with questionable reliabilility) that Napoli want 17.5 m to release Sarri. I don’t know if that is true, but if it is, we are looking at something in the tune of 60 million to appoint Sarri. 17 million to release + 10 million to fire + 30 million three-year contract. (not to mention backroom staff). Quite some money.

Done and dusted. Sarri finally. Hopefully, we will get a few WC flops for the cheap, Lewandowski for one if today’s match was any indication.

The guy turns 30 at the start of the season and has no more than two years of top level Premiership football, at the end of which, he won’t have any resale value. 60 million is insane money for a 30 year old who isn't in the “elite” bracket. Yes, even in these inflated times. Sure, he has been good for us over the years but this is the kind of deal we should be looking at, given the imminent cut in transfer spending at the club. There might be some skepticism in selling a third major player to United in recent times, but neither Mata nor Matic (except for very brief periods) have done anything groundbreaking after their Chelsea departures. Whether we spend the 60 million wisely is another issue though. Some of our recent acquisitions have been abject. Nonetheless, the offer on table is pretty darn good, and that we can’t seem to get hold of good players in the market shouldn’t be reason enough to refuse a sensible deal (assuming Daily Mail and Daily Express aren't selling us dross.)

I agree that the timing of this news was inappropriate, but if has problems entering the country now (and chances are high that this may be a recurrent problem in the future), there's no point gambling 1 billion on a project that won't see immediate returns. A new stadium doesn't pay itself out in just a few years and 1 billion investment does NOT increase the club's value by 1 billion, if he were to sell the club sometime in the next few years. I don't agree that he's using the club as a political pawn. From a purely business point of view, not risking another 1 billion is the correct move from a purely business move given the current political stalemate. Any other sane businessman would have done the same thing. And whatever philanthropic view on CFC he may have had, has taken a big hit with the visa issue. Yes, the timing of the announcement was wrong.

I never meant we should play slow; the speed of possession-based football is down to the pace of the playing-eleven. There is only so much you can do with players like Alonso, Fabregas, Drinkwater and ageing Pedro and Willian on the field. How fast you can execute your game play is partly down to the tactics of the manager, but more reliant on how fast your players actually are. Remember, we are taking about the overall speed of game play here, not its perfect execution or the result at the end 90 minutes. What I want to stress is that results based on defensive counterattacking play is much more dependent on the overall pace of the team, than when teams are set up for possession-based football. When possession-based teams have a slow team, the football is boring to watch; when defensive-counterattacking football is played by a slow team, the football is painful to watch. There are again wide differences in how the manager executes possession-based football, most importantly on the directness of play (slow buildup with tons of lateral passing vs a more direct approach). In an ideal world, the peak Messi-Barcelona team with fast game-play, short incisive passes, 70% possession and a bucket load of trophies is what most people want, but there's always a compromise if you don't have the players to execute it. And that we are now probably the 'slowest' top six team in the league, which will NOT improve anytime soon by the looks of it, we need a manager who can change the philosophy of game-play. If we are not good enough to qualify for Champions League anyway, I'd much rather see a team with a more progressive game-play, higher defensive line, liberal attacking game plan and win 4-3 with 10 attempts at goal instead of 1-0 in the 90th minute with 2 attempts at goal.

Couldn't agree more.

How's that any worse than this season's 0-1 against lowly Swansea? 0-3 against lowly Newcastle? 2-3 against lowly Burnley ? 1-2 against lowly Crystal Palace ? 0-1 against lowly West Ham ? 0-3 against lowly Bournemouth for God's sake? and 1-4 against lowly Watford of all teams ??? And a few more results that I cannot think of right now. This season has been a disaster, not because we've finished 30 points off the winners of the division, but the nature of our performances against 'lesser' sides was appalling at times. We have been miserable trying to break defenses, very little creativity. It was okay doing this in 1995 or 2001. But post-Roman era has stood for something else.

They have scored more goals than us, they have scored more points than us...and all that without having spent as much as we have over 5-10 years. The core group of their young players will earn them lots of points even if they stopped buying anyone, I don't think that applies to us. The only argument against Mauricio Pochettino and bloody Tottenham is that they haven't won anything, but to be brutally honest, they're more likely to win something next season with one-two good buys than us with Conte still at the helm of things. I have great respect for Conte. But the ship has sailed. We need a change in footballing philosophy. The lack in noise at the Bridge this season must have been for a reason.

Cristiano takes all the penalties and still has a great leap (headed goals). That helps. Anyway, he's a freak. I'm a nobody to comment on the goal-tally of someone who's in serious contention for football's GOAT. CR7-aside, this discussion. Real Madrid still finished this campaign 17-18 points behind Barcelona. That is a huge gulf over the period of one season. There were so many matches where they were literally outplayed by smaller teams and had absolutely no clue how to unlock their defense. They dropped points in a whopping 16 league games! A big part of that was down to their ageing players, who have lost pace and are now in the wrong side of their thirties. Pace, especially down the flanks, is the prerequisite for counter-attacking football to work (along with, strong central defenders). They still have great technical players like Modric and Kroos and Isco in their midfield (and Marcelo and Ramos), which obviously helps in cup tournaments, but not over 40 games in the League. My logic is very simple. Is our side a fast, pacey side? No. There are barely two or three players who can be considered 'fast'. Even young players like Alonso are so painfully slow. Our side will benefit from (slow) possession-based football in my opinion. The speed of passing and directness of play can always be altered depending on the kind of players we have at our disposal. If we have three Sadio Manes and three Leroy Sanes in our squad, our speed will improve dramatically; if we have three Marcos Alonsos and three Cesc Fabregases in our squad, our speed will drop. Here, I'm trying to allude to the philosophy of playing, the philosophy of trying to create goals, and not necessarily its perfect execution, which depends largely on the types of players in the squad. We've never had the right manager in the last two decades or so to implement that philosophy. We were still winning big trophies and that covered up all the deficiencies. We were still spending big in the transfer market. We were blessed with some amazing players. And now! And this is where the prospect of Sarri excites me. It excites me now that we have one of the slowest teams in the Premier League top-six and that soaking the pressure and hitting on-the-break will not work over 38 league games !! Now that we have at least a dozen teams across Europe who can spend as big as we can, we need a change in our footballing philosophy. In Conte, we have the embodiment of a manager who keeps taking the punch and tries to hit big on the counter; he is NOT proactive. He epitomises defensive mastery with very little creativity going forward. We scored 44 goals less than City this season, which is still okay with me given what a good attacking team they are, but only as many goals as silly Leicester could muster over 38 league games, which is certainly NOT okay with me. He is a good coach, and won the League for us. Respect. But I've had enough. There's a reason why Barcelona have been so successful for the last 15 years, and it is not just down to that another freak in La Liga. There's a reason why neutrals are so fascinated with Liverpool's style of play this season and even more gut-wrenchingly, bloody Tottenham's. I need a change. I am ready to gamble.

No one in their right senses would buy Morata for anything above 40-45 million even in these inflated times. We've already taken a hit of 15 million approx. The sooner we sell, the better are our chances of recouping that 60 million outlay on him.

High-profile swaps hardly ever happen in football. When was the last big one? How many have there been in the last 15 years? That scenario of Morata + 30 million = Icardi is purely hypothetical, but even then, I'd take it in a heartbeat. Won't even think twice.

Scoring goals is something else. RM in that La Liga winning season under Mourinho scored so many with fast counter-attacking football. They'd soak all the pressure and break quick with scary pace. But that system relies heavily on young, extremely quick wingers/midfielders and solid centre-backs. Once Ronaldo's pace dwindled, so did the goals. I am more interested in the philosophy. Goals are a spin-off.

Ship him out, can we, while he's still worth around 60m (minus 15 million) we squandered on him ! If he repeats that garbage of the season next year, his value will drop by at least 20-25 million. There's a reason RM were so willing to offload him, relying entirely on an ageing 32-year Ronaldo and a 29-year Karim Benzema who divides opinions. His first touch is sub-standard, finishing is abysmal, composure in front of the goal is very poor and body-strength in one-to-one challenges is pitiable. How do all these essential strikers' traits change at 26 years of age ?

Having NEVER seen Chelsea play the possession-based, quick, short-passing football for sustained periods of an entire season in my lifetime, I am desperate for this transfer to go through, even if that means a process of one or two more years, where we build, prepare and shape our squad to imbibe that philosophy and therefore, don't play for CL for one or two years. I am literally tired of the defend-defend-defend-counter philosophy we've played for so long. Sure, it is great to see the lads lifting trophies, but if we're not winning anything, I'd much rather be a Klopp Liverpool finishing fourth than Boreinho's United finishing second. This is still a gamble given Maurizio Sarri doesn't have any real top flight experience except for the couple of years at Napoli, but at least the footballing-philosophy we're trying to emulate makes the gamble well worth it, in my humble opinion.

One final year, I reckon.

He has arguably the worst "first-touch" in the English top division, let alone in this Chelsea side. That aside, he has decent pace, an acceptable quality of passing and most importantly, he has age on his side. It is difficult to predict how hard it is to fix that "first touch" issue. Sarri's tactic is reliant on quick, one-pass, short-play football. In that system, Bakayoko will either be a vital component (fix that problem) or be absolutely useless. I feel there is no middle ground for him. He either stays here for long or gets shipped out in January, assuming, of course, Sarri's arrival is imminent. I may get bashed for writing this, but I think the guy has huge potential if he can correct that one glaring weakness.

That probably explains a fair bit about the ongoing Conte-Sarri saga. Unfortunately.

When Mourinho holds on to a dead ball for longer than 5 seconds, what is that called ?

We have been pretty damn good at what we do best - organised defense. The only downside has been 'time-wasting', which has at times been rather embarrassing. I hope we F their party in their own backyard, I really do.