CFC_SLO

I crave for the comments from white knights telling us to stfu, be patient and trust the project. The situation was predictable years ago.

At this point I’d say we’re really lacking experience. We no longer have the Lampard/Terry/Drogba level of leadership, and instead we’re relying on James and almost Caicedo as our “most experienced” players. Back then we had a core of guys with 100+ big matches under their belt, who knew exactly what needed to be done in those moments. Then you added a player with that extra spark (like Hazard), and that was enough. This squad has an incredibly high ceiling — they’ve already shown many times that, as a collective, they can beat anyone when everything clicks. But our floor is also very low. On a bad day we can struggle against absolutely anyone. These aren’t the occasional off-days where you go to QPR and just lose — what’s worrying is that these dips happen in runs, and it’s not the first time. Last season was identical: the moment we were flirting with a title race, December came and the spiral followed. Keeping the core together and building around it will be crucial, so those experiences can actually settle in. As long as we keep cycling endless talent and 60-million hit-or-miss signings, this is what we’ll get in the league. Even now we’re a nightmare team to face in cup competitions — on the right day we can beat anyone. Yes, the players make mistakes, and yes, Maresca sometimes gets it completely wrong. But personally I wouldn’t overlook the importance of experienced leadership. These “stupid little games” are exactly the ones that end up tipping the scales over a long season. What do you guys think?

Delighted by the performance and the result, but we MUST transfer this to lesser games agains Brighton, Brentford...

We bought every Brighton player and we still can't beat them.

Old Trafford away – it’s been 12 years since our last league win there, and it’s about to be 13. Doesn’t matter how bad United are, we always find a way to mess it up. A lot of the blame is on Maresca, but for me the real turning point was Sanchez. That reckless tackle killed the game before it even started. We’ll never know how it would’ve gone without the red card. Where I do blame Maresca is after the red. The substitutions made no sense – pulling Neto and then Palmer, leaving João Pedro isolated up front with zero support. Then later bringing on George instead of our expensive new signings? It looked like we gave up and decided to play for 0-0 instead of trying to win. Even when Casemiro was sent off and it was 10v10, we never really threatened. We got it back to 2-1 with 15 minutes left, but instead of pushing, we passed the ball around like United were peak Ferguson. One shot on target all game – embarrassing. United didn’t beat us; we beat ourselves. We’re already 7 points behind Liverpool after 5 games. We’ve spent huge money, there’s clear quality in the squad, but it’s not being used properly. Defensive issues weren’t fixed, Colwill’s injury hurts, Sanchez is unreliable, and some signings (like Hato) aren’t even getting minutes. That CWC win just covered up the cracks. This team is toothless, boring, and lacking mentality. If this continues, we’re Europa League level at best. I’m not “Maresca out,” but his in-game decisions are starting to look worrying. And on top of that – still no shirt sponsor after all that PR hype. Finishing a game like this with 1 shot on target is a disgrace.

Was watching the game on local TV and comentator in my country said "We're watching some brilliant football match here". I dissagreed. How was this brilliant? Our long balls almost never landed, Bayern didn't show much apart from last 30 minutes when we looked like we've run out of breath....and I was then wondering, is this just the state of football these days? Because I remember much, much better football games with better passes, more dribbling, tons of shots on target, brilliant saves from the keeper etc. Is it just me, or..? Nevertheless, we were just not up for the occasion yesterday, those are the games that show the real picture of where we are "football wise". And I wouldn't say that this is even that good of a Bayern side!

Do you remember when Vitesse was basically a Chelsea subsidiary? Everyone called them “Chelsea B” back then, because Roman Abramovich was pulling the strings in the background. Officially, the owner was Merab Jordania, later Valery Oyf, but the money was always flowing through Abramovich’s channels. All kinds of Chelsea talents started moving to Vitesse… It looked like a perfect deal – Vitesse got players they could never afford themselves, and Chelsea had a safe place to develop their youngsters. On the pitch, that era was the most successful in the club’s history. In 2017 they won the KNVB Cup – their first ever major trophy in 125 years. They regularly played in Europe, and in the league they were consistently finishing around 4th–6th. For a club that used to be a “perennial mid-table side,” it was like a dream rebirth. But all of it stood on shaky foundations. The club didn’t live off sponsors, ticket sales, or normal business operations – it was fueled by Abramovich’s loans and “gifts” routed through offshore companies. Everything was wrapped in secrecy, with official denials that Roman had anything to do with the club. But later, journalists uncovered that over €100 million had been funneled into Vitesse from his funds. Without that money, they could never have afforded the players they had in their squad. When the war in Ukraine broke out and Abramovich got hit by sanctions, the money tap was shut off overnight. The club was left with practically no income, debts started piling up, and the KNVB launched investigations. That led to a points deduction which cost them their place in the Eredivisie – their first relegation in over 30 years. In the end, the club even lost its license and was on the verge of bankruptcy. Recently they’ve managed to get some kind of license back, but when that was approved they only had 9 registered players – right now Transfermarkt shows exactly 11. For the fans, it’s bittersweet. On one hand they witnessed the greatest moments in the club’s history – a trophy and European football. On the other hand, they now see it was all built on the artificial money of one man. And when that man fell out of favour, the whole construction collapsed. So if you sum it up – Roman took Vitesse higher than they ever could have gone on their own, but when he left, the fall was lower than anyone thought possible. Today the club is trying to recover from a brutal crash, and it’s an open question whether they’ll ever play an important role again like they did in the Abramovich era. Why i posted this in the Todd Boehly topic? I actually started digging into Vitesse’s story again after seeing that our directors tried to buy into Brazilian side Santos (just like they have a part in Strasbourg) – but apparently they got flat-out rejected.

Joao Pedro looks like a top signing so far, but I’d still hold off on calling him “the most complete striker” just yet. Hard to put him ahead of Haaland, Isak, etc. at this point. As for sales – we absolutely smashed the British record. We brought in over £300m from sales and loans. Players leaving include Noni, Nkunku, Felix, Petrovic, Ugochukwu, KDH, Veiga, Broja, Chukwuemeka, Jackson, Amougu, Humphreys, Kepa, Bettinelli, Gilchrist, plus a few others on loan. The biggest positive of this window is definitely Jackson’s departure. The biggest negative has to be Sterling – looks like we won’t be able to shift him easily. No club showed serious interest, even though TM values him at around £10m. The problem is his wages – £320–340k per week – and he’ll likely see out his contract until 2027. He also refuses moves to Turkey or Saudi. Regarding arrivals – Pedro, Delap, Hato?, Estevão all look promising. Gittens, Sarr and Páez are a bit more unknown to me, and Garnacho was a complete shock. I don’t get the priorities here – we went for him before signing a goalkeeper, another defender, or Simons, who we were chasing for two months. Honestly, I’m a bit worried about our attack. It’s rare to sign two strikers in one window, so on paper that looks great, but we’re heading into a Champions League season with just Guiu and Pedro as our main options. When Delap got injured and Palmer was benched, the team already looked shaky. These things are hard to predict, but if Pedro picks up a knock while Delap is still out, we could be in real trouble. Overall, I’d rate this transfer window as good – maybe solid – but definitely not excellent. Liverpool easily “won” the market this summer. If they manage to quickly harmonize the squad and integrate all their new signings, they’ll be dangerous this season already – and certainly next year. Arsenal only gotten stronger.

OFFTOPIC RANT: Liverpool finally pulled off the Isak deal for £130M and broke the English transfer record, unreal. They keep trolling us about “spending a billion,” but they’ve just splashed €500M this summer alone. Of course for them the excuse “we also sold players” is valid, while Chelsea apparently can’t use that line… :) And then there’s the Jackson saga, classic Chelsea soap opera. If we really had an offer of €15M + option to buy (and apparently Bayern were even open to an obligation), I’d have taken that in a heartbeat. I also read we contacted Sunderland and are even thinking about recalling Guiu from loan. Total chaos again, no logic at this club. And let’s not forget Jackson actually wanted to stay and fight for his place – the club were the ones constantly pushing him out. No wonder he’s pissed off. After the international break, coming back to the Bridge is gonna be super toxic. Honestly I don’t see Jackson taking it like a man, keeping his head up and fighting like Chalobah is doing right now. Maybe he surprises us though (doubt).

The refereeing in our match was poor, let’s be honest. For me, excuses like “finally refereeing in our favor” don’t cut it. I can’t even imagine the chaos on the forum if the exact same refereeing went against us – total meltdown. Pedro looks like a fantastic signing so far, while I really don’t get Gittens – nothing special. The man management with George yesterday, plus playing him out of position, was at the very least laughable, if not worse. Delap got injured and will be out for at least 2 months, which is a shame, but stopping Jackson in the middle of Munich, a player who doesn’t even want to be here anymore, and trying to drag him back to the Bridge by force… that’s incompetence of the highest order. It was obvious we were one injury away from mild panic in terms of strikers, yet we did nothing about it. And now, on deadline day, we’re stuck dealing with bloody Jackson and whether or not we’ll actually force him back. We prioritized Garnacho, didn’t properly address the CB situation, and Sanchez is still the goalkeeper. On paper, the transfer window looked good, but when you take a step back, it was chaotic, messy – I can’t even find the right word.

The boys gave everything.

Tonight feels like a bit of a “make-up exam.” I just hope West Ham won’t be too fired up after their humiliation in the first round — and of course, it’s also a London derby. What worries me is that they have Potter now, and I’m sure "his players will give everything".

He deleted all Chelsea-related posts. Over three seasons he played fewer than 30 matches for us, around 2,500 minutes in total, yet we paid £68.5m for him. I was hoping he’d be back from injury this year and make his return, but it’s clear he already knows he’s not in our plans (I assume), which he has now hinted at on social media. Or maybe we're just looking too much into it, time will tell.

United supposedly value Garnacho at £50m, which is way too much – at least double. They want to offload him, he wants out, and only to us, so we clearly have the upper hand. Maybe that’s why talks are dragging – our side doesn’t want to pay up. Best move would be a £20–25m bid on deadline day, or even a loan with United covering part of his wages. Truth is, we don’t even need him that badly. Nkunku was linked with Bayern (they wanted a loan, we want a sale), now Leipzig are reportedly interested. Simmons deal is stuck until we move Nkunku and Jackson. Honestly, just sell – Newcastle might panic-buy Jackson for £50m, which would be a huge profit after getting him for £32m. After Colwill’s injury, haven’t seen any concrete links with new defenders – have you?

Long-time supporter and forum reader here, finally decided to share a few thoughts of my own. The performance today wasn’t great. What worries me most is how slowly we reacted — it was obvious from the first minutes that Palace had prepared for us, but we couldn’t adjust in time. In the Premier League, that’s a must if you want to be champions. The result isn’t ideal, but it’s not a disaster either. Still, it’s another reminder of the problems with Maresca’s system: too slow, attackers left isolated, and little creativity against a compact defence. That has to change if we’re going to succeed.