abister1

If we score first we will win, if we concede first early night for me as to bed I'll go.

Come on Antonio. Win or lose let's see the you of last season. No moaning, no glum looks...... We've got your back.

I like your thinking but it differs maybe a bit slightly from Don Conte's.

You keep calling him a manager. He isn't a manager. He is a first team coach. They know why they appointed him with that title. His contract details which the public isn't privy to probably reflects the extent of transfer calls he can make. Hell he even says it in his moaning conferences that the club is in charge of transfers and he knows nothing about it. Every now and then he soft pedals and say decisions are made with him adding his input but the general view he gives is he is not in charge or control of what transfers we make. That is because he is a first team coach and not a manager. He won the league, they had contract negotiations, they told him they wouldn't give him full control and as a result he said he won't extend. That is possibly what happened. I am speculating but this is what likely happened. Or at least something similar.They probably conceded to working with him where his targets fall in line with their own long term policies. Problem is most of his transfer requests don't make sense and I was happy when we didn't get Bonucci or Sandro for the so called £80m Juve asked for. Not because it is my money but because i felt we had invested a lot in players like Ake, Chalobah and other youth players to not give them a chance. If you want Alex Sandro, Bonucci and other players Conte badly desires, why don't you buy Chelsea football club and buy the players for him. Sick of how you come on here and moan like Conte all the time about the board. And talk down at other posters as if you have all the solutions and know it all. Football isn't all about winning on the pitch every time, sometimes you need to consider other goals. An improved stadium today may not increase revenue as much in comparison with the tv deals currently going but when those plans to expand were made they probably didn't have Conte on a shortlist as future Chelsea manager.

Exactly what I keep saying. The trend seems to be they provide players for positions where he indicates he wants players. If they can get who he wants they do and if not they provide someone else. They definitely are not breaking their backs or going against their own policies to get the players he wants and that is exactly what everyone should expect as you can't give full backing to a man that hasn't even shown the willingness to be your manager long term. I think he realises this was a big mistake now hence his statement a couple of days that he was ready to even extend his stay beyond current contract . All we see today is a fall out of poor decisions made by the manager over the summer. He axed Costa, board probably tongue lashed him privately but supported him publicly, he came back in a strop and started taking pot shots at them after refusing the extension. Club probably felt slighted and just like everyone's alarm bells were ringing when he didn't extend so would theirs' have. You may not want to stay beyond a particular time but you generally extend. If they say 4 years you say 2 years and both parties know that can fall apart in 2 months but its the tone you set by not extending. Why should they buy who you want?

Woke up this morning to see I was right to go to bed at half-time. Can't say I'm surprised at result. Conte is not bad manager. Just a very stubborn one. This is a man who last season after Arsenal's spanking said I don't care what formation we play but something has to change and then switched it up. Now all of a sudden he can't switch things up and goes into the same formation with the same set up and tactics? I said the other day Hazard part of our problem and was nearly chewed up. He is great don't get me wrong but holding on to the ball a tad too long just because he can doesn't do the team any good. I saw it happen several times in the first half as well. Teams have figured this out and just crowd him out now whilst others get back in position. Well my assessment is the board is willing to spend money but not just on what Conte wanted there is no future with him long term at Chelsea. They are buying squad fillers now and when the next man comes will give him who he wants. Conte refused to commit from the start of season and all that has happened afterward is a consequence of his decision. And Emenalo no longer here otherwise he would gave been taking a glorious berating from the fans now. Lucky man, dodged that one. So who do we blame now guys?ha

Time to go to bed guys. As a fan you wish for different but really it's game over. Conte's record for getting back into games when losing is shockingly poor, talkless of doing it with a man down. At least still a point ahead of Spurs for now.

Back then bragging rights were reserved for derby games. And every other game a good reason to just enjoy football. Social media eh.

Fair point on Poc. Do you think they can do better than him at the moment? Once they think they can he gets the chop. He's taken them closest in years with a style previously unseen and as one of the upcoming managers in the game it will be foolish of them to get rid before he starts underachieving (or in another way status quo resumed as right now he has spurs overachieving on the money they are willing to spend) RDM is a legend on these hallowed pages but I guarantee you, you'd be hard pressed to find 10% or even making it simpler for you 10 people who can hold up their hands with a straight face and say the CL and FA cup wins were his tactical genius on display. He was given a chance which was the job full time and it was rightfully seen and correctly too, if I may add as a reward for what he "achieved". When the hammer fell there was disappointment but also a sense of acceptance of what most felt would be the natural outcome as the season went on.

Thanks Coco. People want managerial consistency and success. But the thing they fail to realise is consistent success means the manager is doing his job (winning and therefore remaining in-situ) or not doing his job (failing to win and being replaced by someone else who can), ..... rinse and repeat process. Now what they should be glad about is more times than not our board have gotten it right in terms of the next man in always steadied ship to an extent and maybe win the odd cup here or there. We've been fortunate with winning league titles several times. Alex left Utd what 4 or 5 seasons ago and they're already on their 3rd manager. A man they swore to hate and despised so much and it is well recorded and open knowledge that one of their legends upstairs hates him passionately. That's who they turned to because of his serial winner rep. It's a bit funny to me every time I hear people go that route because though I never support sacking a manager or player on the basis of lack of time to deliver, I am never one to stand in the way of moving people on for non performance or to favour long term goals and plan. In a democratic set up as we have in the westernized world where far more is at stake than football and where we have long term planning considered in generational terms rather than as one would consider 5 - 10 years in football, the manager( prime minister/President) is generally given 4 or 5 year terms during within which they can even be sacked (impeached/leadership change) if things arent going well.

So why are we a joke in England then? Is it as Spurs are a joke for the way they change their managers? I ask because they've had more managers than us in same time period or is it maybe the perspective the media tunnels your vision towards?

Are we any more of a top club than Real Madrid who have had about 14 managers to our 10 since Roman tool over? Managerial changes ARE part of the pressures a club that wins or has ambitions to win faces.

Couldn't have put it any better. Not undermining him or his achievements in anyway but it seems he set himself up for the current situation as soon as he commenced his summer holiday after last season. Started terribly and from dispensing with Costa the way he did, which I don't mind anyway as he picks his team, to coming back and not signing an extension to the statement about Mourinho season, they were all signs that things wouldn't go smoothly. And for those that say he's not backed by the board please answer how do you fully back a man that has made it clear he is not going to stay. Some say our club has a player power culture but he was fully backed when he took a stance on Costa though Costa was our top striker and one of best in the world, he has been backed in the saga with David Luiz one of, if not our best defender last season. Not being given a 32yr+ defender costing over £50m or a massively overpriced LWB whose club seemed to raise their price for him every week in my opinion doesn't translate to the board not backing the manager. Yes it may not be a high profile player but the board have provided players in every position he wanted. Not juat who he wanted and sometimes he did get who he wanted. I always knew Conte as a very stubborn man, even more so than Mourinho and I said to people not to be deceived by his gentle, amiable manners last season. He is very stubborn and like he said himself not diplomatic. I am happy with the boards position. I didn't grow up seeing us as serial winners. When it came I was happy, I'm still happy even now. Can we do better? Of course we can but it's not the end of the world and winning every season is not our birthright or anyone's for that matter. The age of FIFA has disillusioned quite a lot of people as to the realisms around the game.

What? Some common sense and patience in today's fans? Asking for too much pal.

That's the best situation for the player and Chelsea as a club. We can't just throw him away without "testing" him. It would just feel like Salah, KDB, Lukaku all over again. Even Torres, Costa, Morata when on a bad run get constantly played to play them into form so a rusty player as a result of severe bench warming should certainly get at least a constant run of 5 -10 games before you can start to make assumptions. At least on loan at Dortmund he will get a run of games and show if he can cut it as a lead striker. Rather than selling and then regretting it if he does blossom.

Probably end up paying for her time negotiating the price for the fee that would have been for the service in the first place lol

I concur

Also when fans complain about Chelsea not buying any world class players for the manager, it may be worth pointing out their vision over 5 years ago was spot on. They bought players amongst which currently are probably ranking in the top 10 in the premiership either in performances or value but the last time they gave a manager free reign he dispensed of quite a few of them. And without shame he now manages a couple of them for a rival club. What if they are adopting a stance of once bitten twice shy. Conte wants to win at all costs and no problem with that as it's the wins that sell him and he has proven by not committing long term to the club that he is ready to go elsewhere. We all know the contracts that are signed these days are not worth the paper they are signed on anyway so he could well have signed a 5 year extension and left at the end of this season. Get himself a huge pay out probably worth more than his increased package if it was negotiated by a skilled agent. Whilst his forthrightness is commendable it is also foolhardy as gives no one any comfort from boardroom to dressing room. You are Chelsea F.C head coach, go and coach the players you have to be better. You did it last season, go and do it again. If you fail we know where the problem has come from. And by the way I don't really remember when Chelsea bought world class players. We have always gone for potential bar a few exceptions. Over the last decade our brilliance has been in the sum efforts of the collective and not in individual brilliance. I'd even go as far as saying when we have brilliant players it begins to pose a threat to our performances as for some reason we lose that collective team performance and start to rely on individuals turning up. Case in point, Hazard.

They've done their business early. Did you miss it? The most expensive of the window.

He hasn't grown or improved other parts of his play because he doesn't get the opportunity to play actual games consistently. What's wrong with giving Morata 65 mins or 70 mins of every game and letting him have the rest to play with his team mates and gel in actual competitive games? I may support him blindly to some people and I know he has his shortcomings, what I won't do is criticise him for not improving on them because he doesn't even get the chance to. He was a top marksman in France (cue the sub par league comments) and Eden and Kante are also products of that same league.

Irony would be if this guy took notice of Chelsea after Roman's arrival.

This is just becoming a joke seriously. I love Conte and I love Roman. Roman has earned the right to be given some slack for things being how they are. As a business man first and foremost before a football fan, he had and still has his motivations for buying a football club. His club has won almost every if not all competitive trophies before them in a 14 year ownership period that he has overseen with expenses well beyond north of a billion quid. Critics say his reign has been disastrous and i laugh, they criticise the rate of manager in and outs and i laugh even harder. On a global scale are Real Madrid derided as a joke club or useless or badly run or whatever label of the day is favoured when describing Chelsea? With their 14 managers since Roman took over here. Is Barcelona derided with their 7 managers in the same time? Or Juventus with their 9, Inter with their 12, Napoli with their 8. Or closer to home are Tottenham or Liverpool with their 10 or 6 respectively. Man city with their 7 or Newcastle with their 13. Even Man Utd after departure of Fergie now on their 3rd. We are on our tenth manager and whilst not the best or worst on the scale of comparisons, i'm just trying to describe the nature of the beast we are dealing with. Managerial changes happen, more often than people want to make you believe, and its not unique to a particular club, league or country (internationals) so don't let them deceive you. Managerial stability is great but way over-rated. It only happens in 2 situations. A club cannot afford it or the club is winning things. Of course we will leave Arsenal out of this discussion as trying to resolve their grouping still comes up with "error, cannot compute". Don't let the media narrative about our club fool you. 21 years I've been following Chelsea now, it has never changed. There have been times of calm and a bit of goodwill but never sustained. Roman coming just made it worse. I love Conte who, I would agree with some people saying, has earned the right to criticise our transfer activity and get the players bought for him he wants, but only to a certain extent. My counter argument to that is Conte knew what he signed up to. He was appointed as a first team coach not a manager and this was made very publicly clear when he signed the dotted lines. If the board accedes to his transfer requests it is because they want to work with him and him going about things the way he has will not do him any favours. Like someone said in an earlier post I saw on here, (can't remember who that reasonable person is now) they were keen to open up contract talks and offer an extension to his contract which is a sign of belief and willingness to keep him as long as the contract extension would stipulate but the man came back and said no to an extension and only took an increased package. Fair enough, after all he over achieved already. But that does not mean he should make transfer demands that totally go against the clubs recruitment policies (no matter how crap those policies may be). First of all being at odds with their policies would make them unhappy and feel he isn't sharing whatever vision they have. Secondly, as a man that has made it clear that he didn't want to commit to the club in the long term, with his transfer requests being out of their long term scope, do we really expect anything less than what is currently playing out? I know if a member of my team tells me he wasn't thinking long term with the organisation (and more specifically i know it could be in 2 years or less), I wouldn't be giving him the big ticket - long term projects to handle. He may be involved due to his level of skill and impact on the team but i'll make sure my own wider team goals will be put first. Player performances are always affected by managerial uncertainty. Positively or negatively. He laid his bed, he should lie in it. Plus his moaning doesn't help the players mental state when they go into games. Now for the fans, who am I to criticise his or her opinion. Football is an emotional sport. Everyone has their thoughts and feelings. The passion that drives fans is same everywhere and people react differently to same situations due to personality types. We are all commentators in the sport we love. Just keep your chin up, and know players and managers come and go, but Chelsea stays.

I know nothing compared to Conte but in that situation, he made the call. A wrong one. I prefer him without his whinging. Unfortunately that's only like 15% of the time haha

Since he became our manager arsenal have really pushed back the stats that show how much we've battered them over the years

Antonio failing again in his big cup game nous. Willian off should have introduced a natural striker and let Pedro fall back to willies position. He needs to get better. No point working hard and throwing it all away eventually soon as you come up against big guns.