drjonesy1994

Can't believe this hasn't been posted here yet.

Knowing what she looks like now, I can't imagine this to ever be true!

You laugh now, but i'll be reeling those points in come January.

Thanks @coombsie , have joined. Though not sure how well I will do, I once kept Luis Suarez in for the entirety of his 10 match ban for biting.

Tbf same could be said for 90% of posters on here...

The Chilwell thing is actually Enzo saying something in Spanish. Watch Enzo's mouth before the camera pans away from him, it's clearly him speaking.

Completely agree. I think we are a bit light in some areas but hopefully that will be sorted soon enough. Above all else I just want to enjoy watching Chelsea again. I didn't enjoy watching us all of last season, or the back end of the season where we were sanctioned. Hopefully with Pochettino's high intensity, high pressing style of play it will make us enjoyable to watch again!

I saw them at the emirates the week before and they were better then than they were at Glastonbury, I still really enjoyed both though. I saw them at Finsbury Park in 2014 and they were incredible, probably the best gig I’ve ever been too.

I went and got back yesterday morning, surprised to see so many negative comments on Arctic Monkeys, they weren't the best I have ever seen them but still really good I thought. Other highlights were Rick Astley, Rick Astley and Blossoms doing The Smiths, The Hives, Courteeners, Cat Stevens. We left Elton's set about 20 minutes before the end, thought it was ok and for all the hype around the guests he would be bringing out, they were all fairly underwhelming apart from Brandon Flowers. I just thought for his last ever UK show it would be more of a show, but me and my mates and a few others around us came away feeling quite underwhelmed by him. Some week though, best festival I've ever done by miles.

"The Blueprint: How Chelsea Changed football" is really good.

Less so than at the time of that post, but still looking at the bigger picture. I think the big thing now is they need to get the next manager right. Obviously looking like it will be Pochettino which I am ok with to be honest. But if they decide to curve us and go for a lesser unknown name, and we have a stinker next season then I think that's when I would begin to have serious doubts and concerns. I still think for the most part they invested smarter in Jan than they did in the summer, even if it was a bit overkill in terms of numbers through the door. Obviously every one in the squad has had an absolute stinker this season, but there are still quality players in there and under the right manager and the squad being cut down from 35 to 20-23 that we could get back in the top 4 next year. That being said if we finish 6th next year for example then I don't think Pochettino should be sacked after just one season, because there would inevitably be calls for that to happen. Boehly needs to be less hands on though. We now have this team of 'football people' behind the scenes who should be trusted to run the operational side. Boehly needs to pull back in terms of going into the dressing room. After a big win, or winning a trophy - then that is fine. But every game as has been reported is too much and completely undermines the influence of whoever the manager is. From what I understand Pochettino has requested this not to happen after every game so if he is appointed be interesting to see what happens. Boehly and co have got a lot wrong this year. If he wanted rid of Tuchel he should've either done it first thing so that Potter had a pre-season, or gave Tuchel the entirety of this season and then made a change in the summer. Sacking him when he did was 100% the wrong time to do so. Sacking Potter to give the job to Lamps was the wrong thing to do. By the time Potter was sacked, I think he probably deserved until the end of the season. Making as many signings as we did in January without getting rid of dead weights was the wrong thing to do. Even if we had signed just say Mudryk, Badiashile and Enzo in January then that would've been a decent window. So I do think they have been guilty of doing too much too fast. That being said, it's their first year on the job and I think there was always bound to be some teething issues. I still think there are good players in this squad, and good players that were signed in January. There's a young core to the squad now and I do think under the right guidance next year we can start to bounce back and if that's the case then most would probably be willing to write this season off - but if this trend continues and we finished 10th or lower again next year then yeah I might change my outlook. But I do think for the most part the structure and the squad is there for us to bounce back. Please don't take this as me blindly defending the owners as seems to happen on this forum, I can see they've got some bits wrong, but still willing for now to give them time to sort it out.

According to David Ornstein in the athletic he is on the verge of signing a new deal with us. Excellent news if true.

The simple way to put a stop to this is announce the new manager in the next 2 weeks or so and announce that they will be taking over in June. Similar to when we initially hired Conte, and similar to what United did with Ten Hag last season. I understand the issues with Lamps coming back, but as long as it’s purely until the end of the season, and all parties are aware of it going into it then I’m ok with it. If somehow he is given the job longer term then that’s when I will take issue with it. But as a short term “fix” until the end of the season then so be it.

The teams that get knocked out of the champions league (barca in this instance) and the teams that finish 2nd in their Europa League groups (United) play in a play off round before the round of 16. I think after this round of EL then the EL and CL will be at the same stage until the final.

That's the one. Blimey that's unlocked a memory haha. Think we only used it for that first year of Roman's ownership? Or not even the full year. Think it may have been binned around Xmas time of that first season.

I wanted Potter to succeed here but always maintained he needed to show us something in the short term to make us think he was worth buying into long term. There was that initial 10 or so games where we went unbeaten and for the most part things were pretty encouraging. Then we lost at Brighton and everything has just kinda nosedived since then. I was willing to give him time based on a number of factors, mainly the injuries and not having "his" own players. The injured players are all back now, barring Kante, and he has been backed transfer wise like no other manager has ever been, yet we still continue to underperform and lose games. If we were in and around the top 4 this season, which I think now should be the bare minimum based on the players we have, then I would be willing to give him the time and would be able to see that we are heading in the right direction. If we were for example 8 wins out of 16 rather than the 2 in 16 that we actually are, then you could say there is something we are working towards. The fact of the matter though is we should be doing a lot better with the players we have and with the investment that was made in January (and the summer to an extent). There is no way that us being 2 wins in 16 is acceptable, regardless of what stage of the project we are at. When you look at our run of fixtures in the league since the window shut we have had: Fulham (H), West Ham (A), Southampton (H) and Spurs (A), and we have taken 2 points from a possible 12 and scored just once in those games. Even if we had won 3 of those games and lost to Spurs, I think that would have won him a bit more time. This was meant to be the run of fixtures on paper where we should've picked up points and started to climb the table. If we had won 3 out of 4 of those games we would be on 38 points now and 3 points outside the top 4, with Newcastle to play at home. I've been one to make comparisons to Arsenal/ Arteta over the last few months but I don't think those comparisons are worth anything now. Arteta was never backed as handsomely as Potter was in the window. Potter also inherited a squad that contains world cup winners, premier league winners, champions league winners, and players with consistent experience of finishing in the top 4. I am all for giving the right manager time, but we (fans, players, and the board) need to see something in the short term which gives us an identity and the belief that we are working towards something positive. Regardless of how good we may or may not be in a year, given the investment and existing players in this squad - we should be doing a lot better than we are now. The players of course have to take some of the blame but ultimately it is a results business and at some point soon, the board will have to judge this manager on results, rather than sticking to this project line. I think @WhiteWall said it a few weeks ago and I think it sums up the situation pretty well "right course, wrong horse". As time goes on I don't think Potter is the man to deliver this long term project. I said in another thread yesterday that I think Boehly is digging his heels in because he is reluctant to admit publicly he got this wrong. I think if Vivell etc were in place in September, we might still have gone for Potter but I don't think there's any chance he would've been given a 5 year deal. Hopefully lessons have been learnt there. Personally I would now make the change before Dortmund. I've said it a few times, and seen one or two others say similar but I think the best course of action now would be get an interim between now and the end of the season, and spend from now until May/ June taking time to find the right candidate for next season. If we sack him after Dortmund and then go down the interim route then JT wouldn't surprise me in the slightest, as long as we don't fall into the trap of giving him the job full time because he goes unbeaten for 7 games or something like that. If he does get sacked I do think it's a shame it hasn't worked out for him here, he seems like a decent bloke and he's obviously a decent coach on some level given his track record everywhere else, and hopefully he can go and rebuild his career somewhere else. But it's obvious that he is out of his depth here at the moment.

Pretty much my thoughts to a tee. Wanted to give him time but it's becoming increasingly obvious that time won't change anything. There's £600m worth of talent in this team, and we should be doing a lot better on that basis alone. Unfortunately I think Boehly is digging his heels in and doesn't want to publicly admit he got it wrong. In an ideal world we get an interim between now and the end of the season and spend now until May identifying and appointing the next man.

Want Zidane or Carlo. Realistically think it will be Pochettino though if Potter goes before the end of the season.

I think all the talk of a long term project etc goes out of the window when you spend £300m in one window and sign some of the best young players in the world. Who cares what we look like in a year, we need to be better now not producing the crap we are now. it’s now 2 wins in 14 which is not good enough, regardless what stage of the project we are at. If even half of those games were wins, so 7 or 8 wins in 14 games then I think the feeling at the club would be much more positive and be willing to give him more time. In that run we have dropped points to Fulham X2, West Ham, forest, Southampton; and they are all teams on paper we should be beating. We were outplayed and out-fought by the worst team in the league today, who don’t have a manager, again not good enough for a club of our stature. If he is still in charge for Spurs next weekend and we get embarrassed, then I think it will get ugly in our away end. Honestly wanted to work out for him and us but it’s looking more and more like it’s not going to. I think the most sensible option now would be to sack him, get an interim manager in until the end of the season and spend from now- June taking the time to identify and interview suitable candidates. What I don’t think we should do is go for someone like Poch just because he’s currently available.

He wasn’t even here then was he? Potter came in September and Vivell in December, and Vivell wasn’t even a name we were linked with until October/ November time I think.

I say this as one who’s been a big advocate for Potter. Enough is enough. Get him gone ASAP.

I was one that was keen for Havertz to have a regular run as our number 9. Towards the back end of last season I think he scored 6 or 7 in 10 starts which gave me reason to believe he could do a job there. That being said I'm willing to give up the ghost on him as the number 9. He is massively inconsistent and not producing anything of note at the moment. There is a player in there but he is so often inconsistent and ineffective it's difficult to rely on him to lead the line. I think he can still be an asset in one of the 3 positions behind the striker but it's clear now he's not good enough to be the main man.

He's not in the squad. https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/three-new-signings-added-to-chelseas-champions-league-squad

DD Fofana hasn't even travelled to Dortmund, nor is he in the champions league squad. He would do well to start tonight!

This is bang on. If they wanted to sack Tuchel they should've done it either as soon as the take over went through, or at least given him all of this season before sacking him. Sacking him 5 days after the transfer window shut was 100% the wrong time to do so.