JoseBlues

And some people would want Pep here instead of Conte...

Be prepared to win the CL and league with Carroll and Drinkwater. If not, you will be back on this forum, posting.

WTF

If Conte is pushed out or leaves on his own accord, I think I will finally stop being so passionate about this club. To think I finally made it to Stamford Bridge after following the team for 17 years last year.The board has their own agenda and do not back the manager. Somebody put it aptly that they expect a Ferrari for the cost of a Hyundai. It is fine being prudent with the stadium cost but at least be a little intelligent in it rather than saving pennies and nickels. There is no long term thinking at this club. I will still watch the games but my passion will definitely wane. To me, Conte is the best we can do right now. All the people looking for flavor of the month (Enrique, etc. ) will be here saying the same thing about that guy next year. These people would have wanted to fire Pep after his failure last year.

On the flip side, if he starts banging them in for us, I would love to see the Arsenal fans' faces.

It was a good decade. I am resigned to go back to being mediocre

Where? Till the time we have signed, he is entitled to complain.

Sure. Every time we win the league we sit pat instead of making minor tweaks (Carlo, Jose, Conte). In each of the seasons we won, there were some issues that we saw in the squad that needed addressing (e.g. last year with our lack of depth in LB and a capable right attacker). We bring in Sandro (60M) and a good attacker in the 40-50M range (Bailey, Sanchez (with reduced salary), etc.), we immediately start the season on the front foot. We replaced Costa with Morata at same cost and that was on the Conte/Costa spat. Conte never wanted to replace Matic so we save on Bakayoko. With added depth, we now have upgrades in important areas and keeping the core mostly the same. Zappacosta is fine as a cheap backup. We can involve youth if we are more comfortable in games and hone them better. The year after, we then look for a capable replacement for Cesc while the rest of the team remains the same (maybe RLC has stepped up by then). Total outlay is around 50K as we recoup money for Begovic, Bertrand, Ake, Cuadrado, etc. Instead we haggle over a few million all summer, end up not buying or with an average player (not cheap) and then blame the manager when he isn't able to compete with City/United. Then we end up firing the manager and then go back to investing again. I see this as directionless. Even Fergie has talked about the importance to refresh a squad every season to remain competitive which I agree with.

Seriously, so frustrating. We were in such a good position after last season and just needed a few tweaks with good investments. Instead we will reset and spend more all over again. This club has no direction. Penny wise, pound foolish.

Where? Not on the official site. Mixed feelings on this one. Hopefully he improves us. Although if you compare to Carroll and Crouch, this seems an awesome signing.

Conte did brilliantly last year, no doubt. End of the matter, I see City and United buying the best players every year to improve while we won't compete. Both of them had new managers who wanted their own squad and were in transition. They have got it now and I can't see them going down. I hope I am wrong but we will see.

Difference is if they see a weakness, they will immediately replace with a world class talent. See Laporte. We cannot. It will be more like Madrid and Barca dominating and buying the best players.

There were a number of factors that worked for us. Transition for big clubs, no CL, etc. I don't see us winning in the near future if we continue our prudent ways.

Just sad about this. Oh well, we had our days in the transfers in the 2000s

Lampard actually came 2nd in The Ballon d'or

Agreed. Biggest reason was Hazard. He literally carried us alone in the 2nd part of Jose's season and was instrumental in Conte's as well.

Won't work that way. He will still earn around 300k I think with a huge sign on bonus to ensure he stays within the club wage structure. He is entitled to the huge sign on due to the comparatively cheap transfer fees.

Difference is we don't give Conte to build his

Agreed. Give him the side Pep has and he will beat him, hands down.

Watch him go to United :P

If Palmeiri comes in, we aren't in for Sandro anymore.

Wasn't it obvious after Carroll failed?

Dan did mention there were empty seats everywhere but mostly in away stand. Not that hard to relocate a few people in the upper tier.

My guess is they adjusted everyone to seats elsewhere and closed off the away stand. Less resource cost as well

[https://pbs] Dan Levene @danlevene Chelsea and Norwich walk out to The Liquidator, at a sparsely populated Stamford Bridge. Only half of the visitors' Shed allocation taken, and plenty of spaces elsewhere. They say you price a game to fll it. £30 tonight, it seems, was too much.