Slojo

f**king ridiculous that he’s been banned. We don’t get away with anything do we.

Best left wing back in the league, as much as he's underappreciated. Deserves to be in the team of the year.

That's literally the point I was making... He complained last season about lack of depth, then he went on to talk about the traits of having a smaller squad this season.

I can't help but scratch my head when I see people using Torres comparisons. Did you even watch Torres when he was here? You can't have done to even think it's a feasible thing to say, Torres was so bad that they even made a website for him which was running for months and months "has-fernando-torres-scored-a-goal-yet . com" something silly along those lines. He even became a likeable underdog by so many other fans because they felt sorry for him.. They felt sorry for a rival player, embarrassment wasn't in it.

It's hard to laugh at spurs and yell bottlers when they came into our own backyard with all the pressure on them and still managed to kick our ass and play us off the park.

A bargain? He was over 20 million pounds. We'll decide if he's a bargain when he's good enough. I wouldn't be so eager to put all your eggs in one basket, he was injured all season and he played in the Serie A (that can be very hit and miss). I do like the look of Emerson but I'm still reserving my judgement, you can't give him a 8/10 when he hasn't even done anything, especially when you're giving players who've actually contributed much lower ratings. Also, stat padding is an absurd comment, again he still scored goals that won us points, that's not stat padding, if anything Michy has been stat padding. You also can't leave out his equaliser against Atletico. Without his goals we wouldn't have won against Leicester both times, United, Atletico, Bournemouth & Brighton. I don't see how that's stat padding.

And who's fault is that? Is it purely the board's fault? I'm sure we've been without a director of football for a while also. Conte was constantly going on about lack of depth last season, but after we signed a lot of players he started saying something along the lines of we have too many players and it's easier to bring in 3 good players instead of transitioning 6/7 players.

It's probably not over 20 million like the media is claiming but it'll definitely be over 10 million which is still a lot of money. I don't think it's comparable to the Mourinho situation really, I do remember Mourinho taking some responsibility, Conte has taken 0 and he has gone to war with the board. He's taken it public all season that he's not getting the players he wanted but he's barely even using his squad depth or his options. Financially I think it makes perfect sense, the board can be scapegoated, he's still won the league, he gets a big payoff. Any club would still take him as manager due to his first season succession. I don't think that's hard to believe actually.

Couldn't agree more with that, it's criminal how Bakayoko started over 20 Premier League games and Drinkwater rarely played despite looking good. Don't forget Drinkwater also played in all the hard games and still performed. Compare Bakayoko to Drinkwater in the Liverpool away game and you'll see the difference in class between both of those players. One could barely keep control of the ball, one was covering and causing Liverpool problems whenever he passed the ball forward, (shame he missed that one on one though) Also, you have a partnership in Kante-Drinkwater (I've mentioned this about 1000000 times already on the forum) who won the league and Conte had no interest at all in it. I even remember when Conte first came he wanted both players but we could only get one or the other as Leicester refused to sell both of their main midfielders just after winning the league. So he finally gets Drinkwater (who by the way is definitely a player Conte wanted, saying it's the board is bollocks, search Conte's comments about Drinkwater before we signed him) and he decides to rarely ever play him. But he keeps playing a player who was gradually getting worse and worse every game costing us points and embarrassing losses like the 4-1 against Watford. I don't think I ever once saw the Kante-Drinkwater midfield pairing in any Premier League game this season, that's ridiculous, they both won the EPL together 3 years ago. This adds more evidence for people to believe in the theory that Conte sabotaged the season, it's certainly feasible, and this is coming from somebody who is in the middle and hasn't made their mind up of Conte in or out.

He's also brilliant at getting the game flowing and attacks going (didn't meant to rhyme), which is why I think he's better playing deep and getting the ball as much as he can. I think he's playing way too far forward and he doesn't score enough goals to make me think him running away from the ball is a good idea. Although he's still an excellent creator of the ball make no mistake about it, and if we were actually half as clinical as a Premier League team should be then he would've easily had his assists tally doubled this season. Instead, everyone just likes to miss chances.. Weird season.

That doesn't necessarily mean success though, what happened to Man City when they let Pellegrini stay another season after a disappointing 2nd season? More or less the same crap. Continuity for the sake of continuity is not going to create inevitable success. Let me reference a fictional badass character from Game Of Thrones "A good deed does not cross out the bad, nor the bad the good" Conte had a great first season, but still had a sh*t second season, we can't forget either. We can't forget his actions in either of those two seasons, so I would think wisely before thinking this is a good idea. I think if we want stability then we should be looking at a man who wants to stay, not just stay another season while desperately looking like he doesn't want to. If we are going to get more of the same crap, crying for not getting his targets, no account for responsibility, sh*t substitutions and tactics then forget it, I don't want Conte here anymore. He needs to change his attitude and set up next season, I really don't want to see this horror show again.

Rudiger - 7 - Probably the best signing, looked a bit uncomfortable at first and made a terrible mistake in the Roma game but other than that he's been solid. His best performance was against Barcelona at home. Definitely an upgrade on Cahill and I can see him starting most of our games next season. Bakayoko - 1 - The worst player I've seen in a Chelsea shirt. Drinkwater - 5 - As somebody said never really good enough but at the same time he was probably our best midfielder bar Kante. He was strangely trusted enough to play in all the big games but sidelined for everything else. I actually think he's better than what I thought he was before we signed him but I can't give him a high rating due to his lack of playtime which probably isn't his fault. Caballero - 6 - Solid backup in my opinion, he is a bit worrying on corners and catching the ball but he's a lot better than Courtois at saving shots inside the box. Giroud - 6 - I think he's solid and I haven't seen him put in a bad display yet since he's come, a bit sloppy with the ball though but at least he keeps giving it 100% and is actually quite a goal threat, I would definitely keep him for another season or two. Zappacosta - 5 - He's been hit and miss, some games he's been excellent some games not so much, looks pretty average at times but I think he's a good squad player. He was quite dangerous on the left side when he played there once, I forgot what game it was in. Emerson & Barkley - N/A - They both haven't played enough for me to rate either of them, Emerson looked good when he played in the cup game but he's still yet to even get a decent amount of minutes in the Premier League before I can judge him, same goes for Barkley who has rarely played at all. f**king hell... Look I hate to look like I'm someone who defends Morata all the time but stat padded? He didn't score 2 goals against a team when we were already 3-0 up, a lot of his goals were winning goals, he scored 1 goal a game how on earth is that stat padding? Just give the guy some credit where it's due. You've given Emerson an 8 rating who's barely even played.

He failed at Bayern Munich, they were always in the driving seat to win every domestic trophy there, Dortmund massively declined as Pep joined Bayern. Heynecks Bayern were very dominant not just dominant in possession. He did build a good team, but with a lot of money, a lot of time and he got tactically outdone by all the 3 Spanish sides where it was kind of embarrassing. Like the time when he played 3 at the back against Messi, Suarez and Neymar and it was a cricket score, and then he got thumped 4-1 by Carlo's Madrid. I'll admit I didn't think he would win the title this season, I was wrong, very wrong. I thought they would crumble halfway but they did keep their dominance throughout the full season so respect to them. But at the end of the day, he walked into an already built side and had the freedom to spend as much money as he wanted, he spent like 200 million on wingbacks this season because he barely even needed any players. He's a complete chequebook manager, I remember when Jose came here he signed 2 players for absolute bargains, 30 million for Diego Costa, 27 million for Fabregas, then we went on to win the league I don't think it's fair to call him the best manager ever not even the best manager currently, he's only ever walked into completely safe jobs. I respect him for going to the Premier League where its competitive, but he still walked into the most comfortable side in the league where he can spend as much money as he wants.

Looking back on it I don't think Hazard has been utilised as well as he could have. It's not so much having more freedom under Conte, it's that he's not playing as deep which I find to be the problem. I still believe Hazard in 2014/2015 was the best Hazard we've seen in a Chelsea shirt.

The Sky bias with Spurs and Liverpool is disgusting honestly. But anyway just think if we actually beat Spurs and we could've gotten top 4, or at least of had a chance. Edit: Just as I say that Eriksen scores lmao

The Hazard under Conte spends more time running away from the ball than he does being on the ball. I actually miss the Hazard under Mourinho who would dictate the play and always wanted the ball to his feet, that was a superior Hazard in my opinion.

I'm using Reactionary as the noun definition, as in you are a reactionary person. When things aren't going your way you go overboard about it. How can you expect other posters to take your opinions seriously when so many of them are filled with kneejerks? I wasn't happy with Conte's decision making either but look at my post compared to your multiple ones in the thread, I wasn't insulting Conte but I was heavily questioning what his deal is. I would hate this forum to one day become a normality for people to insult our players after a share of bad performances. Like you get kids on twitter referring to Gary Cahill as a "spastic", a man who has won every trophy here and contributed too them. Yes, I do like Morata as a player, but am I happy with him this season? No, not at all. But to get rid of him after one season when you could name about 10 players guilty of underperforming just sounds really silly. The rational thing to do would be give Morata another season. if Juve come knocking for a big offer and we have a replacement at the door then fair enough. But what if that replacement doesn't kick things off right away in his first season? What do we do then? Do we sell that player also and keep selling players until we eventually find a striker who does have a good first season and before we know it Morata has developed at his other club and he's become a solid striker. And before people say "I highly doubt that" It's happened 3 times here, I wouldn't be so optimistic about his failing if we moved him on.

You actually think that's a valid comparison? Torres was about 28 when we signed him and 50 million then was 100 million today and he was having a very poor season due to his injuries which came quite clear after we signed him. Morata turned 25 in October, just because he's not "young" doesn't mean he's old either, has plenty of time to develop. Morata has also scored 11 goals in the Premier League, Torres had about 1 in his first season and after that, he barely scored any. He finished his Chelsea career with 20 goals... So if you think that's going to be the case with Morata I highly recommend that you never take up scouting in your professional career. You constantly berate the board for selling our ex-players then you're calling Conte a bald c**t in match day threads and telling him to sell Morata after one season. It's quite clear what type of fan you are, a reactionary child who throws his toys out the pram.

So we signed a left wing back in January to rotate with Alonso who is yet to have one start in the Premier League, it's MID APRIL... What the f**k is going on with the decisions around here?

Possibly the logical thing to do but I think we should give Giroud a start after that performance. However, the other guy you quoted wants to sell Morata after one season so it's unlikely you'll have him agreeing with you there.

Or we could give him another season and not write him off like we written off Lukaku, Salah & De Bruyne...

Great turnaround but I'm still not fond of Conte's decision making, why are you still taking Hazard off after that?? Do you want to sabotage a relationship with him?

Turned it around with his goal, both of them were superb goals also especially the first one. Would bench Morata from now on after that pitiful performance.

The luck Zidane gets in the Champions League is beyond belief, can't believe how many decisions have gone Madrid's way in the past 3 years.

David Luiz has been mistake prone in the past but if there is one thing I can never take away from him is his confidence, his arrogance. He does what he wants, and that worked last season, by far the best defender in the world when it comes to playing it out from the back, our counter-attacking system relied heavily on that. With Christensen in the middle especially at the moment it's more nervous and rigid, can't play it out from the back without making the inevitable 1 or 2 mistakes, that's not good enough, and don't even get me started on Gary Cahill.