Dean

I honestly hope you’re right. I think our problems are much bigger. We are still at the foothills of a major crisis that’s bigger than Chelsea and will be the stuff of history. This whole thing is going to implode. Wow - that does sound quite dramatic but I’ll post anyway and I have had a few drinks 😂

I fear we are still in the denial phase. too many business as usual posts. “Just get a good manager in the summer”. “No CL next year and we can build something”. I hope so and admire the optimism. I’ll be v surprised though.

Oh, for sure. different sort of risk, but yeah all terribly fragile. Don’t get me started on city, Newcastle, PSG, corrupt governing bodies, winter world cups, the Faustian pact we ALL made (@WhiteWall I think mentioned it once) if we’re honest with ourselves, etc, etc. I’ve intimated elsewhere that I think this all needs to stop. Someone with balls needs to step up and make some rules. Basically you have dictatorships being rewarded for….well, being dictatorships. The citizenry of these places doesn’t get a say in how any of their money is spent. It’s deeply effed up and unfair even before you get to human rights etc. anyway… I said “don’t get me started” so I’d better check myself here.

I’m not sure what the exact terms are, but what I’m fairly certain of is: - it has to become profitable -they’ve used quite a lot of debt-financing, and they’ve done so in their other ventures too (per the private equity model/ aka the scourge of humanity) - they’ve frontloaded an awful lot of their planned investment in a pretty reckless manner. - Chelsea’s fortunes are very much at the mercy of the economic cycle, much more so than was ever the case under Roman (who a) had much deeper pockets, b) was less leveraged, c) didn’t care about profits). Roman could survive 2008, but a nasty recession would almost certainly spell the end of this reign.

Maybe we get to see Boehly in the starting line up versus Madrid? I guess it’s not allowed?

We could be in deep twubble

Apparently the New Zealand motivator guy knows a good hypnotist. get him/her on the loudspeaker and everyone will be cheering for Todd within minutes

I think Chelsea’s going to win 5-0 in the home leg

The Villa game that sealed Potter’s fate starting to look like a golden age of sexy football .

I’d love you to be right. I think our problems are more structural. Getting a good manager and seeing a big improvement next season may not be enough. Basically the owners spent vast amounts of money, some of which they don't actually have but which they expect to be there in the future based on projections that are already proving unrealistic. I think the structural issues are bigger than Chelsea - unsustainable costs (player wages etc) colliding with peak demand on the part of the fans. Someone mentioned the empty seats today. the PL may be in a similar spot to the Italian league whenever it was that it stopped being the big one. complacency about the unassailability of the PL has become deafening, to the extent that there was an FT article couple of months back on how nothing can stop it. The FT with a football article! What does that say? im probably wrong and hope so. I may be seeing ghosts. But if the whole thing DOES blow up, it’s not like anyone will be scratching their head and asking: “who could have possibly thought it was unwise to spend £60 million on Cucurella, or committing to multi year contracts on unproven players, or spending 600 million in two transfer windows, could ever go wrong?”

Had same feeling re villa when I watched

Including our passing

On the pitch, certainly looks like it. I’m talking the whole shebang - full on bust off the pitch too. CFC bankrupt

Good thing he’s mastered the other aspects of the job

Damn - can’t wait to see this save. Sounds like the highlight of our season

Only a miracle will prevent a full on implosion. It’s that simple.

Pure hubris

Fair points. I’d counter though that it’s easy to say this all now when he’s underperforming. No argument from me on the underperforming btw. I think the “all style no substance” is a bit unfair. Same with the idea that he doesn’t create. In his good spells he played a lot of great final balls that just weren’t capitalised on by underperforming forwards: the lack of a natural goal scorer was our bigger problem for years imo. The dribbling skills (when they were there and I concur that they are presently lacking) are/were a pretty valuable asset. More generally, I fear there’s a bigger picture we are missing. Something is seriously wrong with the club, and it’s infecting all the players. Do we have a player that IS performing to their potential? Given this broader sickness, I think we are all asking the wrong questions, as a glance through the most popular threads reveals: which striker should we get? What manager do we want next? Who should we keep, who should we sell? we should be discussing more pressing issues like the sustainability of the club itself. It’s got to a point where i struggle to see how it doesn’t blow up, and I’m not naturally a pessimist, as @axman2526 can confirm 😂

That is indeed an issue if those are the demands. Along with the Mount saga, to me it’s another topping signal regarding player wages in the premier league that coincides (probably) with the top of an economic cycle that’s going to hit this year. There’s the famous quote regarding economic cycles and what drives animal spirits - there’s nothing worse than seeing your neighbours get rich. It can cause level-headed people to lose the plot. Eventually things overshoot and you get to a point where people are overearning. Then they start underperforming, or not performing at all. Take Mount. Were it not for these dynamics, maybe he’d be having a decent season… on 1/10th the pay, as long as everyone else was earning 1/10th too. Money 🤦‍♂️

Just as an addendum, if it counts for anything at all, Kova is a really good lad, an exemplary pro as he’s shown on numerous occasions and as has been noted by all those who’ve coached or played with him. His words on Potter sacking showed his class. That being the case, why not give him SOME benefit of the doubt when not performing?

ChelseaFansSolutions on full display again, Roman-era conditioning. Do people not see it? Whenever a player isn’t performing, the path of least resistance is always to sell them. I like Kovacic so I want him to stay and play well. I have a bias admittedly. I’m able to cast that aside and say - no he isn’t playing well. There are many potential reasons. But if one of them is that he may genuinely be impaired, why is this the time to vent one’s anti bias? It’s not just about Kovacic, but other players too. Few bad games - “sell.” There isn’t a single player that fans will get behind if they have a bad spell. It was the same with Kante couple of seasons back. It’s never - “ok he might be carrying some sort of injury, maybe needs help with physio… or surgery.” Is anyone else troubled by this? im not saying I’m above it. But what does it say about us fans? I mean, fans often complain about what mercenaries footballers are these days. But what can we expect when there isn’t a single player fans want to get behind when the going gets a bit tougher? I fear we’re going to get punished for this, left with nothing. There must be an Aesop fable or fairytale along these lines.

I don’t think I used those words but I’ve defended him many times, and still think he’s an excellent player. Have at me if you will. He’s been terrible last few games. Has anyone been good though? Do we have a single complete player right now?

He’s not having a good season. I maintain he’s an excellent player. He’ll be gone at the end of the season probably but will be missed too, as people will realise he’s a good player after all while the club is still broken.

I have same thoughts regarding Reece James as I do re all our underperforming players. They can’t perform under these circumstances. They all play football at the top level. That means everything kind of has to be right, as with any other sport played at the top level: owners, coaching, support staff, fitness, diet, mentality, team spirit, domestic situation.. The margins are fine. You really can’t afford to let any of these things slip if you want to compete at the top. You’ll get found out sooner or later. Now think how far off we are from ANY of these things being right. We’ve been through four managers in a season, evisceration of the club including all the staff. Owner mouthing off about 3-0. Rumours that Corden is calling the shots (bs but what does it tell you about the state of the club that it’s even circulated in the first place and not beyond the realms of credibility?). Zero cohesion, no style of play, god knows what the fitness regime is like… one can criticise the players for not giving their all etc but they’re only human. Obscenely well paid humans, but that’s a) not their fault but ours, and b) being well paid doesn’t in itself guarantee best performance. It’s a sinking ship. To me, talking about the players - who should we get, who should be subbed off etc- is a bit like being on the titanic just after it’s hit the iceberg and discussing one’s favourite crew members, which ones should be replaced etc.

Good rant!