Riccardo

I’ll never forget Frankie’s goal against Bayern Munich. Straight out of the Zizou textbook. Seems as though one of his opponents thought the same. https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/chelseas-frank-lampard-best-prem-14146484

https://metro.co.uk/2018/12/13/fa-premier-league-responsible-racism-perpetrators-8244752/

Big balls of a big dog. God bless him. https://www.uefa.com/video/skills/video/videoid=1954219.html?autoplay=true

http://sportwitness.co.uk/chelsea-player-front-page-marca-transfer-will-happen-nothing-goes-wrong/ Read the bottom.

https://www.chelsea-news.co/2018/07/image-no-antonio-conte-sight-senior-chelsea-players-turn-pre-season-training/

He might hold all the cards, but only up to the point when Sarri is eventually released. If Sarri is not let go, ADL is going to have a law suit on his hands. And no top manager will want to work with him any more (after he inevitably pisses off Ancelotti of course). You need time to lawyer up for stuff like this, something Sarri doesn’t necessarily have. He wants to move now. However if nothing happens and Sarri is left with his dick hanging in the wind then he’ll have all the time in the world. If there is any truth to this it is some sort of ploy to stall. I’m only speculating, but I think this is about the reports last week about ADL only agreeing to release Sarri on the condition that we don’t poach any of their players. Chelsea are not going for this and are trying to push through Sarri’s release without this condition, hence why the rumours about Jorginho. ADL is panicking so he demands a ridiculous increase in Sarri’s transfer fee to ward Chelsea off. Chelsea then let ADL know that they can walk from these negotiations by starting pre-season with Conte. Sarri doesn’t have any suitors. Another may come up if we walk away, but wouldn’t be as attractive for Sarri, and they wouldn’t be coughing up the same cash as us. If Sarri doesn’t get his move, he’ll surely have grounds, and means (ie. time) to prosecute. It’s a game of brinkmanship, with potentially only losers on both sides. If we get Sarri and a couple of the better Napoli players, before the cream of our current squad walkout, then I’d call it a win for us. But this needs to finish sooner rather than later for the “win” to happen.

This does not make any sense. I don’t know much law, or Italian law for that matter, but if true that is unconscionable on the part of ADL. He has brought in Ancelotti to do Sarri’s job, effectively terminating his employment, and when someone is offering to take Sarri off his hands, ADL increases his demands?!? That’s very unfair against Sarri. I know professional football plays by “different rules” but I think there is only so far one can go and I don’t think this ploy would be in ADL’s interests - either legally or with his reputation. I’m sure ADL is smarter than this and I’m calling this rubbish.

Anyone watch Portugal v Spain? When AC let Costa go at the start of last season I thought it was probably for the best. But after seeing his goal, AC would probably wish he could go back in time and do everything he could to keep him.

Sure he’s probably a big prick but the rest is rubbish. If he throws away another season with us no will want to touch him. He knows that. The truth is, despite all his flaws, there is no one available any better than him at the moment. Sure, sack him and give him the money and bring in Enrique who at best is as good (but definitely not any better). Give it 2 seasons and we’ll be back where we started. Gardening leave for Conte might be in his interests but if I were a prospective employer I would prefer to see him pull his head out of his arse and serve a professional closing 12 months of his contract. If he’s desperate to leave then he can pay out his contract. Roman needs to do something different this time to break the cycle.

You reckon? If the club refuse to sack Conte, will he really sit around like a lame duck and jeopardise his chances of working for another big club?

I'd be f**king miserable too if I were the manager and asked in the summer for a second striker and left back to give us any chance of doing anything after Christmas. Then only to get told at the end of August to wait and see what happens in January. With 5 days to go before the window closes again all he's got is "Here you go, not what you asked for but another injury prone midfielder. And while we're at it, what do you reckon of Andy Carroll?". This Palmieri/Dzeko transfer better follow through. If I was Roman, and Conte manages to get us to finish second in the Prem and get over Barca in the CL, I'd walk into that boardroom in May, take a dump on the middle of the table, and tell all the board members that "It's simple. You have two choices. Eat up, or piss off". Then I'd pull out the cheque book, print my autograph on the first 6 pages, hand them to Antonio and say "Don't spend it all at once .... you got till the end of August". He makes a few mistakes with tactics, etc. So what? He's doing the best he's got with a bare bones team on four fronts. He won us the prem last year. It is not his competency that should questioned.