Barrettinator

This is EXACTLY my sentiment about this. NEVER gonna do that again. Imagine if we had KDB, Salah and Lukaku along with Hazard right now. It's one thing to miss out on targets, it's another to have them and then foolishly let them go. Over and over and over again.

Could have sworn I saw 150m euros somewhere but fair enough. We still got way less than his market value because of Conte. And btw, I'm saying if he decides to fight this in court, CFC can win that case easily and if the board want to be petty, they can decide to sue him for damages. My point is, we haven't taken that route and I don't think he should be looking to take it either, although it would be less surprising if he did now considering we're reportedly firing him without a payoff. He'll probably walk into a club like Milan who are in shambles right now and will jump at it. But another top club competing for titles will be very skeptical about hiring him. It's not just with us though, is it? He also had a falling out at Juventus. I get your point about us not needing to be petty but surely you have to understand the point of view of the board considering the millions we lost because of him and him almost sending our top players out of the club (Hazard, Courtois). He already succeeded once with Costa. I can almost guarantee you the reason why there hasn't been a statement yet about his sacking is because he's challenging it with his lawyers or something. We've never had a problem releasing those statements. We all remember how quick the "The Individual" statement was released.

Puts things into context. Consdering we've never had a problem with paying off managers (we paid AVB something like 12m iirc), I can believe all of this.

Almost kicked our best player and GK out and some think he should have seen out his contract. Jose taught me to never in my life blindly support a manager anymore. FWIW, considering how specific these stories are, I'm quite certain they're coming directly from a club source. Perhaps even a player. I know Fabregas is very friendly with the media.

THIS is the guy you lot are bashing our board over? THIS guy? Like I said, thanks and good bye. But if he wants to dig up skeletons, he's got plenty in the short 2 years he was here.

Isn't it obvious why? We were trying to get a new manager first and f**ked up that negotiation. Took 63 days to make real progress. If we didn't get him in the end, we would have been left with no manager. I'm no fan of this board but I'm not going to sit here and watch you lot try to make Conte the hero in this story all things considered.

[Maurizio Sarri on Transfer Market]: "Transfer Market is the refuge of the weak. It is for those who can't train their players. I'm a coach. Give me a group of players and I will coach them." That said, we've already gotten the one player he supposedly asked for in Jorginho. I think he'll be just fine. Not saying he's going to last long. No one does these days. But I doubt he'll be rolling out in his pressers every weak tearing the club a new one for not getting him new toys.

First of all, I'm the last person on this board to try to paint as a CFC board apologist or whatever it is you were trying to do. For years I've constantly criticised the rubbish they've done as far as winning one title and buying bang average players the next season or waiting too long on transfer deals and ultimately losing the target. Whatever the issue was, I've always mentioned it. So much so that I've gotten attacked on this forum several times for being ungrateful and spoiled. Someone even called me a glory hunter. So again, I'm the last person to try to paint as sympathetic to the board. Having said that, you should see that when I criticise Conte, I'm doing it without any bias. NOBODY made him take preseason. He did that himself. Marina (and I assume Buck) had been trying to pay him less than the 9m in his contract to pay him off and he was having none of it. They even tried to use the Costa issue and he still didn't budge. This was just him making sure he covered all bases just so we wouldn't come back and say "oh you even neglected pre-season, we can't pay you full price". Had absolutely nothing to do with anyone forcing him.

Do you know how much he cost the club in the Costa deal? We were offered 150m by a Chinese club. Could have taken it but then opted to give him a new contract. And then Conte f**ked it up with his SMS stunt. I supported him at the time because he was the manager and Costa had a history of being a child but can you honestly say right now that Conte acted right? Add to that as a poster mentioned just now that he went missing for 10 days last summer. Plus the constant bashing of the club in the media last season which was affecting the club's image. I can go on and on. This is the same guy who got up and dumped Juventus right in the middle of pre-season but it's suddenly not a nice thing to do now? On top of all he has cost us? Look, we're grateful for the title but he has absolutely no ground to stand on as far as "respect". He was all but baiting the board into sacking him between January and May because he knew he was guaranteed his pay off. There were rumours he actually wanted out LAST summer. He can end this thing now and let's all say our thanks and well wishes and move on but if he wants to do this the hard way, he may end up having to pay Chelsea millions in damages. He's also making himself look like a cancer to other clubs that may hire him down the line. There's really no upside to him trying to be stubborn about getting fired.

Coming from the man who ditched Costa via text, this is very f**king rich. I'm amazed.

Why can't this man just take his cheque and leave? Why does he have to be so f**king hotheaded over every f**king thing???? Hasn't he ruined his image enough?

Reckon they're trying to chuck Conte's dismissal somewhere in the last paragraph of Sarri's announcement?

Yeah that's about 60m euros. Covers most of the Jorginho fee. We need a proper replacement though. Pedro won't cut it. I'd even ship Pedro himself out too if a decent offer came in. We need a proper winger. And then maybe back them up with Hodson-Odoi.

How is it that Barca are actually serious about getting Willian? That is beyond weird. Btw who was the last player we sold to Barca directly? Gudjohnsen?

The individual did not have the best 9 month season with us. We wish him well either way.

I don't think the club made him take training. I think he wanted to cover all bases to make sure we wouldn't have any legal reason to deny him his full payment. He has practically been begging to be sacked since at least February. But he was never gonna leave without everything he was owed.

I'll roll out the banners

Is that true? If it is, then he probably only beat Carlo by a month or so.

For what it's worth, I don't even expect Sarri to win a trophy within the next two seasons and if he does, then that's a bonus imo. I do hope though that he'll lay the groundwork at least for a new direction for us as far as playing style and philosophy. We need to be done with the Jose philosophy once and for all. Bit like Van Gaal at Bayern. Didn't reap the fruits of his labour but laid the groundwork for Juup Hynckes, Pep and every manager after him to excel with the team he built. Having said that, I know the board won't give him more than 1 season of flexibility so I hope he wins something soon. Either way, exciting times ahead. We're behind schedule by at least a week but the important thing is, we've gotten Sarri.

All good. I'm sure Antonio will be back in a job within a year. I'm still a bit salty about the fact that City came right back and smashed our wins record the season after we won though.

I think if he didn't attack the club as much as he did last season and he just kept his head down and work, he may have at least been allowed to see out his contract. Possibly even an extension if he righted the ship next season. Anyway, I'm sure he's very happy with the fat cheque he's going home with.

Always right on time with the grumpiness. Relax.

I think I was typing a follow up just as you were typing that. It was unfair on my part.

"Good riddance" is quite unfair on my part. The man did win us a title and give us a very memorable season after the catastrophic sh*tstorm that was 15/16. For that, I'll always be grateful. Things could have played out better but in the end, he won trophies in both seasons for us. Wish him the best of luck in the future.

Any moment now....