venom2011

Nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, you've said here is even remotely nuanced, well-structured, informative, or factual. You've written multiple incoherent paragraphs which essentially just collapses into you shouting like an entitled fool. Take a breath, back the team, back the manager, try to enjoy some football, and perhaps even exercise a bit of patience.

😅 Touché

Truly shakespearean. You can't pontificate on things you don't believe you have great knowledge on. A big vocabulary is a marker and strong predictor for intelligence. Oh how wrong the blow-hard imbecile c*nt must be in thinking he triggers people...

Likewise the opposite. Although I don't need an explanation as I'm well aware of the state of purveyorship on this forum...

For once it's great to see some very balanced and nuanced takes on here.

Agreed. Easily one of the more reasoned voices out there. Though that doesn't necessarily translate to doing great things for us, but as I've said before - I've liked some things, disliked some things. Keen to see where we land.

I'll be with you in spirit #utc

The commercial team have quite literally chosen not to sign any of the deals they've had on the table. I can't answer exactly as to why, if I did it would be conjecture. But what it is not....is incompetence - which is what layfans are insinuating. There may (likely) be strategic or long-term economic reasons as why they would turn down those millions. Who are you - or even I - to call it sound or unsound. The debt being carried by a holding company was not a condition of the sale. All we've heard are rumours about debt limits. Roman's debt being cleared was a natural condition of the sale as it related to the sanctions. Us being owned by Ineos is not irrelevant as that was the other path that was on the table.

Not at all even remotely close to anything I've said - but that's not surprising. And debt financing is just debt financing. It's neither sound nor rubbish without context.

Correct

Okay so let's break this down: "football club has gone from having no debt at all to having over £1.5 millions worth of debt" 1.5 million...seems a tad low so I'll go ahead and assume you meant 1.5 billion. The debt you speak of is with the holding company, not the club. The burden is shouldered by the ownership unlike at Man Utd. Yes, they would in all likelihood pay it off using generated profits in an ideal world. "The commercial side of the "business" has failed to get a FOS sponsor." No it hasn't, the commercial team have and have had concrete offers. They haven't agreed a deal. That is their choice - transparency on this would be great but it doesn't equal incompetence. "The "business" is under EUFA restrictions for failing to comply with financial conditions." *UEFA FSR regulations were breached and other than the fine, the repercussions were fairly insignificant. It would in all likelihood been part of the club's thinking and processes for quite some time. So say Ineos purchased Chelsea, took on zero debt for transfer activity and structural improvements - No Caicedo, No Estevao, No Quenda, No Palmer. Kepa still here. Azpi still here. Werner still here. They sign the first FOS deal that comes across Sir Jim's desk. Comply with UEFA FSR because they've only bought 6 mediocre talents incl Hojland and Zirkzee. You think you or the 'Roman Abramovich!' chanters would be happy? I guarantee not.

Okay. Clearlake inherited a champions league winning squad. Leicester City recently had PL winning squad. Crystal Palace had an FA cup winning squad. This in no way contextualises the reality of the squad and future expectations. Tuchel was the real magician. If you think Rudiger and Christensen left because of sanctions - to the two biggest clubs in the world - while their teammates stayed, then I can't help you. Clearlake inherited Marina and Cech. Marina, as much as I love her, also oversaw some of the worst transfer activity and squad building under Roman (post Emenalo) and most likely the illicit payments. Cech was an underqualified patsy. Luis Enrique and 'developing some of the world's greatest players' is a stretch. Yes he definitely coached some. Bayern appointed Kompany, Madrid appointed Xabi Alonso, and Barca recently appointed Xavi - also once appointed a young Guardiola with no senior managerial experience. 'Spent' does not only encompass transfer fees. If you're going to critique the work of people who are highly qualified in their field, best to not do it like an absolute layman.

Well said. Those are definitely problems that need to be addressed with urgency. The FOS should apparently be done soon...we can hope. In fact, broadly speaking we need one of the sporting directors to man-up and improve transparency on the sponsor, stadium, and ticket issues. It feeds the general negavity surrounding the ownership, for which the optics are already poor as the average fan sees no real connection to them. Whatever they've done, good or bad, feels emotionless. Like being ruled by a king who never walks the streets.

Yeah the only thing that annoyed me was the movement up top, especially in the first half. But that's nothing I expect Liam to fix immediately and the fact that he acknowledged it after the match was good.

Ay love the positivity. We need more of it.

Care to qualify that? Or are we just shouting popular inaccuracies for likes? What's your understanding of the current business model and what exactly makes it unsound, in your opinion?

15 years difference...in tenure. If you're going to counterargue, at least get the original statement right. Clearlake inherited an overpaid, poorly constructed squad who had lost two of its best defenders for free due to mismanagement. A squad riddled with injuries due to player burnout. They had two clear choices: continue papering over cracks a la Man Utd - needing to take more expensive gambles and employ coaches who can provide instant gratification. Live and die on the whims of a manager. Get a good one, win a cup or two. Get a bad one, fire him and repeat. Or start a process of burning the house down. They picked the right one even if it meant short-medium term pain. More short-termism. And let's not forget how this club magically became debt free. This is 2026. It's a different league, and different climate, and as I've said - if Roman bought this club today, he'd pretty much do exactly what Clearlake has done and used our competitive advantage (academy+trading) to close the gap. PSG are currently considered the best side in the world. Is there a big difference between PSG and Chelsea if both sides have all players fit? No. Are their models that different? They've regularly competed for the same targets. Average age is similar as well. Chelsea have for 4 years had more key players injured than just about anyone else. And of course they have Marquinhos and Dembele to provide nous. But give me Lavia, Cole, James, Levi, Cucu, Fofana, Caicedo fit and consistently available and we would be dominating teams regularly. And just imagine if they'd managed to pull off their intended targets - Olise, Raphinha, Huijsen, Doue, Barcola, Hakimi etc. If you're struggling to see ANYTHING positive, I'd humbly suggest you're the problem.

What's crazy is it wasn't like that when he started and he even had examples during his tenure to see what works e.g. PSG. Then he goes away to a mid-table team with a heavily rotated squad and uses a 3-1 buildup, asking Caicedo to cover half of the UK.

That's what playing two proper midfielders does. Hato inverted higher up but also looked really good for the first time. Some of his touches were top, especially under pressure. More of the same please. Let Enzo compete as a 10 and live or die by his performances there.

What do you think this achieves by showing trophy hauls of essentially two different clubs, existing in different climates and rulesets, and with about 15 years difference in tenure? Stable success is the ability to challenge for highest honours consistently (and win) while working within the means of the club. This includes adhering to governing body regulations and financial controls. Spending frivolous amounts of money on players without resale value, putting them on big contracts, having to paper over cracks consistenly, and doing under-the-table payments to get deals over the line is not that. Winning the league and then bombing out for 3 years with an experienced, expensive squad is not that. If Roman bought Chelsea today, a lot of what he'd do would be similar to Clearlake.

Nothing wrong with that 😃. If you'd like to elaborate I'm all ears.

I agree, Chelsea FC should be run like a sound business and football club. And there is zero evidence that it's being used only to line Clearlake's pockets. Whatever you think of the ownership group, it comprises best-in-class businessmen. They are not morons, despite what anyone sitting on their stained sofa and chatting on a forum says. Only a moron spends 100m on Caicedo and Enzo if their clear goal is to line their own pockets. Look at how differently Clearlake and The Glazers operate. Feliciano's quote was in the context of building record levels of revenue and he is very much correct. To get Chelsea to match Europe's elite, they need to build a sustainable business that can increase value, and this IS more important than day-to-day match results especially in the short-term. If the goal was just to win, it would firstly be a foolish goal; and secondly it would inevitably lead to unsustainable decision-making given the current climate. What they have shown is that winning comes second to sustainability goals (for now) and that's fine. Chelsea are currently closer to being a club that sees stable success than at anytime under Roman. We're not there, mistakes have been made and were inevitable, but Roman always had the luxury of papering over cracks with expensive short-term solutions. The fact that they ignored the bitching and moaning, never hired someone like Zidane to truly muddy the waters even though it would appease some - that actually impressed me.

The specific context of this was an answer to a question on how he can do tactical work when he has almost no time to prepare during the next run of games. Do better.

That statement is littered with some of the most daft and entitled sh*te I've ever seen. And of course bits of truth that we can all agree with. I hope it goes well for whoever joins because if I were the board I'd toss that straight in the bin.