We played the same players because the likes of Salah and Cuadrado weren't good enough.

Well, there was a time when the same was true (at least according to Jose) for Robben. 

It's a very one sided perspective if we only view the situation from Jose's point of view.

 

Salah has 6 goals in 16 for Fiorentina and 6 goals in 10 for Roma. He can't be that bad, that he couldn't get a real chance. 

Salah has 6 goals in 16 for Fiorentina and 6 goals in 10 for Roma. He can't be that bad, that he couldn't get a real chance.

Every time I watched him he was THAT bad.

What does Emenalo have to do with the fact that virtually the same squad that won the league six months ago looks completely f**ked now?

I don't know what his job at the club entails but I'm fairly sure it doesn't involve training players and motivating the squad. Stop looking for scapegoats, we all know whose fault that is.

To answer your question directly he failed to deliver anyone on the shopping list... If we belive was we hear, but the truth is we don't really know that or his job. Also your right that even failing to deliver the list should not have resulted in this

Every time I watched him he was THAT bad.

He got 30 minutes of action in the first part of 2014/2015 season. That's virtually zero playing time.

Let me answer with a question: Who wouldn't want Vidal and Costa? Especially given our lack of depth in the areas they cover.

 

Emenalo is a scout isn't he? He is supposed to know when top players are available and not let Bayern - formerly our competitors - get them.

 

Believe it or not, but even though they are good players, they might not be the players the manager wants or the club doesn't think they are players that the club needs. And even if they had been players that Mourinho wanted, surely he could've said so. I'm sure he doesn't need to wait for the scouts to recommend him players before he can ask the club to get them. None of us here know what exactly happens "behind closed doors" at the club, so in most cases it's pure speculation to say it was a certain person's fault that Chelsea didn't sign some player. Emenalo oversees the scouting and academy, but as far as I know, he doesn't negotiate the transfers and doesn't sign players. Most of us here have very little real information on what exactly the club has done during the transfer window anyway, so people can only speculate who made mistakes and what kind of mistakes. And there's always more than one dancer taking part in the transfer window jig, so even if a club wants a player, the player might not want to join that club or already has agreed a move when another club makes an inquiry. Or the selling club doesn't want to sell to a certain club... There's so many things that COULD have happened, it's not fair to blame someone unless you absolutely KNOW they were to blame.

This is a very good point:

 

What does Emenalo have to do with the fact that virtually the same squad that won the league six months ago looks completely f**ked now?

Believe it or not, but even though they are good players, they might not be the players the manager wants or the club doesn't think they are players that the club needs. And even if they had been players that Mourinho wanted, surely he could've said so. I'm sure he doesn't need to wait for the scouts to recommend him players before he can ask the club to get them. None of us here know what exactly happens "behind closed doors" at the club, so in most cases it's pure speculation to say it was a certain person's fault that Chelsea didn't sign some player. Emenalo oversees the scouting and academy, but as far as I know, he doesn't negotiate the transfers and doesn't sign players. Most of us here have very little real information on what exactly the club has done during the transfer window anyway, so people can only speculate who made mistakes and what kind of mistakes. And there's always more than one dancer taking part in the transfer window jig, so even if a club wants a player, the player might not want to join that club or already has agreed a move when another club makes an inquiry. Or the selling club doesn't want to sell to a certain club... There's so many things that COULD have happened, it's not fair to blame someone unless you absolutely KNOW they were to blame.

Excellent post Maksimov

What does Emenalo have to do with the fact that virtually the same squad that won the league six months ago looks completely f**ked now?

 

I don't know what  his job at the club entails but I'm fairly sure it doesn't involve training players and motivating the squad. Stop looking for scapegoats, we all know whose fault that is.

 

 

If Emanalo is the one in charge of signings then the squad that won the league six months ago is the squad Jose knew needed two or three players, two or three players of his choosing and not just decent players shipped in to bolster the squad.

 

I think Jose made the board aware of his ideal targets and didn't get them, obviously this is my opinion and I can't back it up with any proof but that's like most opinions on the ins and outs here, If Jose didn't get the players he wanted but Emanalo brought in players anyway then instead of Jose being slated for virtually the same squad looking completely f**ked now that won the league six months ago, perhaps he should instead be praised for getting them over the line and making them champions now we see how f**ked they really were.

 

There are always two ways to look at these things and the truth likely lie somewhere in between but if I had to bet on the theory that is most likely nearest reality I'd stick with my own.

Edited November 11, 201510 yr by Chippy

He got 30 minutes of action in the first part of 2014/2015 season. That's virtually zero playing time.

30 minutes too many for my liking.

If Emanalo is the one in charge of signings then the squad that won the league six months ago is the squad Jose knew needed two or three players, two or three players of his choosing and not just decent players shipped in to bolster the squad.

 

I think Jose made the board aware of his ideal targets and didn't get them, obviously this is my opinion and I can't back it up with any proof but that's like most opinions on the ins and outs here, If Jose didn't get the players he wanted but Emanalo brought in players anyway then instead of Jose being slated for virtually the same squad looking completely f**ked now that won the league six months ago, perhaps he should instead be praised for getting them over the line and making them champions now we see how f**ked they really were.

 

There are always two ways to look at these things and the truth likely lie somewhere in between but if I had to bet on the theory that is most likely nearest reality I'd stick with my own.

 

To be honest, we didn't look very convincing last spring and it was there for everyone to see, particularly Emenalo. Shouldn't he be the first to come to the realisation that we need to improve the squad?

If it's Emenalo's job to oversee player recruitment and to work with the manager to strengthen the squad - in accordance with the manager's needs - then something went wrong over the Summer. Because Jose was strongly rumoured to be unhappy with the lack of and quality of recruitment. And this is reflected in results this season.

 

In this case, Emenalo should be sacked because he screwed up and is likely to cost the club a lot of money in lost Champions League revenue and inflated future transfer fees. This could well run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

 

OTOH it might be Emenalo/the Board's position that the squad was good enough for another season and the manager should be using this as an opportunity to bring on some younger players. If so, this hasn't worked out either as the team has imploded and the manager clearly has no confidence in using the academy kids. 

 

So either Emenalo didn't fulfill the manager's demands, screwed up badly and so should be sacked. Or he made a judgement call over the manager's head on what the squad should be this season which has turned out to be a huge mistake and so should be sacked.

 

I can't think of a scenario in which Emenalo can keep his job. The last transfer window was a clusterf**k and it's only down to one man as far as I can see.

Emenalo has been at Chelsea since 2007 having had chief scout and assistant first team coach roles but its his time as Technical Director I want to focus on, he was appointed in this position in July 2011. So lets look at the transfers that have occurred during this period. I won't be including loans or free transfers in this process. I will also be excluding the players signed in during the latest transfer window as we can't be sure of how useful or not the players will be.

Players in 2011/2012 season; Juan Mata (£19m), Lukaku(£15m), Raul Meireles(£9.45m), Courtois(£6,27m), Cahill(£5.8m), KDB(£5.6m), Piazon(£5m), Romeu(£3m), Davilla(£1m), Bamford(£1m) 

Don't see any dudd transfers here. Courtois for just over £6m is frankly ridiculous, Mata was a great signing and we made a substantial profit, where as KDB and Lukaku were very good money turners, Meireles did a job and Cahill has also been a great servant to the club. Bamford looks a good investment at £1m as well.

Players out; the only ones of note Zhirkov(£10.5m) Matic at (£3.5m) and Jack Cork for peanuts

Matic is the only real blunder but I'd say the decision as to whether a player should be moved on is more the managers.

2012/2013 season Players in,   Eden Hazard (£28m), Oscar (£17,5m), Moses (£8m), Azpilicueta (£6m), Ba(£5.6m), Marin(£5.6m), Wallace(£3.78m) Thorgan Hazard(£0.35m)  

Some more very good signings Azpi at £6m was another absolutely brilliant find. T Hazard was also a massive monetary gain.

A couple of potential dudds in Marin and Wallace but at a combined £9m and very little if any wages actually spent it really wasn't that bad an investment and we are very likely to make money on Wallace.

   

Players Out; Sturridge(£10.5m), Meireles (£7m)

Sturridge was a seemingly bad sale, but for a player who wanted to leave, a doubling of the money we spent along with his severe injury problems in all fairness it wasn't to bad and recouping most of the money spent on Meireles was another good bit of business.

2013/2014 Players in; Willian(£24.85m), Matic (£17,5m), Schurrle(£15.4m), Salah(£11.5m) , Zouma(£10.22m) , MvG(£6.5m), Atsu(£2.1m), Perica(£1.7m), Cuevas(£1.33m)

Here we have another good set of signings in my eyes Willian has been our best player this season and is proving that he was well worth his high transfer fee, also the ability to admit we wrongly let Matic go and to bring him back was again another good bit of business. Zouma again looks like an inspired signing and there has been 1 in the last 3 seasons. MvG looks like a potentially quality Cm and at £6.5m that should be considered a good signing and potential gem. This was however a season in which we signed a few dudds  

Salah who has been massively criticised as a horrible signing despite making money for the club when you consider his loan fees and that we have agreed a future fee with Roma so on the whole it wasn't a bad signing. However Atsu, Perica and Cuevas looks set to contribute nothing to the side but at 5m for the 3 that looks set to be an overall profit but at worse a minimal loss.

Players out; Mata (£31.31m), KdB(£15.4m), Bruma(£2.45m)

Another reason our transfer policy has received a lot of stick recently is the letting good or potntially good players leave and Mata and KDB have been at the forefront of this, I'm not going to comment on whether the decision to let them go was right or not but in a monetary sense we made a lot of money on both and highlights how good they were as signings in the first place which should be a plus point towards Emenalo.

2014/2015 season Players in; Costa(£26.6m), Fabregas(£23.1m), Cuadrado(£21.7m), Falipe Luis(£14m), Remy(£9.24m), Pasalic (£1.75m)

Mourinho has been hailed for the majority of these signings, in our title winning season Costa and Fabregas looked to be the exact players the squad needed and the club were rightly praised for making these signings so efficiently.

However through Cuadrado and somehow Luis, Emenalo has been given some stick and admittedly Cuadrado is likely to be our first significant monetary loss during Emenalo's tenure, from a signing seeming rushed and over priced, a hasty replacement to the established but mainly bench warming Andre Schurrle, who's sale had been agreed in a last minute deal.

This transfer seemed so out of place and out of character for what has been a very successful transfer policy during Emenalo reign as technical director and this transfer received further scrutiny due to the perceived previous failing of signing wingers who just weren't quite good enough to challenge the first team despite being very talented. 

Luis came and went for minimal money and minimal game time and this very good LB has been regarded a flop by some as he couldn't make an impact in a very grounded and achieving squad.  

Players out; David Luis (£34.65m), Lukaku(£24.75m), Schurrle(£22.4m), Bertrand(£9.34m), Ba(£4.2m), Torres(£2.1m) Van Aanholt(£1.4m)  

Another few huge profits in this section and finally getting Torres of the books the only negative I see here is Bertrand who could have done the same job as Luis and count as home grown.

Transfer values and amounts from transfermarkt. 

 

 

I look at this and all I see are good business deals from a club that does not have a huge stadium try to stay financially viable. How can anyone look at this and want Emanalo out. It is true that we did miss out on a few players but which team in the history of football has always gotten the players they wanted at a reasonable price ?

 

Also Salah, Cuadrado, Schrulle, Luis are all doing well in their current leagues - So how can anyone say they are bad buys ? Also, How can anyone look at our squad and say we are not good enough ? We have a squad that can easily take up to top 4 but we are playing some turgid football and that fault can not fall on the TDC. 

 

The manager is the most logical one to blame as it is his responsibility to have the squad ready. And if people are going to ask what the manager can do if the squad is not inspired then that same excuse should hold true for the technical director position too. 

Also do people understand that we are going to spending shed loads of cash on building a new stadium and that is really going to make funds hard to find? Spending on Pogba, Vidal, Douglas Costa etc is going to be a pricey deal and in case we look at our transfer deals so far - we have tightened the purse. Pedro who was an expensive buy was a panic response to our season but that is as high as we can go probably given our constraints. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/chelseas-nightmare-start-and-poor-transfer-business-could-cost-technical-director-michael-emenalo-a6729641.html

What I believe Emenalo's role is at the club, is that he is there to find and bring in future first team prospects your KDB's Lukaku's Courtois' etc and even to find the slightly more obscure talents the like of Azpilicueta or players just simply to make a profit your Hector's and the majority of our loan conveyor and in my eyes this has been done extremely well, and I believe the decision on first team specific targets like Fabragas Costa even Pogba will come mainly from the manager with maybe Emenalo providing the options. This is just my take though and Emenalo might have more power or even less power but if what I believe is the case then he is doing a very good job and can't really be faulted except for maybe Marin and Cuadrado (if that was him).

Our problems this transfer window have been speculated to be either failing to acquire specific targets which I don't believe is Emenalo's responsibility so I don't assign him the blame for this, or a club directive to conntinue with the strong squad we have and bring through some youth which again if this were true my belief is this comes from higher up than Emenalo more likely an Abramovich decision or a full board directive if this is the case can we assign him the blame here. 
 

Edited November 12, 201510 yr by PedroMendez

If it's Emenalo's job to oversee player recruitment and to work with the manager to strengthen the squad - in accordance with the manager's needs - then something went wrong over the Summer. Because Jose was strongly rumoured to be unhappy with the lack of and quality of recruitment. And this is reflected in results this season.

In this case, Emenalo should be sacked because he screwed up and is likely to cost the club a lot of money in lost Champions League revenue and inflated future transfer fees. This could well run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

OTOH it might be Emenalo/the Board's position that the squad was good enough for another season and the manager should be using this as an opportunity to bring on some younger players. If so, this hasn't worked out either as the team has imploded and the manager clearly has no confidence in using the academy kids.

So either Emenalo didn't fulfill the manager's demands, screwed up badly and so should be sacked. Or he made a judgement call over the manager's head on what the squad should be this season which has turned out to be a huge mistake and so should be sacked.

I can't think of a scenario in which Emenalo can keep his job. The last transfer window was a clusterf**k and it's only down to one man as far as I can see.

Since Jose's return he 'supposed' signings have been Eto, Matic, Cesc, Costa, Drogba, Pedro all between the ages of 26 - 35. I don't see future prospects in these buys, just experienced, ready players and most have proven to be short-term. This summer transfer had papers link us to the likes of stones, koke, griezmann, bale, sterling, pogba, benteke. If these players were truly Jose targets, I see no reason to cry wolf for emenalo failing to sign any of them as most are still at their respective clubs as the clubs were very reluctant to sell and given our options on the wing, I don't see how paying ~45million pounds for sterling is logical. Jose isn't one to sign prospects or youths, he prefers them now and ready but how long would the club have an open cheque book?. I'm quite happy with the approach the club has taken because we have to plan for the future. We need to groom and blood youngsters into the senior team. Except Varane, history has shown us Jose isn't great with youngsters ( if wrong, pls prove otherwise). If we give Jose total control over transfer dealings, I don't see a future for youngsters in our team.

Blaming Emenalo is just beyond stupid.

 

Even this year he may not have had superb purchases but we got Pedro (overrated IMO, but he's a decent winger), Baba Rahman (very highly rated, even if he's having trouble adjusting) and Papy (who despite the ridicule we can't really say he was a bad purchase, because he hasn't played a single game; I personally believe it was a very astute signing, if only Mourinho would give him the chance to prove himself).

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/chelseas-nightmare-start-and-poor-transfer-business-could-cost-technical-director-michael-emenalo-a6729641.html

 

Just looking at that photo of him in fancy sunglasses agitates me. Reminds me of the corrupt FIFA officials.

 

This quote is interesting: 'The former Nigerian footballer, who has a spell with Notts County during his playing career, joined the Blues in 2007 during Avram Grant's reign in charge of the side'

 

Basically a friend of a friend of Abramovich. Is this fair?

If Emanalo is the guy bringing players in why is he never pictured with the new signings? Always seems to be the Maria lady.

err no check out the Chelsea website he is next to every new player ..............

Just looking at that photo of him in fancy sunglasses agitates me. Reminds me of the corrupt FIFA officials.

 

This quote is interesting: 'The former Nigerian footballer, who has a spell with Notts County during his playing career, joined the Blues in 2007 during Avram Grant's reign in charge of the side'

 

Basically a friend of a friend of Abramovich. Is this fair?

Fair enough.

Since Jose's return he 'supposed' signings have been Eto, Matic, Cesc, Costa, Drogba, Pedro all between the ages of 26 - 35. I don't see future prospects in these buys, just experienced, ready players and most have proven to be short-term .

No doubt that Eto’o and Drogba mark 2 were brought in at the tail-end of their careers - to perform a role within the squad as the manager saw it. But are you seriously claiming that Matic, Fabregas, Costa and Pedro were intended as short-term buys?

And can you name me a successful team made up entirely of players under the age of 25 as you seem to think that players over this age are past it?

Edited November 12, 201510 yr by Socrates

Just looking at that photo of him in fancy sunglasses agitates me. Reminds me of the corrupt FIFA officials.

 

This quote is interesting: 'The former Nigerian footballer, who has a spell with Notts County during his playing career, joined the Blues in 2007 during Avram Grant's reign in charge of the side'

 

Basically a friend of a friend of Abramovich. Is this fair?

He is quite close with Abramovich but I don't think he would hire someone incompetent for the DOF role just because they are friends. I think Emanalo has done a good job personally, he's targeted a few poor players but we've almost always got a profit on them afterwards. Can't say the same about most other DOF's. The targets Jose had in mind in the summer were unrealistic in my opinion as they were never going to leave their current clubs or were too expensive. Then you had players like Lewandowski who simply didn't want to join under any circumstances, can't do much about that.

 

I have no idea why we bought the likes of Hector, etc but this isn't something I would blame Emanalo for. It's been happening with the club for a while now, before Emanalo got into this position, and we end up with players who don't fit into the manager's ideas.

I don't disagree that Eto’o and Drogba Mark 2 were brought in at the tail-end of their careers. But are you seriously claiming that Matic, Fabregas, Costa and Pedro were intended as short-term buys?

Not intended, I said 'most' (with the exclusion of pedro and matic) have 'proven' to be short-term. Cesc has last put in a decent shift in december, he form has been so-so ever since, likewise Costa since Feb till now he has only scored 5 league goals as he's been plagued by injury and woefully off form which means both players have only performed for half a season only. That looks short-term to me

I think Emanalo has done a good job personally, he's targeted a few poor players but we've almost always got a profit on them afterwards. Can't say the same about most other DOF's. The targets Jose had in mind in the summer were unrealistic in my opinion as they were never going to leave their current clubs or were too expensive. Then you had players like Lewandowski who simply didn't want to join under any circumstances, can't do much about that.

 

I have no idea why we bought the likes of Hector, etc but this isn't something I would blame Emanalo for.

It's true we made a decent profit on players like Luiz, De Bruyne, Mata and Lukaku (though not Salah, Cuadrado and Marin.) But we are now trying to replace the players we made a profit on as the net effect has been to weaken the squad.

Last summer, realising the holes in our squad we tried to sign Pogba, unrealistically as it turned out, and made a mess of the Stones deal - and ended up with none of our main targets. We had no back up plan other than signing Djilibodgi as a cheap backstop. Who the manager has pointedly refused to play. Plus we signed Falcao despite all evidence that this was going to be a terrible move.

So the net effect of all our transfer (mis) dealings has been the manager got none of his targets and we ended up with the weakest squad in the Abramovich area with the results to follow.

So overall we're not better off, the team's performance has imploded, we're likely going to miss out on Champions League football next season and are probably going to have to spend our way out of the mess we find ourselves in as the much vaunted academy players are just not good enough.

If a private company had gotten itself into this predicament: a collapse in performance, revenues and prospects, you can be sure that the Board would take responsibility. But seeing as Abramovich is not going to sack himself then Emenalo as the ‘sporting director’ is rightly in the firing line.

And there's a simple reason why we signed Michael Hector. It's because we can make a small profit on him by selling him on even though he's probably not good enough to ever play for Chelsea.

That's where we are now.

If Emenalo does get fired, and I dont think he should, then Mourinho should be called in to meet the new director before he is hired to make sure we dont have a phase of hiring and firing directors of football. Make sure the next guy is someone who is on Jose's wavelength in terms of the profile of players he wants and the squad he wants to build and then we can genuinely look at a long term plan