Good, well-argued article on where it all went wrong at the club, who’s to blame and why the future looks bleak...

http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2016/1/18/3974294/chelsea-mid-season-talking-points-analysis

Short term or long term future.
Since we are in the process of having a new stadium, along with the best academy in the country, a plethora of talent out on loan and one of the most talented squads in the league I would say our long term future looks good, even with the ever decreasing chance of CL football next season which is quite easily compensated for by selling a few loanees or a couple of back up players.

 

I do feel the club lacks identity. I've kind of given up on the idea of the youth players coming through, but maybe we would be in a stronger position if we just gave these boys a chance. Especially this season.

Moving forward how many would be happy with using strictly youth players in weak areas of the team, rather than making any signings.

Would any manager be strong enough to drop a costa for a solanke?

We have the best youth in the world, this should be our time to have our own golden generation, because the quality is certainly there, and I think if there is manager bold enough to use them, he will be our most successful manager of all time.

I tend to agree with the caveat we find the right manager

Fantastic article. Spot on. The road ahead could well be very rocky. After tonight's match we are 4 points outside the drop zone & are away to the league leaders on Sunday. Scary stuff

Very good article, some very good points, a strange time for us blues.

We have ultimately paid the price for only keeping a good first XI and a then having a pretty sh*te subs bench. Its that simple! Had we kept investing wisely in better players we wouldn't be in this mess.

And Jose losing his damn mind didnt help....

Excellent article, I totally agree with every word of it, 1 trillion per cent.

The Chelsea board of directors need to read it and start changing how they run the football club especially with regard to the academy and transfer in/out policy.

Unless they do, then sadly it it is inevitable that there will be serious problems, with a big disconnect between the club officials and the proper Chelsea fans who will always love the club long after the big ego players and the board of directors have gone.

Very well written article. The suits at Chelsea should read this, but then would carry on as usual.

I just hope we stay up. Which i am not convinced we will anymore as ridicilous that sounds that the reigning champion go down but we have a tough fixture list and i have given up on the hope of us starting to play better all of a sudden. Arsenal will probably murder us and then we may be a point off relegation. After Arsenal we have Watford away, then ManUtd and so on.

 

We need to survive and then do everything to get Simeone in. At least he has a clear identity.

We are 66/1 to get relegated, worth a tenner?

UNTHINKABLE!!!

We are 66/1 to get relegated, worth a tenner?

UNTHINKABLE!!!

Least now no one can chant "Where were you when we were sh*te" to the young uns!

We are 66/1 to get relegated, worth a tenner?

UNTHINKABLE!!!

it was a hundred to one a few weeks ago !!!!!

Short term or long term future.

Since we are in the process of having a new stadium, along with the best academy in the country, a plethora of talent out on loan and one of the most talented squads in the league I would say our long term future looks good, even with the ever decreasing chance of CL football next season which is quite easily compensated for by selling a few loanees or a couple of back up players.

 

 

Actually, if the club's policy remains the same, I do not think the long term future is all that good. Our current position reflects what that policy has brought us. For whatever reason that talented squad isn't playing well, and all that loaned out talent will not be played when they return, as we can see with the youngsters that are not on loan. So, not a good plan to stick to that model, in my opinion.

It has been glossed over by the prizes we've won on a regular basis, but the "perfect storm" of everything that has been going on this season shows us that the club may not be run very well on a first team football level. At some point the weaknesses come to light, which were very well presented in the article, I feel. Starting with a more determined way of giving our youngsters experience, because the way things are looking now, we're not playing in Europe next season. We will need our own players to claw our way back into the top, and not spend big on silly transfers.

Edited January 19, 201610 yr by Valerie

it was a hundred to one a few weeks ago !!!!!

Next league games

Arsenal away

Watford away

Man U at home

Newcastle at home

Southampton away

Norwich away

Stoke at home

Liverpool away

West ham at home

Hard to see where all the points are coming from

Great article. For me, this insistence on emulating the Barcelona model is the core reason behind our current underperforming squad of players.

Why did anyone think it was  good idea to change our style to copy a team that we could beat by using our own style? We used to be the only team in Europe that Barcelona were afraid of, even at the height of their powers. We showed the world how to beat them, and yet that wasnt good enough. We had to copy them... and now we get beaten in the same way we beat them. Teams sit deep, soak up pressure, hit us on the counter. And bully and dominate in key areas such as set pieces and midfield battles.

We've lost our way big time. Let's go on back to the old days of pace and power. And pride

It's a scary time. Man U blew 250M and are still sh*t. Too much money and complacency in the game now

Good article.

 

Feel he has missed on one point though. When our squad profile changed (more technical players)....our manager type didnt. Mourinho cetainly isnt one to coach and play like Barca, Neither was Benitez or DI Matteo. This philosophy needs coaching and a lot of it. Only AVB really tried to give it a go...but he was out of his depth.

 

It would be intersting to see if Guardiola could implement his style successfully with this squad.

Next league games

Arsenal away

Watford away

Man U at home

Newcastle at home

Southampton away

Norwich away

Stoke at home

Liverpool away

West ham at home

Hard to see where all the points are coming from

 

 

Arsenal away - LOSS

Watford away- WIN

Man U at home - DRAW

Newcastle at home - DRAW

Southampton away - LOSS

Norwich away - WIN

Stoke at home - DRAW

Liverpool away - LOSS

West ham at home - DRAW

Arsenal away - LOSS

Watford away- WIN

Man U at home - DRAW

Newcastle at home - DRAW

Southampton away - LOSS

Norwich away - WIN

Stoke at home - DRAW

Liverpool away - LOSS

West ham at home - DRAW

gives us 35 points? scary

Most of the teams at the bottom are strengthening their sides by buying players in order to avoid relegation, the financial rewards are the ultimate prize for these teams, we on the other hand are content in believing we are the Champions and therefore do not need to strengthen and we will stroll to a  mid-table finish and we might just put some effort in an win the the FA Cup.  The reality is we could slip into the muddy waters of the bottom three and drown with the likes of Villa and Sunderland.   The management team from Roman down have to take the heat in the way the entire debacle known as FFP has been handled, buying 2nd rate players while getting rid of immense young talent.....it's hard to know where we go from this mess with no identity whatsoever.

gives us 35 points? scary

With 7 games remaining after that that should be more than safe

Edited January 19, 201610 yr by PedroMendez

We sat on our thorny crown, and now our backside is stinging.

For what it's worth I think it will be a rocky road until the club start signing the likes of Mario Mandzukic, Ricardo Rodriguez, Diego Godin, Thiago Motta, and more optimistically Vidal and Bale... players who can not only handle the physicality of the Premier League but also have the technical ability and mentality to grind results by playing reactively when needed. If we'd signed the aforementioned players I have no doubt Mourinho would still be manager and we'd be competing at the top end of the league.

Edited January 19, 201610 yr by the special one

If we'd signed the aforementioned players I have no doubt Mourinho would still be manager.

 

If we'd signed the aforementioned players we'd have spent upwards of £200m on six players, half of whom are going to be 30+ by the end of the season.

If we'd signed the aforementioned players we'd have spent upwards of £200m on six players, half of whom are going to be 30+ by the end of the season.

 

By no means am I saying we should have signed them last summer, but had the team been built around these players progressively over the last 3 or 4 years (e.g. by signing Vidal before he joined Juve, Mandzukic when he left Bayern etc etc) i'm pretty sure we'd be in a different place right now.

 

I don't feel the age argument is relevant given that perhaps what we lack at the moment is experience.

 

Furthermore I wouldn't necessarily say we need to sign the players I mentioned moving forward, but perhaps players with similar characteristics that would enable us to play reactively again.

Edited January 19, 201610 yr by the special one