Hard to fault a guy who has put so much money into the club, but I think we're reaching a point where his confusion over what he wants this club to be has reached a point where it's damaging the club. 

 

For years we were told that he wanted a more attractive-style of football, yet when push comes to shove and he can't get Pep he goes for Jose. We all love Jose, but he wasn't the right guy for what the aims of the club were and despite his success there was always going to be a conflict between what the two men wanted. Now we're stuck at yet another crossroads where we've failed to get Pep and the best coach who might be available is Simeone, again a more pragmatic coach.

 

City on the other hand had an owner who knew broadly what he wanted, then hired the best people in the world to achieve it. That's now paid off with them not only having a team who will probably win the league this season, but arguably the best coach in the world arriving next season. Even if you disagree, it's obvious that he was their main target and they've spent the last few years laying the groundwork to acquire him. That is top-class strategic planning.

 

I see a lot of people blame Emenalo and I understand why, but he isn't the problem. It's clear he's unqualified and been promoted way beyond what his skills deserve but that is Roman's fault. 

 

What I think he needs to do is take a step back, employ the best people around who can take this club where he wants it to get and also get people involved who know what this club actually is. The divide between those running the club and those who support this club is greater than it's ever been in my time supporting the club and despite feeling helpless, we're arguably in the strongest position of any club in the country when it comes to the influence we have. At some point he might go too far and then we're in real sh*t.

But of a over reaction since last season it was all rosey we all need to calm down as fans.

I kind of agree. City are a much better ran club than we are. Patient owner who is willing to spend when needed (see Sterling, Ageuro)

We on the other hand have focused too much on the money side of things to the depriment of the squad quality.

That said, I find it really hard to criticise Roman after all he's done. I won't blame him and am grateful for him.

he made the wrong decisions in hiring certain people who aren't football people, but he's done too much good for the club. you have to remember we signed de bruyne, lukaku, mata etc and whoever signed them knew their potential. the problem is, the manager at the time (jose) didn't seem to favour them and they were sold. who do we blame for those players not being used? we can't blame roman or, in my opinion, the board for those sales if the manager didn't want them. i actually feel a little bit of resentment towards jose for the decision not to give any of those players proper chances and it's left us somewhat worse off because we've directly strengthened our biggest rivals. 

Edited February 2, 201610 yr by enigma

But of a over reaction since last season it was all rosey we all need to calm down as fans.

 

Things weren't all rosy though. We were fantastic up until January and then every crack was exposed against a PSG team with 10-men. Fortunately we had Hazard to carry us to the league title but even then it was clear we were running on fumes.

 

I think before that Roman's spending papered over a lot of other issues, mostly the constant changes in coaches and philosophies but two things have happened in the last few years that have changed that too.

 

1. The league as a whole got richer. Stoke yesterday bought Imbula for £20 million from Porto. That was almost exactly the same figure that we signed Ramires for from another Portuguese team 6 years ago. That perfectly illustrates the way the market has changed.

 

2. We don't spend that much. This past transfer window, our distinction was making the most profit. We're in a relegation fight and we're pinching pennies??

 

Also, we've barely spent anything over the last few years. We've sold a lot of assets so our net expenditure is way down on the teams we should've been competing with. Why? Has Roman lost interest or are our board incapable of completing transfers?

 

I kind of agree. City are a much better ran club than we are. Patient owner who is willing to spend when needed (see Sterling, Ageuro)

We on the other hand have focused too much on the money side of things to the depriment of the squad quality.

That said, I find it really hard to criticise Roman after all he's done. I won't blame him and am grateful for him.

 

It's important to remember that Roman is a custodian of this club. There were many owners before him and there will be many owners after him. I think some supporters are unwilling to criticise him because he invested money into the club and that's fair enough. I personally think that simply throwing money at the club doesn't mean he can't be fairly critiqued.

I do agree with many of your point. Compared to how Manchester City is being and has been runned the last few years we aren't even in the same league. They had a long-term play which they stuck too and right now they are reaping the benefits. We on the other hand are falling behind, can't compete in the transfermarket anymore with the big-boys, or even the semi big-boys, have a scattered squad a no manager after may.
 

In some wierd way it feels like we have gone full circle and ended up in 02/03 again. Just without the debt.

he made the wrong decisions in hiring certain people who aren't football people, but he's done too much good for the club. you have to remember we signed de bruyne, lukaku, mata etc and whoever signed them knew their potential. the problem is, the manager (jose) didn't seem to favour them and they were sold. who do we blame for those players not being used? we can't blame roman or, in my opinion, the board for those sales if the manager didn't want them. 

 

But that is a classic case of muddled thinking isn't it? Why hire Jose if you've built a squad that isn't to his liking?

 

This is why I never understood those who had a pop at Jose. You know exactly what you're getting with him so you either back him or you don't hire him. Roman backed him for the first two years and then seemed to stop this season, at least financially.

city have had a plan since the sheikh took over. hiring mancini and signing aguero, silva, toure etc built a foundation for their future. we just sacked manager after manager, changing philosophies and style of play, everything has been very haphazard. we go from playing good football, back to defensive for a few years, then back again, the teams have had no chance of keeping a style and running with it for an extended period of time. roman obviously wants us playing good football, but doesn't seem to have the people around him to advise him on who to hire. 

city have had a plan since the sheikh took over. hiring mancini and signing aguero, silva, toure etc built a foundation for their future. we just sacked manager after manager, changing philosophies and style of play, everything has been very haphazard. we go from playing good football, back to defensive for a few years, then back again, the teams have had no chance of keeping a style and running with it for an extended period of time. roman obviously wants us playing good football, but doesn't seem to have the people around him to advise him on who to hire. 

 

And it looks like City could not only get Pep, but Stones and Pogba too.

 

In that scenario, it's quite easy to paint Roman as a rather pathetic figure with his nose pressed-up against the toy shop window in the pissing rain looking at the shiny things he's not allowed to play with.

 

City are shopping on Amazon whilst Roman's got a battered old Argos catalogue from 2008 (ooh look, that new Pato toy code 475-8371).

Would this post been made had Terry not announced his decision to leave?

But that is a classic case of muddled thinking isn't it? Why hire Jose if you've built a squad that isn't to his liking?

 

This is why I never understood those who had a pop at Jose. You know exactly what you're getting with him so you either back him or you don't hire him. Roman backed him for the first two years and then seemed to stop this season, at least financially.

 

i believe roman thought it was best for the club and there was strong support from the fans to bring jose back, so i think he also felt the pressure. he seems to want best for the club and that isn't a bad thing at all, but some of his advisors seem to be the wrong people. 

Would this post been made had Terry not announced his decision to leave?

Are you questioning the motivations for me making the points rather than the points themselves?

 

Honestly, he could refuse to give JT a contract if we're flying high in the league with an established long-term plan in place and people maybe don't make such a fuss.

 

But when you take away the only real connection us fans have with what's going on in the pitch just a month after taking away our connection to those running the club, you're going to get a lot of disgruntled voices. Mine is one of them but I'm by no means alone.

Edited February 2, 201610 yr by ShedEnder91

And it looks like City could not only get Pep, but Stones and Pogba too.

 

In that scenario, it's quite easy to paint Roman as a rather pathetic figure with his nose pressed-up against the toy shop window in the pissing rain looking at the shiny things he's not allowed to play with.

 

City are shopping on Amazon whilst Roman's got a battered old Argos catalogue from 2008 (ooh look, that new Pato toy code 475-8371).

 

Roman has poured money into the club for years, he plans to spend a stupid amount of his own money building the new stadium. Yet you complain that he isn't spending like city. City have the wealth of a whole country to play with. Roman is very rich, but not middle eastern royal rich.

Roman has poured money into the club for years, he plans to spend a stupid amount of his own money building the new stadium. Yet you complain that he isn't spending like city. City have the wealth of a whole country to play with. Roman is very rich, but not middle eastern royal rich.

 

What was our net spend this season (Summer and January)?

When you consider that we have had 2 (Jose / Carlo) out of the 3 best managers in the world and yet he still wasn't satisfied it makes you wonder what's going through his head or what sh*t he is being fed.  But the way this cub has handled itself over the last 10+ years, trophies aside, is nothing short of shocking, which tells me that there no direction at the top.  Players and supporters have no idea where we are heading as a football club.  

 

Forget the idea of a long term strategy because there isn't one; we continually run up blind alleys and maybe bag a trophy or two along the way to satisfy the supporters, but we have no direction, no vision and lost our identity of how we play football; right now we are a complete shambles of a club with one public relations disaster after another.   We are heading for a complete breakdown in values unless someone puts there foot on the brake and steers us in the right direction to get some balance back into the club that has a culture, an identity, a vision and an actual long term plan that is achievable.  Bring in the right people, the right manager (and stick with him) and execute the plan rather than ripping it up after 2 or 3 years.  

 

I want my old Chelsea back, that had style, swagger, grit and determination....and most of all Respect..

Edited February 2, 201610 yr by CFCCAN

I do think there is some deep problems, and massive mistakes have happened along the way.

I'm not making emanalo a scapegoat here, because he has signed some good players. But we should have a proper football man in that role, someone who shares the vision of the owner.

Since 2010 it has been a scattergun approach to transfers, with hit and some miss.

I'm not sure where we go forward from here. We should have backed Mourinho massively in the summer, and let him build. We didn't and the wheels fell off.

I think we have lost our identify a bit, and we need to decide on a style of play, have a director of football that can bring players that fit the style, and bring a manager in that plays that style.

When you consider that we have had 2 (Jose / Carlo) out of the 3 best managers in the world and yet he still wasn't satisfied it makes you wonder what's going through his head or what sh*t he is being fed.  But the way this cub has handled itself over the last 10+ years, trophies aside, is nothing short of shocking, which tells me that there no direction at the top.  Players and supporters have no idea where we are heading as a football club.  

 

Forget the idea of a long term strategy because there isn't one; we continually run up blind alleys and maybe bag a trophy or two along the way to satisfy the supporters, but we have no direction, no vision and lost our identity of how we play football; right now we are a complete shambles of a club with one public relations disaster after another.   We are heading for a complete breakdown in values unless someone puts there foot on the brake and steers us in the right direction to get some balance back into the club that has a culture, an identity, a vision and an actual long term plan that is achievable.  Bring in the right people, the right manager (and stick with him) and execute the plan rather than ripping it up after 2 or 3 years.  

 

I want my old Chelsea back, that had style, swagger, grit and determination.

 

I honestly think that he's proving a lot of what the numpties were saying back when he took over.

 

The new stadium is hopefully going to be great, but the reality is we're not even going to be at the Bridge for three years. That isn't a complaint either, it's just very, very sad because we're already feeling this disconnect with the club and now we're not even going to have the ground to make us feel like we're home (along with all the boozers that are disappearing).

 

All that's going to be recognisable is the supporters and we're the ones who are going to have to make our voices heard someway.

There are two things going here I think. 

 

1) Definitely a lack of direction at the club, and it is obvious to anyone that inept persons are in charge in key areas. Looking at this from the point of view of business organization, it looks grim. 

 

2) Inevitability. I still think firing JM is the worst decision we could have made, but fact is probably that with Terry now leaving as the last member of the "dream team", we have to get used to being second best for a while. We were always going to rebuilt, and this season is the first painful evidence of this process. 

 

City will take over the mantle now I think, and if JM goes to Utd, they will pip us too I think. 

Maybe it's not really really easy. We've won more in Romans time than any English club except Man U who enjoyed a unprecedented period under fergie who (much as I hate to say) was a once in a generation talent. What have city really done. We won the champions league, we've qualified virtually every year for the group stage. We're champions of England, we've won the fa cup more times in the last decade than any other team. What have arsenals owners achieved. What is Woodward doing with that joke clown of a manager. Liverpool, they've been run well hey?

Sometimes it's not easy to get the right people, get them to gel, sometimes people disappoint. Sometimes they don't (refer trophy haul). We've also had a clear plan in terms of youth academy which hopefully hopefully we'll see the benefit of over the next 5 years, but maybe setting that up and making it the best in the country isn't that easy either. We've made a couple of errors in the transfer market but we've also made some outstanding deals.

I went to my first game in 1973 and had to wait nearly 25 years to see us win something that wasn't the data zenith simod sh#t cup. Pep hasn't won anything for City and we've had half a bad season (so bad we're still in the champions league and fa cup and unbeaten in 9). I'm not saying we're great at the moment or Romans a perfect owner but I'd take him over ANY other owner, he's proved his commitment to the club over a long period and during that we've come from nowhere and probably over the period as a whole been the best run club in the country.

Give the guy a break, he's Chelsea and you obviously can't remember where you were when we were sh*t.

 

I want my old Chelsea back, that had style, swagger, grit and determination....and most of all Respect..

Chelsea sacked lots of managers before roman arrived. 

Maybe it's not really really easy. We've won more in Romans time than any English club except Man U who enjoyed a unprecedented period under fergie who (much as I hate to say) was a once in a generation talent. What have city really done. We won the champions league, we've qualified virtually every year for the group stage. We're champions of England, we've won the fa cup more times in the last decade than any other team. What have arsenals owners achieved. What is Woodward doing with that joke clown of a manager. Liverpool, they've been run well hey?

Sometimes it's not easy to get the right people, get them to gel, sometimes people disappoint. Sometimes they don't (refer trophy haul). We've also had a clear plan in terms of youth academy which hopefully hopefully we'll see the benefit of over the next 5 years, but maybe setting that up and making it the best in the country isn't that easy either. We've made a couple of errors in the transfer market but we've also made some outstanding deals.

I went to my first game in 1973 and had to wait nearly 25 years to see us win something that wasn't the data zenith simod sh#t cup. Pep hasn't won anything for City and we've had half a bad season (so bad we're still in the champions league and fa cup and unbeaten in 9). I'm not saying we're great at the moment or Romans a perfect owner but I'd take him over ANY other owner, he's proved his commitment to the club over a long period and during that we've come from nowhere and probably over the period as a whole been the best run club in the country.

Give the guy a break, he's Chelsea and you obviously can't remember where you were when we were sh*t.

 

Yep, yep and double yep. I completely share this sentiment. Roman deserves nothing but respect ... he could have thrown the toy outs of the pram on more than one occasion, but he stuck with it. He loves Chelsea, and he loves London. Take a deep breath, and enjoy watching the team. 

Give the guy a break, he's Chelsea and you obviously can't remember where you were when we were sh*t.

 

We weren't that sh*t in my time here. My first full season was the 93/94 which ended in a Cup Final so I've been fortunate, although we were in a relegation fight for much of that season too.

 

The issue is that whilst Roman has spent a lot of money, he's probably spent more than he needed to. His ability to outspend the other clubs papered over a lot of cracks but that can't go on forever which is why the academy was so key. He wanted to create his own superstars but the lack of a long-term plan with stable presences at the top meant we f**ked up a lot of promising young players simply by chopping and changing so many things.

 

Then when he starts investing in young players who like to play expansive football, he goes and hires a coach is next to the word 'Pragmatism' in the dictionary. It's this muddled thinking that is the issue and then there's the stuff like hiring Rafa or trying to screw over the CPO that just alienates supporters of this club who can probably remember more hard times at Chelsea than you and I combined.

 

He's a great owner in terms of investment but I think he needs to take a step back from the footballing side and hire the right people for the job, not Avram Grant's protege and his 'senior advisor' from his oil interests.

Despite all City 'acclaimed' organized structure and organization, compare their success in the last 8yrs (2008 when Sheik bought club) till this present moment to Roman's first 8yrs. Must have been sheer luck that brought all that success given Roman is clueless according to some.

We must remember, we are in the process of rebuilding the stadium for hundreds of millions, so we can't throw loads of money at players, even roman can't afford everything, city had a ground given to them as west ham did, time to tighten belts,its like arsenal 10 years ago, financing their Lego land stadium, the next 10 years of winning fxck all, maybe its our turn now? We have a good run, now let's enjoy the bridge rebuild, and come 2020, we might start to get back up there again. Time for a reality check me thinks, us older ones can remember, falling down stadium, property developers wanting to buy ground,no trophies for 26 years,millions in debt and relegation!

We weren't that sh*t in my time here. My first full season was the 93/94 which ended in a Cup Final so I've been fortunate, although we were in a relegation fight for much of that season too.

The issue is that whilst Roman has spent a lot of money, he's probably spent more than he needed to. His ability to outspend the other clubs papered over a lot of cracks but that can't go on forever which is why the academy was so key. He wanted to create his own superstars but the lack of a long-term plan with stable presences at the top meant we f**ked up a lot of promising young players simply by chopping and changing so many things.

Then when he starts investing in young players who like to play expansive football, he goes and hires a coach is next to the word 'Pragmatism' in the dictionary. It's this muddled thinking that is the issue and then there's the stuff like hiring Rafa or trying to screw over the CPO that just alienates supporters of this club who can probably remember more hard times at Chelsea than you and I combined.

He's a great owner in terms of investment but I think he needs to take a step back from the footballing side and hire the right people for the job, not Avram Grant's protege and his 'senior advisor' from his oil interests.

You know he's clueless, kindly guide him in hiring the "right people for the job". Rubbish