Bakayoko world class at Monaco ? He was one of the worst performers from that group from what i seen. Falcao, Mendy, Silva, Mbappe, Moutinho, Lemar, Fabinho, they all performed better than Bakayoko last season. Bakayoko was also the main reason why they went out of the Champions League last season. His mistakes cost Monaco the game. Bakayoko was often caught out of position last season, fouling players more often than he should be and playing lazy passes. The Bakayoko we are seeing now is the Bakayoko i was seeing at Monaco, the difference now is that his confidence is shot.

Conte has been supported (to a degree) but nowhere near as you would expect for reigning Champions. We had a horrible summer transfer window, despite getting Morata (who, in my view, is a downgrade on Costa) and our squad is still in need of at least two to three top class signings.

A token £15m Ross Barkley gesture is not enough to convince me that the board are fully behind Conte, and sadly, I think he knows he only has a matter of months left.

This is Chelsea, after all. It seems we're not happy unless we immeadiately follow up a successful season by undoing the good work, only to get a new manager and the whole cycle starts again!

Edited January 15, 20188 yr by Elliott

Why would he stay? If he makes top 4 (hopefully!!), then he'll be getting offers from all over. 

And also (pardon the negativity, but it's difficult not to be negative at the moment), it's going to be really difficult to replace him with a top class manager - if we keep up with the austerity plan, we're going to struggle keeping Hazard. Managers, nor top players, will want to come to us.

The knock on effects of the current policy damage the image and all of the allure that has been built over the past decade and could do a lot more harm than the board realize...slippery slope  

conte also needs to take blame for the board not backing him. can you see it from the boards perspective. you had an already world class striker in costa on the books, the coach decides to berate and argue with him, instead of sitting down and talking about it. he then gets into a text spat with the striker, the striker refuses to come back to the club. i am not surprised the board are pissed off having to pay out more money for a striker when conte pretty much pushed out our best striker. now he wants another world class striker to replace a striker we already bought for 70m to replace the previous world class striker we had. lol what a fecking mess. conte seems to be too hard headed to let things go and man manage properly. 

7 minutes ago, enigma said:

now he wants another world class striker to replace a striker we already bought for 70m to replace the previous world class striker we had. lol what a fecking mess. conte seems to be too hard headed to let things go and man manage properly. 

I don't think he has any interest in replacing Morata, but at the same time we do desperately need some support for Morata. Bats seems like a lovely guy, but it's not like we can rely on him to lead the line in the PL for 90 minutes. Having to play Hazard up front when Morata is out is really not a great place for us to be in.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

Bakayoko world class at Monaco ? He was one of the worst performers from that group from what i seen. Falcao, Mendy, Silva, Mbappe, Moutinho, Lemar, Fabinho, they all performed better than Bakayoko last season. Bakayoko was also the main reason why they went out of the Champions League last season. His mistakes cost Monaco the game. Bakayoko was often caught out of position last season, fouling players more often than he should be and playing lazy passes. The Bakayoko we are seeing now is the Bakayoko i was seeing at Monaco, the difference now is that his confidence is shot.

So having said all that we still decided to buy him. 

19 minutes ago, enigma said:

conte also needs to take blame for the board not backing him. can you see it from the boards perspective. you had an already world class striker in costa on the books, the coach decides to berate and argue with him, instead of sitting down and talking about it. he then gets into a text spat with the striker, the striker refuses to come back to the club. i am not surprised the board are pissed off having to pay out more money for a striker when conte pretty much pushed out our best striker. now he wants another world class striker to replace a striker we already bought for 70m to replace the previous world class striker we had. lol what a fecking mess. conte seems to be too hard headed to let things go and man manage properly. 

It's seems like some people have short memories when it comes to Costa. Conte didn't push Costa out at all, Costa wanted out before Conte arrived. He even said before last season started that he wanted to return to Atletico Madrid.

Things only started to go wrong with Conte and Costa when Costa himself tried to force a move to China half way through last season. When Costa didn't get his move, his performances went massively downhill and he was almost useless for us for the rest of the season.

Costa was the reason why Costa left, not Conte. He couldn't settle in England and wanted out, he would have left no matter who was in charge.

2 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

It's seems like some people have short memories when it comes to Costa. Conte didn't push Costa out at all, Costa wanted out before Conte arrived. He even said before last season started that he wanted to return to Atletico Madrid.

Things only started to go wrong with Conte and Costa when Costa himself tried to force a move to China half way through last season. When Costa didn't get his move, his performances went massively downhill and he was almost useless for us for the rest of the season.

Costa was the reason why Costa left, not Conte. He couldn't settle in England and wanted out, he would have left no matter who was in charge.

Exactly Right.

You must realise though Scott, that those factual details don't fit with some folks agenda. 

7 hours ago, didierforever said:

Our over reliance on Hazard is coming to the fore.

The guy has carried the team for the past 3/4 seasons. Won us 2 PL titles. He looked knackered against arsenal and Leicester. We need a world class player to take the load off him. Sanchez would have been ideal but never thought arsenal would sell him to us, that would have meant an all out riot among their fans, literally the last straw. So I can blame the board in that.

Morata has been so sub-par - Conte's choice

Bakayoko has been poor - Conte's choice? (well we did get him early)

and those 2 were our elite signings this season. Infact, the people they were replacing would have performed 10x times better. 

As for squad depth, the board needed to do better. Maybe we did not buy an LWB in summer because we thought we might have a shot at sandro in the winter. 

2nd ST was a shambles and we should have gotten Llorente done and dusted quickly. 

Yep Matic is the only player Conte wanted to keep but was sold.  Conte ran Costa out of town and he would be performing above Morata.  Conte has switched our formation and it's not working.  As you say we are 100% dependent on Hazard to create for us.  

5 hours ago, Sindre said:

Didn't want Matic sold - Sold to our main rival.
Wanted Alex Sandro, Kyle Walker, Danilo, Mendy - Got Zappacosta and no LWB
Wanted Llorente - Didn't get any backup striker
Wanted Oxlade Chamberlain - Lost him to Liverpool
Wanted Lukaku - Got Morata
Wanted quality central midfielders - Didn't get one quality player.
Wanted Alexis Sanchez - Lost him to Mourinho and United.

Yeah right was he backed. I'm surprised he's still here to be honest.

Has the best young defender in the world, benches him for Cahill!!!

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

It's seems like some people have short memories when it comes to Costa. Conte didn't push Costa out at all, Costa wanted out before Conte arrived. He even said before last season started that he wanted to return to Atletico Madrid.

Things only started to go wrong with Conte and Costa when Costa himself tried to force a move to China half way through last season. When Costa didn't get his move, his performances went massively downhill and he was almost useless for us for the rest of the season.

Costa was the reason why Costa left, not Conte. He couldn't settle in England and wanted out, he would have left no matter who was in charge.

that may be true, but players always talk about leaving. courtois has, hazard has, drogba has, etc, but i read that costa was still open to signing a new contract before the whole situation between him and conte put the brakes on that. no doubt costa acted poorly, but conte should also never have let it get to the point he wanted to leave. shouting and screaming at each other on the training ground is a terrible look. nothing that couldn't have been sorted out if they went to the office, sat down and talked it out. 

New fan here, don't read English so good, wanted to ask, are we in relegation or bottom half of the table? Is it 2015/16?? I looked at the table and it read to be that we are well positioned, not in great form but not cut loose from the pack .. it's read to me that there is all to play for

I saw some if Bakayoko last year and it was a mix of the sublime and the awful. At 22 he was worth a punt. Let's have some patience.

4 hours ago, enigma said:

that may be true, but players always talk about leaving. courtois has, hazard has, drogba has, etc, but i read that costa was still open to signing a new contract before the whole situation between him and conte put the brakes on that. no doubt costa acted poorly, but conte should also never have let it get to the point he wanted to leave. shouting and screaming at each other on the training ground is a terrible look. nothing that couldn't have been sorted out if they went to the office, sat down and talked it out. 

Sorry but can`t agree on anything. Costa himself said that he wanted to go in the summer and only Conte convincing him to stay. Conte did not do anything wrong. The team was perfect and they was huging with Costa and everything was okay, untill Costa decided to destroy it all and by himself.

The right and the best thing happen. The players need to understand who is the man in charge.

I just can`t believe there is people that blame Conte for Costa case, players that didn`t come and most importantly results.

Against Burnely we didn`t have a totall of 15 players and there was loanes as a starter. Bakayoko started to play injured and not fully fit, because we didn`t have option in the middle, of course because of the board.

Conte wanted and attacking minded midfielder, didn`t get it, same for Striker, and world class backs.

But we get Drinkwater for 35m and Zapacosta for 25 ....

We was about to get Richarlison in the summer from Fluminense for 11mln., but the board decided to not take him as a option, cause of course we have "enough". And now we are interested in him, when he is in Watford .... That is a disgrace, complete disgrace.

Some people never learn and never admit when they are wrong.

Enigma is the type of guy that all the summer said we was okay, we was okay and blq, blq, blq, defending the board at all cost.

Conte will leave at the summer, then we surely will go step down, and i`m pretty sure whatever Conte goes, he will challenge for the title.

Conte is in his peak and will won a lot of trophies in his career.

We are doing the same mistake time after time, again and again.

Same s*** that we did with Mou in his first period. He was in his peak then, and we sacked him.

Then he won everything with Inter ....

Same will happen with Conte for sure.

That was the last from me in this topic. I`m done.

 

 

Edited January 15, 20188 yr by brakeit

18 hours ago, Sindre said:

Didn't want Matic sold - Sold to our main rival.
Wanted Alex Sandro, Kyle Walker, Danilo, Mendy - Got Zappacosta and no LWB
Wanted Llorente - Didn't get any backup striker
Wanted Oxlade Chamberlain - Lost him to Liverpool
Wanted Lukaku - Got Morata
Wanted quality central midfielders - Didn't get one quality player.
Wanted Alexis Sanchez - Lost him to Mourinho and United.

Yeah right was he backed. I'm surprised he's still here to be honest.

I think that's sort of the case but how many of those turned us down despite having offers in for them. (Reportedly)

Lukaku chose United over us. Danilo chose City. Ox chose Liverpool. Llorente chose Spurs. Sandro didn't push for a move and that's what it seems to take for WC players to move these days. 

I'm not sayin the club have been blameless but Conte hasn't exactly lured many players in that he has supposedly wanted. Vidal doesn't seem to be itching to reunite with him, Nianggolan or Sandro either. That's in addition to the players above. 

But when you said that, you should also say the low offers our priceless Marina was sending and how slow she was operating. Same probably goes for salary. Danilo would have been ours if we didn`t wait so much, so City steal it. Absolutely same for Lukaku. It`s completely board fault there. Lukaku mind was at Chelsea, even Everton owner said that. Llorente didn`t chose Spurs, we did not want to give Swansea, what they want for him, and Spurs did it, and after that we didn`t go back with another offer but quit from him. Board was doing their best not to bring Llorente, cause he was not their profile player. Oxlade is a disgrace and again is completely our fault.

And Arsenal was willing to let Ox come to us, why would not do the same with Sanchez ??? Why exactly they will want to give it to City or United?

It`s just the board unwilling to bring Conte fav. list players.

Thats all.

Good luck, done.

 

2 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

I think that's sort of the case but how many of those turned us down despite having offers in for them. (Reportedly)

Lukaku chose United over us. Danilo chose City. Ox chose Liverpool. Llorente chose Spurs. Sandro didn't push for a move and that's what it seems to take for WC players to move these days. 

I'm not sayin the club have been blameless but Conte hasn't exactly lured many players in that he has supposedly wanted. Vidal doesn't seem to be itching to reunite with him, Nianggolan or Sandro either. That's in addition to the players above. 

That's something I've wondered about too. You usually hear players say after a transfer when  I heard Mourinho, Pep, Arsene.....was asking I was ready to make the move. Why are all the players that have worked with him not itching to ask for moves away from current clubs to re-unite with him.

He wanted Matic to stay, Mourinho wanted Matic at united, Matic made it happen.

The manager makes the transfers job easier for the club as well that's the truth. 

22 hours ago, Snedger said:

I'm sure you're right, but I'm just curious as to why Arsenal wouldn't sell him to us when they're so happy to regularly sell players to City and United and whilst we've seen Galas and Cech head their way. Why are we such a specific threat to Arsenal that the two Manchester clubs aren't?

Derby beats all, i guess.

The bottom line is, if £200M is not considered being "backed" then I agree with you all that say he wasn't backed.

But it is a lot and more than enough in my opinion.

 

50 minutes ago, Van Butsen said:

The bottom line is, if £200M is not considered being "backed" then I agree with you all that say he wasn't backed.

But it is a lot and more than enough in my opinion.

 

I hate to sound like an Arsenal fan but you really have to look at Net spend here. 

 

Yes we spent £200m (£195.12m) but we are only really signing to replace the players that we are selling. Look at City and Utd and they are signing to directly strengthen their entire squad. 

What's the point of spending 100m on players that are clearly not good enough though? 

It is really difficult to know what is going on.

We did well to win the league last season though towards the end I felt we were winning yet not playing well and then Arsenal turned us over at Wembley.

Not critical of the club replacing Costa with Morata though the verdict is open as to whether he is at the same level despite a good start.

Baka singed with an injury, Drinkwater signed with an injury and Barkley signed recovering from an injury. What is it with signing crocked players?

It is risky.

Conte wanted others like Sandro and didn’t get them so we didn’t improve and others did.

With the midfield issues he opted for playing Kante and Fab and we risked getting overrun so we changed to 3-5-2.  Defensively we improved though other teams now have us sussed and we are  not scoring.

We need to play with three attacking players and that is when Hazard can shine.

So Conte then has the challenge of getting the midfield and defence right with the personnel he has available.

I suspect Conte is unhappy as the club did not get the top players he wanted that would have given us a sharper edge, Sandro being the obvious one.

Now to get something it looks like we need to change the formation as we are looking at mediocrity unless we start scoring.

The board – we cannot second guess what has been going on yet the departure of Emenalo is interesting and we know the club are needing to invest or raise huge sums for the stadium.

Just maybe they have been initially impressed by the results and then dismayed that getting the right players for Conte’s system is just too costly and other managers once he has gone won’t play that system. Also perhaps annoyed by the public spat with Costa. Perhaps they have decided to cut their losses and instead invest in mediocre players to pay lip service to backing the manager knowing he will leave and they can rebuild under another using a 4-3-3 or 4-4-2.

 

42 minutes ago, Zeta said:

What's the point of spending 100m on players that are clearly not good enough though? 

agreed - i would rather 1 world class player for 100m than 4 Barkleys/Andy Carrolls any day of the week.

It's getting proper quality that we need and then that gives us a chance to promote Youth if needs be. 

Imagine if Chelsea went through with the 35m deal for Carroll, thats 70m on backup forwards. I would rather save the 70m and keep Abraham. 77m on DD and Baka, you could keep Van Ginkel or Rubens and sign a world class midfielder to play with Kante.

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

What's the point of spending 100m on players that are clearly not good enough though? 

Who's to say they're not good enough?  You think our signings have been poor in the Roman era?  I think we've been one of the better team.

We sign a player like Salah and everyone rants and raves that he isn't good enough and look what he does.  I think each player we've signed has enough potential/proven history to suggest the investment is worthwhile, and then it's up to the play themselves, the manager and the club to get the best out of him. 

A week ago we were second in the table!  Second in a season where city are doing what they are doing!! Also still in every competition.  The players who are supposedly not good enough are doing alright by me and considering their form, can only get better.  All positives.