1 hour ago, Davey Baby said:

I'm afraid it's really bad. We'll miss out on top four and rightly so, and it's all on the manager. Maybe the board could have helped him more, no doubt about it, but we should be finishing top four, but we have no spirit, I've said it time and time again, we never come back when we go behind, our heads drop, we have no leadership, must-win games and we don't even go down fighting, we just meekly surrender, Tottenham put in loads of tackles today, we didn't, and we needed the win more than them, we're just so brittle, the manager has sapped our spirit, his demeanour has been poor all season, he sulks, no wonder we're f**king sh*t, we're an embarrassment, we have no fight, no desire, no pride. Luiz has been cut adrift and we really miss him. We're a team with no personality. The manager has spent the whole season blaming others. Well I know who I blame. I'm counting the days until he leaves, and I have been for a long time now. He doesn't want to be here, he's made that clear. How can he expect the players to run through brick walls for him? The second-half today was embarrassing, and we've had a few performances like that lately, quite a few. We're just not up for it, and that's the biggest crime of all. It really has gone from the sublime to the ridiculous.

But what changed Davey?

We were perfectly fine last season. 

1 hour ago, carrickblue said:

this is a great article.

we've had a fantastic 20 year period - obviously the most successful in the club's history, but is there a plan for the next 3 seasons or the next 5? As well as a landmark stadium, we have to have to team that is competitive with the best in England and Europe, otherwise building the stadium is just folly   

That's just it. We have some really key decisions to make, ones that could shape the club for the foreseeable future. Our ambitions have been to grow the club on the commercial side, signing valuable contracts with sponsors. This coupled with a bigger stadium should make us a very valuable asset. In order though for this to come to fruition we have to keep competitive on the field. We have become complacent,happy in the knowledge that some silverware coupled with CL football will l keep us on the upward trajectory on minimum spend. Others though also chase the dream and have now surpassed us. Our business model of selling big to replace with cheaper younger players only works whilst we have good assets to sell. Courtois, Hazard and Kante are now the only ones with any significant value and if we continue to buy as poorly as in the last 12 months we will hit a downward spiral eventually. Significant investment is now needed on the field to keep us in the upper echelons whilst the redevelopment of the Bridge takes place. This includes making sure we have a manager who fully buys into the long term view. Failing that, a fall from grace now could be catastrophic.

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

But what changed Davey?

We were perfectly fine last season. 

EPL teams have improved.

More matches this season.

30% hike in transfer fees left the club flat footed and buying lucky dips.

Key players with minds elsewhere (new clubs, WC2018, wives/babies).

And last but not least, the loss of our club captain and legend.

 

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

But what changed Davey?

We were perfectly fine last season. 

Davey has made all the points that should be made.

What changed from last season is Conte wasn't moaning last season about his team. 

He believed in them (and even if he didn't he did not give that impression) and worked with what he had.

This season as the board didn't back him to the extent he wanted he lost control and unfortunately in expressing his disappointment also indicated his team are not good enough. Some great votr of confidence from your manager.

That's what took away their confidence and fight in facing whoever they came up against. A lot of dominating teams comes from you being confident in yourselves.

I want him to stay as manager because it is clear he's a good manager and even this season you can still see players improving but he needs to correctly identify his error and amend it for the team to succeed like last season.

And Baka.

Conte chucked the towel in last summer and been moaning about quality of his team ever since - bet that's gone down well with the squad.  He wants to go, let's give him what he wants...thanks for the title but been badly shown up with demands of four competitions came into play...five wins from 19 is inexcusable, even if none of the signings weren't his choice...although I think he's used that claim as a smokescreen/excuse for his own failinbs

Adios conte 

Have we not had the season we deserved? 

8 hours ago, Sparkz said:

In fairness to Conte his other options in CM are Bakayoko and Drinkwater. While Fabregas doesn't really work great in a two we haven't actually got many options. If we played a 3 man midfield in a 3-5-2 we'd have lost an attacking player in a game we need to win

 

The board absolutely f**ked us over in the Summer with some atrocious signings, but this team should still be good enough for top 4. We were 3rd in January, 1 point behind Utd, 2 points ahead of Liverpool and 6 points ahead of Spurs. In these last few months Conte has looked like he doesn't give a sh*t and has made some awful tactical decisions

I have to disagree. While Drinkwater is not a world class signing, the guy is a much better option than the drivel cesc puts in week in and week out. And its not just about cesc. Moses should have been replaced in the first 11 by zappacosta. I really like Moses but his form has been declining hopelessly. Same goes for palmeiri. Its as if Conte's ego is so massive that he would f**k the team over just so to make a point that so and so player were not my choice so I am not going to play them.

11 hours ago, JM7 said:

Sky said that Conte said to Martin Tyler that “Chelsea are having the season they deserve”, basically meaning that they should have spent more etc. He refused to do the interview and said he can’t be too honest  

Thats a disgraceful statement from Conte. Shocking and shows his mindset. 

We should have sacked him after Bournemouth. He just doesn’t care. 

Perhaps he's implying we should never have sold Matic. Our midfield has been a f**king joke without him alongside Kante.

Edited April 2, 20188 yr by the special one

34 minutes ago, didierforever said:

I have to disagree. While Drinkwater is not a world class signing, the guy is a much better option than the drivel cesc puts in week in and week out. And its not just about cesc. Moses should have been replaced in the first 11 by zappacosta. I really like Moses but his form has been declining hopelessly. Same goes for palmeiri. Its as if Conte's ego is so massive that he would f**k the team over just so to make a point that so and so player were not my choice so I am not going to play them.

Start Drinkwater and everyone is up in arms about how defensive we set up. 

Once again the team was set up well, they didn't capitalize on their chances and Conte is found wanting with his adjustments i.e. subs. 

 

Conte needs to resign now (although he won't as he wants the pay off).

His negativity is wearing me down, the fans and clearly the team.

If you think his team selections, tactics, demeanour and attitude have all been amazing this season and faultless, whilst our dramatic fall from grace can be apportioned purely to the board then I disagree with you. This man plays the victim wonderfully in the press and is at least equally accountable for the regression of the team this season.

Thanks for last season Antonio but you aren't the manager for us long term. 

 

1 hour ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Start Drinkwater and everyone is up in arms about how defensive we set up. 

Once again the team was set up well, they didn't capitalize on their chances and Conte is found wanting with his adjustments i.e. subs. 

Who cares if everyone is up in arms. Was not everyone up in arms when conte consistently started matic over cesc last season? Are not those idiots being forced to eat their words? That matic, formation and the "defensive set up" helped us win games and ultimately the title. Cesc in a 2-man mid does not work. It has not worked, it is not working and it is never going to work. How many times does our midfield need to be overrun for the multi million earning egotistical person to understand that?

The team was set up just as well as the team was set up against barca and united. We ended up losing. We keep making the same exact mistakes, and end up losing the same exact way. Sorry, but that is not setting up well. There is something called learning for the mistakes, which conte as well as the players simply have not done at all. The guy deserves what he is going to get - a sacking. On the other hand, we will not only survive, but like it is our way - we will thrive under a new manager. Meanwhile I am sure Conte will find another team and board to fight with and end up ruining the team or quitting on it like he has done with us.

Didier, sorry but that is what we doing. The manager have good first season, they zero support and we f**** him and sack him.

This is our board way.

Conte will find new team and start winning i`m sure of that, he has that type of mentality.

We won`t find top quality manager, not with that board we have. Also we won`t be in CL. And no way in that competiton we will win the title next year with the new manager. It probably be hard battle for top 4, but we will be the worst team to fight for it, because of our board.

The board fu**** this team hard. They need to go.

Otherwise we will suffer and next season will show i`m right again.

 

8 minutes ago, brakeit said:

Didier, sorry but that is what we doing. The manager have good first season, they zero support and we f**** him and sack him.

This is our board way.

Conte will find new team and start winning i`m sure of that, he has that type of mentality.

We won`t find top quality manager, not with that board we have. Also we won`t be in CL. And no way in that competiton we will win the title next year with the new manager. It probably be hard battle for top 4, but we will be the worst team to fight for it, because of our board.

The board fu**** this team hard. They need to go.

Otherwise we will suffer and next season will show i`m right again.

 

Wasnt it the players who f**ked Jose not the board?

1 minute ago, chef said:

Wasnt it the players who f**ked Jose not the board?

Jose f**ked himself .... same as Conte has done this year ...

Is that really so?

Can i remember you, at what place Conte took the team ??? Ten place.

And he made us Champion.

Can i remember you, we finish 10 with 2 different manager. Hiddink have exactly half season and could atleast place us in top 6. But we finish 10.

Can i remember you, how many said, that this team is washed-out and we have to change most of them ??? And how the team have zero discipline and every player doing what they want ???

You are fast to forget that. When you look at the manager work, you should look his season overall, not just last months, cause a lot of things could go wrong.

Wasn`t we all agreed at the end of the last season, that the board should support Conte and give him all he wanted???

So many of you turn the table, that was the board intention with all the s**** they was doing.

To put the blame on the manager once again and wash their hands with him.

This is done so many times in the past.

The reality is we didn`t have a great team, when Conte took place. Hes tactics, style and motivation made us Champions.

But we have a lot average players, and you could have get the best of them for some time, maximum of 1 season, we see this many times, and then their back to their average level.

I`m speaking about washed players like Pedro, Willy, totally average players like Moses and so on. Conte said it many, many times we need big quality.

We didn`t add that, we are even down at that, after few sale.

Sorry but the main problem is not Conte. Hes sacking won`t change anything. This will repeat time after time, the problem is, with that competition in England we won`t the title this time.

If i have to bet, i didn`t give a chance to us, to win the title in the next 2-3 years. I just don`t see it happen.

If Guardiola decide to stay, United level will go only higher and higher.
So we can fight with Liverpool and Totenham for top 4. And we could reach it, because they will sell this and this player and their level won`t go higher then that.

That is from me.

I want the best for the club, but i don`t see bright future with this board across.

 

 

It says something that there are so many replies under this topic and it's clear that Conte has now become the scapegoat for bad results. I won't say bad performances, as we played good football in the first half. I remember thinking, let's get to half time without conceding and then a wonder strike evens it up. From then on it didn't appear as if the team believed that they could win the match and remember we had to win.

Defensive mistakes, silly defensive mistakes were the cause of the defeat and when they are on the pitch then responsibility lies with the players, not the manager. Hazard's poor form continues, Willian was off the pace and Christiansen had another horror show.

My thinking now is that Bakayoko was foisted upon Conte, would explain his bad humour and would also explain why he played him so often. Not that Bakayoko has any more blame than others for the performances.

There's always next season...

5 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Start Drinkwater and everyone is up in arms about how defensive we set up. 

Once again the team was set up well, they didn't capitalize on their chances and Conte is found wanting with his adjustments i.e. subs. 

 

This for me. Conte has been outsmarted in the second half og almost every game we have played this year. Poch pushed Son out wide and made him run against Alonso. Dele Alli was also pushed out wide  and we couldnt cope with the change. Conte made his usual move of chucking Giroud on but it didnt seem to be any plan behind it what do ever, its just tossing on another striker for the sake of it. I mean we ended up hoofing it to Willian ffs. 

The complete inability to change a game and to have a plan B, his constant moaning about players not beeing good enough and the overreliance on players he pined for in Morata and Bakayoko despite them beeing absolute dross for most of the year has been the biggest factor of our play this season imo. The fact that we have had more games (CL and Semifinal of the LC) hasnt helped either.

Of the things that are wrong with the club atm, Conte is the easiest to change. Saying the board has to go for not spending enough money is just assinine, thats Romans call and he isnt going anywere. 

If the following is true..who can blame Conte. The board has f^cked up the squad with the sh*ttiest signings and the manager has no say on 'his team'. As a manager I would get out asap! They did not sign even one of Contes choices and looks like didnt even ask him about Drinkwater, Barkley, Giroud etc. 

Plus no way Conte would have sold Matic to a premier rival..hes been pissed ever since. Board making sh*tty decisions all round, thinking they know football. Run by a woman...fck off. 

Vialli is quoted by ESPN saying:

“Conte can’t wait to leave Chelsea. He can’t stand that they sell or buy players without consulting him. The truth is, Chelsea would like a manager who is more of a club man.”

11 hours ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Have we not had the season we deserved? 

“Honestly. I think that I’m giving - the players are giving - everything this season. We are working very hard to try to have a good season, but I think that, in the end, we are deserving this season. It means that our value is this.” Antonio Conte (post match press conference)

This simple summation is, I would contend, the continuation of a Conte mantra of the last few months. In essence, after applying his work, work, work ethic, you get what you deserve in life and this is where CFC deserves to be under his leadership at this precise moment in time. We have the team we deserve, the ambition levels we deserve and, by the same token, the manager we deserve. Yet in reality I'm sure Antonio doesn't quite see it all in these black and white terms. Certainly not when it comes to his own culpability, his own ever-increasing sulleness and muted contribution to the season's campaign. He believed he deserved more when it came to the board's backing over transfers and in his eyes, without that financial support, his level of ambition was never going to be satisfied, there would be no second Premier League title and no Champions League success story to tell.

From the beginning of the year Antonio Conte has had the air of a man resigned to his fate and no amount of fighting-against-the-odds rhetoric was going to dispel the negativity that type of body language brought with it. Indeed, the Premier League form table for 2018 [so far] shows Chelsea in 14^th place, level with Crystal Palace, a point ahead of Arsenal and Saints, Stoke, Huddersfield and West Brom bringing up the rear. This is not company we should be keeping, especially when we are being told that it is no more than we deserve, and to suggest that such form is 'our value in this' and is reflective of the whole season is to be about as uneconomical with the truth as you can possibly be. In truth, the team has not been worthy of the name since its manager denounced it as deserving of no more in that Great Scheme of Things otherwise known as the Title Race.

Little wonder, if ever we were going to give up on a much treasured home record against Spurs it was going to be in such circumstances, almost as if we should be knowing of our new place in the Premiership pecking order and the fans, along with the board, must accept the situation for what it is - a failure to evolve as a result of our not spending more than we did in the transfer market, at the behest of a manager who, we are told, has already started to look for pastures new. And, lest we forget that this financial route to success is the only way some fans would see us competing against the likes of Man City and United, we then had the rather unedifying sight of Callum Hudson-Odoi being brought on in the 88^th minute, as if to emphasise the futility of our even giving a moment's thought to bringing these kids through the system if we want to compete at this level. All so depressing, especially for Roman, who must now ponder over the timescale to bring all this breast-beating to an end.

In short, it is all that remains to be done and on this occasion I have less sympathy for our latest managerial fatality than I've had for others over the last decade. I sense he hasn't really been with us for a while now, having assessed our 'value' and our potential to increase it over the next few nomadic seasons he merely waits for Roman to pull the trigger and with it signal a final payoff, the owner for once being loath to maximise his managerial losses quite so readily Nor, unless I'm very much mistaken, is there any likelihood of an FA Cup winning saving grace to salvage this sorry situation, for even if the Saints are unlikely to go marching in against us either United or our newly-created nemesis are more than capable of keeping Conte's beaten cup final record intact.

That said, I have it on good authority, regardless of how hard we work... we don't really deserve it anyway.

Edited April 2, 20188 yr by Dorset

The days of the manager having final say in players brought in and out are over. If Conte expected that then there has been some severe miscommunication going on. But then again thats the reason he left Juve so he has a history there. Considering the performance of the two players he wanted and got he should be treading carefully 

12 hours ago, The Brit said:

Conte chucked the towel in last summer and been moaning about quality of his team ever since - bet that's gone down well with the squad.  

He's right about the quality though, would we be happier if he kept that bit quiet ? probably not.

If you had asked me before yesterday top 4 or a fa cup final win, I would of taken a cup final win without hesitation, I'm old skool and winning the FA cup is still big for me, now top 4 is over anyway we can concentrate on Wembley, for the possibility of a cup final win and I feel only chance of a win the manager must be changed as to try and put some positivety back into the team

We won't win the FA Cup under Conte, He's undermined the squad too much for that.