Our handling of sacking managers in the Roman era has been terrible, but this takes the cake for the worst handling of sacking a manager I've seen in Roman's 15 years as owner.

Just a total lack of respect and class afforded to Conte who led us to some success in the past two seasons. I've been prepared for a while that he wasn't going to manage us this season, but the way we've handled it has been amateurish.

The footballing world is scoffing at us now.

7 hours ago, Argo said:

If the rumours are true that he vanished off the face of the earth for 10 days last summer, then quite frankly he deserves no sympathy whatsoever.

Come on mate, we’re a football club. We should be able to rise above petty tit for tat surely?! It’s not really hard to release a statement ‘chelsea FC would like to announce we have parted ways with Antonio Conte. We wish to thank him for the trophies won in the previous two seasons, but we feel the club is in need of a change... blah blah blah’ or something.

 

Just looking for us to show a bit of class, shouldn’t be that unreasonable for a club of our size. Irrelevant of how it ended, he won us two trophies in two years. 

 

We sacked Carlo in the tunnel FS. Our club is shocking at the way it handles getting ride of managers and personally I feel we have enough experience we should be better!

8 hours ago, Argo said:

If the rumours are true that he vanished off the face of the earth for 10 days last summer, then quite frankly he deserves no sympathy whatsoever.

And board vanished other 355 days of the year.

Unbelievable.

7 hours ago, Barrettinator said:

Do you know how much he cost the club in the Costa deal? We were offered 150m by a Chinese club. Could have taken it but then opted to give him a new contract. And then Conte f**ked it up with his SMS stunt. I supported him at the time because he was the manager and Costa had a history of being a child but can you honestly say right now that Conte acted right? Add to that as a poster mentioned just now that he went missing for 10 days last summer. Plus the constant bashing of the club in the media last season which was affecting the club's image. I can go on and on. 

This is the same guy who got up and dumped Juventus right in the middle of pre-season but it's suddenly not a nice thing to do now? On top of all he has cost us? Look, we're grateful for the title but he has absolutely no ground to stand on as far as "respect". He was all but baiting the board into sacking him between January and May because he knew he was guaranteed his pay off. There were rumours he actually wanted out LAST summer. 

He can end this thing now and let's all say our thanks and well wishes and move on but if he wants to do this the hard way, he may end up having to pay Chelsea millions in damages. He's also making himself look like a cancer to other clubs that may hire him down the line. There's really no upside to him trying to be stubborn about getting fired.

Where are you getting that 150m figure from exactly? As I recall it was about half that and I’ll even have a look for some evidence to back it up...

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/sport/football/800453/Diego-Costa-China-Chelsea-transfer-news-Tianjin-Quanjian-Chinese-Super-League/amp

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/diego-costas-agent-meets-with-tianjin-quanjian-as-chinese-giants-prepare-80m-bid-for-chelsea-striker-a3440476.html%3famp

 

Both quoting 75-80m. 

 

For the way that Costa was acting since he joined us? Yes, I never felt he was fully committed to Chelsea in the time he was here. Bashing the club for the same things the fans hammer in to the club for all the time? 

 

You think he’ll end up paying us damages? For what exactly? Being sacked?

 

a cancer? Really?! I think considering the whole world knows how poorly we, as a club handle these things, it’s more than likely he could walk in to another job if he wants. 

 

Anyway, we’ll need to agree to disagree as I think a football club the size of Chelsea should be able to rise above little spats and part amacably with trophy winning managers. It’s a business, they shouldn’t have the same emotive reaction as a fan. It’s poor on the part of the club and it doesn’t reflect well on us in my opinion.

Given Conte had seemingly been trying to get him self sacked all of last season. I don't see why so many people are up in arms at the fact the club finally decided to sack him. Giving him what he has wanted since February although potentially minus the huge payoff he was so desperate for.

Conte is a great coach and I wish he was backed either last summer or in January as I'm sure an energised Conte will have done wonders for the club again, but it was Conte that decided to sulk, attack the board in almost every interview and by the sounds of things take his frustrations out on his players, which is unacceptable in any line of work. 

I also get that Chelsea could have sacked him a lot sooner yes and he may have even found a job if we did, but from the clubs perspective it was far better having him here as a bargaining chip with ADL and I very much doubt we would have been able to get Jorginho if we had gone activated Sarri's release clause without negotiating directly with ADL to release him, as he really is that petty. Thus allowing Conte to do one last good thing for the club he was being paid millions to work for.  

So who's taking todays training sessions then? 

From 1st season he was a breath of fresh air. To this season he wasn't interested. Behind the scenes I can only imagine it's only the tip of iceberg from what we know. His after match interviews how he attack the board. He wanted out. Yes costa at times sulk. But than that's forwards for you how he treated him well wasn't ideal. He lost value in doing so. We never got into Europe more money lost. Where he openly knock the players. If I had a boss that kept saying I was basically rubbish hardly any incentive to win anything. Conte didn't want to stay obvious but to now cry that he won't be paid etc. After what he did. Yes he won us cups. But I don't think he can moan about treatment. So the board didn't back him does that give any manager the right to be constantly attacking the board. Half the season and more. 

Hazard and Courtois’ transfer plans forced Roman Abramovich to sack Antonio Conte. #CFC (Express)

Chelsea have desperately been trying to convince Hazard to sign a new £300,000-a-week contract, but word quickly got round that he was becoming annoyed by head coach Antonio Conte and it showed on the pitch. (Telegraph) #CFC

David Luiz and Willian would have never played for Chelsea again while Antonio Conte was in in charge and there is every likelihood others would have been frozen out as well. (Telegraph) #CFC

Chelsea chairman Bruce Buck drove to Cobham training ground this morning to deliver the news to Conte. Buck was then seen leaving the training ground at 2.10pm. The first-team players were given the afternoon off from their pre-season training regime. #CFC (PA)

Whilst there is probably a nugget of some truths in these sudden influx of stories, reeks of the club leaking sh*t to make themselves look better and smear Conte. All these different outlets suddenly with a new inside story all on the same day. Fishy.

Edited July 13, 20188 yr by Stim

You've only seen half the picture. the board can't defend himself so don't believe in every world that comes out of his mouth. I can easily see the way he's leading the team from the sideline transforming into a huge, pain in the as* in relationship between him and the club.

Conte was trying to repeat the same mistake Jose made at time - he wanted to get rid of our best players in order to bring some expensive average soldiers that would've listened to him. I was rooting Jose when he cast away Mata, De Brewin, Lukaku and Salah and then sold them in favor of Oscar, Eto'O, Marco Marin and Willian. I was wrong and delusional out of love and respect. Never gonna do it again. CFC > any manager. Simple as that.

2 hours ago, Jezz said:

Our handling of sacking managers in the Roman era has been terrible, but this takes the cake for the worst handling of sacking a manager I've seen in Roman's 15 years as owner.

Just a total lack of respect and class afforded to Conte who led us to some success in the past two seasons. I've been prepared for a while that he wasn't going to manage us this season, but the way we've handled it has been amateurish.

The footballing world is scoffing at us now.

I kind of agree with you but let's not lose sight of the fact that Chelsea has been and probably remains, one of the best gigs in town. A couple of years at the helm, in the spotlight constantly and then sacked with a lovely big pay off at the end of it. I remember reading a quote from Claudio Ranieri that whilst he loved his time at Chelsea being sacked was one of the best things that happened to him financially. He was immediately set up for life. I know it's not all about the money, but if Conte is in a job in a couple of months with £9m or the lion's share of that in the bank is he really going to be worried how we pulled the trigger on him.

1 hour ago, EdinburghBlue said:

Where are you getting that 150m figure from exactly? As I recall it was about half that and I’ll even have a look for some evidence to back it up...

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/sport/football/800453/Diego-Costa-China-Chelsea-transfer-news-Tianjin-Quanjian-Chinese-Super-League/amp

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/diego-costas-agent-meets-with-tianjin-quanjian-as-chinese-giants-prepare-80m-bid-for-chelsea-striker-a3440476.html%3famp

 

Both quoting 75-80m. 

 

For the way that Costa was acting since he joined us? Yes, I never felt he was fully committed to Chelsea in the time he was here. Bashing the club for the same things the fans hammer in to the club for all the time? 

 

You think he’ll end up paying us damages? For what exactly? Being sacked?

 

a cancer? Really?! I think considering the whole world knows how poorly we, as a club handle these things, it’s more than likely he could walk in to another job if he wants. 

 

Anyway, we’ll need to agree to disagree as I think a football club the size of Chelsea should be able to rise above little spats and part amacably with trophy winning managers. It’s a business, they shouldn’t have the same emotive reaction as a fan. It’s poor on the part of the club and it doesn’t reflect well on us in my opinion.

Could have sworn I saw 150m euros somewhere but fair enough. We still got way less than his market value because of Conte.

And btw, I'm saying if he decides to fight this in court, CFC can win that case easily and if the board want to be petty, they can decide to sue him for damages. My point is, we haven't taken that route and I don't think he should be looking to take it either, although it would be less surprising if he did now considering we're reportedly firing him without a payoff. 

He'll probably walk into a club like Milan who are in shambles right now and will jump at it. But another top club competing for titles will be very skeptical about hiring him. It's not just with us though, is it? He also had a falling out at Juventus. 

I get your point about us not needing to be petty but surely you have to understand the point of view of the board considering the millions we lost because of him and him almost sending our top players out of the club (Hazard, Courtois). He already succeeded once with Costa. 

I can almost guarantee you the reason why there hasn't been a statement yet about his sacking is because he's challenging it with his lawyers or something. We've never had a problem releasing those statements. We all remember how quick the "The Individual" statement was released.

So basically reading between the lines the board is using the Costa situation to not pay Conte LOL LOL, I bet he didn't think that text would come back to hit his pocket.

I would say if this is true very clever from the board, should never have sent that text.

40 minutes ago, Giordano_Bruno said:

You've only seen half the picture. the board can't defend himself so don't believe in every world that comes out of his mouth. I can easily see the way he's leading the team from the sideline transforming into a huge, pain in the as* in relationship between him and the club.

Conte was trying to repeat the same mistake Jose made at time - he wanted to get rid of our best players in order to bring some expensive average soldiers that would've listened to him. I was rooting Jose when he cast away Mata, De Brewin, Lukaku and Salah and then sold them in favor of Oscar, Eto'O, Marco Marin and Willian. I was wrong and delusional out of love and respect. Never gonna do it again. CFC > any manager. Simple as that.

This is EXACTLY my sentiment about this. NEVER gonna do that again. Imagine if we had KDB, Salah and Lukaku along with Hazard right now. It's one thing to miss out on targets, it's another to have them and then foolishly let them go. Over and over and over again. 

1 hour ago, Sindre said:

So who's taking todays training sessions then? 

Eddie Newton and Carlo Cudicini apparently. 

40 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Hazard and Courtois’ transfer plans forced Roman Abramovich to sack Antonio Conte. #CFC (Express)

Chelsea have desperately been trying to convince Hazard to sign a new £300,000-a-week contract, but word quickly got round that he was becoming annoyed by head coach Antonio Conte and it showed on the pitch. (Telegraph) #CFC

David Luiz and Willian would have never played for Chelsea again while Antonio Conte was in in charge and there is every likelihood others would have been frozen out as well. (Telegraph) #CFC

So is Hazard in charge at Chelsea FC?

Hazard is overrated, William is highly overrated, Luiz is not a player anymore, just for a miracle form Conte and 3-4-3 he seemed like a real player.

For sure Hazard is the best player of Chelsea FC for ability to dribble, although he is overrated and if he goes I don't cry for sure. 

 

Haven't see any official words on the sacking, but I guess if JT talked about it, it's done. We should have done a lot better by finishing the sage so much earlier, but for whatever reason it didn't happen. I suppose if Jorginho is signed tomorrow, it's probably worth some of the trouble. For Conte, he will get paid in full this season so I can't say I feel sorry for him, he had chances to move to another job but declined as well. He has done a great job in his 2 years, after winning the unexpected title in the first season, the second season is always going to be tricky, missing out on the top 5 automatically seen as a failure. His biggest error was that text to Costa, put himself and the club in a really awkward position in the transfer market, and it definitely turn the hierarchy and some of the players against him. Like someone said, it's a learning experience at Chelsea for him too.

He will manage another top tier club next year and win plenty in the future, hopefully not in England for our sake.

44 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Hazard and Courtois’ transfer plans forced Roman Abramovich to sack Antonio Conte. #CFC (Express)

Chelsea have desperately been trying to convince Hazard to sign a new £300,000-a-week contract, but word quickly got round that he was becoming annoyed by head coach Antonio Conte and it showed on the pitch. (Telegraph) #CFC

David Luiz and Willian would have never played for Chelsea again while Antonio Conte was in in charge and there is every likelihood others would have been frozen out as well. (Telegraph) #CFC

Whilst there may well be truth behind these stories, although I doubt that these are actually totally accurate, this is the wrong kind of reporting I want to see. If we have indeed pulled the trigger on Conte yet, and for me this has all started with Sky Italy who told us, 48 hours 2 and half months ago (exaggeration but you get my drift), and I am still waiting for official confirmation, I do hope this has happened due to irreconcilable differences between Conte and his employers not Conte and his employees. When all said and done, much as we idolize these players, they are extremely well paid professionals on individual service contracts and should have little bearing on the direction the club take with its management. Granted we want to keep our best players and we want them to play the best that they can, but surely we don't want a scenario developing whereby marquee players are effectively holding the club to ransom as to who the manager is.

Don't get me wrong I was appalled by some of Conte's comments and body language to the world's press last season, which for me completely undermined our credibility, and in a round about way did throw the existing players under the bus. But still the vision and direction of the team has to be the club's or RA's in appointing and working with the manager and not the players perception of how they should be treated. Shouldn't it?

4 minutes ago, Brutos said:

So basically reading between the lines the board is using the Costa situation to not pay Conte LOL LOL, I bet he didn't think that text would come back to hit his pocket.

I would say if this is true very clever from the board, should never have sent that text.

On the contrary, it is thanks to Conte that the value of Costa has risen, because after the tenth place Costa was a Crouch more pain in the ass.

9 hours ago, Barrettinator said:

[Maurizio Sarri on Transfer Market]: "Transfer Market is the refuge of the weak. It is for those who can't train their players. I'm a coach. Give me a group of players and I will coach them."

That said, we've already gotten the one player he supposedly asked for in Jorginho. I think he'll be just fine.

Not saying he's going to last long. No one does these days. But I doubt he'll be rolling out in his pressers every weak tearing the club a new one for not getting him new toys.

You think that's part of the reason for wanting Sarri?

He'll get on with it even if he doesn't get the best signings which is what Conte seemed stuck on. 

Of course players should be in charge. Messi has been in charge, Ronaldo has been in charge, Drogba, Lampard, JT, Ibra, Neymar. Hazard and Courtois waited damn too long to step up. Like it or not, this the era of the players and apparently they are above the coaches. And I don't mind it at all if we are talking about the delusional ones, trying to replace De Brewin with Oscar, Lukaku with Eto'o, Hazard with Ciro Immobile, Luiz with Coulibali or Costa with Morata.

Just now, TheChelseaBlues said:

You think that's part of the reason for wanting Sarri?

He'll get on with it even if he doesn't get the best signings which is what Conte seemed stuck on. 

I have no doubt it played a part in the club's decision. It's part of the reason why Sarri has never won a title. Before Napoli, all the club he had managed were Serie B and below. Low level, low budget clubs. Wasn't until he got Empoli promited to Serie A on a shoestring budget and stayed up while playing some beautiful football that he got hired by Napoli.

Of course we're always going to look to sign players but a manager like this puts a lot less pressure on the board for signings and I'm sure they'll be loving that.

5 minutes ago, U Carcamagnu said:

On the contrary, it is thanks to Conte that the value of Costa has risen, because after the tenth place Costa was a Crouch more pain in the ass.

Definitely a troll.

12 minutes ago, Barrettinator said:

Could have sworn I saw 150m euros somewhere but fair enough. We still got way less than his market value because of Conte.

And btw, I'm saying if he decides to fight this in court, CFC can win that case easily and if the board want to be petty, they can decide to sue him for damages. My point is, we haven't taken that route and I don't think he should be looking to take it either, although it would be less surprising if he did now considering we're reportedly firing him without a payoff. 

He'll probably walk into a club like Milan who are in shambles right now and will jump at it. But another top club competing for titles will be very skeptical about hiring him. It's not just with us though, is it? He also had a falling out at Juventus. 

I get your point about us not needing to be petty but surely you have to understand the point of view of the board considering the millions we lost because of him and him almost sending our top players out of the club (Hazard, Courtois). He already succeeded once with Costa. 

I can almost guarantee you the reason why there hasn't been a statement yet about his sacking is because he's challenging it with his lawyers or something. We've never had a problem releasing those statements. We all remember how quick the "The Individual" statement was released.

How can they win it easily though? You’ve not actually answered my original question? You’ve just repeated that they could win it easily in court, I’m asking how? 

 

Any guesses about who he will walk in to is all hyperbole at the moment, only time will tell where he ends up.

 

Courtois has alwayssss flirted with leaving Spain, irrelevant of Conte or not. Hazard, again, speculation, he echoed Contes words last year about waiting to see what transfer activity we had. He didn’t say waiting to see what kind of football we play this year. 

 

Maybe so, and he has every right to do that, but the club are still capable of releasing a brief statement on it rather than letting the players confirm it.