Hard to tell with Conte to be honest. He always complains every transfer window, even when things are going well.

So who is out there to take over after he leaves As it's not if it's when I have already accepted life without and a seeing who is available or who wants a job where the board doesn't back you even when you deliver

I wonder if the purse strings are tightening because of the stadium upgrades. 

But if that's true I also don't get why we keep throwing our youth away. I think a lot of fans would be happy with not spending so much if we were integrating our youth into the first team, which we are not.

I think the boards only goal is to qualift into the champions league to get that sweet UEFA money. They really couldn't give a toss if we win.

2 hours ago, ivorycoast said:

 

I think the boards only goal is to qualift into the champions league to get that sweet UEFA money. They really couldn't give a toss if we win.

That's a load of nonsense, surely no one can believe that.

The first season honeymoon period is over with Conte, he's a hard man to please and often complains about lack of transfers. I think he showed restraint last year because it was his first season at the club but this is generally how he'll conduct himself.

I don't think he'll have a great relationship with the board because we like to wheel and deal and leave things quite late in the day.

 

17 hours ago, Chelsbear said:

The club seems to do it's best to stifle our managers after a successful season.

I was expecting us to back Conte to the hilt in terms of transfers this summer but it's just not happened and we are a week into August. We have sold more than we have brought in, it's mental. 

Honestly you have to ask if they have learned their lesson or not from the "mourinho season" Roman has been great but I'm not loving this new approach, being fiscally sustainable is all well and good but when we are talking 100 million more to make a good team great, that money can be made back in prize money and in marketing a successful team, makes no sense to me at all.

 It's actually upsetting, because the potential and ingredients are there, great coach, some world class talent, proven winners, f**king back them, add the players we need.

We haven't even spent in this window when Costa is sold we have made money, pump another 100 million in we are still up 50 million if you add in prize money.

The players wages are covered by the match day tickets, shirt and kit sponsorship deals, merchandise sale and other commercial deals what's the f**king problem?  

People act like Roman has taken us as a charity case, he has loaned us a billion and we are thankful but Chelsea is worth 1.6 billion, so he has had the pleasure of owning a successful team and gained 600 million, we are hardly squeezing him dry.

If we keep building the brand and keep elite, keep winning, go for another champions league trophy our stock and value goes up, you need to invest for that to happen and the investment we need isn't even going to go beyond us breaking even for a few years, new stadium again is an asset this is not money lost.

Real Madrid sold 250 million worth of land to the city of Madrid in 2006 and totally transformed their level, marketed the sh*t out of the brand based round their superstar players, look at the success and it has only made them more valuable, bottom line get the f**king cheque book out back conte and the team with another 100 mil it benifits everyone in the long term, this getting by sh*t won't keep players like hazard on our books or managers like conte. 

Still don't get it why Conte should take the blame for Costa's problems. It's a private conversation between manager/player, and both knew what's coming. Costa being the horse's backside he is, decided to leak it to the media and force a transfer. He should have been gone now if he hasn't leaked it. I don't get it what's with the transfer, are we under threat from the FFP? PSG laughed at FFP and urinated all over it, and they haven't got  100k attendance every week. Is Roman out of money? I doubt it. We aren't even linked with decent players, no wonder Cote is losing his cool.

Conte may just have to lose tomorrow to force a couple of transfers through

1 hour ago, DonAntonio said:

Honestly you have to ask if they have learned their lesson or not from the "mourinho season" Roman has been great but I'm not loving this new approach, being fiscally sustainable is all well and good but when we are talking 100 million more to make a good team great, that money can be made back in prize money and in marketing a successful team, makes no sense to me at all.

 It's actually upsetting, because the potential and ingredients are there, great coach, some world class talent, proven winners, f**king back them, add the players we need.

We haven't even spent in this window when Costa is sold we have made money, pump another 100 million in we are still up 50 million if you add in prize money.

The players wages are covered by the match day tickets, shirt and kit sponsorship deals, merchandise sale and other commercial deals what's the f**king problem?  

People act like Roman has taken us as a charity case, he has loaned us a billion and we are thankful but Chelsea is worth 1.6 billion, so he has had the pleasure of owning a successful team and gained 600 million, we are hardly squeezing him dry.

If we keep building the brand and keep elite, keep winning, go for another champions league trophy our stock and value goes up, you need to invest for that to happen and the investment we need isn't even going to go beyond us breaking even for a few years, new stadium again is an asset this is not money lost.

Real Madrid sold 250 million worth of land to the city of Madrid in 2006 and totally transformed their level, marketed the sh*t out of the brand based round their superstar players, look at the success and it has only made them more valuable, bottom line get the f**king cheque book out back conte and the team with another 100 mil it benifits everyone in the long term, this getting by sh*t won't keep players like hazard on our books or managers like conte. 

Just possibly they think we won the league last year with a patched up side (Moses, Alonso and Luiz) and believe Conte can do it again by refreshing just a few faces.

To give the club credit they did go for Sandro which would have elevated us and certainly improved us.

So far we have a fudge more or less the same if the new faces are as good and maybe slight improvement with Bakayoko  yet we need cover and this is where I think most of us are somewhat uncomfortable.

The club may yet surprise us before the month is over, they've done it before.

1 hour ago, Strider6003 said:

Just possibly they think we won the league last year with a patched up side (Moses, Alonso and Luiz) and believe Conte can do it again by refreshing just a few faces.

To give the club credit they did go for Sandro which would have elevated us and certainly improved us.

So far we have a fudge more or less the same if the new faces are as good and maybe slight improvement with Bakayoko  yet we need cover and this is where I think most of us are somewhat uncomfortable.

The club may yet surprise us before the month is over, they've done it before.

We made that same mistake with mourinho though, this was an more active window but we lost our main man up top and club legend, did we strengthen that much? Moderately maybe nothing major yet our competitors did and we have Europe this year, so other than trying and failing once after winning the title to field a similar squad we have on top of it a higher task, so let's hope they do surprise us like you said. 

I think we will get the filler players like Candreva and Drinkwater and maybe cover on the left and if not now then in January.

I also think we will win the league, logically it should be City with probably Utd in 2nd though for me Conte will drill the team and his magic will carry us through.

10 days ago we heard that Conte was frustrated but the club were confident of signing 3-4 more players this window. I'm starting to get nervous now. One more Morata-type signing (Sandro/Sanchez type) and two solid/decent ones and I think we will have had a great window.

 

Difficult to say anything without really knowing what is going on behind closed doors.

3 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

I think we will get the filler players like Candreva and Drinkwater and maybe cover on the left and if not now then in January.

I also think we will win the league, logically it should be City with probably Utd in 2nd though for me Conte will drill the team and his magic will carry us through.

This gives me the fear. I am so against Candreva it's unreal, I don't usually jump on the 'too much money' bandwagon because it's not my money, but... he's over 30 and average, the money being talked about is a joke and Christensen as part of the deal? I'm so against it, it's unreal.

 

Drinkwater, I'm not a huge fan of, yes he had a great season when they won the league but he was back to being bang average last season, again I really don't fancy it.

 

It kind of annoys/worries me that in a summer where players like James, Sanches (probably) and future prospects like Tielemens have moved, we're being continually linked with the likes of Candreva and Drinkwater.

truth is, we got a stadium to pay for. the purse strings will bound to tighten at some point. roman isn't going to continually pump money into the club because we wouldn't be self sufficient if he did. the club is ultimately a business at the end of the day. i am still confident we will bring in a few more players, but we can't expect them to be any more than squad fillers and maybe a first team player. 

Edited August 5, 20178 yr by enigma

4 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

I think we will get the filler players like Candreva and Drinkwater and maybe cover on the left and if not now then in January.

I also think we will win the league, logically it should be City with probably Utd in 2nd though for me Conte will drill the team and his magic will carry us through.

Usually f**k all happens in January, especially not a big signing, conte says he sees this as his toughest season in his career, honestly I don't think we win back to back with Europe and the strengthening of rivals, I've said I think we will win because I have to I'm a chelsea supporter but in my heart of hearts this is a 3rd place quarters in the CL season. 

Just now, enigma said:

truth is, we got a stadium to pay for. the purse strings will bound to tighten at some point. roman isn't going to continually pump money into the club because we wouldn't be self sufficient if he did. i am still confident we will bring in a few more players, but we can't expect them to be any more than squad fillers and maybe a first team player. 

If it the case that we can't afford new players, then why have we already sold or loaned potential squad players? It's just utter madness. Why aren't we fast tracking youth players that can play in positions are short in? 

If conte isn't happy with the squad and our transfer dealings, then it is no surprise alot of the fans are worried aswell. 

Again we are starting a title defence totally unprepared. I'm not saying go out and spend 70/80 odd million on a player. Just give the manager as close to what he needs as soon as possible. We should have plenty of leeway financially considering player sales, increased TV revenue, new sponsorship, and a number of big earners off the books. 

You can almost guarentee we won't bring anyone in until we get turned over by spurs, and panic starts to spread through the club with 10 days left in the transfer window. 

Sorry to rant, but if conte isn't happy, neither am I. 

16 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

I don't think he'll have a great relationship with the board because we like to wheel and deal and leave things quite late in the day.

 

Credit to the club for sticking up for Conte re the Costa/lawyer situation, Steve Atkins handled it well in the presser.

 

9 hours ago, big blue said:

If it the case that we can't afford new players, then why have we already sold or loaned potential squad players? It's just utter madness. Why aren't we fast tracking youth players that can play in positions are short in? 

If conte isn't happy with the squad and our transfer dealings, then it is no surprise alot of the fans are worried aswell. 

Again we are starting a title defence totally unprepared. I'm not saying go out and spend 70/80 odd million on a player. Just give the manager as close to what he needs as soon as possible. We should have plenty of leeway financially considering player sales, increased TV revenue, new sponsorship, and a number of big earners off the books. 

You can almost guarentee we won't bring anyone in until we get turned over by spurs, and panic starts to spread through the club with 10 days left in the transfer window. 

Sorry to rant, but if conte isn't happy, neither am I. 

i have no doubt the board are working hard to get targets, but there's not much they can do if clubs are pricing their players at high fees or not allowing the player to leave. it's all well and good for conte to demand certain players, but if the players club is hard to negotiate with there's not much we can do. who would be a potential squad player though? matic and chalobah for e.g. wanted to leave.

i don't think the board would have allowed others to leave unless conte gave his agreement to it; so obviously conte didn't rate the players who went on loan and wasn't planning to use them. i find that disappointing tbh, because why do we have a fantastic youth system and not using our youth? no coach we've had in the last 5+ years has taken advantage of our youth system and instead we have to constantly go out and buy, buy, buy every summer.

i respect coachs like pochettino more because he's done so well by bringing through youth. people rate spurs youth system as very good too, but it's not on our level, yet they're bringing through very good young players. the problem isn't entirely the board, it's the coach/s who continue to ignore the youth and spend money on foreign talent for inflated prices and above average ability. 

one last thing, i don't get the squad is severely thin. i understand we could use a couple more signings for the wing back position/s and central, but overall it looks like this: 

courtois/caballero

defence: moses/azpi/rudiger/luiz/christensen/alonso/cahill = could use cover at wing back

midfield: baker, fabregas, bakayoko, kante = two players for the position, but could use one more player

forward: willian, pedro, hazard, morata, musonda, boga (if he stays), batshuyai, kenedy

going by that, central midfield and wing back are two positions which could use a little more cover, but it's really not as bad as people are claiming. we pretty much have two players for every position, especially up top. there are other top teams out there with just as much lack of cover, but they make up for it by using youth which is how it should be. 

Edited August 6, 20178 yr by enigma

Thing is we have loaned or sold most of our better youth players and now are down to just kids who have no experience.

The board have made a huge balls up here yet again. We are heading into the CS with a heavily depleted squad despite letting a high number of squad players go.

It's foolish to sell before you buy because you could end up in the situation we find ourselves in

Edited August 6, 20178 yr by Chelsbear

On 8/1/2017 at 14:43, JT_<3 said:

Let's not panic guys!Arguably we need another 2 or 3 players,and we've got another 4 weeks to get them.I'm sure this is not the final squad

The same 2 or 3 playes (LWB/RWB/CM) have been wanted for the last 2/3 months. 

2 hours ago, enigma said:

i have no doubt the board are working hard to get targets, but there's not much they can do if clubs are pricing their players at high fees or not allowing the player to leave. it's all well and good for conte to demand certain players, but if the players club is hard to negotiate with there's not much we can do. who would be a potential squad player though? matic and chalobah for e.g. wanted to leave.

i don't think the board would have allowed others to leave unless conte gave his agreement to it; so obviously conte didn't rate the players who went on loan and wasn't planning to use them. i find that disappointing tbh, because why do we have a fantastic youth system and not using our youth? no coach we've had in the last 5+ years has taken advantage of our youth system and instead we have to constantly go out and buy, buy, buy every summer.

i respect coachs like pochettino more because he's done so well by bringing through youth. people rate spurs youth system as very good too, but it's not on our level, yet they're bringing through very good young players. the problem isn't entirely the board, it's the coach/s who continue to ignore the youth and spend money on foreign talent for inflated prices and above average ability. 

one last thing, i don't get the squad is severely thin. i understand we could use a couple more signings for the wing back position/s and central, but overall it looks like this: 

courtois/caballero

defence: moses/azpi/rudiger/luiz/christensen/alonso/cahill = could use cover at wing back

midfield: baker, fabregas, bakayoko, kante = two players for the position, but could use one more player

forward: willian, pedro, hazard, morata, musonda, boga (if he stays), batshuyai, kenedy

going by that, central midfield and wing back are two positions which could use a little more cover, but it's really not as bad as people are claiming. we pretty much have two players for every position, especially up top. there are other top teams out there with just as much lack of cover, but they make up for it by using youth which is how it should be. 

I don't think conte has much say. He said yesterday he would be powerless to stop the club from selling hazard, what power would he have to keep anyone else. 

Ake, chalobah, Matic, and traore, were all under contract here, why couldn't the the club have said, they will only sell once a replacement arrives. 

Just because a player wants to leave, it doesn't mean we should sell them immediately. We should do what benefits the club 1st, then players 2nd. 

Looking at the players you've listed, Conte has already said kenedy isn't in his plans for this season, then we are filling up with boga, musonda, and baker, who have no premier league experience. If we get an injury, will conte start an inexperienced youth player, or will he put a square peg in a round hole to play a more experienced team? 

If it's the latter, then he is only really has 14 outfield players he believes are good enough, which was fine last year, but it's an impossible task with the extra games this season. 

It's obvious we need a lwb, rwb/cb, cm, at the minimum. How often do players that arrive late in the window, hit the ground running? Yes Luiz and Alonso did well for us last season after arriving late, but conte had more time to work with the squad. 

I guess time will tell whether we have done enough between the end of last season, and the start of this one,  for conte to achieve success. The signs aren't looking great so far. 

Edited August 6, 20178 yr by big blue

2 hours ago, enigma said:

it's the coach/s who continue to ignore the youth and spend money on foreign talent for inflated prices and above average ability. o

And as long as they keep winning silverware it's not going to change soon.

4 minutes ago, big blue said:

I don't think conte has much say. He said yesterday he would be powerless to stop the club from selling hazard, what power would he have to keep anyone else. 

Ake, chalobah, Matic, and traore, were all under contract here, why couldn't the the club have said, they will only sell once a replacement arrives. 

Just because a player wants to leave, it doesn't mean we should sell them immediately. We should do what benefits the club 1st, then players 2nd. 

Looking at the players you've listed, Conte has already said kenedy isn't in his plans for this season, then we are filling up with boga, musonda, and baker, who have no premier league experience. If we get an injury, will conte start an inexperienced youth player, or will he put a square peg in a round hole to play a more experienced team? 

If it's the latter, then he is only really has 14 outfield players he believes are good enough, which was fine last year, but it's an impossible task with the extra games this season. 

It's obvious we need a lwb, rwb/cb, cm, at the minimum. How often do players that arrive late in the window, hit the ground running? Yes Luiz and Alonso did well for us last season after arriving late, but conte had more time to work with the squad. 

I guess time will tell whether we have done enough between the end of last season, and the start of this one,  for conte to achieve success. The signs aren't looking great so far. 

We are talking 3 positions and two positions will arguably be first team players. If a player/s is of high quality they will do well, no matter whether they're new to the league or not.

People talk about players like sandro, aurier etc yet they've never played in england. The thing is, if they're a talented player they slot in fine. We're not talking about a new team here, just one or two players. 

You read it here first. After the board fiasco on the market i expect Conte to leave by the end of the season, no matter at what place we finish and what trophy or not we won.

 

You read it by me first: kneejerk and window is still open for 3 weeks.