28 minutes ago, Kentonio said:

Oh and on the sitting behind the manager part, he did used to be assistant first team coach and is now sporting director. It's hardly weird for him to be down there.

And I think that's him trying to be together with the team and players he's supposed to be overseeing. I believe some could term that "getting stuck in" rather than making the plush executive boxes his home on match days. I'd have thought that's a plus to the man rathèr than a negative.

2 hours ago, Kentonio said:

Look at the guys career trajectory since he joined, its been absolutely astronomical. He's clearly working his ass off behind the scenes, which is why he's progressed so quickly and why he has such huge trust from Roman and the board. It never ceases to amaze me how much stick he gets, when he's never actually done anything wrong that we know about. Yet year after year people persist with attacking a long time Chelsea staff member for absolutely no good reason.

Think about the 'links' to him being involved in sackings. What do we actually know about any of it? What do we know about whats going on behind the scenes, what kind of relations our managers actually have with the players, how they act towards the board etc etc? Nothing basically, but rumours fly around and somehow when we need a convenient scapegoat Emenalo ends up being the one in the fans crosshairs, despite his tenure at Chelsea covering some of the best times this club has ever had. Hell the guy even offered to resign if it would help Mourinho integrate better, and was turned down. What else is he supposed to do exactly?

Thankyou.

The hate for Emenalo is utterly bizarre, in fact just plain weird. 

I think emanalo has done well. The impression I get is that he is more responsible for bringing in young players that are maybe a loan or 2 away from being ready fir the 1st team.

Since 2011 we bought Courtois, zouma, De bruyne, Salah, and lukaku for a combined £60m odd. That is a very good spine that could've served us well for a long time. Some stayed, some went, but that's another argument. 

I don't think he has as much responsibility when it comes to the big money deals, I think the decision on those players is more of a shared effort with roman, Maria, and the manager. 

It's those big money 1st team signings that we seem to struggle a bit with, whether it's getting the deals over the line, or bringing in players that aren't good enough. 

No club has a 100% hit rate, but we can definitely improve our efficiency in the market, and in my opinion we could also be bolder in our choice of transfers targets. 

We have a squad in its prime now, the transitional period is over, and next summer should be about adding quality, rather replacing it, which is what we seemed to do this year. 

Edited October 24, 20178 yr by big blue

I don't really comment about the technicalities that go on inside the club because I have no idea who does what. Although Emenalo has been in charge since 2011 and the transfers since then have been smart, we've got a lot of bargains and made some great sales. 

My only issue is sacking managers, it's ridiculous, we need more transition, we can't expect a manager to pull off in the first season and if he does give him a second season to build on top of the side. I doubt Emenalo has say in that, it's purely the ones right at the top like Bruce Buck. 

The only issue is are we falling behind? It's hard to keep up with the Manchester Clubs but it's going to take something special to keep up with their ridiculous spending and little repercussions. We have one of the richest owners in the world, but we don't seem to have the leverage the likes of City have who can bypass FFP laws every season, United somehow landed one of the greatest sponsorships ever no doubt thanks to their American owners. 

I just hope we don't ever get to a point where we sell Hazard, hopefully, the days are gone where the Spanish Clubs take the Premier League's top talent, if Liverpool can keep Coutinho for as long as they have, and Suarez, we should be able to keep Hazard when Zidane comes knocking. And believe me he is going to, he's always been outspoken of Hazard's talent, and Hazard has always been a big fan of Real Madrid, it was one of his aspirations. 

Rumours that the players have been texting Steve Holland complaining about Conte’s training methods. 

Should we be worried?

40 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Rumours that the players have been texting Steve Holland complaining about Conte’s training methods. 

Should we be worried?

Someone posted this elsewhere. It's bollocks - a nothing story.

There are rumours at EVERY club that as least one player isn't happy with something. Heard yesterday that Utd players were unhappy with Mourinho's comments after defeat against Huddersfield. So what?

4 hours ago, JM7 said:

Rumours that the players have been texting Steve Holland complaining about Conte’s training methods. 

Should we be worried?

I don't even get the angle for this rumour. I mean what exactly would the players be looking to gain? It is just the press trying to push negativity on the club, because they can't have a dig at the latest result. I'm sure we will see a few more 'articles' about how stupid we were to release that kid who scored twice for arsenal last night. 

Bad news sells. 

5 hours ago, JM7 said:

Rumours that the players have been texting Steve Holland complaining about Conte’s training methods. 

Should we be worried?

Players do text ex staff, ex team mates, ex managers, etc. I just see it as the media trying to undermine Conte and give their rumours some credibility.

Even though it’s amazing we have won the league last season, we shouldn’t be losing to the likes of Crystal Palace and Burnley at home. It doesn’t matter what injuries we have we shouldn’t be losing, and I think Conte/Chelsea could have done better.

Hes not as impressive this season and it will be interesting to see how he overcomes this challenge, hopefully he does. I’m not calling for him to be sacked but I think people should be aware he should have done better so far. 

My hope is, and I know that's not a solid foundation on which to base what i'm about to say, that the board realizes they kinda failed to deliver for Conte this summer.  Therefore, should he stick around, he is backed next season.

I seem to recall rumours going around that Roman was ready to "spend like when he first got here" this past summer.

He did, its just the prices have gone uo by about 4x since then, so it buys you less. 

33 minutes ago, mad_mac said:

My hope is, and I know that's not a solid foundation on which to base what i'm about to say, that the board realizes they kinda failed to deliver for Conte this summer.  Therefore, should he stick around, he is backed next season.

I seem to recall rumours going around that Roman was ready to "spend like when he first got here" this past summer.

in 03/04 the club spent 111,150,000

This season the club spent 185,500,000. 

 

There is something wrong with football if spending 185 mill is not supporting the manager.

The other teams are beginning to suss him out. Conte needs a stable plan B or C or come up with some other solutions because we're conceding goals and possession whilst being ineffective in the attacking third in open play at times.

I have faith in him but the team needs to start improving before Dec rolls around and the games come thick and fast.

Edited October 25, 20178 yr by Deino

I know he had little choice but bringing on Cesc to play alongside Ampadu lost us any control of the game, even Kante struggles playing middle 2 with Cesc. I feel Conte should have brought on Clarke Salter and pushed Andreas forward into a middle 3.

Edited October 25, 20178 yr by Argo

3 hours ago, kiwi1691 said:

in 03/04 the club spent 111,150,000

This season the club spent 185,500,000. 

 

There is something wrong with football if spending 185 mill is not supporting the manager.

13 years of transfer fee inflation needs to be considered in the equation.

4 hours ago, coco said:

13 years of transfer fee inflation needs to be considered in the equation.

Also, about half of that money went to replacing Costa and Matic. We didn't strengthen the team and didn't address our weak areas, especially the wing backs. Overall, I think we are weaker this season than last, and to make matters worse, some of our rivals have improved. I expected this season to be tough, and so far it's proving to be so. I hope we can make Top 4. 

5 hours ago, Argo said:

I know he had little choice but bringing on Cesc to play alongside Ampadu lost us any control of the game, even Kante struggles playing middle 2 with Cesc. I feel Conte should have brought on Clarke Salter and pushed Andreas forward into a middle 3.

Yes, agreed. Fabregas is just finished at the top level. Incredible to think a kid who was 16 last month (Ampadu) looks better than him in midfield. 

15 hours ago, kiwi1691 said:

in 03/04 the club spent 111,150,000

This season the club spent 185,500,000. 

 

There is something wrong with football if spending 185 mill is not supporting the manager.

So much wrong with this. 

 

In 03/04 we spent £150.72m (according to https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-chelsea/alletransfers/verein/631) with sales of just £855k. A net spend of £149.87m, without even taking into account inflation this is mental. This is probably like spending £300m-£400m in today's market and selling no one. 

 

This summer we may have spent £179.91m but after the sale of Costa we have sold £176.94m. A net spend of £2.97m is impressive and i can't argue that the signings aren't an upgrade but we have done very little to improve squad depth and it isn't anywhere near the support in 03/04. 

 

Sure we can argue that the team didn't need such a major upgrade to the starting 11 as it did back in '03 but we sure as hell should have done more to strengthen the overall squad over summer. 

3 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

So much wrong with this. 

 

In 03/04 we spent £150.72m (according to https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-chelsea/alletransfers/verein/631) with sales of just £855k. A net spend of £149.87m, without even taking into account inflation this is mental. This is probably like spending £300m-£400m in today's market and selling no one. 

 

This summer we may have spent £179.91m but after the sale of Costa we have sold £176.94m. A net spend of £2.97m is impressive and i can't argue that the signings aren't an upgrade but we have done very little to improve squad depth and it isn't anywhere near the support in 03/04. 

 

Sure we can argue that the team didn't need such a major upgrade to the starting 11 as it did back in '03 but we sure as hell should have done more to strengthen the overall squad over summer. 

Exactly, now look at the net spend of City & United over the past 3 years and compare it to us. We've actually got the 2nd best net spend out of the top 6. 

Check this out

Most Expensive PL Transfers Adjusted for Football Inflation

Buying Morata for 60m in 2017 is basically like buying Robben for 20 million in 2004

20 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

Even though it’s amazing we have won the league last season, we shouldn’t be losing to the likes of Crystal Palace and Burnley at home. It doesn’t matter what injuries we have we shouldn’t be losing, and I think Conte/Chelsea could have done better.

Hes not as impressive this season and it will be interesting to see how he overcomes this challenge, hopefully he does. I’m not calling for him to be sacked but I think people should be aware he should have done better so far. 

This is about where I'm at too. I could have written Burnley off as a freak result, but losing to Palace (especially at that moment) was utterly ridiculous. We only lost 5 games last season (and thats with only 3 draws too lets not forget) and a quarter of the way into this season we've already lost 3, drawn 1.

He's a brilliant manager, and I still have faith in him to sort it out, but he needs to do it quickly or else we're going to be adrift in 4-5th and unlikely to be challenging at the end of the season. We have to keep within catching distance of City, or this is going to be a long difficult season.

2 hours ago, Kentonio said:

This is about where I'm at too. I could have written Burnley off as a freak result, but losing to Palace (especially at that moment) was utterly ridiculous. We only lost 5 games last season (and thats with only 3 draws too lets not forget) and a quarter of the way into this season we've already lost 3, drawn 1.

He's a brilliant manager, and I still have faith in him to sort it out, but he needs to do it quickly or else we're going to be adrift in 4-5th and unlikely to be challenging at the end of the season. We have to keep within catching distance of City, or this is going to be a long difficult season.

This depends on the injury situation with the midfield though think we all question why he plays Fabregas when Luiz could step in with Christensen also stepping into defence. Any more of that  when we have options and Conte is going to lose respect.

1 minute ago, Strider6003 said:

This depends on the injury situation with the midfield though think we all question why he plays Fabregas when Luiz could step in with Christensen also stepping into defence. Any more of that  when we have options and Conte is going to lose respect.

To be fair though Palace is the type of game where a midfield with Fab should be fine. We're looking vulnerable as hell at the back no matter who is in midfield, and its worrying as there doesn't seem to be an obvious reason why. I really want him to sort it out.

I think the league has moved on which is why I think Fab is unsuitable in a midfield two. The managers are getting better all throughout the league.

 

Fabregas is barely suitable as a starter in a midfield 3. And after Roma, I don't really care to see Luiz there either.  We rely so heavily on Kante, that another injury to him would be absolutely massive.  Drinkwater also showed me good things in yesterday's match.  Moving forward, in a midfield three, it should be kante Baka and Drinky.  Fabregas to come on if we need some magic and he can replace Bakayoko.  

Fabregas is a real passenger in a midfield 2.  He simply doesn't have it to be running around covering ground.  He is bypassed almost as if he is not there.  When Cesc came on yesterday he made about 4 or 5 errors in the span of 5 minutes!  And his lackluster lunge at a ball at the top of our box almost conceded a goal.  He can play his part when we need him to sub on but with our CMs getting healthy he really should be an impact sub.