I certainly will not miss the Champions League either. Seems to me there's so much focus on getting the CL money yet the teams in it don't actually give a sh*t about playing it until the latter stages.

 

I'll miss it personally, if you're not in the CL you can't attract the best players and risk second rate players turning out for the club week in week out. I still hope we make Europa League personally (if anything to give the youth more exposure in a competitive environment).

Edited April 27, 201610 yr by the special one

For me it’s lost some of its magic but that’s maybe because we have won it after many attempts and I think it’s become a little stale in recent years.

That being said I will miss not playing against the best sides in Europe with no meaningful football to watch midweek which hasn’t been the case for what seems an age.

If that's accurate, that just goes to show how spoilt & fair weather our supporters have become. Sure, it's great to be in the CL but I honestly won't miss it next season. The Group stages are a bore and even the latter knock-out stage has become predictable with similar fixtures every season.

 

Of course I want us to be successful and win things but would honestly rather we built long-term and brought through youngsters (as long as they are good enough - NOT just for the sake of it) rather than sign players yet again, just for the short-term - the "quick-win".

Fully agree, especially with the similar fixtures thing which is why I desperately hope the European league thingy never becomes real. I used to live seeing us play teams I had never heard of in the cup winners etc. Tromso, ziskov (or something), and my personal favourite Viking. That will all be lost when we play Milan, Barcelona, Madrid 4 times a season.

I took "Final words on Mourinho et al" meant make your point then f*ck off 

Absolute agree that it's somewhere in between but net spend is key for me. When you have a net spend of £14 million across four transfer windows, there's something going wrong there and it's not the first time we've scrimped and it's cost a coach. That's a much larger issue but I really think that we needed to improve the squad last season (11 players played the vast majority of minutes and the 12th most-used player was sold in January) and we didn't. 

 

Looking at net spend is misleading because we've managed to do very well in selling/offloading players. I don't think we've been tight fisted at all and have spent substantial sums on Fabregas, Matic, Cuadrado, Salah, Felipe Luis, Schurrle etc in that time. We didn't spend enough last season but that wasn't due to an unwillingness to spend but an unwillingness to pay £50m for a defender that really isn't worth it.

 

 

The whole club needs to have a reevaluation of itself and we seem to have skirted that, instead changing just the coach like we have done so many times before.

 

But ultimately I agree with you that there's enough blame to go around. At the moment though it would appear from the outside that it's all falling on one man.

 

This is the thing, we don't know what's going on in the club. Only one person was deemed to have done enough to deserve the sack (and he deserved it for the creation of the poisonous atmosphere we had around the club imo) but it doesn't mean that adjustments aren't being made internally.

Looking at net spend is misleading because we've managed to do very well in selling/offloading players. I don't think we've been tight fisted at all and have spent substantial sums on Fabregas, Matic, Cuadrado, Salah, Felipe Luis, Schurrle etc in that time. We didn't spend enough last season but that wasn't due to an unwillingness to spend but an unwillingness to pay £50m for a defender that really isn't worth it.

Willian, Zouma, Costa too. Them 3 alone cost in excess of 75m. Anyone from Chelsea using net spend as an excuse would be the joke of the country if they publicly tried to use that as a defence.

It's amazing how income of 50m from a player who wasn't wanted (and others), can be manipulate transfer spend stats to suggest that a manager isn't backed. God forbid we receive 60m for Oscar and 30m for Mikel and replace them with two 25m players. A -£40m net spend will clearly show the board are not backing Conte.

Edited April 28, 201610 yr by KonaKai Blue

Looking at net spend is misleading because we've managed to do very well in selling/offloading players. I don't think we've been tight fisted at all and have spent substantial sums on Fabregas, Matic, Cuadrado, Salah, Felipe Luis, Schurrle etc in that time. We didn't spend enough last season but that wasn't due to an unwillingness to spend but an unwillingness to pay £50m for a defender that really isn't worth it.

 

 

Net spend is an indication of new investment into the club. Yes we did well selling players but net spend takes account of what you're subtracting from the club (players) as well. Say for instance, and this is over-simplification to the nth degree, Real Madrid sold Ronaldo to Man United on Monday for £100 million then bought him back on Tuesday for £100 million.

 

Now they've broken the world record for a transfer fee, they've spent £100 million on a player, what ambition!

 

But the reality is that they've not spent anything and what they've added is simply covering what they lost.

 

So if we spend £14 million on a left-back from Augsburg but have lost a similarly priced left-back to Atletico (not accounting for talent or experience) has the club improved? I don't think so. That's the problem with that whole window, we didn't improve the squad and I'd argue we actively weakened it.

 

January goes a step further in that direction. I'll be the first to say that net spend isn't the be all and end all and FFP calculations make things more complex, but has a general indicator of things I think it has some validity. 

 

 

This is the thing, we don't know what's going on in the club. Only one person was deemed to have done enough to deserve the sack (and he deserved it for the creation of the poisonous atmosphere we had around the club imo) but it doesn't mean that adjustments aren't being made internally.

 

I can tell you now, and you're free to not believe me because I'm just some stranger on the internet, that changes are not being made. The blame has been placed squarely on Jose and his staff and who knows? They may be right. But they're going to take a completely different approach to transfers this summer just to make sure.

 

Enjoying your posts though. I may not agree with all of them but they're great to read.

Edited April 28, 201610 yr by ShedEnder91

I took "Final words on Mourinho et al" meant make your point then f*ck off 

As did I!

Though it would be good if they're never mentioned in other threads and if people really want to make a point about them, they can come in here.

As did I!

Though it would be good if they're never mentioned in other threads and if people really want to make a point about them, they can come in here.

That was actually my intention in all honesty to have the discussion for those topics in one place instead of other threads been derailed.

What does everyone think of Mourinho nowadays?

I think he's become such a bitter man and has also lost his magic. Even now I still miss the swagger and charm of early Mourinho, it's kinda sad to see how much he has changed.

Was it Real Madrid or Carneiro who has changed Jose?

52 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

What does everyone think of Mourinho nowadays?

I think he's become such a bitter man and has also lost his magic. Even now I still miss the swagger and charm of early Mourinho, it's kinda sad to see how much he has changed.

Was it Real Madrid or Carneiro who has changed Jose?

 

It's the dawn of the new age and Mourinho is getting left out.

I can't bear to watch him anymore, his jibes and bemoaning his poor bad luck, hope utd get relegated....

2 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

What does everyone think of Mourinho nowadays?

I think he's become such a bitter man and has also lost his magic. Even now I still miss the swagger and charm of early Mourinho, it's kinda sad to see how much he has changed.

Was it Real Madrid or Carneiro who has changed Jose?

Madrid, made him bitter from the perceived lack of respect he got from the players, never been the same since and has become seriously stubborn to the point where it is affecting his performance as a manager.

He's going to alienate even more Chelsea fans, with his latest snipes and digs, Jose just f*ck off will ya....

Amazing how some fans have changed their view of him. I guess that's what happens when you go to another club and start spouting things like "giant of a club" and saying he's "never had fans like these". 

I was gutted when he left but really not bothered by him now. I put last season solely down to Jose - not the players or the club. We had just won the league and he had signed a new deal. Everything should have been hunky dory. Fair enough he didn't get the players he wanted but you don't need to throw your toys out the pram. Conte has shown that you can still achieve without high priced players. 

I think a lot of you have super thin skins. The latest twist of him saying things like 'defend well', 'only want to win', 'hard to stop' being turned into some kind of attack because he said we defend a lot is insane.

Talking up his employer clubs fans, what an asshole.

We all knew he'd try mindgames, but good lord do people make it easy for him to rile them up. And the people who hate him the most, hang on to his every word the most. If it wasn't reposted and fussed about every time he looked in our general direction I'd have no idea what mundane thing he said now.

Edited December 24, 20169 yr by Stim

That's what the forum is for, and for what it's worth I never welcomed him back 2nd time, so he can still f*ck off..

On 24/12/2016 at 08:58, Stim said:

I think a lot of you have super thin skins. The latest twist of him saying things like 'defend well', 'only want to win', 'hard to stop' being turned into some kind of attack because he said we defend a lot is insane.

Talking up his employer clubs fans, what an asshole.

We all knew he'd try mindgames, but good lord do people make it easy for him to rile them up. And the people who hate him the most, hang on to his every word the most. If it wasn't reposted and fussed about every time he looked in our general direction I'd have no idea what mundane thing he said now.

I personally don't see any of this as a surprise... He can do or say anything he wants but he is really making it more difficult for the footballing world to like him.

I however completely understand why many supporters feel betrayed. It isn't about having thin skins or anything of the sort, it is just that they imagined a bond with the man which he clearly doesn't feel himself. Let people complain, it is inevitable. I'd rather see this than inane complaints about selling Mata, Lukaku, De Bruyne and Sturridge among others and why Oscar, Mikel, Pedro, Courtois, Willian and Matic are/were sh*t.

In all honesty, his entire second stint had an unstable, on the edge feel about it.

We laugh at every Liverpool manager who talks his own fans up. We find it cringeworthy when they play on perception and not something the fans actually did. This is cringeworthy too and I don't mind if someone actually says so. Lets be objective and consistent here.

I would say that the people who do not want him to be criticized with the same standards as other managers are the ones with thin skins here. 

On 4/28/2016 at 06:06, KonaKai Blue said:

God forbid we receive 60m for Oscar

are you a wizard?

On ?28?/?04?/?2016 at 06:06, KonaKai Blue said:

 God forbid we receive 60m for Oscar

You got a crystal ball?

24 minutes ago, Samdwich said:

are you a wizard?

Wow! You just spotted that too lol.

On December 24, 2016 at 07:58, Stim said:

I think a lot of you have super thin skins. The latest twist of him saying things like 'defend well', 'only want to win', 'hard to stop' being turned into some kind of attack because he said we defend a lot is insane.

Talking up his employer clubs fans, what an asshole.

We all knew he'd try mindgames, but good lord do people make it easy for him to rile them up. And the people who hate him the most, hang on to his every word the most. If it wasn't reposted and fussed about every time he looked in our general direction I'd have no idea what mundane thing he said now.

It was a cry for help, he went to United promising he will change his ways and play the 'United way' and he's quickly realizing he can't (beyond mini spells), so his message to the board is "its working for them, let me do it my way ".

As for the Jose chat, it was always going to happen and its no different to AVB going Spurs, ofcourse Chelsea fans will be intrequed.

10 hours ago, Samdwich said:

are you a wizard?

 

9 hours ago, 1905 said:

You got a crystal ball?

Still time for that 30m bid for Mikel to come in  haha

Just now, KonaKai Blue said:

 

Still time for that 30m bid for Mikel to come in  haha

Plus the £15m for Ivan

On 12/24/2016 at 08:41, JM7 said:

Amazing how some fans have changed their view of him. I guess that's what happens when you go to another club and start spouting things like "giant of a club" and saying he's "never had fans like these". 

I was gutted when he left but really not bothered by him now. I put last season solely down to Jose - not the players or the club. We had just won the league and he had signed a new deal. Everything should have been hunky dory. Fair enough he didn't get the players he wanted but you don't need to throw your toys out the pram. Conte has shown that you can still achieve without high priced players. 

I wanted to get rid of him very early last season. But I can understand that it takes an individually different amount of time for a person to realize that Mou and Chelsea were not a good match anymore. Now, I do not hold a grudge against him, but that's only things have turned out pretty well for us.