Calling them experts 

On 09/08/2017 at 10:13, dkw said:

There's not a single quote from him in that article, just Ian Wright's opinion. And he's a f**king idiot.

w**kies opinion aside to be fair though it's not rocket science to arrive at that, he was asked about the matic sale he says with a Stone faced look you'll need to ask the club about that...

So the assumption is there to be made.I think if he could have kept matic he would have but its most likely matic himself was pushing a move as he thought he wouldn't get game time.

So the other way of interpreting that statement is that conte didn't want to say matic doesn't want to play if he isn't guaranteed first team football.  

However ask the club is a way of saying he wasn't heavily involved in that decision. 

Conte comes out and says his plan was to ease bakayoko in and phase matic out.  He probably told Matic the same the minute Bakayoko was signed, managers are very upfront with their players, especially a manager like Conte.  The writing was on the wall for Matic and he most certainly requested the transfer.  

The problem is selling to a rival. 

36 minutes ago, TheChelsRVA said:

Conte comes out and says his plan was to ease bakayoko in and phase matic out.  He probably told Matic the same the minute Bakayoko was signed, managers are very upfront with their players, especially a manager like Conte.  The writing was on the wall for Matic and he most certainly requested the transfer.  

The problem is selling to a rival. 

I agree and I think the club could have convinced him stay for another year, to make the path that easy to go go his old manager that has brought him back, at our rivals that are desperate for that type of player in that position seems odd. 

 I don't see why we have done that, juve wanted him apparently,  let's suppose he wanted Utd and not juve, you close the door to UTD and open the door to juve if he accepts it's a business relationship with a club we want a player from, if he turns it down then we keep him like I'm sure conte wanted to phase him out as you said.

My feeling is he would have accepted, it's far closer to his home country, nice place to live, big club....sure Man U is bigger but as the selling club you can close that door to him. 

Edited August 11, 20178 yr by DonAntonio

Lampard's comments about hearing word that Matic wanted out towards the end of last season are pretty telling in my eyes.

No matter what the media said at the time, Matic is and was a Mourinho soldier. Their "fallout" was imaginary and media-created just because Jose sub subbed him (which there was logic to)

With the obvious bad blood between Mourino and Conte and with how poisonous Mourinho can be, i'm glad Matic is not at the club. There's in my eyes one Mourinho soldier left in Willian. I'd happily allow Jose have him too, just give us Martial in return.

On ?07?/?08?/?2017 at 19:51, andy said:

A lot of short memories on here. 

I full expect a slow start, then I think Conte to learn fast and weave his magic. No one start last season with 3 at the back but a lot of teams ended up like that, you know what I mean :) 

My prediction a tough start, everyone to write us off, then come May-2018 am easy defence of our title.

i do think though we might find the Champions League tough, that just gut feel. 

 

I've put a tenner down on us to win the league and Boro to finish in the top two - stand to get back £200.

Last year I did us and Newcastle thought I'd blown it until the last match and won £100.

Like you I think we will go out at the 1/4s in the CL.

1 hour ago, startedwithglenn said:

Lampard's comments about hearing word that Matic wanted out towards the end of last season are pretty telling in my eyes.

No matter what the media said at the time, Matic is and was a Mourinho soldier. Their "fallout" was imaginary and media-created just because Jose sub subbed him (which there was logic to)

With the obvious bad blood between Mourino and Conte and with how poisonous Mourinho can be, i'm glad Matic is not at the club. There's in my eyes one Mourinho soldier left in Willian. I'd happily allow Jose have him too, just give us Martial in return.

Interesting, one thing this season is that no-one can now say this is a Mourinho side.

 

6 hours ago, DonAntonio said:

I agree and I think the club could have convinced him stay for another year, to make the path that easy to go go his old manager that has brought him back, at our rivals that are desperate for that type of player in that position seems odd. 

 I don't see why we have done that, juve wanted him apparently,  let's suppose he wanted Utd and not juve, you close the door to UTD and open the door to juve if he accepts it's a business relationship with a club we want a player from, if he turns it down then we keep him like I'm sure conte wanted to phase him out as you said.

My feeling is he would have accepted, it's far closer to his home country, nice place to live, big club....sure Man U is bigger but as the selling club you can close that door to him. 

I recall that too, and supposedly he was frustrated that the clubs could not agree over money. I too think he would have preferred Italy. 

Here we are folks.

Get the beers in, it's going to be banter for weeks on from here.

Lessons have definitely not been learned. I know there will still be fans that will make an excuse, but we have given conte a weaker squad to work with than last season, we won't finish 10th, but we have gone backwards. Need some positivity back in the club, which shows how poor it has been from the club since winning the title. 

The problem is even if we do make a bunch of signings before the window shuts, they are all going to have to take time to get integrated properly. I'm getting flashbacks of Spurs buying all those players and getting nowhere with the majority of them.

I am predicting this season we will end up 6th and I think Conte will get sacked and we will only buy Drinkwater.

I told you wong time ago, this squad is not good enough even for top 4.

 

sh*tty opening day, but that comeback showed real heart. We'll be fine.

The comeback was against Burnley though, and i would imagine that being there only away win for the rest of the season. I dont know how our board can make the same mistake as 2 seasons ago? how can they be that stupid.

The next 7 days will show whether the board is learning from their mistakes

Its not just about transfers in though its about, selling a player to a rival club its about pre season being too short. Its about not having anything off the field distracting the players on the pitch. Just look at Man City bench right now compared to ours today.

I am sure the perceptive ones would have noticed by now, that not just this season but the past few seasons we have been very tight with our purse strings.  I am actually impressed with the board for making money selling players. I have no regrets with getting 40 mill for Matic from United. Heck we turned Papy into a 4 million profit.

I also dont have a problem with Chelsea selling/loaning our youth players - It is a good way to make money (provided we have put buy back clauses ) and also make sure our youth actually get game time.

What i do have a problem with is the transfer ins - We are unable to spot and buy players who can help us now. During the heydays Chelsea would have completed the transfer of Bakayoko in a week, not an entire off-season. We went into the off-season very well knowing that we need to reinforce our midfield and striker quality/quantity for our additional champions league endeavor.

The season has begun and we are still looking into reinforcing the squad.  This is dumb. The selling teams will have a lot more incentive to sell their players during the offseason as they have plenty of time to look for reinforcements. With the season beginning they will be less inclined and we need to naturally overpay even more that we had to originally overpay. Dumb Dumb Dumb.

So right now, we have lost 4 matches in a row(3 friendlies and league) and if we lose against Spurs, that will be 5 in a row. I have never in my life time seen Chelsea losing 5 matches in a row.

32 minutes ago, TheAwesomeGem said:

So right now, we have lost 4 matches in a row(3 friendlies and league) and if we lose against Spurs, that will be 5 in a row. I have never in my life time seen Chelsea losing 5 matches in a row.

Hmm arsenal was technically a draw. Can’t really call a toss of a coin after 90 minutes a loss.

2 hours ago, Kentonio said:

sh*tty opening day, but that comeback showed real heart. We'll be fine.

What?

Did you see our Bench? We have one central midfielder available to us for Spurs....think about that

We will be fine smacks of just deluding yourself despite the evidence in front of you. Being fine isnt good enough for a club this size we need to get that top 4 spot and losing a game agaist one of the weakest teams in the league isn't exactly putting down a marker. In one game our squad has been brutally exposed for its lack of depth,  we face having to play a defender in midfield because oyr board have sold or loaned all our actual first team players from last season in that area. So far we have spent the Oscar and Matic money but where is the rest? Record revenues in both shirt and TV money, winning the league and the other streams of revenue we take in every season....I just don't get what we are doing here? The manager says his options are limited, the players saying we can't get injuries or we will be in trouble yet we are told don't panic and it will be fine because we scored 2 goals despite letting 3 in? I'm sorry but nah the signs are all there that this board has made a huge mistake yet again that mimics 2015 almost stride for stride right now. 

 

Edited August 12, 20178 yr by Chelsbear

3 minutes ago, Chelsbear said:

What?

Did you see our Bench? We have one central midfielder available to us for Spurs....think about that

We will be fine smacks of just deluding yourself despite the evidence in front of you. Being fine isnt good enough for a club this size we need to get that top 4 spot and losing a game agaist one of the weakest teams in the league isn't exactly putting down a marker. In one game our squad has been brutally exposed for its lack of depth,  we face having to play a defender in midfield because oyr board have sold or loaned all our actual first team players from last season in that area. So far we have spent the Oscar and Matic money but where is the rest? Record revenues in both shirt and TV money, winning the league and the other streams of revenue we take in every season....I just don't get what we are doing here? The manager says his options are limited, the players saying we can't get injuries or we will be in trouble yet we are told don't panic and it will be fine because we scored 2 goals despite letting 3 in? I'm sorry but nah the signs are all there that this board has made a huge mistake yet again that mimics 2015 almost stride for stride right now. 

 

Yeah, i remember people saying we'd be fine in 2015 as well after we had signed Pedro and won away to WBA on matchday 3.
Todays "comeback" doesn't mean much as we just made the result look a little better.

It's not even the result really it's our option and depth...its non existent. When we saw the subs bench at the beginning it was ridiculous, a couple of kids thrown in to make up the numbers because we have sold or loaned out everyone else before having players in to replace them. It's astonishing that a club our size would make such feeble errors like that and leave our manager in this position. Facing one of the toughest teams in the league with just Kante in  the middle and no doubt a defender joining him. 

I honestly fear what that games going to turn into. 

Frank just calling it as it is on BT. First eleven if all fit we challenge, any mishaps and we suddenly look quite weak when compared the squad available for City.

Wouldn't it just be nice to have a pre-season in the UK?  Trekking all over Asia or America surely must take it out of them? 

 

Let's play some friendlies against some decent championship sides, or teams like Southampton, Bournemouth etc..,maybe a home glamor time against one of the Milan clubs?