The cockroach has crawled out of its hole.

"If you have no eggs, you have no omelette. In the supermarket, you have class one, class two and class three eggs.

"Some are more expensive than others and some give you better omelettes. So, when the class one eggs are in Waitrose and you cannot get there, you have a problem."

We have spent 180m in the summer and look a far worse team for it, questions have to be asked about squad management and recruitment. Is it down to Conte, Emenalo or the person pulling the purse strings at boardroom level. We have been unlucky with a few injuries but it has hardly been a crisis, a club our size should be able to deal with those. Our aspirations are to be a top 5 club in the world financially, this will only be achieved by success on the field, the commercial side follows. One wonders if the vanity project of the new stadium is taking precedence over the reason we need a new home. 

Think we have all learnt and realise that it is a lot harder to repeat success, season after season. Very few teams have been able to win back to back PL titles in recent times and I did think this was going to be a tough season.

But there is no doubt, Conte hasn't been backed as he should. I think our major replacements have been with an eye on the long-term, which I do applaud as I hated our "quick-fix" short sighted signings in the past. Baka for Matic, Morata for Costa and Rudiger / Christensen for JT were all good moves but they will take time to bed in. The worry is just how good some of the new players turn out as Morata and Baka have really struggled of late. I went on record as saying Baka was a definite upgrade on Matic and I hope this proves right but right now and with the game approaching Sunday, that could come back to haunt me.

One thing is certain. We cannot afford to play Fabregas in the midfield two in any crunch games now and Conte is short of options. I won't mind if we give a good account of ourselves in remaining games - expect to win some & lose some. Finish as high as possible in th e PL (hopefully top 4) and have run in the cups, maybe win one. But the complete lack of anything that we witnessed in the second half last night is inexcusable and we cannot have repeats of that.

 

1 hour ago, charierre said:

We have spent 180m in the summer and look a far worse team for it

It aint the spending thats the problem. We like to sell 2 players and replace them with 1. If we do replace them.

52 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Think we have all learnt and realise that it is a lot harder to repeat success, season after season. Very few teams have been able to win back to back PL titles in recent times and I did think this was going to be a tough season.

But there is no doubt, Conte hasn't been backed as he should. I think our major replacements have been with an eye on the long-term, which I do applaud as I hated our "quick-fix" short sighted signings in the past. Baka for Matic, Morata for Costa and Rudiger / Christensen for JT were all good moves but they will take time to bed in. The worry is just how good some of the new players turn out as Morata and Baka have really struggled of late. I went on record as saying Baka was a definite upgrade on Matic and I hope this proves right but right now and with the game approaching Sunday, that could come back to haunt me.

One thing is certain. We cannot afford to play Fabregas in the midfield two in any crunch games now and Conte is short of options. I won't mind if we give a good account of ourselves in remaining games - expect to win some & lose some. Finish as high as possible in th e PL (hopefully top 4) and have run in the cups, maybe win one. But the complete lack of anything that we witnessed in the second half last night is inexcusable and we cannot have repeats of that.

 

I just don't understand how you can say that line but then say everything else in that paragraph.

I'm with you on Baka, I watched plenty of Monaco last year and he was unbelievably.  He was powerful and decisive.  Most clubs would have wanted him including Conte.

Morata was one of the most sort after strikers in the whole of Europe.  He has a tidy return for two great teams and was looking for an opportunity to be number 1 somewhere.  Most clubs would have wanted him including Conte.

We also then added support in the midfield (Drinkwater) who wasn't even the replacement for Matic, Baka was.  We added a youthful but highly regarded and already experienced Rudiger to the defense whilst also making tough calls on keeping Andreas whilst selling Ake.

That offseason seams perfect. What else could Conte have wanted?  If he's going to be the type of manager that wants and wants and wants I'm not sure I like the sound of that. I think he was soundly backed considering we aren't competing with 2-3 clubs to sign players anymore.

Speaking on BBC 5Live, Neville said:  ‘What's gone wrong for Chelsea? One word. Matic. It's as simple as that. The minute they sold Nemanja Matic was a mistake.

‘When you had Matic sat in front of you, alongside Kante, there was protection. Whoever made that decision needs sacking. That is one of the poorest decisions I have ever seen in the Premier League.

‘If you ask any of those Chelsea players who they would want back, they would say Matic. Chelsea replaced him with someone who is going to do the same job -  Bakayoko is not that player, he is not a holding midfield player.

‘They didn't replace Matic. I wouldn't have let him out of the building, I would have chained him to the training ground walls.’

 ‘What's gone wrong for Chelsea? One word. Kante. It's as simple as that. The minute they lost Kante to injury was a mistake.

‘When you had Kante sat in front of you, alongside Bakayoko/Fabregas, there was protection. Whoever made that decision needs sacking. That is one of the poorest decisions I have ever seen in the Premier League.

‘If you ask any of those Chelsea players who they would want back, they would say Kante. Chelsea replaced him with someone who is going to do the same job -  Bakayoko is not that player, he is not a holding midfield player.

‘They didn't replace Kante. I wouldn't have let him out of the building, I would have chained him to the training ground walls.’

I caught a bit of that on 5 Live last night when I dragged myself off to bed and thought f**k OFF.

What a lazy, boring thing to come out with. Matic - seems he has become one of the greatest players of all time since going to Man Utd.

Oh God, how I hope Conte has them fired up for Sunday and nothing would be more fitting than to give Man Utd a lesson in football and see Matic f**k up like he did for us plenty of times over the past couple of seasons.

 

Edited November 1, 20178 yr by Nibs

26 minutes ago, BelgradeCFC said:

Speaking on BBC 5Live, Neville said:  ‘What's gone wrong for Chelsea? One word. Matic. It's as simple as that. The minute they sold Nemanja Matic was a mistake.

‘When you had Matic sat in front of you, alongside Kante, there was protection. Whoever made that decision needs sacking. That is one of the poorest decisions I have ever seen in the Premier League.

‘If you ask any of those Chelsea players who they would want back, they would say Matic. Chelsea replaced him with someone who is going to do the same job -  Bakayoko is not that player, he is not a holding midfield player.

‘They didn't replace Matic. I wouldn't have let him out of the building, I would have chained him to the training ground walls.’

Neville talking sh*t as usual. Bakayoko is an upgrade on Matic, I say that as someone who didn't want the Bakayoko transfer. 

Phil Neville is on par with Garth Crooks for the 'biggest arsehole in punditry' award.

The thing is you know for a fact if Matic didn't go to United Phil Neville wouldn't even be mentioning it. One of the worst pundits I've seen. 

12 minutes ago, Zola said:

Phil Neville is on par with Garth Crooks for the 'biggest arsehole in punditry' award.

I read crooks talking about Bakayokos hair as if it takes time out of training or something mad.

Also that bit of insight was Phil? That makes sense now. Could Phil please let me know where Matic was in Jose's last season here thanks

14 minutes ago, Slojo said:

The thing is you know for a fact if Matic didn't go to United Phil Neville wouldn't even be mentioning it. One of the worst pundits I've seen. 

You think that's bad, check out Sundays MOTD and the "reasoning" he gave as to why Unsworth should be made permanent Everton manager 

yeah, as good as matic was for us sporadically, they need to stop acting like he's a world beater now he's at utd. i have seen very little from him to suggest his performances have gone up a level since leaving here. 

 

2 hours ago, Stim said:

It aint the spending thats the problem. We like to sell 2 players and replace them with 1. If we do replace them.

Hence i said if you finished the quote that questions have to be asked of squad management and recruitment. Last night the chickens came home to roost and who ever is in charge of those two items should be asked serious questions on why we are so light in some departments of the overall squad.

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

I caught a bit of that on 5 Live last night when I dragged myself off to bed and thought f**k OFF.

What a lazy, boring thing to come out with. Matic - seems he has become one of the greatest players of all time since going to Man Utd.

Oh God, how I hope Conte has them fired up for Sunday and nothing would be more fitting than to give Man Utd a lesson in football and see Matic f**k up like he did for us plenty of times over the past couple of seasons.

 

 

25 minutes ago, enigma said:

yeah, as good as matic was for us sporadically, they need to stop acting like he's a world beater now he's at utd. i have seen very little from him to suggest his performances have gone up a level since leaving here. 

The thing with Matic is, he is exactly the type of player Jose wanted. We all knew how he would be used for United and it would strengthen them no end doing just that, we allowed the move to happen which was unnecessary. I think Conte has every right to feel aggrieved by this transfer which effectively weakened us in a position we aren't strong whilst making one of our rivals contenders.  

As I said at the time, my problem wasn't selling Matic, it was selling him to United. That was a stupid move and I think everyone knew that. 

That doesn't suddenly make Matic a world beater though. I rated him, but thought we could improve on him, and on that basis had no problem letting him go. 

It makes me laugh that whenever we have a bad result people point towards Matic not being in midfield, as if he was never in the team when we were beaten. 

Let's not forget his truly dire performance in the FA Cup final where Arsenal repeatadly run a train thorugh our midfield. 

If Kante is fit, Matic still wouldn't get in our starting 11 in my opinion, that is the reality. 

Edited November 1, 20178 yr by mclovin83

Can't wait for us to sell Utd Willian and then wait for the pundits to come out with "What are Chelsea doing selling Willian to Utd - he's up there with Messi and Ronaldo"!

 

the only issue is yes, we sold him to utd. it wasn't the best of ideas, but they offered the amount we wanted for him which nobody else was offering. it's all well and good to look back in hindsight and decide it was a poor decision to let him go to utd, but the way the media go on about him is like they never watched his performances for us. 

1 hour ago, Argo said:

You think that's bad, check out Sundays MOTD and the "reasoning" he gave as to why Unsworth should be made permanent Everton manager 

Martin Keown, Danny Murphy & Phil Neville are a disaster, Sky is far better. 

Makes me miss Alan Hansen actually as much of a prick he could be. 

58 minutes ago, enigma said:

the only issue is yes, we sold him to utd. it wasn't the best of ideas, but they offered the amount we wanted for him which nobody else was offering. it's all well and good to look back in hindsight and decide it was a poor decision to let him go to utd, but the way the media go on about him is like they never watched his performances for us. 

It's not looking back with hindsight when there was a lot of posters saying that it was ridiculous to sell him to United at the time. 

It was a crazy decision. 

In terms of whether we would a better side if matic stayed, I'm not sure. He was steady but not outstanding last season. 

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

Martin Keown, Danny Murphy & Phil Neville are a disaster, Sky is far better. 

Makes me miss Alan Hansen actually as much of a prick he could be. 

I use to rate Keown but now he is just a walking cliche. Even G.Neville is slipping, i thought his comments on our and City's academy was ridiculous.

51 minutes ago, big blue said:

It's not looking back with hindsight when there was a lot of posters saying that it was ridiculous to sell him to United at the time. 

It was a crazy decision. 

In terms of whether we would a better side if matic stayed, I'm not sure. He was steady but not outstanding last season. 

We have been battered in big games like this with Matic before, and not once did i think he was doing anything to stop things being even worse (like i felt about Christensen vs Man.City for example), in fact if anything he was making things worse.

We have a lot of issue's right now but letting go of Matic wasn't one of them, i feel both Drinkwater and Bakayoko are upgrades and his name being brought up by all in sundry everytime we drop points is getting beyond tedious.