On 11/05/2018 at 10:38, enigma said:

Anybody agree with this? 

Whoever takes charge of Chelsea next season, they will have a much tougher job than the one Antonio Conte inherited in 2016.

Barring a home defeat for Liverpool against Brighton and a win for Conte’s side at Newcastle, Chelsea will be in the Europa League next season. However, that looks far more of a foundation to build on than the one Conte faced when he took over a club that had finished 10th in the table.

The Italian, who is expected to leave the club after the FA Cup Final, had a point when claiming he achieved a miracle by leading Chelsea to the title 12 months ago. But without demeaning his achievement, the club’s rivals were not in as strong a state as now.

 

For starters, Manchester City are a different force. They have succeeded Chelsea as champions by smashing records along the way.

Manager Pep Guardiola arrived in the same summer as Conte and may have taken longer to adapt to English football but he is its master now.

City also continue to back him heavily in the transfer market. After spending over £450million on players in two years, the forthcoming window will see more high-profile signings arrive.

Runners-up Manchester United have also paid vast sums for players since Jose Mourinho joined two years ago and they will invest heavily again.

Whether or not Liverpool win the Champions League Final, they are on a steep upward curve under Jurgen Klopp and will be a very attractive proposition for Europe’s finest.

Tottenham, meanwhile, will move into their new 62,062 ground later this year. A third consecutive campaign in the Champions League should ensure they keep Harry Kane and Dele Alli and it is understood they want to make a big marquee acquisition as a signal of intent when they begin life at the revamped White Hart Lane.

And even though Arsenal are going to finish below Chelsea, they will have a new coach for the first time since 1999 and no longer be handicapped by the sideshow caused by the ‘Wenger out’ brigade. 

Of course, Chelsea can never be written off. No club has won more trophies than the Blues following Roman Abramovich’s arrival in 2003.

However, the Russian billionaire is not bankrolling them as he once did. Figures show that Chelsea’s net spend on players was less than Everton and Crystal Palace over the last four years.

Abiding by Financial Fair Play rules is a priority and the estimated £1bn bill to turn the stadium into a 60,000 all-seater by 2024 has to be financed.

Revenue streams from sponsorships are on the increase but selling talent to buy is now standard practice. Eden Hazard, N’Golo Kante and Thibaut Courtois would generate the most revenue, yet they are players Chelsea cannot afford to lose.

Europa League football also means less riches and stardust to keep key men from looking elsewhere or to convince others to move to west London.

Cesc Fabregas, Pedro, David Luiz and Gary Cahill have all moved into their 30s under Conte. Willian reaches the landmark in August and Olivier Giroud arrived as a 31-year-old in January.

Chelsea can lean on their vast array of loanees and Academy stars to fill some of the gaps but the next coach will find it hard to get them back in the top four, let alone claim top spot again.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/next-chelsea-manager-will-inherit-a-tougher-job-than-the-one-antonio-conte-faced-a3836311.html?utm_campaign=Echobox&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#link_time=1526027867

 

I agree with the majority of this

The thing is, we are potentially sitting on a goldmine and we have barely even accessed it. We have probably the best academy in the world, each year our youth teams clean up all the competitions they enter and win trophy after trophy playing exciting attacking football.  

It's ridiculous that we haven't used this to our advantage. We can't afford to spend vast sums of money to buy our way out of our trouble, we can't compete financially with City and Utd, we've taken FFP seriously and we have a stadium that's going to potentially cost 1 Billion. 

I'm fed up of appointing managers that have a "win at all costs" mentality with short term goals and no long term strategy. It worked well when we had money to splash how we wanted but it was never going to yield long term success. With our academy flourishing it's ridiculous how barely any of them have managed to break through to our first team yet, especially when you take into account we've got average crap like Zappacosta, Moses, Bakayoko, Drrinkwater and Pedro playing for us right now

Appoint a DOF to oversee everything and create a long term strategy and create a clear pathway from youth to first team, appoint a manager who will actually want to build a team long term, actually give young players chances and not moan like a little bitch when the board doesn't provide him with 100s of millions worth of new players 

We won't have short term success but long term it will be worth it. Just imagine for a second, an exciting, vibrant Chelsea team filled with players from our academy and a few talented players from overseas, playing exciting, relentless attacking football in our new stadium with a clear identity competing on all fronts.  

Also, while the likes of Jardim, Tuchel and Sarri are my preferred candidates to take over from Conte, I wouldn't mind Jody Morris being given a chance either, with him it's almost a guarantee that he'd be happy to give our young players a chance and he's done a fantastic job with our youth teams

 Bring Rafa back :)

57 minutes ago, PedroMendez said:

 Bring Rafa back :)

Lol. Knowing our luck he will be back and for longer than the 24 month period. 

5 hours ago, Sparkz said:

I agree with the majority of this

The thing is, we are potentially sitting on a goldmine and we have barely even accessed it. We have probably the best academy in the world, each year our youth teams clean up all the competitions they enter and win trophy after trophy playing exciting attacking football.  

It's ridiculous that we haven't used this to our advantage. We can't afford to spend vast sums of money to buy our way out of our trouble, we can't compete financially with City and Utd, we've taken FFP seriously and we have a stadium that's going to potentially cost 1 Billion. 

I'm fed up of appointing managers that have a "win at all costs" mentality with short term goals and no long term strategy. It worked well when we had money to splash how we wanted but it was never going to yield long term success. With our academy flourishing it's ridiculous how barely any of them have managed to break through to our first team yet, especially when you take into account we've got average crap like Zappacosta, Moses, Bakayoko, Drrinkwater and Pedro playing for us right now

Appoint a DOF to oversee everything and create a long term strategy and create a clear pathway from youth to first team, appoint a manager who will actually want to build a team long term, actually give young players chances and not moan like a little bitch when the board doesn't provide him with 100s of millions worth of new players 

We won't have short term success but long term it will be worth it. Just imagine for a second, an exciting, vibrant Chelsea team filled with players from our academy and a few talented players from overseas, playing exciting, relentless attacking football in our new stadium with a clear identity competing on all fronts.  

I agree, it's a shame. I wouldn't expect to have a whole first team of academy grads but it's pretty easy to see 5 of them there especially if you count Ampadu and Christiansen.

I don't know who we would bring in to make those changes happen however. Jardim would be a good bet. Porch would as well if he could be tempted away. There simply aren't many proven managers who would implement that kind of long term thinking. If you're at the top, you're there because you want to win and do so quickly 

Edited May 13, 20187 yr by TheChelseaBlues

IMO modern players want to play attacking exciting football. I think our lot have definitely shown this season they don't want a defensive style 

Chelsea ready to replace Antonio Conte with Man Utd assistant Rui Faria

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/sport/football/958987/Man-Utd-Rui-Faria-Chelsea-Antonio-Conte-Arsenal-Arsene-Wenger-rumours-gossip-news/amp

I can't see that happening at all. Taking on an untried manager is too much of a gamble.

If the club stay with Conte they have to fully support him for next season and let him bring in the players he needs to freshen up the club. If it's not Conte then they need to apply that same logic to whoever does come in.

 

If Jody Morris is doing such a good job with the youth teams then I'd be very reluctant to see him take over the first team, especially if we fail to address the underlying problems that have ruined this season. First team managers are disposable to use and he'd get the boot at the first sign of trouble. Also, managing kids is very different to managing millionaire superstars and their egos.

I have a lot of respect for the work Pochetino has done in England but I'm sceptical that he'd want to make make (currently) the step down to manage us. I'd still prefer that we fix the problems with the current set up, find a proper replacement for Emanalo, and give Conte time and backing to show that this season was a blip. I know that may be unrealistic.

7 hours ago, the special one said:

Chelsea ready to replace Antonio Conte with Man Utd assistant Rui Faria

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.express.co.uk/sport/football/958987/Man-Utd-Rui-Faria-Chelsea-Antonio-Conte-Arsenal-Arsene-Wenger-rumours-gossip-news/amp

No chance he’s leaving his best buddy Mourinho.

Never mind, just seen that he is resigning.

Sounds about par for the course at the moment. Second string coach/manager for a second string side.

For me the next manager for this club is a massive appointment. With the lack of funds and clear shift in power base in this league I really do believe that we are standing on the precipice. Get this right and we stay in the chasing pack until the Manchester spending starts to level off. Get this wrong and we slip into the mid table also rans competing for Europa football each year, or possibly even worse.

We will hear all kinds of crazy rumours until we hire a manger, expect to be linked with Enriquez to Rafa, Tony Pullis is in a shout too since we have Giroud We won't hire Jose's assistant, Chelsea is not a training ground for rookie managers.

5 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

We will hear all kinds of crazy rumours until we hire a manger, expect to be linked with Enriquez to Rafa, Tony Pullis is in a shout too since we have Giroud We won't hire Jose's assistant, Chelsea is not a training ground for rookie managers.

AVB, Di Matteo

Edited May 14, 20187 yr by WhiteWall

Maybe Benitez back? 

2 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

AVB, Di Matteo

AVB because we really wanted the next special one. If it pays off then it would have paid off massively. It didn’t.

Di Matteo was an emergency replacement, who did the impossible.

What about Pochettino anyway?

Hes having problems with Levy because he won’t spend. At least here we’ll spend abit of money.

If you look at the net spend over the past 3 years or something, Tottenham is ridiculous. Only spent about 50m.

Levy would give money to charity before allowing MP to join us...

Rumours that Carlo is off to Napoli, which then opens the door for Sarri.

18 minutes ago, doctorblue said:

Levy would give money to charity before allowing MP to join us...

If we pay off his contract or Poch quits, he won't be able to do a single thing.

Well Tuchel has just been appointed as the new PSG manager...

27 minutes ago, Sheva said:

Rumours that Carlo is off to Napoli, which then opens the door for Sarri.

Sarri and De Laurentis (Napoli owner) are going to sit down for talks this week apparently regarding a new contract. Sarri wanted/wants more money for a couple players, but the owner is reluctant and wants more up and coming players given a chance. That last bit isn't to say Sarri won't play youth, it's just Napoli aren't on our level in regards to the quality of their young players. 

I am torn between wanting an unexciting safe pair of hands (uncle Carlo with say lamps and Jody as his assistant), wanting a more daring darling of Europe (emeri, sarri) or someone so obscure that i don't even know their name ( how about that English bloke who took the Scandinavian team to Europa and beat arsenal?)

 

Decisions decisions

Rumours on Twitter that Ancelloti to Napoli is a done deal. 

Make of it what you will. Guess we will find out over the next couple of weeks if Sarri is leaving. 

Well we'll just ask Hazard who he fancies...