I've been littering around this forum now for a while. I haven't really felt the need to pop up with a post or create an account because my opinion has been mostly covered by other faces here.

 

I've supported this club since a wee boy, granted not as many years as some of the older heads here, but enough years to remember being sat at Stamford Bridge for a freezing midweek Champions League tie pre Abramovich.

 

Anyway to the point... Conte has to go. Today has made me genuinely contemplate my support for this club. For YEARS we have been a negative, boring, unexciting team riddled with wasted talent. Bar a spell under Ancelotti, not a single season has been played with an attacking, positive footballing mentality. It's shocking. This squad is worth in today's market probably half a billion, maybe more.

Last season was an anomaly. If it wasn't for Costa we would not have won the league. His input at absolute vital times was invaluable. Coupled with Hazard and Kante being formidable.

If I'm completely honest a change in formation after the Arsenal game did allow for a brief change in mentality but even then, some results we had were VERY fortunate. We got lucky. Winning games we did not deserve to. A reliance on counter attacking football. No real philosophy. 

 

We have had an abundance of money to spend, which brings me on to a sort of sub point that has really been frustrating as of late... People upon here complaining that we don't have the monetary necessity to compete anymore. Uh, hello People, have you actually seen how much money we have spent over the past few seasons? We have spent a fortune and are no less an example of splashing cash than City. You can't use it as an excuse. It's idiocy even thinking otherwise. The problem lies with the attraction of the club, which ultimately lies with the philosophy of the manager and the manager himself. Conte does not have a good reputation amongst the talent pool we need to be fishing in. This ultimately boils down to the boring, defensive style of football he plays and the fact that he is an egoist of perpetual levels who has a reputation for causing issue in the dressing room and at club level.

 

We have to move on. We need an identity. We need to get with the times. We no longer have Lampard, Terry, Drogba, Cech... Football has changed. For the sake of our future generations of fans let's give them football to be proud of. Let's give faith to a manager that truly understands the quality that we have. 

 

Through success we have earned the right to demand only the best from this club, and Conte isn't fit to lace it's boots. 

 

Wake up Chelsea FC, it's time to move away from pragmatic managers and take a leap of faith. With the departure of Hazard and Courtois in the summer significant funds will be available for someone to truly build a fantastic team; but the manager is essential to it fulfilling it's potential. For this reason, we need to bring in an optimist who can make us fans start believing again.

Edited March 4, 20188 yr by AnHonestOpinion
Spell error

We've had one good performance this whole 2018, that was the Barcelona game and we still didn't win. 

Even the other two Premier League games we won (Jesus Christ its march) we weren't really that convincing, Brighton & West Brom, you could still see a lot of holes and we played two absolutely mediocre teams. 

There is definitely something wrong, but it's been like that for months, we've made our choice with Conte and we should just stick with him what else can we do. 

When for years we've had unqualified people in high positions, random managers appointed, terrible recruitment policies in place, and now taken a complete nosedive in terms of financial power - you can't blame a guy who's been around for 2 years. It's a cycle which happens over, and over, and over, and over, and over at this club. Absolutely none of what we're going through is new. It happens regardless who our manager is, and yet these problems don't happen to other clubs regardless of who their managers are. Telling no? 

Edited March 4, 20188 yr by fiel

12 minutes ago, fiel said:

When for years we've had unqualified people in high positions, random managers appointed, terrible recruitment policies in place, and now taken a complete nosedive in terms of financial power - you can't blame a guy who's been around for 2 years. It's a cycle which happens over, and over, and over, and over, and over at this club. Absolutely none of what we're going through is new. It happens regardless who our manager is, and yet these problems don't happen to other clubs regardless of who their managers are. Telling no? 

You can blame a guy for making tactical errors, playing sh*t football, keep playing out of form players, false 9 formation, late subs, can't change a game, people probably could add even more to that list. 

Yall do know we are current English champions right? And we've been champions twice in the last 4 seasons. Go look at where we finished from around 1991 to 1996. Hint 11th to 14th. 

Be ironic if both Conte and Wenger get sacked this week.

2 hours ago, AnHonestOpinion said:

I've been littering around this forum now for a while. I haven't really felt the need to pop up with a post or create an account because my opinion has been mostly covered by other faces here.

 

I've supported this club since a wee boy, granted not as many years as some of the older heads here, but enough years to remember being sat at Stamford Bridge for a freezing midweek Champions League tie pre Abramovich.

 

Anyway to the point... Conte has to go. Today has made me genuinely contemplate my support for this club. For YEARS we have been a negative, boring, unexciting team riddled with wasted talent. Bar a spell under Ancelotti, not a single season has been played with an attacking, positive footballing mentality. It's shocking. This squad is worth in today's market probably half a billion, maybe more.

Last season was an anomaly. If it wasn't for Costa we would not have won the league. His input at absolute vital times was invaluable. Coupled with Hazard and Kante being formidable.

If I'm completely honest a change in formation after the Arsenal game did allow for a brief change in mentality but even then, some results we had were VERY fortunate. We got lucky. Winning games we did not deserve to. A reliance on counter attacking football. No real philosophy. 

 

We have had an abundance of money to spend, which brings me on to a sort of sub point that has really been frustrating as of late... People upon here complaining that we don't have the monetary necessity to compete anymore. Uh, hello People, have you actually seen how much money we have spent over the past few seasons? We have spent a fortune and are no less an example of splashing cash than City. You can't use it as an excuse. It's idiocy even thinking otherwise. The problem lies with the attraction of the club, which ultimately lies with the philosophy of the manager and the manager himself. Conte does not have a good reputation amongst the talent pool we need to be fishing in. This ultimately boils down to the boring, defensive style of football he plays and the fact that he is an egoist of perpetual levels who has a reputation for causing issue in the dressing room and at club level.

 

We have to move on. We need an identity. We need to get with the times. We no longer have Lampard, Terry, Drogba, Cech... Football has changed. For the sake of our future generations of fans let's give them football to be proud of. Let's give faith to a manager that truly understands the quality that we have. 

 

Through success we have earned the right to demand only the best from this club, and Conte isn't fit to lace it's boots. 

 

Wake up Chelsea FC, it's time to move away from pragmatic managers and take a leap of faith. With the departure of Hazard and Courtois in the summer significant funds will be available for someone to truly build a fantastic team; but the manager is essential to it fulfilling it's potential. For this reason, we need to bring in an optimist who can make us fans start believing again.

And who do you have in mind? Ive finally, reluctantly given up on him. Chelsea are in a tricky position but as we (fans) don't know what goes on behind the scenes its really confusing.

1 minute ago, Kev56 said:

And who do you have in mind? Ive finally, reluctantly given up on him. Chelsea are in a tricky position but as we (fans) don't know what goes on behind the scenes its really confusing.

no

^^^^^^^^^^^ To my initial post above.   

It will require patience as possession based attacking football is more difficult to implement than defend deep and hope bus-parking/counter-"attacking" football but it will be well worth the wait. 

Tuchel will give us an actual attractive playing style and identity, will trust young players with meaningful minutes and keep us competive in the top 4. Anything else is a bonus. We need a total rebranding of this club. The teams that have been dominating European football don't play the way we did against City. That style of play ended with Mourinho's Inter. 

Jardim is another good option. Sarri. Marco Silva even. I felt Silva wasn't given a fair shake at his last job. I'm very impressed with the way his team plays. Excellent in possession, high intensity, incredible press. He reminds me a lot of Pochettino. 

I'm in 100% agreement with every word in the OP's post. 

Edited March 5, 20188 yr by The Liquidator

If the club plan on parting ways with him i hope they do it ASAP not because i dont like conte i do like him and i would like him to work out his differences with the club,but because i want the club to go into pre season prepared and with a manager in place rather than leaving it all last minute?on the subject of pre season it would also be nice to have top transfers in place before pre season starts.

And IF he does walk or they sack him before the end of the season(it wont happen) i dont wanna hear a single hiddink rumour,just let jody morris takeover until the end?the bloke has done amazing things with our youths and he is one of our own too,a fan,former player loves the club.......

Jardim doesn't play possession based football.

Is there no coach who has the kind of high tempo fast passing attacking philosophy like Sarri at Napoli.

We shouldn’t be setting up our team to rely on counter attacking all the times, time to play some attacking possession based football.

Most managers play such football now, heck even most premiership teams now don’t believe in sitting back and absolving all the pressure, granted they are still in poor positions in league, but with the kind of clout and players we have and some money available, we can bring in some top players and incorporate our youth to build such philosophy.

Even if we aren’t going to win the league, play decent football.

Well first and foremost, I totally and vehemently disagree that we have played 'negative, boring' football for the most part of the Abramovich era.  There really is a culture of footballing 'snobbery' prevalent these days.  As if the only way to win games is by playing a certain way.  One day, Manchester City will come up against Barcelona.  Maybe they'll both somehow enjoy 75% possession.   The thing is it DOES cost megabucks to play a high pressing and possession dominating game.  Everybody would be attempting it otherwise.  Some have and come an absolute cropper at it, (Arsenal) simply because they didn't have the quality of player to do it properly.  Andre Vilas Boas tried to enforce it on a Chelsea team that was already defensively strong and used to playing a certain way, with disastrous results. I suggest the OP looks at the 'net spend' over the last five or six seasons. City's net spend 'per season' is almost £70m more than ours.  Each season !!  No matter how you dress it up, that is going to have an effect sooner or later.  Manchester City have left us and everyone else for dead on recruitment.  One could say that Man City have actually hugely under-achieved given the investment, particularly in Europe with one CL semi-final appearance.

It could also be said that Chelsea have probably exceeded themselves in winning these last two titles.   I also don't accept that we were blessed with unnatural fortune in doing so.  Any team that wins a PL title with a record number of wins, including thirteen on the bounce, has fully deserved to do so. There is endless bemoaning of players who have left Chelsea and Yes, a few can be counted as mistakes but it is abundantly clear that the club has had to comply with FFP, which means all to often we've had to sell in order to buy.   Manchester City have circumnavigated the ruling by somehow lumping their accounts in with their worldwide network of sister clubs under the City Group.  Chelsea's turnover has doubled in the last decade.  City's has increased more than fivefold.   Conte's team CAN and have played the sort of football any so-called 'purist' would enjoy.  That 5-0 win over Everton?  John Motson claimed it was the best sustained 90 minutes from any team he could recall.   And in most games, Chelsea do at least have most possession if not dominating. 

We're going through a rough patch but I don't judge a managers reign on a select number of games, whether he got it badly wrong in one or tactically spot on in another.

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premier-league-last-five-seasons/transfer-league-tables/premier-league-table-last-five-seasons

 

Edited March 6, 20188 yr by Bovis Messroom

On 3/4/2018 at 22:13, AnHonestOpinion said:

Anyway to the point... Conte has to go. Today has made me genuinely contemplate my support for this club

I thought this sentence was about to go a totally darker route. Glad it wasn't that bad

3 hours ago, Bovis Messroom said:

Well first and foremost, I totally and vehemently disagree that we have played 'negative, boring' football for the most part of the Abramovich era.  There really is a culture of footballing 'snobbery' prevalent these days.  As if the only way to win games is by playing a certain way.  One day, Manchester City will come up against Barcelona.  Maybe they'll both somehow enjoy 75% possession.   The thing is it DOES cost megabucks to play a high pressing and possession dominating game.  Everybody would be attempting it otherwise.  Some have and come an absolute cropper at it, (Arsenal) simply because they didn't have the quality of player to do it properly.  Andre Vilas Boas tried to enforce it on a Chelsea team that was already defensively strong and used to playing a certain way, with disastrous results. I suggest the OP looks at the 'net spend' over the last five or six seasons. City's net spend 'per season' is almost £70m more than ours.  Each season !!  No matter how you dress it up, that is going to have an effect sooner or later.  Manchester City have left us and everyone else for dead on recruitment.  One could say that Man City have actually hugely under-achieved given the investment, particularly in Europe with one CL semi-final appearance.

It could also be said that Chelsea have probably exceeded themselves in winning these last two titles.   I also don't accept that we were blessed with unnatural fortune in doing so.  Any team that wins a PL title with a record number of wins, including thirteen on the bounce, has fully deserved to do so. There is endless bemoaning of players who have left Chelsea and Yes, a few can be counted as mistakes but it is abundantly clear that the club has had to comply with FFP, which means all to often we've had to sell in order to buy.   Manchester City have circumnavigated the ruling by somehow lumping their accounts in with their worldwide network of sister clubs under the City Group.  Chelsea's turnover has doubled in the last decade.  City's has increased more than fivefold.   Conte's team CAN and have played the sort of football any so-called 'purist' would enjoy.  That 5-0 win over Everton?  John Motson claimed it was the best sustained 90 minutes from any team he could recall.   And in most games, Chelsea do at least have most possession if not dominating. 

We're going through a rough patch but I don't judge a managers reign on a select number of games, whether he got it badly wrong in one or tactically spot on in another.

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premier-league-last-five-seasons/transfer-league-tables/premier-league-table-last-five-seasons

 

Agree 100% with this, if you dont play loads of 5 yard side to side passes you are boring, that seems to be fact now. As does the rewriting of history to show us as a boring team always, mainly down to people believing what the media tell them. We have had some incredible attacking sides, even Joses second era the first 6 months we were outstanding and destroyed teams. As for the Person who started this thread, to say you are contemplating your support for the club speaks volumes about you, a completely spoiled attitude which fits in with the modern football "fan". 

We actually played some fantastic attacking football up at OT last weekend. We were miles better than them for much of the game, but we folded badly. 

I still wonder if Kante's illness last week just made Conte think 'We've got no chance', and drew up the most negative, unimaginative, pointless tactics imaginable, purely so our goal difference didn't take a hammering. Without Kante our midfield is just uncompetitive. Fabregas has some fabulous qualities, but on Sunday he was a waste of space. DD was OK, but no more than that. Pedro, as I've said before, was shamefully bad. Hazard was hopeless but he at least had the excuse of being given a role he isn't suited to.

4 hours ago, Bovis Messroom said:

Well first and foremost, I totally and vehemently disagree that we have played 'negative, boring' football for the most part of the Abramovich era.  There really is a culture of footballing 'snobbery' prevalent these days.  As if the only way to win games is by playing a certain way.  One day, Manchester City will come up against Barcelona.  Maybe they'll both somehow enjoy 75% possession.   The thing is it DOES cost megabucks to play a high pressing and possession dominating game.  Everybody would be attempting it otherwise.  Some have and come an absolute cropper at it, (Arsenal) simply because they didn't have the quality of player to do it properly.  Andre Vilas Boas tried to enforce it on a Chelsea team that was already defensively strong and used to playing a certain way, with disastrous results. I suggest the OP looks at the 'net spend' over the last five or six seasons. City's net spend 'per season' is almost £70m more than ours.  Each season !!  No matter how you dress it up, that is going to have an effect sooner or later.  Manchester City have left us and everyone else for dead on recruitment.  One could say that Man City have actually hugely under-achieved given the investment, particularly in Europe with one CL semi-final appearance.

It could also be said that Chelsea have probably exceeded themselves in winning these last two titles.   I also don't accept that we were blessed with unnatural fortune in doing so.  Any team that wins a PL title with a record number of wins, including thirteen on the bounce, has fully deserved to do so. There is endless bemoaning of players who have left Chelsea and Yes, a few can be counted as mistakes but it is abundantly clear that the club has had to comply with FFP, which means all to often we've had to sell in order to buy.   Manchester City have circumnavigated the ruling by somehow lumping their accounts in with their worldwide network of sister clubs under the City Group.  Chelsea's turnover has doubled in the last decade.  City's has increased more than fivefold.   Conte's team CAN and have played the sort of football any so-called 'purist' would enjoy.  That 5-0 win over Everton?  John Motson claimed it was the best sustained 90 minutes from any team he could recall.   And in most games, Chelsea do at least have most possession if not dominating. 

We're going through a rough patch but I don't judge a managers reign on a select number of games, whether he got it badly wrong in one or tactically spot on in another.

http://www.transferleague.co.uk/premier-league-last-five-seasons/transfer-league-tables/premier-league-table-last-five-seasons

 

This is bang on the money. 

So refreshing to read such a level headed and mature post, which sums up my opinion in a better way than I would have been able to. Rare these days on this forum too!

It doesn't cost megabucks to play a high-pressing, possession-dominating game at all. I'll list teams who've employed exactly that with barely any money to throw around compared to their rivals - 

Napoli; Dortmund; Monaco; Liverpool; Sampdoria; Valencia; and more. All have less money than their rivals; all play aggressive, fast, attacking, effective football - against their richer rivals too.

And if it did cost megabucks to play such a way, well, we have megabucks. 

 

Edited March 6, 20188 yr by fiel

52 minutes ago, fiel said:

It doesn't cost megabucks to play a high-pressing, possession-dominating game at all. I'll list teams who've employed exactly that with barely any money to throw around compared to their rivals - 

Napoli; Dortmund; Monaco; Liverpool; Sampdoria; Valencia; and more. All have less money than their rivals; all play aggressive, fast, attacking, effective football - against their richer rivals too.

And if it did cost megabucks to play such a way, well, we have megabucks. 

 

You are correct it doesn't take mega bucks, it take the right players which sadly we don't have. Roman wants Barca flair not L'pool high pressing. Don't blame Conte blame whoever the f**k is signing our players.

 

 

3 hours ago, dkw said:

Agree 100% with this, if you dont play loads of 5 yard side to side passes you are boring, that seems to be fact now. As does the rewriting of history to show us as a boring team always, mainly down to people believing what the media tell them. We have had some incredible attacking sides, even Joses second era the first 6 months we were outstanding and destroyed teams. As for the Person who started this thread, to say you are contemplating your support for the club speaks volumes about you, a completely spoiled attitude which fits in with the modern football "fan". 

Good post. There's no loyalty amongst players or managers these days, the only loyalty is amongst proper fans ( not so called fans who down tools and cry their eyes out the moment a grey cloud appears on the horizon)

Some of these self pitying planks ought to try supporting clubs like Blackpool, Blackburn or Dirty Leeds, who've been royally shat on by their owners, and see what that feels like.

 

Go back 20-50 years and Chelsea was considered a club with a bit of flair on the pitch, we liked to try and pass the ball about rather than the direct option. Even when Roman arrived this was still the case. And still is now, if we can get hold of the ball.

There is certainly nothing wrong with sticking 10 men behind ball, conceding possession, and playing on the counter. Some of my best memories have been in games when we've had less than 40% possession. I've been lucky enough to see us win every trophy on the planet, which was an absolute pipe dream when I started supporting chelsea. I'm at the point now, where I don't want to see win at all cost style football. I'd rather be entertained and go toe to toe with the big boys. If we get a beating, then so be it, these things happen in football, its not even a month since we were beaten 3 nil at home to Bournemouth. 

I appreciate there will be alot of fans that want to win and don't care how we go about it, and there will be fans that like seeing us dig in and grind out a result, in my opinion, when you are no longer playing to your best players strengths, then you've gone too far. 

We lost at old Trafford, having played very well for the 1st hour. We took the game to them, and on another day we would've won. 

Then you take the approach against city, and we play our best player out of position, and we sit deep and wait for the inevitable. 

This group of players are not comfortable playing on the counter, it's not like we have a water tight jt defence, steel and goals from midfield with lamps, or a one man army up front with drogba. 

So i would like to see us change our approach in some of the bigger games, it's not like we have been that successful sitting deep, in recent years anyway.

 

On 3/6/2018 at 12:26, big blue said:

There is certainly nothing wrong with sticking 10 men behind ball, conceding possession, and playing on the counter. Some of my best memories have been in games when we've had less than 40% possession. I've been lucky enough to see us win every trophy on the planet, which was an absolute pipe dream when I started supporting chelsea. I'm at the point now, where I don't want to see win at all cost style football. I'd rather be entertained and go toe to toe with the big boys. If we get a beating, then so be it, these things happen in football, its not even a month since we were beaten 3 nil at home to Bournemouth. 

I appreciate there will be alot of fans that want to win and don't care how we go about it, and there will be fans that like seeing us dig in and grind out a result, in my opinion, when you are no longer playing to your best players strengths, then you've gone too far. 

We lost at old Trafford, having played very well for the 1st hour. We took the game to them, and on another day we would've won. 

Then you take the approach against city, and we play our best player out of position, and we sit deep and wait for the inevitable. 

This group of players are not comfortable playing on the counter, it's not like we have a water tight jt defence, steel and goals from midfield with lamps, or a one man army up front with drogba. 

So i would like to see us change our approach in some of the bigger games, it's not like we have been that successful sitting deep, in recent years anyway.

 

I tend to agree. There are some players with premium skill and it feels like their creativity is being stifled currently. I would love to see the team "go after it" more. Feels like there is enough skill up front to give it a go.

I am a little torn here. I like conte and dont really want to see us move ANOTHER manager on. However i do feel tactically Conte is just wrong at times, especially against tougher opposition, with the quality we have we can show more ambition and not setup for the game in such a negative manner. That Man City game was like watching a Sam Allardyce team, 0 shots on goal! I mean i would rather get spanked at least having a go rather than lose trying to draw 0-0.

Best case scenario is that Conte stays and with perhaps a few good signings we get the confidence we need to tactically setup to dominate our games against ALL opposition.