We can be pretty certain that the club is going to go through an inevitably rough period soon. It is looking likely we are facing the prospect of a season out of the CL, but maybe even the loss of a few older, dead wood players and maybe even Hazard. 

I am all for this transition period, especially if it means bringing through  some youth like Hudson-Odoi, RLC, Ampadu, and maybe even Mount. What we may need is patience. I can deal with two seasons not challenging if we are planning to move stadium and bring in a new coach with a different style of play.

It will take some time to get back to a position where we are ready to go again and challenge. Until then if we can build a side with a different style of football and ideas, and the club bring in a new director of football then I am fine with it. I think a transition period has been long overdue. We need this as a club to move forward to the next stage; every club has or will go through it.

Would you be content with a couple seasons not challenging to build the team and integrate young players like Liverpool and Spurs or even Utd to a smaller extent, have had the time to do? 

Edited April 1, 20188 yr by enigma

One thing I would like to see, is the club solve the manager-board dilemma before we enter this period. We've had the last 2 managers be at odds with the board and the club has suffered as a result. I'm just hoping whoever comes in this period is someone that is on the same length with the board regardless of whether he gets his targets or not. Having a stable manager who is on board with the higher-ups, while also not relying on a chequebook, would be highly integral for us to integrate youth and save money during this stadium move.

Yes I would. Need the right manager who has patients as well. Board also need to be patient.

We've been in transition every two years recently. This is the challenge. 

Frankly I think we need to start with a look at our governance and the inclusion of more football/Chelsea people around the club. Marina and Emenalo I think largely have done a good job. But we can't continue to operate without top level football brains.

In my view the addition of players from our golden era (who have a direct connection to Roman) into the club's hierarchy is a must. This has been the model of other big clubs such as Juve with Nedved and Bayern. The likes of Lampard, Drogba and Ballack should be utilised as drawcards for players and to insert much needed football knowledge into the equation. 

Secondly there needs to be a view of what we want to be as a club. A golden thread that runs from top to bottom and influences our manager, our recruitment and our youth policy. The injection of those great players should help drive that. No more short termism. We have a direction and we follow that. 

Copy Spurs - solid defence, perfect balance between physicality/ability/possession in midfield, potent attack.

Everything already said -

Fix the link between manager and board, potentially bring in a DOF, give younger players a chance, plan for 2 or 3 seasons in advance not just the current, find a Pochettino type of young ideological manager to oversee it if possible.

Half way there already. Hire a DOF, find a way to smooth the Conte-board relations and we're good without firing another manager.

1 hour ago, TheChelseaBlues said:

Half way there already. Hire a DOF, find a way to smooth the Conte-board relations and we're good without firing another manager.

I am sure the players will be thrilled to play under a manager who has consistently put them down saying this is not the squad he wants. I can so see them giving their 200% next season. 

Chelsea’s recent transfer policy is to buy a crock (injured player) on the cheap... take a chance... and fingers firmly crossed...

More of the same to come...

8 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Yes I would. Need the right manager who has patients as well. Board also need to be patient.

I think the manager being a doctor isn't important 

We need to be harder to beat first and foremost.

1-0 up against Spurs = Lost,

1-0 up against Man Utd = Lost,

1-0 up against Barcelona = Drew,

1-0 up against Arsenal (Caraboa)=Lost,

2-1 up against Arsenal= Drew,

2-0 up against Roma = Drew

Plus the losses to Burnley, Watford, Bournemouth, Palace, West Ham, City, Man Utd, and now Spurs. 

 

Start at the back. I know it isn't popular and everyone wants Man City style flowing football but for a team that already has Azpi, Rudiger, Alonso, Kante and Tibo as part of it's defensive make-up this should have been a fixable problem. The defence has been one of Conte's greatest failings this season. There's been a lot of focus on the 'false 9' strategy but with the defensive options he has available to him this is a remarkably poor record and the fact that he's not come up with a solution to shape this group of players into a 'hard to beat' unit when needed is puzzling. Persisting with the two in midfield is obviously a major flaw but the loss of Luiz (for whatever reason Knee? Personality clash?) is for me one of the key issues of the season (although we've had a major issue in every area; Defence, Midfield and Striker that Conte has been unable to address). Whoever the new manager is should start here.

I agree Fitz. Many are talking about Sarriball or Tuchelball or whatever. Fundamentally these approaches concede more goals in the hope of scoring more. 

What we require is a reshaping of our defence and midfield to make us less porous. That is why my preference will continue to be Simeone or Allegri.

A second big part in that I think has to be a new central defender who is a leader and organiser and a proper partner for Kante who isn't a training cone like Fabregas.

 

Yes, even if we go into the next season with our current attacking options we WILL score goals (Morata, Giroud, Bats, Hazard, Willian and Pedro ARE a decent attacking group despite individual fluctuations in form, no matter what anyone says). But realistically we are playing for third and fourth place now as long as City and Man U continue to outspend us, and we need to adjust the team accordingly. What's been clear this season is that we've been predictable and one-dimensional defensively, at times playing two rigid and inflexible lines across defence and midfield. It's been too easy for opposition managers to see our weaknesses and exploit them. If it wasn't for that fact that Kante was so quick and clean in his tackling we would be back in mid-table again. Personally Allegri would be my preferred option; pragmatic, tactically sound but also less volatile and emotional than Conte.

I'm tired Robbie.

I think having the club undertake a thorough review of all facets of the club would be beneficial in an attempt to create a blueprint of what the club wants to achieve on and off the field within the next decade and beyond and where it sees itself in the wider footballing world.

This would include looking at areas such as the way the board is structured, who is responsible for particular areas and the overall governance of this club. It can be used as a way to identify what we do well and the things we can improve on to become an even better and well-run club.

One of the criticisms that has emerged over the years is the lack of transparency between the club and the supporters, so supporters have very little idea on what the club's strategy is in the short and long-term and most of us are only guessing on what they're trying to do.

The schism between the manager(s) and those higher up in the club hierarchy in the last few years is another weakness that the club needs addressing. This has been a common problem for a number of years and had an impact through frequent managerial changes, poor transfer activity and apparent miscommunication between the manager and those at board level, which has been detrimental to on-field performance.

Another apparent weakness is our inability to transition youth players into the first squad seamlessly. It's no secret that the club has had an ambition to see more academy players transition into the first-team squad when they're ready, and in effect reducing the burden of relying solely on the transfer market to find good players, but for whatever reason we've found this task difficult. I think a review could flush out the problems here and identify what needs to be achieved to be successful in transitioning youth players to the first team.

Like any organisation, the club needs to set itself some long-term goals and have a bold vision on what it wants to look like in the future. Gone are the days where two or three sides had a monopoly on the competition and with other variables in play such as the FPP and the club's long held ambition to rebuild Stamford Bridge, I think undertaking an honest external review for the betterment of the club wouldn't be the worst thing they could do as we enter a new era in our club's history.

Having a short-term mentality has masked problems we've had in the past and the upside of it is it's resulted in a number of trophies which we've all revelled in, but how long can we sustain this method of operating the club in this manner?

With regards to on-field issues, these are more pertinent issues that the club needs to start addressing and thinking about now, which I'm sure they are as they have one eye on next season.

Edited April 2, 20188 yr by Jezz

Keep Kante at all costs. For me he is the only truly world class player we have.

Question:

 

Would you sell Hazard to fund a more substantial rebuild?

7 minutes ago, Fatty_Speeding said:

Question:

 

Would you sell Hazard to fund a more substantial rebuild?

No, because our board will spend it on sh*te.

it's called football and we have to accept it. One year you walk over the league with 93 points and 30 wins. Next season, you're plagued with injuries and underfporming players, you nearly have your manager resigning before the season even starts due to lack of transfers and fail to renew the team while others spend 800 million £ to bring 11 new top notch players... Yes, the board should be renewed with former CFC legends (Lampard, Drogba, Ballack and co)! Yes, the manager shall be given discretion and final say as to the players he wants to sign WHILST being aware of our finances, stadium situation and will to include youth players in the team. What I am going to say may sound controversial but Conte is the type of manager who is like a double edged sword: if things click and go in his way, he's able to pull off the season he did last year (exceptional results, overpofrming players, superb tactical plan). But if things don't, he'll remain convinced his method is not to be reviewed/changed but external factors (luck, board etc) are the main reasons despite the fact that teams have obviously studied our tactics and found out how to play us as soon as october (go watch back the AS Roma game for instance) . Moreover, we also should understand that the stadium thingy will necessarily limit us for the next 5 years at least in terms of players and ambition ... It's football. You can't, in a league where f**** every team you play plays  like it's the fcuking champions' league (in terms of intensity at least), expect to aim for the PL every year when City are obviously in the UAE pocket which obviously have FIFA/UEFA/Intl football by the balls in terms of finances and could spend 10 billion each transfer market that it would not raise any questions for the UEFA and the likes. Life's unfair, there's nothing we can do about it ! What we can hope however is that all those semi-injured/injured players we recruited will shine next season. First of, they won"t be injured forever :) ! Secondly, especially for Baka and Zappa, having spent a full year in England and PL, one may hope that having adapted to English football, they'll thrive next season and be a thousand times better than this season. Same thing goes for Morata imo. Moreover, we have to remember that our WB (Alonso and Moses too even if he was there in 2012/2013) played UCL for the very first time !! Same for Christensen and Rudiger ... What I want to point out is that we should never undermine the experience factor those players have gained this season and the fact they can improve a lot next season. Plus, and that's also important, if we're less strickened with injuries (Kanté, Hazard at the very beginning, Morata, David Luiz, Cahill at some stage ... ) and bad luck, we can still do great things with limited means (see the barça game). Not everything is doom or gloom!!! And one may say that even in our "transition" period, we may still kick some ass ! But for that, stability is the key. Which means that selling 80% of the team won't do sh*t in order to solve our problems... As for the gaffer, either he reviews his methods, otherwise someone else will be glad to do so.

 

Edited April 2, 20188 yr by Londonisblue

We spent 250 million on new players in the Summer and In January and none of those players actually improved our first 11. While I understand we can't compete with City and Man Utd we really should be doing so much better with our spending.

That right there is what needs to change first of all. We could have signed 3-4 top class players with that amount but instead we signed multiple squad fillers which we are suffering for now

I have no faith in Marina in regards to transfers. We've appeared to have messed up multiple signings and also gone into complete panic mode these last two seasons by waiting till the last day of the transfer window to finish up our spending, multiple times we have missed out on our top targets and ended up with players that were 4th-5th choice, there also appears to be no actual plan in regards to building our squad

From what I've read, Marina doesn't have any sort of footballing background. I feel one of the first things we need to do is get rid of her and bring in a actual footballing person to take her place

 

First and foremost sort out our transfers. We've bought a LOT of sh*t in recent years. 

Following that our next priority is to keep Kante, without him we have a bottom half of the league standard midfield. 

Build a squad more suited to a back 4 as we will inevitably go back to soon. 

We can't even do the basics right. The philosophy the board and Roman wants is constantly clashing with the managers we hire. 

15 hours ago, Sparkz said:

We spent 250 million on new players in the Summer and In January and none of those players actually improved our first 11. While I understand we can't compete with City and Man Utd we really should be doing so much better with our spending.

That right there is what needs to change first of all. We could have signed 3-4 top class players with that amount but instead we signed multiple squad fillers which we are suffering for now

I have no faith in Marina in regards to transfers. We've appeared to have messed up multiple signings and also gone into complete panic mode these last two seasons by waiting till the last day of the transfer window to finish up our spending, multiple times we have missed out on our top targets and ended up with players that were 4th-5th choice, there also appears to be no actual plan in regards to building our squad

From what I've read, Marina doesn't have any sort of footballing background. I feel one of the first things we need to do is get rid of her and bring in a actual footballing person to take her place

 

She's a negotiator, she does that job well.

She's not meant to be a football expert, she doesn't pick the players we sign.

good video about the future and other issues. 

 

4 hours ago, benjsross said:

She's a negotiator, she does that job well.

She's not meant to be a football expert, she doesn't pick the players we sign.

Agreed. But who is fulfilling that role at present? As it doesn't seem to be Conte.