It’s difficult to comprehend where this club is at the moment, after an insane season last year, to what has happened this year. Antonio isn’t the same man, remains to be seen as to why, but I have some views on what I think needs to happen, most wont like it but I would like some thoughts. 

It’s taken me a long time to come to terms with the fact t this club will never have stability when it comes to managers, we fall in love with the ones that come in, win a trophy, then the players flop, and the managers get sacked. This is Chelsea football club.

what I want to happen now is start to integrate our young European cup winners.. in all honesty I think hazard should go, he will never reach his potential at Chelsea, it’s the wrong fit for him because of our lack of managerial stability and philosophies, out goes morata, Cahill, bakaf**kinyoko, Barkley, Pedro and probably courtois, I don’t see these guys with a future any more.

time to see loftus-cheek start regularly, Hudson-odoi, mason mount.. if we as a club are happy to let the best manager we’ve had in years go, and he is just that.. he’s been f**ked over with players he didn’t want to sign, if were happy with this instability then what’s the harm in starting the exceptional talent we have??  I’m tired of the merry-go-round, just wondered if I’m the only one with these views.

I will be surprised if Hazard signs a contract extension after the past season. With that in mind the club may decide to cash in on him now while they can attract a big bid. If he does leave I will be sad to see him go, but equally we will need to make sure that the money is invested in quality players to improve the first team. We spent a lot of money reinforcing the squad the last year or 2, without improving our starting 11. There is a solid argument to be made that we could have had at least the same quality in our squad by simply promoting the right players from the youth/U23 teams. Unfortunately while our first team largely stayed the same in terms of quality (or probably regressed being that Morata has struggled compared to Costa), others have significantly improved and that is partially why we have sunk out of the top 4. If we want to compete for the league again I think a couple of quality first team signings are needed rather than several average ones.

I am frustrated with the cycle... sh*t season-buy players, that turn out to be sh*t, sell them on. 

You make a good point that you could argue these mediocre signings could well be the same calibre of the ones we have in our youth setup. 

Ill never forget kenyons promise “10 year plan” profitable and developing our own talent to play for Chelsea. Good one. 

Edited May 17, 20188 yr by w1llsy

I think we definitely missed an opportunity to use the youth to strengthen our squad the last year. That being said it may still happen as I doubt some of the recruits during that time (e.g. Drinkwater, Zappacosta) will be satisfied sitting on the bench for long.

Perhaps the most damning observation about our transfer policy is that we probably still need a quality midfield signing, and a top striker. That despite the fact we spent a lot of money on those 2 positions last summer.

100% and I think loftus cheek would be ideal. I’m happy with giroud tbh but I do think a striker in the aguero mould would propel us. Even Lewandowski but can’t see him coming. Dybala is the one I would love to have but that’s like asking for a miracle. 

I think the disinclination to introduce youth from our own ranks into our squad has been partly due to fear from the managers, as they seem to feel the need to try to capture the latest fashionable and expensive player in the market, which may well actually be based on very little talent and a huge amount of media hyperbole.

Additionally, and perhaps most tellingly, is the concern from each management team (which actually equates to an overall club ethos, in reality, which is then accepted by each new management team) that introducing a large number of inexperienced youngsters into the spine of the team will weaken us, making us lose our place and make us slide towards mediocrity and lost revenue.

Well look at us now. Without wishing to sound melodramatic I genuinely believe that we are standing at the edge of an abyss now. FFP is a scam and consequently nobody really cares that the game ultimately is going to hell in a handbasket. Anybody who watches Italian football now and hearing the "crowds" echoing around the stadiums like the noise inside swimming baths, must surely see what can await us all when the interest and money starts to wane from the product on offer. But with the Manc clubs desperately trying to keep pace with some of the criminally insane figures some foreign sides are willing to pay (to ultimately be unsuccessful), what chance is there for anybody who doesn't want to, or can't, spend £300m on the side each summer.

So my point, with us now slipping or already slipped into the mediocrity zone, (and let's be honest, if it wasn't for patches of form and results , some earned, some given, we could easily have found ourselves below the likes of Burnley and competing alongside Newcastle), what really is there to be lost with introducing a policy of a gradual, yet continual introduction of youth players.

This manager has had no problem in doing so when it has served his own political needs, in that he would rather have continued with the inexperienced Christensen than lose face and reinstate Luiz into the side.

Perhaps we are still paying the price for the unsuccessful experiment that AVB tried. I still maintain that that strategy could have worked if a) the regeneration of the side has happened gradually with one or two younger players being introduced and surrounded by experience and b) he hadn't chosen the players that formed the cornerstone of our side to be the guinea pigs for the process, and thereby enraged the entire fanbase when it went t*ts up.

We no longer have the towering presence in our side of a Terry, Lampard, Drogba, Cech. Even that likes of the Coles had a presence about them, that could be inspiring to those around them. That dynamic has now gone. So playing Hudson Odoi ahead of a Pedro for example and integrating him into a side that on its day can be pretty devastating, is it really such a big gamble. Much as I hate the scouse, I remember the days when they just threw Owen into the pack and it was unbelievable. he was jaw dropping as a kid and within 4-5 games he was a constant part of their side. Sometimes the deep end is the making of these kids.

15 hours ago, w1llsy said:

It’s difficult to comprehend where this club is at the moment, after an insane season last year, to what has happened this year. Antonio isn’t the same man, remains to be seen as to why, but I have some views on what I think needs to happen, most wont like it but I would like some thoughts. 

It’s taken me a long time to come to terms with the fact t this club will never have stability when it comes to managers, we fall in love with the ones that come in, win a trophy, then the players flop, and the managers get sacked. This is Chelsea football club.

what I want to happen now is start to integrate our young European cup winners.. in all honesty I think hazard should go, he will never reach his potential at Chelsea, it’s the wrong fit for him because of our lack of managerial stability and philosophies, out goes morata, Cahill, bakaf**kinyoko, Barkley, Pedro and probably courtois, I don’t see these guys with a future any more.

time to see loftus-cheek start regularly, Hudson-odoi, mason mount.. if we as a club are happy to let the best manager we’ve had in years go, and he is just that.. he’s been f**ked over with players he didn’t want to sign, if were happy with this instability then what’s the harm in starting the exceptional talent we have??  I’m tired of the merry-go-round, just wondered if I’m the only one with these views.

Add Empadu, Da Silva, Sterling and Mceachran to that as well. We have enormous talent in our youth team. 

Why is it that people who know so much just can't spell "Ampadu"

15 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Why is it that people who know so much just can't spell "Ampadu"

Lampardu? 

25 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Why is it that people who know so much just can't spell "Ampadu"

Why does it bother you so much? 

28 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Why is it that people who know so much just can't spell "Ampadu"

Empadu should be starting next season. 

I've only been on this forum about 3 years and the amount of times i've seen this thread get started. "next season we need to play our youth players!!! etc.".

 

Ain't gonna happen, rinse and repeat. See you in a couple of months when someone else restarts this thread under a new title. 

45 minutes ago, Bobbywoodhogan said:

Why does it bother you so much? 

Just find it amusing that several of our most vociferous members in support of our Youth either can't be arsed or don't know how to spell the name of the best of those prospects correctly.    Either just lazy, stupid or some dodgy googling.

19 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Just find it amusing that several of our most vociferous members in support of our Youth either can't be arsed or don't know how to spell the name of the best of those prospects correctly.    Either just lazy, stupid or some dodgy googling.

 I’ve got a mate whose spelling is atrocious and he always says words wrong too. Im sure he does it to wind me up

28 minutes ago, yorkleyblue said:

Just find it amusing that several of our most vociferous members in support of our Youth either can't be arsed or don't know how to spell the name of the best of those prospects correctly.    Either just lazy, stupid or some dodgy googling.

Don't you agree that Empadu should be starting in our first XI next season?

6 minutes ago, MasonMountXI said:

Don't you agree that Empadu should be starting in our first XI next season?

sh*te banter, there's a reason you've only got 1 like on this forum thus far.

10 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

sh*te banter, there's a reason you've only got 1 like on this forum thus far.

Who gives a f*** how many likes I have in my huge amount of now 24 posts? Is that the only thing you have going for you in life...the amount of likes you get on a forum lol

Edited May 18, 20188 yr by MasonMountXI

Much ado about Empadu 

16 minutes ago, MasonMountXI said:

Who gives a f*** how many likes I have in my huge amount of now 24 posts? Is that the only thing you have going for you in life...the amount of likes you get on a forum lol

No but a good way to tell whether someones point of view is sh*t or not. 

6 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

No but a good way to tell whether someones point of view is sh*t or not. 

You have 3,122 likes so it 's abundantly clear that it isn't the best barometer for accessing this. 

2 hours ago, yorkleyblue said:

Why is it that people who know so much just can't spell "Ampadu"

I see you’re not getting much ampathy here... 

10 minutes ago, MasonMountXI said:

You have 3,122 likes so it 's abundantly clear that it isn't the best barometer for accessing this. 

What are you trying to access exactly?

59 minutes ago, Munkworth said:

I see you’re not getting much ampathy here... 

Smartarse!

53 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

What are you trying to access exactly?

Dictionary ?.

2 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

I've only been on this forum about 3 years and the amount of times i've seen this thread get started. "next season we need to play our youth players!!! etc.".

 

Ain't gonna happen, rinse and repeat. See you in a couple of months when someone else restarts this thread under a new title. 

If were going to be pedantic then this year we played Christensen. Infact Ampaduand CHO's appearance record is pretty good factoring their age.