9 hours ago, Strider6003 said:

I'm not sure JT would have dragged off big Pete,

would never of needed to.

1 minute ago, coco said:

would never of needed to.

In big Pete's first EPL season and first cup final, are you sure?

2 minutes ago, Strider6003 said:

In big Pete's first EPL season and first cup final, are you sure?

the bloke was a class above anyone else, i dont doubt for one minute he would of ran off and shook Willies hand.

2 minutes ago, coco said:

the bloke was a class above anyone else, i dont doubt for one minute he would of ran off and shook Willies hand.

Early Pete would have been relieved to come off. Bloke couldn't save a penalty if his life depended on it for the first 6 or 7 years he was here. 

Lucky he learned by the time it mattered in Munich!

Don’t think Kepa was intending to try and undermine Sarri, I genuinely think he wanted to stay on because playing in the final meant a lot to him.

But! 

As soon as your number goes up you’ve got to go off. Manager’s say is final.

I refuse to believe there won’t be some sort of disciplinary action taken over this even if Kepa’s intentions were honest and frankly you can’t let that sort of behaviour go unpunished.

He absolutely crossed the line and should be fined heavily.  Was a disgrace

1 hour ago, Basso said:

Masterstroke to put on Willy! 

Sarri just forgot one important note! 

Should've informed Kepa after 90 min that we got an EX man city keeper on the bench with 11 saved pens out of 38 in his career! 

He shouldn’t have to inform anybody in advance. Substitutions are not subject to the player‘s permission.

1 hour ago, dustbin719 said:

As much as I want to, I'm not buying the "misunderstanding" explanation either. The reactions surrounding the incident (Luiz having a word with Kepa, Rudi holding Sarri back etc.) really do seem to point towards gross insubordination on Kepa's part. 

Question is what to do now? 

Obviously a very difficult situation with Sarri almost in lame duck status and Kepa being the world's most expensive keeper on a long, long contract. 

I think any form of discipline at this point needs to come straight down from the top. For such a public display of petulance, I believe the board (or Marina) needs to come out with a joint statement with Sarri, condemning Kepa's behavior and saying that discipline would be dealt with in-house. Marina can still say it was a "misunderstanding" regarding the injury, but also say that the manager's decision is always final, and that once the board went up, Kepa should have acquiesced. This should draw a line under the incident with the press.

Behind the scenes, I would say about 2 weeks wages and a one month suspension. A one month suspension means that even IF Sarri is sacked after the Tottenham match, Kepa still needs to serve his suspension because his actions have not only disrespected Sarri, but also the club. Kepa would also need to, at the very least, apologize to Sarri, to Willy, to his teammates and the club. If he had any balls, he would apologize in public as well. 

I think if Kepa was genuinely apologetic, it might be a good chance for Sarri to play "good cop" and try to get Kepa's punishment reduced to 1 weeks wages and a 2 week suspension instead. 

I think the board needs to act in this instance, because it is a good opportunity to take a stand against the player power at the club. Regardless of whether or not Sarri still has the job in 2 weeks time, the board needs to draw a line in the sand. Enough is enough, and the board needs to make clear that this sort of behavior has no place anymore at Chelsea Football Club, no matter who the manager is. As long as there is a manager, then it is the players' job to listen to him. 

 

Sidenote: Azpi proved that he is not captain material today. It was the captain's job to do something and he flinched. Fantastic professional, but not a captain. 

 

 

 

 

For me that's the best post on this debacle yet.
Misunderstanding my arse, face saving at it's worse more like !
This should be taken out of the hands of both Sarri and Kepa by the club with swift and decisive punishment of Kepa as a warning to others.
Kepa will NEVER have my respect, and i doubt would ever make legend status for me whatever he goes on to win with us. 

Biggest issue here is that he's not that great as a keeper

Farcical and embarrassing for everyone, the club, the fans, god knows what Roman is thinking and especially for Sarri. Utterly disgusting behaviour by the keeper, Who the f**k does he think he is.

I know a lot of people don't give a toss about the press or media in general but THIS is exactly why they are on our backs all the time. Ultimately all these negatives will have serious effect on our financial future.

Chelsea really trying to save face i'd say:

 

21 minutes ago, chelseablueboy said:

For me that's the best post on this debacle yet.
Misunderstanding my arse, face saving at it's worse more like !
This should be taken out of the hands of both Sarri and Kepa by the club with swift and decisive punishment of Kepa as a warning to others.
Kepa will NEVER have my respect, and i doubt would ever make legend status for me whatever he goes on to win with us. 

Thanks mate! Appreciate the kind words. Took me a while to sort through all my emotions to get that post written out hahaha. 

As a club, we need to get this sorted ASAP. We have a Spurs game to focus on that may determine our Top 4 fate. Need to take care of this Kepa situation and move on. 

1 hour ago, coco said:

the bloke was a class above anyone else, i dont doubt for one minute he would of ran off and shook Willies hand.

I will never forget that it was Big Pete who was calmly shepherding JT off the pitch when he got sent off in the second leg against Barca. 

There are no superlatives lofty enough for how great a man and a player Petr Cech is. 

People need to calm down, some insane overreactions to all this.

The highlight on this incident from Sky Sports YouTube channel has 4.5 million views and it's been up 15 hours. That must be the one of the most viewed videos on their channel in such a short space of time. 

 

9 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

I will never forget that it was Big Pete who was calmly shepherding JT off the pitch when he got sent off in the second leg against Barca. 

There are no superlatives lofty enough for how great a man and a player Petr Cech is. 

Interested in hearing your take on the Kepa/Sarri incident, if you'd like to share.

Funny how our heroic performance has no bearing in the conversation. People just love to see us suffer and make mistakes. 

I think Kepa answered well as did Sarri. For me this is done and dusted. 

They both answered as well as could be expected AFTER THE FACT.  But everyone knows what really happened, that Sarri wanted a better shot stopper for the penalties, and Kepa took offense to that and would not leave the pitch, and Sarri did not have enough guts to pull him from the match and put Willy in for the pens.

I'd like to have seen people be as tolerant if we get to the EL-final and Willian refuse to come off in the second half because he believes he should be playing.

Hero to zero in just a matter of minutes for me, I've loved this kid ever since he's arrived now I can't help but think he's a problematic twat with a huge inflated ego. 

I don't care if it was due to injury or not, you always listen to the manager, what he did was completely undermine the manager who has numerous and numerous of pressure on him from the media and the board. Thank you for making things much harder than they already are. 

13 minutes ago, evissy said:

Funny how our heroic performance has no bearing in the conversation. People just love to see us suffer and make mistakes. 

I think Kepa answered well as did Sarri. For me this is done and dusted. 

Nothing about this screams case solved, for Kepa to have this attitude must mean there is no discipline in the dressing room, Sarri already has a spotlight and target on him, Kepa has just given the media everything they could have wanted on a silver platter. 

It might be blown out of proportion, but it shouldn't happen, certainly not in the public eye. Obviously, if we had won the penalty shoot-out many people wouldn't have cared that much, but that still doesn't make it any less right or any less wrong. 

I'm more angry at his disobedience than I am at the fact we lost the final. 

1 hour ago, bluedave said:

He shouldn’t have to inform anybody in advance. Substitutions are not subject to the player‘s permission.

What's the difference between this and Carlos Tevez saying no to Mancini to come on at the Bayern game? 

There isn't that much difference at all, it's a bad attitude, it's a player trying to undermine the manager's authority, and to do it in the public eye shows they have little consideration for the club, the fans and the manager. 

In a penalty shootout you need any edge you can get and I do believe Caballero is the better penalty shot stopper plus he knows the Man City players better than anyone. I'm sure it would have been in some of the city's players minds that this goalkeeper knows them well and any little doubt would have helped. It's all what ifs anyway.

I was thinking why didn't Kepa just run to the touchline to say he is ok but then maybe others are right and Sarri did want to swap goalkeepers for the pens.

Just now, Ernie_blue said:

In a penalty shootout you need any edge you can get and I do believe Caballero is the better penalty shot stopper plus he knows the Man City players better than anyone. I'm sure it would have been in some of the city's players minds that this goalkeeper knows them well and any little doubt would have helped. It's all what ifs anyway.

I was thinking why didn't Kepa just run to the touchline to say he is ok but then maybe others are right and Sarri did want to swap goalkeepers for the pens.

And it's obvious Sarri was holding out on one last substitution, we could've had a pair of fresh legs on if we had known Kepa would be a prick.  

25 minutes ago, Amputechture said:

Interested in hearing your take on the Kepa/Sarri incident, if you'd like to share.

I think it has done absolutely nothing to help the perception that we are currently a rudderless mess. 

My guess is that the misunderstanding argument which has been put forward is largely true (or at least is how the situation started). Obviously we have no way of knowing what Sarri was told by the doctors, but it didn't seem unreasonable to me (watching on TV) that a keeper who had gone down twice in half an hour might need to come off injured, especially only a couple of minutes before he would be needed to step up in a penalty shootout. 

To be honest it looked pretty clear to me what Kepa was trying to communicate, and it's understandable that he might feel aggrieved at being hooked at such a critical juncture, but ultimately it's the manager's call and you can't simply ignore that. He has publicly ignored a manager's orders, on an enormous stage, and this is a man who is generally perceived to be a dead man walking. I can certainly understand why Sarri reacted the way he did, although again, he has done nothing to help the perception that we are in complete disarray.  The timing was remarkably poor. 

I think a gifted man manager could smooth this over internally, to make it clear to Kepa (and the rest of the squad) that this kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable, but to keep him as part of the fold. I think the public noises the club have made are more or less the only thing we could have said. Unfortunately Sarri is really in no position to have his position undermined any further. I hope we can keep the momentum from yesterday's quite excellent performance going into the Tottenham game, and I certainly hope (and like to believe) that nothing more craven than a heated, public, embarrassing misunderstanding has taken place. 

 

I also agree with @Liam...