36 minutes ago, Boston Blue said:

Maybe previously, but doesn't seem so now.  He's the owner.  If the way things are being run now are not to his liking, he can change it with one phone call, e-mail, or summons to his yacht.  He chooses to leave it in Marina's hands, so he's either happy with the way things are, or he's not giving it the attention he used to.

I don't think so, the visa issue is the only reason why he isn't present anymore but after Conte got out there were reports that he talked to Sarri before he got signed and it's known that Roman himself always wanted a team that plays attractive football and not the "park the bus" football.

There are rumors now that the board is just waiting for him to decide if he wants to sack Sarri and bring someone else during the international break.

I don't know what kind of attention he is lacking, other club owners were not even nearly present in their clubs as Roman has been.

A new owner doesn't mean  a new amazing scout or amazing coaches automatically, sure Bakayoko was a flop and so is Morata but in the end of the day what the club is going through is a typical change of a generation where our biggest and best players retired and now there is a lack of identity at the club but no owner can simply snap his fingers and solve everything with money, when there is no vision and no long term manager, being the worst of the big teams is maybe a logical result.

Now Roman really has done his part, but can that be said for the other people in the club? I don't think so.

Edited March 20, 20197 yr by Gol15

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

I don't think so, the visa issue is the only reason why he isn't present anymore but after Conte got out there were reports that he talked to Sarri before he got signed and it's known that Roman himself always wanted a team that plays attractive football and not the "park the bus" football.

There are rumors now that the board is just waiting for him to decide if he wants to sack Sarri and bring someone else during the international break.

I don't know what kind of attention he is lacking, other club owners were not even nearly present in their clubs as Roman has been.

A new owner doesn't mean  a new amazing scout or amazing coaches automatically, sure Bakayoko was a flop and so is Morata but in the end of the day what the club is going through is a typical change of a generation where our biggest and best players retired and now there is a lack of identity at the club but no owner can simply snap his fingers and solve everything with money, when there is no vision and no long term manager, being the worst of the big teams is maybe a logical result.

Now Roman really has done his part, but can that be said for the other people in the club? I don't think so.

Isnt it Roman who brought the other people to the club? 

If the scouting and recruitment is wrong, we  have no vision or long term strategy, and we are falling behind as a club, whose responsibility is it to put things in place to keep us competing for titles? 

It seems fans are happy to criticize 'the board' but then treat Roman as if he is a separate entity. 

If we rightly praise Roman for ploughing money into the club and helping us win the lot, I think it's also fair he gets a fair bit of criticism for the off the field problems we have. 

Will any heads roll regarding this transfer ban? I very much doubt it.

Either Roman has lost interest or he is content with how things are going.

Now I'm not saying Roman out, theres no guarantees with any owner, and Roman has been one the best ever. 

However I wouldn't rule a change in owner being very good for us, it would likely mean a shake up at board level, some fresh ambition and hopefully some vision and strategy to move us forward. 

It isnt even about ploughing money into the team, FFP makes it impossible for us to spend erratically without sanctions, but if we continue to invest as we have been doing, then there will be plenty of money to spend, certainly enough to compete with everyone bar City, United, and PSG. We just need to spend it better than we have done in the last 4 years.

2 hours ago, Gol15 said:

I don't think so, the visa issue is the only reason why he isn't present anymore but after Conte got out there were reports that he talked to Sarri before he got signed and it's known that Roman himself always wanted a team that plays attractive football and not the "park the bus" football.

There are rumors now that the board is just waiting for him to decide if he wants to sack Sarri and bring someone else during the international break.

I don't know what kind of attention he is lacking, other club owners were not even nearly present in their clubs as Roman has been.

A new owner doesn't mean  a new amazing scout or amazing coaches automatically, sure Bakayoko was a flop and so is Morata but in the end of the day what the club is going through is a typical change of a generation where our biggest and best players retired and now there is a lack of identity at the club but no owner can simply snap his fingers and solve everything with money, when there is no vision and no long term manager, being the worst of the big teams is maybe a logical result.

Now Roman really has done his part, but can that be said for the other people in the club? I don't think so.

We know how much passion he has had for Chelsea.  I remember when he was in Boston to drop one of his kids at  school and made his way to a local Chelsea supporters bar to watch the team play on TV.   But he hasn't even been spotted at away European matches this season. 

He could have instructed the board to back Conte or Sarri with more of what they wanted.  He could have replaced Emenalo.  He could have made it clear he wanted the managers to play the youth more.  But again, he has chosen to stay out of things and let Marina run it.  

OK, our best players retired, but it wasn't a surprise.  We knew it would happen.  But there was no transition.  We weren't prepared for it.  No younger players were integrated to learn from these players while they were still here.  That's on the board, but, ultimately, it's the responsibility of the owner.  It's been years since that happened, and we are about to lose our best player again...….do we think that we are more prepared now.

 

If any of us owned the club, and we didn't like the way things were going, we would change it.  If we were happy with it, or had other priorities, we would leave it alone.  

1 hour ago, big blue said:

Isnt it Roman who brought the other people to the club? 

If the scouting and recruitment is wrong, we  have no vision or long term strategy, and we are falling behind as a club, whose responsibility is it to put things in place to keep us competing for titles? 

It seems fans are happy to criticize 'the board' but then treat Roman as if he is a separate entity. 

If we rightly praise Roman for ploughing money into the club and helping us win the lot, I think it's also fair he gets a fair bit of criticism for the off the field problems we have. 

Will any heads roll regarding this transfer ban? I very much doubt it.

Either Roman has lost interest or he is content with how things are going.

Now I'm not saying Roman out, theres no guarantees with any owner, and Roman has been one the best ever. 

However I wouldn't rule a change in owner being very good for us, it would likely mean a shake up at board level, some fresh ambition and hopefully some vision and strategy to move us forward. 

It isnt even about ploughing money into the team, FFP makes it impossible for us to spend erratically without sanctions, but if we continue to invest as we have been doing, then there will be plenty of money to spend, certainly enough to compete with everyone bar City, United, and PSG. We just need to spend it better than we have done in the last 4 years.

I think that as the owner he can do whatever he wants but in the end of the day he does have people below him that also have a lot of responsibility for the club.

In the end of the day he as the owner doesn't need to have the knowledge about every other position in adminstration and staff.

I don't really treat Roman differently when compared to the board but I'm aware that most of the time someone under him comes up with the idea that e.g. Bakayoko should turn out to be a good investment and he says OK. At least that's how I think it works most of the time.

Many people dislike Marina but she told Roman that it would be a mistake to sell Drogba so IMO people in charge of things did make mistakes but did good deals as well in the past.

My question to you is, if another owner comes along what guarantee does the club have that he/she would do the right things that Roman did and not the wrong things that Roman also did while trying to compete the way Roman did before Man City came along?

Because Roman did a lot of things right, most of them in fact, but hiring someone that does a bad job, or several people that do a bad job sometimes can be something to complain about I guess.
Even so, a new owner doesn't mean that suddenly the club would have some amazing experts in scouting and it doesn't mean we would be getting world class players for little money and so on and so on...

ManUtd spent tons of money, I bet probably more than us in the last 4 years and yet they took Jose after he was sacked from us and that didn't produce much for them part from a Europe League win, their owners profit a lot from the club and don't seem to care much but even so no ManUtd fan I've heard of wishes that they change their owners just because some people in the club have messed up with some signings.

ManCity has been spending the most money in the shortest period of time for sure and they don't care, fact is with that amount of money spent it doesn't matter who is the manager or whatever, titles will come, but Roman invested in the fullest so that the club also produces good talent as well.

I think that having a new owner raises more questions than answers, that's just me.

59 minutes ago, Boston Blue said:

We know how much passion he has had for Chelsea.  I remember when he was in Boston to drop one of his kids at  school and made his way to a local Chelsea supporters bar to watch the team play on TV.   But he hasn't even been spotted at away European matches this season. 

He could have instructed the board to back Conte or Sarri with more of what they wanted.  He could have replaced Emenalo.  He could have made it clear he wanted the managers to play the youth more.  But again, he has chosen to stay out of things and let Marina run it.  

OK, our best players retired, but it wasn't a surprise.  We knew it would happen.  But there was no transition.  We weren't prepared for it.  No younger players were integrated to learn from these players while they were still here.  That's on the board, but, ultimately, it's the responsibility of the owner.  It's been years since that happened, and we are about to lose our best player again...….do we think that we are more prepared now.

 

If any of us owned the club, and we didn't like the way things were going, we would change it.  If we were happy with it, or had other priorities, we would leave it alone.  

Most clubs are not ready for a transition, ManUtd after their generation has never been the same, it has been years in fact that they are missing their own identity. Inter Milan after winning the treble and losing that generation also never recovered, AC Milan used to spend a lot and they were among the top teams in Europe and now they have been struggling for years, the examples are many.

But does that mean that a change of ownership would solve the problem? I don't think so.

I don't know how would I change things if I was the current owner, but simply knowing that fans raised their game from wanting the mangers to get sacked to even wanting to change the owner of the club would mean to me that nobody knows what to do. Roman thought that getting Sarri is the way to go, and at the time I was very hyped about it and so were most fans here as I remember. But some things are not in the control of the owner, fact is he had visa problems which would be absurd for any other owner of a club that has been living in London for the past 10+ years or so, not even that he could control let alone to predict that the man that was praised by everyone for playing attractive football would turn out to be a one dimensional manager.

2 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Most clubs are not ready for a transition, ManUtd after their generation has never been the same, it has been years in fact that they are missing their own identity. Inter Milan after winning the treble and losing that generation also never recovered, AC Milan used to spend a lot and they were among the top teams in Europe and now they have been struggling for years, the examples are many.

But does that mean that a change of ownership would solve the problem? I don't think so.

I don't know how would I change things if I was the current owner, but simply knowing that fans raised their game from wanting the mangers to get sacked to even wanting to change the owner of the club would mean to me that nobody knows what to do. Roman thought that getting Sarri is the way to go, and at the time I was very hyped about it and so were most fans here as I remember. But some things are not in the control of the owner, fact is he had visa problems which would be absurd for any other owner of a club that has been living in London for the past 10+ years or so, not even that he could control let alone to predict that the man that was praised by everyone for playing attractive football would turn out to be a one dimensional manager.

Fair point, but I don't think comparing our ownership to ManUtd is relevant here.  The Glazers are clearly in it for the finances.  Their decisions are made to increase the value in the shares of the club.  Our owner is in it for the passion.  Yes, he wants it to make money and be self sustainable, but he's not making decisions based on how it affects the club's stock market shares.  Roman is making decisions on style of play and winning trophies.

The other major difference is that Utd were coming off a long serving manager who was a legend.  While unfortunate that they appointed three successive managers who bombed in Moyes, Van Gaal, and Mourinho, it was always going to be difficult to follow Ferguson.  

I'm not sure it was Roman who thought Sarri was the way to go.  I've read it was Marina who advocated for him.  And yes, the Visa situation he is caught up in has not helped, but he can summon people to his yacht for meetings as he's done in the past, or attend games that take place outside the U.K.    After all, he still owns the club, and went to the trouble of becoming an Israeli citizen as a way around the UK Visa denial.  He can place phone calls or send e-mails with instructions and wishes.  So even though he can't work physically in the UK, he can still manage and direct from afar.  

And all of this doesn't mean I want him to sell.  But there's been a clear change in behavior in that he's stepped away from this thing that he loves, that he bought because of passion.  Marina doesn't have passion for Chelsea, she is trying to execute what she believes are Roman's instructions.  Roman has taken his eye off the ball, and I think we have suffered as a club because of it.  

2 minutes ago, Boston Blue said:

Fair point, but I don't think comparing our ownership to ManUtd is relevant here.  The Glazers are clearly in it for the finances.  Their decisions are made to increase the value in the shares of the club.  Our owner is in it for the passion.  Yes, he wants it to make money and be self sustainable, but he's not making decisions based on how it affects the club's stock market shares.  Roman is making decisions on style of play and winning trophies.

The other major difference is that Utd were coming off a long serving manager who was a legend.  While unfortunate that they appointed three successive managers who bombed in Moyes, Van Gaal, and Mourinho, it was always going to be difficult to follow Ferguson.  

I'm not sure it was Roman who thought Sarri was the way to go.  I've read it was Marina who advocated for him.  And yes, the Visa situation he is caught up in has not helped, but he can summon people to his yacht for meetings as he's done in the past, or attend games that take place outside the U.K.    After all, he still owns the club, and went to the trouble of becoming an Israeli citizen as a way around the UK Visa denial.  He can place phone calls or send e-mails with instructions and wishes.  So even though he can't work physically in the UK, he can still manage and direct from afar.  

And all of this doesn't mean I want him to sell.  But there's been a clear change in behavior in that he's stepped away from this thing that he loves, that he bought because of passion.  Marina doesn't have passion for Chelsea, she is trying to execute what she believes are Roman's instructions.  Roman has taken his eye off the ball, and I think we have suffered as a club because of it.  

If in the end of the year or season or whatever, we get a new owner I hope it's going to be a person who has the passion for the club and who isn't there for the finances. Roman was much more involved before the visa issues and since then he has been missing so either he gets back and turns things around or a new owner that isn't like the Glazer brothers would be fine by me, and if that last scenario comes to life I would be always remembering Roman in a good way.

9 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

If in the end of the year or season or whatever, we get a new owner I hope it's going to be a person who has the passion for the club and who isn't there for the finances. Roman was much more involved before the visa issues and since then he has been missing so either he gets back and turns things around or a new owner that isn't like the Glazer brothers would be fine by me, and if that last scenario comes to life I would be always remembering Roman in a good way.

I absolutely agree with that.  And if there's a new owner, that he has a plan and a vision for the club, and institutes a management structure that allows the plan to come to fruition.

I don’t see Roman selling up, I just get the feeling something has taken his eye off the ball. Not just the visa issue as ultimately he’s gotten around that, maybe a new girlfriend or a different hobby. He needs someone to give him a slap & remind him where his priorities lie hahaha

Nobody is going to bid 2.5 billion just to sabotage the club, him being a United supporter doesn't worry me. 

He might not love the club as much as Roman, but that doesn't mean he can't do good by the club, just look at Liverpool's owners and United's, they pump a lot of revenue into that club. They invest heavily because they see potential in it, as long as it doesn't become like Arsenal where it's basically a hedge fund for rich owners, little investments, strong returns. 

I'm not against it, because right now people are screwing Roman over and he just can't make the same commitments anymore. 

If you believe the media stories Roman was more interested in Tottenham than Chelsea before he took us over.

My opinion. He has lost his passion and that passion will probably never be as strong as those of us raised on Chelsea. Fair enough, I will always have Chelsea in my heart but admit I don't have the same all consuming passion and interest I did when I was younger. There were times, many times, when I put following Chelsea before my family commitments. Not proud of that now, but I honestly did. And the money I have spent over the years I would suspect was a greater percentage of my net worth and disposable income at that time than that which Roman has spent.

Not slagging Roman. His interest and his finances took us to trophies I never thought I would see in my lifetime. I have memories that will last a lifetime thanks to Roman's investment. But nothing lasts forever. The club is stagnating. I have felt, for quite awhile now, that to move forward again and stay in the world's elite clubs we need a change at the very top. 

10 hours ago, just said:

If you believe the media stories Roman was more interested in Tottenham than Chelsea before he took us over.

My opinion. He has lost his passion and that passion will probably never be as strong as those of us raised on Chelsea. Fair enough, I will always have Chelsea in my heart but admit I don't have the same all consuming passion and interest I did when I was younger. There were times, many times, when I put following Chelsea before my family commitments. Not proud of that now, but I honestly did. And the money I have spent over the years I would suspect was a greater percentage of my net worth and disposable income at that time than that which Roman has spent.

Not slagging Roman. His interest and his finances took us to trophies I never thought I would see in my lifetime. I have memories that will last a lifetime thanks to Roman's investment. But nothing lasts forever. The club is stagnating. I have felt, for quite awhile now, that to move forward again and stay in the world's elite clubs we need a change at the very top. 

Yes the club feels in danger of stagnating and the example of Leeds hovers in the background if we do not bring back belief.

@Gol15 mentioned the player acquisitions of both Bakayoko and Morata being flops. I agree they were not successful at Chelsea though both show signs of being successful in Serie A or La Liga. Not sure what that says about our scouting. Perhaps potentially good players jut nor right for what, the EPL or just a bad fit at Chelsea?

11 hours ago, just said:

If you believe the media stories Roman was more interested in Tottenham than Chelsea before he took us over.

My opinion. He has lost his passion and that passion will probably never be as strong as those of us raised on Chelsea. Fair enough, I will always have Chelsea in my heart but admit I don't have the same all consuming passion and interest I did when I was younger. There were times, many times, when I put following Chelsea before my family commitments. Not proud of that now, but I honestly did. And the money I have spent over the years I would suspect was a greater percentage of my net worth and disposable income at that time than that which Roman has spent.

Not slagging Roman. His interest and his finances took us to trophies I never thought I would see in my lifetime. I have memories that will last a lifetime thanks to Roman's investment. But nothing lasts forever. The club is stagnating. I have felt, for quite awhile now, that to move forward again and stay in the world's elite clubs we need a change at the very top. 

I can completely relate to this, I think it's just the growing up process and how monetized the sport has become. 

It's really hard to go to games now... I can barely catch a few a season as it is, when I was younger I was always going. 

On a side note to this potential sale, I do find it amusing when opposition fans have always reeled out 'Abramovich will get bored, then you will be sh*t again when he wants his money back', when in actual fact, the club has grown that much, that if Roman did want out, he would actually double his money, and we would be owned by an even richer billionaire! 

12 minutes ago, big blue said:

On a side note to this potential sale, I do find it amusing when opposition fans have always reeled out 'Abramovich will get bored, then you will be sh*t again when he wants his money back', when in actual fact, the club has grown that much, that if Roman did want out, he would actually double his money, and we would be owned by an even richer billionaire! 

Yeah i have always said this. The club would be changing ownership from billionaire to an even richer billionaire. It's like oppo fans think he would sell for less than the club is worth!

Can someone explain how Marina can still work in the UK? is it not all Russians?

2 minutes ago, shedpensioner said:

Can someone explain how Marina can still work in the UK? is it not all Russians?

She's not a Russian oligarch linked to Putin.

On 20/03/2019 at 21:49, Slojo said:

 just look at Liverpool's owners and United's, 

Did you just give Liverpool and United as examples in an ''ownership thread''? 

5 hours ago, Droopy said:

Did you just give Liverpool and United as examples in an ''ownership thread''? 

They're two Americans that aren't really massive fans of football or the clubs they own, but they very interested in what the market has to bring. 

I'm saying you don't need somebody like Roman to get the best out of a football club, Roman really loved this club, more than most owners in the game, but I used Liverpool and United as an example because their owners still do nothing but invest. 

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

They're two Americans that aren't really massive fans of football or the clubs they own, but they very interested in what the market has to bring. 

I'm saying you don't need somebody like Roman to get the best out of a football club, Roman really loved this club, more than most owners in the game, but I used Liverpool and United as an example because their owners still do nothing but invest. 

The real question here is - invest in what? They don't give a jack about results - Liverpool turned out to be good this season because of Klopp and the circumstances, United have stunk ever since they really started their investments. Not to mention the profile of their buyings - no back thoughts about fitting the squad, only commercial side of the transfer really considered. Not to mention the disapproval and the protests in both clubs fanbases against their owners. They all happened to be Americans, the same patterns and symptoms. 

The Far Eastern owners are even worse. And I'm not generalizing them all, just my observation how they act in the world of football. The best possible option should be something in between. 

25 minutes ago, Droopy said:

The real question here is - invest in what? They don't give a jack about results - Liverpool turned out to be good this season because of Klopp and the circumstances,

You don't think that Boston Red Sox owner John W Henry cares about results? 

55 minutes ago, Droopy said:

The real question here is - invest in what? They don't give a jack about results - Liverpool turned out to be good this season because of Klopp and the circumstances, United have stunk ever since they really started their investments. Not to mention the profile of their buyings - no back thoughts about fitting the squad, only commercial side of the transfer really considered. Not to mention the disapproval and the protests in both clubs fanbases against their owners. They all happened to be Americans, the same patterns and symptoms. 

The Far Eastern owners are even worse. And I'm not generalizing them all, just my observation how they act in the world of football. The best possible option should be something in between. 

Ehh? Of course they care about results.

Have you not seen the money Liverpool have been spending since Henry took the helm? They wasted a f**k load of money under Rodgers on garbage players, but they still kept investing. 

The team Klopp has now, most of the players he signed, and for a lot of money, did that just appear out of thin air? 

3 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Ehh? Of course they care about results.

Have you not seen the money Liverpool have been spending since Henry took the helm? They wasted a f**k load of money under Rodgers on garbage players, but they still kept investing. 

The team Klopp has now, most of the players he signed, and for a lot of money, did that just appear out of thin air? 

Still not better as owners as Roman has been for us though. Same can be said for ManUtd owners, they had Sir Alex Ferguson that did great work with 1 generation but since he left his position they couldn't maintain their position.

The simple fact that we won Champions League with Di Matteo as our manager at the time shows that our investments were so good that it didn't really matter who was the manager at the time.

3 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Still not better as owners as Roman has been for us though. Same can be said for ManUtd owners, they had Sir Alex Ferguson that did great work with 1 generation but since he left his position they couldn't maintain their position.

The simple fact that we won Champions League with Di Matteo as our manager at the time shows that our investments were so good that it didn't really matter who was the manager at the time.

I believe I said Roman is a better owner than both of them? Did I not? 

He's one of the most passionate owners in football. 

But there's an agenda against him, he can't even come to watch his own team play, and it looks like Marina has completely taken charge of it since Roman can barely have much to do with the club anymore. Long gone are the days when we spunked out 50 million on Torres then another 23 million on David Luiz in just a January transfer window (that at the time was a lot of money), since FFP we've been selling almost as much as buying and we aren't investing as much as Liverpool, City or United, especially when you look at net balance. 

Edited March 26, 20197 yr by Slojo

1 hour ago, Slojo said:

I believe I said Roman is a better owner than both of them? Did I not? 

He's one of the most passionate owners in football. 

But there's an agenda against him, he can't even come to watch his own team play, and it looks like Marina has completely taken charge of it since Roman can barely have much to do with the club anymore. Long gone are the days when we spunked out 50 million on Torres then another 23 million on David Luiz in just a January transfer window (that at the time was a lot of money), since FFP we've been selling almost as much as buying and we aren't investing as much as Liverpool, City or United, especially when you look at net balance. 

There's no reason Roman can't direct and manage this club from Russia, from Israel, or from wherever his yacht happened to be.  He just can't physically work in the UK.  So if things are not currently going to his liking, he can fix it or change it with a phone call, an e-mail, or a meeting at a location outside the UK.  

If he still has the passion for Chelsea, he can still make sure things get done to his liking.  If it seems like he has stepped away and left in Marina's hands, then he either is happy with the way things are going, or his priorities now lie elsewhere.