2 minutes ago, DidierDrogbalala said:

Why do we insist with Kovacic ?? We saw this season he doesnt improve us at all when he is on the pitch, Chelsea are really gonna pay 40 + for a bench player ?!

We paid £35m for Drinkwater...

Edited May 17, 20197 yr by DannyBoy

2 hours ago, enigma said:

Has a top club ever built it's team around their academy products and been successful barring Utd in the 90's? I think in this climate building a team of youth products and hoping they turn out to be world class is a recipe for disaster. I am fine with 3 or 4 youth players in the team, but who would we even build the team around? It's not like we have a 20 year old Messi or Ronaldo to build around. 

Dochertys Diamonds. 

We innovate the rest follow.

 

https://thesefootballtimes.co/2018/01/01/dochertys-diamonds-the-innovative-chelsea-side-that-lit-up-the-early-1960s/

Just now, DannyBoy said:

We paid £35m for Drinkwater...

Never heard of him

Just now, DidierDrogbalala said:

Never heard of him

2 hours ago, enigma said:

Has a top club ever built it's team around their academy products and been successful barring Utd in the 90's? I think in this climate building a team of youth products and hoping they turn out to be world class is a recipe for disaster. I am fine with 3 or 4 youth players in the team, but who would we even build the team around? It's not like we have a 20 year old Messi or Ronaldo to build around. 

In context your correct building on purely youth team players just won't work unless they are an exceptionally gifted bunch. We have some very good young players most will go on to have successful careers without hitting the heights expected of them at a top of the table club. If I was to stick my neck out I'd say Reece James would be the one most likely to succeed, Mount I feel still needs another 12 mth loan spell and as for Tammy he is reaching the age of its now or never. It also needs a coach committed to playing youth and prepared to teach them the basics of top flight football...how to lose and recover being very important. A board committed to seeing the vision through and fans to be very patient when things don't turn out well. In reality getting one/two prospects through per season is doing very well.  

3 hours ago, chiefBlueCFC said:

While I understand the logic of this, which I wouldn't disagree with either. I can't see the club being able to accept a season like this. I imagine they will let Sarri stay but they'll expect to be in Europe the following year, with the preference obviously being Champions League. I could see the club sacking the manager because we are 7th, or somewhere in that vicinity, in the league and struggling in the group stage, or getting knocked out of the round of 16. 

What none of us know for certain is what the board/owner set as the minimum expectation for Sarri this season.  We speculate that it was to get us into Top 4.  It may have been Top 4 and a trophy.  Or Top 4 and a final.  But we don't really know.

On one hand, finishing third was the best we could hope for given how clear City and Liverpool went.  On the other hand, Sarri did very little to affect a match, proved to be inflexible with tactics and substitutions, the playing style was plodding at times, the team's mentality was weak, and he could not come up with a counter plan once teams had worked out how to play us.  Supporters turned negative and created an nasty atmosphere at Stamford Bridge and at away matches.  That won't get better next season, and it may get worse as the supporters will turn on him again the second we are having a poor result. 

If the club run through the possible scenarios, is it better to cut Sarri loose now while you have time to find a replacement and give him a pre season, or do you risk being forced to sack him during next season and have to find and install an interim manager?

Tough calls to be made here.

Edited May 17, 20197 yr by Boston Blue

Ah man so if we are banned we can STILL sign Kova and Higuain?!!!

 

Well if Sarri goes to Juve maybe both end up there, maybe Jorginho too, or to Pep's city, cannot see him wanting to stay here if Sarri leaves.

Why the hell would it take CAS 2 months just to decide whether we should be deemed innocent until proven guilty?

3 minutes ago, Fatty_Speeding said:

Why the hell would it take CAS 2 months just to decide whether we should be deemed innocent until proven guilty?

true. I think July is the date where we could get an answer to the entire appeal.  I believe some people have got confused and think July is when we will find out if it is frozen or not

Ban or not I think this week's events in Boston have shown us yet again the club is run at the whim(s) of the owner. It has been reported that David Luiz the remarkable recipient of a 2 year extension when over 30 yrs old has had that favour bestowed upon him directly by the owner when we all know he's past his prime. Ultimately the man upstairs will decide whom to buy & sell or promote from the academy/ loan army regardless of whether the ban is in force or suspended on appeal etc. The 1st team coach Sarri or whomever that may be in the future must acquiesce or be replaced. 

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Ah man so if we are banned we can STILL sign Kova and Higuain?!!!

 

Well if Sarri goes to Juve maybe both end up there, maybe Jorginho too, or to Pep's city, cannot see him wanting to stay here if Sarri leaves.

Higuaín is already a Juve player...…..we've got him on loan from there.

1 hour ago, General said:

Ban or not I think this week's events in Boston have shown us yet again the club is run at the whim(s) of the owner. It has been reported that David Luiz the remarkable recipient of a 2 year extension when over 30 yrs old has had that favour bestowed upon him directly by the owner when we all know he's past his prime. Ultimately the man upstairs will decide whom to buy & sell or promote from the academy/ loan army regardless of whether the ban is in force or suspended on appeal etc. The 1st team coach Sarri or whomever that may be in the future must acquiesce or be replaced. 

You mean a man who’s invested millions of his own personal wealth in to the club he owns is allowed to make decisions about how it’s run? 

39 minutes ago, Boston Blue said:

Higuaín is already a Juve player...…..we've got him on loan from there.

Yeah but they are said to be "desperate" to get rid of him, if Sarri goes there maybe that changes.

On 17/05/2019 at 18:33, DannyBoy said:

We paid £35m for Drinkwater...

That was a car crash waiting to happen...oh wait!

On 17/05/2019 at 20:51, axman2526 said:

Ah man so if we are banned we can STILL sign Kova and Higuain?!!!

If our ban sticks then we should let them go, bring back Batshuayi and Abraham and promote somebody to take Kovacic's place in the team. I don't see the point in wasting money on these two when that money could be held back for next season to spend on decent players.

I also wouldn't let Hazard go either. I don't care if we end up with nothing and he leaves on a free. If we have a transfer ban, then we simply can't afford to lose him. With no way to replace him, we would be selling the only player that is consistently scoring or assisting goals.

24 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

If our ban sticks then we should let them go, bring back Batshuayi and Abraham and promote somebody to take Kovacic's place in the team. I don't see the point in wasting money on these two when that money could be held back for next season to spend on decent players.

I also wouldn't let Hazard go either. I don't care if we end up with nothing and he leaves on a free. If we have a transfer ban, then we simply can't afford to lose him. With no way to replace him, we would be selling the only player that is consistently scoring or assisting goals.

I would rather have no one then Batshauyi back, genuinely. If it weren't for his ability to take chances when they come I would genuinely consider him the worst striker to have played for us in the modern era his all round play is that bad.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

If our ban sticks then we should let them go, bring back Batshuayi and Abraham and promote somebody to take Kovacic's place in the team. I don't see the point in wasting money on these two when that money could be held back for next season to spend on decent players.

I also wouldn't let Hazard go either. I don't care if we end up with nothing and he leaves on a free. If we have a transfer ban, then we simply can't afford to lose him. With no way to replace him, we would be selling the only player that is consistently scoring or assisting goals.

Agreed, but I think like Cech eden can chose his own fate 

On 17/05/2019 at 22:37, Munkworth said:

You mean a man who’s invested millions of his own personal wealth in to the club he owns is allowed to make decisions about how it’s run? 

I think you missed @General's point.

If that owner makes poor decisions that adversely affects the club we support, should we just shrug our shoulders and say "ah, that's just Roman being Roman. He paid the money so he can do what he wants. We are lucky to have him".

I'm sorry but I don't share that view either.

A Basic question: with CAS are we looking to freeze the ban so we can sign players this summer or to lift the ban for good?

I have read a couple of articles over it and no one really seems to know what the ban is what it means in terms of Kovacic and Higuain. 

52 minutes ago, evissy said:

A Basic question: with CAS are we looking to freeze the ban so we can sign players this summer or to lift the ban for good?

I have read a couple of articles over it and no one really seems to know what the ban is what it means in terms of Kovacic and Higuain. 

I don't think there is any hope of lifting the ban for good, but we should do everything we can to freeze it this summer. It looks like our best player is leaving and there are several other problem areas in our team. With CL it's easier to afford and attract better players this summer.

 

2 hours ago, evissy said:

A Basic question: with CAS are we looking to freeze the ban so we can sign players this summer or to lift the ban for good?

I have read a couple of articles over it and no one really seems to know what the ban is what it means in terms of Kovacic and Higuain. 

What do you mean by "it terms of Kovacic and Higuain"? If you mean in terms of signing them, they are already registered as our players so we can sign them permanently, regardless of the outcome of the ban. 

There does seem to be a lot of confusion in regards to what the ban means. We are not, and never will be banned from signing players. We can buy all the players that we want, all year round if we want to. What we are banned from, is registering players to play for us. So any players we sign cannot register to play for us for the next two registration periods. Players that are already registered to play for us, i.e. Kova and Higs, can be signed on a permanent bases with no effect from the ban.

6 hours ago, evissy said:

A Basic question: with CAS are we looking to freeze the ban so we can sign players this summer or to lift the ban for good?

I have read a couple of articles over it and no one really seems to know what the ban is what it means in terms of Kovacic and Higuain. 

Well the immediate action re.  CAS is to notify of the intention to appeal. Which we did via a public statement. Then under Rule R37 we'd ask for it to be frozen allowing us to buy this window (this seems to have not happened yet, my guess is that it will eventually).   I suspect our main hope overall is to get the ban reduced to 1 window rather than 2

 

As @Old Shaggy  we are not banned from buying players, we are banned from registering them.  

 

Edited May 19, 20197 yr by RickUK

It seems odd that we haven't already requested the freeze in the ban through CAS, if we intend to. The current window has already been open for a few days so we are effectively serving our ban. As far as I know the punishment applies to full windows. So if we applied for the freeze say a month into this window, and CAS were unable to reduce our ban, we would still have 2 windows to serve afterwards. So in effect our punishment would have been more than we started with.

The only logical explanation I can think of is that we are considering taking the ban now, and hoping CAS can reduce it to one window so we can make signings in January. Or am I missing something?

5 minutes ago, forbzy said:

It seems odd that we haven't already requested the freeze in the ban through CAS, if we intend to. The current window has already been open for a few days so we are effectively serving our ban. As far as I know the punishment applies to full windows. So if we applied for the freeze say a month into this window, and CAS were unable to reduce our ban, we would still have 2 windows to serve afterwards. So in effect our punishment would have been more than we started with.

The only logical explanation I can think of is that we are considering taking the ban now, and hoping CAS can reduce it to one window so we can make signings in January. Or am I missing something?

Effectively the window is always open at the end of the season whenever.

Given we have no competitive game for three months after the Europa final it doesn't really make too much difference if we officially get it frozen now or in early July, especially if it's looking likely to happen.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Effectively the window is always open at the end of the season whenever.

Given we have no competitive game for three months after the Europa final it doesn't really make too much difference if we officially get it frozen now or in early July, especially if it's looking likely to happen.

Agreed. But why not just request the freeze through CAS when we first raised our appeal? What is there to gain by waiting?