It's been happening for years and years at Chelsea since Abramovich bought the club. The Old Guard were privy to it despite constantly winning trophies and possibly having the club's best interests at heart.

This current lot couldn't give a sh*t about the club and it's painfully obvious from the outset. No motivation to win local derbies (losses to Arsenal and Spurs) and our biggest defeat in 23 years dating back to losing Liverpool 5-1 in the league.

Mourinho, Conte and now Sarri all having the same issue when we're not involved in a title race. All different philosophies, ways of training and personalities yet all with the same problem.

I read a theory online about Conte's issue with the dressing room as well as the board but in particular, the Brazillian players in our dressing room. Now of course, Conte did win the league with Costa & Luiz as mainstays in the team but I thought this was quite interesting. Conte arrived, within months Oscar was sold to China, Costa wanted to leave and Pedro was being picked over Willian. The following season (17/18), he had a huge rift with Costa who left, Kenedy was shipped out to Newcastle despite us having one left wing back in Alonso, Luiz was out of the team for the whole season and Willian spent a fair portion of it on the bench and always subbed him no matter what if he started, his post on instagram at the end of the season with trophies covering Conte was embarassing. Willian also admitted that he would have left Chelsea if Conte had stayed at the club for another season. Brazillian players are known for starting cliques and banding together in the dressing room (See PSG) as well as *some* having bad attitude problems. Again, this could be a load of rubbish but it also seems strange that the same situation is occuring with the likes of Willian and Luiz still around.

I think we have a bit of an issue in our dressing room in regards to how the players motivate themselves when we can no longer win the league, it's pathetic for well paid athletes to perform in the manner they did last night. I can accept losing but not in that way. Of course, Sarri has to take some responsibility for refusing to start Hudson Odoi, Loftus Cheek and Christensen who all deserve to be in the starting line up over the current crop of players as well as his stubborness when it comes to tactics.

What do you think? Thanks for reading

Sell Hazard. Sell Willian. Don't sign Kovacic. 

There’s a chance in there that needs cutting out

7 minutes ago, Andy2461 said:

There’s a chance in there that needs cutting out

How do you mean?

Id sell Hazard for sure. Willian, Luiz too and definitely not sign Kovacic.  CHO and Pulisic as our starters and Pedro as their backup. 

There’s no JT to bust their balls anymore. 

There is no natural leaders there and they seem rudderless because of this. As has been said on here untold times, they need to bring the youth through, form a new clique, they might care a bit more for the badge

On 31/01/2019 at 13:05, bisright1 said:

Sell Hazard. Sell Willian. Don't sign Kovacic. 

 

On 31/01/2019 at 13:35, Semper Fi said:

Id sell Hazard for sure. Willian, Luiz too and definitely not sign Kovacic.  CHO and Pulisic as our starters and Pedro as their backup. 

Sell the one player keeping us in the top 10 

14 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

 

Sell the one player keeping us in the top 10 

Not to mention there is no explanation how this would be the first step to a 10-year domination of the league.

56 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

 

Sell the one player keeping us in the top 10 

 

38 minutes ago, Valerie said:

Not to mention there is no explanation how this would be the first step to a 10-year domination of the league.

Hazard has been flirting with Madrid forever now and it really is unacceptable, its disloyal and a slap on the face to the fans and our club. No player is bigger then Chelsea FC. I am 100% sure he will do the same as Courtois come next year. Quote me on this. 

 

We will rebuild the team, theres not a more obvious explanation. We have CHO and Pulisic as our future now and we can invest the money on the Hazard sale to reinforce the squad and bring in new talent who have more hunger and desire then Hazard. Players that will listen to the coach, not undermine them. 

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

 

Sell the one player keeping us in the top 10 

Do you not think it’s a little odd though that despite having a squad (minus Hazard) that is clearly top 4 quality, we always seem to be relying on Eden to win games for us? I’m not saying it’s definitely true, but it’s starting to feel like he might be the reason we aren’t advancing as a coherent team. He’s clearly not playing football the Sarri way, so does it really benefit us that he pulls us out the sh*t maybe half the time? If he moved on, maybe we wouldn’t need someone pulling us out the sh*t at all.

10 minutes ago, Kentonio said:

Do you not think it’s a little odd though that despite having a squad (minus Hazard) that is clearly top 4 quality, we always seem to be relying on Eden to win games for us? I’m not saying it’s definitely true, but it’s starting to feel like he might be the reason we aren’t advancing as a coherent team. He’s clearly not playing football the Sarri way, so does it really benefit us that he pulls us out the sh*t maybe half the time? If he moved on, maybe we wouldn’t need someone pulling us out the sh*t at all.

I find this post very confusing.

"Do you not think it’s a little odd though that despite having a squad (minus Hazard) that is clearly top 4 quality, we always seem to be relying on Eden to win games for us? I’m not saying it’s definitely true, but it’s starting to feel like he might be the reason we aren’t advancing as a coherent team"

That says to me that it's the other players not stepping up, not that Hazard is the problem. When you rely on one player to get you the goals, it's because the other players aren't capable of doing the same when he can't. So we drop him, then what? We struggle even more for goals because we have taken out our only player that seems capable of consistently scoring or assisting. Do you suddenly think the others are going to start scoing and assisting regularly just because he is taken out of the team? What, he has a magical power where he is stopping others from doing the thing we need them to do now? Willian, Pedro, Kovacic, Barkley, are they all suddenly going to get double figures in goals or assists just because Hazard is out of the team? It's not going to happen.

I have already seen us without Hazard this season and we don't look anywhere near as good. We always look like we are missing that extra spark.

"He’s clearly not playing football the Sarri way, so does it really benefit us that he pulls us out the sh*t maybe half the time? If he moved on, maybe we wouldn’t need someone pulling us out the sh*t at all."

If we moved him on, we wouldn't have anybody capable of pulling us out of the sh*t.

1 minute ago, Scott Harris said:

I find this post very confusing.

"Do you not think it’s a little odd though that despite having a squad (minus Hazard) that is clearly top 4 quality, we always seem to be relying on Eden to win games for us? I’m not saying it’s definitely true, but it’s starting to feel like he might be the reason we aren’t advancing as a coherent team"

That says to me that it's the other players not stepping up, not that Hazard is the problem. When you rely on one player to get you the goals, it's because the other players aren't capable of doing the same when he can't. So we drop him, then what? We struggle even more for goals because we have taken out our only player that seems capable of consistently scoring or assisting. Do you suddenly think the others are going to start scoing and assisting regularly just because he is taken out of the team? What, he has a magical power where he is stopping others from doing the thing we need them to do now? Willian, Pedro, Kovacic, Barkley, are they all suddenly going to get double figures in goals or assists just because Hazard is out of the team? It's not going to happen.

I have already seen us without Hazard this season and we don't look anywhere near as good. We always look like we are missing that extra spark.

"He’s clearly not playing football the Sarri way, so does it really benefit us that he pulls us out the sh*t maybe half the time? If he moved on, maybe we wouldn’t need someone pulling us out the sh*t at all."

If we moved him on, we wouldn't have anybody capable of pulling us out of the sh*t.

I mean that with him in the team we’re not playing the way the manager wants us to. Napoli were quick and incisive, we’re slow and ponderous. Why? Well I’m no expert but it seems like we quite often get the ball up front without many of their defenders back, but then Eden and Willy slow things down and then very quickly we’re trying to get past 8-9 players instead of the initial 3-4. 

You’re right that we haven’t looked amazing without Eden but that kind of makes sense. The team need to learn that fast attacking football, and if we’re not playing it most games because he’s there, we’re not suddenly going to be experts at it on the rare occasion when he’s missing.

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

 

Sell the one player keeping us in the top 10 

Bit extreme.

Just now, Kentonio said:

I mean that with him in the team we’re not playing the way the manager wants us to. Napoli were quick and incisive, we’re slow and ponderous. Why? Well I’m no expert but it seems like we quite often get the ball up front without many of their defenders back, but then Eden and Willy slow things down and then very quickly we’re trying to get past 8-9 players instead of the initial 3-4. 

You’re right that we haven’t looked amazing without Eden but that kind of makes sense. The team need to learn that fast attacking football, and if we’re not playing it most games because he’s there, we’re not suddenly going to be experts at it on the rare occasion when he’s missing.

But Hazard isn't the only one guilty of that, it's the whole team. The full backs are slowing down when they approach the penalty area, the midfielders, especially Jorginho, are struggling with being pressured (this is something that is the biggest difference between English football and Italian, I'll get to that in a moment though), the wingers are trying to score the perfect goal, the strikers are attempting too many one twos instead of getting into the box to get on the end of a cross. I also think there is an even bigger problem effecting the team though, I don't see much hunger in them. Against Tottenham in the League cup, it was there, you could see it, against Bournemouth, it wasn't.

I also think we need to stop comparing the team to Napoli. It's a totally different league, there is no way we could get away with playing the way Napoli did. I have seen plenty of videos of that Napoli team now, and every single video shows me that Serie A teams let the midfield move the ball around without much pressure. This doesn't happen in the Premier League, you are constantly being pressured in the Premier League. This is where Sarri himself needs to learn, he needs to adapt his tactics to the league, just like many great managers before him did.

13 minutes ago, Kentonio said:

I mean that with him in the team we’re not playing the way the manager wants us to. Napoli were quick and incisive, we’re slow and ponderous. Why? Well I’m no expert but it seems like we quite often get the ball up front without many of their defenders back, but then Eden and Willy slow things down and then very quickly we’re trying to get past 8-9 players instead of the initial 3-4. 

You’re right that we haven’t looked amazing without Eden but that kind of makes sense. The team need to learn that fast attacking football, and if we’re not playing it most games because he’s there, we’re not suddenly going to be experts at it on the rare occasion when he’s missing.

Although your theory is an interesting talking point (no sarcasm), it's way too risky to sell a top player like Hazard based on a theory.

4 minutes ago, Argo said:

Bit extreme.

Is it? 10 goals, 10 assists, take those away and we are fighting for a top 10 finish, not top 4. It's not like the rest of the squad has shown that they are capable of sharing those numbers between them.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

I find this post very confusing.

"Do you not think it’s a little odd though that despite having a squad (minus Hazard) that is clearly top 4 quality, we always seem to be relying on Eden to win games for us? I’m not saying it’s definitely true, but it’s starting to feel like he might be the reason we aren’t advancing as a coherent team"

That says to me that it's the other players not stepping up, not that Hazard is the problem. When you rely on one player to get you the goals, it's because the other players aren't capable of doing the same when he can't. So we drop him, then what? We struggle even more for goals because we have taken out our only player that seems capable of consistently scoring or assisting. Do you suddenly think the others are going to start scoing and assisting regularly just because he is taken out of the team? What, he has a magical power where he is stopping others from doing the thing we need them to do now? Willian, Pedro, Kovacic, Barkley, are they all suddenly going to get double figures in goals or assists just because Hazard is out of the team? It's not going to happen.

I have already seen us without Hazard this season and we don't look anywhere near as good. We always look like we are missing that extra spark.

"He’s clearly not playing football the Sarri way, so does it really benefit us that he pulls us out the sh*t maybe half the time? If he moved on, maybe we wouldn’t need someone pulling us out the sh*t at all."

If we moved him on, we wouldn't have anybody capable of pulling us out of the sh*t.

Yes we will have someone who will pull us out of sh*t. We will rebuild the team around CHO, Pulisic and our new signings.

 

Ill remind you again, this is Chelsea FC not Hazard FC. You can follow him weekly in the La Liga if you like. We need to rebuild our team and if Hazard doesnt want to be part of that, the door is open. Just like Sarri said, he can leave.  Always KTBFFH!!!! 

Edited February 2, 20197 yr by Semper Fi
Mistake

12 minutes ago, Semper Fi said:

Yes we will have someone who will pull us out of sh*t. We will rebuild the team around CHO, Pulisic and ur jew signings.

 

Ill remind you again, this is Chelsea FC not Hazard FC. You can follow him weekly in the La Liga if you like. We need to rebuild our team and if Hazard doesnt want to be part of that, the door is open. Just like Sarri said, he can leave.  Always KTBFFH!!!! 

WTF !!!  ? What does being a jew have to do with this ?

Just now, brownindian said:

WTF !!!  ? What does being a jew have to do with this ?

Sorry im on my phone. I meant new signings. 

By no means am I saying that we should sell Hazard. He's far and away our best player and also my favourite. I'm just pointing out that his flirting with Madrid isn't helping matters. I really hope he stays.

1 hour ago, Semper Fi said:

Yes we will have someone who will pull us out of sh*t. We will rebuild the team around CHO, Pulisic and our new signings.

 

Ill remind you again, this is Chelsea FC not Hazard FC. You can follow him weekly in the La Liga if you like. We need to rebuild our team and if Hazard doesnt want to be part of that, the door is open. Just like Sarri said, he can leave.  Always KTBFFH!!!! 

You have to believe that Pulisic will live up to some people's expectations to buy into that though, and I'm far from convinced that Pulisic is going to be as good as some people make him out to be. Hudson-Odoi is all potential at the moment, it's hard to say which way he will go. Hazard isn't easy to replace, I actually don't think a player of his quality can be replaced, you can't replace one of the best in the game. So when people say "sell Hazard" it seems foolish too me. 

2 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Is it? 10 goals, 10 assists, take those away and we are fighting for a top 10 finish, not top 4. It's not like the rest of the squad has shown that they are capable of sharing those numbers between them.

It's not as straight forward as count the points we lose without the Hazard stats and put us in the appropriate position, United's title winning teams of 07,08 and 09 would have fallen out of the top 4 without Ronaldo by that logic.

Absolutely no way would we fall that far down the league without him.

Just now, Argo said:

It's not as straight forward as count the points we lose without the Hazard stats and put us in the appropriate position, United's title winning teams of 07,08 and 09 would have fallen out of the top 4 without Ronaldo by that logic.

Absolutely no way would we fall that far down the league without him.

It's already happened. 2015-16, Hazard scored 4 league goals and got 3 assists, we finished 10th. It would be the same again this season if we didn't have his goals and assists. You take Hazard out of this team now and I think we are battling for a top 10 finish, the other players just don't have enough goals in them.

22 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

It's already happened. 2015-16, Hazard scored 4 league goals and got 3 assists, we finished 10th. It would be the same again this season if we didn't have his goals and assists. You take Hazard out of this team now and I think we are battling for a top 10 finish, the other players just don't have enough goals in them.

15-16 was a fluke that happened due to a series of unprecedented factors, the Hazard situation didn't help but that was merely the tip of the Iceberg. A poor defense and unfit physically and mentally exhausted squad were much bigger factors. In attack we actually scored more goals than United and were within 10 off the top 3, defense was a much bigger problem than Eden's form.

We would likely be 6th without Hazard but no way would we be lower.