On 03/01/2023 at 16:45, axman2526 said:

I said at the time and will bring it up again, Todd should have only spent money on Neil Baths recommendations in the summer and left first team deals until he had his people appointed.

 

Sterling at 49.5 mill

Koulibaly at 34mill

Cucurella at 62mill

Aubameyang at 15mill

 

Not to mention signing on fees and stupid long expensive contracts.

 

160.5mill wasted on dross that could be used now with people who have experience in recruitment and (Hopefully) know what they are doing.

All these players replaced who those we lost.

KK for Rudiger

Cucu for Alonso

Sterling for Werner

Auba for Lukaku

Fofana was an addition but his injury hasn't helped.

The intent from Todd was there, so I do respect that. If anything we are suffering from poor recruitment under Roman. In hindsight we should've signed others because these guys have all been failures but the market wasn't easy. Barcelona snatching our targets plus there isn't much quality on sale to begin with.

9 hours ago, KonaKai Blue said:

All these players replaced who those we lost.

KK for Rudiger

Cucu for Alonso

Sterling for Werner

Auba for Lukaku

Fofana was an addition but his injury hasn't helped.

The intent from Todd was there, so I do respect that. If anything we are suffering from poor recruitment under Roman. In hindsight we should've signed others because these guys have all been failures but the market wasn't easy. Barcelona snatching our targets plus there isn't much quality on sale to begin with.

I get your point but all of these recruits are worse than the outgoing players, which is going some for Aubameyang. Those outgoing players were bought in the Roman era so if our recruitments has been poor for years under Roman, god knows where we are heading.

I'm sorry, but no blame goes on Boehly for the transfer window. He hadn't long been the owner, didn't have a proper board, was trying to find the solutions. He decided to bring in players he thought would be beneficial. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I don't remember many, if any people moaning about brining in KK, Sterling, even Fofana. Fofana has been unfortunate due to injury. KK and Sterling have been underwhelming. Cucurella we overpaid for, sure.

The state we are in goes back years. We never replaced Hazard, Fabregas and Costa. Who did we bring in to replace them? Morata and Pulisic/Ziyech. Just not good enough. After Conte won the league the board signed the B/C level signings, not what we should have signed. Sorry, but when you win the league you don't bring in the likes of Luiz, Zappacosta, Barkley, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Morata, Alonso etc. I've said this so many times it's getting boring now. We know the issues go back way further than this summer. 

Edited January 6, 20233 yr by enigma

4 minutes ago, enigma said:

I'm sorry, but no blame goes on Boehly for the transfer window. He hadn't long been the owner, didn't have a proper board, was trying to find the solutions. He decided to bring in players he thought would be beneficial. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I don't remember many, if any people moaning about brining in KK, Sterling, even Fofana. Fofana has been unfortunate due to injury. KK and Sterling have been underwhelming. Cucurella we overpaid for, sure.

The state we are in goes back years. We never replaced Hazard, Fabregas and Costa. Who did we bring in to replace them? Morata and Pulisic/Ziyech. Just not good enough. After Conte won the league the board signed the B/C level signings, not what we should have signed. Sorry, but when you win the league you don't bring in the likes of Luiz, Zappacosta, Barkley, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Morata, Alonso etc. I've said this so many times it's getting boring now. We know the issues go back way further than this summer. 

All those guys you mentioned aren't even in the squad anymore.

Why can't we just evaluate the squad as is?

He could have used Hall, Hutchinson, Chalobah etc against Bournemouth and Notts Forest to begin integrating them into the team but didn't. City comes and suddenly he brings on Hutchinson and Hall? 

Every decision Potter makes is questionable

I think it's harsh to say all of the summer signings are awful. Cucurella firstly has shown promise it can't be easy for him considering he's been played in 3 different positions since joining here (LWB, LCB & LB) most people would struggle for consistency in their first season if that happened. Not to mention a change in coach even if it's a coach you know its still two different approaches.

Same goes for Sterling except he was actually in relatively good form before the coaching switch. He got moved from a direct attacking position (LW/CF) to playing further back some will call it wingback I personally think Potter was seeing it more as (LM/RM). Nonetheless it messed with his form and perhaps even knocked his confidence since it was a position he wasn't too familiar with in a system he hadn't really played in outside of England and again he would never play there under Southgate for obvious reasons.

Fofana well that one is too hard to say since he's always injured, but looks an awful decision based on his injury track record to invest ~£80m on a young player you better make sure they're not injury prone prior to your purchase.

KK I'm on the fence, sorely underperformed if we're basing this purely on reputation. He would have us believe before signing for us he's somewhere between top 5 - top 10 CB in the world. Not many would believe that after the first 4-5 months. However, I remember Silva needed a bit of time to adjust to the pace of the league and he was much older. At the end of the day quality shines through it could be that after season or half a season it clicks and he goes back to being a great defender. I think he was pretty good in the world cup from what I saw but I didn't really follow Sengal that much especially after the Mane injury.

These were at the end of the day Tuchel signings we assume, made for his squad and his playing style. Can we blame them for how the season has turned out. I highly doubt any of them expected him to be fired so early into the season after he was involved in selling them the project which brought them to the club. 

Boehly and Co can perhaps be blamed, but I don't see how all the new signings can be completed be written off as failures before the season has even concluded  

1 hour ago, enigma said:

I'm sorry, but no blame goes on Boehly for the transfer window. He hadn't long been the owner, didn't have a proper board, was trying to find the solutions. He decided to bring in players he thought would be beneficial. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I don't remember many, if any people moaning about brining in KK, Sterling, even Fofana. Fofana has been unfortunate due to injury. KK and Sterling have been underwhelming. Cucurella we overpaid for, sure.

The state we are in goes back years. We never replaced Hazard, Fabregas and Costa. Who did we bring in to replace them? Morata and Pulisic/Ziyech. Just not good enough. After Conte won the league the board signed the B/C level signings, not what we should have signed. Sorry, but when you win the league you don't bring in the likes of Luiz, Zappacosta, Barkley, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Morata, Alonso etc. I've said this so many times it's getting boring now. We know the issues go back way further than this summer. 

Firstly Luiz and Alonso were not apart of the recruitment after we won the league, but were part of the reason we won the league. They were signed after we finished 10th in the 15/1 season and alongside the Kanté signing and Moses returning back to the club helped revitalise a championship winning side that lost its way the previous season. 

The rest of the recruitment you mention from the 17/18 summer was atrocious aside from Rudiger ofc who let's face it was solid, but didn't really take off properly until TT. Morata is a weird one, he's clearly a good footballer but a confidence player and struggles when things don't go his way. In some ways he's similar to Timo, but the difference is Timo never stopped working for the team especially when he was in scoring droughts. 

Seems sadly there just wasn't any players to directly replace Costa, Hazard or Fab on the market. Even after nearly 5 seasons without all three. I can't think of anyone with similar profiles on the market for any of those 3. Which means we had to try and build the squad in a different way. Whilst those 3 were great in the league they didn't do much in Europe the whole time they were together (Hazard won two Europa Ls but was underwhelming in ucl). 

1 hour ago, Deino said:

All those guys you mentioned aren't even in the squad anymore.

Why can't we just evaluate the squad as is?

He could have used Hall, Hutchinson, Chalobah etc against Bournemouth and Notts Forest to begin integrating them into the team but didn't. City comes and suddenly he brings on Hutchinson and Hall? 

Every decision Potter makes is questionable

Not really. He said he wants to try to maintain a consistent first team, not keep chopping up and changing personnel. You don't see Pep or Klopp chopping and changing players. They aim to keep a consistent side. 

24 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

I think it's harsh to say all of the summer signings are awful. Cucurella firstly has shown promise it can't be easy for him considering he's been played in 3 different positions since joining here (LWB, LCB & LB) most people would struggle for consistency in their first season if that happened. Not to mention a change in coach even if it's a coach you know its still two different approaches.

Same goes for Sterling except he was actually in relatively good form before the coaching switch. He got moved from a direct attacking position (LW/CF) to playing further back some will call it wingback I personally think Potter was seeing it more as (LM/RM). Nonetheless it messed with his form and perhaps even knocked his confidence since it was a position he wasn't too familiar with in a system he hadn't really played in outside of England and again he would never play there under Southgate for obvious reasons.

Fofana well that one is too hard to say since he's always injured, but looks an awful decision based on his injury track record to invest ~£80m on a young player you better make sure they're not injury prone prior to your purchase.

KK I'm on the fence, sorely underperformed if we're basing this purely on reputation. He would have us believe before signing for us he's somewhere between top 5 - top 10 CB in the world. Not many would believe that after the first 4-5 months. However, I remember Silva needed a bit of time to adjust to the pace of the league and he was much older. At the end of the day quality shines through it could be that after season or half a season it clicks and he goes back to being a great defender. I think he was pretty good in the world cup from what I saw but I didn't really follow Sengal that much especially after the Mane injury.

These were at the end of the day Tuchel signings we assume, made for his squad and his playing style. Can we blame them for how the season has turned out. I highly doubt any of them expected him to be fired so early into the season after he was involved in selling them the project which brought them to the club. 

Boehly and Co can perhaps be blamed, but I don't see how all the new signings can be completed be written off as failures before the season has even concluded  

Firstly Luiz and Alonso were not apart of the recruitment after we won the league, but were part of the reason we won the league. They were signed after we finished 10th in the 15/1 season and alongside the Kanté signing and Moses returning back to the club helped revitalise a championship winning side that lost its way the previous season. 

The rest of the recruitment you mention from the 17/18 summer was atrocious aside from Rudiger ofc who let's face it was solid, but didn't really take off properly until TT. Morata is a weird one, he's clearly a good footballer but a confidence player and struggles when things don't go his way. In some ways he's similar to Timo, but the difference is Timo never stopped working for the team especially when he was in scoring droughts. 

Seems sadly there just wasn't any players to directly replace Costa, Hazard or Fab on the market. Even after nearly 5 seasons without all three. I can't think of anyone with similar profiles on the market for any of those 3. Which means we had to try and build the squad in a different way. Whilst those 3 were great in the league they didn't do much in Europe the whole time they were together (Hazard won two Europa Ls but was underwhelming in ucl). 

Yeah Luiz and Alonso did join, but they were in no way first choice targets. We were targeting Van Dijk by many accounts, but for whatever reason didn't bring him to the club. But even after Mourinho won the league on his return to the club, the transfers that were targeted were abysmal. You could say these issues go back as far as 2011 when we decided to bring in Torres (no longer wanted at Liverpool) over Aguero who we ended up piss balling about not paying the fee, when we then went and paid £50m for Torres. Aguero went on to perform great for City for a decade while Torres ended up being a busted flush at Chelsea. Same old story. 

7 minutes ago, enigma said:

Not really. He said he wants to try to maintain a consistent first team, not keep chopping up and changing personnel. You don't see Pep or Klopp chopping and changing players. They aim to keep a consistent side. 

We probably have the most no. of changes to the lineup this season. Potter is always chopping and changing

6 hours ago, Deino said:

All those guys you mentioned aren't even in the squad anymore.

Why can't we just evaluate the squad as is?

He could have used Hall, Hutchinson, Chalobah etc against Bournemouth and Notts Forest to begin integrating them into the team but didn't. City comes and suddenly he brings on Hutchinson and Hall? 

Every decision Potter makes is questionable

In this situation though Potter is in a no win situation. If he started Hall and Hutchinson against Bournemouth and we dropped points he would have been destroyed on here. Many  on here criticised the decision to play Hutchinson last night because he was underwhelming when he came on. But if Potter had brought on say Jorginho instead the same people probably would have asked why he didn't give Hutchinson a chance. 

I am always excited to see youth players get a chance, but they are inevitably not going to provide the finished product and will be raw at times. Potter has already given Hall quite a few opportunities this season and I hope to see more of him Hutchinson will likely get more chances too, given our injuries. Although judging by the level of patience on here he will be written off if he has another bad game.

By the way Chalobah I am fully in agreement on. I think he should be starting most games. I remember he picked up an injury in December so perhaps he is not fully match fit yet? 

Since we start of last season we've suffered 97 injuries. 

That is 16 more than any other club in top 5 leagues in Europe. 16. 

If we don't fix that it really doesn't matter who our manager is or who we sign. It's like running a business and setting 20% of your stock on fire every week. 

8 hours ago, enigma said:

Yeah Luiz and Alonso did join, but they were in no way first choice targets. We were targeting Van Dijk by many accounts, but for whatever reason didn't bring him to the club. But even after Mourinho won the league on his return to the club, the transfers that were targeted were abysmal. You could say these issues go back as far as 2011 when we decided to bring in Torres (no longer wanted at Liverpool) over Aguero who we ended up piss balling about not paying the fee, when we then went and paid £50m for Torres. Aguero went on to perform great for City for a decade while Torres ended up being a busted flush at Chelsea. Same old story. 

I don't think we started targeting VVD until the season after Luiz was signed. Nonetheless all valid points, for a long time now I've associated our transfer strategy as who's the biggest name can we get. It's like they go out do some market research and ask the 13 year olds who's the best player on fifa to sign smh

14 hours ago, enigma said:

I'm sorry, but no blame goes on Boehly for the transfer window. He hadn't long been the owner, didn't have a proper board, was trying to find the solutions. He decided to bring in players he thought would be beneficial. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but I don't remember many, if any people moaning about brining in KK, Sterling, even Fofana. Fofana has been unfortunate due to injury. KK and Sterling have been underwhelming. Cucurella we overpaid for, sure.

Right here bud. Very much against Sterling from the get go, concerned about Koulibaly age and adaptability but recognized his reputation as a top defender, Fofana excited for but very concerned by price and injury record. Cucurella also against but not as much as I was against Sterling. Auba many of us said waste of money.

 

I will say this for Todd and the Eggman, am enjoying their wuming of Arsenal over the Shaktar player. Keep that up fellas!

What Potter is doing with the team scares me, but what the owners are doing scares me even more. The absurd wages, long contracts, massive amounts of money they are willing to pay for any crap they can find. What are they doing? they are leaving no room for error in a sport that tends to change very quickly, and those errors are already mounting up. I thought they were just being ambitious to begin with, but with every mistake they make, I just think they don't know what they are doing.

"Trust the process".......well the process has to show something worth trusting first and every move they make seems to be the wrong one. They are backing us into a dangerous corner with their decision making. What are we going to do if these signings don't pay off? It's not like with Abramovich, he wasn't putting every player, even unproven or mediocre ones, on 7 year contracts and massive wages (apart from Kepa) We'll never get rid of them, no team will be able to take them off us and those players can sit on a contract for years without worry. They are playing a high stakes game which could ruin us.

21 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

What Potter is doing with the team scares me, but what the owners are doing scares me even more. The absurd wages, long contracts, massive amounts of money they are willing to pay for any crap they can find. What are they doing? they are leaving no room for error in a sport that tends to change very quickly, and those errors are already mounting up. I thought they were just being ambitious to begin with, but with every mistake they make, I just think they don't know what they are doing.

"Trust the process".......well the process has to show something worth trusting first and every move they make seems to be the wrong one. They are backing us into a dangerous corner with their decision making. What are we going to do if these signings don't pay off? It's not like with Abramovich, he wasn't putting every player, even unproven or mediocre ones, on 7 year contracts and massive wages (apart from Kepa) We'll never get rid of them, no team will be able to take them off us and those players can sit on a contract for years without worry. They are playing a high stakes game which could ruin us.

Well some fans are saying the fat wages & long contract will help with FFP. 

23 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

What Potter is doing with the team scares me, but what the owners are doing scares me even more. The absurd wages, long contracts, massive amounts of money they are willing to pay for any crap they can find. What are they doing? they are leaving no room for error in a sport that tends to change very quickly, and those errors are already mounting up. I thought they were just being ambitious to begin with, but with every mistake they make, I just think they don't know what they are doing.

"Trust the process".......well the process has to show something worth trusting first and every move they make seems to be the wrong one. They are backing us into a dangerous corner with their decision making. What are we going to do if these signings don't pay off? It's not like with Abramovich, he wasn't putting every player, even unproven or mediocre ones, on 7 year contracts and massive wages (apart from Kepa) We'll never get rid of them, no team will be able to take them off us and those players can sit on a contract for years without worry. They are playing a high stakes game which could ruin us.

The 7 year contracts really worry me

Todd Bohley just f**king leave our club please

 

you suck and you are destroying this club

Boehly keeps signing players, most of whom most of us are unaware of. Accepting what we have become, wouldn't it have been better to have gradually integrated our young players instead of which we are signing players the majority of which will add to the deadwood in our squad. Which of the crazy priced players signed in the close season cannot be considered deadwood?

I have a good idea. Have Boehly get on the phone with Benfica and lowball Enzo again. 

One big clown who hired a bigger one.

For those calling for TT to come back have you seriously forgotten  the statements Todd and the Egg man put out when he was sacked? Rich, powerful people don't back down over such things.

Only way you get them to hear you  is stop going to games, stop buying the merchandise. Hit them in the pockets.

Hopefully this is a lesson to all Chelsea fans to never, ever vote for the Conservative Party ever again.

Still haven't got a full medical team sorted, right? No wonder a whole team worth of players are down, and not getting any better. That little 'out burst' by Potter told us some truth about what's behind the scene, yes we will go through a rough patch, but how low is low enough? The way we are are going, relegation is not out of the question.

Just hate these transfers, hate them. We either are buying players 20 and under or 30 and over and vastly overpaying for both. 

sh*t system. 
 

 

We are going to know a lot about our new owners and recruitment team in the coming weeks. 

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

For those calling for TT to come back have you seriously forgotten  the statements Todd and the Egg man put out when he was sacked? Rich, powerful people don't back down over such things.

Only way you get them to hear you  is stop going to games, stop buying the merchandise. Hit them in the pockets.

At this point I’m almost certain that if we had prime Guardiola, these clowns would have sacked him for Potter or AVB with his brilliant presentations.

That said, to sack Potter now would be equally ridiculous.