27 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

They simply picked the wrong captain to navigate the ship. No changes to the actual crew. Destination still the same. Ongoing improvements being made to the boat both above and below decks. New captain being hired.

Presumably we all need to keep the faith, and sail staunchly through the stormy seas until we reach our balmy idyll in the tropics  🙂 

 

Edited April 20, 20233 yr by just

10 minutes ago, just said:

Right now it feels like we are here LOL

Nice ship though ... spent a lot of money on that !

 

37 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Right now it feels like we are here LOL

Nice ship though ... spent a lot of money on that !

 

Umm yeah.. that is not your boat.

I let AI have a go at it:
 

9 hours ago, Vialli96 said:

There comes a time when things are going so badly that players stand up against the owners. Thiago Silva did just that! Ive never known a player to stand up against the owners, managers yes, never the owner. 20 years under Abramovich not one player ever questioned or spoke out against Abramovich. Todd Boehly has achieved that in less than year. 
 

Silva telling the owners to ‘stop’ speaks volumes!!! things really are that bad!

I'm sorry but this needs to be said.

Maybe people didn't speak out against Abramovich because he was mates with Putin.

1 hour ago, just said:

Our predicaments a bit like rearranging deck chairs on The Titanic. And the band played on..

18 hours ago, Mod said:

 

Its absolutely great he can speak so freely, honestly, he is an asset and huge credit to our club. I think the league is past him - I think the game is starting to go by him, but an honour to have him at the club, like Dave. 

Yes he's correct about the players, the dressing room enlargement had me cracking up as it confirmed the Atlantic report. But at the heart of it was an admission that the players havent been happy and and the current form is on them. This is a great starting point for the players, club owners and us fans. 

The problem is with Silva and Drogba, is they haven't been at the club the last decade. Under Abramovich the club was already heading in the wrong direction. Never kept us competitive which is why we are in the situation we are in.

If we are brutally honest, look at Conte league win. Klopp and Pep had just arrived in the league, Conte switched the formation and we happened to go on a strong run that we finished the league strong enough, but we were faltering even in the latter end of that season.

The next season we weren't competitive enough due to not strengthening a fairly strong squad, which is Roman's and the board's fault. We were linked with the likes of Alex Sandro, Van Dijk, and a few others. Terry was aging, we could have used VVD.

There's a reason he chose Liverpool as their project was more appealing, which tells you something when we had won the league a season before. We haven't had a sniff at the league in five seasons, which is mental. All because of poor investment in the squad. Anyone remember Djilodobji? Or whatever his name is. 

Edited April 20, 20233 yr by enigma

 

3 hours ago, enigma said:

The problem is with Silva and Drogba, is they haven't been at the club the last decade. Under Abramovich the club was already heading in the wrong direction. Never kept us competitive which is why we are in the situation we are in.

If we are brutally honest, look at Conte league win. Klopp and Pep had just arrived in the league, Conte switched the formation and we happened to go on a strong run that we finished the league strong enough, but we were faltering even in the latter end of that season.

The next season we weren't competitive enough due to not strengthening a fairly strong squad, which is Roman's and the board's fault. We were linked with the likes of Alex Sandro, Van Dijk, and a few others. Terry was aging, we could have used VVD.

There's a reason he chose Liverpool as their project was more appealing, which tells you something when we had won the league a season before. We haven't had a sniff at the league in five seasons, which is mental. All because of poor investment in the squad. Anyone remember Djilodobji? Or whatever his name is. 

Drogba as much as I love him was clearly doing an Neville to Ole here with Roman and Marina.

He made some good points despite that but he also called signing Sheva an intelligent decision fgs.

7 hours ago, enigma said:

Under Abramovich the club was already heading in the wrong direction. Never kept us competitive which is why we are in the situation we are in.

 

This simply isn't true and it will never be true, no matter how many times it's written on a forum, sorry.

15 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

This simply isn't true and it will never be true, no matter how many times it's written on a forum, sorry.

Well said Gol !

17 major trophies for us in the Abramovich era. Next best in the same period was Manchester City with 14, Manchester United with 13, and then we down to Liverpool 7 and Arsenal 6, and then Leicester with 2. Then 6 teams had 1 domestic cup win each, including that solitary League Cup for Spurs LOL.

So if that is being uncompetitive, then I'd be very happy for us to remain uncompetitive LOL

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Well said Gol !

17 major trophies for us in the Abramovich era. Next best in the same period was Manchester City with 14, Manchester United with 13, and then we down to Liverpool 7 and Arsenal 6, and then Leicester with 2. Then 6 teams had 1 domestic cup win each, including that solitary League Cup for Spurs LOL.

So if that is being uncompetitive, then I'd be very happy for us to remain uncompetitive LOL

Exactly.

There remain some of us on here that not only remember the Bates years but the Mears family before that. I thank god for Roman Abramovich's involvement with this club and i get irritated that every negative aspect seems to be set at his door. He bankrolled the club. Invented us as a force. Not reinvented, invented. It seems to be overlooked that at the point of Roman's takeover we were staring liquidation in the face then as well as we had debts being called (60m i think).. Having bankrolled us and made us the most successful club in english football, he was working with the club to make us self sufficient and to develop the whole ground and surrounding area.

I would venture that some of the fans on this forum that are casting aspersions on Roman and his legacy are only Chelsea fans because of the attraction of us as a successful club when they were young. Would they have been fans of us if we'd still had Uncle Ken at the helm, bobbing up and down between the divisions, tumble down ground, away end an open wasteland, winners of the full members cup..and fck all else.

Personally i will never have a bad word for anything that Roman has done for us. But that's because i will always have the memory of Christmas 1980 in my head. Chelsea 0 v 0 Bristol city, Division 2, 18,000 of us freezing our bollox off looking out across a frozen tundra with Colin Lee and Alan Mayes up top toiling away doing nothing. Even when i moan and groan about our sh!t football and rubbish players now, deep down i still know how cr@p it has been before.

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

Personally i will never have a bad word for anything that Roman has done for us. But that's because i will always have the memory of Christmas 1980 in my head. Chelsea 0 v 0 Bristol city, Division 2, 18,000 of us freezing our bollox off looking out across a frozen tundra with Colin Lee and Alan Mayes up top toiling away doing nothing. Even when i moan and groan about our sh!t football and rubbish players now, deep down i still know how cr@p it has been before.

I was at that game my main memory was the Shed singing '' When the John John Lennon goes bob bob bobbing along shoot the bastard shoot the bastard'' 😂

3 minutes ago, bluehaze said:

I was at that game my main memory was the Shed singing '' When the John John Lennon goes bob bob bobbing along shoot the bastard shoot the bastard'' 😂

I remember it also because I went totally inappropriately dressed for the occasion.  I think it's probably the coldest I have ever been at the Bridge. Lol. I tried transferring to the benches but I thought I'd get piles so I went back into the Shed.  

At least we were among the top tier in the last 10 years ( apart from that Jose's last season), odd EPL win, consistently finishing in the top 4, CL, FA cups here and then.. Then came Boehly, took us to so many new lows we never expected after blowing 600 M ( which the club has to find a way to pay off), we are still not out of the relegation equation yet. Palace and Wolves are catching up on us. Of course, all Roman's fault, said Boehly and his people 🤔

2 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

Exactly.

There remain some of us on here that not only remember the Bates years but the Mears family before that. I thank god for Roman Abramovich's involvement with this club and i get irritated that every negative aspect seems to be set at his door. He bankrolled the club. Invented us as a force. Not reinvented, invented. It seems to be overlooked that at the point of Roman's takeover we were staring liquidation in the face then as well as we had debts being called (60m i think).. Having bankrolled us and made us the most successful club in english football, he was working with the club to make us self sufficient and to develop the whole ground and surrounding area.

I would venture that some of the fans on this forum that are casting aspersions on Roman and his legacy are only Chelsea fans because of the attraction of us as a successful club when they were young. Would they have been fans of us if we'd still had Uncle Ken at the helm, bobbing up and down between the divisions, tumble down ground, away end an open wasteland, winners of the full members cup..and fck all else.

Personally i will never have a bad word for anything that Roman has done for us. But that's because i will always have the memory of Christmas 1980 in my head. Chelsea 0 v 0 Bristol city, Division 2, 18,000 of us freezing our bollox off looking out across a frozen tundra with Colin Lee and Alan Mayes up top toiling away doing nothing. Even when i moan and groan about our sh!t football and rubbish players now, deep down i still know how cr@p it has been before.

I don't know if this was aimed at me but I feel the need to reply.

Can't you appreciate someone for their contribution but also be critical when they haven't got it right? Maybe I'm on another planet but personally I feel that's a very healthy way to live generally.

Do i appreciate Romans contributions to this club? Ofcourse I f**king do, but I'm not going because of that pretend breaking transfer records on Lukaku and Kepa were good moves.

14 hours ago, Fruit Bat said:

Our predicaments a bit like rearranging deck chairs on The Titanic. And the band played on..

But but but… wait… Maybe if we just change the band, everything will be fine? 

13 hours ago, enigma said:

We haven't had a sniff at the league in five seasons, which is mental.

What word will you use when this number goes to 20 seasons…how about 50?

8 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

I remember it also because I went totally inappropriately dressed for the occasion.  I think it's probably the coldest I have ever been at the Bridge. Lol. I tried transferring to the benches but I thought I'd get piles so I went back into the Shed.  

The wiser ones took a newspaper to sit on. 😉

12 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Well said Gol !

17 major trophies for us in the Abramovich era. Next best in the same period was Manchester City with 14, Manchester United with 13, and then we down to Liverpool 7 and Arsenal 6, and then Leicester with 2. Then 6 teams had 1 domestic cup win each, including that solitary League Cup for Spurs LOL.

So if that is being uncompetitive, then I'd be very happy for us to remain uncompetitive LOL

Well it's just a fact we haven't been competitive in the league since 2017. 

Roman was great, but his interest began to fade when his visa was revoked and then the overhaul of getting us to a place we could win the league wasn't done properly. 

This doesn't mean Boehly is our saviour. Quite clearly we are in a dire place and I don't like what I hear about how they run the place. But I'm optimistic and hope that this summer sees the clear out we need of players, a great manager coming in and we kick on next year.

Edited April 21, 20233 yr by bisright1

1 hour ago, bisright1 said:

Well it's just a fact we haven't been competitive in the league since 2017. 

We actually were last season though until everything unraveled due to unprecedented circumstances. We would 100% have been in the title race last season if Chilwell & James had remained fit so it's not entirely true we've been miles off the best in the league for ages. An injury crisis is hard to predict but if not for the the overhaul was good enough for us to compete both in Europe and domestic which we clearly did when Tuchel was here.

1 hour ago, OriginalS said:

We actually were last season though until everything unraveled due to unprecedented circumstances. We would 100% have been in the title race last season if Chilwell & James had remained fit so it's not entirely true we've been miles off the best in the league for ages. An injury crisis is hard to predict but if not for the the overhaul was good enough for us to compete both in Europe and domestic which we clearly did when Tuchel was here.

Hard to predict maybe, but we've consistently had one of the worst injury records in Europe. That has to lie at the owners door because it is the whole club that are responsible for fitness. 

Again, Roman one of the greatest owners in PL history, never got the respect he deserved. But since 2017 we stopped feeling like an elite club, we needed a big renewal throughout the whole club and I think (fairly) Roman didn't have the energy to do that again. 

These new guys have gone too fast. Hopefully though some of the sh*t they've flung at the wall slides into a decent foundation for the future.

3 hours ago, bisright1 said:

This doesn't mean Boehly is our saviour. Quite clearly we are in a dire place and I don't like what I hear about how they run the place. But I'm optimistic and hope that this summer sees the clear out we need of players, a great manager coming in and we kick on next year.

What have you heard, and who from ?

26 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

What have you heard, and who from ?

Well it's all newspaper gossip and I tend to believe nothing specific and trust consistent vibes. 

Going into the dressing room as an owner, I don't like that, owners need to be distant and unemotional. I think that should be reserved for celebrations. 

And I think that just plays into the feeling that they make knee jerky, snap judgements, spending money very quickly to solve a problem when that can create more issues. We shouldn't have signed Madueke, Badiashille or D Fofana in January as one example, they solve zero problems and then create some. 

13 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

Exactly.

There remain some of us on here that not only remember the Bates years but the Mears family before that. I thank god for Roman Abramovich's involvement with this club and i get irritated that every negative aspect seems to be set at his door. He bankrolled the club. Invented us as a force. Not reinvented, invented. It seems to be overlooked that at the point of Roman's takeover we were staring liquidation in the face then as well as we had debts being called (60m i think).. Having bankrolled us and made us the most successful club in english football, he was working with the club to make us self sufficient and to develop the whole ground and surrounding area.

I would venture that some of the fans on this forum that are casting aspersions on Roman and his legacy are only Chelsea fans because of the attraction of us as a successful club when they were young. Would they have been fans of us if we'd still had Uncle Ken at the helm, bobbing up and down between the divisions, tumble down ground, away end an open wasteland, winners of the full members cup..and fck all else.

Personally i will never have a bad word for anything that Roman has done for us. But that's because i will always have the memory of Christmas 1980 in my head. Chelsea 0 v 0 Bristol city, Division 2, 18,000 of us freezing our bollox off looking out across a frozen tundra with Colin Lee and Alan Mayes up top toiling away doing nothing. Even when i moan and groan about our sh!t football and rubbish players now, deep down i still know how cr@p it has been before.

I was a fan of CFC before Roman arrived, Bates was a crook who was saved by Roman as our club would have gone out of business as it was unable to service the debt on the eurobond loan CFC had bates took out, Roman was saved by Boehly. There is a symmetry to our ownership - Sadly, evidence of Roman's stewardship, was funded by billions of roubles - the UK government considers Roman a "mafia frontman". He had his visa cancelled after the attacks in Salisbury

Many fans still can't believe Roman has gone, but then Russia has form in this... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Five

It was great while it lasted and there are many fond memories along the way... but are we any different to Parma when it was owned by Calisto Tanzi - Had Roman not sold us, we wouldn't be watching the current sh*t show today, we would have been wound up and closed. For all we know, We may have a better long term owner already at the club in Boehly or we might, as we did learn with Roman, all that glitters aint gold. What happened to CFC, Not roman FC, can probably happen to City, Newcastle, Bournmouth, and any club owned by a billionaire. 

Im going to take a step back from this season his season as its no fun to constantly listen to fans bleating on about how unfair life is. Stockholm syndrome is a strange bedfellow and im tired of hearing the Tuche/ Roman fans harp on about how life was. Welcome to the new future. Good or bad, Keep the blue flag flag flying high.