8 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Cancelled the men's first team awards according to Nizzaar. 

Now that I can get behind.

5 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Does that mean we’ll only be half as sh*t next year  

 

 

Reasons To Be Cheerful Part 4 (with apologies to Ian Dury):

Spurs are in deeper doo-doo than Chelsea. Arne Slot has now turned them down. No manager, no DofF. Where to now, Daniel?

5 hours ago, dermott said:

Reasons To Be Cheerful Part 4 (with apologies to Ian Dury):

Spurs are in deeper doo-doo than Chelsea. Arne Slot has now turned them down. No manager, no DofF. Where to now, Daniel?

I heard they were speaking with Enrique has that fallen through too?

1 hour ago, strider6004 said:

I heard they were speaking with Enrique has that fallen through too?

His name had been bandied around, like it was at Chelsea. I suspect they're running out of options now. They seem to be caught in a bind between appointing a DoF first or a manager. A DoF is preferable but they seem no closer on that front.

On 24/05/2023 at 13:59, Sconnie Blue said:

Cancelled the men's first team awards according to Nizzaar. 

What would the awards be about anyway we have be absolutely sh*te!!!

Give the ladies team the reward night, they deserve one, seems to be harsh on them because the men are so awful. I hope Boehly will stick to his plan to be less hands on next season, this maybe the start of turning things around

I'm trying not to be massively pessimistic. But I just can't see anything really changing next season. We are so bad, and there's issues through the entire club, not just the players.

I don’t understand why Bohley felt the need to spend £500m in one year. The squad didn’t need that much of a revamp (yes it needed some revamp) but it completely destroyed our season and settled everyone and everything. It was just too drastic. 
 

Anyone care to hypothesis the reason?

1 minute ago, JM7 said:

I don’t understand why Bohley felt the need to spend £500m in one year. The squad didn’t need that much of a revamp (yes it needed some revamp) but it completely destroyed our season and settled everyone and everything. It was just too drastic. 
 

Anyone care to hypothesis the reason?

I think the most impressive thing is how he managed to gaslight so many into believing that this club was a mess before he arrived. Those same fans would be speechless if what is happening now had happened under Abramovich. None of them would be coming out with crap like "this has been on the cards for years". If we asked any of these fans where we would be 2 years on from winning the Champions League, not a single one of them would seriously answer with 43 points and scoring fewer goals than the league's top goalscorer. 

18 minutes ago, JM7 said:

I don’t understand why Bohley felt the need to spend £500m in one year. The squad didn’t need that much of a revamp (yes it needed some revamp) but it completely destroyed our season and settled everyone and everything. It was just too drastic. 
 

Anyone care to hypothesis the reason?

He wanted to show the Europeans or English “I know soccer” !!!

Next year I don’t know what to expect but as soon as the final whistle blows on Sunday that’s me completely switched off anything Chelsea until the new season starts.

Ted lasso has genuinely set us back at least 3 years to where we supposed to be. We are in a worst position than Arsenal when Wenger left. Pochettino job next season is basically to get us 10 anymore is overachieving.

Edited May 25, 20233 yr by El regreso

He saw himself as a disruptor of the game ( he knew nothing about), a good manager on a 5 year deal, sign a bunch of 20 something year olds on a 8 year deal, what could possibly go wrong?🤔 Just don't muck up signing Pochettino, I don't see many capable managers want this job right now.

21 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I think the most impressive thing is how he managed to gaslight so many into believing that this club was a mess before he arrived. Those same fans would be speechless if what is happening now had happened under Abramovich. None of them would be coming out with crap like "this has been on the cards for years". If we asked any of these fans where we would be 2 years on from winning the Champions League, not a single one of them would seriously answer with 43 points and scoring fewer goals than the league's top goalscorer. 

Unfortunately, you are spectacularly right. Gaslighting is a good word because one of the first things we saw from the new management was a coordinated PR campaign (primarily via American media such as The Athletic) that bemoaned the existing coaches, scouts, data analysts, medical and fitness staff. Many fans  wholly bought into the carefully crafted narrative to the point that even now, people criticise the most successful English team of the last 20 years as somehow being a rank failure.

We can make a direct comparison to Abramovich's team, who while making a similarly whirlwind entrance, did not at any point criticize or seek to diminish the existing establishment at the club, much less coordinate attacks on the reputation of Ken Bates, Colin Hutchinson etc and in fact kept on staff willingly. There were genuine and similar problems later under Kenyon but it serves to show what happens with brash, arrogant individuals outside the sport think they are uniquely placed to revolutionise one of the oldest sports in history.

Edited May 25, 20233 yr by SydneyChelsea

35 minutes ago, JM7 said:

I don’t understand why Bohley felt the need to spend £500m in one year. The squad didn’t need that much of a revamp (yes it needed some revamp) but it completely destroyed our season and settled everyone and everything. It was just too drastic. 
 

Anyone care to hypothesis the reason?

Think he wanted to make an immediate impression.

After the weeks turned into months of the club being in limbo, he knew the fans needed something to raise their spirits. When he was caught saying "its go time" after a fan asked him when the club would make signings, that was telling. Nothing better than getting the fans immediately on your side than throwing money on "top talents" in the league/world. I admire Boehly's ambition, and truly believe the structure he put in place is the way forward with how football has now become, but this scatter gun approach was a very naïve move. Especially with what unfolded afterwards with Tuchel. 

Whoever is in charge of media relations, public relations or whatever it's called these days needs to put on their big boy/girl pants and stamp their foot on the disaster that is our PR at the moment. The weekly leaks from the club haven't stopped and then you have Mudryk and Colwill embarrassing themselves on social media. Someone needs to set the law of the land and put a stop to all of this. We can't allow this to continue next season.

5 hours ago, Zeta said:

I'm trying not to be massively pessimistic. But I just can't see anything really changing next season. We are so bad, and there's issues through the entire club, not just the players.

Yeah it’s definitely bigger than the players,  and evidently bigger than the managers. We’ve been in this doom loop where each error begets a bigger error. Potter seems like more of a golden age by the day.

Best one can hope for is we get out of that doom loop and things at least improve under Pochettino. Top half of table would be a start. Talk about lowered bar, but it’s the reality.
 

Beyond that though, eg top four -  no chance. have to consider the competition in terms of metrics like financial resources, overall management of club, squad, manager and how settled they are etc. on every single one of these, there are at least four clubs ahead of us, some of them by miles. Something would have to break elsewhere. 

Edited May 26, 20233 yr by Dean

7 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I think the most impressive thing is how he managed to gaslight so many into believing that this club was a mess before he arrived. Those same fans would be speechless if what is happening now had happened under Abramovich. None of them would be coming out with crap like "this has been on the cards for years". If we asked any of these fans where we would be 2 years on from winning the Champions League, not a single one of them would seriously answer with 43 points and scoring fewer goals than the league's top goalscorer. 

Its £600m spent. 

7 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I think the most impressive thing is how he managed to gaslight so many into believing that this club was a mess before he arrived. 

Maybe, but by equal measure so is this sudden pretence we were a well oiled machine while breaking transfer records on Lukaku and Kepa.

Hello! American Spindoctor in da hoouuusseee

This past season was a success! We barely missed Champions League spots due to unlucky injuries.

We had the pleasure of having not one, not two, NOT THREE but 4 brilliant coaches. Next season we are going for 5, guys! F-I-V-E 5!

We won as many league titles as mighty Arsenal, amazing Liverpool or gigantic MU. Great job! Brilliant work!

Our first team is the biggest in the world! Probably in the Galaxy! People always talk about Real Madrid being the galacticos! It is Chelsea baby!

We managed to reduce our travelling costs! No flights inside Europe next season. Amazing! The only trip is the summer tour in the Americas. United States of America! Homeland! 🇺🇲 🥲

NEXT SEASON IS GOING TO BE HUUUUGE! 

 

 

Edited May 26, 20233 yr by evissy

8 hours ago, JM7 said:

I don’t understand why Bohley felt the need to spend £500m in one year. The squad didn’t need that much of a revamp (yes it needed some revamp) but it completely destroyed our season and settled everyone and everything. It was just too drastic. 
 

Anyone care to hypothesis the reason?

Well yeah that was a mistake to overload the squad, but fans can't look back in hindsight now and say they wasn't in support of the signings at the time. Even the Cucurella signing was seen as mostly positive because City had been interested in him.

Most fans were loving the Fofana signing. Fans were also in support of Koulbaly because he was still rated well as a CB. Sterling was also seen as a decent signing for the most part. Aubameyang was a mixed response. Then Jan window came and nobody seemed against any of those signings.

People were loving Mudryk being taken ffom arsenal's grasp. The same for Felix, and then everyone was raving and over the moon for Enzo. The signing of Madueke was largely supported by fans too.

I am not a fan of all this hindsightery from fans now because we have had a poor season. Yes, Boehly and Co done too much too soon, but that is now a learning process.

If they don't learn from it then shame on them as supposedly smart business people, but Boehly has admitted to mistakes were made so that's something. 

8 hours ago, JM7 said:

I don’t understand why Bohley felt the need to spend £500m in one year. The squad didn’t need that much of a revamp (yes it needed some revamp) but it completely destroyed our season and settled everyone and everything. It was just too drastic. 
 

Anyone care to hypothesis the reason?

Let's be clear, the squad needed a major revamp to compete with City. People seem to have short memories when just last season we needed to revitalise the attack, the midfield was unbalanced and the defense lost 2 senior players. The only question was - do you do this quickly and risk short term chaos, or take a more measured approach. I have no issue with the former approach and have no doubt Pochettino would be happier with inheriting this squad than the previous one. 

The mistake was taking a risk with the squad overhaul AND the managerial appointment. You could do the former with an experienced manager to patch up any problems, or the latter with a settled squad a la De Zerbi at Brighton. 

And to do this on the back of what has been two straight seasons of the worst injury record for any team in PL history. The football gods really kicked us while we were down. 

Edited May 26, 20233 yr by venom2011

9 hours ago, JM7 said:

I don’t understand why Bohley felt the need to spend £500m in one year. The squad didn’t need that much of a revamp (yes it needed some revamp) but it completely destroyed our season and settled everyone and everything. It was just too drastic. 
 

Anyone care to hypothesis the reason?

I kind of get front loading financially, combined with the long term contracts it does sort of circumvent FFP which I can only assume was his aim. Doing it while not thinning the herd though, that I dont understand at all.

I think a lot of people agree on the clubs infrastructure being lacking when Roman left, it was very much autocratic  under him with a setup below him only there to do his bidding in the main. So there definitely was a need to build into a "normal" sporting structure, specific autonomous roles etc. Whether this has been done correctly is absolutely open to question.

3 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Whoever is in charge of media relations, public relations or whatever it's called these days needs to put on their big boy/girl pants and stamp their foot on the disaster that is our PR at the moment

1 hour ago, Argo said:

Maybe, but by equal measure so is this sudden pretence we were a well oiled machine while breaking transfer records on Lukaku and Kepa.

Absolutely, not to talk about the Zapacostas, Djilobodjis, Drinkwaters etc some of which are still on our books. It's good to question some of the decisions made by the new owners, but to think that all was great before is just gaslighting, as someone has put it. Perhaps, we are just reaping what we sowed, with some bad decisions made by the new owners as well helping to put us where we are now.

13 minutes ago, RMH said:

Absolutely, not to talk about the Zapacostas, Djilobodjis, Drinkwaters etc some of which are still on our books. It's good to question some of the decisions made by the new owners, but to think that all was great before is just gaslighting, as someone has put it. Perhaps, we are just reaping what we sowed, with some bad decisions made by the new owners as well helping to put us where we are now.

Not to mention some of the money they had to spend was a consequence of players contracts running down under the previous regime, and the problems we are now having with Mount has also arrived due to us not being proactive enough in extending his contract before (likewise with James but luckily that one got sorted).

Boehlys made things worse (hopefully in the short term) no arguments there and would we have gone this low under Roman? Probably not, but the decisions made over a number of years has helped contribute and i don't see why that can be argued against.

What Roman/Marina did brilliantly was keep the winning mentality that helped big time in the cups, but a combination of our transfer policy and Pep at a rival meant we were as far away from winning the title as we were since the mid 90s come the end (Tuchel's brilliant coaching to win the UCL gave me hope but we/he squandered any momentum with Lukaku's signing).