11 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.

I'm amazed how many fans seem to think that simply employing Pochettino is all that is required to go flying back up the table and winning trophies again.

This is like my fitness routine; spend a few months watching what I eat and going to the gym, then going on a two week holiday and eating and drinking a ton whilst barely moving. Then wondering why it takes four months to undo two bad weeks.

With this pathetic squad and certifiable club management, even Pep couldn't get a tune out of it.

Welcome to the new normal.

What's more, if it is actually the case as many seem to think, that our squad is absolutely brilliant and it's just the coach that is responsible for everything, then how do you explain the bit where they have clearly given up trying and thrown in the towel? I personally find it unforgivable for them to have simply said 'f**k it, I can't be arsed' whilst people are paying out a small fortune to go and watch them.

7 minutes ago, Snedger said:

I'm amazed how many fans seem to think that simply employing Pochettino is all that is required to go flying back up the table and winning trophies again.

This is like my fitness routine; spend a few months watching what I eat and going to the gym, then going on a two week holiday and eating and drinking a ton whilst barely moving. Then wondering why it takes four months to undo two bad weeks.

With this pathetic squad and certifiable club management, even Pep couldn't get a tune out of it.

Welcome to the new normal.

While i don't think we're going to recover as spectacularly this time we've got two major case studies in recent years of what an impact an elite coach coming in can do, one of which for Lampard last time.

1 minute ago, Argo said:

While i don't think we're going to recover as spectacularly this time we've got two major case studies in recent years of what an impact an elite coach coming in can do, one of which for Lampard last time.

I can see us improving a bit for sure. Even I expect a top half finish next season.

But it's beyond comprehension that anyone can achieve much with this selection of 'footballers'. We need several years of careful recruitment to get a decent squad again, and that seems an impossible task Boehly and co. at the helm.

I do think that in one way, there is actually no rush. We might as well wait until Pep and DeBruyne and Haaland have gone from City before wasting the time, money and effort trying to win a title again. Just need to avoid getting relegated before then.

Pochettino will have a preseason and get in players to play his style subject to FFP.

I expect a number to go.

In his first season I expect him to be better than Potter and Lampard MkII.

He will improve some players and might need a couple of transfer windows before we feel we are back to a decent side. 

 

 

4 hours ago, strider6004 said:

Pochettino will have a preseason and get in players to play his style subject to FFP.

I expect a number to go.

In his first season I expect him to be better than Potter and Lampard MkII.

He will improve some players and might need a couple of transfer windows before we feel we are back to a decent side. 

 

 

Hi mate , do u know how much we are allowed to spend ? Do we need to raise cash first to comply with FFP?

1 hour ago, The Rising Sun said:

Hi mate , do u know how much we are allowed to spend ? Do we need to raise cash first to comply with FFP?

I thought we had to raise 110 million from sales by the end of June not sure if £ or Euros.

This is why I think Mount will go, a sacrifice towards meeting FFP.

5 hours ago, strider6004 said:

Pochettino will have a preseason and get in players to play his style subject to FFP.

I expect a number to go.

In his first season I expect him to be better than Potter and Lampard MkII.

He will improve some players and might need a couple of transfer windows before we feel we are back to a decent side. 

 

 

Nice to read some positivity, it’s a rare thing here these days. I agree and think he’ll definitely to better than Potter and Lamps.

1 hour ago, strider6004 said:

I thought we had to raise 110 million from sales by the end of June not sure if £ or Euros.

This is why I think Mount will go, a sacrifice towards meeting FFP.

Thanks for info. How much can we spend after raising that £110 million ? Does anyone know ? Cheers

On 24/05/2023 at 13:18, Valerie said:

It's our own fault, as fans we weren't engaged enough. 

Hey Val, did you get the email invite to join the club's fan forum ?

Meets all of 3 times a year but you are not allowed to discuss transfers , players contracts or " similar items "; according to the info. .. so not much use then !

 

Too much blame on the players, yes they all dropped their levels but let's look at the crux of the situation. 

Boehly and Co inherited the best team in the world (literal reigning world champions). Now part of the team was already guaranteed to be leaving (Christensen & Rudiger). Yet despite them both being big loses our defence hasn't actually been much worse (until Lamps joined again). 

The system itself needed reinventing and had TT been given time I would assume he would have had us playing adequate enough to finish the season between top 6 and top 4.

Here's the most important part of my personal analysis of this season. Boehly and Co allowed TT to build his team in the summer. This is crucial because the makeup of the squad is very specific to Tuchel's Chelsea style, not many managers imo would be able to get this specific squad (pre Jan window) playing their specific style due to the limited playstyles/characteristics of the squad. Both their strengths and weaknesses were factored in and presumably Tuchel has an idea of how he wanted this set of players to play.

Sheer ignorance from Boehly and Co meant we sacked TT after he had designed his squad for the season and expected Potter to do a better job with Tuchel's style and players (a man that won us the UCl in 6 months and too us to the final pinnacle of football to say we truly have won it all). 

Ok so you sack TT and put all your eggs in Potter's basket, surely you give him the conditions to succeed by letting him asses the squad and bring in a small number of key additions that the squad was missing. Instead we splashed £300m+ and brought in almost a second team.

Meaning we disrupted the squad further after a sacking, Boehly then expected these additions to all fit in smoothly like they had been playing together for years. 

He then kept Potter for far too long up until the point where he would have been better off (and this is coming from a Potter out fan) keeping him until the end of the season provided we never slipped into a situation where relegation was likely. 

He then brings in Lampard a coach who is inferior (I love Lamps but I'm a realist) tactically and also less experienced than Potter and again expects things to turn for the better. 

To say the man is clueless would be an understatement, by all means criticise the players but what do you genuinely expect. Nothing he did made sense this season.

The worst part is they got rid of our two proven strikers (Lukaku had to leave we all know that and Timo and TT fell out) but they failed to adequately replace them. Aubameyang made little sense when you look at his final 6 months at Arsenal. To sign him for TT and then sack him the very next day is beyond ridiculous.

Fair play Broja got injured, but they had only one need in the Winter window and that was a striker. They signed Fofana, but he barely got mins as he's a raw talent. But how can you sign Felix, Mudyrk, Maduake, Enzo and a few more but not a proven striker. Even if we assume there wasn't any available on the market the planning was so poor.

They chose to get rid of all the previous upper management thinking they could do everything themselves despite the offer for Marina and Cech to stick around and help with transitioning, which I even though at the time came across quite arrogant. This will hopefully be a humbling experience for them, football is nothing like their American franchise sports. We have real competition and proper planning is essential to compete at the highest level. The only reason we didn't get relegated was those 10 points TT secured us. 

To sum up I'm sure many on here harbour resent to the players for this season and they shoulder a fair amount of blame don't get me wrong.

Yet the old saying rings true if you fail to prepare then you prepare to fail. Boehly and Co had literal no clue and very nearly cost us our top flight status. This was nothing like the 15/16 season because this wasn't players dropping their league winning form.

This was management and their continued poor decision making. In terms of business management it's hard to even comprehend how badly they got this first year wrong. Don't get me wrong I respect the willingness to spend and get involved. But if they had just looked around at the other elite clubs they would have seen that they were the odd ones out in everything that they did. No team does what they did this season. Continued disruption to all aspects of the club from management, coaching and playing staff. 

They treated our club like they were playing fifa or football management. So poor, I can understand how any investor would loom at this season and think they can trust Boehly and whoever else was working with him. There's a reason reports are coming out that he's taking a step back. He's probably been told to from the higher ups/other investors.

Edited May 26, 20233 yr by LongtimerLurker

3 hours ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Too much blame on the players, yes they all dropped their levels but let's look at the crux of the situation. 

Boehly and Co inherited the best team in the world (literal reigning world champions). Now part of the team was already guaranteed to be leaving (Christensen & Rudiger). Yet despite them both being big loses our defence hasn't actually been much worse (until Lamps joined again). 

The system itself needed reinventing and had TT been given time I would assume he would have had us playing adequate enough to finish the season between top 6 and top 4.

Here's the most important part of my personal analysis of this season. Boehly and Co allowed TT to build his team in the summer. This is crucial because the makeup of the squad is very specific to Tuchel's Chelsea style, not many managers imo would be able to get this specific squad (pre Jan window) playing their specific style due to the limited playstyles/characteristics of the squad. Both their strengths and weaknesses were factored in and presumably Tuchel has an idea of how he wanted this set of players to play.

Sheer ignorance from Boehly and Co meant we sacked TT after he had designed his squad for the season and expected Potter to do a better job with Tuchel's style and players (a man that won us the UCl in 6 months and too us to the final pinnacle of football to say we truly have won it all). 

Ok so you sack TT and put all your eggs in Potter's basket, surely you give him the conditions to succeed by letting him asses the squad and bring in a small number of key additions that the squad was missing. Instead we splashed £300m+ and brought in almost a second team.

Meaning we disrupted the squad further after a sacking, Boehly then expected these additions to all fit in smoothly like they had been playing together for years. 

He then kept Potter for far too long up until the point where he would have been better off (and this is coming from a Potter out fan) keeping him until the end of the season provided we never slipped into a situation where relegation was likely. 

He then brings in Lampard a coach who is inferior (I love Lamps but I'm a realist) tactically and also less experienced than Potter and again expects things to turn for the better. 

To say the man is clueless would be an understatement, by all means criticise the players but what do you genuinely expect. Nothing he did made sense this season.

The worst part is they got rid of our two proven strikers (Lukaku had to leave we all know that and Timo and TT fell out) but they failed to adequately replace them. Aubameyang made little sense when you look at his final 6 months at Arsenal. To sign him for TT and then sack him the very next day is beyond ridiculous.

Fair play Broja got injured, but they had only one need in the Winter window and that was a striker. They signed Fofana, but he barely got mins as he's a raw talent. But how can you sign Felix, Mudyrk, Maduake, Enzo and a few more but not a proven striker. Even if we assume there wasn't any available on the market the planning was so poor.

They chose to get rid of all the previous upper management thinking they could do everything themselves despite the offer for Marina and Cech to stick around and help with transitioning, which I even though at the time came across quite arrogant. This will hopefully be a humbling experience for them, football is nothing like their American franchise sports. We have real competition and proper planning is essential to compete at the highest level. The only reason we didn't get relegated was those 10 points TT secured us. 

To sum up I'm sure many on here harbour resent to the players for this season and they shoulder a fair amount of blame don't get me wrong.

Yet the old saying rings true if you fail to prepare then you prepare to fail. Boehly and Co had literal no clue and very nearly cost us our top flight status. This was nothing like the 15/16 season because this wasn't players dropping their league winning form.

This was management and their continued poor decision making. In terms of business management it's hard to even comprehend how badly they got this first year wrong. Don't get me wrong I respect the willingness to spend and get involved. But if they had just looked around at the other elite clubs they would have seen that they were the odd ones out in everything that they did. No team does what they did this season. Continued disruption to all aspects of the club from management, coaching and playing staff. 

They treated our club like they were playing fifa or football management. So poor, I can understand how any investor would loom at this season and think they can trust Boehly and whoever else was working with him. There's a reason reports are coming out that he's taking a step back. He's probably been told to from the higher ups/other investors.

I don't disagree with your assessment but to play devil's advocate, Beohly only did what the fans wanted in January. Most of the fan base was buzzing about all the players we signed and were linked with in January this year. Not to mention, before the January window almost every fan wanted us to sign multiple players in January to make up for the mistakes made in the summer and to support Potter. It's only after things didn't improve from the signings did people start pointing fingers at Boehly again and blaming him for spending money. Basically, my point is that until we start playing well again, hindsight is always going to be used to point fingers. People's views are going to continue to be reactionary and change the moment things don't go well. If we have a flying start to next season, there will instantly be a change in tune from many fans. 

Edited May 26, 20233 yr by Frankie8Lampard

You could sign good young players, but need a top manager to get the best out of them, and it will take time. Unfortunately neither Potter or Lampard fit in that, and time is not on their side. What Boehly failed to understand is you can not chuck half a dozen players in and it's going to work. Of course, if you sign 6 25 year old at the top of their game, that maybe a different story, but that's almost impossible logistically and just as disruptive to the team.

Think it would have been a smart move to have had no US tour and allowed Pochettino as much time as possible to build up a team ethos. 

US fans tend to like winners anyway so will the tour even make us that much money?

14 hours ago, The Rising Sun said:

Thanks for info. How much can we spend after raising that £110 million ? Does anyone know ? Cheers

Well after that I think we have a 3 year spell where revenue needs to match or exceeds costs. So in theory you can spend again yet you need to be conscious that without buying value in 3 years you will be back to selling players you would rather not to balance the books.

 

1 hour ago, strider6004 said:

Well after that I think we have a 3 year spell where revenue needs to match or exceeds costs. So in theory you can spend again yet you need to be conscious that without buying value in 3 years you will be back to selling players you would rather not to balance the books.

 

Cheers strider for info

15 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

I don't disagree with your assessment but to play devil's advocate, Beohly only did what the fans wanted in January. Most of the fan base was buzzing about all the players we signed and were linked with in January this year. Not to mention, before the January window almost every fan wanted us to sign multiple players in January to make up for the mistakes made in the summer and to support Potter. It's only after things didn't improve from the signings did people start pointing fingers at Boehly again and blaming him for spending money. Basically, my point is that until we start playing well again, hindsight is always going to be used to point fingers. People's views are going to continue to be reactionary and change the moment things don't go well. If we have a flying start to next season, there will instantly be a change in tune from many fans. 

I hear you mate, but it comes down to due diligence. You can't do what Boehly and Co did this past year. No other clubs would dream of doing half the decisions. I can't understand how anyone could expect us to improve after the January window with so many new players. Effectively every week we had a different lineup the gaffer doesn't know who to play because he has two teams. 

I'm not a big fan of Potter's time here, but I'll admit the owners essentially set him up to fail. From hiring him at such a random time even though they wanted him from before. Why not just do it in the summer and let him build the squad? 

I think the players will always share a big load of the blame, but I would expect any other team to do the exact same thing under these circumstances. 

Whilst hindsight is 20/20 I think a lot of the decisions were called out at the time for what they were which is erratic. I'm happy to cut the management slack since it's their first year, but for me the point of that analysis wasn't to be overly negative and use hindsight it was rather to illustrate from my perspective that the players themselves should be absolved of a certain level of blame. These were very unfavourable conditions for a professional to perform in my honest opinion.

16 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

I don't disagree with your assessment but to play devil's advocate, Beohly only did what the fans wanted in January. Most of the fan base was buzzing about all the players we signed and were linked with in January this year. Not to mention, before the January window almost every fan wanted us to sign multiple players in January to make up for the mistakes made in the summer and to support Potter. It's only after things didn't improve from the signings did people start pointing fingers at Boehly again and blaming him for spending money. Basically, my point is that until we start playing well again, hindsight is always going to be used to point fingers. People's views are going to continue to be reactionary and change the moment things don't go well. If we have a flying start to next season, there will instantly be a change in tune from many fans. 

I largely agree. Don’t imagine TB plucked these signings out of a Frreemans Catalogue. He wanted to make an immediate impact- was no doubt advised as to the potential of several young players- pulled the trigger and unfortunately they haven’t performed as it said on the tin- I would say that they’re seems to have been little consideration into the character of these recruits- no sign of responsibility, leadership qualities or backbone- in terms of backbone it’s like they’ve been carved from bananas. Optimistically think we are 4 important new recruits in the spine of the team away from being back in the frame, dependant on Pochettino setting  out a credible game pattern and improving the raw talent at disposal.

A former Chelsea player wins a former Chelsea coach the Bundesliga. Shame we couldn't keep both at the club, especially Musiala. I do think that Pochettino is a better fit for the new owners style and aspirations. Just hope we can make it as easy as possible for him to succeed.

16 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Think it would have been a smart move to have had no US tour and allowed Pochettino as much time as possible to build up a team ethos. 

US fans tend to like winners anyway so will the tour even make us that much money?

This scrap the any long distance travelling and have short trips to Europe for preseason 

Still a mystery as to what that Mental skills coach from the All Blacks did or has been doing, if anything at all. 😅🤦‍♂️ 

1 hour ago, Term_X said:

Still a mystery as to what that Mental skills coach from the All Blacks did or has been doing, if anything at all. 😅🤦‍♂️ 

Now that you mention it, there were times the last few months I felt like going into some powerful tackles.

That mentality coach is about as useful as the physio Boehly hired. They were more than good at their last job, but completely mismatched for a job at Chelsea. I'm sure we will get better in hiring this time around.

I wonder if he will show up at the last match knowing he probably will get booed?

Ok the on field stuff is done, and while Vivell and his side are working on us acquiring stakes in Strasbourg and Rio Ave, now Winstanley, Stewart and the others on that side REALLY need to help Pochettino have the best chance of a successful next season.

Need a big clear out and if that means letting players go for cut prices so be it.

We just need to wash our faces as fsr as FFP goes and that we'll help us meet the demands of that system.

For example the book Value of Pulisic is 11.6mill, anything above that price is FFP profit and should not be hard yo do.

Ziyechs book value is 13mill, same as above. 

Etc etc

 

if we remain stuck with players like this and  a bloated squad it will make Pochettinos job impossible and cripple us over FFP.

Get to work fellas.