1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

While he got it wrong you just have to look at his time as the SD, in addition to the Dodgers, and can see his attitude is big names on big money.

This is all Clearlake. Hedgefund be making money, is their business.

Agreed. Boehly is only a minority shareholder and was pushed away from making decisions after the first season. While he got a lot wrong, he did at least target some established players.

3 hours ago, El regreso said:

f**king TWATS

Agree with the sentiment. I wasn’t against them to begin with but their decisions are clearly striping this club from its winning identity.

23 minutes ago, RMH said:

Agree with the sentiment. I wasn’t against them to begin with but their decisions are clearly striping this club from its winning identity.

And thar is giving us a team where most of the players don't look like they are bothered if they win or lose.

That tricles down from the top all the way down, and I stand by what I have always said about them, they don't need us to be winning things for their model to make them money.

2 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

I kind of agree in part, but there remains a thin veneer of quality here.

• None of the keepers are good enough but we just need efficient and competent.  Elite would be best though.
• James can't stay fit and Gusto is weak and ineffective. 
• Colwill is nowhere near as good as he and his agent thinks he is.
• The depth in CBs is horrendous and Fofana is not only made of glass but is yet to show any consistency. 
• Chilwell's treatment must surely undermine morale and be a talking point behind the managers back
• Lavia is probably one of our best players but is also made of glass.
• Madueke not good enough, Neto not good enough, Mudryk not good enough. Dewsbury Hall not good enough.
• Nkunku has been ruined and now will never come good. Possibly the same for Carney.
• Jackson should never be leading the line.

But IMO

• Tosin and Trev are decent enough as rotational CB. 2 more needed if Colwill ends up being sold.
• Acheampong will improve and can work alongside James if he can stay fit.
• Back up for Cucu is needed
• Back up for Lavia is needed.
• keeping Palmer and Sancho, 2 or 3 further wide players or 10s are needed.
• But most important of all a new GK and a proper, strong presence up top as a striker are primary requirements.

I would agree with half of what you said too, I won't go through each point, but I'd disagree on your take on Mudryk, Neto, Gusto and Nkunku, I think with a proper manager they could be really good players. I think if our squad looked like this going into 25/26 season we can challenge if we had a better manager 

Goalkeeper: New GK (Jorgensen/Petrovic, bettenelli

Defence: James, Gusto, new CB, colwill, Tosin, Trev, Cucurella, Acheampong, Veiga/new LB

Midfielder: Lavia, Enzo, Caicedo, Ugochukwu, Santos

AM/Wingers: Neto, Mudryk (pending suspension), Palmer, Felix, Nkunku, Estevao, Sancho

Striker: New striker, Jackson

Manager: Iraola, Inzaghi, Alonso or Nagelsmann

Sell: KDH, Chilwell, Sanchez, Badiashile, Disasi, Fofana, Carney (unfortunately), Madueke

I realise there's a lot of variables and I have lost faith that our directors will make the right decisions, but my point is that we have the base of a team good enough to challenge, but we are missing key components. We haven't assembled a bad squad, but we have overlooked some of the most important aspects of a title winning team which is what is pissing me off  

37 minutes ago, timetowaste said:

I would agree with half of what you said too, I won't go through each point, but I'd disagree on your take on Mudryk, Neto, Gusto and Nkunku, I think with a proper manager they could be really good players. I think if our squad looked like this going into 25/26 season we can challenge if we had a better manager 

Goalkeeper: New GK (Jorgensen/Petrovic, bettenelli

Defence: James, Gusto, new CB, colwill, Tosin, Trev, Cucurella, Acheampong, Veiga/new LB

Midfielder: Lavia, Enzo, Caicedo, Ugochukwu, Santos

AM/Wingers: Neto, Mudryk (pending suspension), Palmer, Felix, Nkunku, Estevao, Sancho

Striker: New striker, Jackson

Manager: Iraola, Inzaghi, Alonso or Nagelsmann

Sell: KDH, Chilwell, Sanchez, Badiashile, Disasi, Fofana, Carney (unfortunately), Madueke

I realise there's a lot of variables and I have lost faith that our directors will make the right decisions, but my point is that we have the base of a team good enough to challenge, but we are missing key components. We haven't assembled a bad squad, but we have overlooked some of the most important aspects of a title winning team which is what is pissing me off  

Do you still have faith in this ownership to build a title challenging squad, rather than just look to make money?

 

How long do you think our best players happily stick around in this model?

Edited January 26, 20251 yr by axman2526

This ownership needs to answer to the fans.. they are majority shareholders but fans own the club.. football clubs are different owning some document doesn’t give you the right .. the British govt said this when they forced roman out of the club.. fans should have a good on the board to keep these mucks in order..

3 hours ago, Jangz said:

This ownership needs to answer to the fans.. they are majority shareholders but fans own the club.. football clubs are different owning some document doesn’t give you the right .. the British govt said this when they forced roman out of the club.. fans should have a good on the board to keep these mucks in order..

The only thing the fans can do is stop putting money in their pockets. That's all that they care about.

6 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Do you still have faith in this ownership to build a title challenging squad, rather than just look to make money?

 

How long do you think our best players happily stick around in this model?

Well the owners have invested a lot of money over the past few seasons and put their money where their mouth is like they said they would when they bought the club, the only way they're ever going to make serious money is if the players on the pitch start delivering. If their sole objective was to make money and not arsed about winning trophies, deals like 105m on Enzo Fernendez and 120m on Caicedo just do not happen. 
 

This being said, they've unfortunately hired the wrong people to invest their money wisely and effectively. We were told to give them 4 transfer windows, which we have, and I think we've signed some very good players that will be very important for our future, but Winstanley and Stewart have also bought a lot of duds, appointed duds as managers and failed to address key problem areas. 
 

All in all, yes I think the owners have ambition to make us in to title challengers, but they really have to question the people they've given the responsibility to if we don't make top 4 this season.

The ‘squad building’ over these 4 windows has been atrocious. We have one recognised senior striker in Jackson, 3 attacking midfielders who are all paid as if they should be starting and seemingly 3 central midfielders (I won’t even count KDH as a CM because he’s championship level).

The other elephant in the room is how PSR is dictating our squad building. Petrovic wasn’t banished because Maresca didn’t think he was good enough, it was because we signed him for £8m so he’s the only goalkeeper we can sell and book a profit on. The same reason we have to play Sanchez every week because we vastly overpaid and no club in their right mind would offer more than £5m for him now. Maresca alluded to the same thing with Chalobah. Everyone could see he’s miles ahead of Disasi but we’d book a loss on a Disasi has to stay and we have to farm Chalobah out. The same thing with Gallagher, Mount, CHO etc etc. Ironic now that we are crying out for a LW and about to drop £60m on Garnacho having sold Callum for £3m.

The owners have to recognise that the sporting directors are hamstringing us with their woeful signings. We’ve overpaid for so many duds who we will now have to loan out season after season because we can’t afford to sell them due to likely PSR breaches. The club is an absolute farce. Get some proper football operators in, not ones whose only appointment at note is working for a mid table Brighton. 
 

The soul is being ripped from the club and we are being dumped with the sporting directors failed signings. Sell any player who we are fortunate enough to be able to make a profit on and see what we’re lumbered with. How on earth is that a winning strategy for sporting success?

The obsession with following the Brighton model has harmed us a lot. We should have followed the City model instead. Or followed our model under Abramovich when, you know, we won stuff. For them to come in and say things weren't working well from both a footballing side and business side, yet have performed worse is mad. Stop trying to focus on a model that only achieves mid table, if that, and follow a model that will win us trophies and get us competing again. These are smart businessmen, so I have no idea what they are playing at. 

7 hours ago, axman2526 said:

The only thing the fans can do is stop putting money in their pockets. That's all that they care about.

Stop spending money with the club and see how quickly they want to talk to the fans. 
Empty home and away seats and see what happens.

7 hours ago, timetowaste said:

Well the owners have invested a lot of money over the past few seasons and put their money where their mouth is like they said they would when they bought the club, the only way they're ever going to make serious money is if the players on the pitch start delivering. If their sole objective was to make money and not arsed about winning trophies, deals like 105m on Enzo Fernendez and 120m on Caicedo just do not happen. 
 

This being said, they've unfortunately hired the wrong people to invest their money wisely and effectively. We were told to give them 4 transfer windows, which we have, and I think we've signed some very good players that will be very important for our future, but Winstanley and Stewart have also bought a lot of duds, appointed duds as managers and failed to address key problem areas. 
 

All in all, yes I think the owners have ambition to make us in to title challengers, but they really have to question the people they've given the responsibility to if we don't make top 4 this season.

I can see that Todd might have done. Spent big on fees and wages for experience, the Dodgers are the biggest around in baseball and also spend big. Sadly he got bad advice and boy what a mess that window was. Even if it meant Cucu had not joined us I woild rather we signed nobody that window.

Clearlake and Egbahli though I don't believe care if we win trophies or not. They appointed these directors, changed how and why we buy and sell players, introduced the wage cap, are on record as saying business is more important than sporting achievement. 

Contractually the ownership were also required to invest 1.75bill of the 4.25bill that went in to buying the club. Roman thought this would secure us a continued competitive future, probably a rebuilt or new stadium.

Instead we are almost at that figure and have bought a lot of wrong signings, but when that magic figure is hit, if it has not been already with other investments we don't know about, that's when the ownership can start taking money out of the club.

This defeat really concerns me.  Not sure where to post this, but ultimately buck stops with the owners.  I expected nothing from yesterday's game, but am fuming at the manner of the defeat. 

Like you all, we have a lot invested in Chelsea.  Was thinking about it - over 95 years following this club between my dad and me.  Every game, every news article.  The standards we are now showing on the pitch infuriate me.  I don't know what happened but there is something endemic in this club that tolerates mediocrity.  We mock Arteta, but look at the passion and standards he requires, evident in team talks.  We mock Liverpool, but anyone wearing that shirt knows 99% is not going to cut it playing at Anfield.

Our lot are out for a stroll, every week.  There have been some bright moments, but the lack of desire, energy, drive, leadership, belief, quality - its just painful to watch.  Mistakes happen, but every week.  Every damn week - surely Maresca is watching the same as us.

• The Players - a mentally weak group that are quick to hide.  The remind me of driving range pros in golf - great in training but an ounce of pressure and they fold like a house of cards.  Only ones I even consider good enough are James, Caicedo and Palmer
• The Manager - under immense political pressure, and is a job to him, so credit for removing the emotion and realistically having to tow the line.  But come on, demand more behind the scenes.  Publicly saying we aren't in a title race, or don't expect top four, does absolutely nothing for player motivation and desire
• Sporting Directors - about time they came out and spoke a little about their strategy.  These two have a lot to answer for.  $1.5B and still lack a GK, a central defender, midfield depth and a striker.  Our best backline would be 3 from Cobham
• Owners - clearly playing the long game, but losing faith in their desire to be a winning team over a profitable flip

 

9 hours ago, sabin6912 said:

The ‘squad building’ over these 4 windows has been atrocious. We have one recognised senior striker in Jackson, 3 attacking midfielders who are all paid as if they should be starting and seemingly 3 central midfielders (I won’t even count KDH as a CM because he’s championship level).

The other elephant in the room is how PSR is dictating our squad building. Petrovic wasn’t banished because Maresca didn’t think he was good enough, it was because we signed him for £8m so he’s the only goalkeeper we can sell and book a profit on. The same reason we have to play Sanchez every week because we vastly overpaid and no club in their right mind would offer more than £5m for him now. Maresca alluded to the same thing with Chalobah. Everyone could see he’s miles ahead of Disasi but we’d book a loss on a Disasi has to stay and we have to farm Chalobah out. The same thing with Gallagher, Mount, CHO etc etc. Ironic now that we are crying out for a LW and about to drop £60m on Garnacho having sold Callum for £3m.

The owners have to recognise that the sporting directors are hamstringing us with their woeful signings. We’ve overpaid for so many duds who we will now have to loan out season after season because we can’t afford to sell them due to likely PSR breaches. The club is an absolute farce. Get some proper football operators in, not ones whose only appointment at note is working for a mid table Brighton. 
 

The soul is being ripped from the club and we are being dumped with the sporting directors failed signings. Sell any player who we are fortunate enough to be able to make a profit on and see what we’re lumbered with. How on earth is that a winning strategy for sporting success?

PSR is a smokescreen for the club to hide behind. It wouldn't be an issue at all if we didn't sign so many mediocre players. If the club had spent the money sensibly, instead of on this silly project signing kids for obscene amounts of money and very mediocre players like Disasi, Koulibaly, Sterling etc, we wouldn't have to concern ourselves with PSR. Maresca is full of sh*t when it comes to anything anyway, I don't trust anything he says. He was saying Chalobah was behind every CB at the club at the start of the season, now he's saying it was because of PSR. He's just making it up as he goes along.

We could have spent half as much of the money we have currently spent, and looked far better off. The wingers alone, none of which contribute anywhere near enough to the team, set us back close to 200m. Barcola and Olise with Hudson-Odoi as backup would have been more than enough until Estevao arrives. With Palmer being able to play on the right, it could have been done. The club never did anywhere near enough to get Barcola or Olise though, so we end up with flop Sancho, one of the biggest flops ever in Mudryk, and two players that only really look good enough as squad players in Neto and Madueke.

what we are seeing now is a high level of consistant INCOMPETENCE from the ground up within the club. this deeper than maresca or sanchez get rid of the incompetence or face being another leeds or nottingham forest mark my words aint nobody too big to fall 

23 minutes ago, BlueBlood99 said:

what we are seeing now is a high level of consistant INCOMPETENCE from the ground up within the club. this deeper than maresca or sanchez get rid of the incompetence or face being another leeds or nottingham forest mark my words aint nobody too big to fall 

Yep, just look at Tottenham and United. Both are an absolute mess. United especially, I don't know how they get out of it. That club seems to be heading for lows their fans didn't even think was possible, and a lot of them still don't see it. They are in big trouble.

46 minutes ago, PhilH930 said:

This defeat really concerns me.  Not sure where to post this, but ultimately buck stops with the owners.  I expected nothing from yesterday's game, but am fuming at the manner of the defeat. 

Like you all, we have a lot invested in Chelsea.  Was thinking about it - over 95 years following this club between my dad and me.  Every game, every news article.  The standards we are now showing on the pitch infuriate me.  I don't know what happened but there is something endemic in this club that tolerates mediocrity.  We mock Arteta, but look at the passion and standards he requires, evident in team talks.  We mock Liverpool, but anyone wearing that shirt knows 99% is not going to cut it playing at Anfield.

Our lot are out for a stroll, every week.  There have been some bright moments, but the lack of desire, energy, drive, leadership, belief, quality - its just painful to watch.  Mistakes happen, but every week.  Every damn week - surely Maresca is watching the same as us.

• The Players - a mentally weak group that are quick to hide.  The remind me of driving range pros in golf - great in training but an ounce of pressure and they fold like a house of cards.  Only ones I even consider good enough are James, Caicedo and Palmer
• The Manager - under immense political pressure, and is a job to him, so credit for removing the emotion and realistically having to tow the line.  But come on, demand more behind the scenes.  Publicly saying we aren't in a title race, or don't expect top four, does absolutely nothing for player motivation and desire
• Sporting Directors - about time they came out and spoke a little about their strategy.  These two have a lot to answer for.  $1.5B and still lack a GK, a central defender, midfield depth and a striker.  Our best backline would be 3 from Cobham
• Owners - clearly playing the long game, but losing faith in their desire to be a winning team over a profitable flip

 

Excellent post. Agree on all points. 

10 hours ago, timetowaste said:

Well the owners have invested a lot of money over the past few seasons and put their money where their mouth is like they said they would when they bought the club, the only way they're ever going to make serious money is if the players on the pitch start delivering. If their sole objective was to make money and not arsed about winning trophies, deals like 105m on Enzo Fernendez and 120m on Caicedo just do not happen. 
 

This being said, they've unfortunately hired the wrong people to invest their money wisely and effectively. We were told to give them 4 transfer windows, which we have, and I think we've signed some very good players that will be very important for our future, but Winstanley and Stewart have also bought a lot of duds, appointed duds as managers and failed to address key problem areas. 
 

All in all, yes I think the owners have ambition to make us in to title challengers, but they really have to question the people they've given the responsibility to if we don't make top 4 this season.

They have "invested,", or really they have spent money from our club's income.. Transfers and players wages can only be paid from our club's income under PL financial rules..

And the sole and ONLY objective of our majority ownership is to make money and provide a return for its Investors.. They will extract money from our club during their ownership or when they sell up, we don't have to be successful on the pitch for that to happen. We weren't profitable under Abramovich. Brighton were the most profitable club last year , they won zilch.

 

 

Edited January 26, 20251 yr by The Rising Sun
Info

other premier league dont stop for nobody we got villa, newcastle who are all round more serious clubs and are looking to be esthablished top four sides this little football manager type of experiment are gonna see chelsea replaced, past accomplishments are not a shield to stop this from happening. how long will the likes of caicedo, palmer, cucurella go without playing any ucl football and start to look for it ? what are the finacial cons missing out on european football ? , when the best players leave who's gonna be their replacements ? this club is clearly in a spiral i dont have to look at the table and wait til chelsea are in 18th to know that 

2 hours ago, BlueBlood99 said:

other premier league dont stop for nobody we got villa, newcastle who are all round more serious clubs and are looking to be esthablished top four sides this little football manager type of experiment are gonna see chelsea replaced, past accomplishments are not a shield to stop this from happening. how long will the likes of caicedo, palmer, cucurella go without playing any ucl football and start to look for it ? what are the finacial cons missing out on european football ? , when the best players leave who's gonna be their replacements ? this club is clearly in a spiral i dont have to look at the table and wait til chelsea are in 18th to know that 

Valid concerns. The SD's got lucky with Palmer, or our position would already be looking precarious. With their overall record of signings and decisions, I certainly wouldn't trust them to replace our better players as and when they leave. And if PSR issues continue to be a problem we may be forced to sell our few genuine assets.

We have basically gone from Tuchel and that CL winning side who were able to go toe to toe with prime City and Liverpool, to now being a team that other teams don't mind playing against. The big issue is though, back then we had an in form partnership or Silva & Rudiger in central defence, and James & Chilwell on either side of them. Not to mention Kante and a decent Jorginho, and then an in form Mason Mount, and fairly decent Werner and Havertz who were chipping in with goals.

We had a decent offence, but an even better midfield and defence, which helped a lot in being able to see out games by fine margins. It's going to take a while to get back to that, and I don't see where the quality is to replicate that team again any time soon. Not to mention that this team is one of the youngest in Europe, let alone the youngest in the PL. They are going to need time to grow and improve further, unfortunately. 

Edited January 27, 20251 yr by Sunspear_88

36 minutes ago, Sunspear_88 said:

Not to mention that this team is one of the youngest in Europe, let alone the youngest in the PL. They are going to need time to grow and improve further, unfortunately. 

The 10 Youngest Sides in the Top 5 European Leagues as per Transfermarkt :

22.5  Strasbourg

24.1  Chelsea, Monaco, Stuttgart

24.3  PSG

24.5  Barcelona 

24.7 Reims

24.9 Brentford, Bournemouth, Lecce

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

The 10 Youngest Sides in the Top 5 European Leagues as per Transfermarkt :

22.5  Strasbourg

24.1  Chelsea, Monaco, Stuttgart

24.3  PSG

24.5  Barcelona 

24.7 Reims

24.9 Brentford, Bournemouth, Lecce

Based on this data, Bournemouth's team is not much older than ours. Yet they were assembled at a fraction of the cost, and currently look much more impressive.

19 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Based on this data, Bournemouth's team is not much older than ours. Yet they were assembled at a fraction of the cost, and currently look much more impressive.

Almost like they are being run better than our club is.

30 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Based on this data, Bournemouth's team is not much older than ours. Yet they were assembled at a fraction of the cost, and currently look much more impressive.

Average salary there of about £40K a week as well ... less than half what ours is !