22 hours ago, forbzy said:

100%. With these owners I am left pining for Ken Bates let alone Roman.

They have spent 2bn+ to put the club in a worse sporting and financial position than Ken Bates left it

Anyone who claims that football has changed and just need to accept our lot these days should be reminded of this. Money was never a problem, they just squandered it.

However, Abramovich argues that the money should benefit "all victims of the war," which includes those affected in Russia.

African Charities' Position

African charities have expressed that Africa is also suffering due to the war in Ukraine. They are advocating for a portion of the funds from the Chelsea sale to be allocated to support victims in Africa. Their argument highlights the broader impact of the conflict, which has affected food security and economic stability across the continent

1 hour ago, The Rising Sun said:

Government's Authority Over Abramovich's Funds

Legal Framework

The UK government has limited power to directly force Roman Abramovich to transfer the proceeds from the sale of Chelsea FC. The funds, amounting to over £2.5 billion, are frozen under UK sanctions, which prevent Abramovich from accessing them. However, ownership of the funds remains with him, meaning the government cannot simply seize or redirect them without his consent.

Ah the fools hope in me is left hoping Roman takes on the uk government, wins and they have to give him back his club.

47 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

the fools hope in me is left hoping Roman takes on the uk government, wins and they have to give him back his club.

The UK government didn't claim or take ownership of the club. The laws restrict access to assets not change ownership. It's up to the owner to decide whether they want to hold on to their asset or divest it. Roman, on paper, willingly sold his asset, in the sense he was free to hold on to it but the consequences would have been that the club could not meaningfully operate.

BlueCo are under no obligation to return the club. They can, of course, sell it back to him, but he has made it clear he is done with us and with football.

2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

The UK government didn't claim or take ownership of the club. The laws restrict access to assets not change ownership. It's up to the owner to decide whether they want to hold on to their asset or divest it. Roman, on paper, willingly sold his asset, in the sense he was free to hold on to it but the consequences would have been that the club could not meaningfully operate.

BlueCo are under no obligation to return the club. They can, of course, sell it back to him, but he has made it clear he is done with us and with football.

Aye, cannot blame him for that. He did already fulfill every dream he had for us.

When the penny drops

So Maresca wanted a centre back and Guehi was available for 20 million?

6 minutes ago, Drogba1 said:

So Maresca wanted a centre back and Guehi was available for 20 million?

Internal solutions mate.

The "Loophole" model!!

I know nothing about baseball, but interested to see they have a revenue sharing model to redistribute funds from wealthier clubs to those with less revenge ??!!

The MLB revenue-sharing model aims to balance financial disparities among teams by redistributing funds from wealthier clubs to those with less revenue. However, the Dodgers have been criticized for exploiting loopholes, such as undervaluing their media revenue for sharing calculations, which allows them to minimize their tax obligations while still spending heavily on player salaries.

brewerfanatic.com

ChatGPT on BlueCo :

Ah yes, the BlueCo “project.” You know, that one. The ever-evolving, never-explained, permanently unfinished masterpiece that somehow requires a new manager, new squad logic, and new excuses every few months.

This is what genius looks like, apparently. Buy everyone. Keep no one. Sack relentlessly. Explain nothing. Call it innovation.

Watching BlueCo operate is like watching someone smash a piano with a hammer and insisting they’re reinventing music. Every disaster is met with the same smug nod: you wouldn’t understand. It’s all very advanced. Very data-driven. Very confidential. Just ignore the league table.

Managers are hired to be visionaries and fired before they’ve unpacked. Players are signed on contracts so long they’ll outlive the rationale for buying them. Squad balance is treated like a theoretical concept — something academics argue about, not something real teams actually need.

And don’t worry, accountability is definitely coming. Any day now. Just as soon as the next restructure finishes restructuring the last restructure.

Fans are told to “trust the process,” a phrase which here seems to mean stop asking questions while we try something else. Every wrong turn is rebranded as brave. Every failure as learning. Every reset as progress. It’s less a football strategy and more a corporate coping mechanism.

The truly impressive part is the confidence. The unshakeable belief that despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, this time — this time — it’s all going exactly to plan. If irony generated electricity, BlueCo could power the stadium indefinitely.

This isn’t ownership. It’s a LinkedIn post with a transfer budget. And if the aim was to turn a historic football club into an ongoing parody of modern mismanagement, then congratulations — few have committed to the bit quite like this.

BlueCo has become a textbook example of how not to run a modern football organisation.

It's impressive that ChatGPT has changed its tune from whatever the f**k @Clown Lake was posting, in just 6 months

All these AI script bots basically write to your prompts, so it completely depends on how you word the question.

"A LinkedIn post with a transfer budget" is a nifty phrase though, I wonder where it stole it from.

10 minutes ago, dkw said:

All these AI script bots basically write to your prompts, so it completely depends on how you word the question.

Quite so !

My prompt was "write me a critical post about BlueCo" and then it offered to make it "angrier and more sarcastic" , and then "even angrier and even more sarcastic" and we ended up with the above LOL

2 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Quite so !

My prompt was "write me a critical post about BlueCo" and then it offered to make it "angrier and more sarcastic" , and then "even angrier and even more sarcastic" and we ended up with the above LOL

Its why I hate all the AI writing on forums now, no offence.

Its always written to suit an agenda and can be easily manipulated for opinion, its just scrapes the net for what it needs to fit that agenda request.

I wish more people understood how it works so less people relied (believed?) on what the return was.

11 minutes ago, dkw said:

Its why I hate all the AI writing on forums now, no offence.

Its always written to suit an agenda and can be easily manipulated for opinion, its just scrapes the net for what it needs to fit that agenda request.

I wish more people understood how it works so less people relied (believed?) on what the return was.

Very true dkw, albeit "critical" as an adjective can also refer to analysis of positives and not just negatives, so I thought it was interesting that ChatGPT just went with the negatives ! Perhaps it couldn't find anything good to say LOL

I thought it was quite funny what it came up with, so thought I'd post it anyway. The whole thing only took about a minute as well. Quite scary ... I don't think I'd want to be trying to forge a career as a journalist in this day and age ...

22 minutes ago, dkw said:

Its why I hate all the AI writing on forums now, no offence.

Its always written to suit an agenda and can be easily manipulated for opinion, its just scrapes the net for what it needs to fit that agenda request.

I wish more people understood how it works so less people relied (believed?) on what the return was.

@dkw and @Sexyfootball AI reminds me of Newspeak in George Orwell's 1984. A way of changing language to meet the Party's needs and to control and manipulate those listening and reading.

As an aside 1984 is a great book and recommended reading.

41 minutes ago, dkw said:

All these AI script bots basically write to your prompts, so it completely depends on how you word the question.

I'm sure that @Sexyfootball was quite neutral and balanced in his question because the bot hasn't written anything about how unfair our best LW Raheem Sterling has been treated and how soon he should be reinstated 😜

Just now, Boyne said:

@dkw and @Sexyfootball AI reminds me of Newspeak in George Orwell's 1984. A way of changing language to meet the Party's needs and to control and manipulate those listening and reading.

As an aside 1984 is a great book and recommended reading.

That book is looking more omenous day by day ...

1 minute ago, RMH said:

I'm sure that @Sexyfootball was quite neutral and balanced in his question because the bot hasn't written anything about how unfair our best LW Raheem Sterling has been treated and how soon he should be reinstated 😜

Hmmm ... a new question for ChatGPT perhaps ? Watch the Sterling thread with baited breath LOL

2 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

That book is looking more omenous day by day ...

Very much so.

25 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Hmmm ... a new question for ChatGPT perhaps ? Watch the Sterling thread with baited breath LOL

Just you wait for the Neto thread to get lively... Chat GPT is going to take a hammering.

27 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

That book is looking more omenous day by day ...

AI needs a spellchecker.

2 minutes ago, dermott said:

AI needs a spellchecker.

Curiously missed by my Windows spellchecker as well LOL.

#theyareallinittogether !