5 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Younes is fine. It’s that Minerals bloke that’s disingenuous.

It was the Mason Mount stuff that was just bonkers and where he lost me.

2 hours ago, Term_X said:

and the whole loophole thing was just for their ultimate benefit, rather than purely something to help the football club itself.

It's pretty standard, and prudent, for parties to a takeover consortium to have some sort of 'minimum commitment' clause. It's to ensure that no individual investor pulls out early or arbitrarily, but rather all have to agree. The structure allows for additional investors in time (as explained in the video, they can sell individual assets like the mens' team, properties, women's team etc.) where other parties can invest into Chelsea without diluting a stake in BlueCo/Holdco. It's not a giant conspiracy as the video alleges, it's just a safety net for investors.

It would normally be a safety net for the club too, were the ownership competent, but sadly it will be a millstone. The structure means that Boehly can't just go out and court a new 60% investor to replace Clearlake and vice-versa, since all parties have to agree to the sale of any shares.

I just hope that we lose every game from now till the end of the season because if we somehow manage to make it into the CL spot those c**ts in charge will feel their approach is working.

I want them gone and the only way it'll work is if we keep failing on the pitch. Protests are nice but I don't think they give a f**k about anything apart from their bottom line.

Paul Merson: "If Arne Slot got the sack at Liverpool this week, or if Eddie Howe left Newcastle, would Strasbourg boss Liam Rosenior have got one of those two jobs? I'll go one further: would he even get an interview? It's madness."

You have to agree We look crazy.

49 minutes ago, markpitts said:

Paul Merson: "If Arne Slot got the sack at Liverpool this week, or if Eddie Howe left Newcastle, would Strasbourg boss Liam Rosenior have got one of those two jobs? I'll go one further: would he even get an interview? It's madness."

You have to agree We look crazy.

Finkelstein said it himself, they don't think the coach matters. They're not just crazy, they are incompetent too.

9 hours ago, markpitts said:

Paul Merson: "If Arne Slot got the sack at Liverpool this week, or if Eddie Howe left Newcastle, would Strasbourg boss Liam Rosenior have got one of those two jobs? I'll go one further: would he even get an interview? It's madness."

You have to agree We look crazy.

He wouldn’t be in the conversation for Tottenham, Forest or any premier league team.

9 hours ago, markpitts said:

Paul Merson: "If Arne Slot got the sack at Liverpool this week, or if Eddie Howe left Newcastle, would Strasbourg boss Liam Rosenior have got one of those two jobs? I'll go one further: would he even get an interview? It's madness."

You have to agree We look crazy.

Mark my words - none of the names soon rumoured to be taking over here come this summer would not be on any big club's list either.

They just never learn.

8 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

Finkelstein said it himself, they don't think the coach matters. They're not just crazy, they are incompetent too.

He's spot on though. The coach only matters if you're interested in winning trophies. It doesn't matter all that much if your goal is to qualify for top 4/5.

We are so f**ked, this is not America where you can use data as it’s all similar you c**ts. The next 10 years is going to be very very very long. The more I find out about these dickheads the more I know they will never change their approach.

24 minutes ago, El regreso said:

We are so f**ked, this is not America where you can use data as it’s all similar you c**ts. The next 10 years is going to be very very very long. The more I find out about these dickheads the more I know they will never change their approach.

They don't use data though, that's just a business spin in the same way that companies claim their product is "AI-driven" when it's just running on an Excel formula. No serious data analyst recommends a winger who the data showed cannot dribble for a winger-reliant system like Maresca's.

The only 'data' they use is Capology.com. They care about signing young players on low wages, that's it.

They are no more or less data-driven than Chelsea under Abramovich or any other club, but they keep peddling the line for branding reasons.

2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

He's spot on though. The coach only matters if you're interested in winning trophies. It doesn't matter all that much if your goal is to qualify for top 4/5.

Surely if that was the case we'd be a shoe-in for top 5, even under Rosenior.

38 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Surely if that was the case we'd be a shoe-in for top 5, even under Rosenior.

In theory, good squad-building alone should guarantee us competing for top 5 every season. Despite our obvious limitations, we are still somehow in the mix.

In reality, of course, we have Dumb and Dumber in charge of said squad planning, hence the struggle.

There is no fear at our club, the players have nice long contracts that effectively mean they never have to work again. They don’t even have to find new clubs when their contracts expire.

Not a lot of resale in players who have been sitting on their hands in the bomb squad for a couple of seasons or farmed out on loan to anybody willing to cover their wages.

This mob have no idea what to even do with half the players they sign let alone get the best out of them on the pitch which makes us a better team and increases the players value.

Top clubs covet the services of the best managers and players yet these clowns openly say managers aren’t important?

This is a lesson in what not to do when running a football club.

Massive respect for those organizing this protest. Sounds like its serious.

Still. Only damaging message in my opinion is walkouts/empty stadiums.

2 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Massive respect for those organizing this protest. Sounds like its serious.

Still. Only damaging message in my opinion is walkouts/empty wstadiums.

This is the only message that they will understand. Protest will not do anything for these c**ts they don’t care.

Stop buying tickets let them see empty stations for City and United matches but I doubt fans will do that.

Back when the club had standards.

1 hour ago, abramovich said:

Back when the club had standards.

f**k Boris Johnson and his party clowns 🤡. Destroyed CFC!!

Just thinking back to when Blue Co. arrived and Todd went on a tour around some of the big hitters of Europe, Real Madrid and co. looking to establish a buying and selling relationship, and generally trying to portray us as top level operators......

bet he didnt think we would be offloading players to the likes of Burnley Everton Bournemouth & West Ham. What a joke.

Here is a follow up to Sundays video. Again this is important for understanding how the club is structured and the debt we now carry:

4 hours ago, OTL said:

Just thinking back to when Blue Co. arrived and Todd went on a tour around some of the big hitters of Europe, Real Madrid and co. looking to establish a buying and selling relationship, and generally trying to portray us as top level operators......

bet he didnt think we would be offloading players to the likes of Burnley Everton Bournemouth & West Ham. What a joke.

Even that whole saga was just so...weak. We'd been battling Barcelona for targets all summer only for Boehly and Eghbali to kowtow and try and ingratiate themselves with a broke directorship of a rival. Have some f**king standards. Absolute joke.

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Here is a follow up to Sundays video. Again this is important for understanding how the club is structured and the debt we now carry:

I don't post often, mostly just lurk around and be entertained by you lot.

These videos while very doom and gloom... are the first sign of positivity since the start of Clearlake.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Biggest issue is that this structure basically equates to Chelsea being a rental car. and in the world of football Clearlake is a new driver, there is no way that these guys should've ever been given the keys to the car, especially a luxury car like what chelsea is in the grand scheme of world football vs. rental cars.

Now, they only have a ten year rental on our club (knowing how PE works, they will maybe be able to stretch that to 20 if they are making solid return at the time the fund needs to be wrapped up / transferred to a new internal fund) But in rental car years this is like giving a 21 year old kid fresh out of school a f**king ferrari to go galavanting around europe for a month and expecting it to come back in driveable condition.

The nice thing about this current situation is that Clearklake is driving the car so badly that their parents (investors in the fund) are probably gonna start getting pissed and might tell them to get the F home (sell to elsewhere).

sorry for incoherence but hope its at least entertaining

1 hour ago, H2SO4aq said:

I don't post often, mostly just lurk around and be entertained by you lot.

These videos while very doom and gloom... are the first sign of positivity since the start of Clearlake.

There is light at the end of the tunnel. Biggest issue is that this structure basically equates to Chelsea being a rental car. and in the world of football Clearlake is a new driver, there is no way that these guys should've ever been given the keys to the car, especially a luxury car like what chelsea is in the grand scheme of world football vs. rental cars.

Now, they only have a ten year rental on our club (knowing how PE works, they will maybe be able to stretch that to 20 if they are making solid return at the time the fund needs to be wrapped up / transferred to a new internal fund) But in rental car years this is like giving a 21 year old kid fresh out of school a f**king ferrari to go galavanting around europe for a month and expecting it to come back in driveable condition.

The nice thing about this current situation is that Clearklake is driving the car so badly that their parents (investors in the fund) are probably gonna start getting pissed and might tell them to get the F home (sell to elsewhere).

sorry for incoherence but hope its at least entertaining

So Clearlake drive Chelsea like Wesley Fofana drives his Porsche.

On the video, I've criticised the two presenters before for being a bit disingenuous about the club's finances. I still think they are over-egging the financial issues for the club. Because of this they think there are rational reasons that BlueCo could be pressured into selling up, but I don't think that can be further from the truth.

The Athletic did a decent explainer, but the important thing to understand is the debts only apply to the parent company and given PSR/SCR/FFP rules limit how much money an owner can actually inject into their club per season to 30m, the practical impact is that Chelsea are ring-fenced from BlueCo's debts and credit arrangements. This is totally different to the Glazer approach where the loans are directly against Manchester United.

In other words, if BlueCo or their Holdcos default on loans, the practical impact would be a loss of £30m/season. Get some new owners who can organise a shirt sponsor and we wouldn't notice. Hell, we'd probably be up £10m instead.

I don't think the Youtubers understand the implications of the loan from Ares Management. They make it out as if it is a standard loan - they borrow cash against Chelsea, and need to make regular repayments to Ares. It's a payment-in-kind, private credit arrangement where instead of regular repayments (like a bank loan), Ares will receive the full amount (interest + principal) in 2033, and this may take the form of either actual cash payments or equity in the holding company. The total owed is expected to be ~£850m, which means that if the club's value doubles by 2033 as BlueCo expect, effectively means that Ares will earn a ~10% stake. Basically, it's up to BlueCo to pay off the loan with money or give up a stake. Either way, it doesn't really affect Chelsea at all.

For all their misunderstanding however, they are missing a really crucial point. The money from Ares Management, for example, allowed BlueCo to cover their arse by selling the hotel and women's team to the holding company, injecting ~£270m into the club in an instant. When you realise that BlueCo are actually not in financial trouble, and that in fact they have a myriad financial ways to keep on sustaining their wastefulness, and that means that there is no external pressure to change their vanity project - well, the situation is very hopeless indeed.

We are not going to make change by trying to hurt BlueCo in their hip-pocket. Liverpool fans got rid of Gillett & Hicks because they protested from day 1; Manchester United and Newcastle fans were stuck with the Glazers and Mike Ashley because they were willing to accept the initial success. It is going to be protests, visible empty stadiums, public criticism and winning the PR war that will actually make change. They know that, which is why they spend so much effort and money on managing the message to discourage it.

Edited March 25Mar 25 by SydneyChelsea

BlueCo PR is going to be on full blast. Probably started already

9 hours ago, Deino said:

BlueCo PR is going to be on full blast. Probably started already

I take that to mean some adults!