If you think about it, we were the last team to make PSG look bang average. People can say whatever they want about the CWC, but PSG were on a mission at that moment. They were desperate for a historic 5th trophy of the season, thinking also of the Super Cup against Spurs and Intercontinental Cup against Flamengo, trophies they have won in the end. We were the only club to stop them.

And what did Maresca get afterwards? Around 200M spent on more young players like Gittens, Garnacho, Delap, Hato. For me that was the moment this board f**ked everything up. Instead of taking advantage of that CWC win and the superb atmosphere, they chose to bloat the squad with evem more young players. That 200M would have gotten you at least 3 quality players, not dross like Garnacho, Gittens and Delap. Would have at least ensured we keep our UCL spot next season, too and this summer we would have just searched for the last missing pieces before starting to challenge for major titles again.

But this stupid board and their obsession with youth and the clowns in charge of bringing them here put us in this f**king mess that it's going to take years to fix.

55 minutes ago, petre ispirescu said:

If you think about it, we were the last team to make PSG look bang average. People can say whatever they want about the CWC, but PSG were on a mission at that moment. They were desperate for a historic 5th trophy of the season, thinking also of the Super Cup against Spurs and Intercontinental Cup against Flamengo, trophies they have won in the end. We were the only club to stop them.

And what did Maresca get afterwards? Around 200M spent on more young players like Gittens, Garnacho, Delap, Hato. For me that was the moment this board f**ked everything up. Instead of taking advantage of that CWC win and the superb atmosphere, they chose to bloat the squad with evem more young players. That 200M would have gotten you at least 3 quality players, not dross like Garnacho, Gittens and Delap. Would have at least ensured we keep our UCL spot next season, too and this summer we would have just searched for the last missing pieces before starting to challenge for major titles again.

But this stupid board and their obsession with youth and the clowns in charge of bringing them here put us in this f**king mess that it's going to take years to fix.

Very true, our stock was pretty high after that game. Sometimes you have to strike while the irons hot.

I always hear fans talk about CL qualification being essential to attract top players but when we get it we don’t look at top players.

I doubt Garnacho insisted on CL when desperate to get out of UTD which is another reason I can’t believe we gave them £40m. He wanted out, they wanted him gone and nobody else was interested. Fee should have been half that.

1 hour ago, petre ispirescu said:

If you think about it, we were the last team to make PSG look bang average. People can say whatever they want about the CWC, but PSG were on a mission at that moment. They were desperate for a historic 5th trophy of the season, thinking also of the Super Cup against Spurs and Intercontinental Cup against Flamengo, trophies they have won in the end. We were the only club to stop them.

And what did Maresca get afterwards? Around 200M spent on more young players like Gittens, Garnacho, Delap, Hato. For me that was the moment this board f**ked everything up. Instead of taking advantage of that CWC win and the superb atmosphere, they chose to bloat the squad with evem more young players. That 200M would have gotten you at least 3 quality players, not dross like Garnacho, Gittens and Delap. Would have at least ensured we keep our UCL spot next season, too and this summer we would have just searched for the last missing pieces before starting to challenge for major titles again.

But this stupid board and their obsession with youth and the clowns in charge of bringing them here put us in this f**king mess that it's going to take years to fix.

I don't think it is specifically an obsession with youth but that and this model of incentivised salaries. The principle make sense but in a free market economy it is highly likely to fail.

Yes Kvara, Semenyo, etc were possibilities for us but in truth never serious options as we are not prepared to compete on salary and regardless of the laudable principle of do more earn more, these players and all those we are now linked with can easily earn more elsewhere.

2 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

If you think about it, we were the last team to make PSG look bang average. People can say whatever they want about the CWC, but PSG were on a mission at that moment. They were desperate for a historic 5th trophy of the season, thinking also of the Super Cup against Spurs and Intercontinental Cup against Flamengo, trophies they have won in the end. We were the only club to stop them.

And what did Maresca get afterwards? Around 200M spent on more young players like Gittens, Garnacho, Delap, Hato. For me that was the moment this board f**ked everything up. Instead of taking advantage of that CWC win and the superb atmosphere, they chose to bloat the squad with evem more young players. That 200M would have gotten you at least 3 quality players, not dross like Garnacho, Gittens and Delap. Would have at least ensured we keep our UCL spot next season, too and this summer we would have just searched for the last missing pieces before starting to challenge for major titles again.

But this stupid board and their obsession with youth and the clowns in charge of bringing them here put us in this f**king mess that it's going to take years to fix.

Its very obvious they underestimated us in that game and thought they were playing a conference league level team. We took advantage of them, but it was more them losing the game than us winning it.

Even still, Maresca watched what happened on the day and still went into the season with a complete different setup with Palmer back in the middle and full backs in the half spaces. Stupid bald idiot.

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

I don't think it is specifically an obsession with youth but that and this model of incentivised salaries. The principle make sense but in a free market economy it is highly likely to fail.

Yes Kvara, Semenyo, etc were possibilities for us but in truth never serious options as we are not prepared to compete on salary and regardless of the laudable principle of do more earn more, these players and all those we are now linked with can easily earn more elsewhere.

Agree, it is not about youth. I think all of us by now know what kind of player that we are in the market for.

For example, the moment I saw that Delap had 20/30m release clause, I knew that we will be all over this deal.

The same with Garnacho because United was desperate to sell.

Edited May 8May 8 by Bob stark

18 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

What the hell else is he going to say?

2 minutes ago, dermott said:

What the hell else is he going to say?

That he's in over his head and he's only in the position he because of nepotism.

Makes me laugh people holding up the WCC as some kind of all in triumph for Maresca, completely ignoring the complete cluster f**k in the Flamengo game, how sh*te we were v Palmeiras until Cole Palmer decided to completely ignore his pathetic tactics, struggling past Fluminense thanks to 2 stunners from Pedro.

We beat PSG and he deserves credit for that game for changing his tactics to surprise them, but then decided to just ignore how well that worked and revert back to his tedious and cowardly nonsense as soon as the league season started.

4 minutes ago, dermott said:

What the hell else is he going to say?

Yeah Im not sure what people are expecting here, do they think hes going to say " yeah were sh*te, and these americans are f**king idiots".

Just now, dkw said:

Yeah Im not sure what people are expecting here, do they think hes going to say " yeah were sh*te, and these americans are f**king idiots".

Quite.

4 minutes ago, GarnachoCheese said:

That he's in over his head and he's only in the position he because of nepotism.

Fatherhood has somehow changed you from an always cheerful, optimistic soul full of bonhomie.

5 minutes ago, dkw said:

Makes me laugh people holding up the WCC as some kind of all in triumph for Maresca, completely ignoring the complete cluster f**k in the Flamengo game, how sh*te we were v Palmeiras until Cole Palmer decided to completely ignore his pathetic tactics, struggling past Fluminense thanks to 2 stunners from Pedro.

We beat PSG and he deserves credit for that game for changing his tactics to surprise them, but then decided to just ignore how well that worked and revert back to his tedious and cowardly nonsense as soon as the league season started.

He watched how BM threatened them in the SF and copied the tactics. They can still be got at as shown in the first leg of the CL SF. But, as you say, it was a one-off. That's the sad part.

10 hours ago, petre ispirescu said:

If you think about it, we were the last team to make PSG look bang average. People can say whatever they want about the CWC, but PSG were on a mission at that moment. They were desperate for a historic 5th trophy of the season, thinking also of the Super Cup against Spurs and Intercontinental Cup against Flamengo, trophies they have won in the end. We were the only club to stop them.

And what did Maresca get afterwards? Around 200M spent on more young players like Gittens, Garnacho, Delap, Hato. For me that was the moment this board f**ked everything up. Instead of taking advantage of that CWC win and the superb atmosphere, they chose to bloat the squad with evem more young players. That 200M would have gotten you at least 3 quality players, not dross like Garnacho, Gittens and Delap. Would have at least ensured we keep our UCL spot next season, too and this summer we would have just searched for the last missing pieces before starting to challenge for major titles again.

But this stupid board and their obsession with youth and the clowns in charge of bringing them here put us in this f**king mess that it's going to take years to fix.

We were a good manager and 2 signings away from beating them this year too.

Dropping Sanchez, and subbing out Joao Pedro and Cole Palmer at 83 minutes killed us. If we'd had 2 quality players to bring in instead, who knows what our season would look like now.

Edited May 8May 8 by bisright1

Get Stones or Senesi on a free.

Get Goretzka on a free.

Have Jackson compete with Pedro.

Give Quenda a good run at LW, have Gittens + Derry as options.

See if at all Real would be interested in an Enzo/Tchouameni swap deal.

Van Hecke or Antonio Silva as a priority CB.

Get a competent GK to compete with Sanchez.

Like there is just so much reasonable things we can to get this club at the very least competitive again without breaking the bank.

10 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Get Stones or Senesi on a free.

Get Goretzka on a free.

Have Jackson compete with Pedro.

Give Quenda a good run at LW, have Gittens + Derry as options.

See if at all Real would be interested in an Enzo/Tchouameni swap deal.

Van Hecke or Antonio Silva as a priority CB.

Get a competent GK to compete with Sanchez.

Like there is just so much reasonable things we can to get this club at the very least competitive again without breaking the bank.

Thats too much of a sensible idea for our owners and SD’s😂

23 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Get Stones or Senesi on a free.

Get Goretzka on a free.

Have Jackson compete with Pedro.

Give Quenda a good run at LW, have Gittens + Derry as options.

See if at all Real would be interested in an Enzo/Tchouameni swap deal.

Van Hecke or Antonio Silva as a priority CB.

Get a competent GK to compete with Sanchez.

Like there is just so much reasonable things we can to get this club at the very least competitive again without breaking the bank.

How about El Mala for 60m?

32 minutes ago, yaz said:

How about El Mala for 60m?

And to loan back to cologne 😂

If true, some proper "self reflection" that is.

Divisive £87m Stamford Bridge gambit is just the start as BlueCo want to 'transform' Chelsea https://share.google/hbXjz4moFPVK3c0XT

20 hours ago, dkw said:

Yeah Im not sure what people are expecting here, do they think hes going to say " yeah were sh*te, and these americans are f**king idiots".

20 hours ago, dkw said:

Yeah Im not sure what people are expecting here, do they think hes going to say " yeah were sh*te, and these americans are f**king idiots".

Not sure why anyone bothers with press conferences. The director of communications will brief on how to spin it. All players and managers are media trained, hence puerile, robotic statements like “ we’re all focusing on the next game” and “ Palace are never easy to play against”……Yawn

9 hours ago, just said:

Divisive £87m Stamford Bridge gambit is just the start as BlueCo want to 'transform' Chelsea https://share.google/hbXjz4moFPVK3c0XT

We're an irritation on the the way to building an "entertainment franchise". No worries, a considerable price hike for STs and general admission, on top of the creation of more hospitality areas for eye-watering fees, will soon see those irritants turning their backs to the club entertainment franchise.

Just in case they get excited about the draw, f**k this lot! I want them gone!

34 minutes ago, RMH said:

Just in case they get excited about the draw, f**k this lot! I want them gone!

The biggest argument against this wretched ownership is that draws are now considered positive results!

6th place most likely gets Champions league and we’re not even close. That’s beyond pathetic.

Conference league again if we're lucky. Quality BlueCo legacy

52 minutes ago, DarkMata said:

6th place most likely gets Champions league and we’re not even close. That’s beyond pathetic.

Good. Burn it to the ground.

These owners need their ego checked and humbled for this sh*t f**k of a situation they, and they only, put the club in.