1 hour ago, abramovich said:

For me the question is, if they wanted TT gone why spend a fortune on "his" signings? Why not just sack him in June, get their man and sign players from the new guy's wishlist? It doesn't look like they give a crap about spending a few more million, they could have easily bought out Potter's contract in the summer and have him assemble the squad he wanted and prepare the team in the preseason. The more I think about it, the more it feels like they never had a plan to begin with.

 

I think that's always going to be the biggest question mark in Tuchel's firing. If they didn't like the way Tuchel worked with them then they should have cut ties earlier in the summer. And even if they decided they were going to give him a chance they should have given him a whole season before firing him and bringing in a new manager. Firing Tuchel after a handful of games into the season and bringing in Potter makes it even harder for Potter because now, he's using players of another manager. I doubt if Potter came in the summer, we would have signed Sterling and Aubamayeng for example, those two were clearly players Tuchel wanted.

8 minutes ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

I think that's always going to be the biggest question mark in Tuchel's firing. If they didn't like the way Tuchel worked with them then they should have cut ties earlier in the summer. And even if they decided they were going to give him a chance they should have given him a whole season before firing him and bringing in a new manager. Firing Tuchel after a handful of games into the season and bringing in Potter makes it even harder for Potter because now, he's using players of another manager. I doubt if Potter came in the summer, we would have signed Sterling and Aubamayeng for example, those two were clearly players Tuchel wanted.

Tbf, Sterling and Aubameyang have qualities useful for any manager. Especially the former. 

The issue is the midfield and this catastrophic system where players are either playing out of position or we have far too many similar players playing and occupying the same role ala Haverts, Mount, and Gallagher at CAM or Ruben and Kovacic in CM. 

Just now, Sconnie Blue said:

Tbf, Sterling and Aubameyang have qualities useful for any manager. Especially the former. 

The issue is the midfield and this catastrophic system where players are either playing out of position or we have far too many similar players playing and occupying the same role ala Haverts, Mount, and Gallagher at CAM or Ruben and Kovacic in CM. 

I don't disagree and I still think they can be useful to Potter but I don't think they would have been players he would have signed. Auba for example is clearly similar to Mourinho bringing in Eto'o for Chelsea where a manager brings in a former player who has scored for him. 

I also think Potter might have been able to notice the midfield issue if he came in the summer since he would be a new pair of eyes versus Tuchel who is probably too attached to the idea of Kante and Kovacic being fit again. Basically, my point is that bringing in Potter after the transfer window closed pretty much makes his job harder and unfortunately things are going to get a lot harder before they get better.

23 minutes ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

I don't disagree and I still think they can be useful to Potter but I don't think they would have been players he would have signed. Auba for example is clearly similar to Mourinho bringing in Eto'o for Chelsea where a manager brings in a former player who has scored for him. 

I also think Potter might have been able to notice the midfield issue if he came in the summer since he would be a new pair of eyes versus Tuchel who is probably too attached to the idea of Kante and Kovacic being fit again. Basically, my point is that bringing in Potter after the transfer window closed pretty much makes his job harder and unfortunately things are going to get a lot harder before they get better.

Just need to get by these next 4 matches and assess. Hopefully we bring in fresh quality at CM in January, because I can't take another 5 months of relying on Jorginho and Kovacic. 

3 hours ago, abramovich said:

For me the question is, if they wanted TT gone why spend a fortune on "his" signings? Why not just sack him in June, get their man and sign players from the new guy's wishlist? It doesn't look like they give a crap about spending a few more million, they could have easily bought out Potter's contract in the summer and have him assemble the squad he wanted and prepare the team in the preseason. The more I think about it, the more it feels like they never had a plan to begin with.

Another thing. For all the faults of the previous regime, and there were a few, I always felt that Roman genuinely wanted to adapt to to the British culture and society, wanted to continue the tradition of the old club but with new faces and new legends. He almost got there in the end, with Cobham youngsters finally becoming a part of the first team and the legends of his era (JT, Lamps, Cech, Ash)  coming back to work within the club in a coaching or directorial capacity. But alas, it wasn't meant to be.

I don't know much about Boehly and even less about his partners that own the club now but it seems that they took a different approach. Instead of adapting they decided to do things their own way, attempting to run the club like they would a US sports franchise. Now that may be the way to go and only time will tell, but somehow I just don't feel the same about the club. Todd and Co certainly showed a lot of ambition and are clearly willing to spend big but it almost feels like there's no thought behind most of these moves. I also have this problem with this evrything's for sale approach. I spent years in NYC and always felt odd about the nature of US sports where teams trade players all the time and it felt like there's very few players who have genuine connection to the team/city they're playing for, since they can be moved  anytime anywhere. This new ownership team kind of reminds me of that. Or maybe I'm just being too harsh.

 

Feel a similar way. Not as connected to the club at the moment.

Todd really should have kept his money in his pocket this past window, other than listening to an established youth developer in Neil bath when bringing in players for the future like Carney and Casadei.

Trying to cobble together signings with a manager he had apparently "been planing for a while" to get rid of, spending huge amounts and saddling us with huge contracts on long term players like Sterling and Koulibaly was utter madness and has harmed the team, as well as our future ability to sign players due to FFP. Unless Clearlake have a City like plan to sponsor ourselves.

If he does not have people I place who know what they are doing in January keep your money in your pocket Todd. 

You are making yourself look and fool and making us suffer with these ego drive mercenaries...

Unless De Jong or Rice are available in the next window ( highly doubt it), better stay away from the market. I could see us do a month of chasing and get another Zakaria on the last date. We already have too many players we couldn't ship off, and as a result Potter is trying to accommodate everyone.

Haven’t felt this disillusioned with the club for a long time, the new structure with recruitment at the top fills me with a bit of hope but that will be a long road, as we’re stuck with so much dross, newly-filled dross to boot. Contracts that are not going away and a Frankenstein of a squad assembled over varying ideas from different people all stuck together, not to mention fatal injuries to add salt in the wounds.

Agree on not bothering with January, just leave it.. let the chips fall where they may, the better players (in terms of scouting profile) come to sides outside of the top 4 in most cases anyway; we signed Sterling.. Napoli signed the new Maradona, so it’s not the end of the world. 

 

23 minutes ago, Term_X said:

Haven’t felt this disillusioned with the club for a long time, the new structure with recruitment at the top fills me with a bit of hope but that will be a long road, as we’re stuck with so much dross, newly-filled dross to boot. Contracts that are not going away and a Frankenstein of a squad assembled over varying ideas from different people all stuck together, not to mention fatal injuries to add salt in the wounds.

Agree on not bothering with January, just leave it.. let the chips fall where they may, the better players (in terms of scouting profile) come to sides outside of the top 4 in most cases anyway; we signed Sterling.. Napoli signed the new Maradona, so it’s not the end of the world. 

 

Yeah use the window to try and shift more deadwood like Pulisic, RLC, Ziyech, Sterling, Koulibaly, Mendy etc.

Did anyone even think it was possible the new owners could make a first window worse than Roman's boneheaded last summer window of Lukaku and Saul  (loan)?

Yet somehow they knocked it out of the park!

Lukaku 97.5mill plus 350k a week wages on 5 year deal.

Saul loan fee of 8mill plus wages of 250k week covered

2 useless, overrated, injuryprone players. The first with a terrible attitude too.

 

Vs

 

Sterling (overrated, bad attitude) 47.5mill plus 330k a week wages on a 5 year deal.

Koulibaly (overrated, injuryprone) 34mill plus 295k a week wages on a 4 year deal.

Cucurella (overrated) 62mill plus 175k a week wages on a 6 year deal.

Aubameyang (useless, bad attitude) 10mill plus 160k a week on a 2 year deal

Wesley Fofana (injuryprone) 68.5mill plus 200 k a week on a six year deal.

Denis Zakaria (useless), no idea on loan fee but 51k a week to not play.

 

6 useless, overrated and/or injuryprone players. The first plus Auba with terrible attitudes too. Our only hope here is Fofana gets over his injuries as he is actually very good.

 

All that money and our squad got worse after we managed last summer to make the European Champions weaker by breaking our transfer record. Shesh.

 

Edited October 31, 20223 yr by axman2526

6 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Did anyone even think it was possible the new owners could make a first window worse than Roman's boneheaded last summer window of Lukaku and Saul  (loan)?

Yet somehow they knocked it out of the park!

Lukaku 97.5mill plus 350k a week wages on 5 year deal.

Saul loan fee of 8mill plus wages of 250k week covered

2 useless, overrated, injuryprone players. The first with a terrible attitude too.

 

Vs

 

Sterling (overrated, bad attitude) 47.5mill plus 330k a week wages on a 5 year deal.

Koulibaly (overrated, injuryprone) 34mill plus 295k a week wages on a 4 year deal.

Cucurella (overrated) 62mill plus 175k a week wages on a 6 year deal.

Aubameyang (useless, bad attitude) 10mill plus 160k a week on a 2 year deal

Wesley Fofana (injuryprone) 68.5mill plus 200 k a week on a six year deal.

Denis Zakaria (useless), no idea on loan fee but 51k a week to not play.

 

6 useless, overrated and/or injuryprone players. The first plus Auba with terrible attitudes too. Our only hope here is Fofana gets over his injuries as he is actually very good.

 

All that money and our squad got worse after we managed last summer to make the European Champions weaker by breaking our transfer record. Shesh.

 

I must admit, when the new signings were made, I thought they were really good and smart. Sterling started well but has gone downhill. Fofana was looking like he had just got into his stride. Cucurella hasn’t settled at all and we looked like we’ve overpaid for him. 

 

8 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Did anyone even think it was possible the new owners could make a first window worse than Roman's boneheaded last summer window of Lukaku and Saul  (loan)?

Yet somehow they knocked it out of the park!

Lukaku 97.5mill plus 350k a week wages on 5 year deal.

Saul loan fee of 8mill plus wages of 250k week covered

2 useless, overrated, injuryprone players. The first with a terrible attitude too.

 

Vs

 

Sterling (overrated, bad attitude) 47.5mill plus 330k a week wages on a 5 year deal.

Koulibaly (overrated, injuryprone) 34mill plus 295k a week wages on a 4 year deal.

Cucurella (overrated) 62mill plus 175k a week wages on a 6 year deal.

Aubameyang (useless, bad attitude) 10mill plus 160k a week on a 2 year deal

Wesley Fofana (injuryprone) 68.5mill plus 200 k a week on a six year deal.

Denis Zakaria (useless), no idea on loan fee but 51k a week to not play.

 

6 useless, overrated and/or injuryprone players. The first plus Auba with terrible attitudes too. Our only hope here is Fofana gets over his injuries as he is actually very good.

 

All that money and our squad got worse after we managed last summer to make the European Champions weaker by breaking our transfer record. Shesh.

 

Isnt hindsight a wonderful thing....

17 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Todd really should have kept his money in his pocket this past window, other than listening to an established youth developer in Neil bath when bringing in players for the future like Carney and Casadei.

Trying to cobble together signings with a manager he had apparently "been planing for a while" to get rid of, spending huge amounts and saddling us with huge contracts on long term players like Sterling and Koulibaly was utter madness and has harmed the team, as well as our future ability to sign players due to FFP. Unless Clearlake have a City like plan to sponsor ourselves.

If he does not have people I place who know what they are doing in January keep your money in your pocket Todd. 

You are making yourself look and fool and making us suffer with these ego drive mercenaries...

He's damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't. Because no doubt if we hadn't spent any money in the summer, then you, me and most others on here would be moaning about the lack of investment in the squad.

The approach was a bit haphazard in the summer, and the sacking of Tuchel seemed a bit gung-ho given the signings we had made, but it is clear that with the people we are hiring we are moving to a more structured and strategic approach and hopefully we should see the benefits of that in January and the summer. 

It is easy to criticise the signings in hindsight, as you have done in another post. But at the time Sterling came in as one of the best wingers in the league (who by the way I don't think has a 'bad attitude' given how hard he works for England, and City when he was there, just because his form has dipped does not mean he has attitude problems). Cucurella was coming in off the back of a really impressive season at Brighton and we wouldn't have been surprised if he had ended up at any of the other top sides. Fofana and Koulibaly our hands were tied a bit as we needed numbers at centre back. Despite Fofana's injury proneness, he will still become one of the best centre backs in the world in the next few years. Koulibaly has been hit and miss, and I agree we should never have given him the length of contract that we did. 

It's early days for Boehly and he inherited a team that needed A LOT of work to bring us back to the top again, I still have hope that some of the players we signed in the summer will come out of this slump and still be good players for us. Hopefully with the new structure and staff in place then the signings will be better fits stylistically, but I think if Boehly would've come in and not spent much in the summer he would've been widely criticised for not investing. 

Alot of what's been posted on here since the Brighton game has been incredibly reactionary and that's always the way after a big loss. But we are not a top side currently, and nor do we have a divine right to stay a top side forever, so I think for a while we will have to take the rough with the smooth. Let's not forget that Roman made more than his fair share of questionable signings, and we also took the odd humiliation whilst he was owner as well. 

Edited October 31, 20223 yr by drjonesy1994

47 minutes ago, drjonesy1994 said:

He's damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't. Because no doubt if we hadn't spent any money in the summer, then you, me and most others on here would be moaning about the lack of investment in the squad.

The approach was a bit haphazard in the summer, and the sacking of Tuchel seemed a bit gung-ho given the signings we had made, but it is clear that with the people we are hiring we are moving to a more structured and strategic approach and hopefully we should see the benefits of that in January and the summer. 

It is easy to criticise the signings in hindsight, as you have done in another post. But at the time Sterling came in as one of the best wingers in the league (who by the way I don't think has a 'bad attitude' given how hard he works for England, and City when he was there, just because his form has dipped does not mean he has attitude problems). Cucurella was coming in off the back of a really impressive season at Brighton and we wouldn't have been surprised if he had ended up at any of the other top sides. Fofana and Koulibaly our hands were tied a bit as we needed numbers at centre back. Despite Fofana's injury proneness, he will still become one of the best centre backs in the world in the next few years. Koulibaly has been hit and miss, and I agree we should never have given him the length of contract that we did. 

It's early days for Boehly and he inherited a team that needed A LOT of work to bring us back to the top again, I still have hope that some of the players we signed in the summer will come out of this slump and still be good players for us. Hopefully with the new structure and staff in place then the signings will be better fits stylistically, but I think if Boehly would've come in and not spent much in the summer he would've been widely criticised for not investing. 

Alot of what's been posted on here since the Brighton game has been incredibly reactionary and that's always the way after a big loss. But we are not a top side currently, and nor do we have a divine right to stay a top side forever, so I think for a while we will have to take the rough with the smooth. Let's not forget that Roman made more than his fair share of questionable signings, and we also took the odd humiliation whilst he was owner as well. 

"We are not a top side currently", am glad I am not the only one who sees this. 

Spending money does not make you a top side, Forrest are finding it hard at the bottom after 150mill spent, nor does spending it keep you as a top side. Is how you use it, and we have used it poorly.

I don't rate Sterling, I made that clear before he signed and wanted him to sign as much as I wanted Lukaku to stay. His "effort" at Brighton showed his ego, his attitude, imo.

Top 4 and being in the CL next season is a pipe dream, top sides make it in to the CL from our league, and, as you said, we are not that. Indeed we must get used to some rough times and hope we build something special out of it.

Far too early to say whether any of the summer signings are booms or busts ... the only one that looks like a complete waste of money at this point is the Zakaria loan signing.

Sigh 

 

24 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Far too early to say whether any of the summer signings are booms or busts ... the only one that looks like a complete waste of money at this point is the Zakaria loan signing.

Maybe so, on the other hand you have a few saying you are calling it with hindsight already so...

2 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Sigh 

 

Who says RLC does not know how to score? Lmao

10 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Sigh 

 

Absolute clown show.

 

…. Arsenal are gonna tear us a new one, humbling of the century incoming. 

Edited October 31, 20223 yr by Term_X

14 minutes ago, Term_X said:

Absolute clown show.

 

…. Arsenal are gonna tear us a new one, humbling of the century incoming. 

There was still a few missing as well. 

Gallagher red card. 

Salzburg's equalizer. 

Pulisic missing an open net. 

Mount over hitting every single through ball in the final third.

The f**king lunacy of Chelsea. 
Example, what twat did this-

Stirling- Sign him for £50,000,000

Give him a 5year contract (WTF) 

And give him £325,000every f**king week. =£84,500,000

Total £134,500,000

Can anyone explain. 
 

 

2 hours ago, drjonesy1994 said:

Let's not forget that Roman made more than his fair share of questionable signings, and we also took the odd humiliation whilst he was owner as well. 

While we kept the winning mentality for cup competitions I pretty much gave up hope of challenging for the league again in the Roman era post the Lukaku signing (and even more so in hindsight when Cech as good as confirmed he would have got another chance under the last regime).

Looking back it stems back from failing to replace the old guard properly. Hazard papered over the cracks but even with him we fell well behind. And the contract management was really bad at the end, four players that if we sold at the right time would have pretty much funded a rebuild have or are likely to move on for nothing. Imagine if we took advantage of Rudi, AC, Kante and Jorgi being at their peak value after Porto? Ofcourse this is a bit more hindsight as I believed we had a title shot in 21/22 (before we signed Rom) and obviously selling those 4 would have ended that before kick off but could it have been worth it when we think about where we could be now? (Had we recruited their replacements well).

Yes there's been (to say the least) a bit of teething problems in the early Boehly reign but with the signings of the young players and getting the sporting structure in (the one big gripe people had on the Roman era) there's atleast the hope that by hook or by crook we will eventually sort this out (in the context of challenging for leagues again) which bar finding another Hazard I don't think would have happened under Roman/Marina again sadly.

Edited October 31, 20223 yr by Argo

2 hours ago, Kev56 said:

The f**king lunacy of Chelsea. 
Example, what twat did this-

Stirling- Sign him for £50,000,000

Give him a 5year contract (WTF) 

And give him £325,000every f**king week. =£84,500,000

Total £134,500,000

Can anyone explain. 
 

 

A fine example of what happens when billionaires are in charge, and no different to Roman's tenure. So much cash that there is no real need to negotiate "value for money".

None of them know the price of a pint of milk either 🙂 

2 hours ago, Kev56 said:

The f**king lunacy of Chelsea. 
Example, what twat did this-

Stirling- Sign him for £50,000,000

Give him a 5year contract (WTF) 

And give him £325,000every f**king week. =£84,500,000

Total £134,500,000

Can anyone explain. 
 

I called the stupidity of this transfer out before it happened and so far in the majority of the matches he hasn't looked like an upgrade on Werner or Pulisic at all imo. He had a good start scoringwise, but since the national team break in September his performances are really poor and he looks like a player who is declining in ability as well, what were concerns about him on here too before we signed him.

If you take into account the details of this transfer he definitely has the potential to be one of our worst transfers in club history.

I hope that we move him on next summer, because the value for money just isn't there like with Werner, but this is probably easier said than done with his grotesque contract. And like @axman2526 I sense from his demeanor too, that he is someone with an overinflated ego.

Edited October 31, 20223 yr by Blue2

Since Sarri, which signings have made the greatest impact and been genuine game changers? Since we lost Hazard, I'm yet to see any game changers and genuine attacking threats after all the money spent. Havertz isn't it, neither is Pulisic, neither is Ziyech, neither was Werner, could go on.