10 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Didn't back the coach? The same coach that we bought Fabregas and Costa for not to mention brought back Matic at his request whilst we shipped Salah and KDB off? In the 15/16 season you could argue, but there's more mitigating factors as to why that season was a fail not purely because of the summer window. Pedro for example was a great signing. 

Conte on the other hand only was backed with good players in his first summer, we failed him in the recruitment process the summer after he won the league.

To say we didn't back coaches though and only brought average players is a surprising conclusion considering our playing staff have outperformed every other domestic club in trophies acquired in the past 10 seasons bar City. Whilst in that time winning two UCLs the trophy City craves the most. 

 

We still kept the winning mentality for one off games (hence still competing hard to win cups) but we also fell so far behind Liverpool and City thanks to the previous regime in my opinion.

21/22 summed up the difference between us late Roman era and Liverpool for me, they identified an ideal stylistic fit (Luis Diaz) and came disturbingly close to being rewarded with a quadruple while we just looked at the top line (goal stats) and thought it would all fall into place.

I thought many at times went well over the top with their criticism but honestly the reviousm happening now is equally as extreme.

What Boehly is doing may or may not come off but I feel there's a chance and with it some hope whereas to be perfectly honest I gave up on being anything more than a cup team under Roman again after the Lukaku/Saul summer. The fact that they were going to give the former another chance says it all.

25 minutes ago, Argo said:

We still kept the winning mentality for one off games (hence still competing hard to win cups) but we also fell so far behind Liverpool and City thanks to the previous regime in my opinion.

21/22 summed up the difference between us late Roman era and Liverpool for me, they identified an ideal stylistic fit (Luis Diaz) and came disturbingly close to being rewarded with a quadruple while we just looked at the top line (goal stats) and thought it would all fall into place.

I thought many at times went well over the top with their criticism but honestly the reviousm happening now is equally as extreme.

What Boehly is doing may or may not come off but I feel there's a chance and with it some hope whereas to be perfectly honest I gave up on being anything more than a cup team under Roman again after the Lukaku/Saul summer. The fact that they were going to give the former another chance says it all.

Yeah I couldn't agree more about the Diaz point, compare that to our Lukaku situation and its criminal negligence practically. Its almost like we were playing fifa to throw away such a large investment assuming it would work out. 

Tbf though he was like our 3rd or 4th choice, what I can't understand is how we couldn't have waited a season to see what the market looked like. 

If anything when you consider the amount of transfer mistakes made under RA and the amount of success it makes you think what we could have become if we were run like City. Relative to our spending we still are the second most successful club in the past 10 seasons domestically.

1 hour ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Didn't back the coach? The same coach that we bought Fabregas and Costa for not to mention brought back Matic at his request whilst we shipped Salah and KDB off? In the 15/16 season you could argue, but there's more mitigating factors as to why that season was a fail not purely because of the summer window. Pedro for example was a great signing. 

Conte on the other hand only was backed with good players in his first summer, we failed him in the recruitment process the summer after he won the league.

To say we didn't back coaches though and only brought average players is a surprising conclusion considering our playing staff have outperformed every other domestic club in trophies acquired in the past 10 seasons bar City. Whilst in that time winning two UCLs the trophy City craves the most. 

 

Baba Rahman? Dijiloboji? Hector? Kenedy? Falcao loan, miazga. It was atrocious. Yeah fair play to the board they backed Mourinho initially, but after winning the league the board should have done far better. 

1 hour ago, enigma said:

Baba Rahman? Dijiloboji? Hector? Kenedy? Falcao loan, miazga. It was atrocious. Yeah fair play to the board they backed Mourinho initially, but after winning the league the board should have done far better. 

Yeah definitely not Prem quality mate, but we had a good academy (still do) and youth scouting department between 2012/14. The board at one point was bringing in the best players in the world both young and in their prime. There were flops along the way, but with the Mourinho appointment sadly we chose a win now path in recruitment which paid off with the trophies, but we also ditched a few of those promising young players.

I said at the time and will bring it up again, Todd should have only spent money on Neil Baths recommendations in the summer and left first team deals until he had his people appointed.

 

Sterling at 49.5 mill

Koulibaly at 34mill

Cucurella at 62mill

Aubameyang at 15mill

 

Not to mention signing on fees and stupid long expensive contracts.

 

160.5mill wasted on dross that could be used now with people who have experience in recruitment and (Hopefully) know what they are doing.

Over the last 18 months we managed to make the team worse by spending lots of money, can't think of another team succeeded in that in recent years.

I wouldn't call what Boehly doing is a project, just an expensive experiment without much thoughts

 

6 minutes ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Over the last 18 months we managed to make the team worse by spending lots of money, can't think of another team succeeded in that in recent years.

Everton.

14 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Over the last 18 months we managed to make the team worse by spending lots of money, can't think of another team succeeded in that in recent years.

I wouldn't call what Boehly doing is a project, just an expensive experiment without much thoughts

 

New manager no experience of football buys players for TT who plays a back 5 and then sacks him.

In a way like under Roman at the beginning yet then we had better starting players.

As for the season we finished 10th that someone else mentioned that had Hazard, Costa, Fabregas, and Pedro and Willian still at the top of their games.

This is very different 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/jan/04/chelsea-scouts-exodus-backroom-staff-sven-dworaczek-leonardo-masieri

Glad to see the scouting team is clearly being shaken up

Have any of their signings been an improvement on the people they replaced?

 

Sterling <<<< CHO

Cucurella <<<< Alonso

Aubameyang <<<< Werner

Koulibaly .......Rudiger ....oh dear....

Imo no, disaster showing.

15 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Have any of their signings been an improvement on the people they replaced?

 

Sterling <<<< CHO

Cucurella <<<< Alonso

Aubameyang <<<< Werner

Koulibaly .......Rudiger ....oh dear....

Imo no, disaster showing.

Agreed on the last 2.

I like CHO, but there is no way he would have come close to the goals/assists from Sterling this season. So while Sterling has been far from the signing we hoped so far, I think he is still an improvement. 

I think Cucurella will improve with game time and hopefully we will have 2 good options on the left if Chilwell can stay fit. Alonso was much underrated by many on here. While he was not great defensively, he was an invaluable source of goals/assists. Chilwell when fit would be my preference as he can provide goals/asssists too.  But Cucurella should still be decent cover.

26 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Agreed on the last 2.

I like CHO, but there is no way he would have come close to the goals/assists from Sterling this season. So while Sterling has been far from the signing we hoped so far, I think he is still an improvement. 

I think Cucurella will improve with game time and hopefully we will have 2 good options on the left if Chilwell can stay fit. Alonso was much underrated by many on here. While he was not great defensively, he was an invaluable source of goals/assists. Chilwell when fit would be my preference as he can provide goals/asssists too.  But Cucurella should still be decent cover.

Technically you agree on Cucurella not being as good as Alonso then 😉

 

On CHO you are right on goals, even @Argoadmits he is not the best finisher. Assists I am not sure on. Work ethic and general contribution to attacking player Cal is way better than Sterling imo.

Everything these people get involved in turns into an incoherent mess and makes the club look bad. How did they manage to become rich and successful is baffling to me because the way they operate resembles a lottery winner with a coke habit., not a prominent businessmen in charge of a multi billion dollar empire.

Focuses on the future yet destroys the present. 

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Focuses on the future yet destroys the present. 

Sums everything up quite well. Awful management I'm actually embarrassed for them and the worst part is I don't think they even see it themselves. Still brownie points for Nkunku and the willingness to spend. It just worries me that despite how much money they put into the club if they continue to make bad decisions the club will continue to stall or worse free fall and go backwards.

Already since they've taken over we've moved from a top 4 club to barely even a top 6 club and by the end of the season a finish outside of the top 10 could see a coach keep their job. What other big 4/6 clubs accepts these standards. Even Arsenal or Spurs would surely sack a coach for placing anywhere below 9th/10th.

10 minutes ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Sums everything up quite well. Awful management I'm actually embarrassed for them and the worst part is I don't think they even see it themselves. Still brownie points for Nkunku and the willingness to spend. It just worries me that despite how much money they put into the club if they continue to make bad decisions the club will continue to stall or worse free fall and go backwards.

Already since they've taken over we've moved from a top 4 club to barely even a top 6 club and by the end of the season a finish outside of the top 10 could see a coach keep their job. What other big 4/6 clubs accepts these standards. Even Arsenal or Spurs would surely sack a coach for placing anywhere below 9th/10th.

Is Nkunku even confirmed?

50 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Is Nkunku even confirmed?

Don't think so. And if the allegations of our dealings with Benfica for Fernandez are remotely true, then we won't be signing him as we'll be about to go back and offer them half a million euros and a bag of onions for him - over the next thirty years.

1 minute ago, Snedger said:

Don't think so. And if the allegations of our dealings with Benfica for Fernandez are remotely true, then we won't be signing him as we'll be about to go back and offer them half a million euros and a bag of onions for him - over the next thirty years.

Joy. 

Can't wait for the 2024 season with Havertz, Mount, Jorginho, and Azpilicueta leading the team to another 10th place finish. 

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Is Nkunku even confirmed?

Yeah mate 100% done, it was one of those worst kept secrets before official confirmation. Him injuring himself and missing out on the world cup meant Boehly and Co saw the opportunity to finalise the deal all signed and sealed. 

 

 

I say it again, and will just pretend as if I've not said it previously, Boehly is a very foolish man to dismantle the Tuchel structure and put in place an overhyped English manager (let's be honest, they never are world class in any league they've gone to, even Fergie was Scot) who will achieve a best place come season end of 9th or 10th and that's being optimistic. 

Edited January 5, 20233 yr by abister1

14 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Technically you agree on Cucurella not being as good as Alonso then 😉

 

On CHO you are right on goals, even @Argoadmits he is not the best finisher. Assists I am not sure on. Work ethic and general contribution to attacking player Cal is way better than Sterling imo.

Alonso was a great wing back for us, but probably less versatile in other formations. I don't think he was a good option as LB in a back 4 for example. It is a shame we didn't do more to extend both Alonso and Rudiger as their experience would have been invaluable during this transitional phase. However those decisions were made under Roman. Both players were always going to be difficult to replace.

2 hours ago, abister1 said:

I say it again, and will just pretend as if I've not said it previously, Boehly is a very foolish man to dismantle the Tuchel structure and put in place an overhyped English manager (let's be honest, they never are world class in any league they've gone to, even Fergie was Scot) who will achieve a best place come season end of 9th or 10th and that's being optimistic. 

Good points. 
 

this may get me in trouble but we do seem to have a national trait of cultivating averageness, and on top of that - a footballing culture that mistrusts people with education (I’ll leave others to comment on Potter’s credentials there). 
 

Foreigners can get away with it, as they are protected by a language barrier. And that’s why all the good managers are foreign. They’re allowed to be good. Probably bs 🙂 

This Enzo situation is one of the most embarrassing I've ever seen.

Incompetent. Incoherent. Disrespectful towards Enzo himself too.

 

4 hours ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Yeah mate 100% done, it was one of those worst kept secrets before official confirmation. Him injuring himself and missing out on the world cup meant Boehly and Co saw the opportunity to finalise the deal all signed and sealed. 

 

 

Where is this confirmed by the club. I dontvsee that this has been done at all

God help us when they want to start taking money out. Which they will.