2 minutes ago, forbzy said:

I think if it was purely about qualifying for next season's Champions League they would have taken action in January/February. Even though there will be a financial hit, it has been pretty clear now for some time that we are unlikely to be in Europe next season.

Yes that's fair comment.

Probably all this talk of decisions being taken in the international break is just wishful thinking and click bait !

13 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Yes that's fair comment.

Probably all this talk of decisions being taken in the international break is just wishful thinking and click bait !

I mean you never know. I suppose if they felt it was worth a gamble then they have a 2 week window now to make a change. But it seems unlikely.

Weird one. Someone said his son may have been the one leaking the teams early every weekend. Probably bollocks though.

3 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Weird one. Someone said his son may have been the one leaking the teams early every weekend. Probably bollocks though.

I have never felt Boehly is unfair. I don't think there is anything scandalous in this decision.

5 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Weird one. Someone said his son may have been the one leaking the teams early every weekend. Probably bollocks though.

I think Boehly and Clearlake simply want Chelsea to be THEIR club at pretty much every level.  I imagine anyone who was hired in the Roman years and is still there must be pretty nervous about their job security, including the playing staff !

8 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Weird one. Someone said his son may have been the one leaking the teams early every weekend. Probably bollocks though.

I find it very hard to believe the head groundsman's son was leaking team news and if he was how on earth did he get that info ?  Any leak must have come from a higher source.

My youngest Son used to work at the Bridge and knew these 2 quite well and was gutted to hear about the sackings. 

Heard a rumour Todd has approached the Fulham owner about a ground share while we rebuild the Bridge.

19 hours ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Weird one. Someone said his son may have been the one leaking the teams early every weekend. Probably bollocks though.

Todd will be laying astro turf next season and the ground staff is being reduced. All thats needed is a large comb and a henry vacuum cleaner.

On 19/03/2023 at 19:48, forbzy said:

I think if it was purely about qualifying for next season's Champions League they would have taken action in January/February. Even though there will be a financial hit, it has been pretty clear now for some time that we are unlikely to be in Europe next season.

I reckon they loaned Felix to help in that respect, and that hasn’t helped either

11 hours ago, WeatherMan said:

I find it very hard to believe the head groundsman's son was leaking team news and if he was how on earth did he get that info ?  Any leak must have come from a higher source.

My youngest Son used to work at the Bridge and knew these 2 quite well and was gutted to hear about the sackings. 

It's almost looking like a petty vendetta against anyone who was here under Roman's tenure. Boehly should have seen in the pitch in 2003 to see what brilliant work they have done. The pitch since the East Stand was built has been terrible it doesn't get any natural sunlight and back then we were so skint they couldn't afford to do anything about it.

Edited March 21, 20233 yr by bluehaze

9 minutes ago, bluehaze said:

It's almost looking like a petty vendetta against anyone who was here under Roman's tenure. Boehly should have seen in the pitch in 2003 to see what brilliant work they have done. The pitch since the East Stand was built has been terrible it doesn't get any natural sunlight and back then we were so skint they couldn't afford to do anything about it.

Apparently he had won a lot of ground keeping awards for his work with us as well. 

Very strange for Boehly to get rid ... another story we'll probably never get an explanation for ... 

On 20/03/2023 at 12:46, RIP Mourinho said:

Weird one. Someone said his son may have been the one leaking the teams early every weekend. Probably bollocks though.

Where do I apply?

3 hours ago, Munkworth said:

Where do I apply?

https://youtu.be/ciF8xyD2Tj4

Just revisiting who we signed this season and it is shocking as so many are not getting played though understand why.

Looking to me on current situation like Badiashile, Felix, Fernandez, W. Fofana, Cucurella, Sterling, Koulibally and Zakaria are the only ones to have played regularly or made more than a handful of appearances.

Andrey Santos - visa, fair enough.

Mudryk - fitness, mind re war?

Malo Gusto - next season.

By my count that leaves 6 players hardly getting a game.

 January signings

Mykhailo Mudryk	Ukraine	Shakhtar Donetsk	€70m
Benoît Badiashile	France	AS Monaco	€38m
Noni Madueke	England	PSV Eindhoven	€35m
Andrey Santos	Brazil	Vasco da Gama	€12.5m
David Datro Fofana	Ivory Coast	Molde	€12m
João Félix	Portugal	Atletico Madrid	Loan
Gabriel Slonina	USA	Chicago Fire	Loan returnee
Malo Gusto	France	Olympique Lyon	€30m
Enzo Fernández	Argentina	Benfica	€121m

 

Start of season

Wesley Fofana	France	Leicester City	€80.4m
Marc Cucurella	Spain	Brighton & Hove Albion	€65.3m
Raheem Sterling	England	Manchester City	€56.2m
Kalidou Koulibaly	Senegal	Napoli	€38m
Carney Chukwuemeka	England	Aston Villa	€18m
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Gabon	Barcelona	€12m
Gabriel Slonina	USA	Chicago Fire	€9.1m
Denis Zakaria	Switzerland	Juventus	Loan

Chukwuemeka is such a strange signing, to me. He's just an average young player, nothing special at all. And his contract was nearly up so we didn't need to spend that much.

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

Chukwuemeka is such a strange signing, to me. He's just an average young player, nothing special at all. And his contract was nearly up so we didn't need to spend that much.

He is about 8-10 years away from his projected peak... let's give him a chance to grow.

2 hours ago, Zeta said:

Chukwuemeka is such a strange signing, to me. He's just an average young player, nothing special at all. And his contract was nearly up so we didn't need to spend that much.

I think we signed him because he did really well at England U-19 level, scoring a few goals in the 2022 UEFA European U-19 Championship, including in the final. 

Similarly Casadei with Italy at same level.

Early days for both of them, and hopefully they can inspire each other to kick on to the next level. We could certainly do with some goal-scoring midfielders, and they both have the potential in that regard !

2 hours ago, Zeta said:

Chukwuemeka is such a strange signing, to me. He's just an average young player, nothing special at all. And his contract was nearly up so we didn't need to spend that much.

Glad I am not the only one. I don`t see what he is about. Has been very poor from what I have seen. Which wouldn`t be a big deal considering how young he is and how much time he has to reach his potential but why did he get game time ahead of others?

2 hours ago, Zeta said:

Chukwuemeka is such a strange signing, to me. He's just an average young player, nothing special at all. And his contract was nearly up so we didn't need to spend that much.

Think we're going for the loan army strategy again, especially with the multi-club model. 

Personally, as long as we don't sell the young players that turn good (Salah/De Bruyne), then I'm all for it

I like Carney. Should of went on loan but I have seen glimpses of quality. 

Perhaps the idea is that Strasbourg will be the Chelsea second team, with the extra players proving themselves "on loan" before rejoining the mothership.

If we buy clubs from Portugal and France I think someone like Chucks is best to go out there to thrive.

7 hours ago, Zeta said:

Chukwuemeka is such a strange signing, to me. He's just an average young player, nothing special at all. And his contract was nearly up so we didn't need to spend that much.

Actually look at his gait and the way he moves he reminds me very much of RLC. Strange signing if we already have a player with this style of play especially if RLC struggles to get a regular start 

7 hours ago, evissy said:

He is about 8-10 years away from his projected peak... let's give him a chance to grow.

The same can be said about our academy players of the same age. Just seems like we are throwing crazy money at clubs to sign any young player with a bit of potential.

1 hour ago, Scott Harris said:

The same can be said about our academy players of the same age. Just seems like we are throwing crazy money at clubs to sign any young player with a bit of potential.

I think our academy is reverting back to the mean unfortuently, Colwill and possibly Hall are the only one's out of our recent batch that stand out.

Would have been interesting if Boehly/Eghbali arrived in or around or just after the 16-18 batch were ruling the youth cup, I think they would have made getting a huge chunk of those players into the first team an absolute priority.