I seriously worry for the future of this club at the moment.

We've spent soooo much money, and the vast majority has been wasted on players who aren't good enough and incompetent management.

There will come a time soon when the money will stop flowing, because the investment firm will want to start seeing some returns. And currently we're heading downward. With no european football and the money that brings in, for some time. Commitments to big wages over very long contracts, for players losing value every week.

We need to be very very careful. It is not at all unrealistic that we might be facing a Leeds situation in the coming years, if things don't change.

11 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I seriously worry for the future of this club at the moment.

We've spent soooo much money, and the vast majority has been wasted on players who aren't good enough and incompetent management.

There will come a time soon when the money will stop flowing, because the investment firm will want to start seeing some returns. And currently we're heading downward. With no european football and the money that brings in, for some time. Commitments to big wages over very long contracts, for players losing value every week.

We need to be very very careful. It is not at all unrealistic that we might be facing a Leeds situation in the coming years, if things don't change.

It already feels like we could be the next Everton if we are not careful.

11 minutes ago, Zeta said:

I seriously worry for the future of this club at the moment.

We've spent soooo much money, and the vast majority has been wasted on players who aren't good enough and incompetent management.

There will come a time soon when the money will stop flowing, because the investment firm will want to start seeing some returns. And currently we're heading downward. With no european football and the money that brings in, for some time. Commitments to big wages over very long contracts, for players losing value every week.

We need to be very very careful. It is not at all unrealistic that we might be facing a Leeds situation in the coming years, if things don't change.

Agreed. The new owners have to take the largest share of the blame for the way this season has gone. I know there are plenty of "Potter Out" comments but the owners need to have some serious questions asked over the way they are running the club. Certainly looks like Tuchel will have the last laugh this season.

I agree with Zeta, this is a seriously worrying position the club is in right now.

The new owners have come in with such a ruthless approach in a sport they are not in touch with. The have spent obscene amounts of money, something we have never seen before, and on players and coaches that don't look anywhere close to being good enough. Madueke, Chukwuemeka, Mudryk, D.Fofana, are these players even Premier League standard? they look no better than Championship level right now. Then we have other really young and unproven players like Badiashile, W.Fofana (who can't stay fit) and another on the way in Gusto.

Who are these players exactly? Potential, nothing more. It's not like we are signing a bunch of future Eden Hazard's here. None of these players are sure things like he was. They are the type of players Roman would have signed for under 10m and sent out on loan for a few years. 

Then there is the likes of Aubameyang, Koulibaly and Cucurella, awful signings. Really really bad. Literally the only signing I am confident was a good one was Enzo Fernandez, but look what we had to do to bring him here. Absolutely insane money to throw at a club for one player. Don't even get me started on the coaching. Potter has done nothing in his career to warrant this type of job, and with each passing week, he looks like one of the worst coaches I have ever seen. This isn't clever from Boehly and Clearlake, this is insane and the types of moves you would see from owners in the past that have absolutely destroyed football clubs.

I don't see how this type of money going out won't seriously hurt us without immediate success. Champions League money is a must, but that isn't coming next season and with Potter in charge, you can bet your life it won't be happening the season after either. The owners have put the club in a position where there can be no errors, but that is all they have been doing since they took over. What also can't be ignored is how every single person associated with club when Roman was in charge seems to be getting sacked. They are ruining this club.

Edited April 1, 20233 yr by Scott Harris

I've already gone and accepted the inevitability that we could be fined hard for breaching FFP.

I've been a broken record for months that a lot of our spending is subject to making Top 4 season after season. We've virtually destroyed all of that by appointing Potter. 

15 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I've already gone and accepted the inevitability that we could be fined hard for breaching FFP.

I've been a broken record for months that a lot of our spending is subject to making Top 4 season after season. We've virtually destroyed all of that by appointing Potter. 

The FFP punishment is possible. While we could make a case about the effects of the sanctions, it is hard to argue when we have since gone and spent like crazy. My worry is that the new owners will sell off some of our prize assets (e.g. Chilwell, James) as those will be the only ones that could possibly raise the amounts to avoid FFP punishment

we will have to sell a lot of players to receive money and try again with different manager I hope

what a retrocess this season will cost in our club

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

I seriously worry for the future of this club at the moment.

We've spent soooo much money, and the vast majority has been wasted on players who aren't good enough and incompetent management.

There will come a time soon when the money will stop flowing, because the investment firm will want to start seeing some returns. And currently we're heading downward. With no european football and the money that brings in, for some time. Commitments to big wages over very long contracts, for players losing value every week.

We need to be very very careful. It is not at all unrealistic that we might be facing a Leeds situation in the coming years, if things don't change.

I guarantee a better manager gets all these players playing better this is solely down to who’s in charge.

I am not absolving the players of all responsibility but we have a mid table manager with promising youngsters he is so far out of his depth.

I made the analogy of putting a guy who ran a few 100 people software companies well in charge of Apple, Microsoft or Google, it’s bound to fail!!

5 minutes ago, El regreso said:

I guarantee a better manager gets all these players playing better this is solely down to who’s in charge.

I am not absolving the players of all responsibility but we have a mid table manager with promising youngsters he is so far out of his depth.

I made the analogy of putting a guy who ran a few 100 people software companies well in charge of Apple, Microsoft or Google, it’s bound to fail!!

At first place is the owner who thinks that FOOTBALL is basketball, baseball where so called "stars" are important. Todd thinks that he can spend 1b per year, but this is not how football is going, its team sport, not individual. Bring Klopp and will be the same mess.

At the moment we are like some kind of Frankenstein. All parts (players) seems not fitting at all.

Edited April 1, 20233 yr by JJ8

36 minutes ago, forbzy said:

The FFP punishment is possible. While we could make a case about the effects of the sanctions, it is hard to argue when we have since gone and spent like crazy. My worry is that the new owners will sell off some of our prize assets (e.g. Chilwell, James) as those will be the only ones that could possibly raise the amounts to avoid FFP punishment

I think all they'll do is say "ok, show us your revenue for the sanction period for the previous two years and we'll allow for that". I suspect it won't be anything significant as most of the revenue streams are booked in advance, TV money, commercial contracts, season tickets etc etc.

The elephant in the room is that we are probably already operating at a base £100m loss for 22/23, as that is typically our run rate from normal operations. We probably can't even afford to win the Champions League due to the win bonuses we'd be paying out on in the player contracts 🙂 

Maybe Boehly has some commercial windfalls up his sleeve, Hope so ... 

I'm not worried long term tbh. We have bought some class players, and we have loads more on the conveyor belt. 

The squad needs to be trimmed drastically, and then we need a competent manager. 

Once we can fix those 2 issues, I think we can have an exciting few years, but we arent achieving anything with Potter in charge.

Forget Potter. This bloke is the real embarrassment and the real problem. He makes the Glazers look competent.

I take a look at our next games and probably we will end fighting for relegation

we will play against city, arsenal, united, liverpool, brighton, brentford and newcastle

Yes to the concerns expressed by @Zeta and others. Very real risk we’re not seeing the forest for the trees with all the “we need to get rid of x, strengthen with y”.

these guys need to make a profit for other stakeholders and it’s nigh on impossible to see how they do it given their outlay, even if we’re top of the league and winning the CL, and with a top coach… with THIS? I really don’t see how. Throw a recession into the mix and it’s over. They will be forced sellers …. Maybe that’s better intimately but not before a lot of pain. 

People need to be careful what they wish for re getting rid of players. Has nobody imagined a scenario where the only players left in 12 months’ time are Pulisic and Cucurella, purely coz we can’t sell them? we find ourselves harking back to the Jorginho golden years, watching his best penalties clips?  

 

 

3 minutes ago, Dean said:

Yes to the concerns expressed by @Zeta and others. Very real risk we’re not seeing the forest for the trees with all the “we need to get rid of x, strengthen with y”.

these guys need to make a profit for other stakeholders and it’s nigh on impossible to see how they do it given their outlay, even if we’re top of the league and winning the CL, and with a top coach… with THIS? I really don’t see how. Throw a recession into the mix and it’s over. They will be forced sellers …. Maybe that’s better intimately but not before a lot of pain. 

People need to be careful what they wish for re getting rid of players. Has nobody imagined a scenario where the only players left in 12 months’ time are Pulisic and Cucurella, purely coz we can’t sell them? we find ourselves harking back to the Jorginho golden years, watching his best penalties clips?  

 

 

well right, they can't just make impulsive decisions even if the best thing to do , and drop millions on jettisoning potter, but if we continue on this course the club will lose millions in income... RA could do that with his own money and that suited the  hard nosed mentality of the club and fanbase ... TB has probably never experienced fan power in the US and thinks just playing exhibition soccer with fans doing a mexican wave is going to succeed ... oops 

600 million plus spent and the only player who kinda does any justice to his value is Enzo. Wesley Fofana looks good but is injured for 70% of the games. 

I'm not sure who even suggested most of these signings to Todd. A lot of them are so bad.

 

It was going to take something truly spectacular from Roman to eclipse the Lukaku signing as the worst thing he did for Chelsea. Yet the Raine Group and he managed it with these guys I think.

4 hours ago, Zeta said:

I seriously worry for the future of this club at the moment.

We've spent soooo much money, and the vast majority has been wasted on players who aren't good enough and incompetent management.

There will come a time soon when the money will stop flowing, because the investment firm will want to start seeing some returns. And currently we're heading downward. With no european football and the money that brings in, for some time. Commitments to big wages over very long contracts, for players losing value every week.

We need to be very very careful. It is not at all unrealistic that we might be facing a Leeds situation in the coming years, if things don't change.

Nothing we can do about it now. They are here for 10 years at least.

Unfortunately you can always tell a yank, but you can't tell them much.

If we end up getting slammed by the PL and/or Uefa over FFP I really start to question the "fit and proper owners" test that the FA/PL have.

I don't mind the expensive signings. Every big club makes expensive mistakes, it's part of modern football and it's the price you pay when you are a huge spending club like us. Rarely are you ever going to always hit the mark. It happened under Roman and it will continue to happen under Boehly. And despite our performances, I am also still happy with the business we did in January and I think we have good future as a team if the players get the right manager. The fact we beat one of the most in-form teams in Europe in Dortmund, gives my high hopes on the potential this team has.

My main issue when it comes to Boehly/Clearlake's spending is the money that was wasted on acquiring Potter and also his contract. At least with players you can always resale them if they don't work out but giving any manager a 5-year deal worth that amount of money (even an elite one) is a huge risk. Not to mention they also had to pay Brighton money to get him. It now looks likely that Potter is going to be sacked if not now then at the end of the season and that is going to put a huge dent in our FFP grade. If the board wanted to get rid of Tuchel, they should have stuck with an interim manager, build the backroom over the year, and hire someone at the end of the year. Rushing to bring in Potter for the long haul is the most expensive mistake of this era, more so than the players we signed.

Edited April 2, 20233 yr by Frankie8Lampard

Not going to lie I am now getting worried for the future of our club. He has waltzed in here and basically sacked anyone from romans time. Almost within 6 months. That’s madness. No company could survive that. 
then we get onto the playing side. Who was telling or advising him to go out and  spend a fortune on players we didn’t need or want ? There was no one advising him within the club because he had sacked them all !!!  But someone must have been surely. The final straw from me was Cech leaving. 
now onto potter. Any CEO etc has to do their due diligence with a management appointment so where was his. One look at his CV and it goes into the no thank you pile. So again where was the advice coming from ? THAT is the real issue here 

it’s buffoonery to carry on like this and will end up in disaster. I don’t think the bloke has running a football club in him. And will not have faced the level of fan apathy that is surely coming 

Edited April 2, 20233 yr by Andy2461

Like a typical American watching football, Boehly just simplified it and ignored all the details. It's fine to sign expensive young players, but you need to have a plan, rather than sign the lot in 2 windows and throw it at the manager, who's already hands full with matters such as winning a game once in a while. 2 wingers in one window, 100M plus and neither of them are getting sufficient minutes to settle in. An expensive loan signing who has to play every game, another central defender ( who's a good player) but we already had other options. The 8 years contract was clever in it's on way, but when you spend that much in 2 windows., FFP bound to come back to bite us.

Think Bohley has been naive and badly advised unfortunately when it came to hiring Potter. Yes Potter was in a good moment and a lot of people bought into the hype. But there was a lot of similar patterns at all of his clubs (low win %, winless and scoreless runs). 
 

It is a bold move to sack Potter given the pay off and promises involved. However I doubt Potter can argue too much. 
 

Bohley needs to get this next appointment right massively. He will learn that it’s not enough to just have a good manager, you need an elite manager who are very rare to find. 
 

My advice to Todd: take your time and get it right. 

To be fair to Boehly and Co, they have had to try reverse the situation we've been left in by Roman. Yes we won a few trophies in the past few years, but that papered over the cracks. Kante was argubaly our best player in recent years, but he's been injured almost all season and the previous ownership never bought a back up for him. Along with the money spent on Lukaku, which was a lot and now he's not even a Chelsea player. Then you have other areas which were never reinforced such as losing Hazard and never replacing him. Neglecting the midfield for years after losing Fabregas.

Boehly & Co have tried to do their best to strengthen, but unfortunately it's not been as much a hit as a miss at the moment. Fernandez is the main shining light, but he cost a fortune. Mudryk is still an unknown atm, the same as Madueke. Felix was average again yesterday. Sterling is injured and hasn't exactly covered himself in glory since signing, the same for Koulibaly. I mean it's hindsight I know. We all thought Sterling and Koulibaly were good signings, and they may well turn out to be. Unfortunately for them, they've come to a club that has been through a massive upheaval and need to adapt under a brand new coach who is looking like not being the right guy. It's a very strange situation at the moment. 

Edited April 2, 20233 yr by enigma