Would have liked to see PSG win it, it's the sort of win that makes all the wrong people upset (The Arsenal, Man U fans that I know all absolutely seethe with rage at the idea of a "oil money club" winning the CL). Bayern are exactly that kind of arrogant establishment club the snobs like. Their win gives me a very bland feeling.

A lot of talk about Neymar, but I think Mbappe was the worst out of the bunch, besides that penalty he should've had, what did he do? Neymar at least looked lively in the first half and was trying to influence the game. 

Liverpool not even on the list but they are the current champions...

3 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Liverpool not even on the list but they are the current champions...

They did exceptionally well with the funds from Suarez and especially Coutinho - most clubs would not have that level of return on investment from their replacements. Had even just one of Mane/Salah/Van Djik/Alisson/Fabinho/Keita been mediocre, they would likely need to be in the transfer market to adjust.

Chelsea's position is all the more remarkable given the amount of transfer flops we have had over the last five years, and unlike the 8 clubs above, we have an income stream that is far bigger and better placed to absorb our net spend. How do Brighton, Wolves, Everton or West Ham have the revenue streams to offset their spending debt?

 

 

Edited August 24, 20205 yr by SydneyChelsea

8 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

They did exceptionally well with the funds from Suarez and especially Coutinho - most clubs would not have that level of return on investment from their replacements. Had even just one of Mane/Salah/Van Djik/Alisson/Fabinho/Keita been mediocre, they would likely need to be in the transfer market to adjust.

Chelsea's position is all the more remarkable given the amount of transfer flops we have had over the last five years, and unlike the 8 clubs above, we have an income stream that is far bigger and better placed to absorb our net spend. How do Brighton, Wolves, Everton or West Ham have the revenue streams to offset their spending debt?

 

 

Plus having Bournemouth to offload their junk at over inflated prices helped, I've always thought there was something odd about all those deals. 

12 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Liverpool not even on the list but they are the current champions...

In fairness Liverpool were able to pocket over €200m in player sales from Suarez and Courtinho leaving alone. It's not often that a club is able to pocket those kind of sales within a short space of time. 

That's not taking anything away from how well they have reinvested that money. They've arguably made the best football transfers in the world in the last 4/5 seasons. 

It's going to be interesting to see what they do next to keep the squad fresh because up until now FSG haven't invested much money into the team, so unless they're willing to sell one of their bigger names they'll have to buck that trend. 

53 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

They've arguably made the best football transfers in the world in the last 4/5 seasons. 

Meanwhile we've arguably made the worst transfers in that same period.

We went from regularly finishing above them by 20-30 points every season, to finishing behind them the last 3 seasons by 5pts / 25 pts / 33pts.

So what happened to us ? why did we lose the plot ? Who to blame ? Who should shoulder most of the blame ?

Good to have you back posting.

7 minutes ago, coco said:

Meanwhile we've arguably made the worst transfers in that same period.

We went from regularly finishing above them by 20-30 points every season, to finishing behind them the last 3 seasons by 5pts / 25 pts / 33pts.

So what happened to us ? why did we lose the plot ? Who to blame ? Who should shoulder most of the blame ?

Good to have you back posting.

In hindsight? I think transfer wise it went pretty astray when Michael Emenalo left. 

It just wasn't clear who was overseeing scouting, recruitment etc. when he left... We just sort of divided up his responsibilities to persons unknown. 

I don't think it's any coincidence that we look to be having our most successful window in years now that Petr Cech is here acting as a link between management and the board.

I'm sure there were reasons for moving away from having a technical director at Chelsea but we definitely suffered from that change in structure.... I blame Peter Kenyon. 

Suarez contract terminated.

Ronald told Messi that dressing room power is over.

Messi in talks with Utd.

Messi in another team that isn't Man City would be a big challenge to him.

Maguire reportedly enjoyed a five-hour drinking session in the days leading up to his arrest, racking up a bar bill rumoured to be around £63,000 on vintage champagne, cocktails, steaks and lobster. 

He is understood to have been with Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley, Love Island star Chris Hughes and snooker player Judd Trump, as well as members of his family.

45 minutes ago, mojo said:

Maguire reportedly enjoyed a five-hour drinking session in the days leading up to his arrest, racking up a bar bill rumoured to be around £63,000 on vintage champagne, cocktails, steaks and lobster. 

He is understood to have been with Chelsea midfielder Ross Barkley, Love Island star Chris Hughes and snooker player Judd Trump, as well as members of his family.

There was a photo in the Redtops recently claiming to have been a pal helping a comatose Ross Barkley after a session.

Just as well he wasn't caught up in the Harry Maguire circus, other wise he might have the 'Albanian mafia' coming after him ?

Re Maguire early reports placed Rashford and Williams with him though they left before the handbags at ten paces unless you were a Greek policemen.

 

He’s been found guilty. Lock him up!

http://news.sky.com/story/harry-maguire-found-guilty-of-aggravated-assault-resisting-arrest-and-attempted-bribery-in-greece-12056524

Just now, Munkworth said:

He’s been found guilty. Lock him up!

Will he get picked by the prison team!

18 minutes ago, Boyne said:

Will he get picked by the prison team!

If only he was a keeper they could reshoot Mean Machine. 

"I'm Ronnie Picke.....i mean Harry Maguire"

Or he could practise his dancing.

 

Just switched on the 6pm news on BBC1. Maguire's arrest was the lead report. A bit daft given what else is going on.

He was selected for England before being found guilty, surely he has to be dropped now, you can't batter policemen and still play fo England.

8 hours ago, coco said:

Meanwhile we've arguably made the worst transfers in that same period.

We went from regularly finishing above them by 20-30 points every season, to finishing behind them the last 3 seasons by 5pts / 25 pts / 33pts.

So what happened to us ? why did we lose the plot ? Who to blame ? Who should shoulder most of the blame ?

Good to have you back posting.

Conte's 2nd season was the worst transfer window this club has ever had. Someone has blood on their hands for allowing Conte to sign this much sh*te, especially that Drinkwater transfer. 

 

23 minutes ago, Slojo said:

Conte's 2nd season was the worst transfer window this club has ever had. Someone has blood on their hands for allowing Conte to sign this much sh*te, especially that Drinkwater transfer. 

 

I still cannot quite fathom wtf went on in summer of 2017. There was this atmosphere of gloom around the club seemingly from the moment we lost the FA Cup final. I've never felt so dismal about a title defence as I did going into 17/18. Contrast that to this year where despite having a much worse preceding season, we seem to be (fingers crossed) getting our main targets and there's a feeling of contentment among the fanbase. It's funny how football works. You'd have thought that we would have been able to attract players of Ziyech/Werner/Havertz calibre in 2017 as reigning champions, yet bloody everybody was turning us down that summer. Felt like Conte had zero pull power.

Edited August 25, 20205 yr by CFC Minty

49 minutes ago, CFC Minty said:

I still cannot quite fathom wtf went on in summer of 2017. There was this atmosphere of gloom around the club seemingly from the moment we lost the FA Cup final. I've never felt so dismal about a title defence as I did going into 17/18. Contrast that to this year where despite having a much worse preceding season, we seem to be (fingers crossed) getting our main targets and there's a feeling of contentment among the fanbase. It's funny how football works. You'd have thought that we would have been able to attract players of Ziyech/Werner/Havertz calibre in 2017 as reigning champions, yet bloody everybody was turning us down that summer. Felt like Conte had zero pull power.

It was a horrible season, even though we won the F.A. Cup, it was just horrible. Salah and KDB were taking the world by storm, we kicked out Matic for an absolute donkey in Bakayoko. Had Conte moaning and whinging every single week in the press about the club and transfers. We went from this really good team that dominated the league to absolute sh*t the next. Out of all those Monaco players, we picked the worst one, all of our former players we sold scored against us that season. It was just a miserable season, that was mainly due to the atmosphere Conte instilled, he made it almost as dark as the Jose era in his 3rd season. 

 

sh*ts about to hit the fan down Barca way, as Messi has officially said he's leaving

16 minutes ago, Ballack & Blu said:

sh*ts about to hit the fan down Barca way, as Messi has officially said he's leaving

It could be a blessing in disguise really. Barcelona has had problems for years now, they've been sh*t in Europe for easily about 5-6 years, since they last won the CL really... 

How many big scorelines have they had against them in the CL? Liverpool, Bayern twice, there's probably more that I can't think of. They need to get rid of the likes of Messi, Suarez, Pique and bring in some new players.