27 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

So you think that the main person to be blamed is Marina then? Conte had very high demands and even if some weren't met by the club he was ultimately very happy to get Morata for example, he thought he could make him a standard first choice despite him being mainly a super sub for Juventus and Real Madrid prior.

In short, I think she shoulders most of the blame yes. She's in "total control" over the club to use Petr Cechs word.

We know our transfer strategy have gone to sh*t since she ascended the throne of total control in 2017. Likewise as Levy and Woodward have to shoulder the blame for their clubs horrible transfers in recent years, Marina will have to shoulder that here.

That's all from me on this matter. 

 

 

34 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

The Conte factor is volatile, we were champions and he couldn't keep 2 key players in Costa and Matic and that was enough for a total meltdown and for a top 5 finish and instead of trying to solve after not being backed enough he kept making the situation worse. January came we got for example Giroud to help out the striker situation but ultimately his style just didn't work without heavy spending but we also need to consider that he had no intention of trying to include the academy so even if he had stayed once the transfer ban came he was bound to implode there too. After all he went to Inter, demanded a whole bunch of players in order to win, got them and won a title but quit when the club told him that their expenses were simply too high despite winning.

I doubt that we would have managed to defend the title even if we had spent huge money on Van Dijk, he signed for Liverpool in January for 80m so in the summer prior to that he would have been even more expensive and what for? To play 35% possession against Man City because Conte didn't get Lukaku?

Conte took over a side that had finished 10th the previous season and turned them into title winners and did it with little investment.

We resigned Luiz and was largely derided for that decision and week after week commentators and pundits were praying for him to make any sort of mistake so they could point out what a unreliable player he is. But Conte stuck him at the base of the back 3 and it covered all his weaknesses and played to all of his strengths.

Converted Victor Moses from being a less than average winger into the best fullback in the league. Bought in Marcos Alonso who had previously played for Sunderland and Bolton but with him and Moses completely shook up the way that 50% of teams in the Premier League viewed how they set up their teams each week. 

And yet. even with all that good will in the bank we don't appear to have signed a single one of his preferred targets the following summer. He wanted Lukaku, Van Dijk, Oxlade-Chamberline, Nainggolan and we signed inferior players for every single one of those positions and had probably our worst ever transfer window. 

Conte was by no means faultless but we royally f**ked up that summer and massively let down a coach that had worked a small miracle. 

Also, Costa was a prick who started tantrums when the China offer came, not because of Conte. His output went down severely in the 2nd half of the season as he was constantly moaning due to not getting his move. Matic was long past it as we can see how awful he has been for United.

7 minutes ago, ForeverCarefree said:

And yet. even with all that good will in the bank we don't appear to have signed a single one of his preferred targets the following summer. He wanted Lukaku, Van Dijk, Oxlade-Chamberline, Nainggolan and we signed inferior players for every single one of those positions and had probably our worst ever transfer window. 

And let's not forget we sold Matic who made up the best midfield in the league alongside Kante to Manchester United. And then gave Conte the "gift" of Danny Drinkwater to replace him. 
Everyone would have lost their mind.

Try selling Kovacic to City now and replace him with Ward-Prowse and see how long Tuchel sticks around. 

The selling aspect during her tenure has been very good. 

The buying aspect needs a whole lot of work from everyone involved.

3 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Conte took over a side that had finished 10th the previous season and turned them into title winners and did it with little investment.

We resigned Luiz and was largely derided for that decision and week after week commentators and pundits were praying for him to make any sort of mistake so they could point out what a unreliable player he is. But Conte stuck him at the base of the back 3 and it covered all his weaknesses and played to all of his strengths.

Converted Victor Moses from being a less than average winger into the best fullback in the league. Bought in Marcos Alonso who had previously played for Sunderland and Bolton but with him and Moses completely shook up the way that 50% of teams in the Premier League viewed how they set up their teams each week. 

And yet. even with all that good will in the bank we don't appear to have signed a single one of his preferred targets the following summer. He wanted Lukaku, Van Dijk, Oxlade-Chamberline, Nainggolan and we signed inferior players for every single one of those positions and had probably our worst ever transfer window. 

Conte was by no means faultless but we royally f**ked up that summer and massively let down a coach that had worked a small miracle. 

He gave up any "window tax" by the way he behaved.  No matter how frustrated you are you do your job to the best of your ability. 

And judging by his interviews after the Chelsea vs Spurs games he hasn't changed one bit (I firmly believe those three games were his karma but I disgress). Quite ironic really given when he was here he called Harry Kane his dream striker yet now he's got him he apparently can't be expected compete against an injury and covid striken team with Kepa, Sarr and Saul in it who have been dropping points left, right and centre in and around that game, absolute bullsh*t.

He also moaned about backing at Inter despite the fact they put themselves in financial difficulties to help him out, also at Juve he used resources as an excuse for being sh*t in the UCL only for Allegri to make two finals in three years after he bolted.

It's such a shame because fully motivated he's a truly fantastic coach as you've alluded too but there's a reason he's had to resort to going to Spurs despite being bang in his prime ability wise and that's because all the top clubs have all come to the conclusion that he's just simply not worth the hassle.

Edited February 9, 20224 yr by Argo

2 hours ago, Argo said:

He gave up any "window tax" by the way he behaved.  No matter how frustrated you are you do your job to the best of your ability. 

You do realize even Lampard was about to walk out on the club over his relationship with Granovskaia? Biggest club legend of them all and that was seemingly for a lot less than what Conte had to endure that summer.

And let's be honest. Humans usually doesn't do their job to the best of their ability if they can't stand their boss (perhaps for good reason). That goes for managers and it goes for the average Joe in the office downtown.

7 minutes ago, Sindre said:

You do realize even Lampard was about to walk out on the club over his relationship with Granovskaia? Biggest club legend of them all and that was seemingly for a lot less than what Conte had to endure that summer.

And let's be honest. Humans usually doesn't do their job to the best of their ability if they can't stand their boss (perhaps for good reason). That goes for managers and it goes for the average Joe in the office downtown.

Lampard's issue ultimately wasn't half arsing it, the job (second season with the added expectations) was simply too early.

I'm sure many managers have got into sh*t relationships with their boss at this and other clubs but I've never seen behaviour such at Conte's, it was absolutely outrageous. 

As shocking as 15/16 got the one thing I never doubted with Mourinho is he was still committed to the job until the moment he was sacked, Conte for all intents and purposes resigned that January.

5 hours ago, Sindre said:

And let's not forget we sold Matic who made up the best midfield in the league alongside Kante to Manchester United. And then gave Conte the "gift" of Danny Drinkwater to replace him. 
Everyone would have lost their mind.

Try selling Kovacic to City now and replace him with Ward-Prowse and see how long Tuchel sticks around. 

Ive always felt conte had a big hand in that transfer. At least bakayoko in and matic out. He's very good at acting like he never gets his way, the players we signed were broadly in his mould. 

1 hour ago, Argo said:

As shocking as 15/16 got the one thing I never doubted with Mourinho is he was still committed to the job until the moment he was sacked, Conte for all intents and purposes resigned that January.

Sorry, I don't agree with that at all. We won the FA cup at the end of the year. Yes, he was frustrated and acted out but if Conte has anything going for him, it is his ability to give more than 100% every game. 

1 hour ago, RomansRoubles said:

Sorry, I don't agree with that at all. We won the FA cup at the end of the year. Yes, he was frustrated and acted out but if Conte has anything going for him, it is his ability to give more than 100% every game. 

The fact he switched the lights back on for the Cup games (ala when he had a CV boost to play for) made it even worse.

We were going through poor result after poor result in the league and he kept standing there like he didn't give a single toss.

6 hours ago, ForeverCarefree said:

Conte took over a side that had finished 10th the previous season and turned them into title winners and did it with little investment.

We resigned Luiz and was largely derided for that decision and week after week commentators and pundits were praying for him to make any sort of mistake so they could point out what a unreliable player he is. But Conte stuck him at the base of the back 3 and it covered all his weaknesses and played to all of his strengths.

Converted Victor Moses from being a less than average winger into the best fullback in the league. Bought in Marcos Alonso who had previously played for Sunderland and Bolton but with him and Moses completely shook up the way that 50% of teams in the Premier League viewed how they set up their teams each week. 

And yet. even with all that good will in the bank we don't appear to have signed a single one of his preferred targets the following summer. He wanted Lukaku, Van Dijk, Oxlade-Chamberline, Nainggolan and we signed inferior players for every single one of those positions and had probably our worst ever transfer window. 

Conte was by no means faultless but we royally f**ked up that summer and massively let down a coach that had worked a small miracle. 

I know that what Conte did in his first season is very special and I was hoping that Conte wouldn't leave after the second season and the FA Cup victory, around that time I joined this place... But that doesn't mean that he had no responsibility in what happen that season.

We won the league, finished 10th, got Conte and won the league again. So it's not like we were top 10 for years till Conte suddenly won the league, we had the quality and that made the club probably less willing to invest a huge amount of money that Conte was demanding, because we just won the league but even so the club did respond in some ways to what Conte was asking. After all in the first season we didn't even play in Europe, Conte was using a lot of the same players and somehow nobody got injured so that's also a factor.

Did other managers demand the club to sign that much after winning the league? Lukaku would have cost at least 75m + addons because that's how much Man United paid, Van Dijk went to Liverpool for 75m in January which means for us in the summer he would have cost at least 80m. Chamberline + Nainggolan would have been around 70m together so in total those players would have cost the club over 220m + it was rumored that Conte wanted Alex Sandro as well if I remember correctly but there is no guarantee that such a transfer would have stopped Conte from complaining anyway.

The club didn't go for Lukaku but Conte got Morata and he was saying how Morata was ready to lead the line. He also had the signing of Michy from the previous year but wasn't using him in the second season and let him go on loan in January. Also in January the club signed Giroud as well, both of those players cost a similar amount as Lukaku so in terms of value Conte got more players to work with even when Morata wasn't as good as he should have been and that still wasn't enough for Conte, a smaller boost to the attack was also the signing of Barkley in January as well but that didn't matter either.

The club didn't sign Van Dijk but Rudiger and Zappacosta and Conte didn't want Zouma so he was loaned out. Then in January the club also signed Emerson after Conte was complaining. That's 3 players to work with for a long season instead of 1.

Bakayoko had over 2 tackles per game in France in over 30 matches played and in general a better rate of interceptions and clearances than Matic and he was also younger. Pretty sure the scouting team thought he would fit right in Conte's football and that can't be the mistake of Marina, she simply doesn't scout the players.

Let's also not forget that Drinkwater was a move after Conte didn't give a single thought about playing anyone from the academy, he wanted a proven player. Then Drinkwater got injured for the first two months and never really settled in the team. It's not like Oxlade-Chamberline did great for Liverpool either and from what I know Ninggolan has big problems with his attitude or something. There is no guarantee that Conte would have succeeded even if he got everything he wanted because suddenly the pressure was there and we were playing CL football again.

11 minutes ago, Luca Vialli said:

This is fake, she does not have LinkedIn.

Marina was apparently at the game yesterday, and looking lovely as usual ... pics from her instagram 🙂 

Once a blue always a blue!!

The bloke sitting next to her is sweating bullets.