1 minute ago, forbzy said:

Well if your score predictions are correct for January (and unfortunately you are eerily close a lot of the time) I'd have to agree with you.

Yeah I am shocked they were, I only got Wolves wrong in that run of predictions and that could have happened had Jimenez left thst cross alone.

Think I had Pool loss, City Loss, Spurs draw. 

Yup if thar happens TT is a gonner imo.

1 minute ago, axman2526 said:

Yeah I am shocked they were, I only got Wolves wrong in that run of predictions and that could have happened had Jimenez left thst cross alone.

Think I had Pool loss, City Loss, Spurs draw. 

Yup if thar happens TT is a gonner imo.

Well in that scenario you also have to consider what else the press will dig up to undermine TT further. Rom's comments are probably just the start of a campaign to push him out.

Tuchel needs to get out of all cups except the Club World Cup which we didn't win yet an in which the team will need to travel to play anyway + first round of eliminations of the CL should be passed for some extra cash and that's it.

Focus on the league to secure top 4 and bring a smaller trophy and it's a decent season. Continue to rebuild the team in the summer.

We never have long feeling happy as Chelsea fans. At the start of the season when we were winning, keeping clean sheets, I knew before we blinked, everything would start going wrong again.

3 minutes ago, Zeta said:

We never have long feeling happy as Chelsea fans. At the start of the season when we were winning, keeping clean sheets, I knew before we blinked, everything would start going wrong again.

Yup me too.

TT is said to be very smart and flexible. He desperately needs to show that, we have no decent wingback options and we are short CBS. He needs to come up with a plan B. Otherwise he does what Frank did.

10 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Yup me too.

TT is said to be very smart and flexible. He desperately needs to show that, we have no decent wingback options and we are short CBS. He needs to come up with a plan B. Otherwise he does what Frank did.

I think that the Plan B will be to rest as many first XI players as he possibly can and sacrifice the Carabao Cup to Spurs and play the under 23's vs Chesterfield. As has been mentioned already I am fairly sure that we will concentrate only on the Prem (top 4) and the Champions League, although with defenders falling like 9-pins, I can't see us getting much from the League games against the Scousers, City or Spurs and I have a really horrible feeling that we will be in a battle for top 4 with United, Spurs and Arsenal by the end of the Season.

19 hours ago, coco said:

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/59827141

 

 

Jesus that's appalling !

They blame covid, but that seems to have accounted for £46.8m loss on match day revenue vs a normal year, and £16.8m lower commercial revenue. Seeing as both of those are more than offset by a massive increase in TV money (£182.5m to £273.6m), what the F is going on ? Have wages spiralled out of control that much ???

12 hours ago, Zeta said:

We never have long feeling happy as Chelsea fans. At the start of the season when we were winning, keeping clean sheets, I knew before we blinked, everything would start going wrong again.

Maybe it´s also about having realistic expectations and just looking at the big picture a little. The team won the Champions League just six months ago.

What really happened anyway? Team is on pace for 82 points in the league, a top 4 finish virtually guaranteed and still going in all cup competitions and won a trophy this season so far. United haven´t won any title since 2017. Arsenal didn´t have a 82 point season since 2007/2008. 

Now everybody is talking about a major crisis throwing everybody under the bus from the coach to the players. Maybe have a little faith in the players and the coach. Maybe it is just what it is. An insane amount of injuries, combined with COVID cases, lots of fatigue due to a loaded fixture list and some bad luck with some flukish goals. Was Liverpool having a Klopp meltdown, when their season went to sh*t through COVID and injuries last year?

Maybe they won´t win the league, cause Pep Guardiola is an OCD coach, that is almost unbeatable in a league competition, if he has the most money. His tactics and personal nature combined with the most money are very conductive to beating up on smaller teams, which is the key to winning league titles.  I think he has won the league title in three different countries, overall 10 of 13 in all his years as a head coach.

We have a great coach. We have a great young squad. We still have amazing talent coming through in Gallagher, Livramento (if you want him back), Gilmour and others.

I know the fire/hire approach has been successful for Roman, but can we just let this season played out before we have another meltdown. Unless the meltdown leads to throwing 250M at Bellingham/Haaland, then I´m cool. 😉

 

46 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Jesus that's appalling !

They blame covid, but that seems to have accounted for £46.8m loss on match day revenue vs a normal year, and £16.8m lower commercial revenue. Seeing as both of those are more than offset by a massive increase in TV money (£182.5m to £273.6m), what the F is going on ? Have wages spiralled out of control that much ???

Tell you what it’s for 2020/21, and reflects our big window under Lamps. We only sold 2 players for £28m, that coupled with the pandemic makes the numbers look worse than then are. Next year’s figures should look slightly better as we offset our big signing in Lukaku by making £105m worth of sales.

Next few windows might be interesting though as we don’t really have any one bar Emerson to sell, but Drinkwater will be coming off the books. From a financial standpoint would have made sense to sell Christensen & Rudiger last summer to squeeze something out of the market. Looking at those wages figures you can kind of see why the club might be reluctant to meet his demands, as those numbers are slightly getting out of hand. Probably makes more sense to spend big on a younger player in Kounde on lower wages than Rudiger’s demands. Issue is we need to replace Azpi and Christensen also. I just can’t see the club signing more than 4  big players in the Jan & Summer windows, 3 defenders and a midfielder with Roman picking up the tab. Would that be enough for Tuchel & his 3-5-2? I really don’t think so as I personally feel he needs 2 LCBs, 1 CB, 1 RCB and a RB in defence alone assuming 3 leave and we retain 5. That might just hasten a switch back to a back 4.
 

You would hope fans see the bigger picture and not moan that the club isn’t backing the manager.

 

Handled it very well, as usual. 

Now we need to see a statement performance against Liverpool. 

 

55 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Jesus that's appalling !

They blame covid, but that seems to have accounted for £46.8m loss on match day revenue vs a normal year, and £16.8m lower commercial revenue. Seeing as both of those are more than offset by a massive increase in TV money (£182.5m to £273.6m), what the F is going on ? Have wages spiralled out of control that much ???

We definitely need to seriously look at where the money is spent. So far we've spent about £200m on attacking players to improve us, and we have barely improved from Lampards first season so far. Granted injuries and Covid isn't ideal, but so much money has been wasted on average players at this club, and this has been going on since Mourinho came back.

Drinkwater, Barkley, Bakayoko, Zappacosta, Morata, Baba Rahman, Luiz, Alonso, Emerson, the list goes on. The problem is with Chelsea is the hiring and firing of managers doesn't help to keep a system in place, so we are constantly needing new players for different systems. Liverpool and Man City have kept their systems in place for the last 4/5 seasons, which helps massively. 

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Jesus that's appalling !

They blame covid, but that seems to have accounted for £46.8m loss on match day revenue vs a normal year, and £16.8m lower commercial revenue. Seeing as both of those are more than offset by a massive increase in TV money (£182.5m to £273.6m), what the F is going on ? Have wages spiralled out of control that much ???

Here is the clubs view: 

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2021/12/30/chelsea-fc-financial-results

They seem to think without the virus the revenue would have exceeded the £500m mark and so been in the black.

Though that was a CL winning year and we sold players too.......

On the good news both Broja and Gallager look quality and might save us some heavy investment allowing us to sell on one or two.

Chalobah also looks good to date so the academy appears to be finally showing signs of delivering.

 

 

Unless we have a serious downturn in performance in the new year, I think dismissing Tuchel under any other circumstances would be very harsh especially in light of Covid and the growing injury list.

We can't keeping changing coaches on a whim, and Tuchel is one of the best coaches in the world at the moment. There isn't many better than him.

I think a successful season from now until the end of the season is finishing either 2nd or 3rd (City will win the title) and hopefully picking up some silverware (FA Cup, League Cup or Club World Cup) and having a decent run in the CL knockouts stages. At a minimum, top 4 is essential.

My concern is we'll be dragged into a top 4 dogfight like we have in previous seasons, so 80+ points in the PL would be a good return for a side that's barely scraped 70 points in the last few years. Even 75 points should be enough to get us top 4.

Given the injuries to James and Chilwell I wonder if Tuchel will deviate away from playing 3 at the back?

CHO and Pulisic have struggled playing at wing back and Alonso hasn't looked too good since the Chilwell injury either. 

I wonder if playing a back 4 will better suit the players because right now we're playing a lot of square pegs in round holes which seems counter intuitive to why we started playing three at the back in the first place.

46 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Tell you what it’s for 2020/21, and reflects our big window under Lamps. We only sold 2 players for £28m, that coupled with the pandemic makes the numbers look worse than then are. Next year’s figures should look slightly better as we offset our big signing in Lukaku by making £105m worth of sales.

Next few windows might be interesting though as we don’t really have any one bar Emerson to sell, but Drinkwater will be coming off the books. From a financial standpoint would have made sense to sell Christensen & Rudiger last summer to squeeze something out of the market. Looking at those wages figures you can kind of see why the club might be reluctant to meet his demands, as those numbers are slightly getting out of hand. Probably makes more sense to spend big on a younger player in Kounde on lower wages than Rudiger’s demands. Issue is we need to replace Azpi and Christensen also. I just can’t see the club signing more than 4  big players in the Jan & Summer windows, 3 defenders and a midfielder with Roman picking up the tab. Would that be enough for Tuchel & his 3-5-2? I really don’t think so as I personally feel he needs 2 LCBs, 1 CB, 1 RCB and a RB in defence alone assuming 3 leave and we retain 5. That might just hasten a switch back to a back 4.
 

You would hope fans see the bigger picture and not moan that the club isn’t backing the manager.

Some good points.

How is this leaving us from the FFP perspective ?

• Year Ending 30/06/2016 : loss of £70.6m
• Year Ending 30/06/2017 : profit of £15.3m
• Year Ending 30/06/2018 : profit of £62.0m
• Year Ending 30/06/2019 : loss of £96.6m
• Year Ending 30/06/2020 : profit of £32.5m 
• Year Ending 30/06/2021 : loss of £153.4m

Certainly nothing to suggest here that we can splash out big time for TT in the transfer market, despite the huge surplus on player transfers last summer ... ?

Are we actually as "well run" as we have tended to think ? We are running at a £211m cumulative LOSS over the last 6 years ... and that's a lot worse than Victoria Beckham LOL

Are the FFP still a thing? Cause if we can't spend much in the summer we won't be able to rebuild after T.Silva, Rudiger, Christensen and Azpilicueta leave for free.

29 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Are the FFP still a thing? Cause if we can't spend much in the summer we won't be able to rebuild after T.Silva, Rudiger, Christensen and Azpilicueta leave for free.

I bloody hope not !

Kounde £60M, Szalai £20M, Colwill £0 might be the minimum we'd get away with, if we go to a back 4 (with Chalobah as the other CB, and possibly Ampadu in the squad as well)

I think TT needs to be careful here else - none of his forwards are shining and they were the cream of Europe; he is constantly playing players out of position.

I am sure  havertz/mount prefer the 10 role than being out wide or upfront.

the pulisic and CHO experiment of playing as wingbacks is not making sense.

while lukaku needs to be chastised for a needless interview we may end up with more than a few unhappy forwards.

2 hours ago, Jangz said:

I think TT needs to be careful here else - none of his forwards are shining and they were the cream of Europe; he is constantly playing players out of position.

I am sure  havertz/mount prefer the 10 role than being out wide or upfront.

the pulisic and CHO experiment of playing as wingbacks is not making sense.

while lukaku needs to be chastised for a needless interview we may end up with more than a few unhappy forwards.

To be fair here Tuchel has only played CHO and Pulisic as Wingbacks due to the injury/covid crisis. He doesn't really have many other options in those positions. However under the circumstances I think he may have to consider a different system. He is most likely going to be short on natural wing backs for the rest of this season so it may be more practical to switch to a back 4. That being said Alonso has never convinced in a back 4 so that brings its own problems.

2 hours ago, Jangz said:

I think TT needs to be careful here else - none of his forwards are shining and they were the cream of Europe; he is constantly playing players out of position.

I am sure  havertz/mount prefer the 10 role than being out wide or upfront.

the pulisic and CHO experiment of playing as wingbacks is not making sense.

while lukaku needs to be chastised for a needless interview we may end up with more than a few unhappy forwards.

If he can somehow solve that puzzle and get the best out of Mount and Havertz while they are on the pitch at the same time, he's the best manager in the world.

39 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

If he can somehow solve that puzzle and get the best out of Mount and Havertz while they are on the pitch at the same time, he's the best manager in the world.

I thought Mount/Havertz/Timo worked quite well last season - with a lot of room of improvement ofc. But with Rom in the mix it‘s not that easy to find a good combo while rotating too to keep em all „happy“

Don‘t think FFP is nearly as strict right now as it was before Covid.

 

-

I rather we play a high line with Pulisic as RWB and/or CHO instead of seeing…who‘s left again to play there? Not a lot we can do about it. That said, if we can keep our three CMs fit + our forwards I‘m not totally pessismistic come January fixtures. Sure, we‘re out of the title race but that was always highly theoretical this season imo from the get go. We need to make sure to keep our distance to 4th place and not losing more players to injuries than I‘m slightly optimistic. 

Edited December 31, 20214 yr by weetee

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

If he can somehow solve that puzzle and get the best out of Mount and Havertz while they are on the pitch at the same time, he's the best manager in the world.

No he isn’t! I think we fans tend to get carried away.

11 minutes ago, ducavis said:

No he isn’t! I think we fans tend to get carried away.

I disagree Thomas Tuchel is currently the best manager in the world. First manager to go back to back ucl finals with 2 different teams. Took us from 9th which was actually 10th by time we kicked off vs Wolves. Two finals in under 5 months, 2 trophies in half a year. Misfiring players before he implemented his system and still made us the King's of Europe, players that still continue to misfire btw. 

Pep and Klopp are definitely the benchmark but for the past 12 months to say Tuchel wasn't the best coach in the world is a disservice to his work.

11 minutes ago, ducavis said:

No he isn’t! I think we fans tend to get carried away.

I disagree Thomas Tuchel is currently the best manager in the world. First manager to go back to back ucl finals with 2 different teams. Took us from 9th which was actually 10th by time we kicked off vs Wolves. Two finals in under 5 months, 2 trophies in half a year. Misfiring players before he implemented his system and still made us the King's of Europe, players that still continue to misfire btw. 

Pep and Klopp are definitely the benchmark but for the past 12 months to say Tuchel wasn't the best coach in the world is a disservice to his work.

5 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Are the FFP still a thing? Cause if we can't spend much in the summer we won't be able to rebuild after T.Silva, Rudiger, Christensen and Azpilicueta leave for free.

They relaxed FFP because of Covid and haven't really done anything since. The last I heard was that they were going to make changes to it before bringing it back.