32 minutes ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Do you think Klopp went to the board and said he wanted Dias or Tsimikas? 

We need a better scouting department to get players that fit the managers play style. Too often we have players that have no right being in our team. Looking at what i've seen, it looks like Boehly is going to bring a more statistic driven scouting setup to Chelsea, similar to what they do at LA Dodgers and similar to Liverpool's.

Brentford have been operating like this as well - very impressively it must be said, considering their resources ...

Personally I find the whole "Moneyball" approach quite fascinating ... 

18 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Brentford have been operating like this as well - very impressively it must be said, considering their resources ...

Personally I find the whole "Moneyball" approach quite fascinating ... 

Brentford completely sacked off their academy to do this didn't they? I'm all for it if we sign less high profile players and don't end up with as much egg on our face, so to speak. 

3 hours ago, charierre said:

Tuchel has many times in interviews told us this team needs to play 'on the edge'. We lack the ruthless consistency that City and Liverpool have. Given a choice, we'd have snapped the handoff, anyone, knowing we only need a point from two home games to qualify for the top four. Let's face it, it should be two wins. That said though playing a weakened side like @axman2526 advocates sends out totally the wrong message to the team whose biggest weakness as a group is being too complacent. Hopefully, the Barcodes do us a favour tonight, other than that we need to get the point and then party! 

Is that where we are at now? Partying because we make top 4?

I remember the importance of it decades ago, especially in 2003. Times have changed now though and top party for those reasons seems very Arsenal and Spurs esc. What's next, a DVD of how we almost blew top 4 but saved ourselves at the last?

Particularly when you use our investment as a factor as well, we should not be accepting this level or dropping our standards to this level. 

In spite of everything, for me, this is a disappointing season. 

9 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Is that where we are at now? Partying because we make top 4?

I remember the importance of it decades ago, especially in 2003. Times have changed now though and top party for those reasons seems very Arsenal and Spurs esc. What's next, a DVD of how we almost blew top 4 but saved ourselves at the last?

There are at present two teams who are more consistent than ourselves. Our goal this season was to get closer, we haven’t achieved this but have to make sure we don’t fall further behind. Your suggestion of playing a weakened side suggests we’re already in party mould.

51 minutes ago, charierre said:

There are at present two teams who are more consistent than ourselves. Our goal this season was to get closer, we haven’t achieved this but have to make sure we don’t fall further behind. Your suggestion of playing a weakened side suggests we’re already in party mould.

Not party mode, more turning our focus to the next season and not using players who for sure won't be with us next season.

This tweet sums it up. Despite all the money we’ve thrown at it, we haven’t been smart in transfers business and contract renewals. City and Liverpool recently rarely make a mistake in the transfer windows recently. We have made so many. The fact that we’ve STILL got Barkley, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Rahman etc all still on the books is laughable. 
 

It’s shocking the money that’s needed to reinvest in the first team. 

Bad decision-making on transfers and contracts is probably responsible for just about all of the $1.6 billion that is owed to Roman ... I'm very surprised he never sacked any of his directors !

6 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Bad decision-making on transfers and contracts is probably responsible for just about all of the $1.6 billion that is owed to Roman ... I'm very surprised he never sacked any of his directors !

Because he had the pockets to write them off. Not to mention Marina and co are very close to Roman outside of football. 

The prospect of Boehly being more efficient in the transfermarket is both promising and worrying. 

 

our transfer market after 2017 epl title kill us 

1 hour ago, JM7 said:

This tweet sums it up. Despite all the money we’ve thrown at it, we haven’t been smart in transfers business and contract renewals. City and Liverpool recently rarely make a mistake in the transfer windows recently. We have made so many. The fact that we’ve STILL got Barkley, Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Rahman etc all still on the books is laughable. 
 

It’s shocking the money that’s needed to reinvest in the first team. 

He is right. Which is why the thought of those same people we had under Roman sticking around will mean nothing changes. They need to be sacked, whoever is responsible.

A disappointing season but not a failure imo. I set us 3 tasks since I knew the league would be hard and repeating ucl just as hard. 

Win the super cup✔

Win the CWC for the first time in our history and complete the set✔

Win the FA Cup after 2 previous failures❌

We also made the other domestic cup final but failed. Quaterfinalists in the UCL and 1 point away from top 4. I didn't bother setting top 4 as a target since its a prerequisite for us. 

Considering what we've been through, knowing 1 win in the last two games gets us 3rd is good, yet I would rather us guarantee this prior to the last 2 games, although last season the top 4 race was decided on the last day so it's not too bad.

If we finish 3rd I'll see this as an improvement on last season, whilst we didn't sustain a title charge just like last season we would finish 1 place higher and with more points and a fewer gap to the top 4.

Thus natural progression, is it enough to be happy about? No but considering most teams in our situation would flail under the constant pressure finishing top 4 (ideally 3rd) is a commendable achievement.

I mean we spent 60m on wages and transfer fee on Drinkwater alone. 

That's a sackable offence. 

it was a normal season

we won 2 titles but is hard to accept 2 defeats in cup finals

UCL was OK and in the EPL could be a little better (at least 80 points) but if we considerer all the problems we have (Chilwell, Lukaku, injuries, COVID, Sanctions) it was not so bad...

tuchel won credits to continue at least one more season.

If one of those 2 titles was the charity shield would we be counting that as success? European supercup is just the European version of the community shield. 

CWC was nice to win so we have won it, but we beat 2 poor sides to win it and is a world version of the community shield. 

They are cherries on a cake but if the cake is undercooked and a mess the cherries don't make up for it.

Anyone have a idea as to why the takeover stuff and the sanctions had such a negative effect on our men's team, yet our woman's side went on to win a double double?

Woman being far tougher mentally than men?

32 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Anyone have a idea as to why the takeover stuff and the sanctions had such a negative effect on our men's team, yet our woman's side went on to win a double double?

Woman being far tougher mentally than men?

Wasn't just the sanctions. Since the Sarri era this lot have struggled to maintain consistency throughout the season. Always that November - February slump along with being charity FC throughout the duration of the 2nd half of the season. 

Tuchel was spot on in his presser on Saturday. 

- "Liverpool in their last 5 games couldn't beat us unless it went to penalties. This shows that we can compete and use this kind of peak performances. The difference is that Liverpool can do this Tuesday, Wednesday, and again, and again, and again. We struggle with consistency on that kind of level." 

 

2 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Anyone have a idea as to why the takeover stuff and the sanctions had such a negative effect on our men's team, yet our woman's side went on to win a double double?

Woman being far tougher mentally than men?

I'm guessing the men's team injuries effected their overall performance more. Also the mens strike force is nothing like the women's.

On an unrelated note Newcastle 1-0 up vs Arsenal, anything but a win from the Arteta's boys and we've qualified for UCL via goal difference. 

7 hours ago, charierre said:

There are at present two teams who are more consistent than ourselves. Our goal this season was to get closer, we haven’t achieved this but have to make sure we don’t fall further behind. Your suggestion of playing a weakened side suggests we’re already in party mould.

Top 4 done a dusted as Arsenal blew it today. 

How do you feel about giving Silva extra time off and leaving out AC and Toni now?

8 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Top 4 done a dusted as Arsenal blew it today. 

How do you feel about giving Silva extra time off and leaving out AC and Toni now?

I'm fine with that now!

8 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

Top 4 done a dusted as Arsenal blew it today. 

How do you feel about giving Silva extra time off and leaving out AC and Toni now?

As I said now it’s job done, you can play in goal😂

29 minutes ago, charierre said:

As I said now it’s job done, you can play in goal😂

Nah I will take Roms job for a week. Get paid 325k to barely move while increasing my waistline. Easy money.

9 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I mean we spent 60m on wages and transfer fee on Drinkwater alone. 

That's a sackable offence. 

Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Morata, Zappacosta, Batshuayi, Lukaku, Kepa, Werner, Pulisic, Ziyech and Havertz have cost us a combined £583m in transfer fees alone, let alone wages

 

Sure we sometimes make the money back like with Morata but overall that record over the past 5 years is shocking

57 minutes ago, Drogba1 said:

Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Morata, Zappacosta, Batshuayi, Lukaku, Kepa, Werner, Pulisic, Ziyech and Havertz have cost us a combined £583m in transfer fees alone, let alone wages

 

Sure we sometimes make the money back like with Morata but overall that record over the past 5 years is shocking

And rhe people involved in making these deals happen are still at the club...I hope Todd sees sense....

3 hours ago, Drogba1 said:

Drinkwater, Bakayoko, Morata, Zappacosta, Batshuayi, Lukaku, Kepa, Werner, Pulisic, Ziyech and Havertz have cost us a combined £583m in transfer fees alone, let alone wages

 

Sure we sometimes make the money back like with Morata but overall that record over the past 5 years is shocking

And when you factor in the size of the contracts given out (and the length of them in some cases like Kepa) it makes for even grimmer reading, especially as it means we are effectively stuck with the players for the duration of the huge contracts ... 

Award-winning negotiation skills LOL. Still, she's very easy on the eye !