6 hours ago, PhilH930 said:

I'm growing concerned about TT.  It's quite a leap for a coach when they start making comments like (and I'm paraphrasing) "with the same group of players, why would you expect different outcome".  There is a negative energy in the team that shouldn't be there following the takeover - the cloud has been lifted.

TT needs some downtime, but after that preseason tour, and with the season starting in just over a week, the rags are showing pics of him on holiday.  Hopefully the break chills him out a little and gets him focused.

Tuchel has done it a couple of times before, a prime other example would be the defeat also to Arsenal in his first half season when he openly stated he f**ked up the lineup (pretty much telling the rotated players they didn't deserve to start).

The trick with the "throwing the squad under the bus" thing is it's done in moderation, even Sarri got something of a response (all be it via a couple of thrashings) when he done it. It's when it starts becoming the default setting things become an issue, Jose and Lampard crossed that line, hopefully TT stays on the right side of it.

7 hours ago, JM7 said:

The mood in the camp before the Kounde saga was apparently really positive. Squad were upbeat 

If missing out on one signing, even a good player like Kounde, shatters moral to such a degree as to produce such an inspid display, then serious questions need to be asked of them and their own belief in each other.

Interesting comment by Liam Twomey:

”Kounde isn’t as big a blow as Raphinha was. Tuchel was never as personally sold on him as others were at Chelsea - which is why De Ligt and Koulibaly were prioritised as soon as he began directing recruitment under Boehly/Clearlake #CFC

Aside from the allure of Barca, it’s also easy to understand why Kounde might reject Chelsea; having built his hopes up before pulling out over price late last summer, they’ve kept him and Sevilla waiting for weeks this time around while pursuing other CBs #CFC

Ultimately the most damaging thing about this for Chelsea, as with Raphinha, is they’ve wasted a lot of time. Preseason is already short, the squad still needs significant surgery and Tuchel needs time to work with signings #CFC”

2 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Interesting comment by Liam Twomey:

”Kounde isn’t as big a blow as Raphinha was. Tuchel was never as personally sold on him as others were at Chelsea - which is why De Ligt and Koulibaly were prioritised as soon as he began directing recruitment under Boehly/Clearlake #CFC

Aside from the allure of Barca, it’s also easy to understand why Kounde might reject Chelsea; having built his hopes up before pulling out over price late last summer, they’ve kept him and Sevilla waiting for weeks this time around while pursuing other CBs #CFC

Ultimately the most damaging thing about this for Chelsea, as with Raphinha, is they’ve wasted a lot of time. Preseason is already short, the squad still needs significant surgery and Tuchel needs time to work with signings #CFC”

Prioritising Ake over Kounde is one of the worst mistakes a club has ever made.

Imagine being a top centre back and signing for a club that wanted Ake before you.

33 minutes ago, HazardousChoice said:

Prioritising Ake over Kounde is one of the worst mistakes a club has ever made.

Imagine being a top centre back and signing for a club that wanted Ake before you.

How about Pulisic tho

Well to be fair, if it's true that Tuchel was affected by the loss of Raphinha it means that he's very well aware of the frontline failing last season and he's clearly worried about how it will work out now. It shows that the Sterling signing isn't the total solution for him. Our biggest problem is the fact that part from Mount, our attacking players (mainly wingers) simply don't deliver and the fact that he wanted both Sterling and Raphinha shows what we all saw, our frontline was by a large part unable to break down defenses and to finish chances last season.

Our number #10 and number #11 have 10 PL goals per season put together for the past 2 seasons, that's pretty bad. One of the most overrated PL players if you ask me is Zaha, but he alone outscored out #10&#11 for 2 seasons in a row.
Let's face it, Werner and Pulisic have been underwhelming at the very least as much as Morata was and yet they are still here. Replacements for Hazard/Pedro/Willian didn't work out and it's a miracle that we, being one of the worst teams when it comes down to the frontline scoring, managed to finish top 4 last season.

21 minutes ago, Amputechture said:

How about Pulisic tho

I'd swap him for Ake.

24 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Well to be fair, if it's true that Tuchel was affected by the loss of Raphinha it means that he's very well aware of the frontline failing last season and he's clearly worried about how it will work out now. It shows that the Sterling signing isn't the total solution for him. Our biggest problem is the fact that part from Mount, our attacking players (mainly wingers) simply don't deliver and the fact that he wanted both Sterling and Raphinha shows what we all saw, our frontline was by a large part unable to break down defenses and to finish chances last season.

Our number #10 and number #11 have 10 PL goals per season put together for the past 2 seasons, that's pretty bad. One of the most overrated PL players if you ask me is Zaha, but he alone outscored out #10&#11 for 2 seasons in a row.
Let's face it, Werner and Pulisic have been underwhelming at the very least as much as Morata was and yet they are still here. Replacements for Hazard/Pedro/Willian didn't work out and it's a miracle that we, being one of the worst teams when it comes down to the frontline scoring, managed to finish top 4 last season.

And yet everything has been about defenders and no links to any forwards after we missed out on Raphinha 

4 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

And yet everything has been about defenders and no links to any forwards after we missed out on Raphinha 

Which could also show just how much of a blow that has been. After all if all had gotten our way, this transfer window would have been somewhat in the order of:

1. Raphinha

2. Sterling

3. Koulibaly

4. Kounde

So it should be alarming that we simply have no other target in mind after Raphinha didn’t work out.

9 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Which could also show just how much of a blow that has been. After all if all had gotten our way, this transfer window would have been somewhat in the order of:

1. Raphinha

2. Sterling

3. Koulibaly

4. Kounde

So it should be alarming that we simply have no other target in mind after Raphinha didn’t work out.

That is what I am saying. It was public knowledge Raphinha wanted Barca and that Barca would have activated his relegation clause had Leeds gone down. As they did not it took them longer but we messed about for weeks on him when he had no intention to come here and we still have not found a similar target despite all the time since. Whereas defense wise we went from De Ligt, to Ake, to Koulibaly, to Kimpembe, to Kounde and now to Fofana. Yet nobody else after Raphinha? Why he is good but he is not Ronaldinho!

 

Though your list is wrong gol as we wanted De Ligt and Koulibaly, TT is widely reported to have not wanted Kounde and was still not sold on him coming here 

4 hours ago, axman2526 said:

That is what I am saying. It was public knowledge Raphinha wanted Barca and that Barca would have activated his relegation clause had Leeds gone down. As they did not it took them longer but we messed about for weeks on him when he had no intention to come here and we still have not found a similar target despite all the time since. Whereas defense wise we went from De Ligt, to Ake, to Koulibaly, to Kimpembe, to Kounde and now to Fofana. Yet nobody else after Raphinha? Why he is good but he is not Ronaldinho!

 

Though your list is wrong gol as we wanted De Ligt and Koulibaly, TT is widely reported to have not wanted Kounde and was still not sold on him coming here 

Don't think that's true. No doubt he wanted to go to Barca above us, but earlier in the summer they were in no position to compete for big money signings, and the story was he'd have gladly come to us if Barca had been unable to rejig their finances.

1 hour ago, Backbiter said:

Don't think that's true. No doubt he wanted to go to Barca above us, but earlier in the summer they were in no position to compete for big money signings, and the story was he'd have gladly come to us if Barca had been unable to rejig their finances.

We were his back up, but I reckon he would have given Barca to the last day of the window to make it happen.

6 hours ago, axman2526 said:

That is what I am saying. It was public knowledge Raphinha wanted Barca and that Barca would have activated his relegation clause had Leeds gone down. As they did not it took them longer but we messed about for weeks on him when he had no intention to come here and we still have not found a similar target despite all the time since. Whereas defense wise we went from De Ligt, to Ake, to Koulibaly, to Kimpembe, to Kounde and now to Fofana. Yet nobody else after Raphinha? Why he is good but he is not Ronaldinho!

 

Though your list is wrong gol as we wanted De Ligt and Koulibaly, TT is widely reported to have not wanted Kounde and was still not sold on him coming here 

He was after Richarlison before he went to Spurs though, who had concerns because he didn’t want to play as a WB. I reckon Raphinha had the same reservations also. He has also said he wanted his attacking option to be able to cover as a WB.

I am not sure you would find any quality attacking option keen on moonlighting as a WB, there will also be concerns about his system and his inability to get his current options performing. Let’s be honest, players do talk with each other. Yesterday there was a link to Zaha, which underlines how dire the situation is. Won’t be surprised if he ends up going for Adama Toure as his winger/WB hybrid.

17 minutes ago, ducavis said:

He was after Richarlison before he went to Spurs though, who had concerns because he didn’t want to play as a WB. I reckon Raphinha had the same reservations also. He has also said he wanted his attacking option to be able to cover as a WB.

I am not sure you would find any quality attacking option keen on moonlighting as a WB, there will also be concerns about his system and his inability to get his current options performing. Let’s be honest, players do talk with each other. Yesterday there was a link to Zaha, which underlines how dire the situation is. Won’t be surprised if he ends up going for Adama Toure as his winger/WB hybrid.

Yeah rumour is why tried to gazump Spurs but left it too late.

Not that it has any footballing relevance but he has got a new missus.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11059503/Thomas-Tuchel-new-girlfriend-Natalie-Max-soak-sun-Sardinia-holiday.html

6 hours ago, ducavis said:

He was after Richarlison before he went to Spurs though, who had concerns because he didn’t want to play as a WB. I reckon Raphinha had the same reservations also. He has also said he wanted his attacking option to be able to cover as a WB.

I am not sure you would find any quality attacking option keen on moonlighting as a WB, 

Same we got rid of Victor Moses. He could have done a decent job for us I reckon ... always felt he was very under-rated.

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Same we got rid of Victor Moses. He could have done a decent job for us I reckon ... always felt he was very under-rated.

He was superb for a season under Conte. 

All I want is an end to endless possession and recycling back and forth in front of the opposition.

Let's play open attractive football, we are still a decent cup team, and if we can't finish too 4 , drop down out of Europa league postions. 

Use the Academy, we won't get relegated, something I couldn't have said many years ago !

win or lose up the BLUES

34 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Let's play open attractive football, we are still a decent cup team, and if we can't finish too 4 , drop down out of Europa league postions. 

This might be the dumbest thing I've ever read and I've read people say Pulisic is a top talent.

Hopefully no one at the club has this mindset.

We all want to see good football and our football has been turgid as of late but it's a results business.  We don't want to be Arsenal and play some fantastic stuff but get whipped every other week.

Our pragmatic approach is the reason we've done so well in cup competitions and established ourselves as the closest team in England to City/Liverpool. 

It's hard for Tuchel to play free flowing football with such an untalented wet of attackers.  If we want better football and better results we need new attacking players not a new tactical set up.

Edited July 29, 20223 yr by HazardousChoice

According to Monchi of Sevilla Todd had agreed a deal with them and Kounde the kounde was ready to jet out for a medical and sign, only for TT to question if he was the profile he wanted and shut down the deal.

So not snubbed for Barca this time, we turned down the signing. I guess TT is not so desperate for a defender that he was willing to accept Kounde.

What ?

everyone I know was happy when we dropped out of Europa when we finished 10th !

And Pulisic is a top.player, our turgid slow build up doesn't do any favours, and

wait till Sterling fits into endless ball al rotation to see what our style does to talent.

Thanks for the accolade though , I've won a trophy already !

See ya

 

 

As much as I appreciate Roman for what he did, he left us in a sh*t situation. I mean we've won the league twice in over a decade. Pathetic for a club who is supposedly ambitious. We won the league under Conte and dropped out of top four. How does that happen?!

Would never happen to Man City as they have ambition to challenge after they win the league. Absolutely mental how we never capitalised on winning the league. Both with Mourinho second stint and Conte, we won the league and then next season fell out of top four. The mind boggles. 

13 hours ago, enigma said:

As much as I appreciate Roman for what he did, he left us in a sh*t situation. I mean we've won the league twice in over a decade. Pathetic for a club who is supposedly ambitious. We won the league under Conte and dropped out of top four. How does that happen?!

Would never happen to Man City as they have ambition to challenge after they win the league. Absolutely mental how we never capitalised on winning the league. Both with Mourinho second stint and Conte, we won the league and then next season fell out of top four. The mind boggles. 

That's not Roman's fault though when you think about it.

14 hours ago, enigma said:

As much as I appreciate Roman for what he did, he left us in a sh*t situation. I mean we've won the league twice in over a decade. Pathetic for a club who is supposedly ambitious. We won the league under Conte and dropped out of top four. How does that happen?!

Would never happen to Man City as they have ambition to challenge after they win the league. Absolutely mental how we never capitalised on winning the league. Both with Mourinho second stint and Conte, we won the league and then next season fell out of top four. The mind boggles. 

Helps that City lucked out on getting the perfect manager. Roman never did  but you have to applaud him for getting managers in who got the club some success, but also knowing when to let go of managers.

I think he hit the reset button with Sarri & Lampard, and was willing to take a long term approach but the job came too early for Lamps.

 

1 hour ago, ducavis said:

Helps that City lucked out on getting the perfect manager. Roman never did  but you have to applaud him for getting managers in who got the club some success, but also knowing when to let go of managers.

I think he hit the reset button with Sarri & Lampard, and was willing to take a long term approach but the job came too early for Lamps.

 

I think the problem was letting go of managers. We never had a settled coach or system.