4 hours ago, axman2526 said:

members of our board are said to be both "furious and embarrassed".

That's probably the key sentence in your post ...

They've overpaid for him, broken our wage structure for him, and in doing so have hugely contributed to the contract shenanigans and level of salary expection with Rudiger and Christensen, in an already bad week when they've had to announce a £153m loss.

Bruised egos in the board room is never good for somebody, and it won't be them that's for sure ...

6 hours ago, wizardous said:

'Our main striker' has to learn to respect this club and its fans. I'd rather watch literally anyone who is willing to leave their heart on the pitch and fight for the badge, no matter how bad they are. We don't need that sort of mentality.

Enough with the righteous indignation we get it you're not happy.

51 minutes ago, Valerie said:

This doesn't make any sense at all. All the talk about a player not being bigger than the club, the perceived lack of respect, preferring the club to end 4th without Lukaku to 2nd with him: if this were even a choice for a supporter, that is exactly making the player bigger than the club, because you're letting him influence the season's result (and the higher prize money that comes with 2nd place). How is that respectful to the club, that needs the reputation of being successful and to show itself to be continuously in contention for silverware, to attract the sort of players that will help do that. In being so 'principled' about this, you can actually shoot yourself in the foot.

 

I'm not sure I follow your logic. Allowing this to go unpunished and moving forward like nothing happened because it may increase our chances to finish higher on the table , what's that supposed to say about us as a club? 

9 hours ago, Term_X said:

Imagine the player power at a club if its stakeholders shared the same view as the organisation, it would become a right circus when players feel comfortable sh*tting on the manager to the world press. City have had a fairly easy life since the Sheikhs came in, they must all get proper media training. We enjoy the circus, maybe the Marketing people here like the ‘engagement’ it brings or something, doubt it helps Tuchel though or helped the other victims. 

City have their players on massive loyalty bonuses, no player will ever come out & risk losing millions. Garcia & Torres never went to the press talking about what an honour it will be to sign for Barca or how bigger the club is than City. They both kept quiet. That needs to be looked into by the club.

29 minutes ago, abramovich said:

I'm not sure I follow your logic. Allowing this to go unpunished and moving forward like nothing happened because it may increase our chances to finish higher on the table , what's that supposed to say about us as a club? 

I do.

We have found it hard to find decent strikers and worse Werner and Havertz seem to be the COV-ID kids not sure why yet unlikely to figure much over the season.

Pulisic up front is not appealing though he would work hard

Would we buy quality in January????

We can always buy time with a statement that the club is considering action against Lukaku and wait for the SB faithful today to react and judge it from there.

Currently sitting third in the league, 1/4s of the league cup with FA Cup and World Club Cup to come.

Handled wrongly and we could fail to make fourth and drop out of all cup competitions, fail to get a good price for Lukaku and likely buying an inferior player.

 

 

 

39 minutes ago, abramovich said:

I'm not sure I follow your logic. Allowing this to go unpunished and moving forward like nothing happened because it may increase our chances to finish higher on the table , what's that supposed to say about us as a club? 

I don't give much importance to a probably skewered interview for a medium that only wants exposure and make money. Apart from the fact that Lukaku probably should not have given this interview, the only reason why it gets so much attention is because some supporters - usually crying out that the media have such an anti-Chelsea bias and nothing they write should be taken at face value - are the ones going on and on about, going into a frenzy and suggesting dropping him or booing him for 90 minutes. They blindly interpret Lukaku's words in the worst possible way, thereby only pouring oil on the flames. 

So no, nothing much has happened in my view. His fellow players probably know all about how words are presented much worse than they were meant, and most likely they are giving Lukaku a lot of stick. His agent and the club should have a word and point out a few realities to him, and advise him to do his talking on the pitch. We need his goals, heaven knows they're hard to come by. All the bluster about what it saying about us as a club is just overreaction, and creating a hysterical mood that is completely over the top.

Edited January 2, 20224 yr by Valerie

3 hours ago, Gol15 said:

OK so let's get baited with the speculation here.

De Ligt is still valued that high? On transfermarkt he's 65m euros. Given he's only 22, that's max 20m more so I would make a random guess of 85m euros.

That would be a nice transfer for us. Imagine trading Lukaku for De Ligt + getting 10-20m cash in the process as well. Then go for Kounde and say goodbye to Christensen and Rudiger that clearly don't want to extend their contracts.

We would get a world class backline:
                  Mendy
James De Ligt Kounde Chilwell

For the midfield, get Gilmour back for more cover.

Then sell Pulisic and Ziyech for 100m in total and get a proper winger that is built for the PL. Smaller squad but better quality and more resilient to the rainy nights in Stoke and muscle breaks.

Havertz took such a long break I forgot how he looks so I'm guessing he should be ready for the second half of the season to play without any big pause or injury.

On paper; Yes sounds like a deal can be made, but Juve are already in the cross hairs of the Italian FA & UEFA for their dodgy swaps involving Cancelo & Danilo for City, and the Arthur + €82m for Pjanic. I can’t see how they will risk any further punishment with these 2 pending cases.

The Transfer is on Tuchel though and I always wondered how he was going to manage to fit a £92m & a £67m forward into 1 single role. In hindsight he should have tried working with Tammy as competition for Havertz, but he had made up his mind once he walked into door.

Seems like he is dropped out of the squad for this game which IMO is probably a bad call. I can’t see a way back for Lukaku now knowing his character, he will demand a move if not this window then the summer one. The club will have to take a hit on his fee because he wants out, and didn’t we double his Inter wages. 

Rom has been omitted from the squad for today's game.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/12507549/romelu-lukaku-chelsea-omit-striker-from-squad-for-liverpool-game-in-premier-league

Edited January 2, 20224 yr by Malcolm9

3 minutes ago, Malcolm9 said:

Rom has been omitted from the squad for today's game.

https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/12507549/romelu-lukaku-chelsea-omit-striker-from-squad-for-liverpool-game-in-premier-league

Well done, right decision.

Shouldn't have dropped him from the squad in my opinion. There are other ways to punish him like wages, forcing him to make a public statement or an apology to the club and fans. Personally, I think this story got bigger than it should have and now that the media have won with us dropping him, it might just bite us in the behind. 

1 hour ago, abramovich said:

I'm not sure I follow your logic. Allowing this to go unpunished and moving forward like nothing happened because it may increase our chances to finish higher on the table , what's that supposed to say about us as 

There is no way he can be in squad today.. For the first time learn from Arsenal to deal with a naughty brat irrespective of how important the player is.

I don't think the club had any other choice. Am I happy with it, no, but no player is bigger than the club  It's a shame as I wanted him to do well here, but you cannot go public like that and expect everything to be all rosie.

3 minutes ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Shouldn't have dropped him from the squad in my opinion. There are other ways to punish him like wages, forcing him to make a public statement or an apology to the club and fans. Personally, I think this story got bigger than it should have and now that the media have won with us dropping him, it might just bite us in the behind. 

how do you know he wasn’t asked to do that and refused.?

we aren’t aware of the full story and i’m happy to trust TT’s judgement on this.

He should want to make a statement especially for the fans but he hasn’t that tells you everything. 

 

Dropped from the squad….

And to think there are people here that see “no problem” with what he said 😅, probably why Tuchel is manager of Chelsea and they are posting on an Internet forum. I just hope the board backs the manager all the way on this one and doesn’t give into to these egos and let player power win again.

Dropped, good. Probably for the best if he’s having wet dreams about Inter.

1 hour ago, bluehaze said:

Enough with the righteous indignation we get it you're not happy.

Lack of arguments usually leads to this. Enjoy your day.

2 minutes ago, Blue Exile said:

Dropped, good. Probably for the best if he’s having wet dreams about Inter.

checked on their forum and most of the fans hate him... and dzeko (free agent) is doing as good a job as Big Rom for them..

7 minutes ago, Malcolm9 said:

I don't think the club had any other choice. Am I happy with it, no, but no player is bigger than the club  It's a shame as I wanted him to do well here, but you cannot go public like that and expect everything to be all rosie.

I would have seen it as noise if it was limited to - i love inter. even if its more than chelsea.. he can love another, no problem.

at the point where he criticized our manager's tactics in a public form in the middle of a tough season - he lost me completely.

“WHatEver He saId is completeLy IrrelevaNt to mE”

”Football FANS tend to be oversensitive Cry BAbies”

”He said NoThing wRong”

”All PLAyer Are MeRcenaries, WhO CarEs”

 

Never a dull moment being a Chelsea fan is there ...and has for the game today I think I'll give it a miss I've suffered enough these last few weeks and to just watch Liverpool bitch slap us at home is more than I can bare...😔

1 minute ago, Term_X said:

Dropped from the squad….

And to think there are people here that see “no problem” with what he said 😅, probably why Tuchel is manager of Chelsea and they are posting on an Internet forum. I just hope the board backs the manager all the way on this one and doesn’t give into to these egos and let player power win again.

Unfortunately, history tells us otherwise, your 'I hope' suggests that you have reservations. Throughout the Abramovich era, there have been leaks of player power and ultimately it's the coach who has paid the price. The decision to drop him is on balance correct, we have a match to win, and taking this circus onto the pitch will not help the team in any shape or form. The atmosphere would likely be quite toxic on the terraces, as it is the fans now can galvanise their energy on driving the team forward. Winning this game is now imperative for Tuchel, big decisions are what he is paid to make though come at a cost if it all goes tits up.

15 minutes ago, Term_X said:

Dropped from the squad….

And to think there are people here that see “no problem” with what he said 😅, probably why Tuchel is manager of Chelsea and they are posting on an Internet forum. I just hope the board backs the manager all the way on this one and doesn’t give into to these egos and let player power win again.

In fairness at the point the club has been all in on a manager they have picked then. Mourinho 'won' the battle with KDB and Luiz, likewise Conte/Costa and Lampard/Luiz.

Even AVB was backed in getting Anelka and Alex out of the squad.

54 minutes ago, Valerie said:

I don't give much importance to a probably skewered interview for a medium that only wants exposure and make money. Apart from the fact that Lukaku probably should not have given this interview, the only reason why it gets so much attention is because some supporters - usually crying out that the media have such an anti-Chelsea bias and nothing they write should be taken at face value - are the ones going on and on about, going into a frenzy and suggesting dropping him or booing him for 90 minutes. They blindly interpret Lukaku's words in the worst possible way, thereby only pouring oil on the flames. 

So no, nothing much has happened in my view. His fellow players probably know all about how words are presented much worse than they were meant, and most likely they are giving Lukaku a lot of stick. His agent and the club should have a word and point out a few realities to him, and advise him to do his talking on the pitch. We need his goals, heaven knows they're hard to come by. All the bluster about what it saying about us as a club is just overreaction, and creating a hysterical mood that is completely over the top.

Well, sorry to hurst your bubble but it’s all real. Tuchel cares, the club cares, and now we have the proof. It’s not a frenzy, or “blindly interpreted” or stupid fans getting their knickers in a twist either. 

Understand it but we will be horrible to watch today without a striker. Its suicide against Liverpool. 

Lukaku has f**ked us and the manager will let the team suffer because of it. No win situation for Tuchel and the club. 

1 minute ago, Argo said:

In fairness at the point the club has been all in on a manager they have picked then. Mourinho 'won' the battle with KDB and Luiz, likewise Conte/Costa and Lampard/Luiz.

Even AVB was backed in getting Anelka and Alex out of the squad.

Unlike with Frank.. Tuchel has got the big characters like Rudiger & Jorginho on side at least. The biggest test will be weathering the storm after defeats as inevitably the talk is going to be about who’s on the bench.