The higher the price, the bigger the ego. We never have problems like this from our home grown. They know which side their bread is buttered on.

16 minutes ago, Jezz said:

I’ve never seen a player sabotage his own career the way Lukaku has.

I was going to say something similar. Imagine being in his position with everything going for him. Life/money/location/top club and just throwing it in the dirt because he can't be arsed enough/too difficult compared to playing in Italy.

Such a waste. Wish we'd never re-signed him.

Edited January 2, 20224 yr by Luca Vialli

4 minutes ago, coco said:

The higher the price, the bigger the ego. We never have problems like this from our home grown. They know which side their bread is buttered on.

CHO was angling to leave, until we massively overpaid him. 

The only thing I hate about this the most is that Man Utd. must be laughing their assess off at us right now for re-signing this dickwad.

This seems like lose lose to me. We either get completely stung yet again on another striker or Tuchel gets the boot or walks if the club management consider the finances as priority. And after the losses just announced, that’s a real possibility.

I propose we sell or just chuck Werner and Lukaku in a skip and never ever sign a striker again - EVER! We’ve had many fullbacks that score more than our strikers ever do.

17 minutes ago, coco said:

This isn't Tuchel v Lukaku, it's Chelsea v Lukaku.

I hope you are right Coco, and I hope the Board agrees too !

1 hour ago, ducavis said:

Dropping Foden & Grealish can’t be compared to dropping a Lukaku. Foden is a player Pep gave a chance to from the youth team, and Grealish has just made a move to a big team from a smaller one. I would draw parallels with the Salah situation at Liverpool. Salah through his agent has been demanding to be made the highest player in the league, wages the club can’t afford. His agent has been publicly inviting offers from the biggest clubs at Europe but no one is biting because of the fees Liverpool will demand. Klopp has kept a lid on things by not dropping him or criticising him because he doesn’t want to risk upsetting Salah.

In the modern game players have more power than managers, and he wouldn’t be the 1st to do it. Drogba did it, Costa acted up also. Even further afield, Ronaldo & Messi always acted up annually when they demanded improved contracts from their respective clubs. These big players don’t want to compete for a place, and are always demanding more money. The trick is handle it internally in the short run, and come to an arrangement with them that doesn’t derail your season.  

See, that's the whole point. If, for example, that fake story about Lukaku and Pulisic falling out was true, the club could, and should have dealt with it internally. The problem with Lukaku's interview is that the moment this idiot opened his gob in front of a camera it became a public issue and you can't keep it in-house. He disrespected the club/manager publicly, so the cat's out of the bag, so to speak, the whole world is aware of it, it's not just some rumour about something that may or may not have happened in Chelsea training or inside the dressing room, it's an interview that everyone and their mother by now has watched and discussed. 

Of course, we could just continue playing him and issue a statement saying we've dealt with it internally, but all that'll do is show that we're weak and backed down and in the long term it would absolutely destroy the club's reputation.

Jimmy's telling it the way it is.

 

1 hour ago, ducavis said:

Dropping Foden & Grealish can’t be compared to dropping a Lukaku. Foden is a player Pep gave a chance to from the youth team, and Grealish has just made a move to a big team from a smaller one. I would draw parallels with the Salah situation at Liverpool. Salah through his agent has been demanding to be made the highest player in the league, wages the club can’t afford. His agent has been publicly inviting offers from the biggest clubs at Europe but no one is biting because of the fees Liverpool will demand. Klopp has kept a lid on things by not dropping him or criticising him because he doesn’t want to risk upsetting Salah.

In the modern game players have more power than managers, and he wouldn’t be the 1st to do it. Drogba did it, Costa acted up also. Even further afield, Ronaldo & Messi always acted up annually when they demanded improved contracts from their respective clubs. These big players don’t want to compete for a place, and are always demanding more money. The trick is handle it internally in the short run, and come to an arrangement with them that doesn’t derail your season.  

Exactly. If Lukaku has indeed been dropped from today's squad because of this, in the spirit of "we'll show him who's boss", I don't expect a chastened player, but a resentful player. Handling conflicts away from the public gaze is preferable, and face saving. If he really wants to go, the deal could be that he's promised a summer move (if a buyer comes along) as long as he keeps his head down and plays out of his skin. At least you get some return on your investment, instead of possibly none, for instance when he has to train with the reserve squad.

Several ways to mishandle the situation... it might turn out to become a situation where the desire to prevent the so-called player power, the player is having the last laugh.

I still can't be bothered about the interview, but if this gets mishandled as it might, the genie is out of the bottle, and we're without a player who can score a few goals.

4 minutes ago, abramovich said:

Jimmy's telling it the way it is.

 

Anti-Chelsea agenda in full viewing there at the beginning of the clip. See how the Sky presenter sets the agenda by defending Lukaku and not even going into any detail about what he said aside from pacifying Inter fans, what a joke. 😅

22 minutes ago, Dean said:

Standing my ground here, my friend! 🙂 I think we’ll pull through this. Title challenge may have been too much to ask for first season in charge, and I got ahead of myself . But I think TT is the real deal and will be here. While I’m at it, just for the record:

- I don’t think there is a “tradition” of player power at Chelsea as such. It’s more a coincidence - a byproduct of subpar managers. Players weren’t happy with the manager but that’s not the reason they were fired. They were fired coz not good enough.

- there’s a qualitative difference between TT and the various other managers that got the boot, and I think Roman recognises this.

I do accept that this could all change. TT could lose control and the downward spiral starts. But I’m not going there halfway into his full season in charge, when half the team is injured / unavailable and we have this Lukaku mess. 

Hope you are right. However the manager has always been expendable since Roman came in, more often than not to great success.

This tosspot will never back down and apologize. He has never apologized to anyone throughout his career.

A reunion with Conte on the cards perhaps? And we sign Kane?

This could well end Tuchel's tenure. Probably not in the minute but if go on a losing streak as we can't score in games Tuchel will get all the pressure. 

All this because one player said something.

Some say Lukaku has sabohis career. His Chelsea career likely however the club cannot stop paying him. All he has to do is show up, he can play like cr@p, he can do a Bogarde, and we now are in situation where his value is a massive drop and we sell to get rid or have to pay him for 4 and a half years as our top earner while getting no return.

He could refusal all transfers except Inter meaning Inter could pay what they want and we either take it or pay him to be useless or not play. That is if Inter take him back.

He can say what he wants to the media, if he shows up for training, even in the reserves, he costs the club a continued fortune. He is in a far better situation that TT or the club as qe are not run like City to eat that cost.

1 minute ago, evissy said:

This could well end Tuchel's tenure. Probably not in the minute but if go on a losing streak as we can't score in games Tuchel will get all the pressure. 

All this because one player said something.

Exactly this I fear. Cause without Lukaku we draw at Villa and lose to Brighton. 

When Lukaku has finally retired, it's going to hurt like hell that he won't be a legend at ANY club he has ever played at ... and deservedly so.

The contrast to the likes of JFH and Didier is night and day ... 

43 minutes ago, abramovich said:

See, that's the whole point. If, for example, that fake story about Lukaku and Pulisic falling out was true, the club could, and should have dealt with it internally. The problem with Lukaku's interview is that the moment this idiot opened his gob in front of a camera it became a public issue and you can't keep it in-house. He disrespected the club/manager publicly, so the cat's out of the bag, so to speak, the whole world is aware of it, it's not just some rumour about something that may or may not have happened in Chelsea training or inside the dressing room, it's an interview that everyone and their mother by now has watched and discussed. 

Of course, we could just continue playing him and issue a statement saying we've dealt with it internally, but all that'll do is show that we're weak and backed down and in the long term it would absolutely destroy the club's reputation.

If you want to present this in terms of weak and strong, the so-called strong approach isn't necessarily the best approach for the club. If it had been downplayed from the start - a much more neutral response by Tuchel for instance - it would have set the stage for an internal solution.

As it is, I would not frame this in loaded terms like weak/strong or disrespectful, as these are not helpful at all. On the contrary, they will invoke a response from which it is hard to climb down. It's all very well to feel righteous indignation and occupy the moral high ground, but it's generally a strategy that leaves you with a Pyrrhic victory, if not completely empty-handed.

 

Edited January 2, 20224 yr by Valerie

This is apparently the interview.

So he said he is not happy because he is not playing. That is fine by me.

He said he wants to go back to Inter at one point of his career. He liked it back there. This is a bit touchy after we paid almost 100m for him.

Anyway he should have just been quiet about things but nothing major in my mind.

 

16 minutes ago, evissy said:

This is apparently the interview.

So he said he is not happy because he is not playing. That is fine by me.

He said he wants to go back to Inter at one point of his career. He liked it back there. This is a bit touchy after we paid almost 100m for him.

Anyway he should have just been quiet about things but nothing major in my mind.

 

Is that really the full interview? Feels a bit weird that his answer to how are you doing suddenly includes things like "because I spent two years in Italy"

I feel this is only likely to end one of 2 ways:

1) We manage to get through this spell without Lukaku and re-find our form. The club finds a buyer for Lukaku and recoups some of the money but ultimately absorbs a loss and moves on.

2) Our struggles continue on the pitch with the Lukaku drama opening up divisions in the squad. TT leaves or is fired. A new manager comes in and Lukaku gets a fresh start. Presumably the atmosphere would be highly toxic towards Lukaku under those circumstances too.

There is a third option which I really hope is possible. That would be for Lukaku to accept his punishment, publicly apologize, and work his way back into the team quickly. That would be the best outcome we can hope for. However based on Lukaku's history this looks highly unlikely.

 

2 minutes ago, forbzy said:

I feel this is only likely to end one of 2 ways:

1) We manage to get through this spell without Lukaku and re-find our form. The club finds a buyer for Lukaku and recoups some of the money but ultimately absorbs a loss and moves on.

2) Our struggles continue on the pitch with the Lukaku drama opening up divisions in the squad. TT leaves or is fired. A new manager comes in and Lukaku gets a fresh start. Presumably the atmosphere would be highly toxic towards Lukaku under those circumstances too.

There is a third option which I really hope is possible. That would be for Lukaku to accept his punishment, publicly apologize, and work his way back into the team quickly. That would be the best outcome we can hope for. However based on Lukaku's history this looks highly unlikely.

 

For sure number 2. Unless Roman accepts a huge loss on Rom. Our best hope is Inter actually would take him back and would swap a couple of players, I.e. a defender and midfielder thst are good players, to get him back.

1 minute ago, Deino said:

Is that really the full interview? Feels a bit weird that his answer to how are you doing suddenly includes things like "because I spent two years in Italy"

For sure heavily edited ... I highly doubt the whole interview was 2 minutes 14 seconds - hardly worth the journalist's effort LOL. Even Rolling Stone's Constance Sack got 5 minutes from Stacee Jaxx ... :-) 

16 minutes ago, Valerie said:

If you want to present this in terms of weak and strong, the so-called strong approach isn't necessarily the best approach for the club. If it had been downplayed from the start - a much more neutral response by Tuchel for instance - it would have set the stage for an internal solution.

As it is, I would not frame this in loaded terms like weak/strong or disrespectful, as these are not helpful at all. On the contrary, they will invoke a response from which it is hard to climb down from. It's all very well to feel righteous indignation and occupy the moral high ground, but it's generally a strategy that leaves you with a Pyrrhic victory, if not completely empty-handed.

 

I don't think you can have an internal solution for this. It's only possible when you control the narrative but the way the whole interview disaster unfolded and because apparently the club was kept in the dark about it, we were forced to play catch-up since the moment it was released.

I understand what you're trying to say about the dangers of a strong responce and how we might be better off handling it quietly. I get it. But I'm afraid you only see the short term gain and completely ignore the long term consequences of 'taking it easy' approach. The club cannot afford to let it slide, we can't back down. Here in this very forum we have been vehemently criticizing the player power problems that plagued this club for years and cost jobs to some of our past managers. This is the worst example of it, because it didn't happen behind closed doors, it's out there for everyone to see, and everyone is looking at us and waiting for the reaction. If it's non-reaction, then it's an open invitation to treat us like banter club.

Can this hurt us in terms of results? Absolutely. But this is the right move under the circumstances, the only move. We should back our manager, I don't see any other way.

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

CHO was angling to leave, until we massively overpaid him. 

They are not similar examples though, CHO was being tempted by an offer from a huge club and used that to get an inflated deal from us, you can't blame him for doing that. Lukaku has hung out the club on the washing line in public.