13 hours ago, big blue said:

I'm obviously really happy he is heading towards the exit door. Do I feel the whole number thing is disrespectful? Maybe, but he did release a statement an hour before kick off on the opening game of the season. So he has shown us about as much respect as we have shown him. 

Interesting that has pretty much pissed off every fan base he has left. Possibly says more about him than it does about us. 

Hope goes to Spurs, so he can ruin attacks for them. Usually don't like selling anything to spurs, but he would be a hindrance to any rival team in all honesty.

Maybe Villa or Newcastle would be interested.

Never liked him never wanted him, overrated way, way overpaid and his attitude stinks. Hurry up and go. 

49 minutes ago, terraloon said:

Respect is a two way street. If you think that Sterling who went public did so in a respectful manner then well done. Yes both players were given long term contracts and are well within their rights to “sit it out” but they won’t. Similarly player after player in football have wanted out of their contracts over history just like they change their minds so do clubs. 

As for  it being disrespectful taking  a shirt number off two players who clearly have been told they haven’t a future again  well done. Neither are going to be in the squad sorry there’s a lot of crocodile tears from some simply because they haven’t grasped yet that the football club under RA was from a financial standpoint dysfunctional whereas the new owners will look to move players on in what some call a brutal manner if you think that the solution RAs regime used namely moving players out on loan was any less brutal then go and ask the likes of Drinkwater or maybe even Lukaku then you may gain a better perspective 

Did you feel the same when Lukaku went public or how about Kepa should both of those retained their shirt numbers ? Or should they now reassume the numbers they had before they went out on loan. Footballers, excuse the pun, know the score 

As for Eghbali “ publicly sh*tting”  on RA  sorry I missed that but irrespective the British establishment and press did a pretty good job on that if you realistically thought any new owners would run it in the same way as RA then you clearly misread the signals.

Of course I wish all this wasn’t playing out in public but at this time we are considered to be fare  game by some and maybe it’s justified but as I keep pointing out we are far from the only club that are doing these things and yes it’s Chelsea but as I say it’s crocodile tears from many 

 

 

Under RA we may have been economically dysfunctional but now we are economically AND footballing dysfunctional.

3 minutes ago, RMH said:

Under RA we may have been economically dysfunctional but now we are economically AND footballing dysfunctional.

The dysfunctional way in which RA ran the club was not just restricted to matters financial the current owners may well seem to be economically dysfunctional but without access to the PSR /FFP submissions and indeed not yet knowing how the PL issues they are still having to deal with play out mean we can only look at things subjectively and not yet objectively 

2 hours ago, Term_X said:

Sterling is sh*t mate, get over it. 

He really is. 

13 hours ago, BS66 said:

Is anybody going to buy him though? His book value is around 30m and that would be a big write off if he’s just allowed to leave. If he does and if the other team pays him 150k Chelsea might have to put in the other 175k. Another big write off.
 

If he goes it’s also another homegrown player off the books. 

Someone would probably take a punt on him but without doubt Chelsea are going to take a big hit on him. 

3 hours ago, RMH said:

Under RA we may have been economically dysfunctional but now we are economically AND footballing dysfunctional.

It was only the later part of RA’s ownership that PSR started to bite and we haven’t really contended for a Prem title since our last one in 2017 so when did the footballing dysfunction begin? Had we not won the CL in 2021 would anybody really be happy about the way we played under Tuchel? I thought it was mind-numbing. 

25 minutes ago, BS66 said:

Had we not won the CL in 2021 would anybody really be happy about the way we played under Tuchel?

Had we not won back to back Prems and various other trophies would anybody really be happy about the way we played under Mourinho?

Fact is we did win those trophies and the football is secondary to that.

Sterling is a good player. Was a good player? He is not even that old. He has immense experience. Although he is a good player, he never really fit into Chelsea team/squad. which was not entirely his fault - all those managers and clueless direction. He is leaving - and if he wants to stay in England and play in claret and blue* he shall have to take a significant wage cut and move on. IF he wants to keep earning the big money then he should brush up on his arabic and move on.

 

* Aston Villa or West Ham

7 minutes ago, TheCeleryKing said:

Sterling is a good player. Was a good player? He is not even that old. He has immense experience. Although he is a good player, he never really fit into Chelsea team/squad. which was not entirely his fault - all those managers and clueless direction. He is leaving - and if he wants to stay in England and play in claret and blue* he shall have to take a significant wage cut and move on. IF he wants to keep earning the big money then he should brush up on his arabic and move on.

 

* Aston Villa or West Ham

Would Fulham scratch our back, American owner? 

I feel a little sorry for Stirling tbh. Think it could have all been handled so much better. I thought it was a really odd signing to begin with, couldnt understand it and then the manager goes and the helter-skelter transfer approach was born to which he among others is a victim. Cant imagine you want to keep him hanging around given his statement ahead of the opening game so fingers crossed a club comes in. Good luck for him in future. 

9 minutes ago, bluetrooper said:

Would Fulham scratch our back, American owner? 

I feel a little sorry for Stirling tbh. Think it could have all been handled so much better. I thought it was a really odd signing to begin with, couldnt understand it and then the manager goes and the helter-skelter transfer approach was born to which he among others is a victim. Cant imagine you want to keep him hanging around given his statement ahead of the opening game so fingers crossed a club comes in. Good luck for him in future. 

 

Yeah, I am not down with the Sterling hate – his teammates liked him and he was good to the young kids in our team/squad. It all should be and should have been handled much much better.  But he is leaving and he hast to leave now.

 

IF we are looking for a club with fellow American owners. . . Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Crystal Palace, Fulham, Ipswich Town, Liverpool, Manchester United and part of Man City are all owned by Americans. 

 

 

I can't speak to the quality of indaviduale he is, I don't know him and I'm not around the club. 

 

On a playing level i never wanted him, always saw him as a flat track bully, the kind of player who would do well in an on top team with some seriously speciale players around him, but never the one to be that driver to bring the others up to a higher standered. 

And on a personal level, well I ccan't feel to sorry for him: 

 

Liverpool's Raheem Sterling on strike: ‘He’s getting a reputation’ says Jamie Carragher - Eurosport

1 hour ago, Gordon Bennett said:

Had we not won back to back Prems and various other trophies would anybody really be happy about the way we played under Mourinho?

Fact is we did win those trophies and the football is secondary to that.

If football is secondary to trophies you should let Palace fans know. Their trophy hopes are pretty much non-existent every season but they go to games for some reason. 

1 hour ago, BS66 said:

If football is secondary to trophies you should let Palace fans know. Their trophy hopes are pretty much non-existent every season but they go to games for some reason. 

Almost as if the level of achievement is different at different clubs....

Sterling isn't a bad player but I never wanted him on Chelsea and I'll be happy when he is gone.

Apparently in talks with the club for a payoff settlement before he leaves. We are talking about £10m+. Chilwell has been radio silent so you know he is waiting to see how that develops before he asks for his. Club needs to stop with the swap deals. We are shifting our “dross” for other club’s garbage.

If we don't shift Sterling in the next couple of days then a few months watching his career withering away in the reserves should be quite the tonic.

New England manager in charge and he'll be wanting to impress. He'd be best off moving and lowering salary for 3-4 seasons at a West Ham or so forth before retiring to Saudi.

We need to find out how Gillette managed to get shot of him.

On 22/08/2024 at 17:44, BS66 said:

It was only the later part of RA’s ownership that PSR started to bite and we haven’t really contended for a Prem title since our last one in 2017 so when did the footballing dysfunction begin? Had we not won the CL in 2021 would anybody really be happy about the way we played under Tuchel? I thought it was mind-numbing. 

agreed - I have said before, but we have been broken for a long time. We have lurched from one experiment to another - without any clear club ethos or tactical identity. This goes back to at least conte, and perhaps earlier.

We were absolute trash under conte - and then there was the masterstroke of switching systems, which caught people off guard and won us the league.

Sarri experiment came and went. 

Tuchel football was mind numbing - although conversely he played much better in europe. But it was boring, risk averse, and unimaginative in the league.

Potterball wasn't given time - but didn't look to Have significantly implemented a system.

Poch And lamps to an extent tried to get us more attacking - but never got us out of the mindset that we were terrified to lose the ball. 

This is a real problem. The managers that we have had have not come in and stamped a genuine identity on the team.

I struggle to explain how we play, other than slow and unprogressive.

In the interim, we have seen other managers come in and stamp their immediate influence on their teams (arteta, emery).

We have also seen others come in and continue the systems and ethos of the club (brighton, liverpool have both changed managers without any apparent change to their style and identity).....

....but us (and man utd) - well, we have been a mess. Hoping Maresca fixes it.

More than any immediate results, I really want us to move away from the slow and stagnant - citeh lite - mindless passing between defenders.  Hunt down the ball with quick pressing, and when in possession, move the ball progressively and quickly up the pitch....  stop with the slow possession where players taker 15 touches, before knocking it backwards. 

On 22/08/2024 at 18:09, Gordon Bennett said:

Had we not won back to back Prems and various other trophies would anybody really be happy about the way we played under Mourinho?

Fact is we did win those trophies and the football is secondary to that.

Apples and oranges. Yes of course the trophies help us sugar coat his legacy, but the team then was a very different beast to what they are now.

We had leaders. We had mentality. We had an identity. We controlled games under Jose and it never looked like anyone could beat us. We were beasts that people hated for the right reasons.

We have none of those things now.....and have not had for years (including under tuchel)

Edited August 29, 20241 yr by nonotnowjim

I have never warmed to Sterling, and he has never delivered consistently on the pitch to make me warm to him. 

He has been overrated for most of his career, and only really delivered when playing for Pep as a system player, in the best team in the league. 

He isnt a consistent finisher. 

He is selfish (how many times have we been screaming for his to pass to a player for an easy tap in).

He doesn't regularly take on people and run at them.

He doesn't regularly get down the wing and put in a blinding cross...

 

So what does he do? He isn't bad, but he has done nothing to justify the hype, the wages or a place in the team....

I wish Sterling had some self pride like Willian and just cancels his contract. Willian had 2 years left on his EXPENSIVE contract with Arsenal since he joined on a free but knew he would not get playing time under Arteta. He went back to Brazil and then earned a 2 year contract with Fulham. Its not always about the money 

Bloke is at risk wasting half a season with the reserves. He needs to facilitate a move by dropping his wages. 

42 minutes ago, The Don Antonio said:

I wish Sterling had some self pride like Willian and just cancels his contract. Willian had 2 years left on his EXPENSIVE contract with Arsenal since he joined on a free but knew he would not get playing time under Arteta. He went back to Brazil and then earned a 2 year contract with Fulham. Its not always about the money 

Would you do that though? At end of the day, it’s just a job. 
I think the club made a right mess of the situation and it seems they were just making up this summer strategy as they go. At the end of last season looked like he was on the outs, Maresca comes in and he seems he is back in. If they really wanted him out they shouldn’t have taken him to America, and given him the Chalobah treatment. Instead he is on a preseason tour, playing regular mins and looks like he will be counted on. Mendes offers you two of his clients, you now have  Maresca telling him to go find a new club, and you know strip him of his jersey. 
Sorry but in his shoes I would be asking you to pay me off to leave, which it seems he is doing. It now seems he is staying because the club don’t want to pay him off. 

20 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Bloke is at risk wasting half a season with the reserves. He needs to facilitate a move by dropping his wages. 

Lol.. we seem to be the only club forcing players either leaving or coming in to take a paycut. I can see him and Chilwell sitting it out till at least Jan, and see who blinks first. You are potentially asking him to leave at least £30m on the table.

29 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Bloke is at risk wasting half a season with the reserves. He needs to facilitate a move by dropping his wages. 

Done a lot in his career. Maybe he fancies doing a Bogarde for 3 years. Just train, stay fit, maybe the rest will do him good after he started professional games at 15.