2 hours ago, enigma said:

One thing that gave Arteta time was winning a trophy. Before that the arsenal fans were turning on him and wanting him gone. Just shows how things change. The league is becoming so competitive now that it's becoming harder to get a 4th league place, let alone win the league. If we sacked Potter, I'm not sure who we bring in that would have us competing domestically.

It is domestically where we've been poor for many seasons now. Sarri, Lampard, Tuchel, now Potter. Even winning the Europa League didn't save Sarri. So I'm not sure how patient this current board will be if things get even worse as we are yet to see or hear about that ruthlessness. 

Sarri left on his own after Juventus called, makes him the only one that left for no reason and he himself said it was a mistake.

1 hour ago, enigma said:

Not the biggest fan of ESPN FC, but Leboeuf cares about Chelsea so always interesting to hear his thoughts. You can tell he's frustrated, going red in the face almost 😄

 

 

Yup that was what I was referring to earlier in this thread.

17 minutes ago, Gol15 said:

Sarri left on his own after Juventus called, makes him the only one that left for no reason and he himself said it was a mistake.

What I would give to see what would have happened in a second Sarri season and without a transfer ban. 

I worry I'm going to end up having the same feelings about Potter. 

1 minute ago, bisright1 said:

What I would give to see what would have happened in a second Sarri season and without a transfer ban. 

I worry I'm going to end up having the same feelings about Potter. 

Even with the transfer ban I'd be curious.

He already integrated CHO and Eddie Newton as good as confirmed Mount would have followed suit (James would have made it even under Mourinho). I think Tammy would have been sold though.

25 minutes ago, Argo said:

Even with the transfer ban I'd be curious.

He already integrated CHO and Eddie Newton as good as confirmed Mount would have followed suit (James would have made it even under Mourinho). I think Tammy would have been sold though.

Sarri also integrated RLC successfully at the time, before his injury in the ridiculous game over in US.

Sarri did have Hazard but the job he did here was still pretty underrated, by the end of the season we were looking a very good team. 

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

I think he's right. 

If you want to see real progression, you need to see an up in performance. Winning points doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things if the performance is still sh*t. 

The performances are more concerning than the results right now unfortunately, even the Bournemouth game we were hanging on at points

3 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Yup that was what I was referring to earlier in this thread.

Oh ok, sorry. I didn't know it had been posted already. Was interesting to hear anyway. 

23 hours ago, JM7 said:

I am beginning to think that the team are just incredibly reliant on Reece James and that’s the reason for the struggles. He plays and we look good. As soon as he went off, the teams head dropped (confirmed by Potter). Think we’re just too reliant on him. 

Its very much reminiscent of Hazard. We haven't had a good squad for a long time. We've pretty much been relying on individual talent for the last decade. First it was Hazard then it was Kante and now its James. 

14 hours ago, axman2526 said:

One of my favorite former players, Frank Lebouf, among with Craig Burley and Shaka Hislop on ESPN, have been discussing what is going on at our club and laying in to Todd Boehly and the consortium.

From their own sources they don't believe Potter will be given time to sort the mess out, that he is being forced to play certain players and does not have the say on transfers that was expected.

They said, despite our new boardroom team, we are chasing players other teams have tried for first with no real plan for using them, like the lad at Shaktar  Arsenal want.

They said Todd is trying to put his own mark down and be like Roman was at the beginning, only is doing a poor job of it, not knowing what he is doing and wasting money. That he is looking to burn through most of the promised 1.75billion for the stadium, developments and teams on buying players and managers along.

They ended on speculating the axe is being sharpened already and back to back losses to City may well see it swung. If so when you factor in paying off TT and his staff, paying the buyout for Potter and his staff, then sacking them could be a total of what? 100mill. What madness.

I continue to have concerns regarding our clubs long term future under this ownership. 

To play devil's advocate, where are they getting their info from? They don't work at Chelsea. I also wouldn't take anything ESPN FC says seriously. Their only agenda is to get as many clicks as possible. ESPN FC were part of the reason the Lukaku situation blew up last season. They just want views. I highly doubt Potter will be fired after being given a 5 year contract.

3 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

To play devil's advocate, where are they getting their info from? They don't work at Chelsea. I also wouldn't take anything ESPN FC says seriously. Their only agenda is to get as many clicks as possible. ESPN FC were part of the reason the Lukaku situation blew up last season. They just want views. I highly doubt Potter will be fired after being given a 5 year contract.

No manager has guarantees even with a long contract. However I suspect Potter will be given some time and patience from the owners this season at least. That might be tested if we start sliding towards the relegation dogfight of course, but I think that would require a shocking run of results, even based on our current poor form.

6 hours ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

Its very much reminiscent of Hazard. We haven't had a good squad for a long time. We've pretty much been relying on individual talent for the last decade. First it was Hazard then it was Kante and now its James. 

I completely agree. 

However, losing your star attacker like hazard and has massive drop off offensively is normal. Losing Kante and losing your entire midfield is not exactly normal but Kante is our only midfield who can defend so it is what it is (this is more of a recruitment problem) 

But losing a RB and we are having this massive drop off in term of control and offense is just madness. 

Edited January 5, 20233 yr by Bob stark

12 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Inspiring words tbh. Performances now matter more than points in the grand scheme of things. 

I am mostly pissed at Potter because of the performance. The Notts Forest draw sent the league a message, every team will turn up against us. 

We are in a downward spiral

3 minutes ago, Deino said:

I am mostly pissed at Potter because of the performance. The Notts Forest draw sent the league a message, every team will turn up against us. 

We are in a downward spiral

The hard truth there.  10th in the league, what is going on.  Actually looking down the table vs up at the moment - awful feeling.

13 hours ago, bisright1 said:

As I said. If I felt Potter's management was actively hurting us, I'd have a different view.

I don't think Potter's management is going to take us that low. I think at worst we will finish 8th this season. Right now I think 5th is very achievable, 4th isn't out of the realm of possibility. I think that's the same bracket a Poch would get this season too if he joined tomorrow. 

However give Potter the summer, a transfer window, clear out some dead wood, and I think personally, we finish higher next season than if we sack him and replace the entire squad and hire Poch. 

Yet if I'm wrong, and we drift down to that level then let's make a move closer to summer. I'd also probably rather we limp to 8th with Potter than sack and rehire just to hopefully at best end up in the Europa next year! 

5th? 4th? No way are we going go on an unbeaten win streak in the next 2 months. 

This team will limp to 12th-15th on current momentum

On 04/01/2023 at 03:19, nonotnowjim said:

Out of interest - who are the potter supporters you allude to?

I am on this forum pretty regularly, and I am not sure I have ever seen anyone say that Potter is doing a fantastic job, over achieving or is the right man for the position. 

So come on - name names. 

Plenty of people who were very anti-tuchel (not yourself) are giving Potter every excuse under the sun when they never afforded the same excuses for Tuchel, poor players, injuries, and so on. 

Potter doesn't have it easy by any means, but he's still doing a very bad job. 

5 hours ago, Deino said:

5th? 4th? No way are we going go on an unbeaten win streak in the next 2 months. 

This team will limp to 12th-15th on current momentum

We really don't need to go on an unbeaten win streak and it's not 2 months. We aren't that many points off and there's a lot of games, potentially our only games as we will be out the cups unlike others. 

A player like Enzo Fernandez could save the season but if Potter can't get a new player of that caliber in January I'm afraid that he won't have the time to include someone else like Casadei just yet. Even if the club signs someone it's not guaranteed that it will work out in the short term but I'm not sure if any manager can significantly improve our attack with the current squad we have.

Tuchel tried with Lukaku, Sarri with Higuain, Conte signed Giroud and that's the one attacker that was actually a January signing that ultimately worked out just not while Conte was there.

If the board bluffed Benfica and could pay "only" 85m right now and not the full amount, that money could land us Alvarez + Tielemans, 2 central midfielders or maybe Vlahovic as the attacking boost that we need centrally, or maybe even R.Leao...

Still gutted that the club ruined the Enzo deal, in the summer he might as well join Man City once Gundogan leaves... But give Potter some boost please!

Edited January 5, 20233 yr by Gol15

2 hours ago, bisright1 said:

We really don't need to go on an unbeaten win streak and it's not 2 months. We aren't that many points off and there's a lot of games, potentially our only games as we will be out the cups unlike others. 

The gap to 4th is 10 points. 

Jan PL fixtures:

City, Fulham, Palace, Pool

Feb fixtures:

Fulham, West Ham, Spuds, Soton

In the past seasons, these are all winnable games bar 3 tricky teams. If we cannot get an unbeaten streak in the next 2 months in the league (grind out at worst draws against City, Pool and Spuds), we won't have much of a chance to secure 4th or 5th. 

Our team on the other hand is disjointed, unmotivated and are crippled with injuries every few games. Pulisic and Kovacic will get injured, Koulibaly is walking a tightrope every game. 

It would take a massive upheaval of morals, grit and determination to get out if this pit we're stuck in. 

Good Morning

any news regarding sacking of Potter?

Not for another few years. Check back then.

On 04/01/2023 at 14:30, Gol15 said:

Sarri left on his own after Juventus called and the constant hounding, abuse and criticism from his own fanbase,  and he himself said it was a mistake .

Fixed that for you. 

Based on the way that the club have allegedly acted over the Enzo deal, I would say it is impossible to predict what will happen with Potter. Even though the owners claim they are looking at a long term strategy, they seem to be making it up as they go along. So it wouldn't surprise me if Potter is shown the door next week, and replaced with another manager who struggles.

3 hours ago, Zeta said:

Not for another few years. Check back then.

would keep asking until we start to have some good performance

4 hours ago, forbzy said:

Based on the way that the club have allegedly acted over the Enzo deal, I would say it is impossible to predict what will happen with Potter. Even though the owners claim they are looking at a long term strategy, they seem to be making it up as they go along. So it wouldn't surprise me if Potter is shown the door next week, and replaced with another manager who struggles.

I get the long term project. It makes sense to try to change our structure,  to go for a younger group of players, playing a more entertaining brand of football. I didn't want Tuchel to be sacked but I wasn't averse to Potter as the plan made sense. 

But the way this is going I am really not sure that he is up to this. I don't see any progression at all. I wonder if the players actually buy in to him as well. Even the back room staff as well. With no disrespect meant at all if you are a world cup international footballer and you have Billy Reid telling you that you're not fit enough, are these blokes really paying any attention. 

I dont want it to be like that but in this self obsessed, pampered footballer environment nowadays would I be surprised that these guys are not responding to the message from Potter and his team.  Probably not.

If he does get bombed who would replace him. Probably Luis Enrique would be the media darling. Would he fit in with the vision and the long term project. I doubt it and he hasn't done particularly well with the Spanish team.

Bl00dy hell