Gosh I think for the first time ever I’m a lot more pessimistic than most. I don’t want to be! I want to be wrong and would be delighted to be made a laughing stock on the forum if I am. 
 

ive said it elsewhere, and will try not to bang on about it too much. I just think the big picture is our bubble has burst. That works a bit like a curse. You enter a period where nothing goes right: I’m thinking maybe a decade. It doesn’t matter which manager or players you get. 
 

I know it sounds a bit nebulous. To attempt to put it into more concrete terms: for all the sackings etc, the Roman era was pretty stable. There was a clear power vertical. The financial backing was never in doubt, players signing kind of knew what they were signing up for… 

now we have a group of owners that between them have less money than the previous owners. It’s all paper wealth. They’ve bought the club with a lot of debt financing too, probably at the top of the economic cycle (why are Liverpool owners selling?). Unlike Roman, who didn’t have to answer to anyone, they presumably have to answer to their other stakeholders? That’s bad! Private equity is a massive bubble that hasn’t burst yet. All this talk about vision etc - it’s just marketing bs. They don’t seem to know what they’re doing. 
 

ok, that’s a lot of my opinion there. But what about the facts on the ground? Owners got rid of a manager with a proven track record after a few weeks, replacing him with a manager with zero track record. It’s not working. Maybe it will. But the reality is he may not have the time.

This instability is here to stay. And it is a real issue.

put yourselves in the shoes of top players. Which players are going to choose us over: Bayern, city, real, arsenal(Welp!), tottenham(double welp!). These last two really say something about how quickly things have changed.  
 

Would hazard have signed up for THIS? not a chance. Would YOU sign for us if you weren’t a fan?

Based on results and performances, I fully appreciate this question. Stepping back though….

Potter was brought in for the long term. He joined at one of the most turbulent time in the clubs history, fixture congestion beyond levels we have seen, and injuries (which all coaches seem to deal with). It is too early to judge imo. Under TT, there is no denying just how poor and jaded things had become - the atmosphere was borderline toxic and it showed on the pitch. 
 

The bounce under Potter was fun. Players ran harder, with a greater sense of freedom and intent to play the ball forward quickly. I was optimistic seeing this, but we have since regressed to slow dull football, and more alarming is how out of form the players now are and the lack of understanding of their roles. 
 

Mr Potter - post World Cup you need to nail down 8+ starters and stick with them. This constant personnel and system changes will be the undoing. 

55 minutes ago, PhilH930 said:

Mr Potter - post World Cup you need to nail down 8+ starters and stick with them. This constant personnel and system changes will be the undoing. 

I'd argue Potter relying on certain players and sticking with them constantly is a reason our form and football has been so sh*te. 

2 hours ago, abister1 said:

Put it this way, do you think Brighton would hve beaten Ajax if they had met in a 2 legged European competition?  

Why not? As critical as I've been of Potter recently at Brighton he competed very well against all the top 6 bar City and not just by playing defensive either. 

Also Ten Hag's record in Europe is very average.

Edited November 8, 20223 yr by Argo

1 minute ago, Argo said:

Why not? As critical as I've been of Potter recently at Brighton he competed very well against all the top 6 bar City and not just by playing defensive either. 

Yeah. 

Biggest worry was that he'd be just another reactionary manager, but you can only hope that changes when he gets his team playing his football. What ever that is. 

2 hours ago, Dean said:

Gosh I think for the first time ever I’m a lot more pessimistic than most. I don’t want to be! I want to be wrong and would be delighted to be made a laughing stock on the forum if I am. 
 

ive said it elsewhere, and will try not to bang on about it too much. I just think the big picture is our bubble has burst. That works a bit like a curse. You enter a period where nothing goes right: I’m thinking maybe a decade. It doesn’t matter which manager or players you get. 
 

I know it sounds a bit nebulous. To attempt to put it into more concrete terms: for all the sackings etc, the Roman era was pretty stable. There was a clear power vertical. The financial backing was never in doubt, players signing kind of knew what they were signing up for… 

now we have a group of owners that between them have less money than the previous owners. It’s all paper wealth. They’ve bought the club with a lot of debt financing too, probably at the top of the economic cycle (why are Liverpool owners selling?). Unlike Roman, who didn’t have to answer to anyone, they presumably have to answer to their other stakeholders? That’s bad! Private equity is a massive bubble that hasn’t burst yet. All this talk about vision etc - it’s just marketing bs. They don’t seem to know what they’re doing. 
 

ok, that’s a lot of my opinion there. But what about the facts on the ground? Owners got rid of a manager with a proven track record after a few weeks, replacing him with a manager with zero track record. It’s not working. Maybe it will. But the reality is he may not have the time.

This instability is here to stay. And it is a real issue.

put yourselves in the shoes of top players. Which players are going to choose us over: Bayern, city, real, arsenal(Welp!), tottenham(double welp!). These last two really say something about how quickly things have changed.  
 

Would hazard have signed up for THIS? not a chance. Would YOU sign for us if you weren’t a fan?

Welcome @Dean

To answer the original question not it was not a good decision...it was a great decision.

A great decision to make Chelsea great again!

2 hours ago, Argo said:

Why not? As critical as I've been of Potter recently at Brighton he competed very well against all the top 6 bar City and not just by playing defensive either. 

Also Ten Hag's record in Europe is very average.

Fair enough. Everyone has their view and perspective. 

I'm not critical of Potter though, because he needs time and not because he's deserved the job according to some (not a view I share) but more because he's still bedding in and my expectation is low. 

All criticism is held for the process that saw him appointed our manager. It was an instinctive decision. Those work well in Business and you'll find a lot of self made successful business men will tell you they go with their instincts when making decisions. Boehly hasn't been thorough enough yet. It's good he's getting stuck in but there may have just been a better way to go about things. 

Any team can be competitive, even City you provide an exception for lost to Brighton so its not about being competitive but going the distance and delivering the goods at the end of it all. 

I think people are just taking out their frustration on a new manager for a lot of things that Potter and Co have nothing to do with. Last season the club was punished for political reasons, the ownership ordeal was completely unjustified and sacking TT was the last straw for many, it seems. Getting rid of Marina and Cech was probably expected once the sale became official but the timing was odd. The whole summer shopping tour by Boehly was a bit of a freakshow and distraction. Sacking of Tuchel a few weeks into a new season was a bit of a shock but once again, even if there were some legit reasons behind it that we didn't know at the time, the way it was handled and the timing of it was just disastrous.

I realize that Boehly is a newcomer and is bound to make mistakes but it;s just the way he goes about it is what rubs people the wrong way, I think. The club under Roman had identity. Yes, we were hated and regularly criticized for many things but we were respected too. I don't feel the same about the curent regime.

Perhaps when the new setup of technical director, sporting director, chief scout etc is firmly in place the feeling will change. Maybe it's due to the transition period  But it just doesn't feel like the same club anymore.

Edited November 8, 20223 yr by abramovich

Really disillusioned by Boehly at the moment. If I'm talking my honest truth I feel let down and betrayed. I've written a few things in here, but I never sent them. 

I think the main point for me rather than rambling on for ages is we had an elite coach, we had a recognisable style of play and we had a project. All the man wanted to do was coach, he made Boehly's job super simple get in the necessary people to work behind the scenes and leave Tuchel to focus on the actual football. 

People say Potter is just the yes man that Boehly wants and if we look at it detached it's the truth. Let's be completely honest for a second, if you as an owner come to your manager and say I can sign Cristiano Ronaldo and he says no, is that really a bad thing?

Is it not better to have someone who is honest with you, and tells you that's not a good footballing decision. Or is it better to have someone who says yeah boss that's a great idea (let's just blow up the squad dynamic to fit in with whatever is your latest whim).

Don't get me wrong Roman lusted over these kinds of players (elite in their prime usually forwards who were now approaching or already in their decline) and usually when we signed them they didn't really work out.

Tuchel wasn't perfect, but this was Tuchel's Chelsea. He was the equivalent to our Pep or our Klopp. Whilst I can get behind Potter and wish him the best, the truth is I don't think he's as good as Tuchel and I think a lot of people agree. Despite 9 games unbeaten (playing essentially Tuchel's system), I don't see anything to suggest changing coaches will have a big effect on the players. If anything without the stewardship of an elite coach I just think we got weaker. 

Time will tell and Boehly has an idea in his mind how this project should go, but to answer the question of this thread no it wasn't the right decision imo. It was just a classic case of the new owners looking to make their mark and show a change in direction. 

I don't like the way it was done, why after 6 or 7 games why not last summer. The most sensible cause of action would have been give Tuchel till January at the least or better yet the season. Whilst focusing on getting the necessary people in behind the scenes and then come summer reasses the situation.

With Tuchel if we're not in the title race, best believe we're a contender for the champions league. With Potter I have no idea how it will go, but I don't see him beating Pep, Klopp, Anceolotti, Conte or any of the other elite coaches once drawn against them. No disrespect intended, but these are elite tacticians who have won multiple league titles/champions leagues. For me it was a decision driven by ego and now for some of us we have to support a coach we didn't ask for.

In hindsight the way Marina and Cech were let go should have been a precursor for Tuchel. The old regime had to go and he was the last remnant aside from the players.

I'll back Potter, but no I don't think the decision was correct. I didn't at the time I don't after 10 games and only time will tell if my mind changes. I hope Potter proves all his doubters wrong it's a hell of a task he has ahead of him.

2 hours ago, LongtimerLurker said:

Really disillusioned by Boehly at the moment. If I'm talking my honest truth I feel let down and betrayed. I've written a few things in here, but I never sent them. 

I think the main point for me rather than rambling on for ages is we had an elite coach, we had a recognisable style of play and we had a project. All the man wanted to do was coach, he made Boehly's job super simple get in the necessary people to work behind the scenes and leave Tuchel to focus on the actual football. 

People say Potter is just the yes man that Boehly wants and if we look at it detached it's the truth. Let's be completely honest for a second, if you as an owner come to your manager and say I can sign Cristiano Ronaldo and he says no, is that really a bad thing?

Is it not better to have someone who is honest with you, and tells you that's not a good footballing decision. Or is it better to have someone who says yeah boss that's a great idea (let's just blow up the squad dynamic to fit in with whatever is your latest whim).

Don't get me wrong Roman lusted over these kinds of players (elite in their prime usually forwards who were now approaching or already in their decline) and usually when we signed them they didn't really work out.

Tuchel wasn't perfect, but this was Tuchel's Chelsea. He was the equivalent to our Pep or our Klopp. Whilst I can get behind Potter and wish him the best, the truth is I don't think he's as good as Tuchel and I think a lot of people agree. Despite 9 games unbeaten (playing essentially Tuchel's system), I don't see anything to suggest changing coaches will have a big effect on the players. If anything without the stewardship of an elite coach I just think we got weaker. 

Time will tell and Boehly has an idea in his mind how this project should go, but to answer the question of this thread no it wasn't the right decision imo. It was just a classic case of the new owners looking to make their mark and show a change in direction. 

I don't like the way it was done, why after 6 or 7 games why not last summer. The most sensible cause of action would have been give Tuchel till January at the least or better yet the season. Whilst focusing on getting the necessary people in behind the scenes and then come summer reasses the situation.

With Tuchel if we're not in the title race, best believe we're a contender for the champions league. With Potter I have no idea how it will go, but I don't see him beating Pep, Klopp, Anceolotti, Conte or any of the other elite coaches once drawn against them. No disrespect intended, but these are elite tacticians who have won multiple league titles/champions leagues. For me it was a decision driven by ego and now for some of us we have to support a coach we didn't ask for.

In hindsight the way Marina and Cech were let go should have been a precursor for Tuchel. The old regime had to go and he was the last remnant aside from the players.

I'll back Potter, but no I don't think the decision was correct. I didn't at the time I don't after 10 games and only time will tell if my mind changes. I hope Potter proves all his doubters wrong it's a hell of a task he has ahead of him.

Good write up and that‘s exactly as I feel  about it too. I do assume though that Tuchel was well aware of his situation internally right after the sacking of Cech at least - as were most probable the players too which resulted in him becoming a lame duck immediately . Just my theory but I doubt anyone was really that surprised within the club . And that says a lot about still paying top dollar for new players till the very last minute. Very erratic and strangely disconnected behavior. Will be interesting to see where clearlake is heading.

With Tuchel, if we fail to get into the top 4 it's a fail, fair enough call. With Potter, I really dont know where to draw the line, think most of us would take a top 6 right now and call it a season. Maybe he will get us a FA cup or even CL, can't rule that out yet until the football is being played, but you'd be a brave man with lots of spare cash to bet on that. My problem is with Boehly than Potter, hustled all summer spend 300M and made us look like fools in the transfer market, then sack the manager when we just about to get a bit of stability. Basically a season wasted, and we do another rebuild next season ( got buy Potter his own players ), the investors will want their money back sooner or later, missing the CL and we will be in a huge hole financially.

We should cast an interested eye on what goes on with Liverpool. If FSG can sell them for close to 5billl, after buying them for 330mill, and delivering only a single PL, CL and a couple of cups, this will show how Clearlake and Co feel they can make money without the need for much on the pitch success.

9 hours ago, axman2526 said:

We should cast an interested eye on what goes on with Liverpool. If FSG can sell them for close to 5billl, after buying them for 330mill, and delivering only a single PL, CL and a couple of cups, this will show how Clearlake and Co feel they can make money without the need for much on the pitch success.

Have to laugh Radcliffe has ruled himself out due to commercial figures.

Wonder if he will jump in as the price drops.

 

18 hours ago, axman2526 said:

We should cast an interested eye on what goes on with Liverpool. If FSG can sell them for close to 5billl, after buying them for 330mill, and delivering only a single PL, CL and a couple of cups, this will show how Clearlake and Co feel they can make money without the need for much on the pitch success.

I have a different read, which is that FSG are shrewd operators and they know these are peak valuations. Also it is clear to them that they can’t compete with the petro state-backed clubs. Sad but true. 

4 minutes ago, Dean said:

I have a different read, which is that FSG are shrewd operators and they know these are peak valuations. Also it is clear to them that they can’t compete with the petro state-backed clubs. Sad but true. 

Neither can we imo.

https://www.change.org/p/bring-back-thomas-tuchel-to-chelsea-fc?recruiter=1284657081&recruited_by_id=ccb90880-5e26-11ed-9dc7-dfa6896fe08f&share_bandit_exp=initial-34919504-en-US

 

Shame the guy spelt Boehly wrong, I wonder if we could get a movement going again like when we boycotted the super league. Jokes aside though imagine if the whole fan base got behind this, protesting at matches, social media non stop pressure from Boehly. Hypothetically do you think he would even consider it or would he be to proud. And again continuing down this unlikely rabbit hole, would Tuchel even consider coming back? 

2 hours ago, axman2526 said:

Neither can we imo.

Oh yes - that goes without saying 

The worst decision since Himler said "hey Adolf the war on the western front is going so swimmingly why don't we engage on the Eastern front as well"

When you have a manager with a long record of success and players with a long record of failure who haven't shown anything to suggest they'll ever be good enough to play in the Premier league in their careers under multiple managers replacing said world class manager with a guy with absolutely no record of success or experience at the highest level doesn't quite seem the winning move the Tuchel out brigade thought it might be.

Before I thought we had massive problems in the squad but a world class manager who with time would keep us consistently challenging for trophies to just looking at the club and thinking we're a midtable outfit from top to bottom.

Edited November 9, 20223 yr by HazardousChoice

23 hours ago, LongtimerLurker said:

https://www.change.org/p/bring-back-thomas-tuchel-to-chelsea-fc?recruiter=1284657081&recruited_by_id=ccb90880-5e26-11ed-9dc7-dfa6896fe08f&share_bandit_exp=initial-34919504-en-US

 

Shame the guy spelt Boehly wrong, I wonder if we could get a movement going again like when we boycotted the super league. Jokes aside though imagine if the whole fan base got behind this, protesting at matches, social media non stop pressure from Boehly. Hypothetically do you think he would even consider it or would he be to proud. And again continuing down this unlikely rabbit hole, would Tuchel even consider coming back? 

Unfortunately Longtime I have already signed up to the bring back Lampard petition. The Serie A savants on here have already signed up to the bring back Sarri, Conte, Vialli and Di Matteo petitions. @Valeries working on the bring back Guillit petition and @RIP Mourinhois running the campaign to bring back AVB. @axman2526

 

On 09/11/2022 at 19:37, Dean said:

I have a different read, which is that FSG are shrewd operators and they know these are peak valuations. Also it is clear to them that they can’t compete with the petro state-backed clubs. Sad but true. 

Spot on Dean.

7 minutes ago, just said:

Unfortunately Longtime I have already signed up to the bring back Lampard petition. The Serie A savants on here have already signed up to the bring back Sarri, Conte, Vialli and Di Matteo petitions. @Valeries working on the bring back Guillit petition and @RIP Mourinhois running the campaign to bring back AVB. @axman2526

 

Ok I will bite, who's campign am I signed up to, to bring back Just?

Just now, axman2526 said:

Ok I will bite, who's campign am I signed up to, to bring back Just?

Whoever will make you the most pessimistic of course!!

5 minutes ago, just said:

Whoever will make you the most pessimistic of course!!

Ah well that's for you to figure out then. I won't make it easy on you  😉

1 hour ago, just said:

Unfortunately Longtime I have already signed up to the bring back Lampard petition. The Serie A savants on here have already signed up to the bring back Sarri, Conte, Vialli and Di Matteo petitions. @Valeries working on the bring back Guillit petition and @RIP Mourinhois running the campaign to bring back AVB. @axman2526

 

I’d like to be the advocate for Avram Grant please. 
 

Also @Valerie would be petitioning for Cudicini before any former dutchy. 

Edited November 10, 20223 yr by Munkworth