Poch may be just doing as he’s told by the owners

maybe with our owners , the voice of the fans could be vital.

ticket price increase is a major worry for me.

No one is accepting mediocrity.

We should be better given what we've spent but it's completely unrealistic to expect to be challenging for the top 4 with the squad we have. If our standards are on the floor it's because people can see we've assembled an incredibly poor squad that isn't able to compete.

Blame the ownership for that not the manager.

3 minutes ago, Whats_The_Mata? said:

No one is accepting mediocrity.

We should be better given what we've spent but it's completely unrealistic to expect to be challenging for the top 4 with the squad we have. If our standards are on the floor it's because people can see we've assembled an incredibly poor squad that isn't able to compete.

Blame the ownership for that not the manager.

I'll be sensible and actually blame both. 

20 minutes ago, olderschoolcfc said:

that include F**k Sarri ball? 🙂 

I'll put it this way, do you think Celtic Park would be a happy place if they were mid table with a Rangers icon in the dugout?

16 minutes ago, Whats_The_Mata? said:

No one is accepting mediocrity.

We should be better given what we've spent but it's completely unrealistic to expect to be challenging for the top 4 with the squad we have. If our standards are on the floor it's because people can see we've assembled an incredibly poor squad that isn't able to compete.

Blame the ownership for that not the manager.

Fine, when we have a coach who is setting up in the way to give us the best chance of results then we can start looking "beyond the manager".

23 minutes ago, Argo said:

I'll put it this way, do you think Celtic Park would be a happy place if they were mid table with a Rangers icon in the dugout?

Really dont care about Celtic/ rangers/ sectarian nature of that divide. Pretty ugly imo... 

As is the tribalism with Poch who isn't like Benitez who rubbished the club while at an arch rival. Unless I missed any of Poch's comments while he was at spurs. 

1 hour ago, Argo said:

The Fergie argument works both ways though. If they unconditionally supported Ron Atkinson the club may have given him more time which meant they missed out on Fergie in the first place.

Ron Atkinson had 5 years at Man United before he was replaced. Not sure that is the best comparison when many want Poch binned less than a year into his tenure. 

On 11/03/2024 at 16:37, Whats_The_Mata? said:

Wage bill and transfer budget is irrelevant. 

The fact we decided to spend a small fortune on absolute crap is a massive failing and it's why we're 11th but It isn't a failing by the manager.

Our squad is laughably bad for the money wasted on it.

Wage bill and transfer budget is totally relevant.

37 minutes ago, forbzy said:

Ron Atkinson had 5 years at Man United before he was replaced. Not sure that is the best comparison when many want Poch binned less than a year into his tenure. 

It was his first proper poor season though and before that he won two FA Cups and never finished below 4th.

Pochettino is actually close to a top 8 finish and if we reach the FA Cup final it will be 2 Cup finals this year.

That in itself would be a massive improvement from last season.

3 hours ago, Argo said:

It was his first proper poor season though and before that he won two FA Cups and never finished below 4th.

I remember back then expectations were higher that what he delivered though. They really wanted the league. United backed him with some big transfers in the hope that they would make the next step up and win the league. But they couldn't make the step up from top 4 to winning the league. Even before he arrived, they had been a decent cup team. If they showed some patience for anybody it was Fergie who was really struggling in his first few seasons.

7 hours ago, Whats_The_Mata? said:

No one is accepting mediocrity.

We should be better given what we've spent but it's completely unrealistic to expect to be challenging for the top 4 with the squad we have. If our standards are on the floor it's because people can see we've assembled an incredibly poor squad that isn't able to compete.

Blame the ownership for that not the manager.

Well, its the definition of competing, and what that means, as far as i am concerned.

At the moment i agree with you that the players we have are not equipped to win this league or challenge for the top 4. Some of these players are not good enough for this level currently. However, this was a calculated, tactical ploy made by these owners. Nothing to do with Roman Abramovich, nothing to do with finances (we are far worse off now than then, in much shorter time), totally on Boehly and Clearlake to ship out all of the senior players and replace these with unproven kids. So i agree, you are spot on there.

However, Nottingham Forest have insufficient quality, so do Burnley, Luton, Palace, Brentford and numerous others. There is insufficient quality within any of these teams to challenge for the top four. But they compete, and don't we know it. The inconsistency, lack of direction and organisation, curious in game management, and strange comments regarding on field leadership and decision making, for me falls to the manager especially nine months into the role and our inability to compete on a regular and sustained basis is what i find frustrating.

 

Definite signs of life recently. If the present trajectory continues I think we should give the fat-faced, short arsed, hair dyeing, Sp*** w**ker another season.

5 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Pochettino is actually close to a top 8 finish and if we reach the FA Cup final it will be 2 Cup finals this year.

That in itself would be a massive improvement from last season.

Looking at the table, we are actually not far off at all despite being 11th, there is still definitely some hope, and with most teams above us still being in Europe too we can definitely capitalize. Our fixture list doesn't look too horrible either, there are a couple tough games but quite lot of bottom of the table opposition as well.

out of the 11 remaining prem games we have 5 against Burnley, Sheffield, Everton, Bournemouth and Forest still to play which should be wins for us in an ideal world
3 of the games there's Villa, Brighton, West Ham as tougher games but we can beat them as well on our good days

Then there's Spurs and United... Bothhave looked dire at points this season so thats really a toss up, we'll be playing at home for both however which should help

Arsenal on the other hand.. They might trounce us. But then again, we did almost beat them earlier in the season, and definitely deserved the 3 points before we were robbed so who knows.

43 minutes ago, SHrIT said:

Looking at the table, we are actually not far off at all despite being 11th, there is still definitely some hope, and with most teams above us still being in Europe too we can definitely capitalize. Our fixture list doesn't look too horrible either, there are a couple tough games but quite lot of bottom of the table opposition as well.

out of the 11 remaining prem games we have 5 against Burnley, Sheffield, Everton, Bournemouth and Forest still to play which should be wins for us in an ideal world
3 of the games there's Villa, Brighton, West Ham as tougher games but we can beat them as well on our good days

Then there's Spurs and United... Bothhave looked dire at points this season so thats really a toss up, we'll be playing at home for both however which should help

Arsenal on the other hand.. They might trounce us. But then again, we did almost beat them earlier in the season, and definitely deserved the 3 points before we were robbed so who knows.

I reckon if we manage to get 60 points or more we have a decent chance of finishing in one of the European spots. That would require 7 wins from 11, or 6 wins + 3 draws etc. Doable in theory but we would have to improve our consistency.

8 hours ago, Liam said:

Definite signs of life recently. If the present trajectory continues I think we should give the fat-faced, short arsed, hair dyeing, Sp*** w**ker another season.

Just broke my heart.... 

While the league might not support, I think we can see progress from last season. With the profile of player we have and the Injuries I think the top 4 was alwaysa bit of wishful thinking, by my self included. People like to point to liverpool, they have 7 years of Klopp embedded in to that club, anyone coming in is fitting in to a well eshtablished system

When I consider what I think would be our best line up right now (it doesn't include Sterling or Silva) We have two players with more then 2 years of premier league football under there belt. Half of them have less then 100 profesional games and this is there first season together. It will take time but I think we have the best man for the job in the dugout 

The one thing that’s clear the players are 100% behind him which is normally the time when you look to sack if they are not behind him.

Sacking now probably out back even further behind the top 4. 
Let him finish his contract 

21 hours ago, olderschoolcfc said:

that include F**k Sarri ball? 🙂 

Ah that gem, Chelsea fans pulled out the bag. 

What Pochettino has said (since taking the job:

- Chelsea is about winning.

- We need to win

- We have a young squad

- We need time

- We have a lot of injuries, but it is not an excuse. 

- We need to learn

What media has said (since Pochettino took the job):

- Chelsea new owner spent 1 mrd on new players

What the fans have said (since Pochettino took the job):

- Boehly spent 1 mrd on new players why are we midtable?!

Chelsea season in a nutshell. 22 year old midfielder is playing for his national team, can't make it to the next game and his replacement, who is 20, is doubtful because of an injury. 

Say what you will, this squad is about where it should be in the table. 

 

1 hour ago, evissy said:

Chelsea season in a nutshell. 22 year old midfielder is playing for his national team, can't make it to the next game and his replacement, who is 20, is doubtful because of an injury. 

Say what you will, this squad is about where it should be in the table. 

 

From what I heard, Carney did not pick up an injury on this occasion. But we shall see.

32 minutes ago, forbzy said:

From what I heard, Carney did not pick up an injury on this occasion. But we shall see.

There’s still time between now and next Saturday…

12 minutes ago, Valerie said:

There’s still time between now and next Saturday…

The way our injuries go we should probably say "There's still time between now and next season" 😉

5 minutes ago, forbzy said:

The way our injuries go we should probably say "There's still time between now and next season" 😉

Yeah thought he was called back to work on his fitness. 

I know who Poch reminds me of - it's Southgate, except Poch is a bit more attacking where Southgate is more defensive.

 

- Inoffensive vanilla yes men

- Poor/frustrating in game management

- Cowardly when it comes to big matches

- Choke at the final hurdle

 

Poch is the Argentinian Southgate.