1 hour ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Five-point plan for success (in order of importance)

•  Stop the Leaks: The problem with being owned by a consortium is that there are too many cooks, and too many political interests. Pochettino should demand that leaking be investigated and halted. The Athletic and co could barely get a sniffle out of Abramovich's board the last 5 or so years, yet now they are able to broadcast every last Boehly bowel movement. Leaking creates a toxic culture and engenders mistrust while also encouraging people to voice their dissent unproductively instead of providing honest feedback

 

• Improve fitness: The overall energy and injury rates of the squad are appalling. Pochettino needs to set standards for high self-care and self-motivation to get and remain fit. It will improve our shocking injury record for one, and ensure that players are capable of playing at a high intensity. A fitness culture takes months, if not years to improve and we're talking about something that has declined since Conte, so this is a long term but necessary project.

 

• Trim the squad to 23 players + youth: There are only so many minutes in a day available for training, and the focus has to be on efficiency. A large squad is impossible to manage, practically speaking, because you simply do not have the space and time to communicate effectively with all players. You will always have people in the room subject to the tyranny of distance, and it can create weird cultures and perceptions of being on the outer when you're one of the guys always near the back door. That means player sales, but also scoping out good loan or buyback clause deals for Chalobah, Gallagher etc admitting to them we need to send them out purely for FFP and because we f**ked up in January.
   

• Target the League Cup and FA Cup:  Many of you will know that I am not Mourinho's greatest fan, but I do believe that one of the shrewdest things he did was to target and win the Carling Cup by playing strong sides in every leg of the competition. Mourinho has used the term "a team of serial losers" to describe a squad made up largely of players whose best achievements were winning second place. He added established winners (Ferreira, Carvalho) and took every single trophy seriously which went a long way to establish a culture where every single game is taken seriously.  When it comes to establishing a real culture of success, I think many of our previous managers have erred in treating the Cups as training for the League/CL. Winning begets winning.

 

• Bin Pochettino after a year if he doesn't win anything: He might do good job of getting the squad together and ironing out our problems as above, but he is not a proven winner. No cups, no contract Pochettino.

 

 

Bin him if he doesn’t win anything? What about finishing in a champions league place?

2 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Five-point plan for success (in order of importance)

•  Stop the Leaks: The problem with being owned by a consortium is that there are too many cooks, and too many political interests. Pochettino should demand that leaking be investigated and halted. The Athletic and co could barely get a sniffle out of Abramovich's board the last 5 or so years, yet now they are able to broadcast every last Boehly bowel movement. Leaking creates a toxic culture and engenders mistrust while also encouraging people to voice their dissent unproductively instead of providing honest feedback

 

• Improve fitness: The overall energy and injury rates of the squad are appalling. Pochettino needs to set standards for high self-care and self-motivation to get and remain fit. It will improve our shocking injury record for one, and ensure that players are capable of playing at a high intensity. A fitness culture takes months, if not years to improve and we're talking about something that has declined since Conte, so this is a long term but necessary project.

 

• Trim the squad to 23 players + youth: There are only so many minutes in a day available for training, and the focus has to be on efficiency. A large squad is impossible to manage, practically speaking, because you simply do not have the space and time to communicate effectively with all players. You will always have people in the room subject to the tyranny of distance, and it can create weird cultures and perceptions of being on the outer when you're one of the guys always near the back door. That means player sales, but also scoping out good loan or buyback clause deals for Chalobah, Gallagher etc admitting to them we need to send them out purely for FFP and because we f**ked up in January.
   

• Target the League Cup and FA Cup:  Many of you will know that I am not Mourinho's greatest fan, but I do believe that one of the shrewdest things he did was to target and win the Carling Cup by playing strong sides in every leg of the competition. Mourinho has used the term "a team of serial losers" to describe a squad made up largely of players whose best achievements were winning second place. He added established winners (Ferreira, Carvalho) and took every single trophy seriously which went a long way to establish a culture where every single game is taken seriously.  When it comes to establishing a real culture of success, I think many of our previous managers have erred in treating the Cups as training for the League/CL. Winning begets winning.

 

• Bin Pochettino after a year if he doesn't win anything: He might do good job of getting the squad together and ironing out our problems as above, but he is not a proven winner. No cups, no contract Pochettino.

 

 

Wow, Bin Pochettino after a year if he doesn't win anything: He might do good job of getting the squad together and ironing out our problems as above, but he is not a proven winner. No cups, no contract Pochettino.

He hasn't even started yet, un believable

 

Some fun posts here, I think we may as well fast forward and sack Pochettino now. He will not win a cup next season, it was never his gift to deliver cups or titles. I'd be happier with a top 6 finish than a league cup.

2 hours ago, icecoolguy22 said:

Some fun posts here, I think we may as well fast forward and sack Pochettino now. He will not win a cup next season, it was never his gift to deliver cups or titles. I'd be happier with a top 6 finish than a league cup.

Well, then we might as well sign Tuchel back.

his staying at Bayern won’t last that long. What a team he has and now he might lost the titel to Dortmund. Maybe he will sign Aubameyung from us. 

10 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Five-point plan for success (in order of importance)

•  Stop the Leaks: The problem with being owned by a consortium is that there are too many cooks, and too many political interests. Pochettino should demand that leaking be investigated and halted. The Athletic and co could barely get a sniffle out of Abramovich's board the last 5 or so years, yet now they are able to broadcast every last Boehly bowel movement. Leaking creates a toxic culture and engenders mistrust while also encouraging people to voice their dissent unproductively instead of providing honest feedback

 

• Improve fitness: The overall energy and injury rates of the squad are appalling. Pochettino needs to set standards for high self-care and self-motivation to get and remain fit. It will improve our shocking injury record for one, and ensure that players are capable of playing at a high intensity. A fitness culture takes months, if not years to improve and we're talking about something that has declined since Conte, so this is a long term but necessary project.

 

• Trim the squad to 23 players + youth: There are only so many minutes in a day available for training, and the focus has to be on efficiency. A large squad is impossible to manage, practically speaking, because you simply do not have the space and time to communicate effectively with all players. You will always have people in the room subject to the tyranny of distance, and it can create weird cultures and perceptions of being on the outer when you're one of the guys always near the back door. That means player sales, but also scoping out good loan or buyback clause deals for Chalobah, Gallagher etc admitting to them we need to send them out purely for FFP and because we f**ked up in January.
   

• Target the League Cup and FA Cup:  Many of you will know that I am not Mourinho's greatest fan, but I do believe that one of the shrewdest things he did was to target and win the Carling Cup by playing strong sides in every leg of the competition. Mourinho has used the term "a team of serial losers" to describe a squad made up largely of players whose best achievements were winning second place. He added established winners (Ferreira, Carvalho) and took every single trophy seriously which went a long way to establish a culture where every single game is taken seriously.  When it comes to establishing a real culture of success, I think many of our previous managers have erred in treating the Cups as training for the League/CL. Winning begets winning.

 

• Bin Pochettino after a year if he doesn't win anything: He might do good job of getting the squad together and ironing out our problems as above, but he is not a proven winner. No cups, no contract Pochettino.

 

 

Definitely agree with the leaking part. Every move the club makes being leaked to the press completely overshadows the footballing side of the club. Since last year, all our top stories have been off the pitch and I really wish we can get back to everything being about football. I'm tired of reading stories about what Boehly, Vivell or everyone and their mother is planning on the board. The occasional rumours isn't a problem but it feels like there's a story every week.

However, I strongly disagree with sacking Pochettino if he doesn't win a trophy. That's a completely entitled and unrealistic view. 

Edited May 21, 20233 yr by Frankie8Lampard

I'm not even sure "leaks" is a problem ?

I think most of this is down to too many internet/social media reporters and agents just making stories up for clicks ? We've been a softer target than usual because our results have been bad, and bad news sells ... 

When you dig into most of the stories there is no actual substance and simple fact checks show that said "facts" are typically wrong or at best greatly exaggerated ... 

13 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

We have been one of the worst teams in the league for months now, how are some seeing us suddenly turn into a top 6 team next season? If we can get into the top 6, then 15 other teams in the league will feel they can do it too.

Gary Neville, a man I really dislike, did sum it up perfectly. He's never seen a bunch of talented players perform so poorly in all his life. And I think it's true, I've never seen this. We have an incredible side of talent, it doesn't matter if you think there are overrated players in the team, there's absolutely zero excuse a team like this should be in the bottom half of the table with only 36 goals scored and 41 conceded. 

I think we have far too much talent in this team to just simply do this all over again. We have to be finishing in the top 6 next season with the players we have. 

14 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

We have been one of the worst teams in the league for months now, how are some seeing us suddenly turn into a top 6 team next season? If we can get into the top 6, then 15 other teams in the league will feel they can do it too.

Remember the 15/16 season. We finished on 10th with 50 points and the season after we won the league.

I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen this time around, but it shows that it is possible for a talented group of players to underperform severely and then pick it up the season after. 

14 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

We have been one of the worst teams in the league for months now, how are some seeing us suddenly turn into a top 6 team next season? If we can get into the top 6, then 15 other teams in the league will feel they can do it too.

As the above poster said, last time we finished near this bad (10th), we won the league the following season with a total new manager and formation and arrivals/departures of players. The team will not be involved in European fixtures which keeps them more fresh and avoids jetlag and likely injuries and Pochettino will have more time to work with the team on the training ground. There is no reason to think we cannot challenge for top 4, when you consider we are still looking to add players to the team also.

23 minutes ago, True Blue23 said:

Remember the 15/16 season. We finished on 10th with 50 points and the season after we won the league.

I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen this time around, but it shows that it is possible for a talented group of players to underperform severely and then pick it up the season after. 

It's basically how Arsenal changed round this season, they were able to concentrate on one competition......difference is they f**ked it right up ha ha....

Would take Tuchel back w/o even thinking twice about it.

Don't get me wrong, I admire Pochettino and it's harsh to judge him on his trophy winning record as he's managed the biggest trophy dodgers in European football and PSG, a club who is a total clown show IMHO and only came close to winning their most desired trophy with Tuchel in charge.

Pochettino is a top manager, but the way I see it, the first batch of negative results and all hell breaks loose because of his Spurs connection, our situation as a club, the fans and the media will rub it in our face saying "we've told you Pochettino is not a trophy oriented manager, his teams win jack sh*te" etc. And we go back to the Potter days.

At least with Tuchel we'd get a manager who is very close to the club and the fans and the transition period, that should have actually happened this season, would come more natural.

Won't happen though and probably Pochettino will be the next manager. But there is a lot of pressure on him and I hope he will have a very good start. It's imperative he does not have us mid table after 7-8 rounds to ease the pressure a bit. Will support his arrival 100% no matter what though.

 

 

Now that we have secured our man.  Spurs are in talks with Julian Nagelsmann about him becoming the new boss at the “Steaming Pile of Tottenham”.  . . although he wants to know who will be sporting director before committing

13 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Five-point plan for success (in order of importance)

•  Stop the Leaks: The problem with being owned by a consortium is that there are too many cooks, and too many political interests. Pochettino should demand that leaking be investigated and halted. The Athletic and co could barely get a sniffle out of Abramovich's board the last 5 or so years, yet now they are able to broadcast every last Boehly bowel movement. Leaking creates a toxic culture and engenders mistrust while also encouraging people to voice their dissent unproductively instead of providing honest feedback

 

Boehly has made a real fool of himself in the media and has said some things that are quite frankly very VERY stupid.

The greatness of Old Roman is that he never gave an interview and he never said anything.  Just your average affable Oligarch. IF there were leaks under Roman those responsible were never seen or heard from again. . .

Bit off topic but, talking to a couple of Arse. fans down my local, well me taking the piss really. They really are the most obnoxious arseholes out there. They are a bit gutted that we've got Pochettino. They also don't like it when i remind them how they actually got into the league, thats shuts them up when they go on about dodgy Russian money. And i just love watching this, what a day out that was.

 

2 hours ago, Kev56 said:

Bit off topic but, talking to a couple of Arse. fans down my local, well me taking the piss really. They really are the most obnoxious arseholes out there. They are a bit gutted that we've got Pochettino. They also don't like it when i remind them how they actually got into the league, thats shuts them up when they go on about dodgy Russian money. And i just love watching this, what a day out that was.

 

Ah Kerry....my first ever favourite player

5 hours ago, True Blue23 said:

Remember the 15/16 season. We finished on 10th with 50 points and the season after we won the league.

I'm pretty sure that's not going to happen this time around, but it shows that it is possible for a talented group of players to underperform severely and then pick it up the season after. 

As bad as that season was, there was at least some sign once Hiddink came in that things were settling down. As soon as he came in, we went on a 15 game unbeaten run in the league. If it wasn't for the poor ending, we could have finished higher than we had. They still managed to score 59 goals too, outscoring 11 league teams, and had players that were proven winners, so it was realistic to expect them to recover.

It's very different with the current squad. There has been no sign that things will get better for months now. We haven't improved at all, we haven't gone on any decent unbeaten run, an abysmal total of 36 league goals (only 3 teams have scored less) and there is so far nothing to indicate that most of these young players we have bought are even any good. The players we already had aren't exactly the toughest characters either. Havertz, Pulisic, Ziyech, Kovacic, Loftus-Cheek and many others aren't ever going to be leaders that demands the best from themselves and others week in week out. 

The only thing that is comparable between the two sides is that they both had a really poor season. I don't see some miracle where a team that looks as bad as this suddenly becomes a top 6 team 12 months from now.

With injury prone players, a disjointed unimaginative midfield and no distinct attacking threat…..How long will he be given until the FIFA manager crowd start calling for his head.

36 minutes ago, Carloseyebrow said:

With injury prone players, a disjointed unimaginative midfield and no distinct attacking threat…..How long will he be given until the FIFA manager crowd start calling for his head.

A year according to someone in this thread, ridiculously. 

47 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

As bad as that season was, there was at least some sign once Hiddink came in that things were settling down. As soon as he came in, we went on a 15 game unbeaten run in the league. If it wasn't for the poor ending, we could have finished higher than we had. They still managed to score 59 goals too, outscoring 11 league teams, and had players that were proven winners, so it was realistic to expect them to recover.

It's very different with the current squad. There has been no sign that things will get better for months now. We haven't improved at all, we haven't gone on any decent unbeaten run, an abysmal total of 36 league goals (only 3 teams have scored less) and there is so far nothing to indicate that most of these young players we have bought are even any good. The players we already had aren't exactly the toughest characters either. Havertz, Pulisic, Ziyech, Kovacic, Loftus-Cheek and many others aren't ever going to be leaders that demands the best from themselves and others week in week out. 

The only thing that is comparable between the two sides is that they both had a really poor season. I don't see some miracle where a team that looks as bad as this suddenly becomes a top 6 team 12 months from now.

But shouldn't the Hiddink spell in itself be some encouragement? We were just outside the top 4 based on the table after he came in and inherited a side battling relegation and that was without a pre season and fresh players. We also despite everything had one of the best defenses in the league pre Lampard.

We can blame the players all we like and ofcourse they're not blameless but all the things they "can't be bothered" to do right now they had no issue doing while throughly outplaying Liverpool in Bruno's sole match. This match strikes frightening similarity to Lampard's last league match of his first spell, a mere two players who start today also started that one, now I guess it's possible two almost entirely different set of players are deliberately sabotaging Frank in the exact same way but I'm going to side with probability here.

40 minutes ago, Carloseyebrow said:

With injury prone players, a disjointed unimaginative midfield and no distinct attacking threat…..How long will he be given until the FIFA manager crowd start calling for his head.

I mean, if we don't get Champions League next season we are f**ked in all kinds of ways. So there will be pressure to deliver from the very top.

Not saying that will be easy and not even saying the job is not a poisoned chalice because I think it is because of Boehly and his cronies but if the intention here is that Chelsea FC is a club that wants to compete for the titles and bragging rights then we are damn dependent on Pochettino delivering from day 1.

 

1 minute ago, Argo said:

But shouldn't the Hiddink spell in itself be some encouragement? We were just outside the top 4 based on the table after he came in and inherited a side battling relegation and that was without a pre season and fresh players. We also despite everything had one of the best defenses in the league pre Lampard.

We can blame the players all we like and ofcourse they're not blameless but all the things they "can't be bothered" to do right now they had no issue doing while throughly outplaying Liverpool in Bruno's sole match. This match strikes frightening similarity to Lampard's last league match of his first spell, a mere two players who start today also started that one, now I guess it's possible two almost entirely different set of players are deliberately sabotaging Frank in the exact same way but I'm going to side with probability here.

No, for the reasons I already listed, the players themselves. They aren't anywhere near that level of the squad we had in 2015-16, and I am not just talking about in terms of their football ability. Their attitude stinks, the opposition always wants it more than this lot. There are no leaders, nobody who will turn this around, they always just feel sorry for themselves. If they had it in them, then we would have at least seen it a few times by now, but we haven't seen it all. Anybody that says there is signs that this lot can make top 6 next season and lying to themselves, or they just don't watch them.

I also think we need to stop with all of this "we thoroughly outplayed Liverpool" rhetoric. It means nothing if we can't beat them, and at a time where any team in the league would have beaten them. They lost 3-1 and 3-0 before playing us, then lost 3-1 again straight after, their performances at that time were as poor as ours. If we played Liverpool now with the same line up and Bruno in charge, they would beat us.

11 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

No, for the reasons I already listed, the players themselves. They aren't anywhere near that level of the squad we had in 2015-16, and I am not just talking about in terms of their football ability. Their attitude stinks, the opposition always wants it more than this lot. There are no leaders,

That's easy to say in hindsight, at the time people were bringing posters to games branding them rats and how we wouldn't bounce back because they haven't got the character of the old guard.

12 minutes ago, Scott Harris said:

I also think we need to stop with all of this "we thoroughly outplayed Liverpool" rhetoric. It means nothing if we can't beat them, and at a time where any team in the league would have beaten them. They lost 3-1 and 3-0 before playing us, then lost 3-1 again straight after, their performances at that time were as poor as ours. If we played Liverpool now with the same line up and Bruno in charge, they would beat us.

If i recall correctly when we were getting results early on under Potter but not playing atall well you were the first to point it out.

It works both ways. And they didn't lost after that, they themselves went on to outplay the league leaders a few days later.

On 19/05/2023 at 22:58, WhiteWall said:

He has...just not his own!

He won't have lost any money until he sells the club for less than he has spent out on us. 

He might have to wait a long time though !

 

On 20/05/2023 at 02:46, Bob stark said:

This year or last year version city? 

Last year city was unwatchable. Backpass galore, extemely slow, I saw somebody said it is like watching paint dry and I am not sure which one is more boring. 

 

 

Is that the season when they scored a record amount of goals ?  But their games do lack excitement only because they starve the opposition of the ball.

When they beat us 1-0 the season after our  CL  win, we just couldn't get the ball off of them, it was frustrating and probably boring for neutrals 

The highlight was a half volley from their keeper to the feet of a player on the halfway touchline, we just looked around at each other in amazement!

4 minutes ago, Argo said:

That's easy to say in hindsight, at the time people were bringing posters to games branding them rats and how we wouldn't bounce back because they haven't got the character of the old guard.

If i recall correctly when we were getting results early on under Potter but not playing atall well you were the first to point it out.

It works both ways. And they didn't lost after that, they themselves went on to outplay the league leaders a few days later.

The posters were a reactionary response to losing Mourinho, a manager the fans loved probably more than any other in their life time. I would be shocked if the fans didn't feel a little embarassed now.

You're right about Liverpool, i got my dates mixed up. But still, it's one performance, it's an anomaly. If we had played a lot more games like that, I would see something to get excited by.