2 hours ago, Girish said:

Unbelievable that this topic was on the second page.

If I was Palmer, I'd be asking my agent to plan for an exit. A player of his calibre would want to be part of a team that's winning leagues and CLs.

Let’s see how this plays out if it turns out to be player vs manager

My biggest problem with keeping Maresca is losing Cole Palmer. We're going to lose our best players the longer we persist with this absolute pillock managing. Why would any creative attacker want to play under this man?

8 hours ago, markpitts said:

Downside of these long contracts. Had the leverage after his 1st two season to put pressure on them, and force them to show intent to compete. Instead extended on a pittance, and now stuck with an 8yr contract playing with bums.

Contract protects the player more than the club. Look at Sterling compared to Jackson.

Club wants to sell sterling, he wants to sit at home on his contract so Sterling sits at home on his contract.

maresca wanted nico to compete with Delap, then when delap got injured wanted to cancel his deal with bayern but nico wanted to go to Bayern and despite our need and his long contract, nico wen to Bayern.

If Cole pushes for a move he will get a move

This resting thing is still bonkers. So Maresca says

“[Palmer] was working very good. He was on the ball and off the ball, pressing, he was very good. We have another game now in 48 hours, so he was good and we are happy that he’s back. [I have] no [problem with his reaction to the substitution].”

So you take your best player off to save him for another game. And if we’re drawing or losing in that, I suppose you take him off again to save him for the next game.

Many years ago I won a large corked style bottle of Duvel in a pool competition at work. For some barmy reason I couldn’t find the occasion to open and drink it and eventually it passed its best before date. That feels a bit like our approach to player management.

1 minute ago, Snedger said:

This resting thing is still bonkers. So Maresca says

“[Palmer] was working very good. He was on the ball and off the ball, pressing, he was very good. We have another game now in 48 hours, so he was good and we are happy that he’s back. [I have] no [problem with his reaction to the substitution].”

So you take your best player off to save him for another game. And if we’re drawing or losing in that, I suppose you take him off again to save him for the next game.

Many years ago I won a large corked style bottle of Duvel in a pool competition at work. For some barmy reason I couldn’t find the occasion to open and drink it and eventually it passed its best before date. That feels a bit like our approach to player management.

Like I said.

Fitness > Results

2 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Like I said.

Fitness > Results

Weird with Palmer is that I would imagine a groin issue is most likely to go early before you’re properly warmed up. Beyond that, I don’t see how beyond 72 minutes that it’s significantly more likely to be an issue. You can over stretch at any moment.

1 hour ago, Snedger said:

This resting thing is still bonkers. So Maresca says

“[Palmer] was working very good. He was on the ball and off the ball, pressing, he was very good. We have another game now in 48 hours, so he was good and we are happy that he’s back. [I have] no [problem with his reaction to the substitution].”

So you take your best player off to save him for another game. And if we’re drawing or losing in that, I suppose you take him off again to save him for the next game.

Many years ago I won a large corked style bottle of Duvel in a pool competition at work. For some barmy reason I couldn’t find the occasion to open and drink it and eventually it passed its best before date. That feels a bit like our approach to player management.

I couldn't be bothered to wait around last night to hear what he was going to say, but I knew he would mention this. He's always looking to the next game instead of dealing with the game in front of him. Thinking about how many minutes a player has played shouldn't have even been a consideration with the position we were in yesterday. When you're making these kinds of subs at 1-1 or 2-1 down, you're basically just giving up on the result. We need our best players playing 90+ minutes, not being dragged off to conserve their energy for the next game.

The old adage ‘one game at a time’ isn’t an expression we’ll ever hear from Maresca!

keep Playing him through the middle though Maresca you moron

On 28/12/2025 at 10:17, Snedger said:

Maresca said We have another game now in 48 hours

No we dont, he cant even count

The game finished 7-20pm on Saturday

Our next game kicks off 7-30 on Tuesday

I think you will find its 72 hours there was no need to sub Palmer

1 hour ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

No we dont, he cant even count

The game finished 7-20pm on Saturday

Our next game kicks off 7-30 on Tuesday

I think you will find its 72 hours there was no need to sub Palmer

He's said this before the feeble minded cretin. No top flight footballer plays football within 48 hours of their last game. Not even at Christmas time.

Why we got rid of Jackson without a better striker coming in, I'll never know. Not just that, but we should have kept Jackson as a backup to a better striker or simply kept him here while also signing Delap. Jackson had good link up with Palmer, something we miss this season. It seems that this season Cole is struggling to link up with anyone, and nobody else is stepping up enough to help him.

1 hour ago, Sunspear_88 said:

Why we got rid of Jackson without a better striker coming in, I'll never know. Not just that, but we should have kept Jackson as a backup to a better striker or simply kept him here while also signing Delap. Jackson had good link up with Palmer, something we miss this season. It seems that this season Cole is struggling to link up with anyone, and nobody else is stepping up enough to help him.

The obvious thing to do would have been to sign Osimhen and have Jackson as the back up, learning in training off Osimhen. You could also make a strong case that Jackson could also be a starter at LW, as he'd contribute more actual output than Garnacho and Gittens.

Palmer - Estevao - Jackson

Osimhen

5 hours ago, Sunspear_88 said:

Why we got rid of Jackson without a better striker coming in, I'll never know. Not just that, but we should have kept Jackson as a backup to a better striker or simply kept him here while also signing Delap. Jackson had good link up with Palmer, something we miss this season. It seems that this season Cole is struggling to link up with anyone, and nobody else is stepping up enough to help him.

Jackson fell out of favor initially in the CWC with his stupid red card, and then pushed for a move. Once we had signed Delap/JP he had no interest in fighting for his place.

23 hours ago, GarnachoCheese said:

keep Playing him through the middle though Maresca you moron

The real reason he was subbed comes to light, Palmer went against Maresca’s bullsh*t tactical genius and was effective for the first time all game. Can’t be having that, Enzo & Gusto will get upset if people realise our players can play football.

4 hours ago, forbzy said:

Jackson fell out of favor initially in the CWC with his stupid red card, and then pushed for a move. Once we had signed Delap/JP he had no interest in fighting for his place.

No interest on fighting for his place ? Did we sign Haaland or Delap?

6 hours ago, Bob stark said:

No interest on fighting for his place ? Did we sign Haaland or Delap?

Exactly. It shows the psyche of this petulant loser if one mediocre, championship level player comes in and you're desperate to get away. But even I this he appears to have over estimated his ability and fumbled his chances.

Trouble is here, the mediocre championship player was feted by the club as if he was Haaland ... given the #9 shirt, straight into the team etc etc.

I'm trying to think of an analogy in normal life ... let's say I'm a salesman, and I'm not great but I'm competent enough to hit my sales target for the year. And then the company hire a new salesman on more money, with a worse CV and track record than me, and give him all my accounts. What would I do ? Stick around and try and prove them wrong ? Or move to another company ? Many careers have been wasted trying to stick it out when your face doesn't fit.

54 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

Exactly. It shows the psyche of this petulant loser if one mediocre, championship level player comes in and you're desperate to get away. But even I this he appears to have over estimated his ability and fumbled his chances.

The club were putting media briefings out all summer that he was for sale and signed two strikers. He agreed a loan to Bayern, he only forced the move through after the club tried to recall him after the Delap injury. Would you want to come back to a club that forced you out the door?

13 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Trouble is here, the mediocre championship player was feted by the club as if he was Haaland ... given the #9 shirt, straight into the team etc etc.

I'm trying to think of an analogy in normal life ... let's say I'm a salesman, and I'm not great but I'm competent enough to hit my sales target for the year. And then the company hire a new salesman on more money, with a worse CV and track record than me, and give him all my accounts. What would I do ? Stick around and try and prove them wrong ? Or move to another company ? Many careers have been wasted trying to stick it out when your face doesn't fit.

This is just my opinion. I don't think we are planning to sell Jackson but then we had Isak saga and Jackson was probably one of the player that Newcastle look at and we tried to sell him to Newcastle.

14 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

Exactly. It shows the psyche of this petulant loser if one mediocre, championship level player comes in and you're desperate to get away. But even I this he appears to have over estimated his ability and fumbled his chances.

I don't think there is desperation to get away. We were trying to move him, it is that simple.

5 hours ago, Bob stark said:

I don't think there is desperation to get away. We were trying to move him, it is that simple.

When it started to fall through he publicly refused to return

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/nicolas-jackson-chelsea-bayern-munich-transfer-news-b2817239.html

Hey, I'm not complaining. I don't disagree that we have actually downgraded, said so at the time, but my issue with the guy was about attitude as well as limited ability. Its not his fault that we have actually recruited worse as a replacement

6 hours ago, Bob stark said:

I don't think there is desperation to get away. We were trying to move him, it is that simple.

I agree.

If we hadn't tried to offload him he wouldn't have wanted to leave ... cause and effect !

Not saying it wasn't the right decision to offload ... the problem was in who they brought in to replace him. Delap is not good enough and Joao Pedro is historically a 1 goal in 5 games striker from open play. If they'd signed Osimhen on the other hand ...

24 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I agree.

If we hadn't tried to offload him he wouldn't have wanted to leave ... cause and effect !

Not saying it wasn't the right decision to offload ... the problem was in who they brought in to replace him. Delap is not good enough and Joao Pedro is historically a 1 goal in 5 games striker from open play. If they'd signed Osimhen on the other hand ...

What I find crazy is that a lot of fans are more than happy to see players like jackson, Madueke, Conor, + Chalobah go. Players who were in previous season gave us clear positive contribution. I understand why our board want to sell them, but for fans to want them gone, I find it crazy.

2 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

When it started to fall through he publicly refused to return

https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/nicolas-jackson-chelsea-bayern-munich-transfer-news-b2817239.html

Hey, I'm not complaining. I don't disagree that we have actually downgraded, said so at the time, but my issue with the guy was about attitude as well as limited ability. Its not his fault that we have actually recruited worse as a replacement

But that’s our own fault for actively trying to ship him all window and making it very clear he wasn’t wanted? People keep saying he forced a move while completely ignoring the reason for it.

Would you stay at a company that has spent the last 4 months trying to sack you, hired two replacements then just as you’re moving to a competitor say ooo sorry one of your replacements are poorly we need you to come back until January to cover for them when we’ll try to sell you again.