I was wondering if anyone knows what is going on at the club regarding the transfer strategy? - I’m guessing the American sports world doesn’t have an established concept of home grown talent and with it the added enjoyment fans get from watching players in the first team who have come through the ranks (and who you feel really understand what it means to play for Chelsea.)

I can’t believe that in such a short space of time, the club has brought in so many young players from outside the club who are no better than the existing young Chelsea lads, and it seems the only way of paying for them is to sell all the home grown talent?!? Sad times as far as I’m concerned.

Am I the only fan who feels this way, and if I’m not, who is advising the owners on behalf of fans?

Edited March 9, 20242 yr by Joonbug
Grammar

I don't know, but there must be some serious conversations going on behind the scenes. The type of people who own us do not care about Chelsea FC and certainly don't care about the fans - they are only interested in making money - which they will not do unless we have some modicum of success on the pitch. 

I think too many people being involved doesn’t help either, loads have a slice of the pie and probably all giving their different direction for the club!

The isn’t any connect with fans anymore which is why so many are pissed off! The last ownership listened much more and actually cared what we think!

What if we had a Super League protest these days, it would be like pissing in the wind!

32 minutes ago, Mod said:

The isn’t any connect with fans anymore which is why so many are pissed off! The last ownership listened much more and actually cared what we think!

Not sure that's totally fair Mod. They did implement the Fan Advisory Board, and looking at the meeting minutes, our CEO Chris Jurasek takes it seriously enough to sit in on the meetings ... 

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/the-fan-advisory-board 

 

@Joonbug can you update your email, am getting undelivered notifications! Cheers!

There is no sugar coating the situation, and the apparent level of change in structure and personnel on and off the pitch has clearly impacted what we all see.  I'm sure there is much more to it than we know.  Had results been positive and we were top 6 I think the tone of our discussions would be substantially different.

No idea who is advising them.  Its easy to throw stones and suggest a lack of understanding, but I'll give them a little room as you don't have the level of success they've enjoyed in many industries without being intelligent.  Something is clearly amiss though.

When Todd and team came in I thought we'd be in for a 3 year restructuring of the club.  I thought we'd be much further along that journey now with signs of real progress, a solid plan of where we want to be, and didn't even contemplate we'd be worried over the financial structure of the club.  They'd got about 14 months to go on my timeline (and to your question, they aren't seeking advice from me!), and lots of work to do.

It's fair to say it's been all over the place. The major red flag was how our transfer strategy completely changed overnight, that's not very proactive is it? And you need a plan at such a high elite level of club football. We signed all these rubbish players under Tuchel only to sack him and then completely change direction as if we were restarting a new campaign on a video game because we couldn't get past the 2nd level. 

It was just really weird and it's made us a laughing stock. It's not all terrible, whoever was running some of our outgoing transfers made some genius moves. Offloading Koulibaly like we did and a few others on high wages that needed to go. And I know this might look stupid, but we still don't know how these big transfer strategies are going to play out, we'll see in time if our owners have made a genius moves or are f*cking idiots. Unfortunately, it is looking like the latter when you look at the likes of how Mudryk is panning out. They've utilised a lot of loopholes that can bite us in the ass if it doesn't pay off, fingers crossed that's not the case. 
 

Eghbali calls the shots. 

Advisor in Chief 

10 hours ago, El regreso said:

Advisor in Chief 

The biggest squandered opportunity in the history of the game not to have invested wisely and assembled a team ready to challenge this season led by a world class coach. Instead we have mid table mediocrity with far too many unsuitable or injured players and extreme fan dissatisfaction. Well done Clearfake! 

Clearlake would have much better taking a more considered approach to on field matters rather than stripping things dramatically. Take the year, keep Tuchel (assuming he hadn’t lost the squad) and get your sporting directors in, actually scout for elite youth players and take their time. 
 

A year treading water in and around the top 4 would have been perfectly fine. In the space of 2 years, they’re basically building a brand new club but with a set of fans that are used to consistently winning trophies. . 

Edited March 10, 20242 yr by JM7

This what ego gets you!! 

2 hours ago, JM7 said:

Clearlake would have much better taking a more considered approach to on field matters rather than stripping things dramatically. Take the year, keep Tuchel (assuming he hadn’t lost the squad) and get your sporting directors in, actually scout for elite youth players and take their time. 
 

A year treading water in and around the top 4 would have been perfectly fine. In the space of 2 years, they’re basically building a brand new club but with a set of fans that are used to consistently winning trophies. . 

This bit remains to be seen. There have been changes of ownership at clubs like Ipswich, Southampton and Leeds.

Just because there is a path to the wilderness,  I don't think it should be taken as a given that there is also a path back out.