BREAKING: Chelsea have narrowed down their search for Mauricio Pochettino’s successor to 4 candidates: 

🔷 Kieran McKenna 
🔷 Enzo Maresca
🔷 Thomas Frank
🔷 Unknown 

Chelsea have dropped interest in Stuttgart’s Sebastian Hoeness and Girona’s Michel.

(via @Matt_Law_DT)
 

My money is in that unknown being De Zerbi. 

Also, I thought I read Thomas Frank ruled him out. 

McKenna goes to Brighton.  We take RDZ.  We sack RDZ end of next season.  We go to Brighton for McKenna.  We sack McKenna at Christmas.  We go to Brighton.....rinse and repeat....

Why are people so sure RDZ is coming here? Its possible he ends up at United instead

How about this guy? Bald, beard, Spanish, he ticks all of the boxes.

I hope Ruben Amorim is the mystery candidate, he's the only manager I'd want moving forward.

At least we aren't getting Kompnay, feels like a small win😎 I will go for Mckenna, seriously. If the owners and DOFs think this grand plan of youth will work, may as well go all in and get the youngest and coolest manager out there. I don't know much about McKenna, but if he's willing just to be a coach and follow the scripts set by the boss, then he probably deserve a go. If he's into Brighton, don't know why he wouldn't want aim a bit higher. If all  fails, at least he'd share something in common with the likes of Jose, Carlo, Conte, Tuchel etc

If anything, at least this manager appointment guessing game is more entertaining than most of the sh*te Poch served up last season.

5 minutes ago, Frankie8Lampard said:

I hope Ruben Amorim is the mystery candidate, he's the only manager I'd want moving forward.

Amorim certainly seems to have the most robust CV from this shortlist. I am concerned whether we have the players in place to play to his formation, just at a time when players are starting to click and others are coming back from injury. Of course Amorim becomes more appealing if he can bring Gyokeres with him. Similarly to Hoeness and Guirassy, who would have been my first choice.

2 hours ago, coombsie said:

McKenna is now best priced evens on the main betting sites, with even a touch of odds on at one or two of them. As the saying goes "The bookies rarely get it wrong"

But the punters do For this sort of thing there is no prior information. It’s not like politics where you have opinion polls or racing where you have a form guide. So I think betting odds of little I value. The following are quotes from someone I follow. 
 

Quote

First things first, as you all know I watch Ipswich almost every week and go to their games fairly often through a season, I have seen Kieran McKenna’s sides first hand a lot over recent seasons. He is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most exciting managers in the country and I hold him in high regard, BUT I do not want him as the next Chelsea manager.

Firstly because I would hate to see him ruin all of the hard work he has put in to this point, also because he is not ready for such a huge step up in my opinion, he needs to get his PL experience slightly lower down the league with Ipswich or move onto another small club like Brighton👀. I just think it is all too much too soon for him

And 

Quote

The thing I love about McKenna’s side are the ways in which they play, they are so effective in the manner they approach games whether it is playing short and sharp passes, whether it is being incredibly direct or a mix of the two, they are incredibly adaptable in game and to most situations, they are happy to change the way they play to suit the opposition and inevitably get the better of the opposition

 

1 hour ago, Valerie said:

 

that’s a one great emoji for sure

 

 

 

Can't see it being De Zerbi. Someone paid his release clause a week or so ago, and we only just decided to part ways with our manager a few days ago. Someone's already got him lined up.

I wonder if Wayne Rooney is the mystery candidate?  Or maybe it is Pep? 
Mystery candidates are . . . mysterious!!!
Zidanne? Deschamps? Allegri?

 

[and why isnt this thread at the top - where there is a Poch thread discussing much of the same manager type stuff as this one?]

1 hour ago, Zeta said:

Can't see it being De Zerbi. Someone paid his release clause a week or so ago, and we only just decided to part ways with our manager a few days ago. Someone's already got him lined up.

Legally the clause cannot be activated until June 1st.

When are we expected to announce our new manager? June 1st.

Here is one from left field. What if the mystery 4th candidate is none other than...Gareth Southgate!

14 hours ago, ozboy said:

I think it’s a good point of whether the players can be made to fit together and establish an identity. My bet is yes but I wouldn’t be surprised to be wrong. 

That is my only point of manager establishing identity. You see this everywhere. Manager comes in and establish identity. What usually happen is the manager will replace almost the entire 11 before they start winning. 

 

 

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Here is one from left field. What if the mystery 4th candidate is none other than...Gareth Southgate!

Nothing would surprise me.

I almost want us to appoint Allegri as a social experiment just to see how many begging for a "proven" manager will suddenly change their mind the same way how Poch was suddenly rated highly when he left.

1 hour ago, Argo said:

I almost want us to appoint Allegri as a social experiment just to see how many begging for a "proven" manager will suddenly change their mind the same way how Poch was suddenly rated highly when he left.

Allegri is a bad option, just too rigid but I would be very hyped for Zidane if we go for a celebrity.

Zidane would cover all the news every week, great for the young players.

Jose Mourinho is available guys

10 hours ago, Ajbod said:

The odds are based on money bet. The bookies don't decide, they react to offset the risk.

True, but they set odds to ensure they do not lose money. There is a LOT of insider dealing in football, so it means a lot of people have their money on McKenna already.

It’s Michael Laudrup - and he’ll raise Michu from the dead and bring him as well!

2 hours ago, Gol15 said:

Allegri is a bad option, just too rigid but I would be very hyped for Zidane if we go for a celebrity.

Zidane would cover all the news every week, great for the young players.

Zidane & young players 😂. If Alonso doesn’t match this season’s lofty heights next season I can see Zidane going back to replace Ancelotti.

The Madrid team with the addition of Mbappe is the ideal role for him. 

I don't know which way to go here. I feel the club has now the idea of doing things in a new way which is good I guess, but not sure if this whole thing is a bit of an experiment. 

Brighton is the model we are copying and we are sort of the rich Brighton. Not sure if there is such identity of a club available. Maybe. 

I feel the sporting directors want to have much more control of everything and diminish the role of the coach. It used to be manager, now it is head coach. You have less ego and less say for the head coach and probably less money in coaches (read: less expensive squad rebuilds) but you put amazing amount of trust on these two guys. They don't have a track record for this responsibility in a top club do they...? 

I think whoever comes in totally buys into the project and how the sporting directors want to operate. I feel Pochettino said yes at the beginning to everything they asked for but decided it wasn't fun as he took all the heat. I totally get it. SD's buy you young fragile players, you answer the press with your face after all the losses. He wanted to change that and now he's gone. 

We are clearly going for a younger face that is more mouldable to the role. As long as these SD's are here we are probably using younger coaches who already have a background of working closely with everyone else at the club. Big ego coaches are the thing of the past it seems. 

Edited May 24, 20242 yr by evissy

11 minutes ago, evissy said:

I don't know which way to go here. I feel the club has now the idea of doing things in a new way which is good I guess, but not sure if this whole thing is a bit of an experiment. 

Brighton is the model we are copying and we are sort of the rich Brighton. Not sure if there is such identity of a club available. Maybe. 

I feel the sporting directors want to have much more control of everything and diminish the role of the coach. It used to be manager, now it is head coach. You have less ego and less say for the head coach and probably less money in coaches (read: less expensive squad rebuilds) but you put amazing amount of trust on these two guys. They don't have a track record for this responsibility in a top club do they...? 

I think whoever comes in totally buys into the project and how the sporting directors want to operate. I feel Pochettino said yes at the beginning to everything they asked for but decided it wasn't fun as he took all the heat. I totally get it. SD's buy you young fragile players, you answer the press with your face after all the losses. He wanted to change that and now he's gone. 

We are clearly going for a younger face that is more mouldable to the role. As long as these SD's are here we are probably using younger coaches who already have a background of working closely with everyone else at the club. Big ego coaches are the thing of the past it seems. 

If I'm spending £2.5 billion on an asset, I'd certainly make sure I had better people than Stewart and Winstanley making key decisions ... check them out on LinkedIn, and you'll find  there isn't much of substance in their career history - particularly Winstanley ...