He's not going to sign a different tune from the owners, I get he's doing what he could to convince those players to move on. We will need quite a bit of luck to offload them, United or Arsenal aren't there to bail us out. We aren't far away from calling on the 'bomb' squad players if a few players go down injured, so that's something he has to deal with in coming months.

On 29/08/2024 at 06:54, g3.7 said:

I don't like that at all, this isn't how to treat players. I get he and the club have to encourage players to leave, but these are players who have been professional, some of them have served the club with distinction, and they've been signed or handed new contracts by the ownership. 

Think of what the club told sterling when they signed him, when they were selling them their 'project'. If you can stomach that, think of what they told Ben Chilwell or trevoh Chalobah when they were handed new contracts. 

Well said.

I can't imagine we will get away without legal consequences. From what I understand UK employment law is very strict (and footballers are considered employees, not contractors) and the aforementioned trio would surely be looking at legal advice. In the past this sort of treatment has only been reserved for players who put in transfer requests, not where the club has initiated the freeze. Maresca's very public comments will not have helped in this regard. 

FIFA statutes leave the club with a ticking time bomb too; if the 'bomb squad' plays in less than 10% of games this season they will have cause to terminate their contracts and move on a free.

That's just statutes. I wouldn't be surprised if there was some civil suit either. These are three players in their prime earning capacity.

 

 

We are owned by several corporate billionaires who are likely all familiar with all the ins and outs of contract litigation.

We'll be fine. 

I doubt any of these players will terminate their contracts and let the owners get away with a big pay out. They are footballers who wants to play, but they aren't going back to a day job working 8-5. We will end up with an unused team that's capable of surviving relegation battle in the league. Maresca probably over did his work for the owners. Imagine by December we have a bad injury toll, is he going to risk with under 18s or call upon Chalobah or Sterling? We actually get lots of games to play, got be careful when you slam the door on players' face, knowing your job could depend on them one day

I don’t know about you guys but I’m massively looking forward to seeing our 4-6 formation with no midfield or striker.

We play soccer on our own terms man!

 

🤦‍♂️

7 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

I don’t know about you guys but I’m massively looking forward to seeing our 4-6 formation with no midfield or striker.

We play soccer on our own terms man!

 

🤦‍♂️

Soccer, indeed. 😕

Not to mention we're going to use Sanchez and Jorgensen as inverted strikers. That's a piece of brand new tactic no one's ready for.

I guess Guiu is the backup for Jackson then. I don't mind that. Felix, Palmer, Nkunku can also do a job as a striker I think.

On 30/08/2024 at 11:02, SydneyChelsea said:

These are three players in their prime earning capacity.

And they're currently earning top dollar. No problem.

On 28/08/2024 at 22:28, bluetrooper said:

I absolutely get what your saying. Im a big defender of the long serving academy guys staying around. But I also see this as a huge positive. Whether the players are being moved on because they have underperformed as viewed by the directors, or simply financial, or even after pre season Maresca is having doubts about players, we simply dont know, but he is ruling over a massive squad with an iron fist at the minute. Come hell or high water, you dont play in his team unless you are up to scratch and he wants you there. 

Still early days and there'll be plenty of testing periods this season under him, but so far so good. Lets see what October brings. 

Well if you don't play in the team unless you're " up to scratch" how come there ARE players who are NOT up to scratch playing in the team ?

And players who are clearly good enough to play but are excluded from the first team entirely.

Let's face it , decisions are not being based on football ability but on the owners financial needs.

54 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Well if you don't play in the team unless you're " up to scratch" how come there ARE players who are NOT up to scratch playing in the team ?

And players who are clearly good enough to play but are excluded from the first team entirely.

Let's face it , decisions are not being based on football ability but on the owners financial needs.

Perhaps should have qualified it with i think i meant out of what he's given.. and he has had to make decisions and possibly have them forced on him, but he still picks the side. I do believe that. 

28 minutes ago, bluetrooper said:

Perhaps should have qualified it with i think i meant out of what he's given.. and he has had to make decisions and possibly have them forced on him, but he still picks the side. I do believe that. 

Yeah I see what you mean now mate 👍

18 hours ago, Gordon Bennett said:

And they're currently earning top dollar. No problem.

Like any sane person would turn down tripling their salary for doing the same job, without having to ask for it.

My head is still spinning from Calmer playing in the centre of the pich for the second half.. What was that about??

2 minutes ago, Ledgerson said:

My head is still spinning from Calmer playing in the centre of the pich for the second half.. What was that about??

He was being marked out of the game by Wharton man 2 man and was trying to lose him..

Has some explaining to do regarding that 2nd half. 

I think he went for the win and if not for some poor finishing we win.. Eze is a quality player and no other CO player scores that.. again though it was a set piece that let us down…

Weren’t we 4 points this time last year too?

200m spent again. Still moving nowhere. 

It's pointless to look back and see how comfortable we used to beat them, Palace got a lot better from the times when our own people here complained about how they gave too much space to Jorginho to dominate... But it's still a question about how much did we get better?

Because regardless of Crystal Palace, if we can't beat them what are our ambitions this season?

I thought we played some good football with a terrific goal in the first half

Last week against Wolves I thought Maresca had solved the problem of our poor second half's.

But , here it was yet again ,bso frustrating. Their keeper had a good game and they equalised with a cracking shot from Ese .

I suppose we have to be patient until we get a new manager next year, and we can be patient all over again.

1 hour ago, Gol15 said:

It's pointless to look back and see how comfortable we used to beat them, Palace got a lot better from the times when our own people here complained about how they gave too much space to Jorginho to dominate... But it's still a question about how much did we get better?

Because regardless of Crystal Palace, if we can't beat them what are our ambitions this season?

Europa conference league at a push. 

Not a great start. 2 wins, 1 draw, 2 defeats, rubbish pre-season. The only time we've looked good was the 2nd half against Wolves, and we played high tempo football. Every time we play at a slower pace, we get sloppy, lose focus, concede a goal and lose all composure. The problem is, when you play at that pace and have a setback, it's pretty much impossible to suddenly switch tempo and regain control. 

We also seem to pick up the majority of our muscle injuries playing this way. 

I just want to enjoy watching Chelsea again. Win, lose, or draw, whatever happens happens, but there is no worse feeling that seeing your team lose or draw playing at such a slow tempo.

52 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Europa conference league at a push. 

Agreed. I suspect this season will be similar to last one, especially with the extra games in midweek. I think our best chance of making Europa League will be to win Conf League. In the Premier League I cannot see us finishing higher than we did last season.

I'd be a lot more willing to moan about the performance today if we weren't obviously the better team, but barring a worldie from Eze we didn't really give Palace a sniff. First half I thought we were really good and you could see the patterns of play that Maresca wants getting better. The second half though we just looked a bit disjointed and I don't know why. 

Mudryk, Neto and Felixr, all total waste of money,but all playing ahead of Nkunku. Not only our owners but also our manager is a total amateur.

He had to work miracles to convince me I'm afraid, and still does. 

Last season was our rebuild, we can't afford more messing around, the players need to start acting like a top 4 team and it's looking like another inconsistent mess. I do feel for him, he has been given a tough challenge, and I don't completely doubt that given the time he could maybe build an elite side. But we don't have the time for that, we can't afford that type of risk, we need to get going now, that's the f**king problem.
 

Either it clicks or it doesn't, not sure where we go from here. I'm praying Maresca is the one, because if he isn't, we're cooked.