1 hour ago, El regreso said:

Winning the CL will be a curse because it guarantees this inept manager for another two seasons.

They will say the project is working and point to Arsenal.

Unless we are in a relegation battle he is not going anywhere.

The project is considered to be working as long as:

1. The huge loans we have taken out from Ares management and a consortium of US banks are able to be repaid on time.

2. A consistent cash flow comes in that allows us to post regular net season profits without manipulation like selling the hotels or women's team to ourselves.

3. To be able to give the investors a sizeable return on their investment.

That's it, and it is not a short term thing. Needs to be the case in 7 years this is all set up and working seamlessly. Then the loans should all be repaid and the investors able to cash in.

None of it is judged by success on the pitch.

13 minutes ago, axman2526 said:

None of it is judged by success on the pitch.

We can’t accomplish your 2nd point without being successful on the pitch.

2 hours ago, yaz said:

Do the names Joao Felix, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, David Datro Fofana, Deivid Washington, Omari Kellyman, Filip Jorgensen, Caleb Wiley, Aaron Anselmino, Lesley Ugochukwu, Mathis Amougou and Renato Veiga ring bell?

We're buying way more than we did under Roman, with nothing to show for it.

Felix and KDH baffled me when we bought them. Everyone else can still mean business as they are young and untested.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We can’t accomplish your 2nd point without being successful on the pitch.

If that were true then they would have had to guarantee the investors sporting success was 100% certain. Which it never can be for any top club.

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

If that were true then they would have had to guarantee the investors sporting success was 100% certain. Which it never can be for any top club.

It is true. We don’t have a shirt sponsor because no legitimate sponsor worth bragging about won’t touch us unless we are in champions a league football. Same goes for other alleged brand deals.

57 minutes ago, evissy said:

Felix and KDH baffled me when we bought them. Everyone else can still mean business as they are young and untested.

When has buying young players up to 10/15 million, under both Roman and bates, ever gone on to be a sound business.

I'll let you go through this list... Plesase note we're now signing players for future years at extortionate amounts.

Chelsea FC - All transfers | Tra...

Chelsea FC - All transfers

Please let me know what sunglasses you wear? I need them to keep staring at the sun and seeing the bright side in everything.

6 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

It is true. We don’t have a shirt sponsor because no legitimate sponsor worth bragging about won’t touch us unless we are in champions a league football. Same goes for other alleged brand deals.

No way people who don't care about football like Wyss, Feliciano, Walter's get on board with this deal if they don't have a plan to make money regardless of sporting success.

Regardless of what we do on the pitch they, and the Clearlake shareholders, will get their returns.

Enzo Maresca: "They are ready. Tyrique George is ready, Josh Acheampong is ready. The young players are ready. Josh played two Premier League games in a row. Ty exactly the same. They are ready to play from the start."

You can guarantee he won’t starting either

36 minutes ago, ducavis said:

Enzo Maresca: "They are ready. Tyrique George is ready, Josh Acheampong is ready. The young players are ready. Josh played two Premier League games in a row. Ty exactly the same. They are ready to play from the start."

You can guarantee he won’t starting either

Pretty crazy that George doesn’t even get played when our wingers are this bad. Not exactly a good sign that your manager rates you.

This bloke makes it up as he goes along

WHAT MARESCA SAID

He told reporters: "Probably from outside, you receive in the wrong way the reason why Cole and Nico didn't play. They didn't play, not because we want to rest them for Thursday. They didn't play because there was a game plan, because Brentford had 24 hours [of rest] more than us, because some of the players were tired. So we planned the game to start in one way, and then to finish with Cole, with Nico, with Pedro [Neto], with four or five changes. And it nearly worked, because we deserved to win, especially in the last half an hour, but it was all planned. But we didn't decide to leave them out for [Thursday].

"No, no, no. It was because we planned the game in that way, because they needed it."

2 hours ago, Caps_Lock_King said:

This bloke makes it up as he goes along

WHAT MARESCA SAID

He told reporters: "Probably from outside, you receive in the wrong way the reason why Cole and Nico didn't play. They didn't play, not because we want to rest them for Thursday. They didn't play because there was a game plan, because Brentford had 24 hours [of rest] more than us, because some of the players were tired. So we planned the game to start in one way, and then to finish with Cole, with Nico, with Pedro [Neto], with four or five changes. And it nearly worked, because we deserved to win, especially in the last half an hour, but it was all planned. But we didn't decide to leave them out for [Thursday].

"No, no, no. It was because we planned the game in that way, because they needed it."

Lol BS we deserved to win. We deserved to lose.

Big Enz has also told our players, via the press, that they should feel "lucky" to participate in the conference league.

Yup from downplaying our position when second, to all the CL comments, to now downplaying the players ability to even play conference league.

Trying to listen and figure out what this farkin moron is about is painful.

19 hours ago, abramovich said:

It's the defeatist attitude, that's what this is. Can you imagine prime Mourinho or Conte accepting mediocrity and "we're not ready " approach? Winners don't act that way. It's the coward's way to hide behind excuses and promises that things will get better with time. It's the ultimate 'get out of jail' card that allows you to keep failing and not being held accountable because there's always 'we're not ready, just be patient' explanation for yet another season of getting nowhere fast.

That's when Maresca lost my support back in December/January. He should have been instilling confidence into the squad that nothing was off limits and we could achieve something of significance.

It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you say you can't win trophies or you're not ready, the players will eventually believe it.

Mourinho, February 2014

The title race is between two horses and a little horse that needs milk and needs to learn how to jump. Maybe next season we can race.

I don't agree we are title contenders. We are a team in evolution but this is the kind of performance that helps a team grow up a little tactically and mentally. It was fantastic.

We have beaten the best team, Manchester City, twice but they are the best team. I am not saying we are better than them but today we were the best team.

We do better in these big games because we love it. We love the big games and when you love it maybe you feel an extra motivation.

Our objective is to build the team. I want to start the next pre-season and say this season we are going to win the league. This season, I can't.

Maresca, December 2024

"No matter how many games we win, I think we are not ready to compete for the title, one of the reasons why is that I think those other teams know how to compete to win titles, they won't concede the goals we concede, like the one today."

1 hour ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Mourinho, February 2014

Maresca, December 2024

That was my initial reaction as well, but I gave him a pass because he did say "prime" Mourinho ... which I took to mean the 2003-2006 version of the man, not the version that came back for the second stint,

Sky Sports

Enzo Maresca's Chelsea team selection at Brentford was pa...

Paul Merson: Getting into the Champions League has to be the be all and end all. They have to be in it. If they come sixth in the Premier League and win the Europa Conference League, it would be a...

Yep, Merse is spot on here.

Please explain again why it needs to be: be all end all in terms of Champions league qualification?

Have none Chelsea following people seen what the profile of the squad is? Have they not heard Enzo's words on early in the season that there is no concrete target set for his team? Have people not seen the average age of this squad? Have people not seen we have a new owners?

This baffles me.

It is like Roman sold a stable of thoroughbred horses. New owner decided to cut the age profile and have a fresh plan. All the gamblers still bet on our horses because the stable is named Chelsea even though the horses are small and untested and then get furious losing their money...

This just baffles the life out of me.

Edited April 10, 20251 yr by evissy

I am yet to be convinced that Maresca actually likes football.

23 minutes ago, evissy said:

Please explain again why it needs to be: be all end all in terms of Champions league qualification?

Have none Chelsea following people seen what the profile of the squad is? Have they not heard Enzo's words on early in the season that there is no concrete target set for his team? Have people not seen the average age of this squad? Have people not seen we have a new owners?

This baffles me.

It is like Roman sold a stable of thoroughbred horses. New owner decided to cut the age profile and have a fresh plan. All the gamblers still bet on our horses because the stable is named Chelsea even though the horses are small and untested and then get furious losing their money...

This just baffles the life out of me.

I think we probably need to stop making excuse three years into our new ownership.

Again, you're bringing Roman into this.... Roman sold a club that was top four, its one of the reasons it was bought by clearlake. It was competing in all competitions and generating significant money.

Im amazed that you think the new owners dont want Champions League football. A little bewildered you think we fans shoulldnt be demanding top four... I understand the transitional argument you make but before Roman came we were a top four club were we not? It's what made him choose us over the sh*tty other north london w**kers...

CL footy would certainly help with meeting the financial side of our new owners ambitions. Would help us retain top players like palmer (who is a world class player who ambition requires CL football) and sign better youngsters.

Im also a little taken back that you cant see the current league we're competing in and say we should be top four because it is woeful this year. city have fallen off a cliff and will probably finish above us, but In under 18 months, Nottingham forrest have gone from club deducted points in an absolute relegation scrap, to top four under a manager who by all accounts failed at spurs with a budget a fraction of our 1.5 billion quid outlay, also worth pointing out Poch finished regualrly top four, in part thanks to free scoring Son and Kane. Newcastle are scoring goals (little hint - goals help you win football matches) and Villa will push on to cement their place in CL football next season. Interestingly, we're not scoring, players are not taking their chances.

This is seasons three of the transition, i forget how manay managers we are into the new rebuild, and bar a 12 month window between Xmas' six months with poch and six months with Maresca, we now back to not scoring, a problem Lampard identified during his second stint that he tried to rectify.

Now, I really want the name of your sunglasses manufacturer please or I should warn you staring at the sun can lead to loss of vision.

Edited April 10, 20251 yr by bluetrooper

To be honest I don’t pay any attention to whatever Maresca has to say.

He clearly talks a lot of sh*t and I don’t really have time for it.

43 minutes ago, evissy said:

Please explain again why it needs to be: be all end all in terms of Champions league qualification?

Have none Chelsea following people seen what the profile of the squad is? Have they not heard Enzo's words on early in the season that there is no concrete target set for his team? Have people not seen the average age of this squad? Have people not seen we have a new owners?

This baffles me.

It is like Roman sold a stable of thoroughbred horses. New owner decided to cut the age profile and have a fresh plan. All the gamblers still bet on our horses because the stable is named Chelsea even though the horses are small and untested and then get furious losing their money...

This just baffles the life out of me.

I'm more interested in why you think it's not. Everything the club has done has indicated that CL football is important this year without outright saying it.

The address each point a bit more directly;

1) The profile of this squad is still a team good enough to finish top 4 (or 5th now that gives CL). Especially this season with teams like Spurs, City, United, West Ham, etc all dropping off.

2) Enzo's words mean very little. He has consistently lied all season.

3) Average age would hold more weight if this was a competitive season. It's not.

4) We are 3 years into a supposedly 5 year plan.

I'm not really sure why you keep bringing Roman into this discussion. No one is expecting these owners to be Roman nor these group of players to be winners, what we do expect however is consistent progress year and year when we are already half way past their 5 year plan. This is what CL football represents.

Bear in mind, I'm not saying Enzo will be sacked if he doesn't get CL football but I can assure you it is very important to everyone at the club.

No. None of those well thought out comments really turned my head.

We just disagree. Plain and simple.

18 minutes ago, evissy said:

No. None of those well thought out comments really turned my head.

We just disagree. Plain and simple.

I think everyone disagrees with you @evissy

You appear to be in a minority of 1 when it comes to backing the current owners and coach.

1 hour ago, evissy said:

Please explain again why it needs to be: be all end all in terms of Champions league qualification?

Have none Chelsea following people seen what the profile of the squad is? Have they not heard Enzo's words on early in the season that there is no concrete target set for his team? Have people not seen the average age of this squad? Have people not seen we have a new owners?

This baffles me.

It is like Roman sold a stable of thoroughbred horses. New owner decided to cut the age profile and have a fresh plan. All the gamblers still bet on our horses because the stable is named Chelsea even though the horses are small and untested and then get furious losing their money...

This just baffles the life out of me.

I don't care about champions league qualification. I would like it, but it doesn't define success of Maresca's season for me.

Equally, I dont care if we win the conf league. I would like it, but it also doesn't define success of Maresca's season.

For me success is simple. Progression in seeing us develop a system of playing, and a style of football that a) is a clear identity and b) fits the skill set of the players we have. If we saw progress on this, then I would not care about winning another game all season.... and I would still call it a success.

On the flip side, we could win the conf league and finish in the top 4 - but if we do so by continuing to play the dull, unambitious, unprogressive, predictable dross that Maresca has served up, then I would still consider it a failure.

In short, Maresca needs to deliver progress on the field, and disregard results. Unfortunately, Maresca shows little signs of his ability to get us playing well. I also fear his ability to get us to finish top 4 - so i think he will be consider a failure on all fronts.