2 hours ago, evissy said:

Although this would help my point but I still say it is not end all be all how we finish on the table. If we had Newcastles squad I'd scream for CL spot. Their squad and coach should be going for those places also being essentially the richest club in the world. Our squad is in the building phase. Young squad will fluctuate inside a long season much more than an experienced one.

They can't spend the money though?

We've spent more than double than them since both ownership groups have taken over and they haven't been reckless like we have. They took a relegation level squad and added a few quality additions to it and it instantly improved them.

While we had a champions league winning squad and turned it on his head by getting rid of 95% of them and replacing them with unproving kids. I respect your backing behind the ownership but when you are literally the only one on this forum who backs them then I think maybe you're a bit in the wrong here but im not going to tell you how to support the club.

I don't blame Maresca or the players, I'd happily miss out on champions football for the next few seasons and then hope the ownership feck off.

Personally think the summer is going to be interesting as I am pretty confident they are going to look at selling some more homegrown players to fund their money laundering.

1 hour ago, Nibs said:

Yep.

I've been asked if as a CFC supporter I would take CL and keep Maresca or alternatively, miss out on CL if it meant Maresca got his P45 and I am 100% the latter.

I'm fed up watching dull, clueless football and watching talents like Palmer struggling with this negative style of play.

I said before if we get CL he’s staying and we are stuck with is paint drying football.

Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass Pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass pass ………. reach the opposition box then recycle back to the keeper and start again.

I honestly can’t take another freaking season of this sh*te!!!

20 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Fernandez has had the whole team built around him to be the star man, and despite this, he hasn't improved nearly enough for me.

He is unlikely to even hit double figures for goals this season, which is a pretty poor return for the minutes played in the positions and free role he has been selected in. You can point to the 13 assists as a numerical improvement on 23/24, which it is, but take out the Conference League ones, and nearly half of them disappear ... he's not had anything like the impact on the PL that his PR and large fee would mandate.

Given also the net impact on the team of other players being diminished then he's really not worth all the fuss. Presented with the option of getting the best out of Palmer vs Fernandez, for example, and I would choose Cole all day long.

Maresca got his job in the first place by presenting "multiple options to get the best out of Enzo Fernandez" when what really needed to happen was for Eghbali to man up, admit he made a mistake with the signing and had his pants pulled down on the fee, and to flog Enzo to whoever will buy and move on. Behdad continues to play the little man though ...

There's still room for improvement for sure but the point is he has still improved.

In regards to goals, last season I wouldn't have trusted Enzo anywhere near our opponents box cause he simply couldn't shoot. This season I can see improvement. He may not have double digits and he probably doesn't have that much more than last season but I am no longer tearing my hair out once Enzo gets on the end of a pass in the box cause now 9 times out of 10 he forces a good save. Same thing with assists this season, he's creating chances almost every game. This was not the case last season.

So yes, the stats may not be what you expect of a £100m player or a player that's meant to be the main focus of the team but you can see there has been clear improvement by watching him. Even ignoring the g/a aspect, you can clearly see he covers more ground, isn't as weak and puts in way more effort than last season.

I don't believe Enzo being given a free role is diminishing anyone to be quite honest. You could point to Palmer's lack of goals but I would say this is mainly down to Palmer as he still gets chances to score he just doesn't take them. Even still Palmer is creating a lot of chances with Fernandez not far behind in the stats and I'm quite sure most people wanted the team overall to be less reliant on Palmer so I think this is the right approach in the long run, it's just in an ideal world you would have Fernandez playing as he is now with Palmer on the right instead causing havoc.

Roma rumored to be considering him as an option for their next manager

1 hour ago, axman2526 said:

Roma rumored to be considering him as an option for their next manager

If Ranieri could convince them to take him off our hands it'd make up for him not winning us the CL in 2004

Guys who want Enzo out (the entire forum it seems) please paint me a picture of the summer and the season that follows. After the season is done please tell me how we are better as a squad/team? Because to me if we are not in a better position I would love to hear why we changed the coach.

Joe is backing Enzo it seems.

Edited May 14, 20251 yr by evissy

On 11/05/2025 at 22:25, yaz said:

The issue is that we desperately need CL revenue next season. Failing to qualify would have devastating effects on the squad as we'd have to sell our better players to make up the loss.

That's just delaying the inevitable by another season though. Because, let's face it, there's no way we are making out of the CL group stage and the added pressure of playing twice a week where we cannot afford to field a B team in any match means we end up struggling in the PL too. Looking at how things are progressing, I just can't picture a happy scenario for us.

Unless, somehow, everything just magically clicks next season. Yeah, let's cross our fingers for that.

1 minute ago, evissy said:

Guys who want Enzo out (the entire forum it seems) please paint me a picture of the summer and the season that follows. After the season is done please tell me how we are better as a squad/team? Because to me if we are not in a better position I would love to hear why we changed the coach

We are not changing.

I think there's more of a chance that he leaves himself rather than we sack him. Is his football absolute dross at times, yes but this is what the ownership/directors want, I have no attachment to him as a manager but we've given him a 5 year contract to implement his football upon a group of young players that are on 7+ year contracts. He's lucky that everyone else has been so poor in the league because our away record is terrible.

In a way I do feel sorry for him but on the other side of it he accepted the job he should know what to expect. If we added some much needed experience into this team then we get more results away from home and we're able to grind out tricky fixtures.

This is just Clearlakes Chelsea now, it's going to be souless and boring for a while because they are stubborn.

Top managers won't come here now, we had our chance and pitched them the project and the likes of Enrique, Nagelsmann etc seem like they were not interested.

We sack Maresca and we will end up replacing him with someone just as inexperienced and we'll try to copy a style that was successful a few seasons ago even though football moves on quickly and styles change very fast. In my opinion the fan base would be much happier if we had a manager that reflected the culture of this football club and we were in the same position as we are now under Maresca but that Chelsea has been slowly dying ever since Clearlake took over.

Maresca is simply the easy target of frustration because he's the yes man of the ownership group.

Edited May 14, 20251 yr by Sheva

21 minutes ago, Sheva said:

We are not changing.

I think there's more of a chance that he leaves himself rather than we sack him. Is his football absolute dross at times, yes but this is what the ownership/directors want, I have no attachment to him as a manager but we've given him a 5 year contract to implement his football upon a group of young players that are on 7+ year contracts. He's lucky that everyone else has been so poor in the league because our away record is terrible.

In a way I do feel sorry for him but on the other side of it he accepted the job he should know what to expect. If we added some much needed experience into this team then we get more results away from home and we're able to grind out tricky fixtures.

This is just Clearlakes Chelsea now, it's going to be souless and boring for a while because they are stubborn.

Top managers won't come here now, we had our chance and pitched them the project and the likes of Enrique, Nagelsmann etc seem like they were not interested.

We sack Maresca and we will end up replacing him with someone just as inexperienced and we'll try to copy a style that was successful a few seasons ago even though football moves on quickly and styles change very fast. In my opinion the fan base would be much happier if we had a manager that reflected the culture of this football club and we were in the same position as we are now under Maresca but that Chelsea has been slowly dying ever since Clearlake took over.

Maresca is simply the easy target of frustration because he's the yes man of the ownership group.

If you really think so why not leave? Why are you watching this already dead horse rotting away?

59 minutes ago, Girish said:

That's just delaying the inevitable by another season though. Because, let's face it, there's no way we are making out of the CL group stage and the added pressure of playing twice a week where we cannot afford to field a B team in any match means we end up struggling in the PL too. Looking at how things are progressing, I just can't picture a happy scenario for us.

Unless, somehow, everything just magically clicks next season. Yeah, let's cross our fingers for that.

Yeah I agree. I'm not saying qualifying for the CL would solve our problems. Failing to qualify would just turn a bad situation into a catastrophic one.

11 minutes ago, evissy said:

If you really think so why not leave? Why are you watching this already dead horse rotting away?

So you want me to just stop supporting because I don't like how the club is run? That's not how it works.

Why should I just stick my head in the sand and bend over for them. If I don't like how the club is and the way the club is going then I am going to express my frustrations. We've spent over a billion recklessly because they think they know better than everyone else. It's just sad to see everything that was built is slowly evaporating into a souless entity but I don't think they will be around longer than me (touch wood). The money they have spent is not going to vanish into thin air, it's going to slowly eat away at us for years to come.

Also let me be clear I have nothing against you for having your belief in the ownership, you do you but if you can't be open about others having different views than you then thats on you. This forum is here for discussion and you think it's a positive thing to be for the ownership I think it's a positive thing to be against the ownership. Both of us want the same thing and that's whats best for the club.

Edited May 14, 20251 yr by Sheva

11 minutes ago, Sheva said:

So you want me to just stop supporting because I don't like how the club is run? That's not how it works.

Why should I just stick my head in the sand and bend over for them. If I don't like how the club is and the way the club is going then I am going to express my frustrations. We've spent over a billion recklessly because they think they know better than everyone else. It's just sad to see everything that was built is slowly evaporating into a souless entity but I don't think they will be around longer than me (touch wood). The money they have spent is not going to vanish into thin air, it's going to slowly eat away at us for years to come.

Also let me be clear I have nothing against you for having your belief in the ownership, you do you but if you can't be open about others having different views than you then thats on you. This forum is here for discussion and you think it's a positive thing to be for the ownership I think it's a positive thing to be against the ownership. Both of us want the same thing and that's whats best for the club.

On ownership: you can't compare owners with each other but have you ever seen what is going on in Manchester United? You want that type of scenario with the owners?

How did they blow 1bn? Where? I would argue that before the club hired the directors we bought the likes of Sterling, Koulibaly, Aubameyang, Nkunku....that Money was essentially wasted. That was also the way Roman blew through millions.

The young players we have bought with the directors for me are all (who are not sold already) under review for years. You can't tell whether a player becomes good or we can sell for profit or at least for what we paid of them.

I am not fan of Boehly and co but I think I see what their plan is and I think it is fine if they keep it on track and won't derail after every bump on the road or every sound our bunch does.

GUYS THERE’S FINALLY LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

PLEASE LORD

Rafa it is then!

1 hour ago, Girish said:

That's just delaying the inevitable by another season though. Because, let's face it, there's no way we are making out of the CL group stage and the added pressure of playing twice a week where we cannot afford to field a B team in any match means we end up struggling in the PL too. Looking at how things are progressing, I just can't picture a happy scenario for us.

Unless, somehow, everything just magically clicks next season. Yeah, let's cross our fingers for that.

Really strange to see fans not wanting CL cause they seem to be so convinced we wouldn't even make it out the group stages in the CL. We don't even know what teams we will be facing, there are enough weak teams in CL we should be beating even in our current state.

PSG only got 4 wins in the group stage and are in the final so let's stop with the self defeating attitude. It's a cup, anything can happen.

10 minutes ago, Remodez said:

Really strange to see fans not wanting CL cause they seem to be so convinced we wouldn't even make it out the group stages in the CL. We don't even know what teams we will be facing, there are enough weak teams in CL we should be beating even in our current state.

PSG only got 4 wins in the group stage and are in the final so let's stop with the self defeating attitude. It's a cup, anything can happen.

It's mental.

I remember in 2012 some fans were suggesting it would be good to lose to Valencia because we'd have a better chance at winning the Europa League vs Champions League. I also remember after getting smashed by Bayern in 2020, fans were afraid of that to happen once again under Lampard if we got Top 4.

Thing is I honestly feel like we'd fair well in Europe given sides won't be so reluctant to sit back all the time. No disrespect to Inter Milan, but the fact that this is their 2nd final in 3 years speaks volumes to how its entirely possible.

48 minutes ago, evissy said:

On ownership: you can't compare owners with each other but have you ever seen what is going on in Manchester United? You want that type of scenario with the owners?

How did they blow 1bn? Where? I would argue that before the club hired the directors we bought the likes of Sterling, Koulibaly, Aubameyang, Nkunku....that Money was essentially wasted. That was also the way Roman blew through millions.

The young players we have bought with the directors for me are all (who are not sold already) under review for years. You can't tell whether a player becomes good or we can sell for profit or at least for what we paid of them.

I am not fan of Boehly and co but I think I see what their plan is and I think it is fine if they keep it on track and won't derail after every bump on the road or every sound our bunch does.

I'll leave it at this because this is an Enzo thread, for every 1 player we make profit on we've lost profit on 5 or 6 players. The problem is not the buying of the young players for me it's the stockpiling, we are trying to sweep up young players all the time and flip them for profit. It's going to be a struggle to sell a lot of them on our books who are out on loan or just not getting any game time in the current squad and these players are on long term contracts.

Felix is on a 7 year contract and he was gone in 6 months.... we have to hope Saudi come along and save us with that one.

Players can become unhappy and the stockpiling of players will result in them getting loaned with subsided wages or sold for a cut price fee. I do agree with need stability with the manager because every time a new manager comes in then opinions on players change but we also need to back the manager when we sign someone, if he wants an experienced player then we give him one and dont just give him some kid on the data sheet he doesn't like. Ambitious managers want to win here and now and if they can't they will just go somewhere else.

Also take the rarity of Cole Palmer, how long is he going to want to stick around because his level is above us right now. Top players want to win trophies and they don't have years to waste, when City come calling we'll make a profit on him but is that what we want to become? Profit = Trophy.

We are also have one of the best academies in the world and I've never been a just play the kids advocant but our whole project is that now. So why are we spending millions on everyone elses academies when we have some of the best right here at home? Huijsen is only a year older than Acheampong, Gittens is only a year older than George. Maybe because our academy players are just a way to fund their stockpiling of players. The problem is that Clearlake are business first Chelsea second and there needs to be a balance because football fans in this country won't accept it.

Also the premier league is it's own thing, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga can't really afford to spend like us so we are relying on other premier league clubs to come in and make a profit on players we've overspent on when they can simply just get them cheaper from other parts of the world aswell.

Loan with an option to buy is something we're going to have to get used too.

Edited May 14, 20251 yr by Sheva

2 hours ago, evissy said:

If you really think so why not leave? Why are you watching this already dead horse rotting away?

Because he's a Chelsea supporter he CAN'T leave. You said previously that Chelsea is one of your " hobbies". Supporting any football club is not, and can never be, a " hobby"

20 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Because he's a Chelsea supporter he CAN'T leave. You said previously that Chelsea is one of your " hobbies". Supporting any football club is not, and can never be, a " hobby"

Well he said we will die away and rot to an empty vessel. If he thinks so why use time on this hollow club? Or maybe the comment itself held no or very little truth or common sense.

It is one of my hobbies. I use a ton of time on it and love it. This forum is a big part of it. Sadly it is not that much of a fun place these days. There is a ton of negativity and arrogance.

27 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Because he's a Chelsea supporter he CAN'T leave. You said previously that Chelsea is one of your " hobbies". Supporting any football club is not, and can never be, a " hobby"

ChatGPT: Supporting a football team can definitely be considered a hobby—especially if you follow matches regularly, keep up with team news, attend games, wear merchandise, or engage in fan communities. It combines entertainment, social interaction, and emotional investment, much like other hobbies. For many people, it’s a passionate and meaningful part of their free time.

Semantics?

2 minutes ago, evissy said:

Well he said we will die away and rot to an empty vessel. If he thinks so why use time on this hollow club? Or maybe the comment itself held no or very little truth or common sense.

Agreed, I too typically jettison things I love when they slightly disappoint or inconvenience me.

Matt Law has just tweeted that Maresca will stay regardless of whether we make the Champions League or not.

They plan to review at the end of NEXT season.

2 minutes ago, 2211 said:

Matt Law has just tweeted that Maresca will stay regardless of whether we make the Champions League or not.

They plan to review at the end of NEXT season.

Was always obvious. They'll see we are only 5 points from 2nd and will point to the wastefulness up front. Question is whether or not they will actually back Maresca with experience, leaders, and another f**king senior striker.

It's incredible that Maresca is the one they plan to review but not the two imbeciles upstairs that has us relying on an 18 year old winger to play up top in 2 must win games.

that makes me a sad panda....