21 minutes ago, Remodez said:

As much as I berate Enzo, it's not because I don't think he is a good manager. He would be perfectly fine at a top club like a Kompany at Bayern.

The issue is we are not at that level and I don't believe a manager like Enzo is one that can develop a team, especially one filled with such young players, to that level. He's the sort of manager you want to that come in when everything is already established.

To me it is a big risk to ask him to lead this project, more so than the likes of Potter and Poch. I could be wrong and he does what Pep did at Barca for us, here's hoping anyway, but I'm not very confident.

Appointing him was naturally a risk as we talked at the time of signing. It is as risky as it this strategy of making the side very youthful. Those two things are aligned though. Young coach, young side.

What is not aligned with us fans is we expect immediate success. Some of you say you won't but I don't buy it for a second. You go on blaming the style, the sporting directors and this and that.

Fact is we are not used to build and wait and that is it. I am 100% sure if we played gung-ho like Ange at Tottenham he'd be slaughtered as we are not challenging.

15 minutes ago, evissy said:

Appointing him was naturally a risk as we talked at the time of signing. It is as risky as it this strategy of making the side very youthful. Those two things are aligned though. Young coach, young side.

What is not aligned with us fans is we expect immediate success. Some of you say you won't but I don't buy it for a second. You go on blaming the style, the sporting directors and this and that.

Fact is we are not used to build and wait and that is it. I am 100% sure if we played gung-ho like Ange at Tottenham he'd be slaughtered as we are not challenging.

There's such a thing as minimising risk, appointing a young inexperienced coach to develop a young team especially when his tactics are not very flexible isn't a great idea. It may well work out in the end but it's a needless risk to take in the first place.

I'm not sure if you are spending too much time reading negative things on twitter or whatever but match going fans and even members on on here, myself included, are perfectly fine with waiting. You can choose not to believe it if you want. No one has blamed the sporting directors for us not winning, they have blamed them for spending 1 billion and making the team worse. No one has blamed Enzo for us not challenging for the league, they blame him for the style of play he has these young exciting prospects playing.

He doesn't need to play gung-ho, there's a fine balance which in my opinion he more or less achieved during the first 6 months of good football we had regardless of if that was remnants of Poch-ball or not. A few tweaks was all that was required, he seems to have gone too far the other way which has resulted in a lot of dropped points. I hope going into next season he finds a better balance cause we can't go into another season playing like we have been this second half of the season.

Edited April 28, 20251 yr by Remodez

11 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

We're going to beat Liverpool, United and draw with Forest away to secure 5th place. That would be some feat, but does he still deserve to be kept on?

Yes. Much as it was for Poch.

2 hours ago, evissy said:

Appointing him was naturally a risk as we talked at the time of signing. It is as risky as it this strategy of making the side very youthful. Those two things are aligned though. Young coach, young side.

What is not aligned with us fans is we expect immediate success. Some of you say you won't but I don't buy it for a second. You go on blaming the style, the sporting directors and this and that.

Fact is we are not used to build and wait and that is it. I am 100% sure if we played gung-ho like Ange at Tottenham he'd be slaughtered as we are not challenging.

None of my gripes has anything to do with my expectation of success. I have been supporting this club since 1972 so have had plenty of practice in managing expectations.

What i would expect to see, with the money that we have spent and with the talent that is available both on the pitch and in managerial terms in the market is some cohesive, flowing, entertaining football that has the intent to attack and win football matches.

This is the big issue that i have with those that decry attacking football as chaos ball. It costs a fortune to attend matches nowadays, if you are even able to get tickets. When watching from home there are so many alternatives available, particularly when football has to adhere to broadcasting schedules rather than traditional sporting schedules. Wherever you derive that commitment from, whether it is travelling home and away, being a spectator from your own living room, or getting up at ridiculous o'clock because you're in another time zone, the least that any fan should expect is to see a group of young men running their hearts out and attacking with the full intent to scoring more and more goals to win the game.

I want to see players like that Munoz fella for Palace who at 2-0 up (maybe 3-0 at the time actually) was still pressing the Villa defenders 20 yards from heir own box, in the last 5 mins of the game. I don't want to see tippy tippy toe tap football with the ball being passed around at the back by the technically weakest players that we have., I don't want the stale stagnant football that we see under this bloke, dressed up under the name of "control". This is the reason why i cannot abide this manager and his tactics. I want to see Eddie Howe's approach to football matches not bloody Don Howe's.

1 hour ago, WhiteWall said:

None of my gripes has anything to do with my expectation of success. I have been supporting this club since 1972 so have had plenty of practice in managing expectations.

What i would expect to see, with the money that we have spent and with the talent that is available both on the pitch and in managerial terms in the market is some cohesive, flowing, entertaining football that has the intent to attack and win football matches.

This is the big issue that i have with those that decry attacking football as chaos ball. It costs a fortune to attend matches nowadays, if you are even able to get tickets. When watching from home there are so many alternatives available, particularly when football has to adhere to broadcasting schedules rather than traditional sporting schedules. Wherever you derive that commitment from, whether it is travelling home and away, being a spectator from your own living room, or getting up at ridiculous o'clock because you're in another time zone, the least that any fan should expect is to see a group of young men running their hearts out and attacking with the full intent to scoring more and more goals to win the game.

I want to see players like that Munoz fella for Palace who at 2-0 up (maybe 3-0 at the time actually) was still pressing the Villa defenders 20 yards from heir own box, in the last 5 mins of the game. I don't want to see tippy tippy toe tap football with the ball being passed around at the back by the technically weakest players that we have., I don't want the stale stagnant football that we see under this bloke, dressed up under the name of "control". This is the reason why i cannot abide this manager and his tactics. I want to see Eddie Howe's approach to football matches not bloody Don Howe's.

Great post. Agree 100%.

I look at how we have gone backwards under Maresca and how majority of players look worse and compare that to Palace. Look at the job Glasner has done at CPFC with a fraction of the budget and a smaller squad. I know they are only mid-table but they're through to the FA Cup Final and playing really entertaining football.

Unfortunately, I think we are stuck with Maresca, whether we qualify for CL or not. But we all know a week is a long time in football so we go into next season and if things don't improve, performance and results wise, he will have to go.

He's complaining about the age of his squad now.

4 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

None of my gripes has anything to do with my expectation of success. I have been supporting this club since 1972 so have had plenty of practice in managing expectations.

What i would expect to see, with the money that we have spent and with the talent that is available both on the pitch and in managerial terms in the market is some cohesive, flowing, entertaining football that has the intent to attack and win football matches.

This is the big issue that i have with those that decry attacking football as chaos ball. It costs a fortune to attend matches nowadays, if you are even able to get tickets. When watching from home there are so many alternatives available, particularly when football has to adhere to broadcasting schedules rather than traditional sporting schedules. Wherever you derive that commitment from, whether it is travelling home and away, being a spectator from your own living room, or getting up at ridiculous o'clock because you're in another time zone, the least that any fan should expect is to see a group of young men running their hearts out and attacking with the full intent to scoring more and more goals to win the game.

I want to see players like that Munoz fella for Palace who at 2-0 up (maybe 3-0 at the time actually) was still pressing the Villa defenders 20 yards from heir own box, in the last 5 mins of the game. I don't want to see tippy tippy toe tap football with the ball being passed around at the back by the technically weakest players that we have., I don't want the stale stagnant football that we see under this bloke, dressed up under the name of "control". This is the reason why i cannot abide this manager and his tactics. I want to see Eddie Howe's approach to football matches not bloody Don Howe's.

Have made similar points multiple times - over a few seasons now. We need to see progress on the pitch. I am quite content for that to come at t he cost of progress the table for a couple of seasons - if we get a team and identity of our own, that becomes unified and cohesive in playing a in a manner that is progressive, fast, dominant etc.

Have made the argument multiple times - but even fans of Maresca like @evissy (tagging to give right of reply) don't seem to have an answer.

We must be clear - we have not seen any positive progress in the field this season. Our style remains slow and stagnant. The system is not geared to get the best out of our best players.

What a number of us have been saying for some time

• Lavia + Fofana provided a lot of balance, and it absolved responsibilities for other players.

• The more possession we have the less xG we create. The squad isn’t built to control football matches.

• Our wingers are very poor in take-ons. 3rd worse % in the league.

TL;DW summary

Have you all noticed that, whenever anyone makes a prediction of the final 4 games to help us make 5th, no one is predicting anything other than a loss at Newcastle?

Beat the champions? Yup

Beat United? Yup

Win at Forest? Yup

Yet not one single person thinks we have a snowballs chance at Newcastle.

I tell you this now. I firmly believe we need a result at St. James to stand any chance at top 5.

15 hours ago, evissy said:

Appointing him was naturally a risk as we talked at the time of signing. It is as risky as it this strategy of making the side very youthful. Those two things are aligned though. Young coach, young side.

What is not aligned with us fans is we expect immediate success. Some of you say you won't but I don't buy it for a second. You go on blaming the style, the sporting directors and this and that.

Fact is we are not used to build and wait and that is it. I am 100% sure if we played gung-ho like Ange at Tottenham he'd be slaughtered as we are not challenging.

This argument would work if we weren't the biggest spender of the last 4 years since the Americans tookover.

And we have nothing to show for it, no silverware, no progress, even more regression.

What is the process exactly? Throwing sh*t until it sticks again? We did that under Roman but at least the sh*t thrown used to sick for a season or two, yet with our board it's been miss after miss with no sign of progress.

5 hours ago, Victor90 said:

This argument would work if we weren't the biggest spender of the last 4 years since the Americans tookover.

And we have nothing to show for it, no silverware, no progress, even more regression.

What is the process exactly? Throwing sh*t until it sticks again? We did that under Roman but at least the sh*t thrown used to sick for a season or two, yet with our board it's been miss after miss with no sign of progress.

Just for the sake of "fairness" I'm not sure money spent is a very strong argument. If the whole premise is "this is a development project that will come good in 3 years time" then the amounts spent are neither here nor there. In theory one can have a very expensive development project - and it's still a development project.

The fact that we are not exactly in our second week of this, that it's been a year and there has been no actual development is what's damning. In no other job, profession, human endeavour would one accept zero progress after a year of work.

We lost to Liverpool's youth team last year. Even if they rest their whole 11, we'll still lose. There's a mental gap between us the the top sides in the last few years. How often have we beaten Liverpool, City, Arsenal, etc... in the last 4-5 years? Basically never.

33 minutes ago, Zeta said:

We lost to Liverpool's youth team last year. Even if they rest their whole 11, we'll still lose. There's a mental gap between us the the top sides in the last few years. How often have we beaten Liverpool, City, Arsenal, etc... in the last 4-5 years? Basically never.

Let’s hope the entire dippers squad are still pissed on champagne…. We might be in with a sluggers chance then!

On 28/04/2025 at 09:11, SydneyChelsea said:

We're going to beat Liverpool, United and draw with Forest away to secure 5th place. That would be some feat, but does he still deserve to be kept on?

Yes.

I am not big fan of Maresca he is a total yes man with full of bs but our football this season has been fine. I rather use his whatever million severance package to sign player.

1 hour ago, Bob stark said:

Yes.

I am not big fan of Maresca he is a total yes man with full of bs but our football this season has been fine. I rather use his whatever million severance package to sign player.

You are wrong.

Our football has not been fine. It has been awful. Slow, unprogressive, predictable, easy to play against, sideways/backwards. There has been no positive progress from what we had in the past.

If you genuinely think this football is "fine" - then I will not be able to take seriously any post you make.

Wanting to stick with Maresca is ok - I can respect that opinion and position. But nothing about our current football is fine.

It’s fine in the sense that it’s actually easily fixable.

The squad isn’t meant for controlling games. Our best period came when our possession reached 50%, and anything towards 60%+ we struggled with xG.

I respect Maresca is learning on the go, but sooner or later he needs to grasp the fact effective possession based football is too rigid for the majority of teams to sustain. Even Pep realized it.

7 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Let’s hope the entire dippers squad are still pissed on champagne…. We might be in with a sluggers chance then!

Super Kestrel surely?

1 hour ago, nonotnowjim said:

You are wrong.

Our football has not been fine. It has been awful. Slow, unprogressive, predictable, easy to play against, sideways/backwards. There has been no positive progress from what we had in the past.

If you genuinely think this football is "fine" - then I will not be able to take seriously any post you make.

Wanting to stick with Maresca is ok - I can respect that opinion and position. But nothing about our current football is fine.

Living in Tenerife attending is pretty much impossible plus I've been on a world cruise for the last 4 months (humble brag) for the past 3 winters so don't see as much as I used too but watched the Everton match and I agree, they seem mainly clueless, if in doubt pass it back to the goalie. Even when the ball is by their penalty area it still ended up at our goalkeeper not theirs. Players have all but disappeared, lack of cohesion, poor decision making , poor ball control, there doesn't seem anyone willing to take the game by the scruff of the neck. We are far superior than Everton yet they could have easily equalized and we would have just stumbled to a draw at best ..

We are back in the territory of 'we should win this' rather than 'we will win this'

On 21/04/2025 at 12:30, 2211 said:

Yep, recruitment has been very narrow minded by only buying young inexperienced players.

As well as the rigid risk free slow football we play for virtually the first 80 minutes of every match I’m not sure Maresca has the winners mentality we need.

I still haven’t forgiven him for saying we ain’t in a title race when we were 2nd in the league.

Of course I’m not saying he should have been brash and boastful but there was so many other things he could have said “one game at a time”, “see where we are in April” etc…

The kind of answers any savvy manager would have said back in December.

He’s meant to motivate players and that statement was literally the start of our decline this season.

I can sort of understand why he said that at the time but then he went on to make it worse later by saying we weren't competing for a CL spot and our form went right off a cliff. It gave him a ready made excuse and the players no incentive at all. In anyones language that's p!ss poor man management.

He's clearly out his of his depth at this level and the blame for appointing him lies with the owners. If and when he goes he'll no doubt get a big pay off and live happily ever after but the problem is, who's available to replace him ?

11 hours ago, Zeta said:

We lost to Liverpool's youth team last year. Even if they rest their whole 11, we'll still lose. There's a mental gap between us the the top sides in the last few years. How often have we beaten Liverpool, City, Arsenal, etc... in the last 4-5 years? Basically never.

And it's a gap that seems to be widening. We're getting worse against these top names.

12 hours ago, WeatherMan said:

I can sort of understand why he said that at the time but then he went on to make it worse later by saying we weren't competing for a CL spot and our form went right off a cliff. It gave him a ready made excuse and the players no incentive at all. In anyones language that's p!ss poor man management.

He's clearly out his of his depth at this level and the blame for appointing him lies with the owners. If and when he goes he'll no doubt get a big pay off and live happily ever after but the problem is, who's available to replace him ?

If we had a good experienced squad then they shrug off any comment like that as playing up to the media type nonsense and it has zero effect. To say it with our young squad desperate for confidence and consistency was utterly moronic, genuinely one of the stupidest things Ive seen from any of our managers, and weve had some do incredibly stupid things.

Watching PSG vs the 💩 we play is depressing!!!

There are no scenarios where we get to PSG level with £ shop Pep, none.

Give Luis these players and see how quickly they transform.

57 minutes ago, El regreso said:

Watching PSG vs the 💩 we play is depressing!!!

There are no scenarios where we get to PSG level with £ shop Pep, none.

Give Luis these players and see how quickly they transform.

I don't think it is only down to the coach, to be honest. Compare their front three of Kvaratskthelia, Dembele, Doue, with our Sancho/Madueke, Palmer, Neto and Jackson. They are day and night in quality and only Palmer would be able to get in the PSG attacking line. And that goes for all other positions. Being honest, only Caicedo and Palmer would get a shout into the PSG first eleven.

2 hours ago, RMH said:

I don't think it is only down to the coach, to be honest. Compare their front three of Kvaratskthelia, Dembele, Doue, with our Sancho/Madueke, Palmer, Neto and Jackson. They are day and night in quality and only Palmer would be able to get in the PSG attacking line. And that goes for all other positions. Being honest, only Caicedo and Palmer would get a shout into the PSG first eleven.

Doue's return was pretty average before joining PSG. No different from the players we're signing, he's just playing under a good manager and system now.

Dembele was a career 'nearly man'. Never lived up to his hype after leaving Dortmund and has never been a consistent goal scorer before this season. The manager and system has taken him from averaging 5 league goals a season to having 21 this year already.

Kvara was the steady bet but is he better than Palmer? Very little between them.

Reece James, Caicedo, Enzom Palmer all walk into the XI with an argument to be made for Cucurella and i don't even like him.