2 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

What about sign better manager?

Maresca is fine and unless we have a chance to get a clear upgrade, I don't think it is worth it because the way Chelsea is being run, manager or to be exact head coach is not that important.

20 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Maresca is fine and unless we have a chance to get a clear upgrade, I don't think it is worth it because the way Chelsea is being run, manager or to be exact head coach is not that important.

The person training the players and picking the team every match isn't important?

6 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

The person training the players and picking the team every match isn't important?

The gap between manager is not that big.

If our manager is pep/Klopp, my expectation for this season is still top 4.

If we sign a prime Messi, my expectations this season is pl + cl title

Edited September 2, 2025Sep 2 by Bob stark

16 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

We're a business, not a football club.

You can see it by certain posters, they will ignore the glaring issues in the squad and celebrate potential future profit from sell on clauses and potential obligations like they're trophies. Its an indictment of the modern game and the new era of fan.

We are a business and a football club. Those two are not mutually exclusive. To me this new setup is a bit more healthy and comparable to other clubs and businesses now that we are not run by one man and his endless pockets. We operate inside the normal circumstances of a club so to say. To me that is the way it is. We have to generate revenue to be able to operate on a level and to buy expensive players. It was fine before under the previous owner but this is basically back to reality. If these new guys sell their assets to themselves is nothing different to what we had before. Just balancing on a rope with these idiotic rules.

In terms of glaring issues in the squad: we revamped the attack, got reinforcements to midfield and replaced wingers to hopefully better ones. Unfortunately we lost Georgous George (Colwill) just before the season started so we are one starting CB short. Club expects us to be alright. Again here I think we are looking not to block Sarrs and potentially Anselminos path to the club by doing the Disasi.

In terms of keepers I agree. Sanchez is some sort of a blind spot for the club. But we can expect Jorgensen and later on Penders to have a pathway to the squad.

New era of fan. Absolutely. You are spot on. Younger people want different things from what they invest their time into I suppose. It is great things changing and the club changes with it. That is just life.

Maresca is probably the perfect manager for this project at this point in time, although let's see how his press interviews evolve this season now that his SDs haven't provided what he asked for ... we might find he starts getting a bit more bullish and a bit more critical ...

We've spent an awful lot of money again to bring in multiple new signings, but how many of them actually improve the first XI ? Most are back ups to replace back ups we've sold on. Joao Pedro looks the business, and I really like what I've seen of Estevao, with the caveat in both cases being that it is very early doors, especially for Estevao. The rest of our new signings (or players new to our first team squad) are pretty much like-for-like, and not necessarily an improvement on what we had available last season, on paper at least. I think Santos probably is worthy of a starting spot alongside Caicedo, but can't see him ousting the franchise player in the short term. That guy seems bullet proof 😎

We had a great year last season in terms of injuries, but I think we are unlikely to repeat that, and signs are already a bit ominous ... a successful season probably hinges on the availability of Palmer and Joao Pedro.

24 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

The gap between manager is not that big.

If our manager is pep/Klopp, my expectation for this season is still top 4.

If we sign a prime Messi, my expectations this season is pl + cl title

A good manager can turn a player from average to a world beater.

3 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Maresca is probably the perfect manager for this project at this point in time, although let's see how his press interviews evolve this season now that his SDs haven't provided what he asked for ... we might find he starts getting a bit more bullish and a bit more critical ...

We've spent an awful lot of money again to bring in multiple new signings, but how many of them actually improve the first XI ? Most are back ups to replace back ups we've sold on. Joao Pedro looks the business, and I really like what I've seen of Estevao, with the caveat in both cases being that it is very early doors, especially for Estevao. The rest of our new signings (or players new to our first team squad) are pretty much like-for-like, and not necessarily an improvement on what we had available last season, on paper at least. I think Santos probably is worthy of a starting spot alongside Caicedo, but can't see him ousting the franchise player in the short term. That guy seems bullet proof 😎

We had a great year last season in terms of injuries, but I think we are unlikely to repeat that, and signs are already a bit ominous ... a successful season probably hinges on the availability of Palmer and Joao Pedro.

Yes, Maresca is good for this job because he is willing to say that Chalobah n Gallagher doesn't really suit his football or Sancho fit his football better than Sterling. 

1 minute ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

A good manager can turn a player from average to a world beater.

It is the other way around 

Right now our attacker is

Pedro, Neto, Estevao, Gittens, George, Bouna, Guiu 

I don't know anything about Bouna so I can't say anything. But we are basically one Pedro injury away from 23/24 repeat. 

25 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

The gap between manager is not that big.

If our manager is pep/Klopp, my expectation for this season is still top 4.

If we sign a prime Messi, my expectations this season is pl + cl title

A good manager is capable of turning an average team into a solid block. Glasner has done a very good job at Palace, Iraola has turned Bournemouth into a team hard to beat, even Emery has done a good job at Villa. We've got a better group of players than these other teams, and still our style is so easy to counter... I feel that a better coach would be able to make us a sure top 4 team without the need to struggle and wait for the last game to qualify for CL. A coach of course has an influence on how the team performs, on what planet does it not?

15 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Right now our attacker is

Pedro, Neto, Estevao, Gittens, George, Bouna, Guiu 

I don't know anything about Bouna so I can't say anything. But we are basically one Pedro injury away from 23/24 repeat. 

I don't think Delap will be out for too long. I know reports mentioned 6-8 weeks but fingers crossed and all that.

Edited September 2, 2025Sep 2 by Nibs

26 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

Yes, Maresca is good for this job because he is willing to say that Chalobah n Gallagher doesn't really suit his football or Sancho fit his football better than Sterling. 

Pretty much what I meant LOL

30 minutes ago, Bob stark said:

It is the other way around 

no it is not, the manager has to use the player currently. Why did PSG not win everything when Messi joined? Yet a new manager comes in and they win the lot without him or Mbappe.

27 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Pretty much what I meant LOL

Even Maresca know he is talking nonsense.

Fofana went down, he straight away asked for Chalobah. 😂😂

24 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

no it is not, the manager has to use the player currently. Why did PSG not win everything when Messi joined? Yet a new manager comes in and they win the lot without him or Mbappe.

Balance

Speaking of improving players, Neto has been superb for a while now.

On the other hand, I'm not a fan of how he defended the indefensible disallowed goal call.

Edited September 3, 2025Sep 3 by acaeus

20 hours ago, Nibs said:

I don't think Delap will be out for too long. I know reports mentioned 6-8 weeks but fingers crossed and all that.

Hopefully he can come back soon.I totally forget we signed Garnacho. I think we will be fine. He has two weeks to get fit.

Although far from optimal Guiu gets his chance hopefully to get a run of games.

50 minutes ago, evissy said:

Although far from optimal Guiu gets his chance hopefully to get a run of games.

I think Maresca will be playing Pedro at CF and someone else, probably Fernandez or Estevao, in the #10

2 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I think Maresca will be playing Pedro at CF and someone else, probably Fernandez or Estevao, in the #10

I agree. He is not that adventurous with players in that sense. But I think Marc will get his chances coming from bench and lower level cup games.

I don't want to keep coming across as a negative nancy, but I have to be honest, I don't rate this seasons Transfer Window whatsoever.

While it's good we've managed to shift a lot of players, I'm not particularly keen on a lot of signings we've made either. Since BlueCo came we just sign a lot of maybe's, this season is another. Even the likes of Delap who I think is a good signing for the fee still has a lot to prove. Gittens and Garnacho, not fussed at all, Pedro looks a lot better than I expected but it's still early days.

Tottenham got Simons who looked a lot better than a lot of the targets we acquired, and Arsenal got Eze who was probably a bit too old for us, you know... being at the retirement age of 27 and all that...

I desperately want to be wrong here but I see the inevitable coming. The only promising aspects I have is Caicedo and Santos together, Estavio looks promising, and Palmer coming back. The defence doesn't look any better with Colwill gone, GK is a liability, and our wide options with the exception of Estavio looking promising doesn't actually look awfully that promising in the grand scheme of things...

14 minutes ago, Victor90 said:

I don't want to keep coming across as a negative nancy, but I have to be honest, I don't rate this seasons Transfer Window whatsoever.

While it's good we've managed to shift a lot of players, I'm not particularly keen on a lot of signings we've made either. Since BlueCo came we just sign a lot of maybe's, this season is another. Even the likes of Delap who I think is a good signing for the fee still has a lot to prove. Gittens and Garnacho, not fussed at all, Pedro looks a lot better than I expected but it's still early days.

Tottenham got Simons who looked a lot better than a lot of the targets we acquired, and Arsenal got Eze who was probably a bit too old for us, you know... being at the retirement age of 27 and all that...

I desperately want to be wrong here but I see the inevitable coming. The only promising aspects I have is Caicedo and Santos together, Estavio looks promising, and Palmer coming back. The defence doesn't look any better with Colwill gone, GK is a liability, and our wide options with the exception of Estavio looking promising doesn't actually look awfully that promising in the grand scheme of things...

A lot feel the same way.

I think with Pedro alone we are going to see significant improvement in the attacking end. We have the midfield depth finally (should Maresca ever feel like using it), and our fullbacks are set for the foreseeable future.

That said, we still have Sanchez. We replaced our weak wingers with weaker wingers. We gave upon Simons who would've helped bare the burden off Palmer and actually give Palmer/Enzo some competition at CAM. We lost Colwill's influence.

I don't know. Feels like we are standing still, and I am really worried how this team fares with Champions League thrown into the mix.

Probably time to start the conversation that as long as Maresca is manager we may as well cash in on Palmer.

When our own tactics/set up nullify our best player, there surely has to be questions.

It staggers me how Meresca can’t see Palmer is better RW.

16 minutes ago, C3blue said:

It staggers me how Meresca can’t see Palmer is better RW.

Exactly this, his insistence of putting him through the middle where he is persistently double teamed is mind blowing.

Every memorable Palmer performance under Maresca has come from the right.

He was Hazard reincarnated under Poch and was a genuine joy to watch.