9 minutes ago, theGreenBaron said:

What happens when you don't have any help from a full back or any one else. Its easy and predictable.

Its a tactic we've used too many times this season, clearly management identified a way to create chances against Villa, we did it so often it was predictable.

I do miss bombing on fullbacks and swashbuckling players with personality and skills.

Like Alonso heading up a DRS train, we're falling back into the chasing pack and really losing touch with the top three. Man Utd's form has improved, and even with a 5th-placed finish likely securing Champions' League qualification, we've put ourselves in real danger of missing out. We are six points and two positions worse off than we were after eighteen fixtures last season. It's really not very promising.

I remember in about the 80ty minute yesterday we broke with the ball 4 on 4 with our LB carrying the ball through the middle of the pitch. A number 10 would have fed the striker or the RW, but he took the easy option and played it left behind the man.

What manager consistently has your full back picking up the ball in the middle of the pitch? They’re a full back for a reason. Get them overlapping and let the creative players dictate centrally.

The fact we are once again talking about battling for 4th place is absolutely disgraceful.

We are f**king CHELSEA Football club not Tottenham or Arsenal for f**k sake we don’t battle for top 4 we win f**king titles.

I will never forgive these f**king morons who have turned us into this gutless bunch of idiots with a imitation manager.

44 minutes ago, theGreenBaron said:

I'm mostly Maresca out, I was actually Maresca not in, in the first place. There is a little bit of me that say's consistency will only come with time and he's done enough to deserver it.

But ultimately I don't think he has the emotional energy to get the best of this group. In addition he's not the tactical master he's been made out to be.

I'm not buying the experience thing any more. We have enough players with multiple seasons and internationals in our squad. He's just not able to get them moving, Being overwhelmed by Leeds and Newcastle in the first half an hour is unacceptable, he should have had the team ready for it, yet those away trips are carbon copies of the same issue.

All that said, I really don't know who we will get it, 22 years ago as we finally saw the end of another tinkering italian who couldn't get any consistency out of his team we where linked with the absolute top brass of management and ended up with an in his prime Jose fresh of the Champions league win. Let's not forget that Maresca was in recruitment pool with Mckenna and Frank, and if we sack Maresca we will probably look at the same type of profile.

This is spot on. Pretty much my thoughts exactly. The club showed its true colours when appointing this guy. His footballing philosophy is a cancer to entertainment. I cannot see a single player that his coaching has directly improved. But the ownership are not here for footballing reasons and never were.

Should we actually rid ourselves of this buffoon we will end up with another up their own arse, classroom manager that will fail again, and the cycle will continue until this American mob sell out to the Saudi oil mob.

2 hours ago, dansubrosa said:

How on earth isn’t he sacked by now?

It’s going to be a long season… I predict he’ll walk in summer.

Hopefully it’s because his fate also lies with the directors fate.

Clearlake invested heavily into these two amateurs, and it’s now crashing down.

No manager is walking away from a potential seven figure pay off ... he'll wait until he's pushed. I imagine the Poch "mutual consent" thing included a large sweetener to agree to that narrative ...

Clearlake are in a bit of a hole here. They can't really sack the directors, as that would be tantamount to an admission that they have bought crap for large fees, and that would probably tank the players'/club's value. They will try and muddle through, and divest as much of their junk stock as they can as they go along for as much as they can get ... and for that they need a manager who will play ball and do what he is told ... and be a convenient excuse for why the players are playing crap !

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by Sexyfootball

1 minute ago, Sexyfootball said:

No manager is walking away from a potential seven figure pay off ... he'll wait until he's pushed. I imagine the Poch "mutual consent" thing included a large sweetener to agree to that narrative ...

Clearlake are in a bit of a hole here. They can't really sack the directors, as that would be tantamount to an admission that they have bought crap for large fees, and that would probably tank the players'/club's value. They will try and muddle through, and divest as much of their junk stock as they can as they go along for as much as they can get ... and for that they need a manager who will play ball and do what he is told ... and be a convenient excuse for why the players are playing crap !

Therein lies the problem.

Any decent manager won’t sit back and let two absolute amateurs control the team. Maresca by all accounts is a yes man, Poch to an extent too, but even they had their limits.

The only managers willing to ‘play ball’ are likely not good considering they would be working above their pay grade to accept such stupid demands.

It’s an endless cycle, and their efforts in trying to find the “sweet spot” of a good rated manager willing to cave to the directors, gets you what we’ve seen the past 3 seasons.

13 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Therein lies the problem.

Any decent manager won’t sit back and let two absolute amateurs control the team. Maresca by all accounts is a yes man, Poch to an extent too, but even they had their limits.

The only managers willing to ‘play ball’ are likely not good considering they would be working above their pay grade to accept such stupid demands.

It’s an endless cycle, and their efforts in trying to find the “sweet spot” of a good rated manager willing to cave to the directors, gets you what we’ve seen the past 3 seasons.

I can't see anything changing until they get hit in the pocket, which will surely have to happen if we don't make the Champions League for next season ?

Finishing 5th or higher is looking challenging right now, so powder dry and all that ...

In the interim, my coping mechansim is to approach all this as an outsider looking in with a sense of detachment and mild curiosity, rather than the fully engaged passion of the Roman era. It certainly helps that the revolving door of players makes it very hard to feel any sort of bond with most of the playing squad.

Just now, Sexyfootball said:

I can't see anything changing until they get hit in the pocket, which will surely have to happen if we don't make the Champions League for next season ?

Finishing 5th or higher is looking challenging right now, so powder dry and all that ...

In the interim, my coping mechansim is to approach all this as an outsider looking in with a sense of detachment and mild curiosity, rather than the fully engaged passion of the Roman era. It certainly helps that the revolving door of players makes it very hard to feel any sort of bond with most of the playing squad.

We already have Bellingham links to distract the fans but in no reality are the fanbase gullible anymore.

It’s come to the point where I hope a punishment happens, because if left unchecked they will sell Cobham just to save their losses. I wouldn’t put it past them.

I feel like Jesse Pinkman. They can’t keep getting away with this.

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by Sconnie Blue

9 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We already have Bellingham links to distract the fans but in no reality are the fanbase gullible anymore.

LOL I just saw that.

They have no feel for anything do they !

As if we'd want Bellingham, or as if he'd even come ... but a straight sale of Fernandez on 1st January however ... now that would be a distraction I could get behind LOL

4 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

LOL I just saw that.

They have no feel for anything do they !

As if we'd want Bellingham, or as if he'd even come ... but a straight sale of Fernandez on 1st January however ... now that would be a distraction I could get behind LOL

Exactly like last January when they hyped up the summer window for Champions League esq targets to distract from the fact they spent 31 days in January trying to get Garnacho, when we desperately needed a ST and another CM.

City? Marmoush and Gonzalez in January.

It can't be just me, but even last season I feel like we almost ruined the chance of top four. We were fortunate that Liverpool were pretty much on the beach when we played them and Notts Forest totally lost the plot. We made such hard work of making top four last season, and this season it looks like it's going to be the same old sh*te again. I don't put so much blame on Maresca as much as others are, because this recruitment has been abysmal for the most part.

They haven't helped Maresca with the poor defenders bought, the lack of urgency in securing another CB with knowledge that Colwill would be out all season, and the lack of decent goalscorers in the summer. I feel like we bring in another coach (and lets be honest, they won't pick a good coach with experience) things aren't going to drastically change because we have a lack of quality on the pitch, especially at central defence and up top, and lack of foresight and true ambition from the ownership. The ownership have been too cheap since they bought Caicedo and Enzo, and their ambition in the market is starting to show.

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by Sunspear_88

Conference League win.

Top 4 on last day.

Club World Cup.

Even our best feats under this ownership wasn’t even convincing. All whilst 2 bill spent.

Every season Maresca has managed, they’ve all had a mid season slump. Can’t be coincidence.

7 minutes ago, JM7 said:

Every season Maresca has managed, they’ve all had a mid season slump. Can’t be coincidence.

He needs better players.

Tell that to Leicester fans who by far and away had the best squad in the championship, only for they too have a mid season slump and play pedestrian football + heavy rotation.

Get this bum binned

.

Edited December 28, 2025Dec 28 by Sexyfootball

2 hours ago, Sunspear_88 said:

It can't be just me, but even last season I feel like we almost ruined the chance of top four. We were fortunate that Liverpool were pretty much on the beach when we played them and Notts Forest totally lost the plot. We made such hard work of making top four last season, and this season it looks like it's going to be the same old sh*te again. I don't put so much blame on Maresca as much as others are, because this recruitment has been abysmal for the most part.

They haven't helped Maresca with the poor defenders bought, the lack of urgency in securing another CB with knowledge that Colwill would be out all season, and the lack of decent goalscorers in the summer. I feel like we bring in another coach (and lets be honest, they won't pick a good coach with experience) things aren't going to drastically change because we have a lack of quality on the pitch, especially at central defence and up top, and lack of foresight and true ambition from the ownership. The ownership have been too cheap since they bought Caicedo and Enzo, and their ambition in the market is starting to show.

We'd probably have been better off missing out on Champs League last season and playing in Europa instead this season. The current squad just isn't strong enough to compete in 2 major competitions. If our first choice team is consistently available we can do fairly well most games and at times even give the impression that some progress is being made. But the extended cast is mostly either not ready or not good enough.

Last season we were able to play the second string in most of the Conf League games as the standard was lower. That, aligned with early exits in both domestic cups, allowed us to keep the core first team for the Premier League matches. This season we have had to use the second string in a number of Premier League games and even in matches against Champs League teams. Even when used as subs this has had a negative impact as we saw yesterday. In the Champs League even Qarabag away was tougher opposition than we faced in the Conference League aside from perhaps the final. So it wasn't surprising when our weakened 11 struggled to a draw there too.

Had we genuinely taken the opportunity to strengthen the squad with some experience and quality last summer, then things could have been different. But instead, we mostly added more young players with next to no premier league experience and did nothing to address the season-loss of one of our key defenders in Colwill. It also hasn't helped that some of our potential saviors (e.g. Lavia) are perennial sicknotes and that should also have been addressed last summer.

Looking to next summer we will be under financial constraints and likely to see another set of player sales, with more inexperienced teens joining. Probably no Champs League next season so the squad may be able to cope better in that respect. But the decent players with any ambition will be running out of patience and that won't end well.

10 hours ago, GarnachoCheese said:

The ownership being sh*t doesn’t absolve Maresca of his own sins. We know the owners are sh*t, they aren’t going anywhere though. The owners aren’t the ones playing players out of position, failing to learn from their mistakes and having possibly the worst in game management the game has ever seen.

Nor did I say it did.

In addition to all they have done wrong they have appointed managers not fit to the task each time.

potter, poch, maresca. They are not good enough for where we feel our club should be.

If you appointment Poor managers then you get poor mistakes.

Nobody forced them to appoint those managers. And nobody will force them to appoint the next jelly yes man who will also make poor mistakes.

4 hours ago, Sconnie Blue said:

We already have Bellingham links to distract the fans but in no reality are the fanbase gullible anymore.

It’s come to the point where I hope a punishment happens, because if left unchecked they will sell Cobham just to save their losses. I wouldn’t put it past them.

I feel like Jesse Pinkman. They can’t keep getting away with this.

I can actually see a move in the opposite direction. Sell the Bridge and move the club to Cobham. Can't happen, won't happen. CPO etc. Hmm, we'll see

I have a theory about the first half yesterday that I want to share. I feel that maybe the reason we played very well for the first 45 minutes was that the touchline ban meant Pepilini was a lot further away from the players, like in row YY of the West stand upper. The team responded accordingly. Couldn't hear him, couldn't see him and, therefore, played much better than usual. I can only assume at half-time he must have moved to a seat in row AA of the East Stand lower in the families and kiddies section, which, bringing him back closer to the pitch, had the opposite, adverse affect on the players resulting in Palmer off, Gittens on, etc. and ultimately causing the second half melt down.

I would like to test this theory with an experiment in the next game. It will require having him outside in the Stamford Bridge car park at the start of the match and from there, moving him by car every 15 minutes, in a direction of my chosing, a distance of 4.3 miles further away from our ground.

If my theory is correct, by the end of 90 minutes, we should have won 6 - 0 and Maresca should be standing inside Tottenham's stadium.

Win, win.

Getting depressing talking about this prat all the time - wish he'd f**k off!

58 minutes ago, WhiteWall said:

I can actually see a move in the opposite direction. Sell the Bridge and move the club to Cobham. Can't happen, won't happen. CPO etc. Hmm, we'll see

It’d be convenient for me - I might consider going to games again!

Some thought i was mad at the start of the season when i said he could be gone by Christmas, well he’s hanging by a thread and if we do lose to Bournemouth i think he will be out, he is out of his depth and all the crap about him taking over at City is just that, CRAP, this bloke will end up at Southampton or Ipswich (if hes lucky), putting on his sex toy at LB replacing Cucurella was a disaster, ONCE AGAIN HE COST US A GOAL, people who say it will just be another yes man brought in may well be right, BUT whoever it is cant be as bad if they allow the players to actually express themselves and play football NOT the sideways and backwards sh*t, and settle for a one goal lead and try and bore the opposition to death

Also i see we are now trying to buy not one but two more man city kids, James Mcatee and Oscar Bobb