I agree with the general opinion on here, Maresca is a Championship level Manager who is so far out of his depth he needs underwater beathing apparatus. We were warned by the Leicester fans what to expect and how right they were. Not sure he has ever had a Plan A let alone a plan B, and his poor tactics and use of capable players, mostly out of position, proved he really dones not know what he is doing.

I would get rid NOW, but, and it is a big but, any decent Manager or coach that comes into Chelsea, with a strong mind, will of his own and game plan that does not comply 100% with the The Imposters, Stewart & Winstanley, is immediately doomed to failure. (TT, Poch, even Potter ??)

Surely somebody in the higher echelons of this great Club does read these type of posts. We cannot all be wrong and we have endured TWO years of this pathetic, cowardly backwards slide of our Club since they arrived. Just remember Brighton shipped SEVEN goals against Forest, yet we still did not have enough to beat them, Ipswich, Fulham or Palace.

Get rid of Stewart And Winstanley and a decent experienced DOF will both attract and hire the right man for the job.

 

1 minute ago, coombsie said:

Get rid of Stewart And Winstanley and a decent experienced DOF will both attract and hire the right man for the job.

Boehly wanted that. Tuchel + Edwards. 
 

Clearlake wanted the multi club model and a bunch of directors “experienced” with managing it. 

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Another example of a limited modern manager with one system he will use regardless of whether or not he has the players for it. 

Whatever happened to looking at what you have, and THEN deciding on the best way to set up to try and actually win football matches ?

 

That reminds me of what a great job Conte did when he turned up here... currently managing Napoli - I'd wouldn't mind him coming back 🙂

1 minute ago, Bebe1980 said:

That reminds me of what a great job Conte did when he turned up here... currently managing Napoli - I'd wouldn't mind him coming back 🙂

Conte, yes.

Tuchel as well 

Better we wait a month or two until Frank becomes available again, for cover 😁

2 hours ago, Remodez said:

Agreed.

It's actually funny cause the board got the Poch appointment spot on, he is the perfect manager to give these young players the freedom to develop into top players so the board can sell for profit but of course they had to push him too far with stupid decisions and forced him to leave. 

They don't need freedom. They need guidance and structure to help them learn the game and build a winning mentality - but at the same time, not the rigid and completely inflexible regime they have at the moment.

As ever in life.... balance.

I have a feeling that chap from spurs might be available very soon. 🤪😜

"Another example of a limited modern manager with one system he will use regardless of whether or not he has the players for it.

Whatever happened to looking at what you have, and THEN deciding on the best way to set up to try and actually win football matches ?"

If you're building a long term projerct.. I think you start getting the players to fit the system.

32 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

They don't need freedom. They need guidance and structure to help them learn the game and build a winning mentality - but at the same time, not the rigid and completely inflexible regime they have at the moment.

As ever in life.... balance.

Yes it does need balance and Poch was much closer to that balance than Enzo is. 

11 hours ago, forbzy said:

Exactly. I see little point in replacing Maresca if the same clowns are just going to select another yes man.

Agreed.

Though would be fun for a while if they hired Sean Dyche.

We'd get a decent defence then, perhaps.

Maresca is the last of the problems. The biggest problem at the club is the average squad age. Too young, hence too unbalanced. When you think of the two biggest clubs in the world with the youngest squads out there, you instantly come up with Chelsea and Barcelona because of the high amount of very, very young players they play as regulars week in, week out.

But even so, Barcelona still have older, experienced, top players in key areas. They have a world class striker (Lewandowski) and a top winger (Raphinha, 28 yo) next to Yamal, so the burden is not solely on him in attack, like it happens with Cole Palmer. They have some 26, 27 year olds defenders and Martinez at 33 who can help a very young ones like Cubarsi and Balde. We only have a 26 yo full back in Cucurella and a mid table level player in Tosin at 27...

One midfielder over the age of 23 (Enzo), no goalscorer up front, poor wingers that barely produce anything, a very young defence, oldest player to have played this season is Tosin at 27 years old. What can you expect from this? If Palmer were not here we'd be there fighting head to head with United and Spurs for the 15th place.

I for one can't expect that much from a team that young and with no leaders. It's the most unbalanced squad in world football. 

5 minutes ago, petre ispirescu said:

Maresca is the last of the problems. The biggest problem at the club is the average squad age. Too young, hence too unbalanced. When you think of the two biggest clubs in the world with the youngest squads out there, you instantly come up with Chelsea and Barcelona because of the high amount of very, very young players they play as regulars week in, week out.

But even so, Barcelona still have older, experienced, top players in key areas. They have a world class striker (Lewandowski) and a top winger (Raphinha, 28 yo) next to Yamal, so the burden is not solely on him in attack, like it happens with Cole Palmer. They have some 26, 27 year olds defenders and Martinez at 33 who can help a very young ones like Cubarsi and Balde. We only have a 26 yo full back in Cucurella and a mid table level player in Tosin at 27...

One midfielder over the age of 23 (Enzo), no goalscorer up front, poor wingers that barely produce anything, a very young defence, oldest player to have played this season is Tosin at 27 years old. What can you expect from this? If Palmer were not here we'd be there fighting head to head with United and Spurs for the 15th place.

I for one can't expect that much from a team that young and with no leaders. It's the most unbalanced squad in world football. 

Saw a comment on BBC talking about the leadership in the Liverpool team/squad vs Spurs : "on the pitch they had the permanent captains of Holland, Hungary, Egypt and Scotland, the former captain of PSV and players who've captained France and N.Ireland, plus the captain of Japan on the bench". Chalk and cheese to our team/squad, though funnily enough quite similar to where we were in the first few (very successful) years of Roman's tenure !

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

Saw a comment on BBC talking about the leadership in the Liverpool team/squad vs Spurs : "on the pitch they had the permanent captains of Holland, Hungary, Egypt and Scotland, the former captain of PSV and players who've captained France and N.Ireland, plus the captain of Japan on the bench". Chalk and cheese to our team/squad, though funnily enough quite similar to where we were in the first few (very successful) years of Roman's tenure !

There you go.

It's perfectly normal for a squad that young to have such spikes in terms of form during a season. Chelsea had an average to decent start to the season, then came that very good period, now things slowed down and let's see in the next months if we can win the Conference League and cement our place in top four (also 5th place will guarantee a CL spot this season).

And even in this bad period we currently go through, it is only a single match in which we were the first to concede (and lose the match eventually) - Ipswich away. Other than that we scored first in every single match and not only that but had at least one or two other huge chances to increase the lead. Except the Everton away in which we did not score, but still Jackson missed the easiest of chances...

But Fulham and Bournemouth at home and Palace, City and Brighton away, we took the lead in each match and had huge chances to make it two nil.

Put at least four top, experienced players next to Palmer, Caicedo, Enzo, Colwill, James and Cucurella and watch them control matches and make a better use of these leads. 

3 hours ago, Wearyourblue said:

"Another example of a limited modern manager with one system he will use regardless of whether or not he has the players for it.

Whatever happened to looking at what you have, and THEN deciding on the best way to set up to try and actually win football matches ?"

If you're building a long term projerct.. I think you start getting the players to fit the system.

Sometimes I dread to think that this absolutely dull controlled football is exactly what they're aiming for. You can put WC players everywhere and it's still somewhat a borefest to watch just like Pep's City even when they were good. 

https://www.sportscasting.com/uk/news/next-chelsea-manager-betting-odds/
 

Don Carlo back? - we should be so lucky 

12 minutes ago, GeremiBeadle said:

https://www.sportscasting.com/uk/news/next-chelsea-manager-betting-odds/
 

Don Carlo back? - we should be so lucky 

Our trading team believes Carlo Ancelotti could be the ideal replacement for Maresca if Todd Boehly decides to make a change.

No sh*t!

The writer of that has no idea about our club with listing some big manager names like that! That ship has sailed! Inzaghi or Emery, imagine them as yes men for the clowns!

16 minutes ago, GeremiBeadle said:

https://www.sportscasting.com/uk/news/next-chelsea-manager-betting-odds/
 

Don Carlo back? - we should be so lucky 

Absolutely zero chance of Carlo and equally he would have to work in a very different setup to what he has been used to. Iraola would be interesting. Would he come here given the constraints of working with SD's and having no say in transfer etc.? Not sure what the setup is at Bournemouth.

I think Marco Silva has to be a no given how his time at Everton went. Their set up at the time was probably a similar mess to what we have now and it went very badly.

Rodgers wouldn’t surprise me to be honest. It would be a complete disaster aswell.
One of them who would tell them what they want to hear in an interview. 
Good at spouting sh*t and absolving himself of blame. Somehow him turning Liverpool into a mid table side and getting Leicester relegated gets spun as him nearly winning the league at Liverpool and being an FA Cup winner at Leicester. I mean they’re both facts but he turned both clubs to complete sh*t by the time he left.

I am surprised at the lack of full on media attention on how long Maresca has.  That said they don't seem so fussed about manager stories these days.

Used to be once the media started running regular stories it was normally a matter of time.

Fully agree that we aren't an attractive proposition to the biggest names on management just now however money talks and other clubs in out sort of position have attracted names before.

I just don't want to see another ' young prospect' just now.  We are in no state for that to work. Give me a 'been through it a few times' option and also someone who is pragmatic about what can be achieved with a squad like ours.

 

7 hours ago, Bebe1980 said:

That reminds me of what a great job Conte did when he turned up here... currently managing Napoli - I'd wouldn't mind him coming back 🙂

The verdict is in...... Pepilini Out.

Edited February 9, 20251 yr by just

Not really a question of should we or shouldn't we for me, but when?

After EPL finishes.

AFTER HIS RIDICULOUS COMMENTS AFTER THE DEFEAT, HE HAD BETTER WIN FRIDAY OTHERWISE IT SHOWS HE'S NOT GOOD ENOUGH

"WE CAN CONCENTRATE ON GETTING INTO THE CL"

FUNNY NOTTINGHAM FOREST ARE ABOVE US AND STILL IN THE FA CUP

22 hours ago, coombsie said:

I agree with the general opinion on here, Maresca is a Championship level Manager who is so far out of his depth he needs underwater beathing apparatus. We were warned by the Leicester fans what to expect and how right they were. Not sure he has ever had a Plan A let alone a plan B, and his poor tactics and use of capable players, mostly out of position, proved he really dones not know what he is doing.

I would get rid NOW, but, and it is a big but, any decent Manager or coach that comes into Chelsea, with a strong mind, will of his own and game plan that does not comply 100% with the The Imposters, Stewart & Winstanley, is immediately doomed to failure. (TT, Poch, even Potter ??)

Surely somebody in the higher echelons of this great Club does read these type of posts. We cannot all be wrong and we have endured TWO years of this pathetic, cowardly backwards slide of our Club since they arrived. Just remember Brighton shipped SEVEN goals against Forest, yet we still did not have enough to beat them, Ipswich, Fulham or Palace.

Get rid of Stewart And Winstanley and a decent experienced DOF will both attract and hire the right man for the job.

@coombsie great to see you post, its been many a year since I shared a post cobham football tournament beer with your good self and your inisght now is 1000% spot on. The real sickness in this club right now is the DOF's... less we forget, we didn't get the top dogs from the clubs they came from, we got the office tea boys who probably talked a big talk but had never delievered anything. We should have been out for the one of the top DOF's world wide, someone who had overseen such a transfomration before... if your going to bring in project players and project managers you really can't have project dof's. 

 

Let me thought for a moment play devils advocate, we stit in 4th. We control our destiny, If Maresca wins the ECL (wich he should do) and finishes top 4 - do we consider this to be good enough? are we focused on outcomes or do we think what we see with our eyes could have been achieved by any btech pep and we should be doing better 

The owners love it when the focus isn't on them.

Yeah, sack the manager, it's all his fault. The owners will oblige, the failure wasn't down to them at all. Then they will employ another on board with the plan coach.

 

Edited February 10, 20251 yr by The Rising Sun
Info

17 hours ago, theGreenBaron said:

@coombsie great to see you post, its been many a year since I shared a post cobham football tournament beer with your good self and your inisght now is 1000% spot on. The real sickness in this club right now is the DOF's... less we forget, we didn't get the top dogs from the clubs they came from, we got the office tea boys who probably talked a big talk but had never delievered anything. We should have been out for the one of the top DOF's world wide, someone who had overseen such a transfomration before... if your going to bring in project players and project managers you really can't have project dof's. 

 

Let me thought for a moment play devils advocate, we stit in 4th. We control our destiny, If Maresca wins the ECL (wich he should do) and finishes top 4 - do we consider this to be good enough? are we focused on outcomes or do we think what we see with our eyes could have been achieved by any btech pep and we should be doing better 

@theGreenBaronIt is great to hear from you, I remember that tournament well and that it was a privilege to play at Cobham and to have a pint in the Plough pub next door. I am sure you weren't called the Green Baron then ?? 😉

With regards to Maresca, I think that even I could probably win the European Conference League with our Squad. Top 4 would be a decent finish and will probably buy him another season, but I personally would get rid now.  Just gut feeling, 55 years of supporting Chelsea and seeing so many obviously poor managers come and go and my belief that he is a Championship manager at very best, he is not tactically astute and his treatment of some of our fringe players was shocking and has I believe got the players still in the Squad backs up.