7 hours ago, evissy said:

Another fun topic here. You go to any topic here it is basically people confronting each other and sh*tting on every Chelsea owner, employee and player bar Caicedo. I am guessing he is the level we aspire then. Nothing else will suffice in our little world it seems.

Its a thread titled Our diabolical directors. What exactly were you expecting?

Yeah the clue is in the title. Just let people vent.

BLUECO OUT!!

I see the vision 🦋

They're not all bad - clearly executing a long-term vision. The entire club has been overhauled in 3 years, on and off the pitch. Was always going to take time. I won't try and convince anyone on the manner they've gone about it as it has clearly had some low moments. But it is slowly coming together - pretty excited for the future with a squad including the likes of Reece, Colwill, Cucu, Caicedo, Enzo, Santos, Lavia, Palmer, Estevao, Neto, Joao Pedro, Delap.

On 07/07/2025 at 11:09, evissy said:

Another fun topic here. You go to any topic here it is basically people confronting each other and sh*tting on every Chelsea owner, employee and player bar Caicedo. I am guessing he is the level we aspire then. Nothing else will suffice in our little world it seems.

If we are one of only 3 clubs who get fined can’t pretend everything is perfect..

no one has a perfect record but when you make signings costing 20 mil like Washington and Kelly who you know will never kick a ball for the club ..

or are loaning players within 6 months - Felix Veiga of signing that reeks incompetence and I am not even talking of the duds

It’s not about criticism for the sake of it.. I think it’s healthy they day we become happy with everything they do - we become Arsenal FC.. thats the nightmare.

2 hours ago, Jangz said:

If we are one of only 3 clubs who get fined can’t pretend everything is perfect..

no one has a perfect record but when you make signings costing 20 mil like Washington and Kelly who you know will never kick a ball for the club ..

or are loaning players within 6 months - Felix Veiga of signing that reeks incompetence and I am not even talking of the duds

It’s not about criticism for the sake of it.. I think it’s healthy they day we become happy with everything they do - we become Arsenal FC.. thats the nightmare.

No one has said things are perfect or done perfectly. Far from it. The owners have made a ton of mistakes. The stretch where they ran the club themselves without football knowledge was when we hired and fired coaches, bouth the likes of Sterling and Koulibaly and the likes.

They learned from their mistakes which is the most important thing to happen and they setup and hired the team of directors to handle the sporting side. That has worked in my eyes pretty well even though it is not the general consensus here. I don't worry about that to be honest.

I am pretty sure a massive overhaul of players won't go perfectly as no one at this level and scale has ever done it to my knowledge. Everyone always wanted that but it never happened (year after year this forum had "massive squad overhaul" threads). There has to be mis-investments and mistakes in the short time they did this in. The strategy in many ways is risky as I have said a billion times but I see the strategy there.

And if that strategy works we could possibly see something that we are witnessing at PSG at this moment. At least we'll have a young core of players that hopefully are together for a long time and developing year by year to a better level. That is something that MU for example doesn't have if you want to compare a club to us.

It also could go tits up. Absolutely a possibility. We could go bankrupt and yo-yo between coaches on a yearly basis and lose the top talent to Real Madrid and Barcelona.

We used to have one man who always took the money from his personal pocket and made everything right. We don't have that generous man anymore, sadly. We are in the normal market and face realities that most others clubs face.

On the directors and their work I still think they have done a good job. We have some good talent identified by them. Some duds as well like Felix. But I think the percentages are on their side here. The best 11 is always the one that makes the results happen on the pitch, not Omari Kellyman. And to back the investment even slightly - Omari is only 19.

Let them do their job. The vision is clear.

/EndThread

On 21/06/2025 at 06:14, Deino said:

Can't believe i'd rather have Marina and Emenalo back!

I blame Kenyon.

Maybe we rename this thread? Just a thread about the Directors - I think we’re all quite fond of Caicedo, Palmer, Cucu, Neto, Enzo, Lavia, Santos, Joao Pedro, Delap, Estevao, Tosin. I know they signed 374 other players, but these ones really count!

2 hours ago, Clown Lake said:

Let them do their job. The vision is clear.

/EndThread

Stockpiling unnecessary players are still a problem

5 hours ago, Deino said:

Stockpiling unnecessary players are still a problem

Outside of GK and ST the last two seasons the general consensus is the squad is good enough, the issue lies with the other 75% of our transfers that are completely pointless and burdened us with debt.

3 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Outside of GK and ST the last two seasons the general consensus is the squad is good enough, the issue lies with the other 75% of our transfers that are completely pointless and burdened us with debt.

Yep, wastes of money remains wastes of money, I get the buying for 9M to then sell for 30M model but sh*tty signings like Felix, Mudryk etc has to go

12 minutes ago, Deino said:

Yep, wastes of money remains wastes of money, I get the buying for 9M to then sell for 30M model but sh*tty signings like Felix, Mudryk etc has to go

That last English summer window when we signed in.....

João Félix		Atlético Madrid	€52.00m
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall		Leicester	€35.40m
Filip Jørgensen		Villarreal	€24.50m

And sold out .......

Conor Gallagher		Atlético Madrid	€42.00m
Lewis Hall		Newcastle	€33.00m

.....was indeed diabolical. I don't blame anyone for being critical of how poor we were in the transfer market this time last year.

The trading so far this English summer window has been much better and if it continues, then great.

edit: ohh and to be clear, despite me still thinking the sporting directors have alot left to prove, they have still been way more competent than stand-in director of football Bohley was (who i like his intentions, was absolutely terrible at the job)

Edited July 14, 20251 yr by Qaz

6 minutes ago, Qaz said:

That last English summer window when we signed in.....

João Félix		Atlético Madrid	€52.00m
Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall		Leicester	€35.40m
Filip Jørgensen		Villarreal	€24.50m

And sold out .......

Conor Gallagher		Atlético Madrid	€42.00m
Lewis Hall		Newcastle	€33.00m

.....was indeed diabolical. I don't blame anyone for being critical of how poor we were in the transfer market this time last year.

The trading so far this English summer window has been much better and if it continues, then great.

Exactly! Only buy what's necessary for the team.

Signings like Quenda, Estevao or Essugo where it's cheap but has potential superstars is cool and all since we have Strasbourg now and it creates a conveyor belt of talent going strong.

To be honest, I'm really happy with the direction the directors of football are taking the club right now.

If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be "momentum."

First, there's the on-field momentum that comes from having a young squad that's likely to improve just by playing together.

Second, there's the off-field player trading momentum. It feels like the transfer fees we pay out each year aren't just lost; they're being constantly recycled into new signings through the sale of excess/unneeded players. Every year, there's more money to spend than the last because player sales keep increasing.

It used to be that we'd buy a player, and whether he was good or not, we'd stick with him for years—either because we needed him or because his contract made it hard to move him on. Sometimes it worked, but too often it didn't.

Now, if a player doesn't make the grade, I'm confident we can move them on quickly, often at only a small loss—or sometimes even a profit—in transfer fees. We can take risks on players knowing we won't be stuck with them for the duration of their contracts. More sales mean more signings, more rolls of the dice to find a Palmer instead of a Felix. The fact that players are generally bought on low wages and long contracts means their transfer fees don't depreciate much, creating this sense of building momentum.

We've definitely ridden our luck at times last season, barely crawling into fourth place on the final day or getting a ridiculously favorable World Club Cup draw where we only had to face one team better than us, and that was in the final. But it's the compounding momentum—the feeling that we're only going to get better—that has me so positive about things right now.

Edited July 29, 2025Jul 29 by Qaz

1 hour ago, Qaz said:

To be honest, I'm really happy with the direction the directors of football are taking the club right now.

If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be "momentum."

First, there's the on-field momentum that comes from having a young squad that's likely to improve just by playing together.

Second, there's the off-field player trading momentum. It feels like the transfer fees we pay out each year aren't just lost; they're being constantly recycled into new signings through the sale of excess/unneeded players. Every year, there's more money to spend than the last because player sales keep increasing.

It used to be that we'd buy a player, and whether he was good or not, we'd stick with him for years—either because we needed him or because his contract made it hard to move him on. Sometimes it worked, but too often it didn't.

Now, if a player doesn't make the grade, I'm confident we can move them on quickly, often at only a small loss—or sometimes even a profit—in transfer fees. We can take risks on players knowing we won't be stuck with them for the duration of their contracts. More sales mean more signings, more rolls of the dice to find a Palmer instead of a Felix. The fact that players are generally bought on low wages and long contracts means their transfer fees don't depreciate much, creating this sense of building momentum.

We've definitely ridden our luck at times last season, barely crawling into fourth place on the final day or getting a ridiculously favorable World Club Cup draw where we only had to face one team better than us, and that was in the final. But it's the compounding momentum—the feeling that we're only going to get better—that has me so positive about things right now.

Well said. 👌

22 hours ago, Qaz said:

To be honest, I'm really happy with the direction the directors of football are taking the club right now.

If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be "momentum."

First, there's the on-field momentum that comes from having a young squad that's likely to improve just by playing together.

Second, there's the off-field player trading momentum. It feels like the transfer fees we pay out each year aren't just lost; they're being constantly recycled into new signings through the sale of excess/unneeded players. Every year, there's more money to spend than the last because player sales keep increasing.

It used to be that we'd buy a player, and whether he was good or not, we'd stick with him for years—either because we needed him or because his contract made it hard to move him on. Sometimes it worked, but too often it didn't.

Now, if a player doesn't make the grade, I'm confident we can move them on quickly, often at only a small loss—or sometimes even a profit—in transfer fees. We can take risks on players knowing we won't be stuck with them for the duration of their contracts. More sales mean more signings, more rolls of the dice to find a Palmer instead of a Felix. The fact that players are generally bought on low wages and long contracts means their transfer fees don't depreciate much, creating this sense of building momentum.

We've definitely ridden our luck at times last season, barely crawling into fourth place on the final day or getting a ridiculously favorable World Club Cup draw where we only had to face one team better than us, and that was in the final. But it's the compounding momentum—the feeling that we're only going to get better—that has me so positive about things right now.

What also has to be taken into consideration though is that we continue to carry an amortised deficit into every window that has to be fed. It will continue to be a balancing act between striving for on field success as selling some of the family silver to meet this deficit.

22 hours ago, Qaz said:

To be honest, I'm really happy with the direction the directors of football are taking the club right now.

If I had to sum it up in one word, it would be "momentum."

First, there's the on-field momentum that comes from having a young squad that's likely to improve just by playing together.

Second, there's the off-field player trading momentum. It feels like the transfer fees we pay out each year aren't just lost; they're being constantly recycled into new signings through the sale of excess/unneeded players. Every year, there's more money to spend than the last because player sales keep increasing.

It used to be that we'd buy a player, and whether he was good or not, we'd stick with him for years—either because we needed him or because his contract made it hard to move him on. Sometimes it worked, but too often it didn't.

Now, if a player doesn't make the grade, I'm confident we can move them on quickly, often at only a small loss—or sometimes even a profit—in transfer fees. We can take risks on players knowing we won't be stuck with them for the duration of their contracts. More sales mean more signings, more rolls of the dice to find a Palmer instead of a Felix. The fact that players are generally bought on low wages and long contracts means their transfer fees don't depreciate much, creating this sense of building momentum.

We've definitely ridden our luck at times last season, barely crawling into fourth place on the final day or getting a ridiculously favorable World Club Cup draw where we only had to face one team better than us, and that was in the final. But it's the compounding momentum—the feeling that we're only going to get better—that has me so positive about things right now.

I see you've jumped on the ChatGPT train too Qaz. Classic Canberra move

It's good to be positive but it doesn't mean we should revise what happened previously and it is also prudent to recognise that the reasons we are improving are because we are returning to the exact same methods that worked previously under Emenalo and Granovskaia, albeit with a different cast of thousands.

We've been horse-trading players for over a decade. We are the best in the Premier League at doing it for over a decade. We are on the verge of returning to the top of that particular table. But it also doesn't escape most people that our success in financial games has often undermined our competitiveness, because we consistently have failed to build on big successes. The 2021 CL win and a £1.5bn cash injection should have seen us as the favourites for the CWC final over PSG.

The real positive is that it's in this club's DNA to win as underdogs and this generation of players hopefully continue to embrace that.

3 hours ago, SydneyChelsea said:

I see you've jumped on the ChatGPT train too Qaz. Classic Canberra move

Hahaha, i wrote it, I just put it into grok to make sure the words come out nicely 😂

(I can even show you the draft if you want)

12 minutes ago, Qaz said:

Hahaha, i wrote it, I just put it into grok to make sure the words come out nicely 😂

(I can even show you the draft if you want)

Finally the English posters can understand our Australian drawl

51 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

Finally the English posters can understand our Australian drawl

Struth!, their f*cking loss, the bloody drongoes................ 🤣

Edited July 30, 2025Jul 30 by Qaz

5 minutes ago, Qaz said:

Struth!, their f*cking loss, the bloody drongoes................ 🤣

Fair suck of the sav, cobber.

I have listened to Oasis interviews lately so that my English doesn't sound like it came out of ChatGPT. f**kin mental innit.

Right now, the system works as long as we keep winning on the field and get low wages+long contracts off it.

Money is wasted on high wages, low performing players and I am glad we're back to the ruthless ways of Marina and co.

This topic was fun and accurate 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣