36 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Yeah but one of the other ones said hello to him once in the stands so now he has to white knight for them and let everyone know he knows them

I can tell you it isn’t either of the SD but their name was on the list I posted .

One thing I find quite funny is my wife who like me had a ST for many years sees this individual on TV she says oh look there’s your mate. !

5 minutes ago, terraloon said:

Is it ? Only the one that created the thread will know the answer to that question but a little tip if that’s what they did mean they should have said Sporting Directors. Others I agree have taken that way but I would suggest that UB refers them as being a”BUNCH of C**TS” not a pair but a bunch that to me suggests it’s more than two

The debate for me suggests it wasn’t confined to just the SD is that Interesting because many of the players talked about as being terrible signings were actually made before one or both of them turned up !

Well, yes I suppose we can ask Jangz to clarify definitively LOL, but seeing as in post 1 he talks directly about transfer dealings and squad balance, it is surely not much of a leap of faith to assume that he means the sporting directors.

UB will chip in to confirm I'm sure, but I'd imagine he might be including Boehly and Eghbali in his collective as well, seeing as they have also been involved in recruitment decisions.

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

A wall of text is really awkward to read if it isn't broken up with paragraphs, headings, white space, etc etc.

It's how it's formatted into a post when pasted in!

1 minute ago, Mod said:

It's how it's formatted into a post when pasted in!

This is true, I type in Word initially for grammar.

6 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Well, yes I suppose we can ask Jangz to clarify definitively LOL, but seeing as in post 1 he talks directly about transfer dealings and squad balance, it is surely not much of a leap of faith to assume that he means the sporting directors.

UB will chip in to confirm I'm sure, but I'd imagine he might be including Boehly and Eghbali in his collective as well, seeing as they have also been involved in recruitment decisions.

Yes I started this thread to talk about our club management and dealings something SDs are primarily responsible for and by extension the ownership.. don’t care what spin some people want to put on it - it’s been shambles.

1) we have treated players in a class less way. 1-2 players is ok but CG, TC, BC, samu, the American guy we almost signed ..the list goes on..

2) i wish there was any other way to put it but the army of expensive avg 19 year olds Devid Washington, datro, Ugo, kellymen, Slonina, datro, Jorgensen while all of that money would have been better spend on a single quality player

3) we are one of the worlds biggest club but we will do all of the stuff on 2.. they put all of these media briefings in how we are interested in this and that player and we end up with freaking villa and Everton level players..

4) patience is not an issue but when transfers like felix happen there is no excuse ..

yes last two years where tough but a lot of them is on this management .. there is no defence of this lit.. I am sure they are awesome people but there is business has been shambolic..

8 hours ago, terraloon said:

Is it ? Only the one that created the thread will know the answer to that question but a little tip if that’s what they did mean they should have said Sporting Directors. Others I agree have taken that way but I would suggest that UB refers them as being a”BUNCH of C**TS” not a pair but a bunch that to me suggests it’s more than two

The debate for me suggests it wasn’t confined to just the SD is that Interesting because many of the players talked about as being terrible signings were actually made before one or both of them turned up !

Winstanley, Stewart, Eghbali.

There's your bunch of c**ts.

8 hours ago, Clown Lake said:

Very mature.

This was not his complaint, he just can't be "arsed" or bothered. I'll keep your comment in mind next time, however that was not the issue. I expected your response to be honest :)

Why else did you think i couldn't be arsed to read it, other than the fact you wrote a dissertation of word vomit? That most certainly was the issue, much like it was when you did it in the post before.

8 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Well, yes I suppose we can ask Jangz to clarify definitively LOL, but seeing as in post 1 he talks directly about transfer dealings and squad balance, it is surely not much of a leap of faith to assume that he means the sporting directors.

UB will chip in to confirm I'm sure, but I'd imagine he might be including Boehly and Eghbali in his collective as well, seeing as they have also been involved in recruitment decisions.

Eghbali, yes. I don't actually mind Todd so much. I think he knows f**k all about Soccer-ball but he has the clubs best interest at heart. He genuinely wants to see us become champions like his dodgers team, whereas others are money driven.

13 hours ago, Clown Lake said:

The argument that the squad being "bloat" during the Roman era is disavowed by the modern squad's size is a misunderstanding of what "bloat" actually implied in the circumstances. During Abramovich, the problem wasn’t the quantity of players, but the paucity of long-term value, coherence, and sell-on value. The squad was riddled with expensive veterans and duplicate options who bore little relation to the long-term game plan. The larger modern squad is undoubtedly bloated, but it's young, modular, and geared for development. The average age has plummeted. This makes a difference. To have a 22-year-old reserve winger on low wages who can develop to three times his value down the line is very different from having a 31-year-old striker on £200k a week whom you simply can't sell on. The rebuild wasn't about decreasing for the sake of decreasing—it was about rebalancing for the future. On whether the team needed an overhaul or a couple of “select” substitutions, that argument only makes sense if your aim is patching over holes rather than redesigning the structure. Yes, Azpi could've had one more season. But leaders do break down, and keeping them on the pitch slows down transition. Rüdiger and Christensen had already departed; Kante had injury issues. Relying on what remained of the Abramovich squad would've merely stopped the inevitable. Aubameyang was indeed a misfire under the new regime—one of a series of errors they're not immune to—but he was a short-term stopgap in the chaotic post-Tuchel early stages, not the symbol of the long-term project. One error does not disprove the plan; that makes the point about the mayhem of a hasty managerial handover and an adapting internal regime. The Enzo argument falls into the usual trap of neglecting market context. Chelsea paid his release fee—no one made Benfica haggle below that. Was it expensive? Yes. But high-end players, particularly those newly emerged from a World Cup, always come with a price tag. To flatly state "he cost £60m" disregards the fact that transfer valuations change with time, with market conditions, with the level of competition. What does concern us now is that Enzo has established himself as a keystone of the midfield—not perfect, not always played in his optimal position, but adapting into the setup. As for him being played as an eight—this says as much about the shifting tactics of successive managers as about his inherent profile. Long-range passing, tight control, the linkage of defence and attack continue to be his core qualities that will only become clearer as the setup around him stabilises. Concerning Robert Sánchez, it's simple to sneer in hindsight after a shaky season, but hindsight isn't analysis. Chelsea had to have a Premier League-proven goalkeeper when both Mendy and Kepa left, and Petrovic was a league unknown, Jorgensen untested. Sánchez, for the price and youth, was a homegrown, relatively cheap choice. He might not become Chelsea's long-term No. 1, but the reasoning for that signing in the moment was good. Teams will always require their transitional pieces during rebuilds, and not every signing made will last for a decade as a starter. To argue that his simple purchase negates the rest of the plan isn't shallow—it's reductionist. The Caicedo saga itself is misunderstood. It's not the case that Chelsea had the deal "tied up" before Liverpool jumped in. Brighton played both parties expertly, and Liverpool made an offer that prompted Chelsea to match and then beat. Chelsea's recruitment unit stuck to their target, and they won over the player's choice despite being outbid for a short time. That isn't having your "pants pulled down" – that's standing firm on a priority signing under market pressure. Caicedo has since displayed exactly why the club bought him: his defensive statistics, carries that move the game forward, and ball-winning data for his age group are elite. It's not the price tag itself; it's buying generational midfield quality in a thin market. Palmer being called "pure luck" shows a basic misunderstanding of the elite scouting process. Was his meteoric ascent predicted on this level? Not probably. This, though, is what intelligent recruitment does—finds the underused elsewhere and gambles on the ceiling. This was the same with Riyad Mahrez from Leicester or Dele Alli from MK Dons. If we call every breakout star "luck," we rob football of its strategic complexity. The reality that Palmer worked out so incredibly isn't evidence that it happened by chance—it's evidence that Chelsea's scouting operation noticed something that City didn't deem important. That's a success. And as for the argument that Chelsea shouldn’t “aspire to be a selling club" such as Red Bull or that Man City never bet on youth—neither of these claims holds water. Red Bull's model has created Champions League-quality players and made money on the pitch after performing some of the highest-intensity football in several leagues. City, meanwhile, completely nurtured young stars—Foden the stand-out example—and consistently employed under-23 signings with the aim of molding them into world-class performers (Sané, Jesus, Rodri, etc.). The idea isn’t to emulate Red Bull or City—or to become either of them—it’s to take what they’re doing and translate that on Chelsea's scope and ambitions The Courtois comparison isn't fair. He played two complete seasons with Atlético Madrid and was one of the La Liga's standout goalkeepers before he went back to Chelsea. That's quite contrary to Petrovic's one season—not two—at New England followed by being thrust into the Premier League. Developmental timelines count. To equate the two disregards simple differences in experience, level of competition, and strategic timing. While Sánchez might have been awarded a No. 1 jersey last summer, that choice already changed. If anything, that indicates the club will change direction as performances go—rather than stubbornly adhere to decisions for ego's sake. Last but not least, being a "bootlicker" for seeing a long-term strategy is anti-intellectual and dismissive. No one is calling for fans to roll over and swallow poor performances sight unseen. Criticism is warranted—albeit on the basis of facts, not frustration. Having a strategy does not imply perfection—it implies that the club no longer exists on a merry-go-round of one manager followed by the next without purpose. After years of success predicated on short-term thinking, Chelsea's finally trying to construct something that will last. It may not always be tidy, and may not always be popular, but to call it idiotic or arrogant is to deny any subtle understanding of project management, squad development, and football as an organic, living ecosystem. In short, frustration from fans during an unstable time is to be expected, but most of the attacks in this response are emotionally reactive and shaky facts.

Right, here we go then... Please do better next time because no one is replying to the new testament in future.

• Bloat has a set definition, not whatever you want to try and claim it means. Under Roman there were no instances of players having to get changed in corridors or managers complaining about having too many players to train with.

• All your points are hypotheticals. a 22 year old winger who 'CAN' develop into 3 times their value. This is rarely happening, Palmer is arguably the only example. Clearlake managed to sell all these expensive failures we owned that you say are impossible to sell. All their biggest transfer sales are Roman era players.

• Leaders don't slow down transition, they continue tradition. Chelsea had a tradition of winning, i don't doubt for a second we would have given up so spectacularly in previous seasons under Clearlake if some of that experience was kept around in the short term and bred through the new players.

• Auba might have been a stop gap but their long term symbol you mention to lead the line in 3 years of ownership have then been Datro Fofana, Washington, Jackson, Guiu. Which only now signed Delap so jury is out to see how he settles.

• You're flip flopping with the Enzo argument. You've just spent 600 words explaining the owners plan is to buy young and cheap and develop into a player they can profit on if they need to in future. Enzo alone completely counters your own argument. Also, tight control? Have you watched enzo? Takes his 3 touches to trap a ball usually. His long range passing is good but every manager has seen his deficiencies at the back and moved him away for damage control .

• OMG Sanchez revisionism in 2025 is insane. At no point was 27M for Brighton's THIRD choice keeper, who was dropped for not being good enough, a well thought out deal. It was clearly a transfer to please Ben Roberts.

• If we noticed this superstar rise that Palmer was about to have why did we have multiple other targets we pursued and only fell back on Palmer on the last day of the transfer window? Or was the entire summer a masterplan smoke screen to force Pep into selling?

• RB Leipzig, who have never won a league title shouldn't be an inspiration. We're a football club, the aim is to win. There's no trophy for best net spend at the end of the year. I didn't say City don't buy youth, i said they don't rely solely on youth. Every squad they have is littered with winners and experience. They blood in a couple of youngsters a year to learn from the winners. Foden is a great example, i glad you brought him up. He's had years to learn from KDB, D.Silva, B.Silva etc. and has gained the winning experience from sharing the pitch with them throughout his formative years. Who has Jackson had to learn from since we signed him?

• I'll be repeating myself on the Courtois point. Re-read what i said before. Most wanted Courtois back after a year at Madrid and that was when we had Prime Cech. Petrovic has been the standout player with a similar development and is coming back to challenge one of the worst first choice goalkeepers in our recent history,

• The club no longer exists on a merry go round of managers lol. We've had 6 managers in 3 seasons. We had 17 in 19 years under Roman.

• Your posts are anti-intellectual.

59 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Right, here we go then... Please do better next time because no one is replying to the new testament in future.

• Bloat has a set definition, not whatever you want to try and claim it means. Under Roman there were no instances of players having to get changed in corridors or managers complaining about having too many players to train with.

• All your points are hypotheticals. a 22 year old winger who 'CAN' develop into 3 times their value. This is rarely happening, Palmer is arguably the only example. Clearlake managed to sell all these expensive failures we owned that you say are impossible to sell. All their biggest transfer sales are Roman era players.

• Leaders don't slow down transition, they continue tradition. Chelsea had a tradition of winning, i don't doubt for a second we would have given up so spectacularly in previous seasons under Clearlake if some of that experience was kept around in the short term and bred through the new players.

• Auba might have been a stop gap but their long term symbol you mention to lead the line in 3 years of ownership have then been Datro Fofana, Washington, Jackson, Guiu. Which only now signed Delap so jury is out to see how he settles.

• You're flip flopping with the Enzo argument. You've just spent 600 words explaining the owners plan is to buy young and cheap and develop into a player they can profit on if they need to in future. Enzo alone completely counters your own argument. Also, tight control? Have you watched enzo? Takes his 3 touches to trap a ball usually. His long range passing is good but every manager has seen his deficiencies at the back and moved him away for damage control .

• OMG Sanchez revisionism in 2025 is insane. At no point was 27M for Brighton's THIRD choice keeper, who was dropped for not being good enough, a well thought out deal. It was clearly a transfer to please Ben Roberts.

• If we noticed this superstar rise that Palmer was about to have why did we have multiple other targets we pursued and only fell back on Palmer on the last day of the transfer window? Or was the entire summer a masterplan smoke screen to force Pep into selling?

• RB Leipzig, who have never won a league title shouldn't be an inspiration. We're a football club, the aim is to win. There's no trophy for best net spend at the end of the year. I didn't say City don't buy youth, i said they don't rely solely on youth. Every squad they have is littered with winners and experience. They blood in a couple of youngsters a year to learn from the winners. Foden is a great example, i glad you brought him up. He's had years to learn from KDB, D.Silva, B.Silva etc. and has gained the winning experience from sharing the pitch with them throughout his formative years. Who has Jackson had to learn from since we signed him?

• I'll be repeating myself on the Courtois point. Re-read what i said before. Most wanted Courtois back after a year at Madrid and that was when we had Prime Cech. Petrovic has been the standout player with a similar development and is coming back to challenge one of the worst first choice goalkeepers in our recent history,

• The club no longer exists on a merry go round of managers lol. We've had 6 managers in 3 seasons. We had 17 in 19 years under Roman.

• Your posts are anti-intellectual.

Take a breather and try again, you're having a nightmare here. The level of response is too low, I am sure you can muster something better when you're done rage baiting.

Edited June 15, 20251 yr by Clown Lake

34 minutes ago, Clown Lake said:

Take a breather and try again, you're having a nightmare here. The level of response is too low, I am sure you can muster something better when you're done rage baiting.

Did the sentences and structured points scare you off?

1 hour ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Right, here we go then... Please do better next time because no one is replying to the new testament in future.

• Bloat has a set definition, not whatever you want to try and claim it means. Under Roman there were no instances of players having to get changed in corridors or managers complaining about having too many players to train with.

• All your points are hypotheticals. a 22 year old winger who 'CAN' develop into 3 times their value. This is rarely happening, Palmer is arguably the only example. Clearlake managed to sell all these expensive failures we owned that you say are impossible to sell. All their biggest transfer sales are Roman era players.

• Leaders don't slow down transition, they continue tradition. Chelsea had a tradition of winning, i don't doubt for a second we would have given up so spectacularly in previous seasons under Clearlake if some of that experience was kept around in the short term and bred through the new players.

• Auba might have been a stop gap but their long term symbol you mention to lead the line in 3 years of ownership have then been Datro Fofana, Washington, Jackson, Guiu. Which only now signed Delap so jury is out to see how he settles.

• You're flip flopping with the Enzo argument. You've just spent 600 words explaining the owners plan is to buy young and cheap and develop into a player they can profit on if they need to in future. Enzo alone completely counters your own argument. Also, tight control? Have you watched enzo? Takes his 3 touches to trap a ball usually. His long range passing is good but every manager has seen his deficiencies at the back and moved him away for damage control .

• OMG Sanchez revisionism in 2025 is insane. At no point was 27M for Brighton's THIRD choice keeper, who was dropped for not being good enough, a well thought out deal. It was clearly a transfer to please Ben Roberts.

• If we noticed this superstar rise that Palmer was about to have why did we have multiple other targets we pursued and only fell back on Palmer on the last day of the transfer window? Or was the entire summer a masterplan smoke screen to force Pep into selling?

• RB Leipzig, who have never won a league title shouldn't be an inspiration. We're a football club, the aim is to win. There's no trophy for best net spend at the end of the year. I didn't say City don't buy youth, i said they don't rely solely on youth. Every squad they have is littered with winners and experience. They blood in a couple of youngsters a year to learn from the winners. Foden is a great example, i glad you brought him up. He's had years to learn from KDB, D.Silva, B.Silva etc. and has gained the winning experience from sharing the pitch with them throughout his formative years. Who has Jackson had to learn from since we signed him?

• I'll be repeating myself on the Courtois point. Re-read what i said before. Most wanted Courtois back after a year at Madrid and that was when we had Prime Cech. Petrovic has been the standout player with a similar development and is coming back to challenge one of the worst first choice goalkeepers in our recent history,

• The club no longer exists on a merry go round of managers lol. We've had 6 managers in 3 seasons. We had 17 in 19 years under Roman.

• Your posts are anti-intellectual.

You should get some sort of an award for deciphering that paragraph-less stream of consiousness, let alone coming up with a point-by-point reply.

Edited June 15, 20251 yr by abramovich

“No trophy for best net spend”……..enough said!

10 hours ago, Mod said:

It's how it's formatted into a post when pasted in!

It's blatantly AI generated isn't it, how pathetic is that 🤣

And what a shock, he demands a reply then waves one off. Next step is the victim hood, then a strop, then leaves the forum in the usual less than dignified way...

Edited June 15, 20251 yr by dkw

58 minutes ago, dkw said:

It's blatantly AI generated isn't it, how pathetic is that 🤣

And what a shock, he demands a reply then waves one off. Next step is the victim hood, then a strop, then leaves the forum in the usual less than dignified way...

I m waiting for the flounce haha

It might be a generational thing, some people are really uncomfortable with criticism in anyway.

They deem it as negative instead of taking it on board when it can be constructive. We learn far more in life from our mistakes.

Criticism is not abuse. Many fans are worried about the direction the club is heading in, we don’t dream about being the new Leipzig.

The summer is far from over and I’m sure more players will arrive, however we all thought that getting CL would allow us to kick on I mean how could we ever sign Mammadou Sarr from our sister club if we didn’t have CL to offer🙄. There are some glaring holes in our first team squad and because of FFP we don’t want to see our budget spunked on endless kids who may or may not turn out good one day. This is not a controversial opinion rather one most of us share.

Lets see what they do from here, I like Delap because I feel he can impact our first team now as well as being young and improving but so far it’s been underwhelming with a very gettable experienced spine out there as well we are frustrated. The fans don’t get to say to the club we will come back in 3yrs when ur ready to compete.

6 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Right, here we go then... Please do better next time because no one is replying to the new testament in future.

• Bloat has a set definition, not whatever you want to try and claim it means. Under Roman there were no instances of players having to get changed in corridors or managers complaining about having too many players to train with.

• All your points are hypotheticals. a 22 year old winger who 'CAN' develop into 3 times their value. This is rarely happening, Palmer is arguably the only example. Clearlake managed to sell all these expensive failures we owned that you say are impossible to sell. All their biggest transfer sales are Roman era players.

• Leaders don't slow down transition, they continue tradition. Chelsea had a tradition of winning, i don't doubt for a second we would have given up so spectacularly in previous seasons under Clearlake if some of that experience was kept around in the short term and bred through the new players.

• Auba might have been a stop gap but their long term symbol you mention to lead the line in 3 years of ownership have then been Datro Fofana, Washington, Jackson, Guiu. Which only now signed Delap so jury is out to see how he settles.

• You're flip flopping with the Enzo argument. You've just spent 600 words explaining the owners plan is to buy young and cheap and develop into a player they can profit on if they need to in future. Enzo alone completely counters your own argument. Also, tight control? Have you watched enzo? Takes his 3 touches to trap a ball usually. His long range passing is good but every manager has seen his deficiencies at the back and moved him away for damage control .

• OMG Sanchez revisionism in 2025 is insane. At no point was 27M for Brighton's THIRD choice keeper, who was dropped for not being good enough, a well thought out deal. It was clearly a transfer to please Ben Roberts.

• If we noticed this superstar rise that Palmer was about to have why did we have multiple other targets we pursued and only fell back on Palmer on the last day of the transfer window? Or was the entire summer a masterplan smoke screen to force Pep into selling?

• RB Leipzig, who have never won a league title shouldn't be an inspiration. We're a football club, the aim is to win. There's no trophy for best net spend at the end of the year. I didn't say City don't buy youth, i said they don't rely solely on youth. Every squad they have is littered with winners and experience. They blood in a couple of youngsters a year to learn from the winners. Foden is a great example, i glad you brought him up. He's had years to learn from KDB, D.Silva, B.Silva etc. and has gained the winning experience from sharing the pitch with them throughout his formative years. Who has Jackson had to learn from since we signed him?

• I'll be repeating myself on the Courtois point. Re-read what i said before. Most wanted Courtois back after a year at Madrid and that was when we had Prime Cech. Petrovic has been the standout player with a similar development and is coming back to challenge one of the worst first choice goalkeepers in our recent history,

• The club no longer exists on a merry go round of managers lol. We've had 6 managers in 3 seasons. We had 17 in 19 years under Roman.

• Your posts are anti-intellectual.

I am only quoting this because there is no option to Like more than once.

Like x2

5 hours ago, Clown Lake said:

Take a breather and try again, you're having a nightmare here. The level of response is too low, I am sure you can muster something better when you're done rage baiting.

You have done well here. I am impressed. Most trolls are outed and dispatched pretty quickly, but you've played a few of us for quite a time now.

Ha, well done you. But no more rising to it from me.

There's not many on this forum that use their full name as their User ID, so we'll done for that Mr Lake.

Edited June 15, 20251 yr by WhiteWall

6 hours ago, dkw said:

It's blatantly AI generated isn't it, how pathetic is that 🤣

And what a shock, he demands a reply then waves one off. Next step is the victim hood, then a strop, then leaves the forum in the usual less than dignified way...

Go double check if it is A.I then. I have already proven earlier there is no A.I on the last page. Is this the intellectual conversation? Attack the person with differing opinion? Proof is clear, we made top 4 and won a European Cup, exactly what we set out to do. But no, trolls like Ben Jacobs rile people up with false information and everyone eats it as gospel. If we did not reach our goals you would have reason to complain, but we reached our goals and the directors are still called "diabolical". They set out to do whatever structure our owners like. Period.

Again proof that there is zero A.I, I suppose many on here are used to personal attacks on someone to prove your opinions?

3 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

You have done well here. I am impressed. Most trolls are outed and dispatched pretty quickly, but you've played a few of us for quite a time now.

Ha, well done you. But no more rising to it from me.

There's not many on this forum that use their full name as their User ID, so we'll done for that Mr Lake.

Feeling better making the personal digs? 😄

9 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Did the sentences and structured points scare you off?

@Clown Lake hi mate can I get a reply rather than you crying at other posters

Step 2...

9 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

@Clown Lake hi mate can I get a reply rather than you crying at other posters

Friend, go read my response to you again. Nothing has changed on how I feel about your response. You're clearly still rage baiting, when you want to have a serious discussion let me know. (We can also take this discussion on private messages). I doubt you'd like private messages however, the attention would not be there for you 😇

6 minutes ago, Clown Lake said:

Friend, go read my response to you again. Nothing has changed on how I feel about your response. You're clearly still rage baiting, when you want to have a serious discussion let me know. (We can also take this discussion on private messages). I doubt you'd like private messages however, the attention would not be there for you 😇

The lack of self awareness is astonishing, look at the responses from almost every poster about your idiocy. Feel free to DM, makes no difference to me whether you’re shamed in public or private.

11 minutes ago, dkw said:

Step 2...

Victim hood ✅

Strop ⏳

Leaves forum 🔜

I'll check his posts tomorrow at work, there's little things people use to try and hide AI posts, blank prompts etc. But they always leave markers.