There was a good point made on the London in blue podcast that

1: Iraola and Alonso are high intensity managers who demands a lot of verticality with loads of high intensity running and sprinting

2: We did the CWC in the summer, look knackered and now we have a world cup.

3: Do we even have the players to play that way consistenly? Its not like we have the finances to rebuild the squad

I dont know, we had the most incredible amounts on injuries under Poch and I fear we might be going down the same route now, even if I personally find the slow, controlled stuff incredibly boring so I dont mind us at least somewhat moving away from that

Interesting times, I expect our merry band of SD's to get it completely wrong anyways so hey-ho

25 minutes ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

There was a good point made on the London in blue podcast that

1: Iraola and Alonso are high intensity managers who demands a lot of verticality with loads of high intensity running and sprinting

2: We did the CWC in the summer, look knackered and now we have a world cup.

3: Do we even have the players to play that way consistenly? Its not like we have the finances to rebuild the squad

I dont know, we had the most incredible amounts on injuries under Poch and I fear we might be going down the same route now, even if I personally find the slow, controlled stuff incredibly boring so I dont mind us at least somewhat moving away from that

Interesting times, I expect our merry band of SD's to get it completely wrong anyways so hey-ho

It's more a question of whether the 5 SDs + Eghbali will pull their fingers out of the pie and let a manager do his thing.

1 hour ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

There was a good point made on the London in blue podcast that

1: Iraola and Alonso are high intensity managers who demands a lot of verticality with loads of high intensity running and sprinting

2: We did the CWC in the summer, look knackered and now we have a world cup.

3: Do we even have the players to play that way consistenly? Its not like we have the finances to rebuild the squad

I dont know, we had the most incredible amounts on injuries under Poch and I fear we might be going down the same route now, even if I personally find the slow, controlled stuff incredibly boring so I dont mind us at least somewhat moving away from that

Interesting times, I expect our merry band of SD's to get it completely wrong anyways so hey-ho

1 hour ago, dermott said:

It's more a question of whether the 5 SDs + Eghbali will pull their fingers out of the pie and let a manager do his thing.

Even under Poch we placed 18th in the league in distance covered. This is well beyond the manager in my opinion

"Chelsea have 5 sporting directors and at least one co-owner who takes a hands on approach to the football side of the business. So any coach who wants full control can forget it" - Matt Law

The club is now officially a poisoned chalice. No manager worth any self respect, and a CV behind him, will work under these conditions that are blatantly there for the manager to not succeed. This is why the likes of Marco Silva and Iraola are the only ones realistically being considered. The rest is just white noise and typical BlueCo PR to try and gaslight the fanbase. (See?? We tried to go for Alonso!!!)

17 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Even under Poch we placed 18th in the league in distance covered. This is well beyond the manager in my opinion

"Chelsea have 5 sporting directors and at least one co-owner who takes a hands on approach to the football side of the business. So any coach who wants full control can forget it" - Matt Law

The club is now officially a poisoned chalice. No manager worth any self respect, and a CV behind him, will work under these conditions that are blatantly there for the manager to not succeed. This is why the likes of Marco Silva and Iraola are the only ones realistically being considered. The rest is just white noise and typical BlueCo PR to try and gaslight the fanbase. (See?? We tried to go for Alonso!!!)

Fully agree. On the other side of the scale I suspect they throw Silva in there so we’ll say «at least it wasn’t Silva» when Iraola is hired. I hope so, anyway!

3 hours ago, AndyDowsleftflank said:

There was a good point made on the London in blue podcast that

1: Iraola and Alonso are high intensity managers who demands a lot of verticality with loads of high intensity running and sprinting

2: We did the CWC in the summer, look knackered and now we have a world cup.

3: Do we even have the players to play that way consistenly? Its not like we have the finances to rebuild the squad

I dont know, we had the most incredible amounts on injuries under Poch and I fear we might be going down the same route now, even if I personally find the slow, controlled stuff incredibly boring so I dont mind us at least somewhat moving away from that

Interesting times, I expect our merry band of SD's to get it completely wrong anyways so hey-ho

The injury under Poch was imo overblown. The one who were injured under Poch was also injured under Maresca.

The one that get less injury is probably Reece and that is because he stopped playing fb.

Edited April 29Apr 29 by Bob stark

3 hours ago, dermott said:

It's more a question of whether the 5 SDs + Eghbali will pull their fingers out of the pie and let a manager do his thing.

On the field stuff for sure but squad building definitely not. They are paid to run certain strategy.

No manager will sign estevao, they are not stupid. By the time the kids is ready, you are probably will be out of the door.

Edited April 29Apr 29 by Bob stark

The reality is no matter who our manager, if we continue targeting player who is 2/3 steps away from being ready, it will be very difficult for us to improve team.

I don’t really get it when people say we don’t have the squad to play high intensity football.

These are pros, they have played in many different teams under different managers/tactics/formations and positions in their careers.

You’re telling me that they can’t run more, close down/press quicker or play at a faster pace in possession. These are just the basics. They can all do it with a rocket up their arses.

The problems come when you ask them to do stuff that’s beyond their ability like asking Sanchez to play out from the back. Or Delap to trap a ball.

Edited April 29Apr 29 by C3blue

We do quite well with caretaker coaches, so why dont we just do short term contracts, let's say 3 weeks at a time, next man in. I mean we're not far off that now so it will be an easy adjustment .

Simon Philips reporting Xabi Alonso is interested but not convinced. He is demanding reassurances and the ability to govern the squad, decisions and transfers. He too isn’t the only manager requesting that.

Lmao wish I could see the look on those mug directors faces.

15 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Simon Philips reporting Xabi Alonso is interested but not convinced. He is demanding reassurances and the ability to govern the squad, decisions and transfers. He too isn’t the only manager requesting that.

Lmao wish I could see the look on those mug directors faces.

To add to this.

Scott Parker is available without having to pay any severance…

A good option to get us back into the PL in a few seasons.

1 hour ago, Sconnie Blue said:

To add to this.

Exclusive? He has always been a strong candidate. Whether they have the nuts to replace Carrick with CL pretty much sealed is another matter.

39 minutes ago, The Boehly Babes said:

Scott Parker is available without having to pay any severance…

Well you've seen what happened after Kompany got Burnley relegated.

22 hours ago, dkw said:

We do quite well with caretaker coaches, so why dont we just do short term contracts, let's say 3 weeks at a time, next man in. I mean we're not far off that now so it will be an easy adjustment .

"Short term" for BlueCo is more 3 years than 3 weeks 😅

I don't really mind the long contracts now that we know the context.

Normal clubs will offer a 2-3 year deal which includes paying out the remaining contract if there is a termination. Our club offers 6 year deals with breakout clauses included if there are goals not met.

Both have their pros and cons when it comes to financial/job security.

On 28/04/2026 at 18:21, dkw said:

Carlo gave several young uns debuts in his time at Chelsea, Bruma, McEachran, Kakuta, the young Dutch full back (cant remember his name) and others, he absolutely does like to develop young players.

Van Anholt?

Love to see Jose back the special one.

2 hours ago, Ibby_786 said:

Love to see Jose back the special one.

Nooooooooooooo

13 hours ago, meta4man said:

Van Anholt?

That was him, there was a young Italian striker too, Borini maybe?

8 hours ago, Ibby_786 said:

Love to see Jose back the special one.

The special fraud these days.

Initially, I couldn't really look past Fabregas. Taking out all the unrealistic names like Jose, Tuchel and Conte, that is. But the more I think about it, the more I feel it would be slightly too soon for him to manage Chelsea. He's doing good things at Como but that is a far cry from what he'll be facing in London. I do think he has the potential to be a good manager but I can't shake the feeling that we'd be spoiling the potential at this stage.

The other thing I feel is important is that we need this manager installed as quickly as possible so he can begin planning the pre-season and overlooking the squad adjustments. As such, managers who are currently unavailable, and especially those that will be involved in the World Cup, really are not going to be ideal choices.

When thinking about it in this way, I have to say that Xabi Alonso feels like the right one. His work at Bayer Leverkusen was really quite impressive. Having said that, his inability to control the dressing room in Madrid does feel me with some concern. But I'd consider Alonso to be in a different league to Potter and Rosenior. And I do have some hope that as long as he is supported in the right way, he could find success at Chelsea. Supported in the right way means having his say in the squad adjustment. The noises around the supposed negotiations are positive. If he puts his foot down and says he won't take the job without greater control than what Rosenior had, and the owners and director give in, this would put us on a better path to success.

Who the club choose between Alonso and Iraola will tell us fans quite a lot. If we end up with Iraola, it will be more of the same but maybe with a better coach with more experience in the Premier League. If we get Alonso, maybe that self-reflection worked Here's hoping ...

Lmao what a d**khead.

34 minutes ago, Sconnie Blue said:

Lmao what a d**khead.

what else do we expect him to say- unfair I guess.