Our transformation from a Title Challenger to a top 4 scrambler
I know this has been said before but we are now not a club that is
a) capable of challenging
b) bothered about doing so
we are now essentially taking the Arsenal model where there was simply no need to do so had we had any kind of foresight or forward planning.
We have had an abysmal few years broken up by a couple of title wins which amazing as it is seems to have papered over some cracks that are in danger of turning into huge gaping holes ready to collapse everything around it.
Lets look at the way we do our business first
Over the last 5 years or so its been a one in one out policy, player profit has been on the agenda when it comes to signings, highlights include Kevin Debruyne Lukaku Costa. For various reasons these 3 players have been let go by Chelsea to our detriment on the field ( hind sight is 20/20 but still. )
So for a fair few years we have been unable to / unwilling to compete in the transfer market by just adding to the team, all we do is replace what we sell, usually for a lesser net spend.
Our squad,
Well this has been said to the death but we simply haven't integrated our phenomenal youth system into the side Christiansen aside we really havnt utilised our youth system very well, We hire managers unwilling to risk them who then throw their toys out the pram when they dont get what they want. This is more the boards fault for not having a set vision for the club and hiring accordingly.
Conte should never had been hired or even retained beyond last season if he didnt have the same vision for the club the board had, surely the board know they dont want to spend more than the recoup.
So what happens is we end up with the worst transfer windows in my recent memory
We replaced legitimately talented possible future stars in Chalobah ( who we fecking sold !!!!! for £5m ) and Ruben Loftus Cheek, who even the mores ardent hipster cannot deny this lad is a potential world beater with Danny Drinkwater and Bakayoko the later i assumed was only scouted via youtube clips of Monaco in the CL.
Drinkwater is potentially even worse of a signing. he has absolutely no place in a top 4 side, the argument that he is a premier league winner by some of the bewildered people on this board is utterly ridiculous. Also "he plays well with Kante" ....no Kante plays well thats it.
What we have done now is block anyone coming through and are stuck with these donkeys.
dont even get me started on Barkley, signed because he was cheap and had a potential £5m profit in him. never going to improve the team.
but that's the thing, when was the last time we bought a player to improve the team and not just fill a squad place?
We will lose Hazard in the summer which is to be expected but what have we done to at least attempt to replace him?
willian and Pedro coming up to 30's as with Fabregas and we are left with a potential MASSIVE rebuilding job.
New Manager To Complete
posted on 15/2/18
You wonder why a player wants to leave a club where is he paid well to move to a bigger club and tuck into the bench behind Kante, Fabregas, Bakayoko etc...
posted on 15/2/18
comment by Your Honour (U17603)
posted 4 minutes ago
any reason why Drinkwater still can't get in the team even with Bakayoko out? Not a Conte signing maybe?
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conte very rarely starts new signings. bakayoko he apparently coveted and scouted so he is the exception. Sadly for us.
posted on 15/2/18
RLC is not a potential world beater. He’ll never be that good.
The reason why our transfer window last summer was so bad is because we lost so many players and had to spend all our budget on replacing them instead of adding quality to the squad. We lost Chalobah and ake because Conte didn’t play them and then had to spend nearly 70m to replace them. Had Conte kept them more happy and retained them, that 70m could have gone towards Alex Sandro for example. The transfer policy the club has isn’t bad aside from the terrible summer 2015 window, which was unexplainable.
posted on 15/2/18
Nobody knows the reason behind the second season syndrome. The mystery is what makes it so great.
However one day when Fred & the rest of the Scooby gang pull off the mask, I bet it will be Roman's face underneath.
posted on 15/2/18
comment by Erik (U21750)
posted 1 hour, 56 minutes ago
RLC is not a potential world beater. He’ll never be that good.
The reason why our transfer window last summer was so bad is because we lost so many players and had to spend all our budget on replacing them instead of adding quality to the squad. We lost Chalobah and ake because Conte didn’t play them and then had to spend nearly 70m to replace them. Had Conte kept them more happy and retained them, that 70m could have gone towards Alex Sandro for example. The transfer policy the club has isn’t bad aside from the terrible summer 2015 window, which was unexplainable.
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Hard to disagree with that. In your own words the failing is a lack of communication and/or planning between the manager and the board then.
The problem is cyclical though. Unless managers are given more time to develop our best young players and are under less pressure to always win things then we'll never get to the stage where any manager will be willing to risk playing our best young players.
Unless of course they're exceptional and already experienced at a high level like Christensen.
posted on 15/2/18
Club were never going to spend £70m on Sandro, be realistic. Not against that either, excessive.
posted on 15/2/18
The player I gave as a possible example doesn’t matter, the issue was all but one of our signings last summer (around 150m I believe) were replacements, not additions to the squad. Morata for costa, Bakayoko for Matic, Rudiger for Ake, Drinkwater for Chalobah. Zappacosta was the one who wasn’t a replacement. If we hadn’t had to replace so much of the squad, we’d have been able to spend our money on actually adding to the team who’d won the title last year and making it a better squad capable of pushing on and improving. Instead we lost too much of our squad and have had to spend so much money in an attempt to just stay still and we didn’t even manage that since Morata and Bakayoko have failed this season.
posted on 15/2/18
I swear RLC and Chalobah have blackmail material on half our fanbase, what do you all see in them that i don't?
posted on 15/2/18
Sorry but in spite of what he said, Costa wanted to leave; and I believe on more than one occasion.
I miss a focused Costa, but anything less than focused could quickly become a liability.
I am concerned the merry-go-round begins again in the summer.
And I gotta be honest as much as I don’t want him to go, I’ve occasionally wondered if Conte has been trying to force the club to sack him?!
I don’t want Sir Alex or Wenger longevity but the last manager to leave Chelsea completely of his own choice was in 1996 and the 2 longest service Chelsea Managers in my lifetime in a single spell have been John Neale and Claudio Ranieri. I cannot see them getting surpassed any time soon.
posted on 15/2/18
Our plan that was laid out way back under Kenyon was to win titles, grow the fan base and set us up as
s major club by joining the elite through cl success.
It was recognised that to do this we would initially have to spend big to attract major stars but once established we were to be more self sufficient whilst maintaining our position as challengers and that major spend whilst not entirely ruled out would be reduced.
I think we've entered the mature stage of that plan, I see no reason to worry. I believe we are looking longer term now in all but manages. I still would not be surprised to see Conte in charge next season. The media have been at him since before he started and I'd like to see the club wee on their fireworks.