The Skipper

It's Emenalo's fault.

Can't even lie, I've fallen asleep at SB before but I was just very tired.

4 in 4 right?

It was a fantastic finish, very underrated goal that.

He's clearly still trying to adapt to the league but I can't say I'm surprised with his performances in general. He's a good squad player, that's all he'll ever be here. Said that from the start. Signing Pedro was never the real solution, but he's a decent bridge at the very least, for maybe one of our youth players or maybe to allow us to bide some time and get a proper quality player in the AM strata.

It was a decent performance, there was no need for us to even leave second gear. We were creating chances, could've comfortably been 3 or more from us. Delighted for RLC. I did say that Guus will bring on the youngsters later. Glad he did. We need to keep building the momentum.

Yup, can't disagree. It's just how we operate here though. I have stopped hoping/expecting that any youngster will get given meaningful minutes, if that does happen it'll just be a pleasant surprise to me.

I understand what Hiddink's trying to do. He wants our first team XI to catch good form. Build on the momentum. If we perform well then some youngsters will definitely get on.

To my knowledge she wasn't actually demoted, she was just removed from the match day bench. Her role remained the same. Or did she actually get demoted? Also so didn't she pretty much leave on her own accord?

Wouldn't you say Didier was one of our talismen back then as wel though?

That's a fair argument which I completely understand. I also know that he's vilified all the time at the ground, from the discussions I've had myself at the Bridge with fellow fans. I'm not an Emenalo fan per se, I just think that the criticism he gets is misplaced anger, fans are looking for someone to blame and it falls on him. Not saying he isn't blameless, but some will have you think that we're in the predicament we are now because of Emenalo. Blame Roman for not hiring someone with more prestige.

I genuinely can't be bothered debating with you because it seems that if I disagree with you about something that I'm not Chels. Sounds familiar.

He's only been technical director for 5 managers, two of them were interim and arguably none of them deserved to stay on as manager. Don't see why he's Teflon for that, he's been criticised in his role from day one. I don't think you're insinuating that he's been influential in those sackings. If so, how has he? Open question to the Emenalo detractors here: Apart from not having the relevant experiences, and not being Chels, what else has Emenalo done so badly in his role here? Please don't bring up this summer's transfer window either - you genuinely can't blame him for the club not being able to get in Stones and Pogba. Again, apart from the Papy signing, he (nor Mourinho for that matter) can't really be blamed for the below average summer. That responsibility falls on the board who failed to get those players.

Well, we clearly disagree on what sort of role Emenalo has at the club and it clearly seems like we can't get any sort of compromise on it so yeah, we'll leave that discussion there once again. But before that let me clear up exactly why I think your hatred of Emenalo is completely misdirected. He definitely isn't Roman's sole link to the coach, I don't think it's set up like that. Why exactly is he a twat? What has he done for him to be a twat? Emenalo didn't just rock up as technical director at the club either, he's not some JCL. He's been here since 2007 - he's worked his way up in that regards. Why that's not fair for you I don't understand. He hasn't done a bad job IMO for what I think his role is either. To me, Emenalo isn't the problem. Restructuring of the club needs to start at a higher level. So that includes the likes of Tenenbaum, Bruce Buck, Marina etc. Those are the people we need to look at. Those are the people that are the closest to Roman. They're on the board. They're the ones that run the club, not Emenalo. I agree that I'd like to see someone proper Chels involved but the role you're describing is not what Emenalo does. Emenalo assists the manager in finding players, essentially heads the scouting team and oversees the youth academy with the manager and the head of youth development, Neil Bath. It seems to me that you're directing your anger at the wrong person.

You seem to confuse Emenalo's role greatly, CL11 cleared it up for you again (after I did before as well). You seem to think that his role is one of a director of football but he's a technical director. There's a massive difference. We're not having this discussion again, it's pointless. You're asking me whether he'd work well with Rodgers, which is stupid. I think he worked well with Mourinho (especially last season), so I don't see why he wouldn't with Pep or Simeone. There's no evidence suggesting he wouldn't.

Emenalo works with the manager, not the other way around. So in a sense he's there to assist the manager. He's really not that influential. Could Mike be a coach? Who knows? I'm not sure what that adds to the discussion though, we're not talking about Emenalo here.

I don't know, that's easy to say in hindsight. You have to credit Pep for taking the likes of Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol etc. to the next level. They were just talents at the time. Yeah, Messi is definitely a once in a lifetime talent but you have to again give some credit to Pep for nurturing him into the star he is today. Barcelona were definitely on the wane when he took over. Pep, or Simeone would both be great options because they both have strong philosophies. They're very different though. It's up to the club to see what way we want to go. I'd be happy with either tbh. I think Simeone is a lot more difficult to prize away because that Atletico team is full of young talent.

None of our new school legends have any coaching experience though tbh. The closest one I can think of is Zola.

Xavi, Iniesta, Messi etc. were nowhere near the level they were at their peak. They had great talent but a lot of their players didn't realise it at all. He has to be given credit for providing the platform that allowed those three to turn into absolute superstars. It wasn't easy either - he had to make difficult decisions i.e. getting shot of Ronaldinho, Eto'o and more. A lot of people downplay Pep's work at Barcelona due to the end product that he left there, saying that it was easy... It's actually quite the contrary. The ingredients were there indeed but it took a master chef in Pep to add to that, cook up the perfect meal, to put them together in the most perfect way. That's not easy. Similarly, we have some really good ingredients here. We need to add to that. We need a great master chef to put it together. I don't think we're too much of a project for Pep - as I said before, if anything, the fact that he can come here and put his own imprint onto the squad - an imprint the club seems to want to implement - is good. He has a blanker canvas than he'd have at City or United.

Hey. Just because he's done that once doesn't mean he'd do it again. Barcelona's project back when he took over was in no means easy. Unfaur to to say it's "too much of a project".

Is this meant to be a comment against me or? We've already had a similar discussion on this, CL11 just reinforced exactly what I was telling you.

@Chelsea Legend 11 @Ossie the King moved your discussion into this thread chaps.

He might feel that at CFC he has more of a blank canvas than City or United? Maybe that'll interest him more than others. Who knows.

@Chelsea Legend 11, absolutely spot on in your posts chap. I tried to have this discussion with OTK before - how we need to look at implementing a philosophy at the club and all I got is how it was Emenalo's job to do that when its pretty clear that that isn't his role and that it's something above him, something the board needs to look to improve.

I was actually one of the people against Pedro's signing because I knew he wouldn't take us to the next level as some thought but I'm pleased now because he's actually a valuable squad player at the least.