Vegetable

Raphinia, frick me, hadn't see this crap in a long time. And Sancho, another busted internet wonderkid we supposedly absolutely needed, until he didn't live up to half of what was expected from him. Maybe we should throw like 60 million to bring Kenedy back, it may be his time now. And doubt Musiala thing has any truth to it - he quite deliberately left us and seems to feel good in Bayern, like he wouldn't ever here, so why come back?

Yeah, sure, that would be the only game he'd look like total beast or even score, the Chelsea way 😂

…8 of which no one has ever heard of and we will actually get them for a hefty sum? 👀

I know it's "just" Luton, but when was the last time we scored against less powerful opposition and then actually added something to it instead of dragging the horror for 60+ minutes?

People trash Sterling, yet he does a ton, second coming of Werner. Positive thing is the Tuchel-crosses worked twice already, too bad it's like a year after his departure lol

Fair job Sterling, but need to admit that Luton defenders looked the wrong way and gave him all the space in the world there

Chilwell looks basically distracted today

Is he bad? No. But Sanchez is decent squad player, fit for putting pressure on Kepa who is not quite up to the task himself. He was misplaced from #1 spot in much worse team. Perhaps a gk who will save what is to be saved and concede what is not. But truly impactful keeper will save the unsaveable and that's what makes a difference in top team. Cech, Alisson, DDG or Mendy at their time were impactful players. Remember the boost that entire team got when Mendy went full human concrete wall mode? Jury is still out on him for me still, for now a weird buy and weird class of player to settle on, but he always can suddenly thrive and that's what I wish him to happen. I think the line is crossed long ago anyway; The scrutiny, pressure and half-rightful laugh is out on us since the downfall. Losing the must-win game will make things worse ofc, but winning it will probably go unnoticed. I don't think another blunder will lead to questioning Poch just yet, but getting some confidence is something everyone could use I guess. In Roman times we were elite team with elite players. Now we have an elite reputation, but if you'd take our lineup and call it "Clearlake FC", you wouldn't necessarily expect it to blast through opposition and see a crisis in streak of 5 bad games tbh.

Sometimes I feel ready to believe this is actually what we are aiming for 👀

The West Ham link is up since like a week. If WH is content and player is content with it, for me it's quite a clear sign he isn't really Chelsea level as I doubt our transfer targets are 1:1 exchangeable with WH. Yet people seem unfazed with fact we are levels above the other clubs interested in him…

Was thinking about pretty much this lately; Isn't it more of sign of times as this kind of football is not muh beautiful footy and it's almost a shame for top tier clubs to attempt long shots or longer passes via air as it's so old timey? Top football pretty much went for Klopp-ized tiki-taka, full speed, full press, short passes, trying to walk the ball into net. Much less wastefull though, as you don't really do shots not on target anymore. And very little number of players is allowed to attempt anything outside the system.

I mean, in many cases when people are calling Boehly out I'm first to say "that's the sport" and I'm fine with some stuff suddenly going downhill as there are random things beyond our control. BUT the whole Potter ordeal and how it pushed us back is totally to blame on Boehly or whoever was in charge of this idea. This year I think the idea of not appointing any proven, senior player is bold, but controversial. The whole "fresh start" approach is bold, but controversial. The handling of entire GK situation I find just controversial. Current squad is clearly built with philosophy over instant effect in mind, as clearly we are not buying the best price/quality ratio players out there, rather a lot of those signings is eyebrows-raising. It, of course, may play out great and our board may be genius innovators, but if it won't and we will be hovering around EL place for years to come, one can make solid assumption it's not a mysterious Juju but there are some very particular reasons for it. I don't think Roman had any deal with dark magic - he had completely different way of handling business, different approach to football and completely different mentality and expectations. But it's possible it was like with Mourinho - it worked at the right time, but would it work indefinitely? I'm not sure. btw just noticed the profile pic, love it 😂

Yes and no. Sounds like Potter time chant, but truth is, while some people are childishly entitled, you cannot spend nearly billion or so in short time and not be held accountable for result. If you want to play the "future", developing cooking exciting talent potential success will come in 5 seasons game, you can do this via purely academy players for nearly free and in more satisfying way. There never was and isn't a reason for us to go mid-table route yet still we seem to entertain it.

Paying 130 million for one season wonder kid by a club you can't say no to, but doesn't suit your skillset for a smallest shit, what could go wrong? At least we do more sensible business, oh wait.

I remember people coming to understand that balling in Eredivisie hardly translates to playing football at top level, yet we are at it again, even freshly after bit anticlimactic experience with Noni. The Chelsea way.

I prefer not to think what kind of pickle we will be in, if the club won't manage to ship him off this window. The fun thing about people seeing him genuinely useful (being stuck with him is different story) is that they seem to have forgotten that he actually had spent a season here, under one of the best manager we have had and not much came of it. Why would anything change after all that shithousery and him not delivering in Serie A after that, I have no idea.

KK and Auba seemed like smart business in theory tbh. Meanwhile rest were screaming wtf all over them. Either it was forced by first/second choice players not willing to come (Fofana) or the substitution of football people with "data driven approach". Jorghi always had great stats, but it hardly translated to anything, so it may be this to some extent…

Doubt we will play more than 1 forward, so honestly, if Jackson won't drop his form from Spain but rather build on it, I wouldn't look for another mediocre attacker for sake of it. Nkuku showed some great signs, Broja is still around. Lukaku is still in the club, for better or worse. He may stay or be exchanged for someone. Having ten players for every spot was exactly the trouble that demotivated Potter's team and what Lampard was pointing as the reason why our mentality gone to the gutter. We are slowly going into ridiculous "we need one more player and will come good" circle. We "only just" needed Enzo, now a striker, but then we will only need a keeper, then a winger and so on. Clearly something is not clicking as a whole, rather than individual talent. No good, complete products on the market now, so maybe just try to do with what we have, as we have quite plenty.

I admire how much of diplomat Poch manages to be in this whole mess. However he will probably need to emphasize his points when time comes, as his call for "experienced players" was already misinterpreted by the club as "please buy another 15 Brasilian children".

Not going to trash the guy as everything was said since day one he came here. Where are we gonna go from here? He clearly has limitations, but question is whether team/Poch is capable of making use of him, namely things he does good, eg speed and physicality, in bigger scheme of things or he is going to play whatever position he is playing and we are going to delude ourselves that he is the new Hazard and get frustrated every time life proves he isn't. If we won't manage to shift him this window I fully expect him going on spiritual trip to Tibet and coming back loving Chelsea again and willing to work and conquer the league. Freezing Mbappe out by PSG lasted whole one game, doubt either we and Lukaku can afford him being on gardening leave for long. He has terrible way of presenting himself to the world and seems to give up very easily, but if had he regained some motivation maybe we could at least try to use his size and deflect the ball of him or whatever.

Don't know what to think about this tbh. I feel like most of us want to believe something that his hardly possible, yet we still fool ourselves and hope it will happen anyway. We have a team built practically from scratch, based on young, often overpaid players from mid-table clubs and leagues way below PL level. The potential is huge, but potential is just potential. Skill-wise, sometimes it's hardly an improvement over what we had (Mudryk, Madueke anyone?). We all want them to magically hit the ground running, but realistically thinking, it may take a while and will take a lot of work and Poch's headache to get this stuff going. So starting from here, we actually play some decent football sometimes, but I'll say it again, there will be a lot of such games. A lot of dumb errors or the PK situation is a proof why some experienced players could be of use here. What worries me more, than result itself is that once again we seem reliant on James and Nkuku and that's not a good sign. Don't know if Caicedo critique is serious or just a casual trash-talk banter, but yeah, we overpaid, like, twice for him and that's how it is. It's quite possible that him and Enzo are not the goat players who will win silverware on their own, as some people, calling for us to pay freaking billion for them, were claiming. A lot of work and stepping up to do here.

We are all aware there is a lot of such shitty, frustrating games coming this season, right?

Still, we are back to square one. Need to quickly get our stuff together as it looks shaky at least so far

I love when reality does exactly opposite thing people here say, every time 😂

Should I really say again I'm not much sold on third-choice Brighton GK to be Chelsea first choice GK? To make matters funnier, it was this kind of goal that Kepa could save with some crazy intervention.