Vegetable

Well, if I had to choose between Potter, Poch and Mou… 😶 Pointless talk anyway, as Mou is the opposite of the yes-man. We'd be as horrible as now, but he'd tear into the players, club and the bs vision from the get go.

Time to call our old fella Eto'o then. But on a serious note, while I'm afraid Benzema may repeat Higuain story, it's still an optimistic sign someone at the club decided (and enforced) to proactively act, instead of pushing for 67 12yo Brasilians and clearing some Brighton's third squad this window again, aka. the vision.

Boehly was criticized for micromanaging the club without proper structure, but the structure he installed still prioritizes what owners fancy before what they should do. DOF only works within the frame of infamous vision that isn't his own and that's how we come to funny conclusion - ever since the takeover, we are hitting our heads straight into the wall, because this club is dead fixed on owner's quite uniqe VISION, that however has zero backing in data, history and experience that it has any chance to have any sort of successful outcome on this level. And they refuse to do any reality check on it for like 10 years. Club's strategy usually comes mostly from footballing staff, not solely the owners. Can't believe experienced people yes-manned Boehly and co with "yeah sure dudes, bold move but it will 100% work, genius"

So, player was outhright bad, then went onto a very good yet short spell in less competitive circumstances. Statistically, this gamble had flop written all over, would be a miracle if he went to continue to rock the world like five levels higher up. If stars align, such players have potential to develop into decent players, given a lot of time and work (hardly possible luxuries on not-so-long-ago Chelsea level). It would be all fine and very common occurrence, if only hadn't we relied on such player as freaking first choice striker. This club became a joke, can't blame the guy.

Waste of energy to whine here I'm afraid; Let alone the weird move of hiring THE Tottenham man, that went surprisingly smooth with our fanbase, I said it before and will say it again – TB instead of making the leap forward after taking over, made 10 steps back with Potter and another 7 steps back with this shot-in-the-dark rebuild. Besides everything else, the appointment of Poch instead of, say, Nags (who probably f**d away asap after hearing about the rebuild plan) itself was a signal to tame our ambition even further. He wasn't serial winner, he wasn't a mastermind, not even just a winner. He is nice, decent, presentable and likeable man, as mid of a manager as one can be and those who thought otherwise and expected him to go full Mourinho with army of random U14 Brasilians and 4x overpaid Brighton reserves, given he didn't with freaking PSG, were just delusional (or clinical optimists, I'll give You guys that). The thing that worries me however is that there may be no red line drawn, where the board will admit it doesn't work and act accordingly, as we have painfully learnt with Potter ordeal. They don't care about detrimental consequences of spending big and not qualifying into Europe, as they wouldn't know that Fifa will not bat an eye on fiscal creativity of City or PSG, but they will go ballistic on us, hand in hand with British govt, who may still feel the pain in their back hearing the sole name of Chelsea for whatever reason. The issue however is, that I, personally, had no problem with us being dire under Mou, Sarri or Tuchel, because this team was exciting and atmosphere around it - the players, the board, the manager's personality - made fans be fine with bad times and bad decisions. No such thing since the takeover, unfortunately, we are just terrible and uninteresting. And on the way to become mid-table for years to come, with full acceptance of the board.

Not gonna comment on class of our supposed targets and our ruthless negotiations with Portugese clubs, but how the hell would that be supposed to work? Isn't the whole point of release clause, like, releasing the player?

I don't really like the idea due to tradition reasons, but make me wonder why did top English and Spanish clubs backed off so quickly and shamefully on previous attempt. It was obvious FIFA/UEFA got angry, but they gotten angry because they were terrified. It was obvious from the start they can't do shit with their threats from law standpoint, but also practical one – yeah, even if they could ban anyone, good luck with your tiny little football without Real, United, PSG, us and whoever else.

Not like Felix was killing it in Atleti in the first place, so I wonder what's the "concern", since they've loaned him out to rebuild. Never really lived up to that crazy pricetag and the absolute goat of wonderkid ever hype, not the first one, not last one, seemingly very likeable guy though.

Lukaku scored 4 in 45 mins, the king is cooking. 👀

Not totally ordinary game, but when was the last time any of out players actually scored 3 goals in one game? Must have been years.

I love this board; "Jackson is shit of useless player", 30 minutes later, Jackson on hattrick. We need to jinx more.

Meanwhile we did sign the best striker and defender from Italy for well over 100, I won't get into further details 😆 Maybe so, maybe no. Mou kinda invented the "ugly football" that many people criticize Tuchel for (and prefer Potter due to it, lol), and then almost got relegated, yet I don't regret he was our manager for all those stints. Hard to judge as Mou and Ancelotti had the peak Chelsea at their disposal, both squad and corporate wise, without City or Pool being ridiculously overpowered teams. Meanwhile Tuchel assembled the "cup team" from pretty much variety parts bin in eternal crisis, good enough for me. Potter thing aside, I have hard time believing that, with due respect, Poch will at least match this run anytime soon.

Tuchel is having loud howlers with Bayern, but they aren't doing bad and their situation only proves our very own case, more than his inability - you can't have a winning machine, if the club is a dumpster fire behind the scenes, yet to a smaller extent. No manager have 100% win cheat code, yet Tuchel: - Is an elite tactician and elite is something that Chelsea sorely lacks. - Is a proactive coach, and proactivity is something that Chelsea sorely lacks. - Actually cares, that is something that Chelsea sorely lacks. - Proven himself in Chelsea wasteland, where even most talented men turn absolute crap. Cut the „I know why he was let go but I won't tell” bs. If there was any kind of abuse or misdemeanor, just call it out as sweeping such things under the rug doesn't make you look very good tbh. And if not, just piss off and admit you fired the best man for the job we could come upon for some superficial reasons. There was talk that TT wasn't interested in recruitment and it was no-go for the owner, but just look at Kepa situation or 3473947 random Brazilian kids and tell me Poch had any say with it. I won't believe, no matter what circumstances, the club would do any worse under Tuchel, than it did with Potter or is doing now. And the „he wouldn't provide long-term success” - like, what do you mean? He does the best he can with resources he has. He won freaking CL. Building for long-term is more on the club than it is on the manager as we can witness right here and right now.

Yep

Musiala's camp with classic „Premier League is most exciting league in the world” spiel. Like lol, mate, not like you weren't in this exact freaking Premier League before you jumped to Bayern, claiming you'd prefer to live in Germany after all.

I'm not even mad. He is 2nd or 3rd choice Brighton goalkeeper. It is just what it says on the tin. Do not blame the guy, blame the board. I don't even think Poch approved this move really, given his previous comments. It looks like we tried to bribe Brighton to sell us Caicedo, as this kind of player would have hard time to come here, given there is no horrid injury to our GK roster or something. Thing is, that shaky or okay-ish gk with occasional patches of overperformance is just not good enough on Chelsea level. I think the club have binned Mendy for pretty much this rason.

Legend, what else can you say? Imagine he could be even greater, if he had actually pushed for it.

Scenes at Genoa vs Milan, Pulisic scores a late winner, Maignan sent off, Giroud plays gk, ends up with a nice save

Nice, our defense made Burnley look like prime Barca.

I do respect and even somewhat like Gallagher, but it feels like the Captain's armband doesn't mean much in this team and that's quite telling.

Btw was there Brighton among those clubs by any chance?

There's non-zero chance it may be "don't have your own ideas or you're gone" as well, as per Vivell thing. Makelele perhaps wasn't the top man in his position, but had the club appointed anyone better? Would it make sense, with all that "process needs time" thing to replace executive people all the time? On the other hand, those 3 appointments are in areas where club's situation is dire, so we will see.

If only something called raging inflation existed, they'd probably find out why the deal matches Three, despite being 5 games shorter…

He knows it won't happen, point is, he dares to be vocal about it and that is what matters. Even Mou had to resort to "I prefer not to speak" back in the day, but now, if not a single troublemaker but numerous top managers will speak up that it's unacceptable, the issue will not be fixed by banning them for 3 games and handing out fines. The real pressure is mounting this way. I guess similar thing is going on behind the scenes by owners of clubs.

Sterling could as well go sit deeper, as he isn't even participating in this game where he is.