Mhsc

One insane moment but other than that today has been his best performance for us by far Statistically the worst goalkeeper in the league I believe and in general has been very unimpressive at positioning and shot stopping - but today he is doing much better, aside from the big flap. Hopefully he can keep it up. Unfortunately his shot stopping is very poor so we need to find a way to starve them of clean chances.

Insane we can sit 1pt behind 3rd if we win League has been bizarre this year, like a competition to be the most shit, except for Liverpool

Who are we loaning Nkunku to next year then? Can a German side afford to cover 50% of his wages?

Yeah, supposed to be our established player with a bunch of insane qualities including being a huge goal threat, but we get better performances out of youth players on the regular

Raheem is so bad man Can't believe that fraud is coming back to us in summer Straight back into the bomb squad and probably a loan deal to Palace where we cover 75% of his wages -.-

Painful to look at the XI honestly. A non league goalkeeper, two right backs and some midfielder or another playing as a 9. This could be a really long and painful watch.

That's been a speciality of ours for about 10 years now, always helping out of form teams turn it around :(

Unfortunately he is - as bad as Sanchez is. We have maybe the two worst goalkeepers in the league.

Jorg in goal again... I feel sick

Also, I hope Sanchez is back today - despite everything. Seriously concerned about Jorg - feels like close to forfeiting to play him again.

There is no point in working on strategies that require Reece James He is semi retired and plays a few minutes for us here and there through a season, not a serious player

Yes agreed on all points - for FFP reasons they wouldn't have done it (or been able to do it) without that loophole at the time. And it has been a shambles. My only disagreement is with this idea that they're running the club "just for money" - I mean, its true in the sense that every business is run for money - but this is a far cry from situations at Spurs or Brighton where results are of no interest to the club and ultimately its about staying in PL and flipping players for profit for the owner. They're trying to build a sustainable long term football club that doesn't depend on a sugar daddy owner to inject cash every year - and they've got a vision to make that happen that involves us being a top team that compete and win things, in my opinion. They've just done a fucking shocking job at making it happen and pissed most of the money away and now it is looking quite tough to turn into a reality - without more spending but the pockets are running empty now, and even if they weren't we know they will just misspend 80% of it.

Haha, agree to disagree then. If it is fan appeasement they're trying for they're certainly doing a poor job! I think they were all bought out of desperation to turn around results. We were trying to save Potter's reign for the Enzo signing and instead of walking away when we got quoted silly money we just went for it - because they thought it might turn the season around. Turned out to do fuck all. I think they really do care about results and trying to have us compete (even if only because winning and being in CL, getting to finals etc all generate revenue and increase brand value) - and are no doubt embarrassed at what a shit job they've done, and how much money they've wasted. Now all of the money that was available to invest has been burnt through and the additional cash injected has largely spent on a bunch of dross We've actually bought a bunch of players since they took over that will only realistically ever be sold at a loss - Fofana, Caicedo, Enzo, Mudryk, Sterling, Pedro Neto, Sanchez, etc etc etc etc They've just spent really badly and many of the "established" players they bought were horrendous duds and have over corrected in the other direction imo Hopefully over the long term we can find a happy medium as they get more experience in "soccer"...

I don't buy that tbh. Wouldn't have spent £100m on Caicedo and Enzo if that was the objective - we'd have a cap to never spend more than £40m or something on players who's value could double or triple - and basically just clone Brighton's approach entirely The sad thing is there IS a project here, that is ultimately about trying to build and run a long term sustainable top club that competes on all fronts. The execution of that project has been quite shameful, but I think the intent is very clear.

Form comes and goes! Or in their case, it just goes

It might feel that way but when you really think about it we are miles ahead! I mean just look at the table and their general situation - genuinely not impossible they'll get relegated Probably the single worst run club in the world Now its not much to say we are doing better than the single worst run club in the world, but I look for what little victories I can :')

As depressing as things are the last couple of months, when you look at the situation at Man Utd, things kinda don't look so bad here.

In general I agree - but I think really it should be a decision for a new set of sporting directors. In general the flow of events that are needed in my mind would be something roughly like: 1. the directors immediately get fired, and go into a retirement as literally no one would hire them after this shambles - fucking disgraceful what they've done with huge amounts of their employers money, found some good gems but with a hit rate of like 20%. 2. the owners, accepting finally that they have really cocked this up and have no idea how to build a squad, take a bit of a step back, finding more established directors who have accomplished a lot more than recruitment at Brighton, and agree on a new shared vision for them to implement - which can still build on the current vision, with some practical reality mixed in: even if the team will be overall youthful, bring more experience and leadership into the squad etc 3. the new directors decide whether we are keeping Maresca or for how long he gets a chance. In my opinion, he should probably get until Jan - after a summer of making a few key signings, let him show what he can do with a squad without fraud goalkeepers and CBs etc (and finally sign a striker to compete with NJ)

He has always said there was no specific target for this year about getting it And that we were performing way ahead of expectations sooner than expected and that people shouldn't get carried away

Tuchel sacked when we were 6th in the league and playing basically exactly the same as we did recently under Maresca. Totally toothless attack and looked completely out of ideas. We were really dreadful towards the end with Tuchel... REALLY dreadful. Most of these managers would never agree to work here under the current regime / strategy (indeed I'm sure several will have rejected us already - Nagelsmann famously did). From the whole list maybe Emery is the only one who is both realistic and could be argued would be better than Maresca - although Arsenal fans would disagree, as they thought he was absolutely terrible in his stint there and couldn't wait to get rid. And for sure, if we sack Maresca and hire any of them - in less than 12 months they're considered terrible, and should be sacked. And another list of the obvious better names we should have got can be produced. Just a cycle of doom. I'm bored of it. We've had almost every top manager going and they got sacked because we figured out they "were shit" - maybe its time we looked at the rest of the club and fixed that first.

I am here 100% saying the board should go my man They have done a shit job with endless decisions, endless money wasted Personally think Maresca is the best of the managers we've had since Tuchel and no one out there is any better - that will want to work here - while we have this situation with the directors, and the strategy for the club. They know what will happen to them - the same shit will happen on the field, they'll get blamed, and be out. If we sack him because - somehow - we've got one of the world's elite managers willing to come here, and the strategy is changing and the directors are all being replaced - great. But otherwise, we may as well just stick with him - he is in my opinion the least of our problems.

All terrible footballers and good decisions from Maresca. What's your point?

Players in the squad that are definitely good enough to play for Chelsea FC: Cole Palmer Caicedo That's it. Every other player has a big question mark over them (hit or miss) or is just outright obviously bad No wonder this GK has barely played - dreadful. Like playing an outfield player in goal - no goalkeeping skills whatsoever, genuinely rather have Sanchez back Directors need to go for sure Personally think Maresca can do a good job if they stop sabotaging him, but understand why others would want him gone - just be careful what you wish for, it wont get any better with any manager that will come here.

Bring Sanchez back

Injury recovery presumably