Blue Armour

Hard to imagine it's been only two years.. Feels like a lifetime ago. But hey...according to Eghbali, the club wasn't doing enough from a sporting perspective. So here we are.

"“We thought Chelsea [was] frankly an asset, a business that was not terribly well managed on the football side, sporting side or promotional side" ~ Behdad Eghbali Sheer arrogance. I always go back to this quote when the team is in the mud these days. Eat humble pie.

That's just not true. Avg age of Newcastle squad - 26.9 ( 3rd oldest squad in the league) Avge age of Chelsea squad - 23.8 (youngest in the PL) Source: https://www.transfermarkt.us/premier-league/altersschnitt/wettbewerb/GB1 We have the youngest PL squad, and one of the cheapest, and the bozos in charge have fooled our fans into thinking the team are some sort of world beaters. Absolute farce.

Now the 22 odd trophies are a memory and we have a bunch of 22 yr-old's filling up the squad.

No I don't want Poch to leave Because these clowns in the admin are going to bring in another Lampard or Potter as coach To everyone who was was whooping in joy at how we mass cleared out half our squad, leaving us with near 0 experience in central midfield. Great. This is exactly what we have. A reduced wage bill, and near 0 game management experience. This is why we are struggling and will continue to struggle for the rest of the season. Some good matches and performances here and there, but also accompanied by a series of terrible results. Perfectly fine for midtable. But not enough for Europe.

Poch probably looking at the easiest fixtures for Nkunku to make his debut. Doubt we'll seem him against Everton on Sunday.,either

Might as well played another 45. They are going overboard with these extended injury time periods. Also how petulant are these Brighton players? Bird shit attitude. Because of these sore losers and their manager, they're one of my most hated teams in the league.

But should it be shocking., though? I'll admit that both James and Silva being major culprits in this game was super disappointing. But at the same time, I dont think any of us should be too astonished or be too negative about this game. With the young, largely inexperienced squad that we assembled at the start of this season., it was always going to be a case of ups and downs. Some nice performances in between., and some equally embarrassing ones. 8th is the min target for this squad, with Europa league or higher being the moonshot. Hopefully with a returning Nkunku., it becomes more likely than a moonshot. Right now the performances are perfectly resulting in midtable position, so not too far from the target, with nearly all the tough games out of the way for the first half of the season. A lot of people have used Arsenal as a metric for this side. I personally don't like it, but if you were to use that as a metric, Arteta and Arsenal slowly worked up a side that couldn't finish in Europe's conference league spots, and turned it into a top 4 side.

I guess Nkunku will be in the matchday squad for this one.

That's the thing that grates me. So inconsistent between these incompetent refs Whether it's kicking the ball away, or walking up to the ref to discuss an incident, they're so quick to issue a yellow card without even giving the player a verbal warning. And for what? How do these transgressions impact the play? James kicked the ball about 5 feet away from where it was. That's it. All these new 'rules' are just opportunities for the refs to act like pretentious douchebags.

Not really related to lineup alone. We started playing better opposition in the last 3 games with Spurs, City and Newcastle. Our lack of defensive organization is being more exposed. Especially in setpieces.

I only hope that this was the expectation from the board going into the season. I.e. that a 1 billion spend on largely unproven players and moving out experienced squad members, was a calculated move with the understanding that there might be a short term hit to the teams on field performances. All the noise coming from the players camp, such as Enzo, indicate as such. i.e. the players were told its a long term project. But whether this actually meant spending time out of top 6 and outside Europe, is another matter. If they actually had high expectations after this ludicrous spending, then I would really fear for the club under this admin. That's what would put us in trouble with FFP. Not the allegations about past transactions under Roman.

Yep, it's par for the course. The way we broke down after 2-1 was a bit hilarious, but that's the kind of side we are atm. The side that was assembled at the start of the season. With little experience and game management skills. We are good to watch when on song, but this side can easily fall apart. This won't be the last embarrassing match this season. That's a guarantee. The sooner the fans accept this., the less heartache there will be. 8th is still the target for this season. And maybe a push for Europa if Nkunku returns fully fit and on form.

Is this you just being pessimistic right now or is that locomotive really made of metal?

Well we have Gusto. Didn't have James when we beat them 1-0 in the cup competition

No. Gallagher is still under the scanner for me. I've praised him for his last month of games. But today he reverted back to type. He was one of the worst performers to begin with today. Need a captain that actually sets an example.

Oh fuck off. Really immature from James. Screwing us up for the next game too. Poor leadership from the two players that were supposed to lead from the back. James. Silva.

The club is definitely going to be punished. But not to the extent that most people think they are going to be. Certainly not for these allegations from the Roman era.

I see where you're coming from, but at the end of the day, the punishment has to fit the crime. Failing to report finances correctly for FFP, is different from actually falling foul of FFP by a huge margin for a season (for which Everton was, admittedly, a bit unfortunate to fall of in the 21/22 season). In Chelsea's case, there were the reporting irregularities which the current owners self-reported (and got fined by UEFA for and is currently being investigated by the FA/PL), and now recently, the alleged irregularities reported by the Guardian's investigative journalists. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/nov/15/Chelsea-fc-face-new-questions-over-how-roman-abramovich-funded-success Let's assume for argument's sake, that these unproven payments were actually made. How would these be directly linked to Chelsea and it's success? We can review each of the two major ones reported by the Guardian individually, and see there's nothing clear about what the implications are for any of these 'new' allegations: 1. Conte's 2nd season contract extension (AFTER he won a title for us) - "On 18 July 2017, the files show, an Abramovich-owned company called Conibair Holdings, based in the British Virgin Islands (BVIs), signed an agreement with Federico Pastorello, an Italian football agent. The Italian has been described in multiple reports as being close to Antonio Conte, the former Chelsea manager, and has spoken about the manager’s contract negotiations in the media. Conibair agreed to pay Pastorello £10m for a 75% stake in Excellence Investment Fund (EIF), a business based in the US state of Delaware, documents suggest. That same day, Chelsea announced that Conte, who had just guided the club to the Premier League title, had signed a new £9.6m-a-year contract." Pastorello declined to comment on whether the two deals were linked but said: “Antonio Conte is not our client. " Questions to ask here - Is it so easy to prove that the deal with Pastorello has anything to do with Conte, when he himself states Conte is not a client? How does a deal with Pastorello even incentivize Conte to sign an extension (and also a shitty second season to follow, with just one token FA cup). Does that fee, even if proven true to be linked with Conte's extension, necessarily make the club fall foul of FFP? 2. Hazard's agent fee when he first signed for us - "Hazard had joined Chelsea in 2012 for €35m, in a marquee signing that followed fraught negotiations with the player’s agent, John Bico-Penaque, who reportedly wanted a sizeable commission worth about £6m. On 29 March 2013, documents suggest, BVI-based Leiston Holdings, owned by Abramovich, agreed to pay €7m to a Dubai-based company called Gulf Value FZE for “advisory services […] related to […] sport research and consultancy”. The contract was signed on the company’s behalf by Bico-Penaque. It is unclear whether the payment was declared to footballing authorities including the FA and Bico-Penaque did not return requests for comment." This one is a bit hilarious because a bunch of internet Gooners are claiming that Hazard would have joined them if it were not for the agent fees. But the two things to note here - There is no proof whether the payment was already declared for FFP. And even if it wasn't, does that €7m fee actually make Chelsea fall foul of FFP? Hazard was bought for fee less than Torres. Saying that the club failed to report an agent fee and went on to win several titles on the back of Hazard as a result, is as ridiculous as it sounds. I'm not even going to go into the Eto'o & Willian transfer related allegations because it just isn't frankly worth the time. At the end of the day, I will agree with you that I am more worried about Chelsea's recent spending, than the alleged past transgressions. The club could end up in deep trouble like Everton, if all the crazy spending in recent windows is not matched by success on the pitch, and financial success. All it takes is another international level crisis, or a high money signing with a gambling problem for the wheels to come off.

All speculation at this point. Also the club hasn't officially been charged with anything. At this point. The FA regulations for FFP are also believed to be less severe than UEFA's.

This article is a good read: https://www.football.london/Chelsea-fc/news/Chelsea-points-deduction-relegation-truth-28132310 Explains why it's ridiculous to throw Chelsea into the same hat as Everton and City for now, because the club hasn't officially been charged with anything. The fear mongering can wait until something truly materializes.

UEFA has already fined the club 10 million for inadequate financial reporting, after the new owners self-admitted, and have left it at that. I'd be surprised if the PL/FA response is drastically different.

As per the article, UEFA already fined Chelsea 10 million for it in July, and left it at that. You can try and guess what the FA and PL response might be.

Also, probably reading into it too much, but it looked like Kovacic quietly celebrated Palmers penalty goal, if you look at the highlights.😄

Yeah they did. Thankfully Chelsea fans educated them by singing "We've won it all..."