Blue Armour

Youngest squad in the league. It's par for the course. I don't get the calls for Poch out. The clowns up top are not going to bring in someone better. If they do, it will be a repeat of last season with the team sinking well into another relegation battle. I said at the start of the season these guys are going to pull the rug out from under Poch's feet with their squad building

United are only 6 points behind City atm. Maybe our opponents deserve a little more respect, considering where Chelsea is atm.

Tottenham have a player like Son up front, and a settled squad. Who do we have up front? And why is our squad the way it is now? I am not going to change my tune. ALL our problems stem from the top. Unless they change their strategy its going to be dire straits without end.

The thing about Caicedo - you can't really blame him. He is super young. If anything fingers need to be pointed by the recruiting team that shelved a huge amount for just one player. Both Enzo and Caicedo are among the youngest in the squad and are entrusted with the most critical roles on the pitch, in central midfield. If either of them are off their game, the team is punished for it. Can they grow by just learning from each other, and with no experienced head in central midfield to learn from? I don't know. And if they don't, they are just going to be chastised for it. And say one of them eventually improves, are they going to stick around in a team that doesn't challenge for anything? The club could become just a feeder for another team that does.

Sure feels that way. Dreading what happens when the only remaining quality senior players move on. Are they going to be replaced by more Sanchez and Disasi type players?

Just dont understand whats the point in hoarding so many kids if they have no quality experienced players to play with and learn from. And these aren't low price acquisitions. I mean do these morons think that the name of the football club will magically turn the players into something bigger? Not every youngster is a Jimmy Greaves type

If Poch really wants to experiment with crazy formations, he should just play James and Gusto as RW and RB, or even RWB and RCB. Get more defensive solidarity and some real attacking threat on one wing at least. Not this nonsense of Cucurella playing at RB and Colwill at LB.

Called it. Poch is waiting for the easiest fixture. He'll probably get minutes in the Sheffield game.

It likely all about improvement metrics to the clubs new directors. First take the team to such a sorry state, and then show how much the team has 'improved' in the following seasons.

And he's also only 19 years old. Yes, the cornerstone of any great PL side. Lmao.

We won't know for sure until Lavia returns, because he's the only real DM in the squad

That's the problem - the deadwood may have all had to go. But all at once? I just hate how impulsive the new ownership is They're so eager to tear things up so quickly. I know there are cases where you need to rip the bandaid off, but was there really such a need for haste in Chelsea's case? It was a top 3 team, and not one with ageing pensioners. IMO, after losing Jorgino, they should have tried to retain at least one of Kovacic or Kante for midfield experience. There is just too much pressure on the likes of Enzo and Caicedo to deliver. To think that they were ready to ship Gallagher too (average he may be). That's just how much they are prepared to gamble.

Unfortunately, experience counts for little according to the new management. They just saw $$ signs in savings and transfer fees and shipped out half the squad. Fans were also thrilled because we shipped out 'trash'. Did the trash screw up last season? Did it have anything to do with chopping and changing managers and putting in mediocre managers in place? Hell no. And NOW apparently the manager, and Poch, is the problem

Don't think we'll see Nkunku in this game either. Poch is waiting for the weakest fixture possible to introduce him.

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.