Blue Armour

Know Didier Deschamps, he'll be licking his lips in anticipation.

Yes the previous regime has a lot to answer for. Still can't get over how we let both Rudiger's and Christensens contract run down like that. And I really hope a new DOF and a couple of transfer windows can fix the mess we are in currently, but I fear we'll be in an even bigger mess if we fail to finish top 4 this season. If this window has been any indication, we will find it even harder to attract talent. If we fail to win the next league game and the next CL game, I'll be almost ready to write this season off. At that point its going to be a massive ask of Potter to steady the ship. And yes, Koulibaly is looking to be the biggest dud so far. But to be fair, not too many people thought he would be this horrendous. Ideally, I would have liked to sign Skriniar, and kept Koulibaly for rotation. For Silva. But 37 year old Silva seems far superior, FFS. Instead of solidifying the back line and linking well with Mendy he's gone kamikaze. I still hope his nerves settle and he can regain his reputation as a commanding CB., but for now the signs don't look. And agree about your assessment about Fofana. Physically Chalobah is better than both, but he still has mistakes in him.

Based on current form I agree. More than the turgid attack I'm concerned about our inability to keep clean sheets. I think today the oddball combination of Silva and Azpi in the center let Potter down. Just hoping he finds a better solution for the next game. But hey, Kante's back next month probably. So he might end up masking our deficiencies again.

Despite the current state of the team, I agree. If we win at least one of the legs against Milan, and at least draw the other one, I would fancy our chances to finish second.

For Potter's sake I hope this team gets him a win in the next match. Else we'll fall into a rut that I think he'll struggle to get us out of. His decision to go with back 4 was bold, but the choice to go with 2 ageing CBs (even if Silva is the best of all our CBs) was a bit weird Of course, the downside of a back 4 is that our wingbacks are no longer as aggressive as they used to be. Looking at James here. And Cucurella needs to be benched.

We lost Abramovich? Face it. There are a lot of questions about the current Chelsea. Its no surprise that we failed so miserably to attract first choice targets. There will be doubts about the clubs ambition, with the new regime taking over. Its absolutely imperative we finish in the top 4 in their first season to show that we still have the same edge. And this is why I did not want the added doubt of Potter replacing Tuchel, especially so soon.. It just adds to the list uncertainties.

Have to say., it is refreshing to to have club owners that at least openly speak about the decision making process. And while it's questionable, it will be interesting to see how Chelsea fares with a different approach. The old regime was purely driven by results first. While I'm not keen to see the club transform into another Arsenal, I'm interested in seeing how this vision plays out in the long term. I only hope they don't let the club become a lackluster destination like Arsenal has become. For that, the team needs to keep challenging at the highest levels in a consistent manner., even if not outright winning trophies every time.

Still possible he might change it for Chelsea and based on the opposition, right? But yes,...it's likely that Potter will stick with something familiar to the team

Tbf...if Koulibaly got a 5 yr contract, Kante deserves it even more. But agreed, club needs to be more careful about these things. Kantes injury record is becoming a real problem, and this season its happened even before we started playing games in midweek with him.

Hope Turbo Timo can put in a good word. He might have disagreed with Tuchel, but I'm sure he appreciated how the stadium going fans had his back even when he went through tough times.

The irony is that from a logistics standpoint, it might have more sense to cancel next weekends game instead of this one.

There are differences though. I know Moyes did well with Everton in terms of results (and his teams also punched above their weight at Goodison), but I don't recall anything remarkable about his style of play or tactics. That's not the case with Potter. Also, he had really big shoes to fill with regards to the departing Ferguson. It must have been a steep drop in quality for the players, in terms of coaching experience. It remains to be seen how Potter can handle a squad of big names, but I hope his genial personality will help him there. The only other question is his ability to manage in Europe, but we'll find that out soon enough.

It works two ways. There would be probably only 1 or 2 elite managers to choose from if they keep disregarding every manager that has had at least one high profile failure.

One thing I'm going to miss about Tuchel was his ability to raise the mentality of the squad for the big games (esp the cup ones). Went toe to toe with Liverpool, beat City 3 times in a row in his first season in charge., made it to the finals of nearly all cup games., that too without any real big game player. Definitely the best I've seen from Chelsea in that regard ever since Contes first season.

To me, the more annoying thing is the shitty international break coming up in a season where we already have a farce of a world cup tournament in the middle. If for some reason next weekends football is also untenable, then we'll have to wait until October for the next club game because of FIFA and their shenanigans.

He seems to have a very genial personality, and I hope that can go a long way towards him winning the dressing room (and not making any enemies of course). AVB (and Lampard in his 2nd season) supposedly became very irritable and overbearing towards the ends of their tenures, creating a fractured dressing room. Hope that is not the case with Potter.

Lampard deserves a lot of credit here. He brought in Thiago Silva, and also integrated James and Mount

Nail on the head. We've seen the kind of shite Arsenal, Spurs and United have gone through with the appointment of lesser name coaches., setting those clubs back for years. The fact is we sacked a tried and tested coach after the first few signs of trouble, despite being in a salvageable position. Hopefully Potter has at least the same impact Pochettino had on Spurs, and keeps us in top 4 contention.

The Ronaldo situation is a bit ridiculous if true. An owner pushing a player on a coach who doesn't want him is exactly the sort of thing you don't want to see.

Hmm, maybe..but with Lampards case we were in the midpoint of the season, well outside course for top 4, and it was a matter of sink or swim. There's no way you could guarantee to me that Tuchel would have finished outside of top 4 from this point in the season. We're 5th at the moment, barely 5 games in and with a lot unintegrated signings. To me, going from Tuchel to Potter is an even riskier decision., than just keeping him. Especially at this stage. Nonetheless, hopefully the extra time he is getting with the squad will help, like you said.

Hope all the key players give him a chance. Don't want another fractured dressing room like the Lampard and AVB days. It's probably fractured with Tuchel at the moment anyway, so hopefully it can't get worse. When he starts benching a few big names (which we he will definitely have to at some point), the results also have to be strong if he has to survive.

Hope Potter, if he joins, doesn't turn into another Ragnick or AVB type appointment. Coaches with good reputations as tacticians, but with no experience managing big players.

I will admit though, while the sacking of Tuchel is questionable, the fact that Boehly is approaching Potter first, instead of more 'obvious' options, indicates that he is very observant of the game and not a complete novice like the pundits make him out to be. Either him or whoever is advising him.

Ultimately Tuchel's sacking lies at the feet of the owner. And that's where my argument stems from. Boehly got a lot of leeway this transfer window (rightfully so), because he still hasn't had time to establish a structure. That's why even his seemingly scattergun approach to transfers is forgivable (even if questionable), and he has got a lot of slack from fans. His decision making until this point at least seemed have reasoning behind it, and that's why any questions have been largely brushed aside. That said, I'm seeing a similar level of trust in Boehly even with regards to this decision as well. A decision that seems to have been premeditated upon a long time ago. For me, this decision is questionable. Who knows. Maybe it works out. For the club at least, I hope so.

Tit for tat. I'm not accusing you specifically anywhere in my post., so I'm not sure why you got offended. If my post seemed otherwise to you, I apologize. You said you were surprised about people clamoring for Tuchel., I just flipped that argument and said that I'm surprised about how Boehly gets leeway, instead. There's an obvious connection there. But I guess it's not that obvious to some.