CHOULO19

It's a joke because no one in the world would take a 60% wage cut. It's unheard of. Taking care of him? How charitable of the Chelsea board... Last season, after he played every single minute of every game and was by far the best CB in the league, the 'crocodile' still accepted a wage cut on a one-year only deal. And the vast majority of the fans remember and still very much appreciate his loyalty and dedication to the club.

Yeah, and there are kids in China who get $30 per month making shoes, I'm sure that'll make you happy to take a 60% wage cut on YOUR salary... Obviously it's not money he cares about because he is actually considering this plain disrespectful offer from the club. Not that he needs to make this decision to prove that he actually cares about the club and the fans and not just the money after all he has done and stood for in his time here.

60K/wk is an absolute joke. If true, then the club DID offer him a contract they don't want him to sign. Any other player who doesn't have the relation JT has with the fans and who doesn't care for the fans and the club as much as him would not even think about that offer for 2 seconds. Sigh...

For me the most interesting part in all of that was he finally said 'the club signed Fernando Torres'. He has always maintained that he asked to sign him and that he took responsibility. Everything else in there had always been rumored and whispered and I think we all knew that that was what happened (and still happens). Still, it's disheartening to actually read it from Carlo himself.

Yeah, but you're assuming that I have other things to do in my life...

Is that the one with the sticks and incredibly posh people? Personally, I'm banking on the Euros not to be boring, even though I think they will be...

That next match countdown is fucking depressing...

As expected, he has been acquitted of sporting fraud accusations: http://www.football-italia.net/84405/conte-acquitted-sporting-fraud

Granted it was against a hung-over Leicester already on holiday, but he looked good today. definitely deserves more chances based on this. PS: Someone should move this to the Players Section.

Tottenham completely punched above their weight this season because of a system that worked incredibly well for them. But teams started to learn how to play against them and they couldn't handle the pressure. If they lose Kane in the summer, they'll have entirely replicated Rodger's Liverpool 'cycle' and they go back to being a mid-table/EL team..

Oh shit....I'm not crying, I just have something in my eye...and a JT-shaped hole in my heart! Sorry, but I just don't agree with ANY of that. Ivanovic does NOT have any market value. You couldn't pay any club in the world to take him on his current wages. He wasn't offered a new contract because the board thought they would get a fee for him if they wanted to sell him this summer. There is no conceivable scenario where a any club in the world would want to pay money for Ivanovic but would not want JT in their team! He got a contact because the board wanted him to stay, period. And JT didn't a contract because the board didn't want him to. It had absolutely nothing to do with Conte, who OF COURSE wants JT to stay as would any top manager in the world. That's because it WAS a no-brainer to give him an extension. Despite his age and his obvious decline, he was still out best CB this season! And the only remaining leader in a team that couldn't lack leadership and balls more. But again, it's not about offering him a new contract or not, it's the disrespectful manner they have gone about that from giving him no answers and putting him on hold till the last week of the season to making public announcement about offering him a deal when they know he is extremely unlikely to accept those conditions.

It can't be absolute, it inevitably will be affected by his current wages. No player in the world would accept a 50% wage cut, let's be real. Also he's still one of our least expensive first teammers on overall because there are no amortized transfer fees. See this: http://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2014/10/16/6968855/chelsea-ffp-database I think anything under 100K would be completely unreasonable and not at all serious. Well we offered Ivanovic, one of the worst players in the entire league this season, a new contract without a manager in place... Except there hasn't been dialog and according to Terry he was not being told anything by the club. He made a couple of interviews at the start of this week and he said what he had been saying all year that there has been nothing new from the club. You think if there was dialog and he thought there was some chance he'd go out of his way to set up a farewell match and party for himself? And he did look for plenty of other options. If you believe the papers he was in late negotiations with clubs in China and Qatar. We can easily afford to pay him 100-120K because any half decent replacement for him, even as a squad player, for even half of those wages would still cost the club more on the balance sheets because there would be a transfer fee that would be amortized for the period of the contract. But regardless, I can't see any football player, or sports player, or really any employee anywhere agreeing to taking more than 50% wage cut. It's unrealistic to expect otherwise.

I absolutely think 6 weeks is unreasonable. First, it was more than clear and all but official that Conte will be our new manager well before the actual announcement. In fact, the announcement was delayed while he and the club, among other things, made decisions about his coaching staff for next season. You don't think answer from Conte about JT could have been given? Do you seriously think he didn't give one before he signed?! There were stories, even from before Conte was made official, and PLENTY in the 2 weeks after he was saying that Conte has already told the board that he wants JT to stay if possible and that he values his leader ship. And if there is still any doubt, regarding 'waiting for the new manager', everyone is forgetting that IVANOVIC was offered a new contract well before Conte was made official despite, up until that point in the season, he was probably the worst player, not in the team, but the entire league! The pretense couldn't be thinner. The timing alone gives it away. The board only realized that Conte wants him to stay right when the fans threaten to stage a walkout for him? A few hours before the POTY awards and two days before the last match of the season? In the same week where the board was being criticized in the media for making him arrange his own farewell match? They sure didn't still think they might offer him a new contract when they agreed to rent him the bridge for a night! And finally, yes, you're right. I couldn't care less about the image of the board, but I do care a lot about JT and status and reputation with the fans.

What would make the offer genuine is offering it 5 months ago when JT was telling the club he needs to know so he can sort out his future. What would make it genuine is not making an announcement about making him an offer 2 days before the end of the season when they don't even make announcement about new signings until hours after it is made official by the media. They aren't announcing the contract offer because they want to let the fans and the public know what is happening and what they thinking. Till Wednesday they weren't even letting JT know anything about that! Also, there is a question of what can be considered a reasonable pay-cut, like the one he took last season from 175K to 150K, and what would be completely unreasonable like cutting his wages by like 50%. If that is the case here then obviously the offer would not be genuine.

From the fact that the club went against its own policy of negotiating contracts in private and made, for the first time I can remember, an announcement that a player has been offered a new contract. The aim is obviously to shift the public pressure on JT and not to make a genuine offer. But is there a chance that the offer is sincere. Yeah, of course, and I hope more than anything that it is. But based on the manner and timing, I'd say that is INCREDIBLY unlikely. As I've already said in the original post you quoted, this is NOT the point:

No, the fans want JT to stay as anyone on the planet would know. The fans did not force the club to make an insincere offer as a PR stunt to force JT to chose either between his income or his status among the fans. If they want to let go of the biggest legend in the history of the club, let them face the consequences of that with the fans instead of this cowardly PR crap... One crucial difference: JT was telling the truth that the board was trying to hide which was that they were delaying the talks because they don't want to offer him a new contract. There is nothing truthful or sincere in this offer from the board.. Just to be clear, players should absolutely have the right to give a club an ultimatum for knowing their future by Jan/Feb so they have time to plan their next move. It's incredibly dickish from clubs to delay the decision about their futures till the last minute because ultimately they are employees who will be seeking new jobs with families who might have to resettle.

Just to be clear, the issue is not with offering him a reduced role or even a huge pay cut. Those are both justifiable. What isn't justifiable, and frankly just low from the board, is making a public announcement that he has been offered a contract especially after they've left this late.

Since when do the club announce that they have merely offered someone a new contract? Since when is it club policy to make contract negotiations public?! They have undoubtedly offered him immensely reduced wages (maybe wages they know he is extremely unlikely to accept?) and announced the offer(!) to put him in the corner. If he rejects, then he's destroying his legendary status of being a one-club man, if he comes out and says that the wages are too low then he comes off as a greedy bastard, and if he accepts then he'd be making a fraction of the what he would be elsewhere. It's a PR low-blow from the club and an impossible choice for Terry. I wouldn't want to be in JT's shoes at all..

This is the most Liverpool thing I have ever seen. They were stealing bloody SEATS from the ground yesterday! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/sportsnews/article-3586029/Liverpool-fans-seen-taking-SEATS-Anfield-draw-against-Chelsea.html I'm hoping that would be solve once we (hopefully) have an actual attacking system under Conte.

Pedro's finishing is worrying, and the inability of our attackers, bar Hazard and Cesc, to find the final pass has been a massive issue since last season even.

Benitez went straight from Real Madrid to getting relegated with Newcastle! Obviously, it starts with an orgy in Bangkok like most fairy tales do...

Hazard was practically the only player from both teams who was giving 100%. We lost the 3 points when Traore came off because we were basically playing with 10 men with Tammy on. Also, Matic's passing.....WHY would you not start RLC instead of him in a dead game like this I'll never understand..

To be completely honest, if Mikel starts at CB then I will mostly be watching this for the 26th minute walkout for JT and will probably go to sleep after the first half...

I'd say about as much chance as him getting a new contract for next season. They'd probably treat it similarly too; meaning they won't say that they won't and they'd imply that they might and eventually they won't and everyone knows that they won't. Same happened with Frank (who admittedly didn't exactly cover himself in glory in the manner in which he left). The club hinted that they might wait for him to retire to arrange a testimonial, but do you really think they will if he comes out tomorrow and says that this will be his last season playing football? Unlikely to say the least...

It REALLY isn't about 22K which for JT or the club is nothing. The fact that the legend who has led this club to almost ALL of its trophies in history, the player who personifies this club arguably more than any other man in blue ever did, one of the last remaining ties from within the club to the fan base, is having to rent out the bridge to throw himself a farewell match is beyond fucking disgraceful.