OneMoSalah

Lets be honest, if we don’t get results and pressure mounts on the correct people - the owners & footballing directors - they will pull the plug on Poch to save their own skin. They did the same with Potter, sacking him months and months too late after initially making the mistake of hiring him. Then hired Lampard as a PR stunt to try and save face because the fanbase was very restless. Irrespectively of if Poch sees the season out or the long run, these owners and footballing people need to be held accountable for their poor poor judgement which could set this club back years.

Turning us into Everton under Moshiri when he first started splashing big cash. They spent what £600-700m in however many years and were utter dross. We’ve spent £1bn in 3 windows and are utter dross. Parallels are similar.

Incredible isn’t it. Wonder what the £ per point in 2023 is 😂

Aye I always find Arsenal as an extremely poor example for this. Or for why we should give managers such as Lampard or Potter time. They are always the go to example. They are a shite example for what we are going through just now because firstly, they weren’t a team that been in 6 major cup finals in nearly 3 seasons (or a team that had won 20 or 21 trophies in the last 20 years) before they went the way they did and secondly, they didn’t spend £1 billion on players in 3 transfer windows. Nobody has spent that much £ so quickly and turned out as awful. Ever. Bar us - so we are first for that.

Well as we seen last season, it won’t help anything. After their stunts being in the dressing room after the Brighton & Real Madrid games. Just undermines the manager and the players won’t be interested in what they have to say in all realism as they aren’t footballing people. And who’s fault is it that there isn’t any players of this calibre in the starting 11? Or very few of them in the squad? 90% of the blame is with these fucking dimwit owners and their footballing directors (who were hand picked) who seem to fit the clubs vision of turning us into an expensive Southampton or RB Salzburg. Their plan was and has led to us dramatically reducing the squad to a u23 team with huge lack of experience and lack of proven quality with the future in mind. Can say how can we not score v Villa or team x, y or z all you want but fundamentally the issues have stemmed from the vision and strategy from the owners and footballing people. The thing is mentioning guys like Frank, Didier & Eden - they were all quality players, who could and did do it at the highest level. Reece, Chilly, Sterling, Silva and Nkunku are the only guys in our squad who have a track record of playing well at a high level for season after season IMO. The rest aren’t anywhere close - but thats down to the clubs vision originating from these fuckwits above Poch. Lets invest in 200 young players who might come good or might not in 2027 despite the fact we’ve not got a top number 1, a top number 9, inconsistent young attackers from divisions in Ukraine/Holland and have lost multiple experienced, proven players in midfield in the space of a year. How nobody seen this coming is beyond me. This ownership can sack as many managers as they want - won’t matter. For me the blame is with them and their footballing department which starts with Laurence Stewart & Paul Winstanley. Their plan/vision and mainly their recruitment. Not Tuchels, not Potters, not Lampards and not Poch’s.

When? Roman would sometimes fly into the training ground - that was well noted - and usually meant the manager is getting sacked. I can’t remember hearing much about Roman being in the dressing room barring times after we won trophies or that if I am honest. These clowns have been in the dressing room that frequently since taking over its a fucking joke. Tried it with Tuchel, did it with Potter, with Lampard and now Poch. They need to stay in their fucking lane.

Apparently the owners were in the dressing room again after yesterday. When will these fucking clowns learn?

Should of had an assist but still get the feeling too little too late from him. A lot of things he does are very poor.

100% should of saved. He made some big saves and has done so far but that should be his bread and butter.

R Madrid playing a diamond in this sort of game, where Atletico play a 352, was always going to cause themselves trouble. Playing a system with wingers against a system with wingbacks leaves the wide areas exposed as it is due to the potential for an overload & spare man on the opposite side, never mind playing a narrow midfield diamond against it.

Another player who is aged between 17-21 and if signed, will go in to the group of 4 current more defensively minded midfielders we have already on the books after Caicedo, Ugo, Lavia & Santos. 100% two of them are not going to make it here if so. Only so much playing time available when everyones fit and only 25 squad places. Would be Southgate esque to make up a 25 man squad and have 5 defensive minded midfielders in it 🤣

His record with developing young players and the overhauling he did at Spurs was the major pull I think. And it made sense. In theory. Its just all blown up a bit in everyones face at the moment but when your squad contains over £1bn of players signed in the last 12 months or so, it is to be expected that any manager regardless will have huge huge scrutiny if they don’t get results. But the poor recruitment and squad building strategy has hamstrung him also. And he will be the first person to get called out for bad results. Oh please… Felix couldn’t buy a goal or a decent performance most games last season. His performances were more frustrating than inspiring yet because hes scored goals against Betis and Antwerp in two hugely one sides games, where the quality difference between both of the sides is staggering, people are making out we made a “huge mistake”. If he hits 15-20 goals this season for Barca ok fair maybe. But lets see. Same with Vlahovic. If they get 15-20 goals. Ok maybe. But until then, still early to say so. Gallagher as captain I agree on but with the club and Poch seemingly intent on giving the armband to guys who aren’t perhaps as well suited to the role as Thiago is right now to build them up, in a squad that lacks genuine leaders, experience & knowhow, what do folk expect? Reece may be the main guy from the academy and the biggest talent from there in a while but for me, he shouldn’t be captain when Thiago Silva is in the squad. Chilwell getting more responsibility as someone coming into his prime years though & pretty well experienced now (similarly like Maddison at Spuds with Ange), that I agree with - he should be taking that sort of responsibility and hopefully kicking on. Or are you going to say Enzo Fernandez (who by the managers account, like Jackson, needs to watch he is disciplined enough to stop picking up cheap yellow cards) should of wore the armband? A guy who has been here all of 5 minutes, barely speaks English (although not overly sure on Silva’s English speaking abilities either) and needs to get his finger out his arse snd start performing again?

Bit OTT. Was a red card every day of the week pal. Excessive force and follow through caught him above ankle.

Yep which makes the signing of Lavia look even stupider, money wasted on a position we didn’t need 3 very similar players in.

Think Poch still deserves time to get going but as I have said numerous numerous times, our squad balance is awful. No real leaders, characters or players with know how on how to get through difficult moments in games and seasons. Plus no regular goalscoring CF for about the billionth season running .

No complaints on the red. May take the ball but studs up, excessive force, catches him right above/at the ankle what do you expect? If had happened to us would be huge clamouring for a red card…. Shocking in front of goal again though. Keep up like this Poch won’t see Xmas.

Badiashile looked good last season. Although disagree on the MF. Far far far too defensive minded. But we cannot use injuries as an excuse - plain and simple. We signed the likes of Gusto, Disasi & took Colwill back to be in the squad specifically to provide competition and pick up the slack if we lost the likes of Reece, Badiashile, Silva etc. After all the “what a signing” comments made about Gusto and all the raving about Colwill last season amongst the other players we’ve signed this last 3 windows, to use injuries as an excuse in particular as a fan base is just shying away from the more obvious problem: a lot of these players aren’t at the level required yet (some may never be). Plain & simple.

Well we were stupid enough to hire him. So would say the FA just as bad.

Genuinely sounds like he’s peddling out excuses already but there is always pressure here and the spending will accelerate scrutiny on him. We should win every game as its Chelsea but we shouldn’t because its not the same team as before??? The clubs only invested over £1bn in 3 transfer windows so that’s going to always be above him or any other manager. Yes maybe spent incorrectly in terms of certain players and valuations but you don’t expect £1bn expenditure to take what was probably a good squad, backwards. Either that or he isn’t convinced some of these players are at the level needed and is trying to send a message. Yes we aren’t the team that won the PL or CL (they were hardly outstanding teams for a prolonged period after those seasons either given the drop off like City & Liverpool have been) and ok it is a “project” but to have only won 1 game so far and scored 5 goals - close to pretty fucking embarrassing. So theres that. Can see him getting the boot if this season continues on in this fashion - plain and simple. But the lack of proven and experienced players in this squad doesn’t help. Him and the footballing people’s reputations will be on the line if we have another poor season.

Its pretty abundantly clear that one or even two of Caicedo, Lavia, Ugo & him won’t have a long term career here. Thats 4 more defensively minded or combative midfielders. All same age group. Not to mention we want some other Brazilian defensive midfielder now, from Santos I think. So clearly stockpiling, why I don’t know, either 1) to sell and generate profit or 2) just mindblowingly retarded squad building.

Why didn’t they try sign him then ? Because they didn’t try and were never linked, even when we went for Ugarte (we were willing to buy a stake in the club in that deal). Only Porto (apparently loan w/ option to buy) and an Italian team were actually properly credited with interest. Vesper said something on here about Sporting being the “perfect loan” for him but there was never ever any links between them and the player, not one… so no point saying it would of been the right move or they’d actually have a pathway in there if there was 0 interest on their side for taking him.

Funny thing is Steve Cooper has a pretty solid & proven track record working with young players. From his time with Liverpool’s academy all the way through to Swansea. But NFFC had already signed multiple MF players in the 2 summer windows prior to us loaning Santos there, so ideally it was a big error on our behalf (I get the feeling we were using him as a bargaining chip to try and sign Johnston, who went to Spurs, as links were pretty prominent). But I said it before, we needed to temper expectations on this guy. If he isn’t getting a game at Forrest, he probably wouldn’t be at Porto or Sporting Lisbon in Portugal. And he wouldn’t be getting a game here. Going from Brazilian to European football is a big jump, never mind going straight to the PL.

Wanted longer duration - was widely reported the club offered 2 + 1 but was a lot depending on number of appearances to get the + 1. He wanted more security by all accounts, was nothing to do with money. Considering he’s been highest paid player here for years. And only getting £25m a year in Saudi (only as if its not a lot of money 😂). But again every time someone leaves here, we always boil it down to oh he only went for the money…

He’s washed? When he came back last season his performances were better than most of our other players by a mile but sure. And again, never said he should of been a nailed on starter but here in the squad and used in some of the bigger games like Jose did with Maka would of been a very sensible move. Particularly at his age and also with the balance of the squad. Wages wasn’t why he turned down our deal either - was the length of contract which I think we could of maybe got him to compromise on with a bit more negotiating (apparently the terms we had offered financially were favourable and much lower than his current wages). But at the time it was great because we shifted his large wages “as he was always injured”. Then we signed Caicedo & Lavia but they are both now injured. Alongside half the squad shattering the narrative that Kante himself is fucked. But the goons who were more interested in how Boehly & the clubs spreadsheet looked as opposed to what our squad balance/performances are always going to be happy.

Was actually a fair few of us (myself included) who said we should of kept him. But that was met with contempt from the spreadsheet warriors who said “we couldn’t justify keeping him at that wages if he was going to be injured”. Yet he goes to what may be an inferior league, but one with inferior footballing and medical infrastructure at present and is never injured….. you can’t just say its the pace of the league. Whilst the £170m we spent to replace him in Lavia & Caicedo are injured/struggling for fitness? Alongside multiple others.