Superblue

To be honest I think Blanc probably would wait. He hasn't worked for 2 years and I haven't heard him linked with any other clubs. He has actually been quoted saying he is very picky and would only consider managing a top club, otherwise he's happy to do other things. He also said he'd only consider managing in England, Italy or Spain where he can speak the language. So that would suggest he would probably be a lock as an alternative, unless a club of similar stature to ourselves suddenly made a move.

The most amusing thing is when rival fans (and even a number of biased media/pundits who have no clue) spout the usual crap that if and when Roman walks away the club will go bust. This isn't a situation like Leeds United where we've gambled on the short term with borrowings and bank loans. The club is technically debt free. The parent club owes money to Abramovich but he isn't going to call those debts in if there is no possibility to repay them (or he would lose his entire investment). If Abramovich were to sell the club he would obviously take into account the money he has ploughed into the club which is about £1.1bn. However Chelsea would almost certainly be valued at north of £1.5bn. Manchester City I believe sold stock last year which valued their club at $3bn. Whether people like to admit it, we are one of the biggest and most well known football clubs in world football nowadays and a huge worldwide brand. The stadium situation is awkward but there are other benefits to being the only real established club in West London, again increasing desirability for us. Abramovich would make a profit on his investment if he were to put the club up for sale today. It's ironic that Chelsea is now actually far more valuable and desirable than a billionaire's toy.

Agreed, Chelsea would be stupid to put all of their eggs in one basket and have not seriously considered contingency plans. The Sarri situation could be a real legal wrangle and headache which could go on for potentially weeks or months and the club as a result need an alternative in case. This is why I believe they've spoken to Blanc to guage his interest in the role and to screen him ourselves, and the English media have jumped on this as assuming he is now first choice instead. I still believe Sarri is first choice if something can get done however.

There is a lot of uncertainty at the minute but time and again the club has come through that to carry on the cycle of success again. Also with the exception of possibly City, every other team would trade with us for the success we've had in the last 4 seasons. Sport is about competition - being number one and winning. None of the top 6 bar us and City have in the last 6 years. The likes of Spurs and Liverpool can look at their projects and feel positive for the future but neither have won anything yet and until they do, they have nothing to show for their building over the past few seasons. We may have papered over cracks, etc in recent seasons but the facts remain that we have won trophies and if you have the option to win now or build for the future with no guarantees that success will follow then you have to take the win now approach. We may well pay for that over the next year or two, but then again we may make decisions this summer which send us back to the top challenging again. We need to assess things when the season starts. For all we know by then we could have a manager like Sarri in, a new director of football and 3 or 4 top drawer players added and be really optimistic.

Completely agree. You'd think all that due diligence has been done and discussed during those 'marathon meetings'! It just seems to have the feel of a journalist not keen on chelsea trying to stick the knife in today.

Daily mail tonight reporting we've gone cold on Sarri because of past indiscretions and looking at blanc again. Also says if we can't sorta replacement for conte, Roman could turn to avram grant ffs. Gotta be complete bollocks.

The stadium looked to be a noose around our necks anyway. The cost was potentially astronomical, especially given how the club doesn't even hold the freehold. Its also not like arsenal who could develop the land at highbury to contribute to funding. And even then their new stadium has been the single biggest factor to their lack of success in recent years. The additional income from an extra 20,000 attendance would not have the positive affect paying off such a huge sum and potentially trading success and champions league football with a less competitive squad. The biggest worry to come from this news is not the stadium but if roman will keep investing in the squad to keep us competitive.

Would be ideal if madrid took conte. There isn't an awful lot else available.

Definitely agree mate. Sarri for me has to be top priority. I was simply making a point earlier that Blanc isn't as negative appointment as it sounds, but definitely Sarri should be first choice.

To be fair Laurent Blanc isn't as bad of a potential appointment as he's being made out to be. He has a track record of success not just at PSG but also at Bordeaux before that. The job at PSG came with expectations and pressures to win which would be on show here. Without being Guardiola or Sarri-esque, his teams have always looked to play on the front foot and control possession which is more productive than what we've seen this season, but in a much more balanced approach to attack and defence which would actually probably suit the current crop of players we have. He's also got a pretty decent track record at giving young players opportunities. Also the counter argument of his managerial experience has only been within France mirrors that of Sarri with Italy. He's not the most attractive and appealing of appointments on the face of things, but he would actually make sense under many considerations. Despite this, I would still want Sarri. The potential that a manager could, given some time and some key areas of the squad strengthened, get us playing an attacking and attractive brand of football is what appeals most to me at this moment in time. I am intrigued to see how Sarri's style could be implemented to success and how it would fare in England.

I am paying attention thank you very much, just like everybody else merely speculating over what is a number of different factors and considerations in the deal. Your argument is no different. It's your opinion, not fact at this moment in time. If Chelsea do think there is a loophole and they can exploit it then fine, but I cannot see something like that going smooth when we're talking potentially millions of pounds involved. A legal battle of any sort is the last thing we need this summer.

The club's financial year-end is 30 June, not 31 May.

They could just point blank refuse to enter into any negotiations with us. For example if us and City both put bids in for Jorginho, they could decide to accept City's and reject ours. Reportedly Everton were more open to negotiating with United for Lukaku than us after we had gone for Stones a couple of years ago and upset them. It happens and whilst we need to ensure we run the club as well as possible and are not seen as pushovers or a money pit, the balance of good relations needs to be kept too.

Yes, I cannot see ADL letting Sarri out of his contract without compensation. He can theoretically place him on gardening leave so long as he continues to pay him. The other issue is that the club should do what possible to keep a good relationship with Napoli throughout this otherwise it is bound to bite us at some point, like if we went into negotiations for one of their players. Fine margins all round.

I'm not against Azpi giving extra depth across both full back slots. On the current squad, I would say our best option is Emerson at LB and Azpi at RB. Moses would still worry me defensively. He's extremely lucky that he has Azpi behind him because if he played on the left with Cahill behind him i think he would have been exposed far more often up to now at wing back. I think RLC needs to be given a chance next season. The lack of homegrown/English options around is frightening and the reason why we have moved for players like Drinkwater He would worry me being someone that would leave and flourish because I do think the ability is there and his build/presence in the middle of midfield is perfect. I also believe his game took a step up on debut for England playing alongside better players than he has at Palace and in my opinion the club needs to see if he can take an even greater step up with an even higher calibre of player at Chelsea. Same with Barkley, his technical ability wouldn't be an issue under Sarri, he just needs coaching and a good attacking coach may be able to get the best out of him when the potential is definitely there. For me, the midfield play maker is the key position that we need (like a Jorginho style). Fabregas can play back up to that role for a season and has shown to good effect in the last 2 years that he can be a very good option off the bench. Another top midfielder alongside Kante would be nice but I think we can get by if one wasn't signed.

As an example, if the club moved on Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Morata and brought back in RLC, Mount and Batshuayi would we really look at that and think we're any worse off after the former trio's performances this season. On top of that we'd probably raise some serious money on the back of it to add to a war chest to focus on 2 or 3 top signings. Or they as an example decide to stick with Morata and sell Batshuayi which will be somewhere around £50m being pocketed. The club have found a formula to stay competitive regarding our loan army of players and making profits on them. The only area I would say needs an overhaul of sorts is at full back/wing back because if as expected Sarri adopts a back 4, in my opinion Alonso, Moses and Zappacosta would all be ill suited to that.

For what we need which is a more creative player who can dominate possession and dictate the tempo of the game for us, then I do think Jorginho is a level above Seri. Agreed too, appointing Sarri will be such a culture and style shift so to have someone so familiar with (and so important himself to Sarri at Napoli) it could be pivotal.

I think some people have been listening to Conte too much. Between the summer and January we spent a lot of money in the market. Yes we sold players, and yes a number of those buys haven't worked out but the idea that we are no longer prepared to spend money is a myth. As I said previously, hopefully we only need say 3 top players to help improve the team this summer with a couple more from the loan army to freshen up the squad a little further. This hopefully will allow us to identify a higher calibre of player compared to last season.

Whilst I think Seri is an upgrade on what we have, I would much rather the club makes the decision to stick an extra £10-15m on the fee earmarked for Seri and get someone like Jorginho who I believe is (1) the next level up and (2) more suited to Sarri. Savic is way out of our price range currently and whilst he looks a good player he still has a lot to prove in my opinion to justify a price tag like £80-100m. For me such a price would be for someone more proven at the highest level (like an Isco for example)

Yes but if the media are to be believed, Sarri is as good as a done deal. It's simply a case of negotiating with both Napoli and Conte, and the club are right to do so to fetch the best deal otherwise these two deals could impact and eat into the transfer budget this summer. If the above is simply formalities and getting the most satisfactory deal for the club, then I'm sure we are already laying the groundwork too for transfer targets. Who's to say Chelsea also want to have discussions with Napoli because we want a player or two from them and feel that we may get a better deal negotiating as a package. The club do need to be efficient this summer and learn from the mistakes made last year, but I wouldn't be worried just yet and would expect to see developments on both fronts over the next 7-10 days this side of the world cup. Also it's a little ironic that some of the players we've been linked with more heavily so far this window aren't actually playing in the World Cup (Jorginho, Seri, Icardi, Bailey, Pulisic), so maybe again if the media are to be believed with some of our targets, the World Cup will not impact on this.

Agree at the moment things don't look bright but Chelsea made such a huge overhaul of their squad in the last 2 transfer windows. At the moment most of the signings look terrible, but hopefully (1) a new manager and style may get more out of some of them (Emerson and Barkley for example) and (2) a season of acclimatisation will also help for people like Morata if they stay (think Pedro who was pretty awful in his first season but was very important in 2016/17). The squad now is more bloated and should be able to cope with Europa League next year on top of the domestic campaign, and some players have done really well on loan who in theory could come back in next season like RLC, Batshuayi, Kenedy, etc. This should allow the club to focus on say 3 top signings to add to the squad and strengthen key areas, rather than having to cast our net wide in a scatter gun approach like we did last year.

Let's put things into a bit of perspective everyone. We're coming off the back of a weekend and a bank holiday over here. There was never likely to be any movement or announcements over this period and the board may have realised that themselves to give us a little bit more time to sort things out. If the media reports are to be believed, we've had the marathon meetings with Sarri's advisers and reportedly Sarri met Roman in Russia last week. I'm sure as part of selling his grand vision to the board, he's already identified and discussed transfer targets. There's nothing to suggest that we're not working hard on these at the moment, as well as sorting out the manager situation. The board rarely give much away and a lot of the speculation from the media is just that because they have no idea themselves. Liverpool have announced Fabinho subject to personal terms, but United and City links are nothing but pure speculation at the moment. And Spurs and Arsenal too don't seem to be linked at the moment with much. If another week goes by with nothing I would start to ask questions, but for now I don't think we should be overly worried.

There is no way that anyone could have looked at our squad at the end of 2015/16 and felt it was suited to playing 3 at the back. We'd never tried it before and we had no players with a history of playing as a wing back. This was Conte's 'go-to' formation that he found success with at Juventus and he forced and coached our team and players into adopting 3 at the back (with great success last season no less) No one would have expected Azpilicueta could find so much success playing as a centre back. Or Moses as a wing back. But Chelsea that summer also brought 3 players in Luiz, Alonso and Kante who became key to that change in formation and style. The expectation is that Chelsea will buy 3 or 4 players to come in this summer who will suit Sarri's style. Also Conte decided to keep Moses after numerous loan spells as he felt that he suited his style. Again, we have a wealth of players out on loan and it is plausible that Sarri identifies one or two of these players to come back into the squad who would immediately suit what he would be trying to coach. Also we may have a player already in our squad who Sarri feels he can get something more out of than is currently happening. The central midfield is obviously the glaring area to strengthen. But Kante is a lock for one spot, we are almost certain to buy a new stand out midfielder to play alongside him and we have two big talents in RLC and Mount to potentially come back from loan spells. Fabregas can still do a job with regards to a possession based style, just not relied in my opinion to play every game anymore. And you just don't know what Sarri may or may not see yet in Bakayoko and Drinkwater. They've been abysmal signings but as I mentioned above, no one would have expected Moses to become so prominent in the last two years after years out in the wilderness. You're right that there are a lot of questions to be asked at the moment, but you have to believe he already has a plan that he has successfully sold to our board.

Zappacosta for me is the main one that shows Conte must have had some influence because I just cannot see the club targeting him without Conte's influence. Maybe he didn't have his first choices, but from what it appears Chelsea chased Sandro all summer and when it got to the end and they knew it wasn't happening Conte gave the club an alternative option that he had knowledge of and could trust.

Agree, but you could label the likes of Guardiola and Klopp with the same opinion. I think it is simply something that we would need to get used to having a manager who is supremely confident in their own tactics and formula that their focus is on our own team and how we play as opposed to concentration being on the opposition and changing our style/tactics to suit the opposition. I think the flip side of that is a more offensive minded style should improve results over the teams outside the top 6, by beating them into submission. We've seen at times this season and under Mourinho before that when we're set up too defensive and we suddenly need to attack or chase a game we struggle to adapt, or the constant switching between playing defensively and then offensively to suit the opposition leaves a lack of fluidity in our play. Positives and negatives to both types, there's no one perfect way of playing football otherwise everybody would follow it.