BlueLyon

Just curious, do you have any factual proof on this? Another topic, you mentioned Martial and Rojo to Juve with Sandro to United. Asking since you say it like its done deal, while I check and its pretty much all rumours for now.

Lets see what we do in summer without Emenalo. IMO Emenalo was never the problem, problem was not having someone with actual quality and experience in charge. Its not like there was someone realy talented under shadow of Emenalo and Emenalo leaving will give that man open arms. Now, there is no Emenalo anymore, but we didnt get anyone like Kenyon, not sure we will do any better with Marina. There were rumours about getting Lille director, but I hope thats not true. The man ordered (together with Bielsa) to get rid of every experienced player, which pushed Lille young inexperienced team (they have youngest team in europe) on brink of league 2. Not to mention they are being sued by Bielsa and french football federation reported Lille has empty bank and if they wont pay debts until july 1st, they will go straight to league 2 (they spent over 60m last summer). Talk about bad management.

We are apparently a big club and if we were ambitious, there would be no need for them to speak about the issue. Between you and me, you probably agree we need better players and more ambition too. I see bigger problem in players not performing or flirting with other clubs rather talk about us needing better transfers. In other words, its at least intent they do give a shit about club and want to succeed here. Heck Griezmann said the same thing about Atletico signings and showing ambition.

Not sure if this is the best thread for it, but I was thinking what is your opinion on new dates for PL clubs in summer window? As you know, usualy it starts on july 1st and ends on august 31th, but this year, new dates come with window opening tomorrow, on 17th May and closes on 9th august. Worth noticing, other leagues will have same old dates and they can buy players from PL even after window shuts down on 9th august. IMO nothing will change, except maybe for worse. As for early opening, players will probably wait till they get offers from other leagues to make final decision, so I doubt some big moves will happen before july 1st. As for closing date, the main reason to change it was that clubs can prepare for games in peace, meaning window ends couple days before first PL game. BUT since the players can still leave, I doubt it will be peaceful at all, let say you lose your key player on 15th august and you cant get replacement until january. Only thing that will change is prices going up even more because PL teams will probably want double after window shuts down. Not realy a fan, unless you do the business realy realy early and then you have long preseason for players to adopt, but even then, most players will take some time off in may and june and you are in same spot as if you signed the man in july. For Chelsea, since we are realy bad in doing deals early, I just hope we got prepared for this summer or everyone we want will already be gone before we even enter the market Your thoughts?

And who says players like Griezmann, Dybala, Asensio, Isco,...would even want to join us, never mind stay here to build a new era? Chelsea shown little ambition under Eden, doubt it will change now. And if it will, Eden will be told about it before he gets sold and it might persue him to extend. When we talk like for like replacements for Eden, we dont have pull power, project, or quality to get them. Even if we get the likes of Asensio they would fuck of to Real as soon as they would get a call. Sure, we might sell Eden and buy Fekir and Bailey, but the club has no clue how to get that done. We would probably buy Martial instead who is a lazy and tacticaly inept, we would be even worse than this season. I like Eden, but dont get me wrong, I like club more. Back when we sold Robben, I didnt like it, but I knew we will find replacements. Today, I think we have to keep Eden at all costs because we cant get good players. Honestly I think Eden will extend eventualy. The problem is on board because we need good players regardless and we did awful job past three windows, bar Kante.

Hmm, Im not so sure about that. Courtois should be sold this summer if he doesnt extend, no doubt. But Hazard? His role at club is simply too big right now. We need to bring players that can replace him and within two years, they get the mantle and Eden leaves if that is the case. The transition is easy. If you do this now, when we already are average team bar Eden, Kante, Azpi, you think we can compete with big teams? Because we cant stay without CL two times in row. We already have the cash to buy 3 quality players, there is no doubt about it. The board ability and our attraction are other things. If we sell Eden, surely attraction goes evn lower. Keeping Eden for next two years, while periodicaly buying around 2-3 players each summer window, will give us enough power for next season and new players fitting in the team. After two years, they take some of workload and losing Eden wont be that hard, even on free. I just dont trust board can replace Eden, because money was never the problem and we are buying average players for years now with one or two exceptions. People just dont see past the money, do they. Sell the guy because he will give us 150m...two years of great performances by Eden are worth more than those 150m. I agree with you though, we need to rebuild the team, be it with Eden or without. Going two more seasons with Eden and not improving and then losing him for free with no players to take mantle from him will be a disaster. But as long we get proper players over next two years, I dont care if Eden leaves on free. His role at the club was huge, there would be no hard feelings.

I dont know what happend but what I know is Conte turned into one of those pragmatic, small balls managers who play it safe. Emerson was playing great, Alonso comes back from ban and Emerson doesnt get a sniff anymore. OR, playing 5:3:2 which shown some of the worst offensive displays I have seen in long time. We already suck, but he decides to pull out Willian/Pedro for another defensive midfielder...when we play 3:4:3, the attack is never fluid and disorganized, lacks creativity. Cmon, I only accept such tactics if there are results, but we failed in so many games and yet, he still insists on them. There might also be player power, either way we are piss poor under Conte since 2018. Either way, we could play better football and still get these results. I supported Chelsea for ages and I understood why we play that way, but when there is no results, no one will accept watching defensive football.

Yeah but partly thats because they defend as a team and attack as a team. Here, you see Kante doing 4 man job because Eden, Morata, Cesc and Willian often stop giving a shit. In a perfect world, Eden would do the tracking back but he would also get support in attack by the players like Modric/Silva, Marcelo/Ghoulam,... We lack such quality players, but even if we had them, we still have to change our style. Im not sure what Conte is thinking, but his juve was team with everyone tracking back and working as a team. Here he either changed the approach and made us very defensive and reactive instead of proactive: or the players simply dont give a shit about his instructions. Anyway you are right about Eden and he should do more tracking back, but its fair to point out that despite he isnt realy efficient, Eden is often the only player on this team that actualy wants to attack and play football. I remember many games this season, he was trying to make something, but everyone else just stood back and didnt get involved in attack. That said, anyone who thinks selling Eden is good idea is, pardon my words fucking idiot. People thought the same about replacing Costa, but Eden is even more important. We just splashed 150m on Morata, Drinks and Bakayoko. Let that sink it. Even if we get alot of money for Eden, the club wont bring quality replacements.

He was absolute top class this season. But then again, Parejo, Gabriel, Murillo,...were all very good too (after being crap for a while before this season). If Kondogbia keeps this level for another season, he just might turn into player he was expected to become, but right now I wouldnt be taking gambles after we alredy have Bakayoko.

Well if it doesnt work with another manager, we should just dump the squad and start fresh. If our players arent commited and willing to fight for the club, we wont win shit for a long time.

Hazard was going deep to collect the ball alot because we dont have anyone else that can drive the ball from midfield to attack. But he didnt help defensive duties indeed. I dont see him in 3 man midfield though, should play either on wings, behind striker or #10. He isnt #8 althrough he can get pick the ball in midfield and push forward by dribbling or passing diagonaly forward.

As much as I still feel he can turn good, he will have to work harder. His confidence is low, it makes very hard to play football. But that is no excuse to just stroll around all the time. This mofo is a DM/B2B and he has to start chasing after every ball near him, not jog like he is on fucking vacation. If he was good at marking, he wouldnt need to run, but he is always in wrong position, so there is no other way.

IMO Kante-Jorginho wont work. Kante likes to roam aroud and Jorginho isnt your typical destroyer. We need a DM that stays back and protects the line of defense. Without DM, they just roll through the middle. Unless we suddenly start pressing like mad, then it would work, but with current work ethic, there would be too much open space in middle without proper DM, something that was exploited this year without Matic.

Nope, he is done. At very best a sub and option against shit sides. If we want to move forward as a club, Cesc got to be out. He is midfielder, but doesnt know how to defend, how to lead, how to motivate, how to sacrifice himself for the team, how to shoot, how to set tempo. He is slow and absolute piss under pressure. Cant take corners, cant take set pieces. He had marvelous pass, but that went out of the window too.

Haha yes. Well we did splash cash for Diego replacement, the board will be probably serious to invest in new CM when Cesc leaves. But unlike with Costa, we wont get much cash for Cesc, if any at all. Or, we will play with Cesc in first 11 for another season

TBH I think its absolutely urgent we sign experienced midfielder who can handle that role instantly. Its such crucial position that we cant afford inexperience and mistakes right now. Althrough players like Soler, Weigl or Aouar would be incredible long term investment, they are simply not ready to lead our midfield, especialy not Aouar. For Sari and Jorginho, they look fragile but are much more dynamic players than Cesc, dont let that deceive you. Both can also keep the ball under pressure, Seri has great balance and Jorginho awarness is probably one of best out there. He almost never loses the ball. I never liked Cesc, everyone created picture that he was midfield leader, but I never bought that shit. He played for so long, captained Arsenal, part of Barca and yet he never struck me as a leader. He always dissapeared when it mattered and he never stood his ground, be a man. I disliked him back in 2014 when he was still good player, but he always felt like a liability to me. He was main creator, main source of control and creativity in our team, but he dissapeared against every decent side and thats big problem. I wanted we get rid of him earlier, because if your main midfielder cant lead your team in big games, thats problem. But people here never saw this because of his magic pass. If we had competent midfielder, we would achieve more IMO. But regardless, he was master against shit sides which won us the title in 2015. Seri probably fits us more, Jorginho is more of Klopp player, who dictates tempo from the back, while Seri runs with the ball, looking for right pass. But neither is typical DM that would suit PL side apart from City or Pool, so if we go 4:3:3 next season, we would need another DM unless board gives Bakayoko another chance (which we should). Would be nice to get Fekir, Jorginho/Seri and Bailey and play mor expansive football, but thats pipe dream. To end it, I actualy doubt we will get any of above mentioned, I dont think we can pull it off honestly. Jorginho is linked with City and Pool while Seri has apparently feet problem and wants to move to spain. The youngsters are probably smart enough to avoid us too.

Yup. The bad results is solely on us. Ref made shit choices and their players killed time, but thats about 20% of the game. In remaining 80%, we were uncreative, slow and without any finishing edge. Blame our team. I dont give a shit if Willian and Pedro arent our first choices, we played for hope to get in CL, thats a game where you give 110%. And you see Willian put absolute shit show in first half. He stepped up in second once Eden came up, but thats too late. You just cant rely on our players to do their job against Huddersfield. Its one thing when you have nothing to play for, but this was almost finale of our season and the players were awful.

Theoreticaly they could lose to Leicester and if we won agaisnt Newcastle and tonight, CL would be ours. But I agree on last sentence. We were awful in 2018. Still dont understand how can you bench Cesc last season because you realise he isnt good enough, but play him every game this season when he is even lesser player. The guy was unfit to play PL football as regular in top side since 2015, yet he is still in first 11 in 2018. Hopefuly this is the final wake up for the board to get some shit done in the summer. We desperately need midfielder, striker and RW and go back to 4:3:3, be it with Conte or without. Im done watching Alonso, Cesc, Moses, Morata, Willian, Pedro, Giroud in first 11. They are bench players at best.

Cmon lol stop hating on Huddersfield and ref. We played at home against average team and we fucking bottled it. There is nothing else to say. We had Pedro, Willian, Morata, Cesc, Hazard, Giroud available and we couldnt score two fucking goals against that team.

Our own faulty realy...first half was pure shit and if we took this game seriously from start, we wouldnt have problems. Their players killing time is something we all knew will happen if they get result. We should do the job in first half

Whats with Christensen and heading? He is very poor in attack.

fullbacks are absolute garbage while Emerson sits on the bench all the time. And next time around, Conte will still pick same players over again. Cesc is shit for whole season, yet Conte plays him every game. Willian apparently in super form, when we actualy need him, he decides to put in worst game of 2018. Pedro is no better. But again, Conte will make changes after 80th minute. Also Morata is pure garbage again. I expected us to roll over Huddersfield on 50%, it seems we cant do even that. Fully deserve europa league.

From what I saw, they like to play, IMO they are one of those sides that arent super agressive and defensive bunch of cunts and it suits us because we can outplay them with experience. Im realy positive about the match, it should be easy job, but I dont want to jinx it. They are fighting to stay up afterall. Newcastle away will be tougher IMO. Spurs have Newcastle and Leicester at home, both in realy realy shit form, but hopefuly they bottle either game.

Probably has alot to do with their players being tired too.

Our team isnt exactly crap, but he realy doesnt have much benefit from playing with Chelsea for past few years when he didnt have single equaly good attacker, aside from Costa, nor the defensive game we play for ages. Yeah he shown world class level many times and there is no excuse for his regular form breaks, but honestly he is playing with bunch of players who simply arent world class and dont have ambitons to win everything. For example imagine him being tutored by Didi, Lamps, Cole,...compared to Alonso, Cesc, Morata. Only outfield players of genuine class are Kante and Azpi, Willian is too hot-cold. Costa was great striker and no wonder Eden had his two best seasons playing next to inform Costa (sure everyone played better but thats the point; more quaity around you pushes you further).