Reddish-Blue

This is good, would love to see the club focus on value for money signings and try to unearth some talents rather than having to spend big money and watch them put in inconsistent performances week after week (Havertz, Pulisic, Lukaku, Ziyech etc).

The story was that Boehly & co wanted to get Ronaldo in as the marquee signing (from a jersey sales point of view) and by getting Ronaldo they would also be in Mendes good books for future transfers (as he's basically the hot line for most Portuguese based players). Feel like Tuchel was let go because he had no plan B for our failures on the pitch. Playing youngsters like Gallagher out of position was the first indication that he was losing it...the Leeds game was a sackable offense and then we got beaten by Southampton....and a number of users on Talk Chelsea mentioned that Tuchel's reign was likely coming to an end. It's not the fact that we lost to Leeds, Southampton or Zagreb, it's the fact that we had ZERO ideas about how to score a goal and our defense was being killed by any team with a decent press. Could you imagine us facing City or even Arsenal right now?

That's what happens when you don't have a Sporting Director in place. Go look at our London rivals and how they've been able to attract talent and sign the players they need. Arsenal needed a striker, they got their #1 target in Gabriel Jesus. Spurs wanted midfield depth & more options, they got Bissouma, Perisic, Richarlison. We have to give the new owners time and hopefully once we get the Sporting Director in place, we'll be able to build a decent squad for the next 5 years. Feel like Auba & Zakaria will come good once they've had a proper run with the team and Sterling is without doubt the best attacker we have at the club. Broja should only get better with more games and I guess we can only hope that Havertz is able to score goals as that's what he was brought here to do...and so far he hasn't shown any of that Leverkusen skill set.

Sometimes it is better but in this case, with the squad running low on confidence, you just know Klopp would have given us a beating. Maybe not playing will be a blessing as we'll have a bit more time to get Kante fit.

Tuchel didn't really have to deal with transfers at his previous clubs as Dortmund and PSG have Football Directors who handle that. The only knock on Tuchel which people mentioned was that he didn't really have a Plan B or Plan C in the transfer market in case his main target ended up not joining the club (e.g. he wanted Dembele/Raphinha badly and we had zero alternatives for the right flank).

The most concerning was the CB transfers. Like how do you wait until close to deadline day to sort out the CB situation when the club knew from basically June 30 that we would be minus two of our starting quality CB's? It's like the owners were trying to play football manager or something, oh, let's try and get Ake back to the club (oh wait, City want 50 million, forget it), let's try and get De Ligt (oh wait, he preferred Bayern Munich), oh we failed with both, let's give it a go with Kounde and see if he's still keen (oh wait, Kounde purposely goes and joins Sevilla in their portugal camp even though the club asked him not to go there).....and then we pay 25-30 million extra on young Fofana. You're telling me there wasn't any other CB's out there that we could have gotten under 40 million from another league? Azpi, Zouma, Ivanovic cost about 40 million all up...and now we're going crazy splashing 75 million on a young talent.

I'd be shocked if we're not splashing the cash on a midfielder in January. The current setup just doesn't work and there's every chance Kante/Jorginho walk on a free at the end of the season just like Rudiger.

The dressing room problem is because we don't let players go when they want to go. Players like Pulisic and Ziyech should have been allowed to leave in this window, get rid of the toxic attitude from the team and re-build with players that want to be here. Even Azpi was meant to be sold but then the club refused to let him go to Barcelona because they trumped us and got the players we originally wanted.

Werner pretty much said it last season, he was very much frustrated at being left on the bench a number of times, even when the other attackers weren't really scoring or attacking. Happy to see him playing regularly again and Leipzig must be delighted that we actually agreed to a sale. As for CHO, very happy to see him dribble past players again, he's showing flashes of the CHO we saw at Chelsea pre-injury. I do fear that he may ask to leave permanently for the Bundesliga as wingers like him will get a chance to shine week in week out.

The sad thing is, he's the one who should have stayed out of all the attackers we had. Werner was made a scapegoat but you knew that he'd always give his 100% on the pitch, sure his finishing was horrible but that seemed to be down to confidence. Can't say the same for Pulisic, Ziyech or Havertz, talent isn't everything, sometimes you need that hard working trait.

1. We didn't let Rudiger & Christensen's contracts run down, Rudiger wasn't offered what he wanted and decided to go to market to get a nice pay day after some very strong form. Christensen on the other hand, rejected a 5 year deal from the club due to length, then the club offered a 4 year deal to satisfy his agent and they still rejected it. You can't force players to stay. 2. It's going to be a bumpy road in the short term as the players have to adapt to Potter's tactics. 3. I have no idea why the club kept Azpi, he's literally showing the same signs as Ivanovic (when he had that sudden decline and kept on getting cooked at RB). Fofana will come good but obviously needs some time to settle in and build some chemistry with Silva, James and co. 4. Top 4 looks out of reach considering we don't have a single attacker who can consistently bail us out of trouble and score crucial goals (like Hazard or Lamps or Drogba in past years). City have an alien in Haaland, Liverpool have Salah & Diaz, Spurs have Kane, United have a motivated Rashford this season.

Probably more likely he ends up at Liverpool as he's a guaranteed starter over there. Real Madrid will definitely make a push but with so many young class midfielders already, he may not get the game time he wants...

How does the Europa League game get called off but then the Brentford v Arsenal game is still on? Lack of consistency by the league and European competition.

I do hope we look at alternative options as Declan Rice will be at least 100+ million (based on West Ham's f*ck off price tag of 150 million) and he's definitely not worth that.

It's like any job out there, if you fight with your bosses, you're unlikely to be staying there for a long period of time. Tuchel is no different. He could have tried to work with the new ownership group but just like PSG, he fell out with the board and that was the end.

It's probably more down to the fact that the club & Tuchel wanted Raphinha badly for that right flank role and they didn't really go after any other attacking options till it was too late in the window. Arsenal also enquired about Raphinha and bid on him but they went for alternative options as soon as they were told that the player would wait for a Barcelona bid. They had a clear run at Jesus after he rejected Spurs.

If that's the case, just sounds like it's part of their plan. Sell him off for a huge fee, get him to do that interview, bring him back for a season for 1/10th of his transfer fee, send him back to Chelsea the following season, he starts throwing a tantrum acting all angry and upset and then Chelsea eventually agree to sell him back to Inter Milan for a low transfer fee to get rid of the problem.

As expected, the weekend's fixtures are called off. Might be a good thing for the players as they get a chance to actually train with Potter in charge.

I see them quite similar to Southampton, they had a solid run under Poch before he went to the dark side of London and they've been able to attract solid managers since then. They make smart transfer decisions and know when to sell their players for a nice profit. Brighton isn't that different and I'd be surprised if they can't attract a good young manager

Joe Hart was popular at City prior to Pep coming in....then he was asked to play out from the back, he refused and Pep went ahead and got the keeper that he wanted who was comfortable with the ball at his feet. I don't see Graham making any drastic GK decisions unless Mendy continues to be poor. You would think he'd eventually revert to his average performance which is good enough to help us get points.

The most successful clubs tend to play their way out of issues and it doesn't look this bad and disjointed game after game after game. I really did think that the writing was on the wall after that horrid performance vs Southampton (like it was the same team that huffed & puffed against United but they couldn't do anything and they literally walked through our defense like they were wearing an invisibility cloak!) Wonder if Tuchel's overall relationship with his 'attackers'....Pulisic, Ziyech, Werner all frustrated, Lukaku showing off his ego, Havertz being allergic to finishing...ended up costing him his job.

It's also to do with the dressing room, like if the majority of players are still listening and accepting the manager's message and applying the game plan he has trained them for during the week...then I guess Tuchel would still be the manager of the club. I don't think the Liverpool players gave up on Klopp even when VVD went down with that nasty injury as they have other players who would run through walls for Klopp (Henderson and a few others) and support his message. With Rudiger gone, who is left to back up Tuchel's message? It's basically Thiago Silva and no one else.....and then you have the whole attack complaining about a lack of freedom. Werner at times last season looked frustrated and upset when left out, Pulisic was in and out, same for Ziyech and let's not even start on the headache that was Lukaku.

That performance vs Arsenal in the pre-season might have been the start of all this and the end for Mr. Tuchel. The way they pulled us apart without really trying was borderline pathetic.

Not only that, there was a worrying article from Nizaar or one of the other Chelsea reporters where they basically said Tuchel would purposely not pick certain attackers if they weren't defensively sound. Like I get the theory behind playing team defense but not every attacker out there is going to be happy to do that, some players need that freedom in the final third to be able to make mistakes and express themselves.

Is this type of manager even available? Poch? Not really, he's got history with Spuds and the egos from the PSG Dressing room (Neymar, Mbappe and co kicked him out)....same will happen at Chelsea Zizou? Would love to see him in the PL but I don't see him taking this project. Potter? Would be the obvious choice but not sure if he leaves Brighton so soon into the season.