kc_blue

It starts from the top. It's been happening for years now and it's finally built to a point that it's hard to argue against. The league wins with Mourinho and Conte just put a gloss on things and made it easier to dismiss people bringing up issues with player recruitment and other board issues. Now it's there big and bold and ugly in our faces, our squad just isn't up to par with our ambitions and/or expectations. Managers have come and gone but the issues remain.

I wouldn't call myself a Sarri fanboy unless I guess I was a Conte fanboy and Mourinho fanboy etc. etc. but I have tried to defend him and give him time. It's getting impossible to do so. I can see not changing his tactics, they are what got him the job and might even be what the board is wanting the club to move towards, but his line ups and subs show either a lack of understanding of what's going wrong or just an unwillingness to fix it. I liked to watch his Napoli but we most definitely aren't playing like that. I would have liked to see him get a shot with a full preseason and some more players that play his style, but that's not going to happen and I think he's only got himself to blame for that. I don't want to join in the pile on that's going on here, but I don't see much choice besides moving on to someone else.

I think this makes it harder for Chelsea. I think Real know he wants to join them and feel they can come in and get him whenever they please. If that's the case they'll probably go for Neymar and if they can't pull it off they'll just come for Hazard at the end of the window. If he jumps ship at the end of the window we could be in a real bind. I'm hesitant to have faith in the board being able to navigate this situation and come out the other side in good shape.

Sarri hasn't done himself any favors with the line ups he's picked or subs used in games, but was anyone actually expecting much more then this? An up and down season. An inconsistent side who when on actually looks pretty good but when it's not on looks like a pick up team at the park. It's deja vu at Chelsea, we have all seen this play out before, as recently as last season. Shockingly, with that great off season and all those additions and upgrades to the squad, we're right back in almost the same position we were last season. Did anyone really think adding Jorginho, Kovacic, and Higuaín at the end of January, was going to be enough investment make up ground on the teams ahead of us. Maybe if Manure had kept Jose another month or two it would have been enough for 4th, but come on. As much as it hurts we just aren't as good as the teams ahead of us right now and we haven't done enough to make up the ground. Something needs to change and it's more then just the manager. The club needs to decide what style of football they want to play and build towards that and be consistent in that approach with managerial appointments and players bought. I don't know if Sarri is a great manager or not. At the moment it's not looking so great but it still seems like it's far to early to be calling him names or calling for a replacement. Not everything he's tried has come off and from the outside some of the decisions seem perplexing but we really don't know what's going on behind the scenes. If he's really been told he has to get CL football next season or he's gone then I can almost understand the Hazard and Kante subs yesterday. Maybe he thought bringing them on for 20 minutes would enable us to kill the game off there and then and make it easier to rotate for the second game, just a thought I had and didn't turn out that way. I still want to see him have a full pre season and get a few more players in that suit how he wants to play but it's getting harder and harder to see that happening.

I really want him to succeed but some of his decisions I just can't get my head around. Bringing Hazard and Kante on 2-0 up? There must be a reason but it's not clear to me.

True, but I wonder if his team mates will see it in that perspective. Could be opening a can of worms to their pay structure in the future. Guess that's for down the road.

Nah, I disagree with that. Let me clarify, I disagree that because he cost 60m it's okay to call him a fraud when he had a rough patch. Guess I don't fit in with the majority. Oh well.

Not a good game but calling him a fraud is over the top.

I agree with you. But I also go back to the more patience thing. He will get ahead of Willian at some point. Should he be ahead of him already? From my post at my computer I would say yes but Sarri has a lot of issues to factor in, highest profile job, board with a reputation for little patience, veteran players who from the outside appear to have turned on their previous manager, and he needs to get the blend just right. I can understand why people are frustrated with him not changing things faster but I also definitely understand why he's been pretty cautious with it. I honestly think a lot of the playing time issue has been over magnifies and blown out of proportion. I think CHO probably wants playing time and to be integrated and made to feel he has a path into the first team which is what's been happening but I also feel he's looking for a nice pay packet on this new contract. I doubt he's calling to be a starter right now.

Hmmm. What's the point of having a manager if you don't trust his evaluations of the team? Why not just appoint our board as manager and management staff?

Damn. That wasn't the news I wanted to hear.

Thanks for sharing that article. It was very informative.

I don't much care for Alonso but I do have a hard time with our own supporters calling him shit all the time. In my opinion he's not good enough for us and he makes me very frustrated when he's in the starting line up constantly, but that doesn't make him shit. Just means the board need to get to work on finding us a better option, in my opinion.

I don't disagree but there's a flip side as well. If we're telling him he's on the same level as Willian and Pedro and he's just as important, he's going to want to paid like them as well.

The window has taken a bit of turn from when it opened. Started out strong, making a statement of intent, whether the correct statement of intent is arguable but making a statement nonetheless. Slowly we've returned to a situation we've seen played out over many recent transfer windows. Identify target, haggle for target, switch to option b over a couple million pounds on 30, 40, 50 million pound deals, fail on plan b, deadline day arrives, panic buy out an option out of nowhere. Seen this scenario play out many times now. It's like Groundhog Day. I hope we actually break the cycle this time and just put up the extra cash to get the targets we want.

I don't disagree with this at all. Just a bit of patience required I think. I always felt this was the real issue. Playing time is part of it, but honestly he's breaking into the first team now.

Is this really surprising? Asking 75m for the guy is the same as putting a not for sale sign out. Why would anyone waste their time at that amount of money?

I get this feeling but let's be honest, CHO needs to man up and realize he's not going to just be handed a starting spot. He's going to have to compete and show he's the best option. And that's how it'll be wherever he goes. And that's how it'll be for as long as he plays. He just turned 18 and he's getting time in the first team. I don't think he should be expecting a lot more then he's had so far. Personally I would have played him more but I understand not wanting to rush him. Everyone just needs a little more patience.

I want to see him under Sarri. I really think his characteristics will be a good match for the way he wants us to play.

We'll just have to wait and see. I'm not sure how many starts he'll make, hopefully some, but I'm optimistic he'll get playing time. I think he's following along the same route that RLC has taken this season, up until his injury. He's slowly being given minutes and showing Sarri that he has what it takes. More minutes follow. Eventually he's worked himself into the rotation. We'll never know what would have happened without the interest from Bayern but I believe that this was the plan from the beginning. It's hard to just dump a 17 year old, now 18, into a team and say here you go. It's hard on him and it's hard on the older players who may feel like they getting cast aside without a chance. Team chemistry is important. People bring up that Sarri had Moses on the bench ahead of CHO early in the year. That's really how it should be. Moses didn't get a lot of chances, but he did get a chance. Now CHO has shown more and is ahead of him on merit, not from preseason form but from actual performances in games that matter. Now he's worked up into the rotation and he'll get more chances to impress and prove he deserves more game time and/or starts. In my mind, that's exactly how a youth should be integrated into a team.

My guess is he'll get a chance to start one of the next 3 games but most likely Spurs or next weekend. It's a shame, I'd love to see him against Arsenal this weekend, especially after the way he tore Bellerin up in preseason. Maybe he'll get an appearance off the bench.

I have to think they'll come at us. They don't want to lose to us at home. They'd have a 9 point deficit to climb out of at that point.

Sure beats 75m for Wilson. Hopefully he can get on the same page as the rest of the team quickly and just give us that impetus we've been lacking up front the past month or two. That should allow us to consolidate a top 4 finish which I thought was the main priority going into the season. Anything beyond that is great but that's really all I want or need from this deal. Things will look much differently in the summer with CL football next fall.

I agree. As long as we have an actual plan for how we are going to fit him in.

Seems the Jose rehabilitation tour is in full swing.