oldportblue

ban

Thank God we don't have to make a choice between AVB's disastrous 5-3 losses and Conte's embarrassing but in a different way 1-0 losses because both of those scenarios are pretty horrible. Of all the managers we've had in the past 15 or so years, I would say Carlo had the most entertaining football whilst also winning trophies. He would have probably been a better example to use than the utter disaster that was AVB lol

I have been 100% behind Conte from his first day until ...yesterday. That was the last straw, he seems more interested in trying to prove a point that he doesn't have the adequate pieces to make a real challenge to win trophies (I probably agree that he doesn't). He looks like a defeated man, not capable of inspiring the squad or getting any tactics right. His in-game tactics as well as some of the line-ups he's picked over the past few weeks have been absolutely horrible... I think we need to sack him before we risk losing hazard because of him. Sad for me to say this but I think we should cut ties ASAP, don't see us getting top 4 with him unfortunately. Would take an interim manager for until the end of the season at this point...

oh ok, in that case, most players from the teams above us (city, MU, tottenham, liverpool) would walk into our team in all positions except for kante in DMF, and maybe christiansen at CB could keep his spot as well. Still wouldn't want can in our midfield though lol

well yeah if we isolate this period of 10 games where Morata has been utter shite, sure. But if I were to take a long term view of both players, I'd still like to think Morata can return to the form he was playing at towards the beginning of the season and would still have him over firmino. If we base it solely on current form for like the past couple of months then you could argue these liverpool players are better but I don't think it's the best way to go about it

true Mane definitely, although I honestly would not take Willian out of our starting XI for him, some will disagree with this view and I get it

fabregas yes, definitely... I'd still prefer to let bakayoko develop than to hypothetically switch him for can. As to drinkwater, agreed, he shouldn't be at our club

salah and van dijk OK, wouldn't have either firmino or can anywhere near our starting XI

if he goes to psg after years of "I respect a lot what Chelsea have done for me but it's difficult to have my family far away in Spain. Madrid is where my heart is... blah blah blah" then he truly is just someone who couldn't give a flying fvck about chelsea... if that's the case, good riddance

i'd keep luiz 100%... he's been thrown into a team that's been playing shite for weeks last game, can't fault him for that defensive performance, we were already a shambles the previous games defensively. Cahill needs to go 100% though

any word as to when he might be coming back?

Ozil just resigned for 350K/week, would think that Hazard would demand similar wages and I hope our club is not stupid enough to turn him down... Also, lots of rumors that Conte is gone in the summer, maybe Thibaut and Eden are waiting to see what the club does this summer, which managers and what players they bring in... Like others have said on here, re-signing him is probably the most important task facing the club right now. I would even accept a crappy year with zero trophies if it meant Hazard re-signing, I would be happy...

maybe in terms of relations between managers and the board, sure. but in terms of success on the pitch, if winning two PL titles and one league cup in 3 years is "having dark clouds overs us", then may those dark clouds remain forever lol

nevermind RVP, Jose has publicly dissed him repeatedly over the years. Knowing Wenger, he'll avoid doing jose any favors just for that I think...

Very well said!

not the most trusted of sources... https://twitter.com/indykaila/status/948943144141447168

agree, crass but funny!

what's going on with the transfer progress of our friend drinky? not been any updates in a little while

are we even gonna get zappacosta and drinkwater done? edit: one done

edit: my bad for reposting

I think the board is Conte's problem. It clear as day he didn't sanction all the outgoings and isn't getting the targets he wanted. Sandro being at the top of the list. yeah but with sandro, what more could we have done, honestly?

but they rejected us because THEY lack ambition, not our fault...

I wouldn't necessarily say conte's the problem, all managers always want more players and it may well be that the board made certain promises to him that haven't been kept. Having said that, some of the deals that haven't come off were because player X decided to go to another club, not necessarily the board's fault... I think Conte is pushing hard for players but will still work and do his best with the squad we have

all these players turning us down like ox and barkley, honestly if they're not ready to fight for their place we don't need em anyways