The European Leagues & Competitions Thread V2

[Pizy 18,368]

It's pretty astounding to think that just a few short months ago we finished 13 points ahead of City and felt on top of the world. Now in the blink of an eye they've become arguably the best side in Europe and our season is on the brink of crisis depending on this weekends result.

They've catapulted so far beyond us it's mad. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if by the time the January window rolls around that they're 10 points clear AND will add more top class quality to their team like Sanchez. 

The massive gulf in ambition between our clubs is staggering. One club wants to take over the football world and build a juggernaut whilst we were again complacent and content with what we had. The benefit of being bankrolled by a country with unlimited money as opposed to an individual I suppose.

[OneMoSalah 8,776]

14 minutes ago, Pizy said:

It's pretty astounding to think that just a few short months ago we finished 13 points ahead of City and felt on top of the world. Now in the blink of an eye they've become arguably the best side in Europe and our season is on the brink of crisis depending on this weekends result.

They've catapulted so far beyond us it's mad. And it wouldn't surprise me at all if by the time the January window rolls around that they're 10 points clear AND will add more top class quality to their team like Sanchez. 

The massive gulf in ambition between our clubs is staggering. One club wants to take over the football world and build a juggernaut whilst we were again complacent and content with what we had. The benefit of being bankrolled by a country with unlimited money as opposed to an individual I suppose.

The benefit of a team willing to follow their manager, invest without hesitation and compete with teams to sign the best players.*****

Napoli are an amazing team, play with such style and press high and City bar a wobble at first comfortably beat them once they got properly going. City this summer went for fullbacks and a GK that suited, as they desperately needed them, got them and already had the main bulk of their MF and FW line. They were good last season at points but two new full backs of high quality (never thought I’d say that about Kyle Walker) and a very good, assured, commanding GK and they are a different team. Like we could of been with Alex Sandro, Oxlade Chamberlain and Marco Verratti... well I’d imagine we wouldn’t get him but hey no harm trying 😂

To give Spurs credit they done excellently tonight too. The differences between ourselves, City and Spurs in the upstairs of the club so to speak is all different but they are showing that it can be done a different way as we’ve done in the past. There is no one way to run a club but these guys are reaping the rewards of different approaches.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

30 minutes ago, OneMoSalah said:

The benefit of a team willing to follow their manager, invest without hesitation and compete with teams to sign the best players.*****

Napoli are an amazing team, play with such style and press high and City bar a wobble at first comfortably beat them once they got properly going. City this summer went for fullbacks and a GK that suited, as they desperately needed them, got them and already had the main bulk of their MF and FW line. They were good last season at points but two new full backs of high quality (never thought I’d say that about Kyle Walker) and a very good, assured, commanding GK and they are a different team. Like we could of been with Alex Sandro, Oxlade Chamberlain and Marco Verratti... well I’d imagine we wouldn’t get him but hey no harm trying 😂

To give Spurs credit they done excellently tonight too. The differences between ourselves, City and Spurs in the upstairs of the club so to speak is all different but they are showing that it can be done a different way as we’ve done in the past. There is no one way to run a club but these guys are reaping the rewards of different approaches.

Napoli lost Ghoulam and it could be different if he wasnt injured. 

But credit where due City was amazing. So were spurs. 

I hope Napoli goes through, they are brilliant side, certainly one of best to watch this year and it would be little disaster not to see best napoli in knockout stages. Feyenord and shakhtar are certainly beatable and if they do their best, they will beat both. City should beat shakhtar aswell.

But funny tho, I ALWAYS wanted english football to rise again, to conquer the european throne and end spanish domination. City, Spurs are becoming formidable sides. United will too sooner or later. But Chelsea...we were the only english team not to be ridiculed for years, but now that english football is once again making serious impression in europe, we are falling behind. 

Yes we won two PL titles in past 3 years, but we looked average in europe since that semifinal with atletico, while City, United and even Spurs have improved massively. 

We are slowly becoming on level with Liverpool and Arsenal mentality on too many levels. 

Fuck, the board and players better wake up. 

[BlueLyon 9,359]

2 hours ago, It's too big said:

Should have won the league last season then with their superior squad. This is the same Spurs who looked toothless vs Utd last weekend? I think the lack of pressure (which cannot be overstated enough) to win anything is a huge advantage for them over us, City and Utd, heck even add Arsenal to that somewhat. The coach knows he can bring in young players or not win the league and it not be a problem, but for us if we fail 2 seasons in a row to not win the league, the manager gets the boot most likely. They have some quality players, but I think they also get overrated a lot too. 

Tbh people blasted them when they were losing to second tier teams last year, I think they deserve credit this year. 

Real and Bvb are no small teams and they did great against them. Meanwhile we got blasted by Roma. 

I hate spurs but they are doing great job. They have balanced squad, they have stability in board. They got destroyed under pressure many times in title race and european games, but if they stick together with Kane and Alli, they will be top top side sooner or later. 

At the very end, they played great game against Real. We would close down and Real would be all over us for 90min. 

Thats the reality atm. We might be winning game here or there with great tactics or players having their day, but to expect them to put top game 90% of time against quality sides, thats a fantasy now. Players have proven they are average in pressing, dealing with high press, passing, tempo, controling,...basics. One quality game or even one season doesnt change the fact we then look like second tier team next game or season. Zero improvement. Just step forward, step back, rinse and repeat...

Our team atm still didnt peak, so there is some reserve, but honestly we are backtracking big time when others are making huge improvement. 

Results wise, we might still be competitve, but play wise, not even close. Even the likes of Napoli, Roma, Lazio, Valencia, Monaco are slowly but steadily coming ahead of us. And in long term, they will get results too. We have results for now and for alot of time very shitty performances. If the results are gone, our level is Arsenal and Pool.

[bluephoenix 1,126]

Spurs flattening Real Madrid was just

[Belgiannutt 3,201]

10 hours ago, BlueLyon said:

Napoli lost Ghoulam and it could be different if he wasnt injured. 

But credit where due City was amazing. So were spurs. 

I hope Napoli goes through, they are brilliant side, certainly one of best to watch this year and it would be little disaster not to see best napoli in knockout stages. Feyenord and shakhtar are certainly beatable and if they do their best, they will beat both. City should beat shakhtar aswell.

But funny tho, I ALWAYS wanted english football to rise again, to conquer the european throne and end spanish domination. City, Spurs are becoming formidable sides. United will too sooner or later. But Chelsea...we were the only english team not to be ridiculed for years, but now that english football is once again making serious impression in europe, we are falling behind. 

Yes we won two PL titles in past 3 years, but we looked average in europe since that semifinal with atletico, while City, United and even Spurs have improved massively. 

We are slowly becoming on level with Liverpool and Arsenal mentality on too many levels. 

Fuck, the board and players better wake up. 

Only 2 ways i see us catching up

1/  is if Abramovich starts pumping money into the team again. We need to go on a spending spree like City and United have done over the years. 300-400 million, adding 4-6 quality players.

Not potential, not good player genuine quality players who can come in and immediately give us a quality injection. 

 

2/ is going down the same path Tottenham did. Putting the team full of youth players and hope they develop. 

It's risky though. There's no guarantee they'll reach their full potential and even if they do they could end up leaving us for other teams. 

Then there's the guarantee that if we do this we won't be winning anything for several years as it would take time for the youth players to develop. 

Right now we're slipping and getting dangerously close to Arsenal abnd Liverpool level. 

[Leif 6,006]

2 hours ago, Belgiannutt said:

Only 2 ways i see us catching up

1/  is if Abramovich starts pumping money into the team again. We need to go on a spending spree like City and United have done over the years. 300-400 million, adding 4-6 quality players.

Not potential, not good player genuine quality players who can come in and immediately give us a quality injection. 

 

2/ is going down the same path Tottenham did. Putting the team full of youth players and hope they develop. 

It's risky though. There's no guarantee they'll reach their full potential and even if they do they could end up leaving us for other teams. 

Then there's the guarantee that if we do this we won't be winning anything for several years as it would take time for the youth players to develop. 

Right now we're slipping and getting dangerously close to Arsenal abnd Liverpool level. 

Those really are the only 2 options for a club like ours. 

Yet, our transfer policy essentially mirrors Liverpool's.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

17 hours ago, It's too big said:

Should have won the league last season then with their superior squad. This is the same Spurs who looked toothless vs Utd last weekend? I think the lack of pressure (which cannot be overstated enough) to win anything is a huge advantage for them over us, City and Utd, heck even add Arsenal to that somewhat. The coach knows he can bring in young players or not win the league and it not be a problem, but for us if we fail 2 seasons in a row to not win the league, the manager gets the boot most likely. They have some quality players, but I think they also get overrated a lot too. 

Why are you conveniently ignoring the fact they were without their best player? Imagine us playing one of the top 5 PL teams at their place without Hazard. It won't be a competetitive match

[LAM09 6,744]

1 hour ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

Why are you conveniently ignoring the fact they were without their best player? Imagine us playing one of the top 5 PL teams at their place without Hazard. It won't be a competetitive match

http://www.skysports.com/football/tottenham-vs-chelsea/373115

[Blue Armour 4,278]

12 hours ago, LAM09 said:

http://www.skysports.com/football/tottenham-vs-chelsea/373115

Indeed.

And its not the first time. You can just look at Danny Rose's comments at the start of the season, when he was commenting about our squad strength on display during the FA cup semi final last season

[Leif 6,006]

Only in Serie A would Borini be moulded into a right back.

[El P. 1,354]

2 hours ago, Leif said:

Only in Serie A would Borini be moulded into a right back.

I still cannot believe how Montella is shaping that team. Rodriguez at LCB, chaos in midfield, mostly playing wrong players. And I don't see what anyone sees in that Chakanoglu guy. Free kick is all he got. Bonaventura and Suso are both better than him.

[Leif 6,006]

I really think this thread needs to be closer to the main page where we discuss CFC. Encourages more posts, and 'football banter' it isn't. 

This is potentially the most interesting, least-moany thread. And it's almost hidden, considering you expect all the football talk to be contained to one area.
There's 1,000+ topics in this sub-forum - 3 of them active (all other-team related). Kill it. Kill it with fire.

We already have the 'English Football' thread; I'd make that the a) to a b), being 'All Other Leagues' thread.

I feel like this thread we're in right now has built up an image of Champions League & Europa League talk. So, 3 threads total, in their own section, no other threads in that section but for those 3, right below or-so our main Chelsea sections. Pretty please? 

[Leif 6,006]

Valencia with another dominant win; 3-0. Amazing what reshuffling the board can do, *ahem*. I think this was their 8th win in a row, and their last game, the 7th win, is their longest La Liga winning streak in history.

1 point behind leaders Barcelona. 7 points ahead of Real Madrid. And this is a team which for 5+ years has been roughly the same level as Sporting Lisbon.

They don't have the 'family bond' of Atletico; they have none of the funds of Madrid; they lack the decades-long consistency of Barcelona; yet with just the board reshuffle, a few loan players in, and their veteran Parejo stepping up, they're instantly amongst not just the most attractive, but effective teams in Europe. I wish we could play them to get a true measure of them. They really deserve a bright future.

[Leif 6,006]

This La Liga season is pretty much showing me why I don't want Simeone here. Defend first, attack second. Draw first, win second, lose 3rd. The priority isn't to express themselves as a team, but stop the other team expressing themselves. Honestly not too dissimilar to how we do things, only less effective, despite better players. So, given all that, maybe Simeone isn't that great. Maybe he's the one who needs a plan B.

It's kind of sickening to have all the amazing young players they have yet not letting them out of shackles. Self-expression is the point of football. We watch for the players and their inventiveness, not the manager (most of the time).

19 games of theirs so far this season (including CL); 15 games of scoring either just 1, or 0 goals.
11 draws, 7 wins.

Edit: Though of course they just scored in the last minute. 0-1. Terrible game. Headache-inducing. Might never watch Atletico again if i can make it so.

[Leif 6,006]

He didn't play today, but the scoreline caught my attention and got me thinking: Neymar, having played with Brazil, having played with Messi and Barcelona, isn't near as impressive in Ligue 1 surrounded by the best players in the league compared to what we saw from Hazard before he joined. Perspective. Has Neymar been a stat bloater?

PSG's bench is surprisingly weak this season too. I'd no idea so many no-names played for them still. 

[El P. 1,354]

20 hours ago, Leif said:

He didn't play today, but the scoreline caught my attention and got me thinking: Neymar, having played with Brazil, having played with Messi and Barcelona, isn't near as impressive in Ligue 1 surrounded by the best players in the league compared to what we saw from Hazard before he joined. Perspective. Has Neymar been a stat bloater?

PSG's bench is surprisingly weak this season too. I'd no idea so many no-names played for them still. 

People are wrong to already put Neymar in top 3 players. Most of people thinks: 1. Messi, 2. Ronaldo, 3. Neymar

I think Neymar has to prove himself a lot, he is no finished product nor good enough to be considered 3rd player of the world permanently.

Also, CR will fall out of top 3 after this season, most likely.

[Leif 6,006]

15 minutes ago, El P. said:

People are wrong to already put Neymar in top 3 players. Most of people thinks: 1. Messi, 2. Ronaldo, 3. Neymar

I think Neymar has to prove himself a lot, he is no finished product nor good enough to be considered 3rd player of the world permanently.

Also, CR will fall out of top 3 after this season, most likely.

Agreed, all of that. 

Who will the top 3 players/forwards be next? I wouldn't know where to start.