Forget sacking Rafa its a new board we need

[zolayes 14,489]

Its funny that you want a new board yet its obvious that it is abramovich making all the decisions. Do you want your 35 million superstars or do you want a stable board?

I would quite like Chelsea 2000 back

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

@theonly place to be. Some of those signings were good, some less so. Cahill was in the last 6 months of his contract so was not at all cheap. Moses and De Bruyne transfer fees were about right. Azpilicueta looks like he was a good buy as does Ba.

Alan Hansen was not right at the time, but he's right for now. Then, teams barely spent money on transfers. Stan Collymore and Bergkamp were the only players that went for over 7M. You could win by developing young players. You had to to win that way.. Now. you simply don't need to and you can't develop more than one or two at a time.You simply aren't going to beat teams who buy world-class players with your youth team. No, we won't spend like we did in 2004, but we will still be able to spend 50M+ every season which means that we will still be buying a lot of players. That's enough to buy a 2-3 very good players. You need to be smart in the transfer market and Chelsea have shown signs of (finally) looking for bargains rather than going after names.

There is no point in positioning your team for "long-term success" because long-term success means short term pain which means long-term pain (worse performance means less money made, less ability to attract top players, etc...) There is simply no point. Look at next season. We want to be winning. What are our choices for say, central midfield? We can bring back one of our loaners and let them try to earn the job or we can spend 15-20M and get someone like Benat or even Modric. Both affordable and both would be better than anyone we have on our squad currently. What will Chelsea do? They'll certainly go and buy a new midfielder. We want to compete and that gives us the best chance to compete. The problem we had is that we spent like crazy in the beginning and then stopped spending at all for a few years and then were horrible in the transfer market. Torres is about 1/5th of all the money we've spent in the past 3 years. Even without him, it's clear that we haven't done well in transfers.

I always had higher hopes for Jody Morris. Not that he would have ever made it at the new Chelsea, but I was excited about his potential. Alas...

[FriendlyMailman 15]

I would quite like Chelsea 2000 back

The Chelsea on the brink of administration?

[The only place to be 11,313]

Alan Hansen was not right at the time, but he's right for now. Then, teams barely spent money on transfers. Stan Collymore and Bergkamp were the only players that went for over 7M. You could win by developing young players. You had to to win that way..

See, this might look right from the stats but I remember us playing United 3 times in 93/94 (the season after they won the first EPL) and their starting line-up was something like.

Schmeichel

Parker

Pallister

Bruce

Irwin

Kanchelskis

Keane

Ince

Giggs

Hughes

Cantona

So saying 'you had to win that way' is not true. Who was the next team to win? Blackburn. Sutton, Shearer, Flowers....all big money (for that time and that was around the time Lentini going for £13 million was astronomical).

Hansen was wrong. The kids that Fergie bought through (after selling established starters) were high quality, and I think we have some who come close to that.

There is no point in positioning your team for "long-term success" because long-term success means short term pain which means long-term pain (worse performance means less money made, less ability to attract top players, etc...) There is simply no point. Look at next season. We want to be winning. What are our choices for say, central midfield? We can bring back one of our loaners and let them try to earn the job or we can spend 15-20M and get someone like Benat or even Modric. Both affordable and both would be better than anyone we have on our squad currently. What will Chelsea do? They'll certainly go and buy a new midfielder. We want to compete and that gives us the best chance to compete. The problem we had is that we spent like crazy in the beginning and then stopped spending at all for a few years and then were horrible in the transfer market. Torres is about 1/5th of all the money we've spent in the past 3 years. Even without him, it's clear that we haven't done well in transfers.

Benat would be better than anyone in our squad?? I remember when we were talking about Fellaini and I seem to recall you (or someone equally enamoured with stats) said that his passing percentage wasn't good enough.

What's Benat's?

Now we've got Oscar, De Bruyne and McEachran already on the books. You could even throw Chalobah in there if you want. I want to see these young guys that we already own given a chance, especially Josh.

I always had higher hopes for Jody Morris. Not that he would have ever made it at the new Chelsea, but I was excited about his potential. Alas...

You were probably the only one. The poor lad couldn't ever find a shirt small enough to fit, let alone a decent pass against a top team.

[Rmpr 8,977]

The profit last year was a a fluke mixed with accounting tricks on our transfers (we spent a lot more than we brought in but we count them differently so we had a "profit"). http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2013/jan/09/chelsea-cancelled-shared-profit-abramovich There's absolutely no way we don't lose a lot of money this year. I don't understand people saying the board is doing a good job. In 2009-2010, we won the double with an incredible +71 goal differential. Since then, we've spent net around 240M pounds and have gotten considerably worse. We could have bought 10 players for 24M pounds each. That's Robin Van Persie or Juan Mata kind of money...for 10 different players. Even without the Torres signing, we've still spent enough to build an entire new elite squad. It's almost impossible to spend the kind of money we've spent and not have an elite team but somehow we've managed. In that period, we've also gone through four managers and we'll have a fifth next year. We have mish-mash of players and styles. We have no depth at all in some places and too much depth in others. All this talk of rebuilding and young talent is pointless. That's what teams that don't spend money have to do. When you're a team that's spending 80M pounds a year, you should be able to field an elite team every year. We all knew that this year wasn't going to be a great year, but that's only because we were in such a horrible place from last year.

But they're doing a good job, why? Because we have some youth players that might become good? So what? For big clubs, this is a relatively minor part of the operation. Anyway, we'll be lucky if more than one of our youth players ever becomes a Chelsea regular for any period of time. FFP doesn't mean that teams are going to be paupers. Big teams, will still be able to spend 50-60 million pounds a year in transfers. If they don't have an established starter, they'll just buy someone. Clubs are able to buy established regulars for 10-15M pounds. The transfer marker won't really change much (except the extravagant spending). And that's what we'll do too. We're going to spend money this winter or this summer or both buying some new players moving our youth players further down the pecking order.

We are in good shape as a club because we have a billionaire owner and so we can spend more than other clubs and we have more stability at the ownership level. That doesn't mean we're run well. That said, the board is doing a few things better. Signing a very nicely priced Ba instead of chasing someone like Falcao was a nice improvement and a hopeful sign for the future.

Again Toronto?

I have seen you posting the same topic at least 5 times. I know you are somewhat right, but we have got to start looking foward and stop crying for the past...

We have fucked up with our transition period and it is everyone's fault, not just the Board or Roman or Torres. Everyone has a percentage of the blame. We used the January Transfer Window really wrong and we did went for the big names without looking for better options. However, we have to accept that and move on, learning from our mistakes!

We have spent 240M, but from that amount 50 went for Torres and 57 for two brilliant players that are not fully ready. Not that huge of an investment if you think about it, still a big one that should have made us a much better team than we are, but in comparisson, Real Madrid spent 226M in one year. Saying we could have bought 10 players for 24M does not mean good business, you gave examples that worked, I can give you a lot more that didn't. Also, RVP does not cost 27M, he costs 30-35, but the contract situation was unique. Big time players are still needed and even Barcelona (that has Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Busquets, etc) knows that! Also, I believe you are seeing things too one sided. Roman is not on 2004 and he is not stupid, he did learn with his fucked up mistakes. Before Torres, we would have gone for Pastore, Hulk and Falcao no matter what. Instead, we bought Mata, Moses, Dave and Ba. All for less than 10mi and we all know how they turned out. A good sample of how things have changed for the better, if you ask me.

We have a good strikeless unexperienced team, it is better than most people think. If Torres had lived up to his hype (like Aguero, RVP, Falcao, etc), we would be within reach of EPL title and probably wouldnt have fucked up CWC. A great striker makes a difference you can not imagine: Brasil won in 1994 because of Romario and in 2002 because of Ronaldo, Manure will win this year beacause of RVP, ManCity won because of Aguero, PSG are where they are because of Ibra, Barcelona and Messi, etc. A true striker mascarate your flaws and give you unexpected and undeserved wins (necessary to win titles). We have a popular saying in Brazil that says that a great striker is half the team, that is pretty true. I know it sounds like a joke trying to imagine ourselves with a decent Torres, but we wouldnt be so exposed and people wouldnt be desperate to swear at anyone at CFC.

With Lampard, Cole and Torres leaving, we will clear 400k/ week in wages. Another 80-90M transfer window is enough to buy a LB.CB.CM and ST. We are not that far away from an excellent team. With one or two spending transfer windows, we can solve all our problems. Young players will mature and new ones will arrive. Then, we will relly on cirurgical improvements and on our youngsters. Things don't look so awful. Our club is trully in its path to healthy finances.

Are they doing a good job overall? NO! Nevertheless, we have more positives outcomes than negatives. We have built a very good training centre, we have corrected the way we run our Academy, we have sky rocket our earnings (I know we still spend a lot) and we have gained respect. I have said this to you already, but all we need is organization and hierarchy. We have a big problem and that is communication and power. The Board itself is not bad, only our top two heads. If we replace them with a great CEO (someone who is able to give direct orders and a decent power structure), things will resolve itself.

The lack of respect we feel from our board is more a reflection of our internal mess, I really don't feel we have been so deeply disrespected. It does hurt when I remember Wilkins and Benitez, but if that is the price of success, I am willing to take it. Just to be clear, I don't agree with those episodes, I am only saying that we cant have everything and we are being ignorant to rant over a few really sad moments like they were the end of the world. Would I want it to be erased from our past? Sure, but there is not much we can do about it. We want to be heard, but we don't really do anything to achieve it. There are some small groups working their asses to create some sort of trust or change inseide the club, but the vast majority only complains in the internet.

In resume, I don't think we are that bad in the transfer window, I trully think Abramovich learned his lesson and organization and good management is all our Board needs. When we reach such level of stability, things will get better. Also, we use to think that what the fans want is the best for the team, sometimes it is not. Anyways, just like the fans give too much credid or blame to the manager, they do with our directors.

EDIT 1: I have never taken so long to write a post, I am really high and don't bother if the post is a total mess.

EDIT 2: I havent touched the manager sacking aspect because you already know how I feel about it. I am willing to give Roman one last chance, if he sacks another manager next season, I am done. Although I still trust him and will give the man one last chance.

[zolayes 14,489]

The Chelsea on the brink of administration?

YES

actually that was about 3 years later ..I was 13 years younger and you had just joined primary school with your new manure or gooners shirt

[FriendlyMailman 15]

YES

actually that was about 3 years later ..I was 13 years younger and you had just joined primary school with your new manure or gooners shirt

lol

actually i was in junior high with my everton shirt...

[zolayes 14,489]

lol

actually i was in junior high with my everton shirt...

in 2000 ....in England ..get your story right troll

[BlueLyon 9,359]

I will forgive them a bit if they buy Benat and Capoue.