Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire

[Leif 6,006]

The last paragraph is bollocks. Ashley loves Chelsea

The last paragraph was me actually stating what I've both heard and seen. Where did you get that from? I'm sure he loves our money, yeah.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Yes hindsight is wonderful - so now you dont think Benitez is any good, do you still say Lampard should go ?

I've said that Lamps should get a new contract if Mourinho becomes manager. But we still need to replace him in the first team so I'm then arguing in favour of a bench player being given at least £80k a week (at a guess), which is against my frugal nature.

I like the idea of Frank sticking around because I enjoy seeing him at the club and would hate seeing him at another. In footballing terms though, I don't know if he's needed.

Agreed. The issue is the players that should be bridging the gap in the meantime aren't performing for a number of reasons and they have been short on numbers all year. To be fair that's good enough reason alone as to why the board should be sacked (failing to provide numerous managers with enough players to compete properly in a season). This is Ron Gourlay speaking after Munich:

There were stories of Di Matteo wanting another striker in the summer and being rebuffed. The decision was clearly made that Torres would be given every chance to succeed fail. Five months later we're out the Champions League, no hope of the title and end up buying a striker in the January transfer window. Who is making these decisions if it isn't the manager? Quite clearly 'the board'.

We have hoovered up a lot of young talent and it's promising but for a club that has for years failed to develop and integrate young players we have to see real progress before we go putting all our eggs into that basket.

I can't stand Torres, but he was a £50million investment (probably double that with wages) and you can't just write them off. The fans didn't write him off either, up until last month (the Sunderland game was the last false dawn) so the board weren't alone in that. We knew how much he cost and that we needed him to succeed. I'm sure people on here were saying after Didier left that he would shine, I know I did.

I think with the hiring of AVB the club showed a willingness to embrace stability and promote young players, but that didn't work out and we all have our theories why. But the willingness and the investment in youth is enough for me to believe that the club does want to do things the right way and until I believe differently I won't be joining in the calls of 'sack the board'.

[The only place to be 11,313]

The last paragraph was me actually stating what I've both heard and seen. Where did you get that from? I'm sure he loves our money, yeah.

From what I've heard and seen at the club.

[Leif 6,006]

heard

Being?

[Term-X 7,891]

now I know you are just a troll

bushman has become active here because he was banned from a neutral football forum (TFF, a forum previously owned by Jim). He was banned for spamming the board with vulgar/poorly articulated posts in which he just 'stated the obvious', plus.. general derailing, trolling, bickering etc.

We actually found out he was only 13 years old, which explains a lot, but still..

[The only place to be 11,313]

Being?

That he was disrespected by Arsenal and turned-on by their fans. It's pretty well-known there's no love lost between him and his former club.

Have you ever read his twitter comments? https://twitter.com/TheRealAC3/status/227076381182406656

[zolayes 14,489]

bushman has become active here because he was banned from a neutral football forum (TFF, a forum previously owned by Jim). He was banned for spamming the board with vulgar/poorly articulated posts in which he just 'stated the obvious', plus.. general derailing, trolling, bickering etc.

We actually found out he was only 13 years old, which explains a lot, but still..

thanks

[Eggman 118]

I do not agree with the crux of the article: that Roman alters the club to increase revenue, to attract customers and to discourage "supporters". If buying Chelsea was a business plan to make profit, he would surely be not much of a business man, spending all that money on players.

In Belgium, one of the great old clubs, Standard de Liège, has been bought by a millionair type who aims exactly at making money out of it. He sold all of their good players instantly (to recuperate the money he invested) without replacing them by even remotely equal players. As a result, the club, who had just crawled out of a harsh 20 year period without trophees, has now been relegated to obscurity once again.

This is not what Roman's "business model" for Chelsea has looked like. Not at all. However, what can be said is that Roman and the people he surrounds himself with know too little about football. Coming out of a different business, he would do well to attract the know-how he himself misses.

RDM won the CL, by chance. This resulted in the fact that he was given the job of manager, without being the right man for the job. Yes, he is a club icon, and he did the impossible, and the manner in which he is treated (cf. the picture and all) is repugnant. But the football with him was horrible and lacked a whole lot, offensively. TFSW has not been able to turn this around.

In sum: Roman cannot think of anything else than to "buy stuff" when it comes to building a club. There is no football philosophy or long-term strategy involved. However, I do not think that he is trying to milk the club to fill his pockets - on the contrary.

[Styles 9,790]

I've said that Lamps should get a new contract if Mourinho becomes manager. But we still need to replace him in the first team so I'm then arguing in favour of a bench player being given at least £80k a week (at a guess), which is against my frugal nature.

I like the idea of Frank sticking around because I enjoy seeing him at the club and would hate seeing him at another. In footballing terms though, I don't know if he's needed.

I can't stand Torres, but he was a £50million investment (probably double that with wages) and you can't just write them off. The fans didn't write him off either, up until last month (the Sunderland game was the last false dawn) so the board weren't alone in that. We knew how much he cost and that we needed him to succeed. I'm sure people on here were saying after Didier left that he would shine, I know I did.

I think with the hiring of AVB the club showed a willingness to embrace stability and promote young players, but that didn't work out and we all have our theories why. But the willingness and the investment in youth is enough for me to believe that the club does want to do things the right way and until I believe differently I won't be joining in the calls of 'sack the board'.

Point is the manager at the time knew he was a busted flush and wanted somebody else but 'the board' in their infinite wisdom overruled his judgement. What supporters thought is irrelevant (and trust me there was plenty of supporters who wanted him gone in the summer let alone being our leading striker for the upcoming season). There are people who are making football decisions when they have no right to be doing so.

AVB showed no willingness to integrate youth players. I remember how he treated Bertrand. We are investing a lot on youth but that's it. We just have more talented young players than we did a few years ago. Only when they are providing options for the senior squad will they be worth talking about, until then it's just a pipe dream.

[Rmpr 8,977]

What a shit piece of article when he talks about Roman!

I completely agree with The only place to be...

[SinineUltra 1,170]

Point is the manager at the time knew he was a busted flush and wanted somebody else but 'the board' in their infinite wisdom overruled his judgement. What supporters thought is irrelevant (and trust me there was plenty of supporters who wanted him gone in the summer let alone being our leading striker for the upcoming season). There are people who are making football decisions when they have no right to be doing so.

AVB showed no willingness to integrate youth players. I remember how he treated Bertrand. We are investing a lot on youth but that's it. We just have more talented young players than we did a few years ago. Only when they are providing options for the senior squad will they be worth talking about, until then it's just a pipe dream.

Regarding youth - Roman took over June 2003 and has been trying to make our academy bring through players. Till now most of the players that have been sent away have been the product of PRE Roman time, they might have trained in better facilities since he took over but the bulk of their footballing knowledge has came before the Russian.

I think the real testimony for the work and effort put into youth academy comes in a year or two when boys -who have been part of the modern youth system of the Chelsea we have known for years now- come through. The early fruits can be tasted already with FA Youth Cup victories in 2010 and most recently 2012. Not to mention that we have been very stable in the tournament, always making it far in the knock out stages and beating one of the powerhouses in youth development Barcelona 2-0 away in NextGen series.

So I think the future is bright, they just haven't peaked yet. Also more and more prominent clubs are willing to take / want to take our players on loan for much needed play time. Illustrated by successful loans of KvB, Lukaku etc.

[NishC300 1,865]

bushman has become active here because he was banned from a neutral football forum (TFF, a forum previously owned by Jim). He was banned for spamming the board with vulgar/poorly articulated posts in which he just 'stated the obvious', plus.. general derailing, trolling, bickering etc.

We actually found out he was only 13 years old, which explains a lot, but still..

Man there are many very good 13 yrs I have a friend who's 12 and he's gr8 chelsea fan!

[NishC300 1,865]

we WERE a good club before he came in ..with a decent team ....suggest you read our history..but I suppose you werent a fan then

Oh yea. It only took Chelsea to win PL some like....? I let you fill it here.

Chelsea for the first 50 years of their existence won precisely nothing. Finally, in 1955 the league championship was won. Then in 1970 FA Cup & dick for another 26 years. League cup in 1998 & FA Cup in 2000. Then Roman came on & you became a fan.

no I was a fan when we were really shit ,,,glory hunters like you came with the Russian

Well I was just reading through the pages and I saw this? Wtf? Zoyales a glory hunter! He's a diehard true blue! If u call Zoyales a glory hunter that's like saying Chelsea don't wear blue but wear i dunno *thinking of a colour* green! It's just not true! If Zoyales was a glory hunter then the whole world would be turned upside down!

and regarding what zoyales first said our record win (in all competitions) was in 1971! (13–0 v. Jeunesse Hautcharage, Cup Winners' Cup, 1st Round 2nd Leg, 29 September 1971) ik it's copy pasted.

and we beat Gala 5-0 in 99 our biggest UCL win

[NishC300 1,865]

You can never turn a football club into a business!

[Zain Nayyar 1]

I think Roman s bad decisions had cost us and he does nt give contract to Lampard. Its just ridiculous and not the behaviour player of Frank s calibre wanting. Alongside it He sacked managers because Of trophyless seasons 4 a long time. Just luk at Arsenal and Man United. Did they did so. I want him To get rid of the el nin0 as quick as possible otherwise.........

you can imagine