Would missing out on the top four be the worst thing in the world?

[The only place to be 11,313]

Now its about money, glory, importance, sucess, trophies...take that away from us and think again if Mata or Hazard (among others) would stay here. For what? Being fifth in league, just to create some youth project etc.?

So they just leave? You realise they have contracts and aren't massive cunts don't you?

It sounds nice to have our own team of players we produce but it doesnt go like that. What you think about is utophia. Its never going to happen. We will lose players, money, trophies. In few years we will be medium team with homegrown team. So what? You dont realy think that we can produce 8 homegrown world class players? If 2 will be starters in next five years I will be extremely happy.

Well with that type of support from loyal fans like you it's definitely not going to work. I'm not asking for a whole team of homegrown players, but I would like to see Chalobah, Courtois, Lukaku, De Bruyne and a couple of others given a shot.

Keep up the balance. Experience/Class-Youth/potential.

Right now we have dozen of potential players but very very few top class players. That us exactly why we need two players in summer. If you think getting Cavani and Moutinho is bad because we should have this so called youth project for next 5 years and give up on everything and start from bottom then I dont know what is wrong with you?! It will take 15 years to create something like Barca or Borussia is doing to have youth, fans, great play and success together. This things take time. You have established 11 players and every two seasons you bring in another youth player to try him in first team. Some succeed some not. In the end you have 60 foreign and 40 homegrown players and thats success over 15 years of creating everything from attitude to fans, board members, buying policy etc. If you think we can just do this in few years you are heavily wrong.

Because you'll never win anything with kids right?

In best case your scenario would be like this: we give chance to youth. They dont show enough. We dont qualify to CL for few years. We lack money ti buy players to save situation. We are forced to sell our best players. We lose several fans. We never reach 3 place in PL. We cant attract new players. We cant win any trophies. Roman decides to sell us. Bottom of the story. It takes 10 years to finaly rebuild team. We have new board, coach and full mix of youth and experience. We get to 3rd spot in PL. After decade we play in CL again. We get more money, support and fans thanks to good performances. We win PL, first since 2010. After grear season, we are on top. We are CL trophy main favourites and in 2029 we win it again for the first time after 2012. We have 60% of homegrown players, we are dubbed as next barcelona.

In worse we never recover after Roman leaves and we are officialy midtable team again.

How the fuck is that a 'best case scenario'? :lol2:

[bushman 2,043]

International fan base is much more important for today´s football clubs than 40 thousand fans at Stamford Bridge.

The days of " working class " football fans are long gone.

[Rmpr 8,977]

We need the tourists and the overseas fans to buy our shit but they aren't the priority in my view. They never will be because they aren't what I equate supporting Chelsea with - they're figures on a balance sheet. I will always place an emphasis on the people in the stadium who get behind the team and have done for many years. I'm not going to apologise for that.

It is one thing to prioritize and another to not give us any credit. Dont get me wrong, I would do the same. Believe me, I would choose someone like Liquidator over me to be a Chelsea supporter. However, there is no need to be disrespectful to us and call us plastic or say we cant complain about anything because we dont go to games. Well, I cant go to the games!

I dont want an appology from you, you cant even answer your own PM...

That's certainly a possibility but we've seen Roman be more restrained over the last couple of years and I would hope that would continue. People like to characterise him as 'crazy' or naive ayetnd nothing I've heard or read comes close to that.

The 'crazy' that I personally atribute to Roman is his natural lack of reality. Him doing another 100mi+ deal to get a big time player is totally unhealthy and crazy in my world, not for him.

I also believe he has learned his lesson, but his attitudes does make us take it with a pinch of salt!

I think the problem is that we might just use these youngsters for cup games rather than trust them in league matches. They're young players and they will make mistakes but you have to stick by them when they do. We have this bizarre notion that youngsters have to be 100% ready which is completely absurd. No-one is ever 100% ready and you have to be prepared for slip-ups along the way. It's the way they bounce back that will determine their success or failure.

Agreed. Anything to do with UCL though?

I followed Chelsea to Tromso - it's never shit in my opinion.

I am not talking about fans travelling and enjoying going to those places, etc. I am talking about the squad....

It is horrible to play on Thursdays and always have your game delayed and it is not very good to go to Eastern Europe all the time (not because it is shit, but because it takes more time and all the other things that comes with it). And all of this for what? So we can either say we did nothing more than our duty by beating teams like Steua or that we are a shame to lose?

I think we're capable of both but the league has to be the most important.

I do think so, but that is kind of an endless topic...

[Stingray 9,441]

A world scale nuclear disaster or something in that area would be the worst thing.

Not finishing in the top four would not necesarilly be a disaster RELATIVE to the ambition and policy of unbolstering all the young guns we have now here and on loan. But is that our only ambition, I asked myself? Would finishing in the op 4 block that process? I really think not ....

Relative to maintaining our current and future status as a top team it can (conditional used here) seriously set us back as well. Since nobody knows how the dice will fall, you might consider it an unnecessary risk. Especially with FFP and the decrease in attractiveness as a club for players AND future managers.

It is no disaster, but it would cripple us for a while, I believe.

Also, his debate has a nonsensical side to it. As if we have a choice in this .... Whatever happens, we as a club will have o make the best of the future situation.

[bushman 2,043]

Money or prestige wise, CL trophy has no comparison.

[Mufassir08 2,400]

Very much agree with Romper 's points.

[Santiago. 1,500]

International fan base is much more important for today´s football clubs than 40 thousand fans at Stamford Bridge.

The days of " working class " football fans are long gone.

Agreed. We wouldn't of had the pleasure of listening to your wise and quality posts if it wasn't. Lucky us

[Santiago. 1,500]

Money or prestige wise, CL trophy has no comparison.

So in that case, Nottingham Forest is bigger than us and we are as big as Aston Villa?

[bushman 2,043]

Agreed. We wouldn't of have the pleasure of listening to your wise and quality posts if it wasn't. Lucky us

Now, you are talking. Thanks pal.

[The only place to be 11,313]

Agreed. We wouldn't of had the pleasure of listening to your wise and quality posts if it wasn't. Lucky us

[bushman 2,043]

So in that case, Nottingham Forest is bigger than us and we are as big as Aston Villa?

Do you know how much money Chelsea pulled in for CL title ?

[Muzchap 8,966]

I get what the @the only is saying

I get what @Romper and @Blue Lyon are saying

But I honesty think we need a radical wake up call. We have to stop thinking we can hire/fire our way to success....

I also agree with @the only - we're a few players away from a really good team. Those players could be KdB, Lukaku and Chalobah.

I also do think we need a DLM and CB - I'm also confused about Luiz - suddenly he's not being played in the pivot when I thought he did good work there... What happened? I could really see him there - if we had a great player next to him

I also agree we need to clear the dead wood - in the summer we need to get rid of anybody not good enough, fuck what it costs in compensation, having them hanging around is a cancer eating away at the club - we need motivated, professionals - not whiners!

So whatever happens as long as its fixed in the summer I don't mind and if that means no CL so be it....

As for Jose, he will come back if we miss CL - you telling me he wouldn't look at our squad and think fuck me I could dominate with this, couple of tweaks, bit of self belief - back in CL first season and maybe a domestic cup - now he would be up for that!!!

[Santiago. 1,500]

Do you know how much money Chelsea pulled in for CL title ?

Yes but you were also referencing the Prestige that comes along winning the CL. It's not just that because if that was the case, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest are just as big as us on the European Stage. IT's the fact we continue to participate in Europe as well as our continuing domestic reign this past decade that has made this club an Icon and attracted fans like yourself. Being out of the CL can work both positively and negatively but IMHO i think it would benefit us in terms of stabilizing our managerial aspects, introducing youth, and creating new talents that will adapt to the game and truly become our new generation. But that is only an assumption.

[Leif 6,006]

Yeah I toyed with this idea last season when I first signed up here for some reason (not too sure what triggered it). The thing is right... even if we miss out on the CL spots, there'll still be all that pressure for the next manager to get us back into the top 4 - maybe even more pressure than trying to stay in the top 4. Meaning the idea of youth being used more could unfortunately be void. That is, unless we lose some of our gems which would put a lump in my throat. (By Gems I do mean Hazard, Oscar etc. Mata seems loyal enough to stay regardless... hopefully.)

You know when you eat loads of junk food, stuff you really shouldn't be indulging in, and then you finally do that great poo which just seems to clean out your system? Us missing out on the top 4 could be that great big poo. Hopefully that makes some sense. (I'm saying that as a positive thing.)

Again, although it's even perhaps logical on a few levels to miss out on the CL for a season, it would really deflate me going from "CHELSEA TO SIGN MOURINHO AND RONALDO IN A PACKAGE DEAL!" (yeah, i know we aint getting Ronaldo) to "CHELSEA TO SIGN ALLEGRI TO GET THEM INTO THE TOP 4! OH, BUT WAIT, HE'S ALSO TAKING MILAN'S RIGHT-BACK ABATE WITH HIM! WOOO!!!" etc.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

Once you are out of the competition, it's difficult to get back in. Look at Liverpool. We need to finish in the Top 4. For all of Wegner's moaning, he is right. It's kind of a trophy on it's own. I'd rather finish in the top 4 than win EL or the FA Cup.

[Stingray 9,441]

Yeah I toyed with this idea last season when I first signed up here for some reason (not too sure what triggered it). The thing is right... even if we miss out on the CL spots, there'll still be all that pressure for the next manager to get us back into the top 4 - maybe even more pressure than trying to stay in the top 4. Meaning the idea of youth being used more could unfortunately be void. That is, unless we lose some of our gems which would put a lump in my throat. (By Gems I do mean Hazard, Oscar etc. Mata seems loyal enough to stay regardless... hopefully.)

You know when you eat loads of junk food, stuff you really shouldn't be indulging in, and then you finally do that great poo which just seems to clean out your system? Us missing out on the top 4 could be that great big poo. Hopefully that makes some sense. (I'm saying that as a positive thing.)

Exactly .... It can generate perverse effects and heighten the pressure on the manager and youngsters next year even more.

Ps: interesting metaphor you used :-) again!

[bushman 2,043]

Yes but you were also referencing the Prestige that comes along winning the CL. It's not just that because if that was the case, Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest are just as big as us on the European Stage. IT's the fact we continue to participate in Europe as well as our continuing domestic reign this past decade that has made this club an Icon and attracted fans like yourself. Being out of the CL can work both positively and negatively but IMHO i think it would benefit us in terms of stabilizing our managerial aspects, introducing youth, and creating new talents that will adapt to the game and truly become our new generation. But that is only an assumption.

Let me educate you a bit. I have been watching football for years. Became inclined to root for Chelsea since 2001.

Being out of CL is not desired. As a matter of fact it´s limited thinking. As a Chelsea fan, I do not want to see the team competing for secondary trophies only. I want Chelsea to play against Barca, Real, Bayern, Atletico...etc.

I certainly can avoid the likes of Branford on some muddy pitch.

[Santiago. 1,500]

Let me educate you a bit. I have been watching football for years. Became inclined to root for Chelsea since 2001.

Being out of CL is not desired. As a matter of fact it´s limited thinking. As a Chelsea fan, I do not want to see the team competing for secondary trophies only. I want Chelsea to play against Barca, Real, Bayern, Atletico...etc.

I certainly can avoid the likes of Branford on some muddy pitch.

So coming out of your mother's womb in 2001, you were already wearing a Chelsea Kit?