Who to blame for the worst season in the Roman era ?

[didierforever 7,349]

the only option that makes sense is BOARD. how many of us here knew that torres and sturridge as our only striking options would be a failure. still the board dint buy any strikers. loaning essien and selling meireles while having 4-5 players with absolutely no epl experience was always going to be difficult.

the mid is arguably the most important area of the pitch and for the 2 positions of the pivot we had 4 players mikel,lamps,rambo,romeu. with absolutely no back up.

chelsea were in 7 competitions in the start of the season and a team like chelsea should always be aiming for all the trophies they are playing for that is about 65-70 matches in the season or atleast 60 matches anyways yet we went into the season with a 20 man squad which included piazon and a relegated malouda.

at the 1st sight of a failure/wobble we discarded a fan favourite manager hence losing the home support to an extent which was followed up with a shocking and abysmal appointment of FSW.

how can this season not be the board's fault. from the decisions in transfer market to squad selection to the management appointment, they screwed it all up.

[TorontoChelsea 4,064]

I wanted something in between one choice and everybody. I don't think either of our managers this season really deserve blame for the current general state of the club and I don't think managers matter that much anyway. We wouldn't win with this club under any manager. We're simply not as talented as the top teams, we have less depth, and we have bigger holes in our roster despite generally outspending them. To me, that means that most of the fault lies with the board.

[LDN Blue 7,903]

I do believe this is a transitional season though. I mean we've seen the relationship between Hazard, Oscar & Mata click. We've seen a big improvement from players like Luiz & Azpilicueta as the season's gone along. It's not good for our league position, with what's happened, but there are little tells for positives.

[Beepu 1,714]

I think everyone can be blamed, although the biggest and the majority of it goes to the board who in the end is the one who made these decisions.

But really blaming anyone wont do anything.

[ZOS 580]

board..................................................................... 30%

old guard(Jose's Legacy, i.e. players inflated ego)..... 32%

fans, hero worshipers, CPO..................................... 15%

benitez..................................................................... 8%

roman...................................................................... 2%

di matteo.................................................................. 2%

the pivot, incapable, unwilling old players.....................11%

[Hamilton 2,120]

Lack of squad depth.

This,

the one decided to loan out some good squad players, starting with Lukaku what ment we started season with one striker..

[Korea 734]

eh, is any of the loanees going to come back next season.

I'm pretty sure Lukaku is going on loan again and its realistically possible with KDB as well..

[Hamilton 2,120]

We probably don't know untill we have a manager..

[ZanSnake 1,211]

COME ON GUYS!

You seriously don't know!

It's so simple!

It's this guys fault...

If he became manager when i wanted him to, we wouldn't be in this mess!

Fucking Batman and his Gotham City bullshit!

[bushman 2,043]

Whom to blame ?

The way I see it.

Nobody but the clueless board.

Roman buys players, spends plenty of money, just about every year. No blame here as far as I am concerned.

Coaches. Well, certainly they must be responsible for the way the team performs. However, the team is depleted & no matter what any coach may do, we cannot expect miracles out of the thin squad.

Players must be bought, in the summer. At least 2-3 top ones & hopefully someones who can stand the physical side of EPL competition. No more samba boys, I feel. Physically proficient only, those that can challenge the rough tackles of EPL.

That´s the only way Chelsea can be successful in challenging for major trophies. CL, PL in that order. Anything else is just secondary in my view.

[The only place to be 11,313]

To a certain extent, yes that might be true. But at the end of the day, Roman isn't receiving monetary compensation to do a job. I can see why *some* of the blame needs to be attributed to him for decisions regarding managerial appointments/firings and the whole Torres situation.

But to argue that he is fully to blame for this mess of a season and not the board, is absurd and removes accountability from people who are getting paid a shit load of money to ensure that x, y, z is being done. We know that Roman is involved with club affairs, but it's not like he's micro-managing everything relating to transfer dealings. Is it his fault that we don't have good enough players for the pivot? Or that 25 million was squandered on another attacking player when there are holes in other areas? Isn't that why he has a technical director getting a nice salary to ensure that the squad is in good shape to mount title challenges?

And how hard did we go after Modric? He's the player we all saw as the answer for that pivot position and we tried to get him, so it's not like we didn't identify areas that we needed to improve upon within the squad. That 'other attacking player' might turn out to be the guy we need in that position too.

I think this current board can be accused of focusing too much on the medium to long-term, but that's because the previous bunch of idiots didn't. They happily bought in ready-made players like Shevchenko, Sidwell, Boulharouz, PIzarro, Anelka, Belletti, Malouda etc. rather than looking to either develop young players from the academy (which in fairness they probably couldn't) or buy in through the market. Now we're actually doing that but we're lacking players in the 25-29 age range because we didn't do the right things 7 years ago.

And that's why we're having a bad season now. Shock, horror, a guy who only had 3 years experience of owning a club made mistakes. Fortunately he seems to have learnt from them which is why I still believe we have a strong future, but this season is about as bad as it gets for this club nowadays.

[bushman 2,043]

To bring players from academy is not the answer.

There is no player there who could bulk up the midfield.

[FabHazard 655]

DOUBLE PIVOT and Lack of squad depth.How can we compete in 7 competitions with 16 players?Still this is transitional season and i am impressed by the potential of this younger side with likes of mata,hazard etc.Just buy 2 cms for double pivot and 1 quality cb and we are done.Bring back players on loan to improve depth.Buy any 2 of benat/modric/moutinho/xabi alonso and a cb.add schurrle for depth

[bushman 2,043]

Still, those mentioned above is not the answer.

Tough, rugged, strong players are needed for the midfield.

I remember Essien in his younger days, that´s what is need for Chelsea, I feel.

[FabHazard 655]

Still, those mentioned above is not the answer.

Tough, rugged, strong players are needed for the midfield.

I remember Essien in his younger days, that´s what is need for Chelsea, I feel.

may be but we must sort out this problem.we must buy a cm. Capoue,cabaye,gundagon, bender are also some options

[bushman 2,043]

may be but we must sort out this problem.we must buy a cm. Capoue,cabaye,gundagon, bender are also some options

It´s hard for me to say as to whom to buy but one thing I feel the team needs players who could challenge the roughness of PL.

I have seen way too many tackles where Chelsea players are being bounced off like dolls & end up kissing the pitch, wondering what happened, then.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Those two bolded statements aren't contradictory?

It's so easy to blame his advisors, but the other accusation laid at their feet is that they're nothing but 'yes men'. People criticising them can't have it both ways.

Roman wanted Guardiola. Roman wagered this club's immediate future on getting Guardiola. Funnily enough, that has consequences.

Now if you want to look at the players we let go then fine, but be honest about it. You say Lukaku could have helped, but do you mean the Lukaku before his loan or the Lukaku we have now? People were writing him off in the summer, now people are saying we shouldn't have let him go.

The same goes for Essien. Are you saying we should have kept a player on the wage bill who has had TWO major knee injuries and played less than 21 games in THREE of the last FOUR seasons? Or do you want the Essien that we have now, apparently fit and available?

Calling for the board to be sacked is easy. No board is popular because they spend most of their time saying 'no' to things, and most fans haven't got a clue what they do. You'll never run short of likes calling for the board to be sacked, especially if it gives people someone to blame who isn't a billionaire that happens to bankroll your club.

You make a good argument, but one entirely based on paper speculation. Are you sure Roman wanted Guardiola? Did you ask him yourself, or did the tabloids tell you?

[Spike 12,049]

You make a good argument, but one entirely based on paper speculation. Are you sure Roman wanted Guardiola? Did you ask him yourself, or did the tabloids tell you?

Personally I got a text message. It was in Russian, but I decyphered it.