The Board

[The only place to be 11,313]

I'm not sure of there's a thread elsewhere or maybe a couple of disparate ones about certain members of the board/club hierarchy but I thought now would be a good time to post a thread giving them some credit.....because they got plenty of stick a while back, perhaps rightly so.

But it's just been quite astounding to see how they've turned us from the club getting mugged off on transfers to a club who buy great players for value (Matic being the prime example) whilst selling fringe players not just for profit, but for fees bordering on extortionate (Mata, Luiz). Not only that but players like Courtois and Lukaku have doubled or perhaps even tripled in value whilst our commercial revenues continue to increase and we comply with FFP.

So I thought it would be interesting to see what other people think, in light of the performance of people like Woodward at United and the criticism Gourlay, Buck, Emenalo et al received in the past.

[edetarod 2,155]

sold KdB, Mata and Luiz, essentially 3 bench players for us, for 100m

take a bow

[The Skipper 20,609]

Emenalo is a guy a lot of people used to slate but ever since he's come in we've done extremely well with our transfers. The majority of the players that we signed have mostly increased in value - that alone should tell you how wonderful the board and him have done since his appointment. A lot of credit has to go to him.

Now, with Mourinho here we'll be able to attract even more players because of his prestige as a manager. Him and Emanalo are going to make a good team.

I trust them to get it right this summer - because if they do, we'll have the right squad to dominate for years. Costa, a world class CM and a top LB and we're done.

[edetarod 2,155]

please Chelsea,

bid 50m for Modric and see what happens

he's THE perfect player for us

[Duppy Conqueror 1,528]

Torres was the last bad buy really.(out of players anyway) Turned it around well since then,atleast in the buying and selling transfer windows. Not been a fan of some of their loan out decisions.

[Rom2013 446]

We sold really well in this 2 years, we bought really well also in this period.

But before Mourinho was here we were buying great unnecessary players, Now I thinjk it's a little diferent.

We had De Bruyne, Mata and Oscar but no wingers (with quality to play there just Hazard), we had 3 good CB but a midfield with Essien, Mikel, Ramires and Lampard. No striker.

We are doing good sells and buying the players we need.

[bababoom 4,478]

In the last 1-2 years it did seem like we only wanted to sign attacking players, it did get ridiculous at times but the last year especially with Mourinho and Emenalo we have been going in the right direction, Mourinho is a football man, he knows what players we need to make us more balanced and competitive, while Emenalo essentially can look for the type of players Mourinho wants.

[Styles 9,790]

In many ways the Torres debacle was significant because it meant we had to change.

[Fulham Broadway 17,306]

I think the FFP has sharpened peoples decisions, and the board and 200+ scouts are under more pressure to make prudent and worthwhile sales and purchases, than before. Hopefully lessons have been learned post Torres as well.

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Great post, TOPTB. Glad someone else appreciates the brilliant business. Too many people get sentimental to the person that each player is, rather than the player's actual ability. People like Mata and Luiz are technically wonderful players, but they are square pegs for the round holes of Mourinho's Chelsea. If people want to pay ridiculous money for bit-part/surplus to requirements players, be my guest.

[Jase 43,479]

The points mentioned in the first post are not necessarily wrong but whether the board has done a really good job depends in a certain way. As it is, yeah, one can say the board has done well in getting 100m from selling 3 non-first team players in De Bruyne, Mata and Luiz and in the process, getting us a hefty profit when the price we bought team at are taken into account. On the other hand, one could also say the board is paying its price for the constant sacking of managers in the past few years. They had a clear thought of what they want the team to be like and/or playing and bought certain kind of players (including the sillyness of flocking the team with like 100 AMs!) and even wanted/hired specific managers to implement that. In the end, that failed and we got a manager that doesn't necessarily complement with that and having to sell those players and get in new ones to build the team again (even if it brought profit). This is without mentioning the fact that board was only interested in getting AMs, mostly, and failed to fix the apparent problems that have been evident for years (till now!) even if we got 1-2 gems along the way.

[Amblève. 4,995]

The way the board has handled selling players has put us in the Porto and Bilbao tier of transfer negotiations.

[boshman 1,073]

please Chelsea,

bid 50m for Modric and see what happens

he's THE perfect player for us

50m for Modric?? This is supposed to be a thread praising the board for not doing silly things....

[Fernando 6,585]

What has made the big difference is buying potential then ready made stars.

[lionsden 4,689]

50m for Modric?? This is supposed to be a thread praising the board for not doing silly things....

In the current market modric is worth more than 50m as he's arguably the best midfielder in the world. He took over the mantle left by the ageing xavi imo