The Board

[Despiadado.Maleante 1,046]

Even fukin arsenal are making signings...

[mccg 1,528]

14 hours ago, Iggy Doonican said:

Cost of redevelopment £500 million (That will rocket after Brexit with building and labour costs). Loss of revenue for three seasons while at Wembley yes the crowds will be bigger but presumably it will be split 50/50 with Wembley Stadium. If belts are being tightened so be it you have to look at the bigger picture. 

Abramovich may simply put his hand in his pocket to fund the project – but the £500m+ cost is a big expense even for a man of his means.It is thought more likely he will seek outside funding, and rich benefactors.Clubs need to balance football-related expenditure - transfers and wages - with television and ticket income, plus revenues raised by their commercial departments. Money spent on stadiums, training facilities, youth development or community projects is exempt.Selling Ake(homegrown) and bringing in 30+mill Rudiger looks like a belt around the neck especially down the line.

[Cosmin 2,484]

Can they just announce someone already? I mean, anyone. Just feed us something, ffs.

[BMox81 193]

It's all getting a bit messy isn't it?

[Leif 6,006]

39 minutes ago, Cosmin said:

Can they just announce someone already? I mean, anyone. Just feed us something, ffs.

It's not their fault if you can't appreciate Caballero.

[cosmicway 1,323]

It's nearing Christmas.

[Fernando 6,458]

Just wait till July 19. 

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

[Barbara 15,149]

It's nearing Christmas.

I really laughed at this

[RoyalBlues 4,050]

Board master plan, keep Costa at all cost. Refuse to go all out for Lukaku, Conte pissed off, furious and then leave. Costa stay. Don't have to spent on main striker in the market anymore. Rival paid overprice for Lukaku. Mission accomplished.

[milka 3,346]

Chelsea’s transfer window in chaos: With Romelu Lukaku off to Manchester United, who will bolster the line-up of the reigning champions?

• Chelsea are facing a battle to get their transfer plans back on tracks 
• The Blues have lost out to Manchester United on the signing of Romelu Lukaku
• Diego Costa has been told he is not needed so the club must find a striker
• Sportsmail examine what could come next for the reigning champions 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4674640/Chelsea-transfer-window-Blues-Lukaku.html

[oldportblue 547]

Already posted this in Conte thread but maybe makes sense to repost here to avoid discussing the press' fake rumors

 

(for those of you who'll be looking for the tweet, he hasn't tweeted it, he said it live on skysports 20 mins ago)

Can we stop discussing this BS now? These lying papers come up with this BS everytime we miss out on a target

[kellzfresh 7,229]

free image storage sites

 

[Peace. 4,352]

23 hours ago, Barbara said:

And big companies have their executives aligned with their philosophy... So the change from him to her may coincide with the change of philosophy. Saying the problem is who negotiates the deals doesn't make a lot of sense... A club sets a price tag to a player we are interested, it's not entirely up to Marina to reach the value.
Only here I ever seen someone criticising who discuss contracts as opposed to who decides the targets and the plans B, C, D...

You are heading into the right direction, Barbara. Yet, it is not a « change of philosophy » per se — that is unless if you consider a « loss » as being a « change. » We seem, indeed, to have lost any kind of philosophy, good or bad. I will try to post about it in length when I have the time, but here I will give you a few trails.

 

1) « The supply make the demand. » For some reasons, it has been our credo since a few years. We are not going after players we would like — and the scarce times we do, we fail —, but we are solely going after players that are available. This is why in the last five years we have signed up score of average players — Rudiger, Cuadrado, Baba Raham, Falcao, Pato, Kennedy, Miazga, Nathan, Zouma, Rémy, Micjael Hector, Djiloboji, etc... And this is also why, as I have already explained, that all of the few good players that we have were actually "easy" buys. We first look at who is available and then we buy accordingly

2) Why is it that so ? Let's use this metaphor. Roman Abramovich is a wealthy merchant that has bought a fanciful sailing-boat with a good crew so it can sails the seas and bring back the goods. He has done everything write : a good boat, good sails, good sailors, etc... But he forget one and only one thing — that is, to hire a captain. There is no one in control of this club's tiller ; no one who has a plan, good or bad, or at least an idea of what he is doing. Emenalo is solely the head scout — tell him to go and scout a precise profile of players, he will probably do that (more or less successfully) : Marina is in charge of the negotiations — tell her that her only imparative is to sign this player no matter what, she will probably do it. You cannot expect horses to tow and to lead the cart all on their own, they need a driver.

... Go figure why we cannot buy great players ! It is because we are not attractive anymore !! And the reason behind that is that we have no project and no one to hold a project. Why do you believe that Alex Sandro (but also Pogba, etc......) is not that keen on signing for us ? Because we have nothing to tell him and there is no one to go and explain him that we are following him since a long time, that we have always admired his abilities, that we always wanted him to have a great partnership with Hazard and that he will be part of a fabulous project and play with M'Bappé, Veratti, etc... Quite the contrary, all we have to say to him is that we will not go above a certain — and relatively low — sum of money ; that he will have to push his club to be sold ; and that he wil experience an incredible journey amidst Moses, Cahill, Matic, etc... Of course he hesitates to leave Juventus for Chelsea.

We have no one that has a clue of what is going on and thus we have no project and vice-versa. This situation is greatly repulsive for great players, so we have to look after those available which we leads us inevitably to get average players. By the way, we too, we have no clue of what is going on in the board. It speaks for itselfs and to be frank, board members are probably asking the same question than us : « who is doing what ? »

 

P.S. This is also the reason for which we are reluctant to spend huge amount of money on a single player. We have no vision for the future and thus, very logically, we are not ready to spend big on a player whom we do not know were he would fit in in two or three years.

[mccg 1,528]

That league title 2016/17 seems like a eternity ago -cup defeat-Hazard injury-Costa saga-this transfer window- where is the uppers... Another season when the champions need to kick on!

[xPetrCechx 13,563]

 

[Fernando 6,458]

Why do we keep Maria if she is failing with the negotiations?  

[Georgy 439]

7 minutes ago, Fernando said:

Why do we keep Maria if she is failing with the negotiations?  

Because she is in very good terms with Abramovic.