The Board

[milka 3,402]

The way the club is run seems to make it impossible for any manager to flourish long term. Each of the last two title-winning campaigns has been followed by a season of chaos – the lack of clear long-term vision fatally hampers the club.

[quickpassnmove 924]

I really don't know what to think at this point. Acknowledging that we aren't going to sign the top players does not mean we cannot build a strong team, but at the same time it leaves us all wondering where the club is headed.

Ultimately, I just want to see some better football on the pitch --and we need a lot more than Hazard to do that up top. Summer window's priorities should be another striker, another RW who can score (where was the Salah buyback clause?), another defender and another CM. With those 4 summer signings, we will see how many are top players or rising superstars.

This summer will define Chelsea's future prior to the new stadium's construction or whatever landmark you choose. It might be a while until CFC rise again.

Not an awful window that others suggest IMO. Chelsea are not yet decided on the future of their manager and haven't hired anyone for Emenalo's position yet. To me, the club have been confused since signing Torres. 

[!Hazard! 3,394]

This business model would make perfect sense if the club would just sit down, decide an identity which to follow on the pitch and integrate as many academy players as possible whilst making good business by getting bargains and selling loanees. Right they have no patience for the manager to develop a squad which forces the manager to ignore the youth and there's still after all these years no clear identity of play. The lack of vision is even more apparent when you look at who have been proposed as the successors of Conte. Allegri, Enrique, Simeone are all completely different managers with different philosophies. 

I think it all starts with the identity. A clear philosophy from the youth teams to the first team squad would make the transition a lot easier for the academy graduates. Look at City, Pep can just throw kids in the starting XI and they can perform as well because the philosophy is so clear and everyone knows what to do. Recruiting new players also becomes easier when you exactly what type of players the squad needs. For example, buying Morata (ball-playing forward) and Bakayoko (the opposite of a technical midfielder) in the same transfer window makes no sense at all.

[DDA 10,018]

44 minutes ago, Mana said:

Until fans protest, I think nothing will change.

It's hard to protest against Roman after all he has done because let's face it, Roman is the board.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

7 hours ago, !Hazard! said:

This business model would make perfect sense if the club would just sit down, decide an identity which to follow on the pitch and integrate as many academy players as possible whilst making good business by getting bargains and selling loanees. Right they have no patience for the manager to develop a squad which forces the manager to ignore the youth and there's still after all these years no clear identity of play. The lack of vision is even more apparent when you look at who have been proposed as the successors of Conte. Allegri, Enrique, Simeone are all completely different managers with different philosophies. 

I think it all starts with the identity. A clear philosophy from the youth teams to the first team squad would make the transition a lot easier for the academy graduates. Look at City, Pep can just throw kids in the starting XI and they can perform as well because the philosophy is so clear and everyone knows what to do. Recruiting new players also becomes easier when you exactly what type of players the squad needs. For example, buying Morata (ball-playing forward) and Bakayoko (the opposite of a technical midfielder) in the same transfer window makes no sense at all.

I've been saying that for years.

Lately, I've been coming around to the idea that our club identity is to just get a few decent players, some very good, some okay and have the manager do what he can with them.  It's a decent model when you are operating like Real Madrid lite (it's what they do, what is their identity?) or PSG-lite.

If you want to do what Monaco are doing these days, or Dortmund.  Then you need to put less focus on winning now.  This club try to have it both ways right now.  Net spend of Southampton and only bring in younger players (or older players who you can get good deals on) but the trophy expectation of the Bernabeu.  

[El P. 1,354]

Main problem with this club is winning titles with really average and ok-ish squads. UCL 2012. was shit squad, 2015 and 2017 both really really deficient squads.

Our best reality check are the results from UCL from last 5 years. Nowhere to be seen. Fuck EPL, EPL is really shit for years, only this season things got better.

We have problem with reality and with delusions about our players and results. Not just fans, board too. Because of that, we have really unhealthy view on where we are and what should we do.

That's the main problem, not Conte.

[communicate 2,703]

17 hours ago, El P. said:

Main problem with this club is winning titles with really average and ok-ish squads. UCL 2012. was shit squad, 2015 and 2017 both really really deficient squads.

Our best reality check are the results from UCL from last 5 years. Nowhere to be seen. Fuck EPL, EPL is really shit for years, only this season things got better.

We have problem with reality and with delusions about our players and results. Not just fans, board too. Because of that, we have really unhealthy view on where we are and what should we do.

That's the main problem, not Conte.

I disagree. Our 2015 squad was fantastic in term of player quality, 2017 not so much.

[El P. 1,354]

15 hours ago, communicate said:

I disagree. Our 2015 squad was fantastic in term of player quality, 2017 not so much.

It wasn't fantastic. Oscar, Willian and slow defense that couldn't play anything with the ball or press high. No width from proper full-backs. Slow midfield with no legs. There's a reason second half of that season was horrible.

[Special Juan 28,235]

Oscar scored that goal v Juventus and that was it, another massive middle of the road player. I'd still have the waste of space here over Bakayoko, says a lot.

[El P. 1,354]

We are losing every fuckin game and not a single "moaning" post here?

Well, fuck you board. And fuck you mister Abramovich. Incompetent bastards.

YOU brought this to us!

[Georgy 439]

I can't understand the reasoning behind loaning Ruben and selling Chalobah just to buy Bakayoko and Drinkwater for 75 mil. I just can't understand, not only are they arguably worse but we lost money on them as well. With those 75 mil we could've got that Serbian dude from Napoli.

[El P. 1,354]

Damn it's lonely up here. Please people, join the parteeeey!

Can I have a poll here? "Do you still think the board with mr Abramovich at it's head still knows what's the best for a club?"

Fuckin cripples. Chelsea pre-2003 was better than this, and it could be again.

EDIT:               , here is a drink for anyone who joins the party.

[yuvala 2,167]

This cycle is just going to keep happening over and over .. fucking sick of it.

[DDA 10,018]

1 hour ago, El P. said:

We are losing every fuckin game and not a single "moaning" post here?

Well, fuck you board. And fuck you mister Abramovich. Incompetent bastards.

YOU brought this to us!

I feel your pain but please do not forget what Mr Abramovich has done for us.

[El P. 1,354]

9 minutes ago, DDA said:

I feel your pain but please do not forget what Mr Abramovich has done for us.

I am doing this for our fans to see that board can be (heavily) criticized too. Why always put blame on manager? Ok, Abramovich might not leave, but Marina, or whoever is in charge of transfers? Why not? They are doing shit for years now, and fans are doing what? Sitting their asses, writing in Contes' thread that he is not perfect manager. Lol, he was never perfect, and there is no perfect manager. It's not like we didn't know that he wasn't perfect. and he doesn't need to be. He is very good manager, or at least good manager. Our board stuff isn't good, at all.

[OneMoSalah 8,919]

10 minutes ago, DDA said:

I feel your pain but please do not forget what Mr Abramovich has done for us.

Yes and also no. We’ve set the bar pretty high in Romans tenure but also pretty low in terms of managers and time peroids here, some might say we only achieved what we have because of this but if we had a clear plan years ago in what direction to take the club after Ancelotti was sacked for instance and followed it we’d not be in this mess. Tbf after any managerial sacking past 2010 a plan would of been nice.

[Superblue 6,372]

Whilst I am a firm believer of a lack of identity at the club and have posted a number of times about the lack of vision and long term planning finally starting to catch up with us, the fact is without Roman and his money we wouldn't have won the league titles, domestic cups and european titles that we have done in the past 15 years. We could very well have gone the same way as Leeds did considering the mess we were in at the time.

[Alan Partridge 1,124]

Congratulations on screwing over another manager. 

This business concept does not work at a high level. You can’t expect managers to polish a turd. 

No top manager will want to work here without complete control over transfers unless they want a quick payout. 

Im not saying we need to spend like City but at least invest in some players that the manager needs to improve the team. You can’t just throw together a team full of players the manager doesn’t want or know. 

Reminds me of Jose’s press conference about the class of eggs. Nothing has changed here. 

[communicate 2,703]

I have no problem with our manager heavy turnaround, but we cannot turn crap every time after we won the league.

I don't care anymore who is going to be in charge but please improve our squad quality. I said last year when we won the league that our squad is behind everybody in top 6 except maybe Liverpool (bad gk, bad defence). I expect us to improve this season but there is not much improvement. Yes we are definitely deeper but definitely not better. We replaced two important players with two younger but not as good of players and sprinkle them with average player

I rather keep ake and chalobah and spent the money to sign quality player. 

[zekinjo 449]

Will never understand how in the world we ended up with an average squad like this. This squad is so average it screams. 

This summer it’s definitely a crossroad for a club. They will sign better or even (real) world class players, or we will still be watching Roman’s version of Only Fools And Horses.