The Board

[NikkiCFC 8,481]

Some bitch stole over 200k from the club. But tbh it's nothing, Sterling takes home more every week...

[Vesper 30,631]

Olivier Giroud becomes latest former Chelsea player to state the obvious issue there

https://Chelsea.news/2025/12/olivier-giroud-becomes-latest-former-Chelsea-player-to-state-the-obvious-issue-there/

Former Chelsea striker Olivier Giroud has become the latest former Blue to state the obvious issue at the club right now.

Away from the drama of the comments made by Enzo Maresca for a bit, because that has taken over our reporting so far this week – and besides, Enzo Maresca has said his relationship with the sporting directors and owners is all OK so we can put that in a box and move on, right? RIGHT!?

EXCL: The full inside story of what is going on between Enzo Maresca and the Chelsea hierarchy as tensions reach boiling point!

Yeah, maybe not. Maybe it’s a case of there has been too much said at this point to move on properly. But let’s hope for the sake of the team and performances and results out on the pitch, that they can all at least move on together for now and focus on going forward.

Back to the comments made by Giroud this week, who was a welcome guest on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports last night, he’s basically backed up what many other former Chelsea players have said about this current Chelsea project under the new owners.

More experience needed

The likes of John Obi Mikel, Frank Lampard, John Terry, and Joe Cole have all said similar things to this and believe that this Chelsea team could use more experience added to it, and they’re not wrong either by the way.

And neither is Giroud, who becomes the latest former Chelsea star to say the same thing.

What Giroud said

The striker said last night:

“Maresca needs a striker who is consistent, and more experience in the squad, there’s a lot of young players.”

This many former top Chelsea players simply cannot be wrong, sorry but they can’t be.

[Fernando 6,680]

But I really don't think it's that. We see how we improve when we have a better defense, that is the thing that is way obvious that the board did not want to see. 

And as well in mid it can't just be Enzo and Caicedo. 

It was supposed to be Lavia but he is always injured so get rid and get a replacement. And Santos I'm still not sure about him, he had one good game but on the entirity I prefer as of right now we sell him and get Elliot. 

BUT this decision should be taken at the end of the season because who knows Santos might go on a run and changed our mind. But as of right now I'm so so on him. 

[Vesper 30,631]

Well done Behdad, you've made a 40 year fan apathetic

Those running Chelsea are sabotaging our success. They don't care about the club or fans.

https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/well-done-behdad-youve-made-a-40

I never thought I’d become apathetic about Chelsea. I’ve supported the club nearly 40 years, I love the club passionately, and I’ve sat through much worse times than this in terms of results and quality of the team.

But right now I’m as close to apathy as it gets for me. I clearly was deluding myself that Behdad Eghbali or the Sporting Directors remotely care about fan opinion. They don’t. They insult our intelligence on a consistent basis with the constant briefings and have shown a total inability to build a competitive squad, when fans have made our concerns clear they have ignored us. They may even mock us behind the scenes.

To me, that’s all disrespectful to the institution of Chelsea Football Club, and the fans, many of whom have been around for a long time. But they genuinely don’t care. And not only that, if things go wrong they won’t look at themselves or their actions/decisions or the strategy and take responsibility, they will sack the manager and continue the same way, as if they’d done nothing wrong.

They’re kidding themselves if they think they are elite football operators. They’re the David Brents of Sporting Directors. Big egos, full of themselves, looking to take credit and never take responsibility, and have an inflated view of their own ability. We’re a joke of a football club.

No one takes us seriously as a major contender for the biggest honours, we don’t operate like an elite high performance operation. Now, even established elite players don’t even see us as a club who can win the big trophies anytime soon, as we’ve seen with the Semenyo saga. We were about 4th on his list, at best. Embarrassing.

I’ve almost resigned myself to being a top 4/top 5 team and a good cup team for the foreseeable future, because the people running the club don’t have the ability or courage to take us any further. I used to have hope we’d challenge for the title soon, now that hope is gone.

£1.6 billion to make us a side who scraps for top 4, has some good cup runs, and still needs about 3-4 elite players to make the next step up. Sorry, but that’s a shoddy, awful performance. There’s no way around it.

Its abysmal squad building, and every manager is ignored and sabotaged by those above him. I can’t criticise the manager too much when he’s working with an arm tied behind his back.

Let me be clear. There’s not too much wrong with the plan or strategy itself, this is not my issue, bar some tweaks. I’m still fully behind the long term strategy. The issue is the people executing the plan.

And even though they’ll read this they won’t care, they’ll probably laugh at this and me, as if someone who’s followed the club for 40 years knows nothing about this club or football. From all I can see don’t care about or respect fans opinions, they act like the worst of the fanbase represent the whole fanbase.

It really does come across to us that they think they’re the most knowledgeable people on football to have ever lived and have some secret way to succeed, when the evidence is to the contrary. A complete lack of self awareness and humility.

Man City, Arsenal and Liverpool wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole. They and Behdad Eghbali are a genuine embarrassment to Chelsea. If they had an ounce of courage or shame they’d admit their mistakes and rectify them. Making mistakes can happen to anyone, not learning from them is unforgivable.

Co-owner Todd Boehly, who has proven to be a real winner, someone who knows what it takes to succeed in sports and how elite sports operations are run, must be fit to bind, whatever he says in public. It’s been well reported he’d have a lone sporting director, an elite one, a few more established players and step back from day to day running to allow football people to be in charge. How an elite club SHOULD operate.

So well done to Behdad and the SDs, they’ve made one of the longest serving most passionate Chelsea fans completely apathetic. That’s probably what they want though, they don’t want real fans, they want customers who’ll pay big money to come to games, and kill the atmosphere. They don’t know what football or Chelsea really means. They’re making us a soulless shell. They’re so arrogant and up themselves regarding football, they probably have no shame.

No character, no courage, no winning mentality. I’m sorry if that hurts, but if they don’t like being criticised, then maybe they need to stop giving the impression they don’t care and know it all, do their jobs properly, and respect the fans. Because frankly they insult our intelligence on a consistent basis.

I’d honestly love them to prove me wrong. I just want Chelsea to win, unlike them I don’t care about being proven wrong, because my ego isn’t dependent on it. So if they prove me wrong I’ll say it publicly.

But the odds are they won’t. It involves them admitting they have made mistakes and actually rectifying them all. And I have no faith that will happen anymore. We’ll keep signing talented youngsters, great. But we need some 23-26 year olds who still fit the model but are more established and able to contribute immediately. Semenyo instead of Gittens, Guehi instead of Sarr. Those two signings last summer and we’re likely near the top of the league right now instead of level with Man United and Sunderland. To spend £1.6 billion and be there is down right embarrassing.

Just give me a bit of hope. Because I and many other fans are almost done with this shit show.