The Board

[zolayes 14,489]

I don't know who it is, but this person deserves a medal.

Oh and God how happy am I that we didn't sign Shaw.

I kept saying NO when Term said we had to get him at ANY price

[MrBlueGuy 1,552]

Yeah... That's his job. He's our technical director. He heads our scouting system and the academy programs. He oversees all of it.

Him and Jose stepped it up this summer however. Match made in heaven I guess.

I know technically but I am not really referring to our dealing though(which I guess he is involved in a lot) but in general the change in policy. I doubt he would come in and go ''right, our current policy is crap and I am gonna change it all from bottom to the top''. I think Roman would need to be informed of the process and many people were involved in it. I am just thinking who is deserving the most credit for this, obviously Emenalo seems the choice but thinking about it is not just that simple.

Also yep I agree with your 2nd sentence, can't believe there were rumors of him resigning(club rejected) when Jose came back last summer. Would be true mistake looking back now.

[Jase 43,479]

As we can see we are now one of the best team in the world, with one of the most balanced squad in the BPL thanks to our great policy. I consider this policy revamp started in summer of 11 or 12. After the Torres signing and accelerated after our CL win. The policy has brought us in world class talents for great fees and all the gambled one(big fee) had paid off. This summer has been one of the best in transfer I have ever seen from the club, which makes me wonder:

Courtois 6m- Now worth more than 30-40m

Dave-10-12m?-Now at least 25m imo

Cahill 7m?- Now probably 30m considering he is English

Luis-15-20m-Too early to say anything but a class player signed for a reasonable fee, even if he flops there is nothing to regret

Zouma-7-12m? good fee, again similar to Kevin De Bruyne, if flops I am sure we can always flog off for 5-10m

Matic-one of our biggest mistake in the revamped period, but then again he might not have been that good due to limited opportunity

Fabregas-World class player for a good fee of 25-30m, admittedly thanks hugely to Arsene Wenger for being an idiot and refused to signed him this summer with the clause. Still we were so quick to act once it was known that he was for sale, even wrapped up the signing before WC starts

Hazard- Bargain, now probably worth around 100m considering fees for Bale, Suarez, James...etc

Oscar-Decent signing, probably barely justified his fee but now can always and will get better, even if worst case being sold to someone like PSG we will make a min loss at max(min 20m now for him) and likely a profit

Schurrle, Salah and Willian-Good signings, nothing spectacular but again got them for reasonable fees(maybe not for Willian but he was worth 20m anyway for me)

Costa-32m-revelation so far, could become one of the best striker in Chelsea history based on current form and if stays suspension/injury free

Also load of youngsters signed for OK fees, most sold for profit such as Lukaku and Kevin. Admittedly some fuck ups along the way like Matic, Marin...etc but overall we have actually done the best business for a while now.

So my question is who do you guys think are behind this new changed policy? Obviously FFP played a huge role but who is the mastermind behind this new recruitment strategy? I doubt Roman told the club to find new ways to operate because he won't fund signings anymore. Also it is unlikely that after spending years signing players for overpriced fees, we suddenly just become better at negotiation. Remember when we fucked up that Robinho signing?(thanks God), now we just signed Remy in 24 hours after showing interest, we don't fuck around anymore.

Also this change is reflected to clearly this summer when Jose admitted we didn't sign Shaw because essentially it was way overpriced(27-30m) with him demanding 100k per week. This policy also imo saw us past on Falcao and Cavani last summer, probably not for the best but we got Costa now so it doesn't matter anymore. This policy means we don't sign players for overpriced(or the club considered to be) fees anymore. We look across road to see MU overpaying for particularly every single player they sign now, whether world class or average. We look at Arsenal with their idiot manager scrambling for a CB, CDM, ST the whole summer and end up deadline day without really addressing any of his needs. It put into context how good our dealing are and has been. We look at Barcelona and they just spent 30m on 2 old/injury prone CB with 86m(or God knows what) on Neymar which sent the club into meltdown.

So is responsible for this success? Michael Emenalo? Roman insisting the club to change our way of operating? Or who else? Obviously not Mourinho as this process was started long before he was even back at the club and I doubt it was any past managers either seeing as most were sacked a very short time into their reign.

Identical threads created. Topics merged.

[edetarod 2,155]

the greatest transfer window ever?

unreal job by them

[Jase 43,479]

[LAB 1,030]

Only 3 teams with negative net spend. Consider we are one of the biggest teams in PL, the context of the transfers, and the quality (/lack of) of the players we bought (/got rid of) and there you have the absolute definition of a perfect summer.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

I have no doubt in my mind that the signings we've made since January have made us the most complete side in the Prem and while its far too early to start thinking about the Champions League, I really think we have a side capable of winning both in a calendar season.

Michael Emenalo and the rest of the board deserve a TON of credit, look at our squad from 2011-12 till now!!!

Petr Cech

Ross Turnbull

Hilario

Brana Ivanovic

Ashley Cole

David Luiz

Gary Cahill

John Terry

Jose Bosingwa

Paulo Ferreira

Sam Hutchinson

Ryan Bertrand

Michael Essien

Ramires

Raul Meireles

Frank Lampard

John Obi Mikel

Juan Mata

Florent Malouda

Josh McEachran

Fernando Torres

Didier Drogba

Salomon Kalou

Daniel Sturridge

Romelu Lukaku

2014-15

Thibaut Courtois

Petr Cech

Mark Schwarzer

Brana Ivanovic

Gary Cahill

John Terry

Cesar Azpilicueta

Filipe Luis

Kurt Zouma

Nathan Ake

Andreas Christensen

Oscar

John Obi Mikel

Ramires

Cesc Fabregas

Eden Hazard

Andre Schürrle

Willian

Mohamed Salah

Diego Costa

Didier Drogba

Löic Rémy

Not only is that a hell of a lot of turnover but the difference in class is STAGGERING. To think we've acquired this team in just over two years for a sum total of around £245M(the amount paid for the new players on the roster) is nothing short of miraculous! Especially when you look at what Utd are paying for that shitty team.

Emenalo and the Board have done yeoman-like work overhauling this team, and I know I for one feel indebted to them for providing me with a squad with which I LOVE every player and is young and exciting to watch. We are fortunate and to be honest with you whether we win or lose I'm not at all bothered. Some might say a squad like this should never lose, fair enough, but I'm not in the least bit bothered because I just love the team we've assembled; its about as close to a dream team as I'd like to come without going all Real Madrid in the window...

Thank you, Chelsea Board of Directors and of course Roman! (though your influence is not as integral as it once was seeing as most of the revenue used to acquire these players was football related) You have done us all proud!

Jose, its over to you now!

CAREFREE.

[Fernando 6,457]

@Chelsea Legend 11, The only player from 12 season I would have loved to kept besides the obvious one in Sturridge would have been Meireles.

He was very useful CM. Don't know why we let him go.

[Chelsea Legend 11 4,062]

@Chelsea Legend 11, The only player from 12 season I would have loved to kept besides the obvious one in Sturridge would have been Meireles.

He was very useful CM. Don't know why we let him go.

I like Raul but hard to find a place for him in this squad. We loaned out Van Ginkel....

[Stats 7,054]

I have to literally give this transfer window a rating of 10/10. We identify our targets and get them sorted rather than faff around like Arsenal. They went into panic mode and spent £16m on Welbeck where we got a better striker in Remy for basically half that price. We have spent what we have sold and done excellent business. Selling Luiz for £50m, getting rid of Torres (finally), sold Lukaku for £28m and got a more complete and much better striker in Costa for only £4m more. One thing we lacked last season was creativity from midfield and we have sorted that problem with the addition of Fabregas. His contribution in such a short space of time is evident. Already leading the assists and displaying his sublime passing range. We got another quality LB in who has not even made his first official start yet but it shows the quality of depth we have in our team.

Literally a perfect job down by our manager/board with the transfer dealings this summer which is replicated in Jason's post above. We have got an excellent centre forward and a perfect back up or alternative plan in Remy when we want to kill of games with the use of his pace. Rival fans are shaking in trepidation and envy of how good our team is going to be this season which is why most people believe we will win the title. Excellent job done by board/manager

[Sidzeret 2,257]

I reckon we made the most effective signings in this crazy transfer window. Hats off to Emenalo and the board.

[Eden Hazard 17 28]

United's net spend this summer is around £10m higher than José Mourinho's entire net spend in his two spells at Chelsea

[didierforever 7,349]

United's net spend this summer is around £10m higher than José Mourinho's entire net spend in his two spells at Chelsea

I seriously doubt this is true.

[Special Juan 27,425]

No panic buying, bought the right areas and weren't scratching around on the last day for what we needed.

Absolute quality from the CFC Board.

[Term-X 7,891]

I kept saying NO when Term said we had to get him at ANY price

Very easy to say that now, give it a few years and we'll come back to it, impossible to comment at the present.

Bit silly paying anything over £16m for a 29 year old to sit on the bench, although fair play to Ivanovic for stepping up. Shaw would have suited that bench role with him eventually being integrated, not a 29 year old.. they have to play to justify the price tag.

Arsenal have 6 English players, and we have 2.. it's disgraceful. This is a club first.. corporation later, you have to sustain the culture. As an English club we're doing nothing for the English game, it's painful to know liverpool have a 'potentially' world class player in Sterling.

[Tomo 21,733]

Very easy to say that now, give it a few years and we'll come back to it, impossible to comment at the present.

Bit silly paying anything over £16m for a 29 year old to sit on the bench, although fair play to Ivanovic for stepping up. Shaw would have suited that bench role with him eventually being integrated, not a 29 year old.. they have to play to justify the price tag.

Arsenal have 6 English players, and we have 2.. it's disgraceful. This is a club first.. corporation later, you have to sustain the culture. As an English club we're doing nothing for the English game, it's painful to know liverpool have a 'potentially' world class player in Sterling.

I do agree in general that we need more HG players, however for this season I was prepared to temporarily put it on hold due to the need to 'complete' our squad to challenge at the top.

Next year will be when it needs to change back again, starting with John Stones hopefully.

[BlueLyon 9,359]

To make it perfect, board needs to start extending contracts.

Azpi, Baker already did, Hazard, Courtois must do it soon as possible.

[iseah100 5,612]

To make it perfect, board needs to start extending contracts.

Azpi, Baker already did, Hazard, Courtois must do it soon as possible.

Hazard did in the summer, no? He did very recently, I know that.