The Board

[teignman 441]

So now we are stuck with a back up LB/WB whose most notable accomplishment in club football is pissing off the most populous nation on the face of the earth.  Congratuwelldone.

[bluephoenix 1,131]

This is just the worst transfer season. We were the laughing stock all the way through which is just sad from a fan's perspective.

Right from Lukaku saga right up until the end... this is just depressing. And the transfers that we did also not the greatest (really hope that Morata comes through, I don't want the curse of number 9 shirt to haunt him) the transfers also don't instill confidence that Chelsea want to be a great club. It seems like we are happy just wining local silverware once in every few seasons.

 

 

[coolhead23 1,147]

Very average transfer window despite the fact we spend near to 200m on new recruits. Post winning the title everyone knew that we need to strengthen in few places by either getting upgrades in terms of world class players and have backups so that we don’t run out thin by Jan/Feb, injuries, bad form.

So what do we do? Got potentials to replace our star players, a midfielder who would be like 4th/5th choice, a wing back who no one has a clue about … in return we sold 2 potentials players, a so called average player who was instrumental in the 2 titles win is now strengthening our direct rivals, a star striker who is sitting in Brazil and refuses to come over while multiple potentials out on loan. Plus the bonus is that we kept getting rejected by average players!!! Damn even Lukaku!!!

I understand transfers are difficult tasks to execute that’s the reason the people assigned for the job get top money. Imagine we have a bad/average season the manager’s head is chopped off, would the owner do the same for the one in power because this is surely an average window. And then we blame that the manager is not good enough to win titles at the club (in most of the cases)

The problem now for us is that the entire onus is on Conte to perform and take the team to winning ways again basically clean up the shit that the board has given him. This season it wouldn’t be ease for him … both Manchester clubs have strengthen very much in the right places, Liverpool is an unknown just like Spurs. All the managers are the same (the ones in the title race) and have matured after one more season under their belt so it will be a difficult task for Conte to win the title this season.  Wouldnt be surprise if he walks away or is sacked which would be the most unfortunate thing for us.

[manpe 10,861]

Marina needs to go ASAP. She has been embarrassing the club for years now. At first when she took over everything seemed okay with that Fabregas/Costa window, but ever since she hasn't been up to it. It's like something has happened behind the scenes so clubs and players refuse to deal with us. Kenyon and Gourlay got their fair share of stick back in the day, but I would take either of them back in a heartbeat.

[Milan 17,959]

Unless something in the board's policy changes, we are going to struggle in the next transfer windows. Look at the prices, they are becoming crazy. If you want a superstar in your team, you have to pay an extreme figure now. Our board is penny-inching even when it comes to a couple of millions for Llorente. Something needs to change for sure.

[coolhead23 1,147]

Just thinking out loud here. 

Do we have a forum where fans can voice their opinions to the board? At the Bridge or something?

[Miki-Liki 405]

2 hours ago, manpe said:

Marina needs to go ASAP. She has been embarrassing the club for years now. At first when she took over everything seemed okay with that Fabregas/Costa window, but ever since she hasn't been up to it. It's like something has happened behind the scenes so clubs and players refuse to deal with us. Kenyon and Gourlay got their fair share of stick back in the day, but I would take either of them back in a heartbeat.

She took over in 2013, and during that transfer window, they spent the whole summer chasing Rooney and ended up signing Eto'o two days before the deadline, and in that sense, every summer since then has been similar to that one.

This basically confirms who is responsible for the deals, but I have no doubt that the next time something goes wrong, fans will scream #EmenaloOut.

[gadget 126]

We should keep Marina to oversee selling our players (she does get good fee's for surplus players)

But yes someone else to oversee incoming transfer targets

[Jase 43,479]

The transfer window is closed and I have to say, our business has been one big mess in the market. Made some good deals - Rudiger, Bakayoko, Morata - but overall, it's a joke that most of the players were bought to replace outgoing ones rather than add depth into the squad. Compare last season's squad to this season's and the numbers are almost similar (excluding those that barely got a look in) and the biggest annoyance of all is we didn't bring in another LWB and ST. We have 4 competitions, will likely play at least 50 games this season and the board expect us to compete on all fronts with just a total of 3 players in both of those positions? It's a joke. One major injury to either Alonso, Morata or even Batshuayi and we're totally screwed.

[manpe 10,861]

13 minutes ago, Jason said:

The transfer window is closed and I have to say, our business has been one big mess in the market. Made some good deals - Rudiger, Bakayoko, Morata - but overall, it's a joke that most of the players were bought to replace outgoing ones rather than add depth into the squad. Compare last season's squad to this season's and the numbers are almost similar (excluding those that barely got a look in) and the biggest annoyance of all is we didn't bring in another LWB and ST. We have 4 competitions, will likely play at least 50 games this season and the board expect us to compete on all fronts with just a total of 3 players in both of those positions? It's a joke. One major injury to either Alonso, Morata or even Batshuayi and we're totally screwed.

I like how somebody here said that Alonso is the biggest loser of this window - he will now have to bend over and play 7486463 games. He should send Marina a gift basket for consolidating his place.

[Special Juan 28,145]

New stadium to fund and Roman really pulling in the strings, we must prepare ourselves for more of this in the coming seasons. It's been an horrendous window, it's now up to the players as a group to dig deep and keep winning trophies, but I really do expect things to be very tough indeed.

[xPetrCechx 13,573]

Marina

[Jase 43,479]

4 minutes ago, manpe said:

I like how somebody here said that Alonso is the biggest loser of this window - he will now have to bend over and play 7486463 games. He should send Marina a gift basket for consolidating his place.

Have zero clue about him but apparently Zappacosta can play on the left as well. So here's hoping but at the moment, the situation doesn't look very good. Might even have to throw Kenedy into the team!

[manpe 10,861]

2 minutes ago, Jason said:

Have zero clue about him but apparently Zappacosta can play on the left as well. So here's hoping but at the moment, the situation doesn't look very good. Might even have to throw Kenedy into the team!

Or simply revert to 4 at the back with Azpi playing LB. We now have the personnel to play 4 at the back.

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, manpe said:

Or simply revert to 4 at the back with Azpi playing LB. We now have the personnel to play 4 at the back.

We could but then we'll have a blunted left side going forward again and I know we have switched to a back 4 in certain matches since playing the back 3 but afraid to see how we'll fare with it from the start after the debacle last season and the one before.

[manpe 10,861]

1 minute ago, Jason said:

We could but then we'll have a blunted left side going forward again

State of things, nothing to do. Better than playing Kenedy.

[Mufassir08 2,400]

Who knows maybe if Kenedy plays a bit regularly, he might prove to be a decent back-up for Alonso? It certainly is worth a try to give Kenedy some regular game time just to see if his level of performances improve or not. I think if given a proper chance, Kenedy might end up becoming a decent depth player for us.

[Beigl 1,387]

So after all we had a decent transfer window, altough we should have signed more players to have more cover certain positions. Alonso, who isn´t exactly known for pace, will certainly struggle with fatigue in the latter stages of this season, so I hope we might sign some LWB in january. A 3rd striker would have been useful, given we are one injury on Morata away from playing Batshuayi all the time. 

It´s very clear that our board sets his target on winning the league again, because we didn´t buy enough class players to keep up with the top teams in europe. Anyone expecting more than a quarter final will be disappointed. Conte isn´t happy for sure, because he clearly wanted a squad to compete for the CL. I still hope he keeps his cool and stays for a long time with us, because he is certainly the man to go forward. We can axe Marina or Michael for all I care, but the man who got us out of the 2016 trouble needs proper backing. 

[It's too big 625]

I don't think anyone is winning the CL over one of Real Madrid, PSG, Bayern tbh anyway, so dunno why people are thinking of the CL. I am confident we can get through the group stage, maybe even round 16. I don't think winning the thing is feasible for any club in England at the moment. I do feel we'll have to strengthen in January though. This summer was difficult for us because there were few decent players on the market who were not overpriced. Alex Sandro we were obviously after, but Juventus just were not going to let go. Nothing you can do there. I am not sure I am ready to be overly critical towards Marina because of this window. We needed more depth, which we've added somewhat, but the quality of players has been good enough. We aren't in the state of Arsenal, so for that I am grateful lol

[Laylabelle 9,536]

Problem is everyone be overpriced in January