Buy leaders in the summer

[Fernando 6,585]

Character is absolutely the word I'd use. This team to me is lacking players with character.

Lampard and Terry were flawed young kids, but when it came to their football they worked relentlessly on it. They'd stay after sessions, they'd keep their fitness during the summer (JT still does that to this day) and they'd make themselves the best players they could be. They weren't the most naturally talented but they had that drive to outperform what their talents would allow.

We don't have that in our key players now. Eden Hazard has more talent than both but leaves training as soon as possible and lets his fitness go over summer. That is unacceptable to me but it says a lot about the current crop of players that we have. What we need is players with the character required and that's what Jose wanted to bring in this summer.

I think you're right that we had a total disconnect between what the board wanted and what they hired, and when push came to shove they simply didn't back him. I hope Pep embarrasses Roman again and I almost hope we get Rodgers too, because Roman needs it shoved right in his face just how much he's fucked up. And if that doesn't wake him up then I hope the CPO do.

Yeah but when City won the tittle they did exactly like us and hardly reinforced.

And because of that it was harder for them to retain the title but they didn't fall apart like we did, and don't forget they also have a team full of "mercenaries"

So our summer is not the reason why we was one point above relegation in December.

[Ossie the King 634]

Yes, we needed new players in the summer but is that an excuse for the way we've been playing this season? No. The players and Jose have failed miserably in that department.

It's a contributing factor. The league is hugely competitive and small percentages matter. We got that wrong this year and fell, whilst Leicester got everything right and are top of the league. Over time though you would expect both teams to return to their proper levels, unless you genuinely believe Leicester are a top team and not simply overachieving?

Using attendance to say fans are happy? That's convincing. Never mind winning 1-0 every week, we're not even winning every week (or most weeks) but I guess the fans are happy because they are filling the stadium.

But it's this whole 'entertainment' thing you're talking about. Firstly it's a very narrow definition of the word entertaining because some might find just as much entertainment in a defensive performance as an attacking one, but most importantly there's not much more entertaining than winning. That's what the matches are played for, to determine the winner. It's why we have goals and not judges on the sidelines scoring the performance.

And we don't have a good youth system? Sure, we're not at La Masia level and there's still a number of good young players in there and they are good young players who have won 4 of the last 6 FA Youth Cups. It's like Gary Neville said last season, you cannot win 4 Youth Cups in last 6 years and not promote youth players into the squad. That's one of the things Jose has failed to do during his time at the club.

And I agree that we have an issue with developing youth, but that's at every team in the league.

If you want to talk about Barcelona and their young players, you have to acknowledge that almost every homegrown player played for another team before Barcelona - Barcelona B. In fact Pep Guardiola started his coaching career there too.

We don't have that type of finishing school for youth players and that is a huge issue facing English football, not just Chelsea. In fact youth development as a whole needs reforming not just at this club but at every top English club, and one coach isn't going to change that.

But that's a massive discussion and it's far easier to blame Jose.

[Ossie the King 634]

Yeah but when City won the tittle they did exactly like us and hardly reinforced.

And because of that it was harder for them to retain the title but they didn't fall apart like we did, and don't forget they also have a team full of "mercenaries"

So our summer is not the reason why we was one point above relegation in December.

They also didn't retain the league though. So what you're saying there's an acceptable level of failure when it comes to underinvesting in a team?

We underachieved this season. If you think that sacking Jose and replacing him with another coach next season whilst failing to support him in the same way will lead to greater success/less failure, then I hope you're right.

Personally I think we're doomed to make the same mistakes. Should be entertaining to watch though.

[Ossie the King 634]

Will you become a United fan if Mourinho goes there?

Why would you ask that of a fellow Chelsea supporter?

[Rom2013 446]

Chelsea doesn't need leaders, CHelsea needs one of two things (or even better both)... Chelsea needs World class players like Ronaldo Messi or Neymar, or even Bale that can score more than 20 goals in League... or CHelsea needs to have a team that run like hell and behaves like a team.

You can check the last winners of the CHampions League and see what it takes to be European Champions...

2009 - Barcelona with a lot of talent and playing like a team.

2010 - Inter. A team playing like a team.

2011 - Barcelona with a lot of talent and playing like a team.

2012 - CHelsea (with a lot of luck, clearly the worst European Champions in the last 20 years).

2013 - Bayern a team that playes like a team,

2014 -. Real Madrid with a lot of quality

2015 - Barcelona with a lot of quality

CHelsea doesn't have the money to buy increadible players anymore, and some of the stars think they shouldn't run... so... it's going to be really dificult.

By the way in the seasons when City had a FFP problem... still spend more money than Chelsea.

[Jase 43,479]

It's a contributing factor. The league is hugely competitive and small percentages matter. We got that wrong this year and fell, whilst Leicester got everything right and are top of the league. Over time though you would expect both teams to return to their proper levels, unless you genuinely believe Leicester are a top team and not simply overachieving?

It's a contributing factor but NOT a decisive one. You can blame the lack of summer transfer activity for all you want but it's no reason why we should be where we are right now. We can struggle and fail to achieve our targets (e.g. winning the league) but certainly not failing till the extent we're sitting just 3 points above the relegation zone.

But it's this whole 'entertainment' thing you're talking about. Firstly it's a very narrow definition of the word entertaining because some might find just as much entertainment in a defensive performance as an attacking one, but most importantly there's not much more entertaining than winning. That's what the matches are played for, to determine the winner. It's why we have goals and not judges on the sidelines scoring the performance.

You are right, football is about winning. But we're one of the biggest clubs in the world and it's only fair that people expect the team to achieve success with style. But too often under Jose, we adopted the pragmatic or even defensive approach in matches like we're some sort of small team. You would be lying if you didn't find our approach and performances turgid to watch at times.

And I agree that we have an issue with developing youth, but that's at every team in the league. If you want to talk about Barcelona and their young players, you have to acknowledge that almost every homegrown player played for another team before Barcelona - Barcelona B. In fact Pep Guardiola started his coaching career there too. We don't have that type of finishing school for youth players and that is a huge issue facing English football, not just Chelsea. In fact youth development as a whole needs reforming not just at this club but at every top English club, and one coach isn't going to change that.

Our youth academy isn't perfect. That much has been said. But it's still good and has some good talent coming through. All they need is for someone to put trust and faith in them and not one who expects the players to be finished articles from the very start and not willing to live through the ups and downs of developing young players.

And seriously, bringing in the whole issue the country and/or other clubs have with youth players really doesn't cut it. It's a different situation with them and it's a poor excuse to justify our bizarre management of players from the academy.

[Ossie the King 634]

It's a contributing factor but NOT a decisive one. You can blame the lack of summer transfer activity for all you want but it's no reason why we should be where we are right now. We can struggle and fail to achieve our targets (e.g. winning the league) but certainly not failing till the extent we're sitting just 3 points above the relegation zone.

It's not a decisive one, but when you begin to lower your expectations it can snowball and become something you can't control.

You are right, football is about winning. But we're one of the biggest clubs in the world and it's only fair that people expect the team to achieve success with style. But too often under Jose, we adopted the pragmatic or even defensive approach in matches like we're some sort of small team. You would be lying if you didn't find our approach and performances turgid to watch at times.

It was, but it was also scintillating at times. Arsenal just beat a poor Newcastle team 1-0 today having beaten City convincingly a week ago. At the end of the season both will be worth three points and if they win the league no-one will give a shit.

Our youth academy isn't perfect. That much has been said. But it's still good and has some good talent coming through. All they need is for someone to put trust and faith in them and not one who expects the players to be finished articles from the very start and not willing to live through the ups and downs of developing young players.

And seriously, bringing in the whole issue the country and/or other clubs have with youth players really doesn't cut it. It's a different situation with them and it's a poor excuse to justify our bizarre management of players from the academy.

You might say it doesn't cut it but I hope no-one with a vested interest in youth development thinks that because it's a major issue. You can't develop a player under one style (and numerous managers) then loan him out to Rotherham and expect consistency of development. Equally whilst it's fair to hope for a fairytale development story of a player that a manager takes a punt on, the margins of success and failure at the top of the game don't always allow for that. Every match counts and matches are won in the fringes of matches, so playing young players does have an immediate impact.

Looking at the issue of our squad, according to the source I just looked at (transferleague) we spent just £30 million Net per season in Jose's time here. City spent almost triple that, United double and Arsenal even spent more than us.

Experts will say you need to add two world class players to the squad to retain the title, broadly speaking. In the summer we made just TWO ADDITIONS to the squad. That's;

Papy Djilobdji

Kenedy

The other players were replacements

Begovic for Cech

Rahman for Luis

Pedro for Cuadrado

Falcao for Drogba

And I'd argue that only Pedro is actually a marked improvement over the player he replaced, whereas every other one is a downgrade.

This summer, we undermined the coach by strengthening a rival and made his squad weaker. That's on top of spending £170 MILLION less than his closest rival in his time at the club. That might now be an excuse for him being just above the relegation zone but I don't know what the board were expecting of him. They established that there was no ambition at this club, so why on Earth shouldn't we be relegation candidates?

[BlueLion. 21,491]

Chelsea doesn't need leaders, CHelsea needs one of two things (or even better both)... Chelsea needs World class players like Ronaldo Messi or Neymar, or even Bale that can score more than 20 goals in League... or CHelsea needs to have a team that run like hell and behaves like a team.

You can check the last winners of the CHampions League and see what it takes to be European Champions...

2009 - Barcelona with a lot of talent and playing like a team.

2010 - Inter. A team playing like a team.

2011 - Barcelona with a lot of talent and playing like a team.

2012 - CHelsea (with a lot of luck, clearly the worst European Champions in the last 20 years).

2013 - Bayern a team that playes like a team,

2014 -. Real Madrid with a lot of quality

2015 - Barcelona with a lot of quality

CHelsea doesn't have the money to buy increadible players anymore, and some of the stars think they shouldn't run... so... it's going to be really dificult.

By the way in the seasons when City had a FFP problem... still spend more money than Chelsea.

I presume you've forgotten about Liverpool fluking their way to the CL in 2005, or maybe Porto the year before?

[Fernando 6,585]

They also didn't retain the league though. So what you're saying there's an acceptable level of failure when it comes to underinvesting in a team?

We underachieved this season. If you think that sacking Jose and replacing him with another coach next season whilst failing to support him in the same way will lead to greater success/less failure, then I hope you're right.

Personally I think we're doomed to make the same mistakes. Should be entertaining to watch though.

Yes their is.

To finish second or even third was not the end of the world.

For us was different because there was no chance of finishing even in top 4.

And then that by December we was one point above relegation zone.

Pellegrini never had city like this even the season that they didn't win it.

[Styles 9,790]

We need better players and a better manager.

Hopefully the stars align and we have a brilliant summer.

[Ossie the King 634]

Yes their is.

To finish second or even third was not the end of the world.

For us was different because there was no chance of finishing even in top 4.

And then that by December we was one point above relegation zone.

Pellegrini never had city like this even the season that they didn't win it.

Pellegrini has never had less than DOUBLE the average net spend of Mourinho each season to back him though.

In the same time he's been at City, they've spent £170 million NET more than us.

We need better players and a better manager.

Hopefully the stars align and we have a brilliant summer.

I agree. But to get there we need better people running the club.

[Fernando 6,585]

Pellegrini has never had less than DOUBLE the average net spend of Mourinho each season to back him though.

In the same time he's been at City, they've spent £170 million NET more than us.

I agree. But to get there we need better people running the club.

So net spend is the excuse?

Then how come all these years Arsenal had a great net spend but they never been in relegation zone like we was all these months?

They always finished top 4.

[Ossie the King 634]

So net spend is the excuse?

Then how come all these years Arsenal had a great net spend but they never been in relegation zone like we was all these months?

They always finished top 4.

No, it's not an excuse but it's a contributing factor and isn't that what we're looking at? In fact Arsenal's net spend in Mourinho's time here has actually exceeded our's.

That doesn't mean that we should have been performing how we were but there were (and are) glaring holes in the squad and we haven't actually spent the money to address it. Isn't that a cause for concern for Chelsea supporters?

Are you ok with us winning the league and then saying, thats it? We won the league, now let's weaken the squad and actually sell a world-class goalkeeper to a rival against the wishes of the coach?

What we saw this summer was a coach (who underperformed this season) undermined by the owner and failed by the board. NO-ONE did their job this summer and we've sold arguably the only one of them who knew anything about football.

The future of this club is not good. We have idiots in charge and an owner who spent on average just £8 million net more in transfer fees this summer than Crystal Palace. We aren't getting Pep either.

[Fernando 6,585]

No, it's not an excuse but it's a contributing factor and isn't that what we're looking at? In fact Arsenal's net spend in Mourinho's time here has actually exceeded our's.

That doesn't mean that we should have been performing how we were but there were (and are) glaring holes in the squad and we haven't actually spent the money to address it. Isn't that a cause for concern for Chelsea supporters?

Are you ok with us winning the league and then saying, thats it? We won the league, now let's weaken the squad and actually sell a world-class goalkeeper to a rival against the wishes of the coach?

What we saw this summer was a coach (who underperformed this season) undermined by the owner and failed by the board. NO-ONE did their job this summer and we've sold arguably the only one of them who knew anything about football.

The future of this club is not good. We have idiots in charge and an owner who spent on average just £8 million net more in transfer fees this summer than Crystal Palace. We aren't getting Pep either.

Yes I would have been Okay with not winning anything this year.

Said it from the beginning I would have been happy with second or third this season just as long as we introduced more younger players.

So I was all for it of not buying much just so that we can give time to younger players.

This was supposed to be that season after winning the pl last season.

[Ossie the King 634]

Yes I would have been Okay with not winning anything this year.

Said it from the beginning I would have been happy with second or third this season just as long as we introduced more younger players.

So I was all for it of not buying much just so that we can give time to younger players.

This was supposed to be that season after winning the pl last season.

Fair enough then. If those were your expectations then I can understand why you were happy with the board weakening the squad and giving up on the title.

Unfortunately we hired a coach who bases his existence on winning. We should've hired someone like Rodgers, a man who plays young players and can't win the league. Who knows, you may well get your wish.