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What's going wrong?

Discussion in 'Chelsea' started by Chelsea Pensioner, Jan 17, 2018.

  1. Gareth1808

    Gareth1808 Well-Known Member

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    Has anybody seen the report about us getting investigated due to how we handled some transfer of young players? I think I saw it briefly on twitter that if found guilty it could ban us for two transfer windows. I couldn't find an actual article though but imagine if it did happen and we actually had to play some of the youth team? AMAZING!
     
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  2. armchairblue

    armchairblue Well-Known Member

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    I'd try something like this
    courtois
    azpi christiansen rudiger
    Barkley Kante
    Allonso
    Willian Hazard
    Morata/STRIKER
     
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  3. Bullet tooth Tony

    Bullet tooth Tony Well-Known Member

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    That looks ok but scratch Morata for another striker, well at least someone that can kick the ball in the general direction of the goal.
     
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  4. Bodinki

    Bodinki You're welcome
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    I agree.
    Might be a good thing

    1) It would mean that we would have to address our squad weaknesses immediately and actually make useful signings before the ban
    2) It would mean that should the need arise due to injuries etc, then we would have no choice but to give youth a chance, instead of making ****ty signings like Andy Carroll or Peter Crouch <ok>
     
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  5. armchairblue

    armchairblue Well-Known Member

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    Anyone think Moses could play up front with Morata?.....Willian could play RWB.
     
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  6. Chelsea Pensioner

    Chelsea Pensioner Well-Known Member

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    Yes to Moses, but rather Pedro at RWB.
     
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  7. Bodinki

    Bodinki You're welcome
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    This is a decent article which I think speaks a lot of sense regarding Chelsea and where our failings have been recently.
    https://theprideoflondon.com/2018/01/22/chelsea-settling-second-transfers/

    I agree completely, that every manager we get is hamstrung by the executives at Chelsea.
    This is why our manager turn over in the last 10 years has been ridiculously high.
    And the reason for this is because we have a bunch of ****tards who think they know football better than the managers, trying to tell the managers who they should sign.
    I for one, am much happier with Edin Dzeko than I would have been with Andy Carroll or Peter Crouch, but still, why the **** do we keep missing out on all our targets? It simply has to be because the board are not allowing our management team the budget to sort it properly, nor are our youth players being given a fair crack.
    If we cannot buy quality, and you are not going to properly nurture the quality in your academy, then you are going to end up with a second rate squad, and that is what is slowly starting to happen at Chelsea, and it is what has been happening at Arsenal for the last decade.

    We have the money, the location, the prestige, we are a globally known brand, yet we failed to land, as the article points out:

    Arturo Vidal
    Radja Nainggolan
    Antonio Candreva
    Leonardo Bonnucci
    Romelu Lukaku
    Alex Sandro

    All players we have bid for in the last two summers and failed to land.
    The **** is going on?

    Everyone knows Morata was the boards second choice (though not Conte's), and that we wanted Nainggolan or Vidal but had to settle for Bakayoko, had to re buy David Luiz when we failed to land Bonnucci, now it looks like we are going for Palmieiri since Sandro has fallen through.
    I know nothing of Palmieiri admittedly, but by all accounts he aint as good as Sandro.
     
    #27
  8. Chelsea Pensioner

    Chelsea Pensioner Well-Known Member

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    This is what you and I have been saying for too long. Buy the best player the manager asks for. Seriously, why we haven't paid the 60 M for Sandro is bonkers. We would then have one of the best in his position and no more defensive problems for a couple of years at least, with excellent players in every position right across the back, and the ability to switch and change without weakening .
    We need a GREAT attacking midfielder, not 2 or 3 more "pretty good"ones. We already have "pretty good "ones in our youth set up, why buy more, especially crocked ones and unproven ones. Fine if they cost bugger all, but not 35 or 40 mill on a hope and a prayer.
    As for the striker, Costa was as good as they come for Contes style, but Conte wasn't up to managing him. Morata was a panic buy, ill thought out and the player can't play as a target man ,which is what Conte wants. Result is Morata , good as he is, doesn't work properly in our system.
    Now looks like we have Dzjeko, better for Contes' system, but no long term answer to any of our problems.And Michy ,who finally showed his value when allowed to play to the teams strengths, looks like he's on his bike. More craziness and third rate planning.
    Real mess which won't be solved unless and until Roman changes his ways. Not going to happen, he's just like Trump who thinks money solves every problem. Actually it sometimes can, but not with a scattergun approach.
     
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  9. Bodinki

    Bodinki You're welcome
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    This.
    Money can solve the issue, if you spend it correctly, as the article also pointed out....Pep was given Man City last season, managed them for a season and then went to the board in the summer and said, "Okay, the squad is okay, but to take it to the next level and own the PL and compete seriously in the CL I need this player, this player and that player..." and they went and they got them....and the result is plain for all to see.
    With Conte it looks they he said "Okay I want this player, this player and that player..." and our board were like "hmmmm, what about him, he plays in the same position and is £10m cheaper, you cant have that guy, his wage demands are too high, what about this guy..."

    If you aint buying in to the managers vision, then what is the ****ing point in him being there?
    He is going to get pissed and leave if he feels he doesnt have the backing of the board.
    Fair enough if they splash out and the results aren't forthcoming, but the guy won the ****ing league last season ffs, and was **** hair away from doing the double....trust in what he says FFS!!
    Sooo frustrating....
     
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  10. chelsea - over 100 years of history

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    But this is how football has basically operated forever. The manager can say what players he ideally wants but ultimately he's not writing the cheques. I just don't think we can compete with the Manchester clubs financially anymore. Probably in part because we want to build a new stadium. I'm not quite sure why people are surprised we're not prepared to invest 100 odd million (including wages and agent fee) in a 29 year like Sanchez like a desperate and far richer United are.

    There have been some ridiculous deals done in the last 12 months and so everyone's becoming a little flippant about the money. CP above advocating spending 60 million plus wages on a full back with no P.L experience for instance. That's a huge amount of money and the club have to manage finances responsibly.

    And when all is said and done, we're still having a decent season really. Only City are clearly outperforming us and they tend to have a year on year off cycle like us.
     
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  11. BobbyD

    BobbyD President

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    i would agree about the ridiculous 60m sums being paid for a LB.

    However, when we start spending 35m on danny drinkwater, 40m on bakayoko, 20m on barkley who is free in 6 months time and are thinking of 20m on andy carroll, then i'm thinking 60m for a left back who is deemed as world class is cheap
     
    #31
  12. Bodinki

    Bodinki You're welcome
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    I am not asking us to spend as much as the Manchester Clubs, I dont really care how much they spend, I care about buying the right players, the players the manager wants, that doesn't necessarily mean they need to spend extortionate amounts of money.

    Look at Lukaku vs Morata, they will similiarly priced, in that instance Conte actually pushed for the player who ended up being cheaper.
    Nainggolan, Conte tried like hell to sign him, but Chelsea baulked at the £32m asking price, then ended up spending even more on the inferior Bakayoko. Heck we spent more than £32m on Danny ****ing Drinkwater for christs sake!!

    I am not asking that they do Neymar or Coutinho type deals of £100m+, just listen to Conte and let him build the team he wants.
     
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    Last edited: Jan 23, 2018
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  13. chelsea - over 100 years of history

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    Do we really know for sure what's going on behind closed doors though? Do we really know who the manager wants or whether the club has actively gone against his wishes? All a lot of whispers and paper talk from where I'm standing. I can't imagine we'd be going after a big target man if Conte hadn't specifically asked for one for instance so he is being backed to a large extent. Managers will always want more of course just look at United buying yet another attacking player in Sanchez when they have about 10 players in that position already In fact United have so many wide forwards they are playing 2 of them as full backs!).

    The club also has to weigh up that whoever they buy and put on 4-5 year contracts are invariably going to outlast the manager as well. For instance, Naingollan is 29, Bakayoko is 23. So you can see one is a better long term investment in theory. Obviously Bakayoko has struggled but that's not to say he wont come good. He has time to adapt to the P.L where as a 29/30 year old doesn't so much.
     
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  14. Bodinki

    Bodinki You're welcome
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    But all of that is irrelevant if bakayoko is **** <laugh>

    All we know is what has been reported, in multiple sources and through contacts at the club.
    Some of it may not be true, to an extent. But they are the only sources we have, and I am not content to sit here, not debating, because Conte or Abramovich haven't personally told me what went down.
    Conte wanted Nainggolan by ALL accounts. And the same accounts then said the CFC board refused to meet Roma's asking price of £32m.

    http://metro.co.uk/2017/03/22/radja...-antonio-conte-over-chelsea-transfer-6525464/
     
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  15. chelsea - over 100 years of history

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    That articles a year old and refers to the previous summer, the summer we bought Kante in that position (and already had Matic). I can't see that it was the case of Bakayoko was chosen by the board over Conte's choice of Naingollan. May have happened in the summer of 2017 of course but the market changed significantly between the summers of 2016 and 2017.

    I think its the case in almost all clubs nowadays that the identifying and purchasing of players is not down to just the manager. Even City pulled out of the Sanchez deal despite Pep wanting him. That would have been a decision at board level, in fact Pep confirmed as much.
     
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  16. Bodinki

    Bodinki You're welcome
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    That was completely understandable, because City were not prepared to match United's offer.
    There was no bidding war with our targets, we just failed to land them, and most of them stayed put.
     
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  17. chelsea - over 100 years of history

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    Well if they stayed put, it's likely because the club/s didn't want to sell. Can't force clubs to sell and if they put high fees on them to deter bidders (i.e 60 million for Sandro) then at some point the club has to say no. Most of the players listed above already play for high level clubs and getting deals done is getting increasingly harder now agent's fees are massive, wages are spiralling out of control etc.

    To think it cost us around 20-25 million for Barkley (including the agent fee) for an injured player with 5 months left on his contract. Even more for United with Sanchez. The days of a cheap transfer cos a player has run down his contract look long gone! We wanted VVD and Liverpool had to break the world record for a defender to get him.

    We do have a short termism approach to managers of course, and part of that may be that they aren't just given what they want all the time. But I'm not sure that's necessarily a bad thing. The club has geared their model towards less reliance on hand outs from Roman which may mean less success in the short term but should hopefully mean we are equipped to stay amongst the elite in the long term. Which was always the concern i.e. where would we be if Roman 'got bored'.

    The article is headed 'what's going wrong'. I'm not sure anything significant really is. We're having a decent season which could still turn into a very good season if we can maintain top 4 and maybe a cup. In a season after we've won the league and City have been the best P.L side ever (so far), what else can we expect?
     
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  18. Chelsea Pensioner

    Chelsea Pensioner Well-Known Member

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    Interesting, because you are both right while coming from a slightly different timeframe.
    100 Years is looking at the very big picture, Bodinki more like the next couple of seasons, which is where I tend to sit as well. Going on our past , I am not sure anyone else is looking at the very big picture, because everything at Chelsea goes pear shaped every 2 to 3 years max.
    Bobby D is on my wavelength exactly when he says the total spent on Bakayoko, Drinkwater and Barkley combined ( for no return whatever so far) would have got us Pogba, let alone Naingollin !!!
    I'll take 1 great player above 3 OK ones every time.
    Anyway, thanks for taking part, the most interesting post response I've seen.
     
    #38
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  19. Diego

    Diego Lone Ranger

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    That's the way it always should be.
    Fergie broke a few transfer records in his time but the players he bought were usually long term and made a difference.
     
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  20. Bodinki

    Bodinki You're welcome
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    I guess I am happy that we aren't just throwing massive amounts of cash (relative to the Manc clubs at least) at everything. But you have to wonder why we are struggling to keep hold of managers for more than 2 seasons now....
    And why we keep having wildly bi polar seasons, great one year, ****e (Or mediocre at least) the next.
    And I have thought a lot about this, and it is because every time we win the league, the managers always have an inclination to build on that success and move forward (which usually means spending cash, and does carry some risk), but the board seems content and says "Nah, we won the league last year, we dont need to change anything, dont fix what aint broken" and we then stagnate, the players get disgruntled and we lose a manager and/or a key player or two and we end up back where we started.

    I guess I am just frustrated that despite the leaps we have made, the academy players we have and the successes we have had, we are unable to sustain any sort of momentum, we just keep getting peaks and troughs.
    But then we have won more trophies than any other club in the last 5 years I guess, so I cannot complain too much <laugh>
     
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