Chelsea owners and board

[patThenevin]

I still find it amazing that amidst the swirl of poch, players, Todd and that zoolander bloke blame cycle that the modern day, billion dollar boys club of Laurence and Whinstanely are not front and centre.

Never have two employees failed so miserably but retain their jobs and seem to carry only fleeting blame for their catastrophic failings.

That said the line is long.

 

I'm hoping a big points deduction and subsequent relegation washes the scum away. We end up with Coe and Broughton. 

Anything would be better than the hateful circus we have at present both on and off the pitch.

[Ham]

1 hour ago, patThenevin said:

I still find it amazing that amidst the swirl of poch, players, Todd and that zoolander bloke blame cycle that the modern day, billion dollar boys club of Laurence and Whinstanely are not front and centre.

Never have two employees failed so miserably but retain their jobs and seem to carry only fleeting blame for their catastrophic failings.

That said the line is long.

 

I'm hoping a big points deduction and subsequent relegation washes the scum away. We end up with Coe and Broughton. 

Anything would be better than the hateful circus we have at present both on and off the pitch.

Hateful? Pot, kettle, black. 

They're trying. It's not fecking sabotage. If we could get the injury list down to single digits for just two games in a row, that would be nice. 

I swear.... Some Chelsea fans 🙈

[ROTG]

7 minutes ago, Ham said:

Hateful? Pot, kettle, black. 

They're trying. It's not fecking sabotage. If we could get the injury list down to single digits for just two games in a row, that would be nice. 

I swear.... Some Chelsea fans 🙈

Maybe the training regime is just too intense for some of these players bodies.
 

Or maybe it is cobham, because the sick notes that left in the summer seem to be consistent available at their new clubs 

[ROTG]

An Open Letter to the Owners

The Time for Action is Now

THE SCORE

DEC 28

 

READ IN APP

 

Dear Clearlake / Ownership group,

Right from the start of the tendering process for submitting bids for Chelsea in spring 2022, I supported your bid for Chelsea Football Club. All the way through I advocated for you. I backed you. I told others how great you would be for Chelsea.

Last season I continued to defend you. Even in one of our worst seasons ever when we had near relegation form at some point, I defended you and the project, publicly and privately.

This season that has continued. I’ve backed you because I can see what you’re tying to do. Because somehow I still, even now, believe that you have the right ambitions for Chelsea - to win, to be competitive, to be successful.

I’ve been one of your biggest defenders but I’m now out of answers.  I can’t disrespect fellow fans who are angry at how things are at the club, both on and off the pitch, especially on the men’s side, by continuing to blindly defend you. We’ve been mid table and one of the worst teams in the Premier League for 12 months, ever since the new sporting directors came in in Jan 2023. And given the quality in our squad, and the money spent, there is simply no excuse for it.

2023 has arguably been the most depressing year to be a Chelsea fan for as long as I remember, and people need to be held accountable and face consequences.

I accepted this season we’d likely finish 6th/7th, but make some progress on the pitch despite a few defeats.  That was fine for me. Still would be. I don’t have impossibly high expectations. 

But we’re nowhere near even that. We’ve made a cup semi final, which is great. But in the league, despite some positive underlying metrics at the beginning, we’ve got worse since the Newcastle defeat. There’s no clear style of play. Some players have improved but others have dropped their performance level.

Head coach Mauricio Pochettino has to take some blame, but to be fair to him, you didn’t listen to him in the summer when he demanded some PL experience and some captains. And that is costing us.

The people in charge of our football operation, Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart, as talented as they are at spotting young talent, have no experience of building a successful trophy-winning team, yet alone of running a massive club like Chelsea - and it shows. 

What is communicated from them and from the top is a sense of arrogance, as if somehow you know better than everyone else how to run a successful football club, when no one at the club bar Neil Bath, Emma Hayes and Paul Green have any experience of this.

The culture the Sporting Directors are setting is simply not the standard of Chelsea and bears no connection to what the club is really about. Twice now Behdad Eghbali has had to intervene in big deals to get them over the line, so poor have been their negotiating skills. Their team building strategy has been poor despite signing some top talent. And the decision to potentially sell our best player this season, Conor Gallagher, is another case of incompetence, to help pay for other mistakes they’ve made.

Not to mention there is a complete lack of accountability by the sporting directors and even from the owners. The fans are smart, we know whats going on and why, and we won’t be fooled by some new signings, the problems go deeper and we all know it. 

But you have an even bigger problem. I have loved and followed Chelsea for 35 years and yet right now, I feel total apathy about the club. I feel no connection to the club, the owners, the people running the club and even some of the players. It doesn’t even feel like Chelsea anymore. I know I’m not alone in this either, many long term fans have simply lost their feeling for the club, and feel the club they love has gone.

Fans confidence is at an all time low and fans are sick of seeing a team which doesn’t show the pride, commitment, character and consistency of what Chelsea fans expect.

I don’t need us to be a top 4 team right now, I need us to be a team I can get behind, can be proud of and will fight for the badge even in defeat. I want some leaders in this team, I want us to keep our best academy talent not sell it. I want Chelsea people in positions of power at the club - directors, assistant coaches, involved in team building. People who GET the club.

As owners you need to surround yourself with better people. Hire serious people with proven experience and success at big clubs and give them the power to build this club and this team. Some names? Luis Campos, Dan Ashworth, Paulo Maldini for starters. These are all sporting directors with a proven track record of building successful teams. 

Align a serious director of football with the talent spotting ability of Joe Shields - unquestionably the best hire since you took over the club - and our new scouting team, it could be a hugely successful move. 

Next, make a decision on the manager. You either back Pochettino by keeping Conor Gallagher and backing his judgment, or sack him. If you sack him, appoint a serious manager, not a yes man, someone proven but who plays a brand of football which is a match with this squad (and the PL), and let him challenge you. Listen to him on what it takes to build a successful team and club.

Ask the honest opinion the fan board and the likes of Daniel Finkelstein and Barbara Charone, two long time Chelsea fans who care deeply about the club and know what it means, and listen to them.

And finally, for goodness sake, communicate with us fans. Admit you messed up, admit you got it wrong, tell us what you want to achieve, make your ambitions clear. Do it on the club channel directly and honestly. Do it at meetings with CPO and fans groups. Apologise. The fans deserve this. Without us this club won’t work. We know what this club means, listen to us and apologise for what’s happened.

I and the majority of our fans are tired of our club being a laughing stock. Tired of other fans and media mocking us on a daily basis. Tired of not caring about our team. I personally am tired of fans talking relegation battles two years in a row due to poor form. 

As owners you need to take responsibility and make the changes necessary to get us winning again and restore the connection between club, team and fans.

The time for waiting is over. The time for patience is done.

Chelsea fans expect and demand some changes quickly. Please don’t keep ignoring the fans. Give us our Chelsea back.

I still believe your intentions are good, and you have the right ambitions, but you’ve got to start acknowledging the mess you’ve made and putting it right. Fans are watching to see what you do.

The time for action is now. 

Kind regards,

The Score (on behalf of Chelsea fans).

 

[chara]

Well @ROTG...I often think you are on a wind up with deliberate "traps" but my goodness I have to say that is a magnificent analysis of the situation as I see it and I suspect many others.

No hyperbole or unrealist expectations ..... well played Sir.

[ROTG]

20 minutes ago, chara said:

Well @ROTG...I often think you are on a wind up with deliberate "traps" but my goodness I have to say that is a magnificent analysis of the situation as I see it and I suspect many others.

No hyperbole or unrealist expectations ..... well played Sir.

Sorry

cut and paste from my Si Philips Substack thingy. 
 

you should know my attention span is in line with a goldfish 😀. No war and peace from me, I leave that to the smart people 

[patThenevin]

5 hours ago, Ham said:

Hateful? Pot, kettle, black. 

They're trying. It's not fecking sabotage. If we could get the injury list down to single digits for just two games in a row, that would be nice. 

I swear.... Some Chelsea fans 🙈

Yeah it's almost as if the club has been hijacked by a couple of financiers, fronting up for an investment vehicle representing the middle east .....you know that sector that has laid waste to numerous private and state structures. Oh and mortgages the club's future for on the back of arrogance and a complete lack of respect and grasp for what they bought off the shelf.

 

I mean we could talk about away day travel, a mere £250k cost, being cut but let's just keep your jaded little thinking cap focused on the club becoming a billion dollar abject example of what is wrong with the game.

But yeah some Chelsea fans.... wanting their club back and not have it as a vanity piece for a global investment company. I mean you could plead absolute ignorance but if you think this type of organisation is good for Chelsea medium term future you are wholly naive. 

Sheer soppery of an outlook from you, "they are trying"....yeah to show that you really can fool some of the people all the time

God bless those billionaires and leave 'em alone, they are such brave trier's 

Please don't respond, our grasp of the situation will never meet but if you do, would be wonderfully hilarious for you to list their noble.... risking everything....put the clear lake boys out of the Hamptons and their 8 figure bonuses out of pocket...show me them 'trying'

 

As all I can see is a European title winner being crashed into a wall driven by a heady concoction of arrogance and naïvety. That said I do hope Todd comes back with his best mates privileged little brats so they get to walk in on a half time team talk.

 

[patThenevin]

6 hours ago, ROTG said:

Maybe the training regime is just too intense for some of these players bodies.
 

Or maybe it is cobham, because the sick notes that left in the summer seem to be consistent available at their new clubs 

Yeah it's them pesky injuries with done it. Those hamstrings flushing away the clubs identity through various rounds of sackings, those ACLS putting the cost through the roof in the west stand and getting shot of subsided travel. 

Cry me a river nonsense. Ignore the grotesque money wasted in Chelsea's name, ignore the numerous injuries blighting most other clubs.

 

Injuries. I swear...... Some Chelsea fans

[Dwmh]

6 hours ago, Ham said:

... If we could get the injury list down to single digits for just two games in a row, that would be nice. 

The injury list is not the problem.  It is the playing list.
If your 25 man over 21 squad only include 16 outfield players ANY injury list is going to kill you.
If you start the season with Lavia, Fofana, Chalobah  and Nkunku already on the injury list for the first half of the season that just highlights it isn't unexpected injuries that is the problem.

The problem is 12 outfield players available even back in August before the window closed.

The club went into the season with one leg tied behind its back.

[xceleryx]

11 hours ago, ROTG said:

Maybe the training regime is just too intense for some of these players bodies.
 

Or maybe it is cobham, because the sick notes that left in the summer seem to be consistent available at their new clubs 

Injuries are a league wide problem. 

The intensity of the league itself, the fixture congestion, the lack of proper off-seasons, and then the decline of proper pre-seasons because teams are forced to give their players extended breaks, all play their relevant part in players breaking down regularly. 

[xceleryx]

4 hours ago, Dwmh said:

The injury list is not the problem.  It is the playing list.
If your 25 man over 21 squad only include 16 outfield players ANY injury list is going to kill you.
If you start the season with Lavia, Fofana, Chalobah  and Nkunku already on the injury list for the first half of the season that just highlights it isn't unexpected injuries that is the problem.

The problem is 12 outfield players available even back in August before the window closed.

The club went into the season with one leg tied behind its back.

I said this on the old forum about 12 months ago, that the traditional 25 or so man squad isn't viable with the demands of modern football - at least in the Premier League. 

The issue of course is that carrying larger squads of say 30 players give or take, creates a playing time problem in those periods where there aren't' injuries to contend with. 

[Dwmh]

1 hour ago, xceleryx said:

I said this on the old forum about 12 months ago, that the traditional 25 or so man squad isn't viable with the demands of modern football - at least in the Premier League. 

The issue of course is that carrying larger squads of say 30 players give or take, creates a playing time problem in those periods where there aren't' injuries to contend with. 

So you must really be pissed off with the owners that started off with 16 + 4GKs (including the long term injuries) instead of the allowed 25 and your ideal 30.

[xceleryx]

5 hours ago, Dwmh said:

So you must really be pissed off with the owners that started off with 16 + 4GKs (including the long term injuries) instead of the allowed 25 and your ideal 30.

Can't say I am, nor am I sure how you arrive at the number 16. 

[Dwmh]

4 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Can't say I am, nor am I sure how you arrive at the number 16. 

Count the number of players in the Over 21 list.
How many can you find?

[chiswickblue]

6 hours ago, Dwmh said:

Count the number of players in the Over 21 list.
How many can you find?

That's disingenuous given the clear recruitment profile. This isn't 2010/11 and the U21s aren't Kakuta, Bruma, van Aanholt and Borini. We have 23 outfield players in the squad, although at least 10 of them have been injured at any one time.

I thought signing Disasi was a waste, but given Chalobah still isn't fit it was obviously a short-term necessity.

[Dwmh]

15 minutes ago, chiswickblue said:

That's disingenuous given the clear recruitment profile. This isn't 2010/11 and the U21s aren't Kakuta, Bruma, van Aanholt and Borini. We have 23 outfield players in the squad, although at least 10 of them have been injured at any one time.

I thought signing Disasi was a waste, but given Chalobah still isn't fit it was obviously a short-term necessity.

I don't think so.  It is one thing to imagine that a 20yo can start 5-8 games a season, but that doesn't make him an option for 30 games.  Probably only Colwill  is that and he is the rare position where he has have 4  o21 players for 2 positions in front of him for 2 CB positions and 2 at LB.

And it isn't 10/11 (or 15/16) because we don't have Ivanovic, Cole, Torres, Drogba, Malouda, Essien, JT, Anelka Kalou, Ramires, Mikel, Lampard, Ferreira, Bosingwa and Alex as the core of the team.   The 21 yo was Sturridge while Zhirkov, Luiz and Benayoun made up the numbers.
That is one hell of a core. all up to playing 30 PL games a season.

We have Disasi, a 39 yo, James, Chilwell, Gallagher (23) , Sterling and Nkunku as our core players, of which 3 have regular injuries or had a serious one at the end of the summer window.

It is a tiny squad made up of inexperienced youth and delicate injury prone players backed up by kids with no PL experience between them and Colwill.
AND THAT WAS CLEAR BEFORE THE SUMMER WINDOW ENDED 

[xceleryx]

6 hours ago, Dwmh said:

I don't think so.  It is one thing to imagine that a 20yo can start 5-8 games a season, but that doesn't make him an option for 30 games.  Probably only Colwill  is that and he is the rare position where he has have 4  o21 players for 2 positions in front of him for 2 CB positions and 2 at LB.

And it isn't 10/11 (or 15/16) because we don't have Ivanovic, Cole, Torres, Drogba, Malouda, Essien, JT, Anelka Kalou, Ramires, Mikel, Lampard, Ferreira, Bosingwa and Alex as the core of the team.   The 21 yo was Sturridge while Zhirkov, Luiz and Benayoun made up the numbers.
That is one hell of a core. all up to playing 30 PL games a season.

We have Disasi, a 39 yo, James, Chilwell, Gallagher (23) , Sterling and Nkunku as our core players, of which 3 have regular injuries or had a serious one at the end of the summer window.

It is a tiny squad made up of inexperienced youth and delicate injury prone players backed up by kids with no PL experience between them and Colwill.
AND THAT WAS CLEAR BEFORE THE SUMMER WINDOW ENDED 

Just because you don't think a 20 year old is an option for 30 games a season doesn't mean it can't be so either. As @chiswickblue said, our recruitment plan has been driven by investing in young talent, a good portion with the view of being present day first team contributors. You've always done a really fine job of selectively picking out niche criteria to try and validate your arguments, this is another one of those occasions. 

The sole part that of what you've said that has actual relevance is that we're a squad made up of inexperience. Again, a well known part of going down a youthful rebuild. Now, there's obviously phases to this whole project and this was deemed the initial step, rightly or wrongly is up to each individual to decide. What we do in subsequent windows will tell us a lot more about what things will look like moving forward. We're not going to abandon signing young players, so that's going to still be a relevant aspect, but it's whether or not we now look to add a bit more established quality between the lines. If we do that, then there's no reason we cannot see improvement and our floor level being raised. 

But again, we're 6 months into having virtually an entirely new side assembled - many of which have spent lengthy periods out injured, including some of our more key "senior" figures. It's not like flicking a light switch off and on, it's going to take a bit of time for things to properly come together. 

[thevelourfog]

5 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Just because you don't think a 20 year old is an option for 30 games a season doesn't mean it can't be so either. As @chiswickblue said, our recruitment plan has been driven by investing in young talent, a good portion with the view of being present day first team contributors. You've always done a really fine job of selectively picking out niche criteria to try and validate your arguments, this is another one of those occasions. 

Which 20 year olds are on course to play 30 games for us this season?

Utterly bizarre that anyone would look at how this season has gone and argue against the idea we have a squad of players not ready or able to meet the demands of a PL season. Even stranger anyone would persist with an argument that this is part of a reasonable strategy.

[xceleryx]

31 minutes ago, thevelourfog said:

Which 20 year olds are on course to play 30 games for us this season?

Utterly bizarre that anyone would look at how this season has gone and argue against the idea we have a squad of players not ready or able to meet the demands of a PL season. Even stranger anyone would persist with an argument that this is part of a reasonable strategy.

It was a generalised response to the original comment dismissing the notion that's 20 year olds cannot be counted upon, there's clearly levels to it. 

Don't recall ever arguing against the idea that we don't have a squad to meet the demands of a Premier League season. In fact, we're performing exactly as I had anticipated going into it given the chosen direction. But again, we're 6 months into things with this team and process. What we do in the next few transfer windows will tell us more. If we add some established quality to the nucleus of what we've got, we've got every chance of improving. 

[Mark Kelly]

Is love to know where all these great players we're going to be buying to make us a force to be reckoned with again are coming from because I don't recall a time in history with such a dearth of quality .

When Ivan Toney is heralded as a difference maker then you know you're in trouble .

Who are the standout players ? Other than Osimhen who everyone wants to buy or Mbappe who is galaxies ahead of our ability to attain I can't see much out there of a proven nature . Particularly when you factor in that we aren't exactly a step up for players these days.

It's why you need a top coach and why we won't do anything of note with a coward in charge . One who sacrificed our attacking options to bolster our defence , one who plays a decent left back as a loss poor winger because he's so very scared of the opposition.

[My Blood Is Blue]

9 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Is love to know where all these great players we're going to be buying to make us a force to be reckoned with again are coming from because I don't recall a time in history with such a dearth of quality .

When Ivan Toney is heralded as a difference maker then you know you're in trouble .

Who are the standout players ? Other than Osimhen who everyone wants to buy or Mbappe who is galaxies ahead of our ability to attain I can't see much out there of a proven nature . Particularly when you factor in that we aren't exactly a step up for players these days.

It's why you need a top coach and why we won't do anything of note with a coward in charge . One who sacrificed our attacking options to bolster our defence , one who plays a decent left back as a loss poor winger because he's so very scared of the opposition.

I agree and have said as much before, the talent pool for proper elite players has shrunk and even the pool down from that with top quality players is much smaller than it used to be. It seems like many of the academies have trained that magic out of a lot of players by making them so tactically aware. You don’t see too many difference makers in teams nowadays compared to even 10/15 years ago.

The other problem we now have is that we aren’t even sunbathing by those top pools anymore, so the players in them won’t want to come to us as we’d be a step down in most cases.

[xceleryx]

17 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

Is love to know where all these great players we're going to be buying to make us a force to be reckoned with again are coming from because I don't recall a time in history with such a dearth of quality .

When Ivan Toney is heralded as a difference maker then you know you're in trouble .

Who are the standout players ? Other than Osimhen who everyone wants to buy or Mbappe who is galaxies ahead of our ability to attain I can't see much out there of a proven nature . Particularly when you factor in that we aren't exactly a step up for players these days.

It's why you need a top coach and why we won't do anything of note with a coward in charge . One who sacrificed our attacking options to bolster our defence , one who plays a decent left back as a loss poor winger because he's so very scared of the opposition.

We don't necessarily need to be star hunting, even just adding a few solid professionals that provide a bit of what's needed would help elevate the standard. 

Maybe this is in part why we've gone down the young talent route that we have? 

[Ham]

The talent pool for top quality star players is shallow because the most important attribute nowadays is athleticism.

Some of our favourite entertainers from the early days of the premier league might not have made it to the top these days.

Nobody would have bought a Jay Jay Okocha. 

[Dwmh]

11 hours ago, xceleryx said:

Just because you don't think a 20 year old is an option for 30 games a season doesn't mean it can't be so either. As @chiswickblue said, our recruitment plan has been driven by investing in young talent, a good portion with the view of being present day first team contributors. You've always done a really fine job of selectively picking out niche criteria to try and validate your arguments, this is another one of those occasions. 

The sole part that of what you've said that has actual relevance is that we're a squad made up of inexperience. Again, a well known part of going down a youthful rebuild. Now, there's obviously phases to this whole project and this was deemed the initial step, rightly or wrongly is up to each individual to decide. What we do in subsequent windows will tell us a lot more about what things will look like moving forward. We're not going to abandon signing young players, so that's going to still be a relevant aspect, but it's whether or not we now look to add a bit more established quality between the lines. If we do that, then there's no reason we cannot see improvement and our floor level being raised. 

But again, we're 6 months into having virtually an entirely new side assembled - many of which have spent lengthy periods out injured, including some of our more key "senior" figures. It's not like flicking a light switch off and on, it's going to take a bit of time for things to properly come together. 

It doesn't matter what I think, common sense and long established rules of thumb say that 20 year olds break down in form or physically much much more than 25 yos.  Even the ones that turn out to be good 25 yos (which is probably less than half).
So going into September with a squad based on 20 yos fulfilling a proper role is stupid.  One thing if it is Rooney with 100 appearances, quite another if they have never played PL football before.

Then double up by having most of your o21 squad aged 21-23.  

Lunacy.

5 hours ago, thevelourfog said:

Which 20 year olds are on course to play 30 games for us this season?

Exactly - we won't know until January but we are committing to them in August.  Probably 1.
 

2 hours ago, Mark Kelly said:

Is love to know where all these great players we're going to be buying to make us a force to be reckoned with again are coming from because I don't recall a time in history with such a dearth of quality .

We are a mid table team, dearth of quality no longer matters.  It is the dearth of experience and the dearth of fit players able to make 30 starts a season that is killing us right now.
Mid table team with mid-table problems.  Solving the issues that take a team from 4th to first are quite irrelevant.

 

[jasonb]

4 hours ago, Dwmh said:

It doesn't matter what I think, common sense and long established rules of thumb say that 20 year olds break down in form or physically much much more than 25 yos.  Even the ones that turn out to be good 25 yos (which is probably less than half).
So going into September with a squad based on 20 yos fulfilling a proper role is stupid.  One thing if it is Rooney with 100 appearances, quite another if they have never played PL football before.

Then double up by having most of your o21 squad aged 21-23.  

Lunacy.

Exactly - we won't know until January but we are committing to them in August.  Probably 1.
 

We are a mid table team, dearth of quality no longer matters.  It is the dearth of experience and the dearth of fit players able to make 30 starts a season that is killing us right now.
Mid table team with mid-table problems.  Solving the issues that take a team from 4th to first are quite irrelevant.

With some luck regarding injuries we might make 8th or maybe 7th. Then the next season aim for the top 4.

This does presume you can recruit better players at least in some positions.