Chelsea owners and board

[thevelourfog]

9 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

As I said recently , appoint a new man and then F off back to the States. 

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/apr/17/todd-boehly-tells-chelsea-season-embarrassing-dressing-room-brighton-real-madrid

Who did they bollock, then? 

[Bert19]

8 minutes ago, thevelourfog said:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/apr/17/todd-boehly-tells-chelsea-season-embarrassing-dressing-room-brighton-real-madrid

Who did they bollock, then? 

It's Steinberg... I'll take this one with a heavy pinch of salt.  But if the owners did tell the players some home truths, they're not exactly in the wrong anyway are they.  Some of them have been a disgrace this season.  Including some of the expensive new signings. 

Also, must have been Cucurella, Koulibaly or Sterling right? They are the obvious choices. 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Bert19

[paulw66]

On 16/04/2023 at 12:00, Bob Singleton said:

I agree that it's hard to imagine where the next point might come from (Forrest?) but it would take freakish results for us to get relegated. We're on 39 points. In theory, Southampton - currently bottom of the table - could get 44 points if they won ALL their remaining fixtures. That would mean winning 7 out of 7 having so far managed 6 out of 31.

 

Meaning they would have to then beat some of the teams that sit below us.

We are 250/1 to be relegated, which suggests it is possible, but it would take a freak set of results.

Personally, I would be amazed if whoever finishes 3rd bottom gets 39 points (or more) 

Edit - this weekend there are 3 games, where both teams are below us. Then two more on Tuesday, another on Thursday. The following weekend, another one......and so on

Edited April 17, 2023 by paulw66

[paulw66]

On 16/04/2023 at 10:08, exiledblue said:

Yes, but will we be able to attract top players and coach without European football? 

Like Conte and Kante in 2016?

Edited April 17, 2023 by paulw66

[thevelourfog]

16 minutes ago, Bert19 said:

It's Steinberg... I'll take this one with a heavy pinch of salt.  But if the owners did tell the players some home truths, they're not exactly in the wrong anyway are they.  Some of them have been a disgrace this season.  Including some of the expensive new signings. 

Also, must have been Cucurella, Koulibaly or Sterling right? They are the obvious choices. 

Of those three, only Sterling played. And agreed on not taking Steinberg's word as gospel, just also not sure Boehly is likely to help much in the dressing room.

[east lower]

15 minutes ago, Bert19 said:

 

Also, must have been Cucurella, Koulibaly or Sterling right? They are the obvious choices. 

Well if it were Stirling, it didn't last long as he was on the A3 at Hook at around 6:45pm in his Lamborgini  SUV. 

Just like on the pitch he was in third gear as I was doing the speed limit and went past him.

[chara]

Perspective...and whilst I'm far from all in on Todd and Co....I recall an owner advocating electrocuting his own teams fan base!

For all the apparent missteps the real straw etc was appointing the wrong coach..and remember GP was the Media Darling and "The Way Forward" for English coaching future.

For months now the puzzlement from a wide swath of differing viewpoints has been the lack of any sign of coaching and the weekly drop off of pressure once the first 20/30 minutes passed.

By this stage of the season the routine for training should be just that, almost routine, all tactical and fitness procedures having been installed back last Summer along with the necessary tweaks as the season progresses.

Frank has had no ,and will get little meaningful,  time on the training ground and in fairness what radical changes can he make?

I repeat..he is a band aid to get us to the end of the season .

Season write off and the best we can say is that at least Chelsea are still here despite 

efforts to wipe us of the face of the map.

[Chelsea_Matt]

41 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Meaning they would have to then beat some of the teams that sit below us.

We are 250/1 to be relegated, which suggests it is possible, but it would take a freak set of results.

Personally, I would be amazed if whoever finishes 3rd bottom gets 39 points (or more) 

Edit - this weekend there are 3 games, where both teams are below us. Then two more on Tuesday, another on Thursday. The following weekend, another one......and so on

Tbh Paul the way things have gone I wouldn’t bet against it. It reminds me of the season under Hurst when we literally didn’t score for months. And that’s the worry - most here seem to agree that we don’t know  where we’ll get points from. How the mighty have fallen. Having been at SB when we were last relegated and promoted, I never thought things would come to this.

[chara]

51 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Meaning they would have to then beat some of the teams that sit below us.

We are 250/1 to be relegated, which suggests it is possible, but it would take a freak set of results.

Personally, I would be amazed if whoever finishes 3rd bottom gets 39 points (or more) 

Edit - this weekend there are 3 games, where both teams are below us. Then two more on Tuesday, another on Thursday. The following weekend, another one......and so on

The teams between us and the bottom four would give anything for the cushion Chelsea has.

Not a time for complacency and relegation is a statistical possibility..but....

[thevelourfog]

9 minutes ago, chara said:

The teams between us and the bottom four would give anything for the cushion Chelsea has.

Not a time for complacency and relegation is a statistical possibility..but....

I honestly do not see us ending the season on more than 43 points and think almost all the teams below us now would be above us in a form table come the end of May, but it would be real statistical anomaly stuff for us to go down now.

[My Blood Is Blue]

I agree with all those who are saying the season is a write off and that they can’t see where our next goals will come from, let alone points, but, it really didn’t have to be this way. If the owners had made the decision to let Potter go earlier, we could have got someone in this season who could have probably stopped the rot and got us performing and potentially even in contention for a top 6 place.

We, the fans, saw months ago that Potter wasn’t working here and wasn’t ever going to, as no signs of progress were seen at all.

This is what frustrates me so much about the owners this season… getting the appointment wrong is crap and naive, but trying to stick with it for so long was suicidal to our season and potentially next as so much damage has been done.

[paulw66]

13 minutes ago, My Blood Is Blue said:

I agree with all those who are saying the season is a write off and that they can’t see where our next goals will come from, let alone points, but, it really didn’t have to be this way. If the owners had made the decision to let Potter go earlier, we could have got someone in this season who could have probably stopped the rot and got us performing and potentially even in contention for a top 6 place.

We, the fans, saw months ago that Potter wasn’t working here and wasn’t ever going to, as no signs of progress were seen at all.

This is what frustrates me so much about the owners this season… getting the appointment wrong is crap and naive, but trying to stick with it for so long was suicidal to our season and potentially next as so much damage has been done.

We'll, damned either way 

 

If they had booted months ago, they'd be those saying he should have been given time 

[paulw66]

52 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Tbh Paul the way things have gone I wouldn’t bet against it. It reminds me of the season under Hurst when we literally didn’t score for months. And that’s the worry - most here seem to agree that we don’t know  where we’ll get points from. How the mighty have fallen. Having been at SB when we were last relegated and promoted, I never thought things would come to this.

You wouldn't bet against what? 

[Chelsea_Matt]

Just now, paulw66 said:

You wouldn't bet against what? 

Relegation.

[paulw66]

8 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Relegation.

You think all but two of the teams below will get to 39 points 

 

Ignoring whatever we do or don't get

[Chelsea_Matt]

4 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

You think all but two of the teams below will get to 39 points 

 

Ignoring whatever we do or don't get

I’m just saying….you never know.

[Bison]

2 hours ago, thevelourfog said:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/apr/17/todd-boehly-tells-chelsea-season-embarrassing-dressing-room-brighton-real-madrid

Who did they bollock, then? 

Convinced it's Sterling if that story is true. Highest paid player at the club, big summer signing and I kind of get the impression he wishes he didn't join. 

[My Blood Is Blue]

8 minutes ago, Bison said:

Convinced it's Sterling if that story is true. Highest paid player at the club, big summer signing and I kind of get the impression he wishes he didn't join. 

He would be my guess as well, but it would a only a guess, we’ve no idea if it’s true and if it is who it is.

[paulw66]

2 hours ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

I’m just saying….you never know.

Well, you can take a sensible guess. 

Southampton, Leicester, Forest, Leeds, Everton..... All playing as bad as us, but ten points+ worse off. 

 

Not saying it is much to be proud of, but the bottom 3 will end up with less than 39 points.... 

 

And I don't think for a minute we won't get one single point from the last 8 games. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

5 minutes ago, paulw66 said:

Well, you can take a sensible guess. 

Southampton, Leicester, Forest, Leeds, Everton..... All playing as bad as us, but ten points+ worse off. 

 

Not saying it is much to be proud of, but the bottom 3 will end up with less than 39 points.... 

 

And I don't think for a minute we won't get one single point from the last 8 games. 

We can’t score a goal let alone win matches at the moment I’m afraid!

[paulw66]

29 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

We can’t score a goal let alone win matches at the moment I’m afraid!

That's not going to get the teams below us any points 

[Bones]

On 15/04/2023 at 21:28, Oslo blue said:

At first glance, the new owners seemed to be doing everything right. They arrived with ambition, invested heavily in the club, and hired a promising coach. However, hidden underneath has been a series of questionable moves that have led to one of the most spectacular collapses in Premier League history. We have now gone almost half a year with the lowest number of wins in the league. Stunning!

To me the flashing red lights started popping with the departure of Petr Cech. The departure of Cech was a significant moment that signaled the new owners' willingness to strip down anything that did not meet their high standards based on objective criteria from the world of analytics and high performance. This was just the beginning of a series of losses for us, including the massive changes in backroom staff such as Maria's quick departure and the exit of Buck. This approach of making drastic changes may work in the business world, but football is not just a numbers game. The fabric of a club is built over years, and success is not just about buying the best players and making high-profile moves. Success is built upon day-to-day excellence and the people within the club who understand and embrace the club's history and culture.

By making so many drastic changes, the new owners ensured that the very essence of Chelsea Football Club, its people, was lost or at least changed for the worse, and there is no easy way to get that back now. If the new owners wanted to start fresh, why not buy a cheaper club like Nottingham Forest instead of paying billions for Chelsea and devaluing it with these moves? They did not even make sure a proper transfer of knowledge happened. They just chucked out a large part of the DNA of the club. 

The problem is not the players. It is not the coach. It is that our DNA has been altered. And that is the one thing that makes me very worried going forward. 

 

100%

[Max Fowler]

Can we also agree that recent weeks, perhaps more than any other time, have called into question whether or not the owners really are up to the task of delivering us success moving forward and in the long-term?

It's not just the sacking of Tuchel or the hiring of Potter - I can put that down to ego and lack of football knowledge.

It's the new reports of their continuing dressing room presence which bothers me. Fine, we're in an interim period - maybe the players deserve a dressing down from the owners and they aren't taking Frank seriously as interim.

But the expert "footballing people" should be in place now for them to get well out of the way. 

It seems like they are no closer to doing so and this "collaborative" motive for sacking Tuchel and hiring Potter was indeed because they want to be involved at every level - regularly attending training sessions and present in the dressing room. 

I stumbled upon this video below the other day - would Roman or Sheikh Mansour ever have positioned themselves like this in relation to a player - joking and welcoming them to the club as if they were the first-team manager? Maybe I'm nit picking, but the the guy can't help being the centre of attention.

He sacked the people who were there because he wanted to control everything from the beginning and maybe that was still necessary to instigate a true change of ownership but it shouldn't be any more.

RIGHT DECISION: Sacking Potter, even if it was weeks or months late
RIGHT DECISION: Hiring Frank as interim (even if results are shaky)

But there are big questions remaining to answer this summer. I wouldn't put it past these owners to lose out on Enrique because we didn't get him right away, lose out on Nagelsmann to Madrid and be left stranded with worse options.

And even if we get the manager that they want, will he even get out of the way then? The window of opportunity for trusting these guys is getting thinner by the day and they do have sporting experience but we are in a very delicate situation indeed.

I still back them to get us out of this but the size of Boehly's ego really is hard to take. Maybe it can save us in the long-term - he's clearly successful, but right now its a bit like having Donald Trump running the US again - he can't stay out of the headlines.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2023 by Max Fowler

[xceleryx]

This might go against the grain a little here given some of what's been expressed, however I don't have all too much against Boehly and co at present. That's not to suggest they've not made mistakes, they have, but I do have an understanding for what they're trying to do in terms of reshaping the club. 

We'd all like to have more "Chelsea figures" involved behind the scenes, such as Cech for a prime example. However, it's also completely understandable as to why he and the likes of Marina and co were moved on from given their association with previous ownership. We can't expect a new ownership group to not want to have their own people involved for one, but also look to bring in those who fit their approach. This is something even Man City did eventually after they went through their initial big spending period early on, they eventually signed Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano for example once they opted to build an environment that was going to fit their vision of bringing Pep in. The difference of course is that they did this over many years, slowly putting the pieces in place which they're now reaping the benefits of. We're essentially trying to do similar but in a far more condensed timeframe, so it's not a great surprise that we've seen a few hiccups along the way. I dare say this is also why they're now taking their time in making sure our next managerial appointment in the right fit for that vision. 

A lot of other supporter groups would also love to see their owners show their ambition to spend, so to criticise our own spending is a bit ironic in ways because if we had penny pinches we'd have people moaning about that - and it's not as if there is some optimal spending marker either, where if spending either side of that draws criticism.  Sure, it would be nice to not see us waste money or make more astute use of it, but we've largely invested in young players and trying to get in before certain FFP changes take place and that window of opportunity disappears. 

Now that we've got more infrastructure in place to move forward with, I do hope to see a bit more continuity and thoughtfulness put into our actions moving forward. That's not to suggest I expect the chaotic nature to cease completely, but I do think it will eventually die down in the next couple of years once we've established proper foundations to build from. 

As for criticising Boehly popping into the change rooms, talking to players, attending games, it's all shit that's designed to stir the pot. There's nothing wrong with an active owner, providing theirs obvious boundaries in place and right now I'm not of the impression any of those have been crossed as of yet. 

[Sleeping Dave]

On 21/02/2023 at 01:01, Max Fowler said:

Do we need to start pushing back on the new owners already and voicing our dissent?

In one word, yes. The current ownership will ruin us. I don’t see much positives about them. If they take a step back and let football people run the club, who the ownership are is effectively meaningless for club/football decisions. But how it has been it’s been nothing short of a shit show all around. 

From the players we’ve signed, for the fees we’ve paid, to the length of the contracts. We are stuck with a lot of the players we’ve bought and we aren’t talking a few seasons. We’re talking the better part of a decade.