What the hell is wrong with Chelsea?

should've started this thread a month ago

http://i.imgur.com/ao4nj.jpg

insufficient esprit de corps due to lack of roasting sessions?

they're old

also big man syndrome

cant see if any of those jpgs are wilkins but it's wilkins

Looking at the game yesterday, Chelsea's complete inability to take the ball from defence, keep it, and turn it into attack seemed to be a massive problem. I refuse to believe players like Lampard and Essien could have lost the plot to that extent so maybe it's just bad form affecting all their key players at once.

Dunno what's happened, in such a cosmopolitan dressing room it can't just be the absence of Wilkins, surely?

the problem might lie with who replaced wilkins

judging solely from the game yesterday it seemed like they really lacked energy (not in the sense that they were physically tired) or a strong desire to win -- a few of those really lazy passes in their own half by the defenders made it seem like their minds were elsewhere

Abramovich has always been the reason why they have been successful and why they are always one step away from a crisis.

But who cares now that we have Man City to take their place.

not so much wilkins or who hax replaced him as it is that the players seem to expect to be consulted on every decision, withhold performances in trade union stylee, and the club tolerates it.

Is there anyone doesn't think terry's the culprit here?

the defence isn't as good since carvalho left

OTM. Carvalho was a top defender they let him go with relatively little fuss, and they only have one other senior centreback who is injured.

A Bolton win tomorrow would ensure that Chelsea start the year in 5th place. Please let this happen.

carvalho only stayed in 2009 cuz they agreed to let him go this year

I actually mean 6th place, not 5th. 6th might be enough to ensure Ancelotti the sack.

they'll finish first or second

Apparently Abramovich was in the dressing room after their Inter defeat last season and wanted to sack Ancelotti and Wilkins on the spot, and had to be convinced that was a fucking stupid idea.

Fast forward to now and Ancelotti is basically gone but is refusing to resign as he wants a Maureen-style pay-off. Give it a month at the most, and he's off.

Were Chelsea more financially fucked in 1994 or 2003? I hope those days return. Also, someone should start a fire and put John Terry in it.

how can abramovich think ancelotti's the fucking problem?

kinda is the problem

ancelotti is a broken toy after he undermined him so transparently, might as well get a new one (iirc russians give each other presents on epiphany so there's time yet)

I would love footage of that showdown xp, an egomaniac billionaire in the heat of the moment, telling some of the world's best and angriest players and managers exactly why they are shit, and be in a position to do something about it - the mixture of fear, contempt and entitlement on all sides would be a magnificent thing to behold.

closest you'll get is probably downloading the .ru version of any given sunday

Uncle Fester apparently mouthed off to Abramovich after the Inter game and the Russian had in in for him ever since. Then his contract wasn't renewed in November and Ancelotti tried intervening, only to be told by the execs that he could resign himself if he had a problem.

Apparently. According to third-hand gossip. Etc. Shush.

The way I imagine it, at the moment of maximum tension Jose pops in to shake hands, totally unruffled and carrying a copy of Lonely Planet Madrid

Ancelotti knows the Roma job is his whenever he wants it, his attitude towards Chelsea now is basically the same as someone in their last three weeks at one job before the next one comes up.

hasn't ranieri 'turned things around' kinda? or would they still get rid of him if ancelotti is available

Italian management structure is a lot more fluid than it is over here... there's still a lot of leeway for returning "prodigal sons". Plus for whatever reason it's still hard to think of Roma as an actually important Italian football team, I'm not sure why.

yeah they're weird like that, even when they're beating milan/inter and generally outperforming juve

On a completely separate note, only these cunts would dress up a viral video for their shirt sponsor's new mobile phone product as a fucking charitable appeal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHm5QP8n204

PLEASE DONATE £500 TO THE SAMSUNG NEXUS S

Too long a history of being second - foreigners probably see Spurs in the same way. Arguably Roma are more like an Italian Leicester.

yeah they're not tottenham tho, they're kinda between arsenal and tottenham

there isn't an english equiv

yeah manager who knows he's off, only 2 centre halves who are often injured, an oft injured midfield, drogba having malaria, city outbidding them for everyone they want, no real style of play esp. when the russian supposedly wants total football ala barca...

I dunno, Spurs seems a p good comparison actually

Too long a history of being second...[]

― Ismael Klata, Sunday, 2 January 2011 23:42 (7 minutes ago) Bookmark

I dunno, Spurs seems a p good comparison actually

― irish xmas caek, get that marzipan inta ya (a hoy hoy), Sunday, 2 January 2011 23:50 (1 second ago) Bookmark

uhm

I want to find the feed of the dugout from the Arsenal game last week as apparently no-one else on their playing staff spoke to Ancelotti at all during the entire 90 minutes.

conjecture through the roof on this thread

http://www.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/794dbcaa5a.jpg

Abromovich out! lol. Spurs/Arsenal wind up surely?

ancelotti sounds like he's losing it

"Until now, there's no news," he said. "David Luiz is not here and will not be available for the game. So it's not right to speak about this.

"I'm waiting until the end of the transfer window. If there are new players, it means we needed those new players. If there are not, we didn't need them."

Probably a good thing I wasn't around for this thread, the only one who is OTM is Local Garda.

Got to admit it's been an odd three months though?

Problems with Chelsea are complicated but basically boil down to the squad being a little stale, no real investment in either financial or numerical terms.
They took a gamble that the kids could step up but most are under18 and CA is risk averse.
Nobody who has actually watched Carvalho play for the past two-and-a-bit years would think he is the solution.
Injuries and illness caused first poor results, exacerbated by lack of confidence, bad luck, internal problems (Wilkins), bad team selection and general tiredness/staleness if squad that have been together for problem too long.

Just seen 'Terry is the culprit'. Jeez, obsessives, stop reading the Fiver, it ain't good for brains.
Terry's form has actually been excellent, as has Cech, Cole and Ramires. The problems are 'the front three and CA's refusal to play Sturridge and McEachran or change the formation.
But if RA was fed up with CA he'd have sacked him. Has history taught you nothing?
Fact is, fans have stayed pro-CA throughout because they understand the issues, and respect CA for winning the Double even though he can be incredibly frustrating. Suggestion is that RA feels the same way. The Wilkins thing was a problem and we really need to bring in a proper No 2. A new forward would also be nice.

'i want to see the footage because apparently no one in their dug out spoke to Ancelotti for 90 minutes.'

Words fail me.

we really need to bring in a proper No 2

On that note, the whole succession of journeymen second-in-commands - Arnesen, Grant, the new guy - when you have actual elite managers trying to do their thing ... what's the idea behind that?

All different. Arnesen and Grant weren't no 2s. Arnesen was in charge if youth development and u18 transfers and has done a good job. The kids are youth cup holders and just knocked arsenal out in front of a paying crowd of 7,000.
Grant was clearly brought in to keep an eye on Jose when that relationship had broken down.
The new guy - this I have no answer to. He's not actually no 2 either - that's Paul Clements - but us clearly a RA pick. The club say they want to promote from within at coax as well as playing level, and RA dies take iffy advice from Zhavini and Bobby Bloody Campbell. Think that is a genuine issue, because we have seen from MUFC who hard it is to manage without a strong No 2.

Please excuse numerous typos. iPhone and Ilx do not happy partners make.

Don't know if the new chap is a spy, very little has come out, but the players definitely aren't too comfortable with him. Clements is popular though.

Won't be long before Terry and Lampard are joint managers anyway. That will be interesting.

Final point, both JM and Scolari brought their own coaching teams. This proved problematic for two reasons - an us-and-them mentality when things started to go wrong, and a very expensive pay-off when they were all sacked. Desire to promote coaching staff from within is in part an attempt to counteract that.

The central point is this: The club is clearly belt-tightening at all levels as Kenyon/Buck always stated would be the case. This will inevitably have a short-term effect on results. In my mist positive mood I think that RA is also aware of that and quite content to see Chelsea as an established top four team, even if they don't challenge for the title every season.

Really interesting that you make that last point. From a business point of view it doesn't really make sense to aim for anything more. Arsenal have clearly long decided they're happy with that status, and I reckon United have too except that Ferguson has such a winning mentality they can't help dominating almost by accident sometimes - but the effective guaranteed success for relative mediocrity is what has created the gap for the Glazers to insert themselves there the way I see it.

Leaving Man City and Liverpool (haha) as the only sides that really need to win the League. Given the state of the latter, if it wasn't for Spurs we could have a truly moribund competition on our hands soon.

Leaving Man City and Liverpool (haha) as the only sides that really need to win the League

That doesn't really make sense, though. Obviously United, Chelsea and Arsenal (the players and supporters, that is) really *want* to win the league, you're just saying that the owners don't need them to win the league, because as long as they can get into the group stages of the Champions League it'll keep sufficient money rolling in. But then by that measure City and Liverpool don't *need* to win the league either, they just really want to. I mean in financial terms City don't need to do anything at all.

Obviously I'm talking about something like pride here - the big three can rest on their laurels atm. I fully accept Abu Dhabi will be able to scrape by if it doesn't happen.

lol

Chelsea FC plc becomes cash positive as it prepares for UEFA financial fair play rules

Chelsea FC plc today announced that results for the financial year end June 30, 2010 show the group had become cash positive for the first time since its acquisition by Roman Abramovich. The club had a positive cash inflow of £3.8m in the year compared to a net outflow of £16.9m in the previous year.The club believes it is now well positioned to meet UEFA's financial fair play rules.

In addition, the group had a reduced operating loss of £68.6m on an improved group turnover of £205.8m. The operating loss was £3.6m better than the previous year. The total loss for the financial year was £70.9m.

XP, bad as City's owners might be, they'd have to work fairly hard to be as repulsive as Abramovich.

I quite like Mourinho, AVB and a lot of Chelsea's stars but the fact that the whole enterprise has been calculated to boost the public image of one of the worst people ever to have been involved in the sport means i'll never soften to the club as a whole.

Hope we make Terry our Life President. Fuck being 'liked' be weirdo Terry obsessives.

I admire the attitude but fear it wouldn't end well. JT instals self as boss, RA bequeaths empire to JT, blows lot on on Joe Cole's signing-on fee, rapid descent to Isthmian League, JC ends up as Khodorkovsky's cell mate, something like that.

You people need to decide whether Terry is a stupid, knuckle-dragging, egotistical thug or a super-shewd criminal evil cunning mastermind cos he can't be both surely. Maybe the Fiver will tell you what to think?

in time, JT will tell us what to think

Not all of those things are mutually exclusive.

I think mostly he's a bit of a cunt with a huge ego which makes him somewhere around the same as your average wealthy footballer.

As for AVB, I fear he will be judged on same criteria of other managers and need to gain success in first two seasons if he's to stand a chance of surviving RA and his lackeys (the REAL nefarious influence at club).

he's an evil cunning egotistical thug.

Ok?

remind me again why jt and jose allegedly fell out?

don't doubt terry is an awful man to have around when things are going wrong but i'm really not sure all he's that difficult to manage straight from the off. he's probably too set in his ways to respond to jose-style alpha male stuff now anyway. think avb's youth might be flatteringly invigorating to this group.

not sure how ilx footy heads are all of a sudden en masse guardian sport acolytes just cos we all agree on one p obvious thing, seems a little precious tbh pete

Pete ♥s EB&LJT, it's touching to see him vault over the top for him

lol don't think anyone's ever had jt down as shrewd or cunning either. pretty meat n potatoes backstabber innit

papers talking a lot about falcao coming in, would be a pretty striking signing but i'm not sure avb's gonna rock the boat like that first thing idk

moutinho seems nailed-on otoh

we should start with the poetry again itt tbh

How about some Lord of the Rings chat? Terry as a Wormtongue type.

ok, let's not

a cuntish cuntlord, there's no doubt
And doesn't like it pointed out
Thug, cunt, backstabber, shagger, conniver,
I know, i read it in the fiver

Have any of Chelsea's numerous ex-managers ever said anything about Terry being a problem? Even a squeak? It's posh paper tittle tattle and typical blame-the-workers bullshit. The problem with any business always starts at the top but the Guardian especially has a Terry fixation that I find genuinely baffling. He's just a footballer, get over it.

I think they all get sacked with stfu money so we might never know. He definitely created a few waves with the England manager last summer.

h8 the workers so much tbh

Yeah, Capello really demonstrated what a problem he found Terry when he reappointed him as captain for no reason whatsoever. Must have been seriously upset...

I've been seriously upset with people who were and are close friends. That I still speak to them or favour them in any way doesn't mean I wasn't upset.

also, cunts sometimes get promoted. Doesn't mean the boss doesn't know he's a cunt.

i say 'sometimes' but i mean 'p much always'

http://www.talksport.co.uk/magazine/features/2011-06-22/how-chelseas-%C2%A369m-compensation-pay-outs-compares-arsenals-net-transfer-spend-2004

lol

Have they done won comparing trophies won over same period?

It should also be pointed out that, during this period, Arsenal have won a single FA Cup, while Chelsea have won three Premier League titles, three FA Cups and two League Cups. Both clubs have also lost a Champions League final.

so sacking managers and pissing money away >>>>>> sticking by them and building shit if you count it in trophies

if you count it monetary terms then Roman's "who gives a shit?" >>>>>>>> profit

I didn't realise Aaron Ramsay was only £5m - good bit of business that, acts of god notwithstanding.

X-post

This is the stupid thing. There is no actual evidence Terry has been directly or indirectly responsible for any sackings, supposedly undermined managers repeatedly make him captain or even re-appoint him under huge public criticism, his team-mates have offered no criticism of his conduct (Wayne Bridge aside) and yet people still make up these ridiculous evidence-free scenarios that say it's all his fault and that everybody who actually knows and works with him really thinks he's a 'cunt'.

x-post If Arsenal fans are happy then that's all that matters. It's their club. And vice versa.

can't believe nobody ever criticises kingmaker terry wtf is that about.

Are any footballers cunts, pete?

DIOUFY

None I've met. They're just people.

ah, well tbf that kind of explains the divide here. You're addressing this in an adult manner. Very laudable, though it can't be much fun.

also tbf we all know he didn't say 'excuse me there old boy' to ledley king that time.

Oh lord, not that bullshit as well.

lol no in fairness i'm winding now.

He was sent off for clocking bae that time, i think we decided.

yah so abramovich

is he really that bad? and by what standards

as oligarchs go he's probably closer to khodorkovsky than usmanov

nm that, avram grant went unbeaten at home and just missed out on the double, dude deserves his own 'why is he so bad & hated' thread imo

achieved a sort-of double with Pompey and West Ham

xp,

Abramovich has done remarkably well to keep stories about him out of circulation. He put the fear of God into the Russian media (it's generally said that no press organisation even dared to even show his photo prior to him taking on a public role as absentee landlord of Chukota), and has shut down anything potentially juicy in the English-language papers with the threat of libel action.

With that in mind, i won't go into the 'allegations' in any depth but the kind of stuff Khodorkovsky was eventually nailed for is the tip of the iceberg.

meh, other managers get relegated in easier circs without the vitriol

(Wayne Bridge aside)

^^^p big aside, non?

this is very enjoyable

lol

It is indeed!

Avid football cognoscenti will have been aware that traditionally the fiery Portuguese has a great second season followed by a slump the following term, but will not have suspected that it would be so drastic a plunge.

the third season is fatal - bela guttman /theblizzard

He was sent off for clocking bae that time, i think we decided.

― the waitress and the frogbs (darraghmac), Wednesday, 22 June 2011 13:36 (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wasn't there a thread for something like 'posts whose content mark them out as being from a bygone era' or similar

I was trying to wind Pete down iirc