Gonzo79 15,197 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 What's happened there? Humped off Bournemouth and Watford within a matter of days. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gribz 837 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 Total mess there at the moment but its the club repeating what it does every few years. Poor run of results this calendar year. Couldnt beat Norwich over 210 mins, out the league cup to Arsenal and bad league form. Selling and not playing their spine from last season is where it started. Luis hasnt been playing, Matic sold, Costa sold. Those playing arent as good. If they lost Hazard they are in trouble. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
compo 6,965 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 Its not going well for the blues I thought the signing of Barclay a strange one I have quite a few Everton pals and they couldn't wait to get rid of him 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
lenny3k 639 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 1 hour ago, compo said: Its not going well for the blues I thought the signing of Barclay a strange one I have quite a few Everton pals and they couldn't wait to get rid of him add to that being linked with players like Peter Crouch.. Gives them a very different option, but, come on, I think Chelsea could do better than Crouch..... 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uilleam 5,924 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 It seems clear that the manager wants out, that the players know this, and that the conequences are a complete shambles, not a word I use loosely, on the field. Cahill looks as though this may be a season too far, the lad Bayayoko does not look like a football player at all, and there is clearly a lack of drive, direction, and leadership on the pitch. 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Uilleam 5,924 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 Gabriel Marcotti on Chelsea/Conte in The Times: GABRIELE MARCOTTI | THE GAME DAILY february 6 2018, 9:00am, the times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/chelseas-transfers-shouldnt-diminish-antonio-contes-success-bk93wq830?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_111&utm_medium=email&utm_content=111_February 06, 2018&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2882816_111 Chelsea transfer policy at heart of Antonio Conte’s woes So things just got very real for Chelsea and Antonio Conte. Back-to-back defeats, conceding seven goals to Bournemouth and Watford, two sides in the bottom half of the table (at the time). Two wins in their last ten in all competitions. One Premier League win this year. A seven-point cushion over the fifth-placed side a five weeks ago down to just a single point today. From the moment last summer that Antonio Conte signed a new contract that featured a hefty pay rise but no extension over the original three-year term, some speculated that his stay at Stamford Bridge would not be a long one regardless. “If he wins the Champions League or repeats as [league] champion, he can say, ‘My work here is done, time for a new challenge’ and walk away,” one long-time Conte-watcher and former team-mate told me in the summer. “And if he does badly, he’ll get sacked. Either way, I’d be surprised if he sticks around for a third season.” Signs were pointing in that direction, sure. But the narrative seemed a bit too easy. This was Conte. An emotional man, one who builds deep bonds. What if his relationship sparked back into life this season? What if he decided London was home and that Chelsea could be the vehicle to fulfil his long-term ambitions? It may be a moot point in the sense that the decision may be made for him. But you wonder to what degree the sense of impermanence impacted what seems to be one of his biggest beefs: the club’s transfers. It’s not just about the extent of the spending — though the club’s net spend over the past two windows stands at £51.5 million, the fifth most in the Premier League and, according to Transfermarkt.co.uk, only marginally more than the likes of West Bromwich Albion (£44 million), Huddersfield Town (£45.8 million) and Watford (£49.1 million) — it’s the type of transfer decisions made. On the main, they’ve been the sort of moves designed not for a short-term boost, but to retain market value. Six of them were aged 25 or younger. Another, Danny Drinkwater, was 27, but the fact that he’s English and proven in the Premier League means that, if he doesn’t work out, you can reasonably expect to recoup a fair chunk of the fee. The one exception is Olivier Giroud, who is 31 and cost an initial £15.3 million, but that’s an extreme case: a position Chelsea had to fill and it’s telling that one of the things that made him attractive was that he had 18 months left on his contract. Put differently, Chelsea’s signings have been commodities. That is to say players who you expect to contribute but, mostly, you expect to rise in value. These are the sorts of signings that make a ton of sense from the perspective of a club that needs to plan in the medium term and who, should a new boss come in, might need to liquidate players and free up salary slots and transfer funds pretty quickly. It’s not hard to see how this might have been out of sync with Conte, who may have felt that what his Chelsea side needed were instant impact players who would upgrade his team further and turn them into genuine Champions League contenders, rather than players with “upside”, guys who would “retain value” even if they didn’t set the world alight, or, like Ross Barkley, long-term “projects” who may or may not pay off. That’s the basis of the narrative whereby Conte — relative to, say, Pep Guardiola at Manchester City or José Mourinho at Manchester United — did not get the same level of support. Whether it’s fair or not — Chelsea, after all, need to do what they believe is best for the club in the long term and that’s not always what’s best for a manager in the short term, particularly one who won’t commit long term — is not that important. What matters is that it took on a life of its own, particularly in the way Conte was viewed back in his native Italy. The words of Fabio Capello spring to mind here. “People say I’m successful because owners buy good players for me,” he once said. “No, I’m successful because I convince owners to buy me good players.” It’s a theme that has followed Conte around since his days at Juventus. Even as he was winning three consecutive Serie A titles, he was regularly rowing with the club over signings, always wanting bigger and better ones. (Indeed, that’s what led to his sudden resignation in the summer of 2014.) You almost got the impression that he saw it as part of his job, prying as much investment as he could out of the club. Every manager, of course, wants financial backing in the transfer market and tries to get as many resources as he can. But Conte pushed it further than most at Juventus and, depending on who you speak to, Chelsea is a re-run of those days. Here’s the irony though. Juventus were not a big-spending club when he was there — it was far more of a shoestring operation than it is now — and Chelsea, equally, have looked to balance the transfer books for some time. And yet, assuming he doesn’t win the Premier League this year — a pretty safe bet — his record will show four league titles in five seasons at those two clubs. What’s more, his two-year stint with Italy — universally acclaimed as a rip-roaring success after the run to the Euro 2016 quarter-final — was achieved with perhaps the least talented Azzurri squad in half a century. All of which rather suggests he’s been pretty darn good at getting results with the resources at his disposal. Perhaps that will be a lesson learnt when he walks away from Chelsea, whether it’s in the summer, next week, at the end of his contract or in a decade’s time: maybe the mark of a great manager is doing what he’s been doing on the training ground and on match days for most of his career. And not the old Capello trope of cajoling and coaxing his bosses into spending more money. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/sport/chelseas-transfers-shouldnt-diminish-antonio-contes-success-bk93wq830?utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=newsletter_111&utm_medium=email&utm_content=111_February 06, 2018&CMP=TNLEmail_118918_2882816_111 0 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ser Barristan Selmy 222 Posted February 6, 2018 Share Posted February 6, 2018 8 hours ago, lenny3k said: add to that being linked with players like Peter Crouch.. Gives them a very different option, but, come on, I think Chelsea could do better than Crouch..... Ashley Barnes was the most bizarre one. Even Giroud is nowhere near the level Chelsea need. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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