Chelsea 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers 4

[thevelourfog]

9 minutes ago, Dwmh said:

Wasn't here for 3 of the last 3 manager changes, but I'm sure just exhaustion with the process gave Poch an easier ride.
And he has matched Potter and TT from last year and quite  outperformed the other guy.
Which since I can't see how the squad changes this year could possibly have helped means Pocho has made a contribution  the team has got no worse during his time.

We're talking more in the ground than here. I think part of it is that many people there genuinely don't expect that much, and would have settled for being just a bit better than last season. But we're pretty much the same. That's a hard pill to swallow.

At a certain point, paying CL club ticket prices for mid-table club results is going to become an issue for lots of people.

[Bison]

34 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

Unforgivable 💀😡

Coming from him no less. The audacity. 

[Chelsea_Matt]

I don’t know about you but to me this result really does seem very damaging indeed. It feels different to other defeats. Like a tipping point, maybe.

[Original 21]

The thing is Poch has been given a fair bit of leeway because of injuries to key players and a bizarre recruitment policy that has little to do with him. So all he really had to do this season was to keep things stable, show some signs of progress, and make us at least hard to beat. Get us to about 6th or 7th and he’d be seen as a success and probably get another season with a proper striker and a couple more experienced signings. I don’t think anyone was expecting miracles this season. But I can’t think what he’s done to deserve another season. It’s just kamikaze stuff now and Poch looks like he knows the game’s up. 

Edited February 4 by Original 21

[ROTG]

43 minutes ago, blueandproud said:

No he's not, and a rubbish left back in his time as well, and I never listen to pre match press conferences because they are just irritating and annoying, full of cliches and stating the obvious.  As for Simon "I f***ed up Palace" Jordan, all he does is defend his fellow owners, who couldn't run a brothel, along with is mate Jim White.  Brian Clough or Tommy Docherty would have sorted him out,  Anyway, his Palace spell was about 15 years ago and totally dated..  Brazil is just a Poch apologist and a drunkard/. , and no-one cares about the early '80's, it was crap.  Cundy I admit is OK, but Cacarino, Saunders, Crook, Duraham are all full of shit.  As for the written press, I don't bother, they are just overpaid pen pushers.  The only good presenters on TalkCrap are And Townsend, Jeff Stelling, Ally McCoist and Hawksbee and Jacobs.  The  rest steal a living talking nonsense.  Pat Nevin on5Live is better than at least 10-15 Talksport presenters put together.  As for their naff guests, they are just mates of the producer.

I guess it about individuals opinions 

As for stealing a living. It’s not only talksh1t presenters, there are many in this world who steal a living including many of the current Chelsea squad. 

[Mark Kelly]

15 minutes ago, Original 21 said:

The thing is Poch has been given a fair bit of leeway because of injuries to key players and a bizarre recruitment policy that has little to do with him. So all he really had to do this season was to keep things stable, show some signs of progress, and make us at least hard to beat. Get us to about 6th or 7th and he’d be seen as a success and probably get another season with a proper striker and a couple more experienced signings. I don’t think anyone was expecting miracles this season. But I can’t think what he’s done to deserve another season. It’s just kamikaze stuff now and part of me thinks Poch regrets taking on the job and wants out. 

The thing is, if he'd done those things he'd have had a better chance of getting a new contract. 

But he didn't and as limited as the squad are he hasn't moulded them into a unit. 

So, he only has himself to blame. 

[Miguelito07]

2 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

So, he only has himself to blame. 

100% agreed. It’s now February and we still look like a team in pre-season. Individuals rather than a team. Yes we’ve played well in some matches  but halves rather than in the whole match.

why can’t we just be hard to beat and go for draws rather loses. 
 

this is all on Poch!

[Original 21]

13 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

The thing is, if he'd done those things he'd have had a better chance of getting a new contract. 

But he didn't and as limited as the squad are he hasn't moulded them into a unit. 

So, he only has himself to blame. 

I agree. He didn’t have to prove he’s the greatest manager around. Just keep things steady, make us hard to beat, show a bit of progress, get us to the Europa League, and everyone would say he’s done a good job under the circumstances. Instead we’re looking like we’ve never played together, never been coached, and the players’ confidence has been broken. I don’t see how he comes back from this. 

[Miguelito07]

23 minutes ago, Miguelito07 said:

100% agreed. It’s now February and we still look like a team in pre-season. Individuals rather than a team. Yes we’ve played well in some matches  but halves rather than in the whole match.

why can’t we just be hard to beat and go for draws rather loses. 
 

this is all on Poch!

Just to add to this. Pre cup games - we’ve had ONE game a week FFS

[Max Fowler]

46 minutes ago, Original 21 said:

The thing is Poch has been given a fair bit of leeway because of injuries to key players and a bizarre recruitment policy that has little to do with him. So all he really had to do this season was to keep things stable, show some signs of progress, and make us at least hard to beat. Get us to about 6th or 7th and he’d be seen as a success and probably get another season with a proper striker and a couple more experienced signings. I don’t think anyone was expecting miracles this season. But I can’t think what he’s done to deserve another season. It’s just kamikaze stuff now and Poch looks like he knows the game’s up. 

The injuries excuse was always a poor one. Like last season, certain posters overweighted injuries as a factor and it skewed their perceptions of what we were watching. Nkunku and Chilwell have changed nothing. Neither would James. The structure is broken.

[Chelsea_Matt]

35 minutes ago, Mark Kelly said:

The thing is, if he'd done those things he'd have had a better chance of getting a new contract. 

But he didn't and as limited as the squad are he hasn't moulded them into a unit. 

So, he only has himself to blame. 

If memory serves we looked good in pre-season. What a contrast. 

[Mark Kelly]

9 minutes ago, Chelsea_Matt said:

If memory serves we looked good in pre-season. What a contrast. 

And then he shit himself and changed everything! All because one player got injured! 

What a bloody idiot.

For me, that's when alarm bells started to sound. 

Edited February 4 by Mark Kelly

[blueboy1905]

Been attending Stamford Bridge since 1978. Now 57 yrs of age. Never heard our fans singing 'We're fucking shit" over and over again. A real punch in the gut. How far have we fallen. I'm so angry what this new entity has done to our club.  I'm a placid sort of guy but I have pure hatred towards these new owners. Please just fuck off and leave our club alone.

[east lower]

3 minutes ago, blueboy1905 said:

Been attending Stamford Bridge since 1978. Now 57 yrs of age. Never heard our fans singing 'We're fucking shit" over and over again. A real punch in the gut. How far have we fallen. I'm so angry what this new entity has done to our club.  I'm a placid sort of guy but I have pure hatred towards these new owners. Please just fuck off and leave our club alone.

Be angry at the people who enforced the ownership change, for nothing more than to look to be people of action and popularism.

Then be angry at the owners.

Then the coach, then the players 

[ShedMiddle]

1 hour ago, thevelourfog said:

At a certain point, paying CL club ticket prices for mid-table club results is going to become an issue for lots of people.

Word on the terrace is that season ticket prices will be increased by 20% next season 

[east lower]

2 minutes ago, ShedMiddle said:

Word on the terrace is that season ticket prices will be increased by 20% next season 

I hope that the owners have enough sense to ‘read the room’ - however it’s an ever decreasing hope that they can make any rational decision.

[Max Fowler]

The worst feeling this season is losing the faith that the owners care about anything much more than money. Last season was embarrassing but at least there was a sense of "Ha! At least they will have to learn quickly".

Their business model does not prioritise winning on the pitch as the primary way of generating money. Instead - buying re-sellable assets that cost little in wages and whose transfer cost can be spread across seasons.

Wake up people! - We are being turned into a cash cow feeder club -  Leipzig / Brighton model and not even a good one at that. There is no pressure to win because the real money comes from cashing in on our young talent.

As pointed out - the owners may even think this weekend was a success on the pitch because D. D. Fofana scored twice. We signed him for 10 million - we might easily sell him for 25 and meanwhile the owners will buy 10 more D. D. Fofanas.

[east lower]

12 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

The worst feeling this season is losing the faith that the owners care about anything much more than money. Last season was embarrassing but at least there was a sense of "Ha! At least they will have to learn quickly".

Their business model does not prioritise winning on the pitch as the primary way of generating money. Instead - buying re-sellable assets that cost little in wages and whose transfer cost can be spread across seasons.

Wake up people! - We are being turned into a cash cow feeder club -  Leipzig / Brighton model and not even a good one at that. There is no pressure to win because the real money comes from cashing in on our young talent.

As pointed out - the owners may even think this weekend was a success on the pitch because D. D. Fofana scored twice. We signed him for 10 million - we might easily sell him for 25 and meanwhile the owners will buy 10 more D. D. Fofanas.

They’ve a long way to go to get to three-thousand million! 

But we are just one small investment in their portfolio of investments and probably afford the ‘hit’, whilst we (the fans) lose what we have come to recognise as our club.

Mind you that’s what we get for welcoming ownership from a country that not only elects Trump as a leader once, but will quite possibly do it for a second time.

Edited February 4 by east lower

[boratsbrother]

26 minutes ago, blueboy1905 said:

Been attending Stamford Bridge since 1978. Now 57 yrs of age. Never heard our fans singing 'We're fucking shit" over and over again. A real punch in the gut. 

At least they roused themselves into singing something instead of sitting in eirie silence. It's also just good old fashioned footie fans coping mechanism for when things are looking really grim for their team.

My stream kept buffering at the start so I missed bits of it, but until things started to go tits up,  from what I was hearing it sounded like the fans were ready to give some good vocal support for a change.  Or am I wrong about that? 

 

[Dwmh]

9 minutes ago, east lower said:

Be angry at the people who enforced the ownership change, for nothing more than to look to be people of action and popularism.

They really are the biggest losers of the century.  This is a symptom of the end of several hundred years of Western dominance.  We and RA are just collateral, and RA saw this coming a long way ahead.

8 minutes ago, ShedMiddle said:

Word on the terrace is that season ticket prices will be increased by 20% next season 

They'd be the last to know.  Getting their excuses and goodbyes in early I guess.
A year ago I thought this would all lead to an opportunity to get a season ticket for the first time in nearly 50 years.  
Doesn't seem so attractive now though.

2 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

Their business model does not prioritise winning on the pitch as the primary way of generating money. Instead - buying re-sellable assets that cost little in wages and whose transfer cost can be spread across seasons.

This is the strange thing.  Window 1 involved buying Koulibaly, Aubayemang, Sterling and Cucurella.  It was very very much about maintaining a strong experienced core to the first team.  Sterling was given a 5 year contract to age 31 on what is widely presumed to be big wages.
The Business model on day 1 (ie the one pitched to the coinvestors in the key pre-purchase discussions) made a lot of sense in a very conventional traditional way. 
It all went MoneyBall shaped or as you say player trading shaped in January 2023.

In the Creamcake world screwing up the agreed Plan A is forgiveable.  "it" happens.
Screwing up a non-agreed Plan B is not foregiveable.

Was TB or anyone else at the game today??

[blueboy1905]

21 minutes ago, east lower said:

Be angry at the people who enforced the ownership change, for nothing more than to look to be people of action and popularism.

Then be angry at the owners.

Then the coach, then the players 

What can us, the little people, do against the government and the MSM who in turn decide to destroy Roman. The new owners literally had a clean slate, something unimaginable in the history of football. What we got was the American version of Michael Caroll, the drunken illiterate fuck wit who spunked his lottery winnings up the wall. The whole thing is a nightmare, a perfect storm. We will be relegated in two seasons flat if they carry on with this nonsense.

[east lower]

2 minutes ago, blueboy1905 said:

What can us, the little people, do against the government and the MSM who in turn decide to destroy Roman. The new owners literally had a clean slate, something unimaginable in the history of football. What we got was the American version of Michael Caroll, the drunken illiterate fuck wit who spunked his lottery winnings up the wall. The whole thing is a nightmare, a perfect storm. We will be relegated in two seasons flat if they carry on with this nonsense.

Best thing is not to go down silently, I despise the scousers but they have shown that one set of football fans can change mentalities, railroading media of all descriptions into reporting only what is acceptable.

Problem is we aren’t good at the protesting bit, but maybe these people in charge might galvanise us. 

We shouldn’t get political on here, but until there is a balanced view on the conflict that resulted in unfair/unjust sanctions on our owner then it will be a long battle.

Makes you wonder who the real enemy is?

 

 

[Max Fowler]

9 minutes ago, Dwmh said:

This is the strange thing.  Window 1 involved buying Koulibaly, Aubayemang, Sterling and Cucurella.  It was very very much about maintaining a strong experienced core to the first team.  Sterling was given a 5 year contract to age 31 on what is widely presumed to be big wages.
The Business model on day 1 (ie the one pitched to the coinvestors in the key pre-purchase discussions) made a lot of sense in a very conventional traditional way. 
It all went MoneyBall shaped or as you say player trading shaped in January 2023.

In the Creamcake world screwing up the agreed Plan A is forgiveable.  "it" happens.
Screwing up a non-agreed Plan B is not foregiveable.

IMO they came in and Tuchel was like "we need new players!!!" - they had promised to invest in the team and decided to just give him what he wanted, but in the back of their mind wanted to pivot to the current plan. Quickly they fell out with Tuchel over this and once the experienced players failed to deliver they doubled down again and again on the youth project. We can't rewrite history, but I am pretty sure Koulibaly, Cucurella, Sterling, and even Aubameyang would have done miles better under Tuchel. They sacked him and found an excuse to conclude "See, buying experienced players makes no sense - financially or on the pitch!"

[Max Fowler]

Just now, east lower said:

Best thing is not to go down silently, I despise the scousers but they have shown that one set of football fans can change mentalities, railroading media of all descriptions into reporting only what is acceptable.

Problem is we aren’t good at the protesting bit, but maybe these people in charge might galvanise us. 

We shouldn’t get political on here, but until there is a balanced view on the conflict that resulted in unfair/unjust sanctions on our owner then it will be a long battle.

Makes you wonder who the real enemy is?

I say drop this subject as we seem to agree on everything else. Putin started the war and the club had to be seized once that happened.

Blame Putin - not the government (I hate this government anyway) But we shouldn't talk politics here and instead focus on the owners.

[ROTG]

9 minutes ago, Max Fowler said:

focus on the owners.

The owners are not the problem, they are just naive. 

You have to ask yourself who advised them Brighton was a good football model?