19 Mar 2016 22:59:41
When and if Antonio Conte becomes new Chelsea manager (most probably he will be) I strongly believe that he will bring something different and new to Chelsea's football philosophy. Italian coaches are and were top tacticians. I expect that Chelsa will become a team extremely hard to beat. We are all aware that Falcao, Pato, Remy and most probably Mikel will leave the club. Terry's future is uncertain ATM but I believe that will stay with the club for another year. I don't expect that more than 3-4 another players will leave as well as I don't expect more than 6 signings. Maybe CB, 2 CMs and 2-3 strikers.
As this season is practically over for us, as Chelsea supporter I'm confident that next season Chelsea will be back in top 4.
Better days are coming! 😉.
20 Mar 2016 08:55:37
That's a big ask next season. Watching yesterday I saw an average mid table team with a bit more fight than earlier in the season. However, how many could one honestly say would form the core that next year's team could be built around, very few I would guess. All very well talking about youngsters and I agree we need to blood a few to test their potential but nobody will build a team around them, going forward they will ease their way in if good enough. Yesterday I saw a team suffering from age, deterioration and lack of quality and that may well be too difficult to turn around in one season.
20 Mar 2016 14:48:39
I agree with C1915, we are showing distinct similarities to Utd the season after Ferguson left.
We don't seem to have any direction and keep playing slow ponderous build up play. We need at least two new centre backs, two in midfield and two strikers. We do need to clear out the deadwood and don't want to be here's. They would be Oscar, fabregas ( yes he was good yesterday but imo he is more of a liability) Cahill, baba (not good enough) mikel, hazard and Costa ( both who I believe want to go) . That clear out should give us the funds to get the six players we need.
I also agree about trying to blood the kids, but you can't put to many in at once because if you did and we got hammered that would demoralise them so slowly slowly. However I do think rlc is a better option than mikel and would have some legs to assist matic, who I think has suffered as he has had no help from fabregas at all.
20 Mar 2016 15:08:21
Andrew it is hard to imagine larger clear out than Mourinho's in previous two seasons. He sold 14 or 15 players and that includes many world class players. Can't imagine we can do worse on transfer market than we did since 2013.
Good manager will sort it out!
About WHU they are far better team compared to season 2013-2014 and we should be reality when it comes to that.
Almost all PL clubs became much stronger than two years ago.
{Ed002's Note - I am not sure you are entirely grasping how transfers work. PLayers are not sold simply because of a decision by the manager. In some cases it is because a player has failed to settle and needs to move on to resume his career, in some cases a player will want more opportunities than he is getting and will ask to move on, in one case it was because a player upset two very senior people at the club, in some cases contracts are not renewed. And they are just examples.}
20 Mar 2016 16:19:33
ed002 Thanks on your comment.I'm aware how do transfers work.I'm also fully aware that it includes other people except manager. But you have to admit manager's influence, especially when you consider that the manager is extremely strong and influential person like Jose Mourinho. You cannot simply deny his role.
{Ed002's Note - He had nothing to do with a number of players who left.}
20 Mar 2016 17:36:34
To C1915 that average midtable squad trashed PL last season. There is no question are they good enough, off course they are. We have seen it before.
This season downfall is not only up to manager, players or the club. There were too many factors causing the downfall.
20 Mar 2016 17:31:08
Thanks Ed fair enough. My post was about quality not quantity but probably I wasn't precise enough.
20 Mar 2016 18:14:16
antibot: We did not thrash the EPL last year. We got out in front through consistency when all around us tripped over each other and then in the second half of the season we eked out wins. Good win but not impressive and I for one thought the team needed improving before the start of this one. I cannot imagine anyone thinking any combination of our midfield is good enough. I think we all agree that 'something' occurred which we may never find out about at the start of the season but anyone who thinks a few tweaks to this lot will change things will have a lot of miserable matches next year.
20 Mar 2016 18:31:02
C1915 our midfield doesn't work due to several reasons. Firstly our tactical approach has been read since Spurs game last season. Secondly we have a squad to play different formation. I also wrote on this page in June last year that we must sign 2-3 top players to we could match teams like Barcelona, Bayern or Real Madrid.
So I fully agree with you on that matter.
Let us have some patience, hopefully everything will look much better next season.