Chelsea Banter Archive December 23 2018

23 Dec 2018 18:56:06
We are a bit behind the top 3 and need 2 or 3 world class players to get near them so hope Roman digs deep over the next 2 transfer windows. A striker, an upgrade on Willian and Pedro and a defender must be our priorites. That said, we can pip Arse and Utd for 4th and maybe win a trophy whilst Sarri builds the foundations. After all, City, Liverpool and Spurs have been building for 3 plus seasons under the same manager. We must stick with Sarri, back him and move forward. All positive for me.

23 Dec 2018 20:17:31
It’s only positive if the manager tries something different he’s not. I like Sarri and his style but his consistent playing of Willian and Alonso is making my patience wear thin.

24 Dec 2018 09:13:54
I'm sure sarri is worried about your patience his opinion over players far out ways any of ours he's paid millions to do a job we aren't qualified to do
So let him do his job.

24 Dec 2018 11:56:04
There's a reason why Sarri is a top coach and we're posting on a fan site.

I'm going to trust Sarri above an opinion of a fan.

24 Dec 2018 12:13:27
I’m sure mr. Gola will be moaning constant when he continues to play Willian and Alonso.

24 Dec 2018 18:43:39
Enjoy your Xmas Kk and try not to eat too many humbugs lol.

23 Dec 2018 15:26:19
Just a couple of thoughts on the season so far.
I'm hearing a lot of fans already not happy with sarri, I think this is an absolute joke. I think given time and some good additions to the squad we can bring the quick fluid football we all want to see. After the ups and downs of the last few seasons our main objective should be to finish top 4. Which means we are still in all competitions and are currently sitting in the objective spot. With any new manager we were always going to have games like the wolves and Leicester while still learning the managers way of playing.
One of my main concerns would be the contract situation with hazard. I'm sure he doesn't want to ruin his reputation by forcing a move but he knows he holds all the cards and the club have found themselves in a awful mess. Be honest with ourselves, we should of sold him after the World Cup when we could of got near the £200m mark. Now coming up to one year left on his contract we would be lucky to get half of that for a player who has clearly stated his desire to play for another team. Don't get me wrong I'd love him to finish his career at Chelsea but the club cannot match his ambition in terms of purchasing top quality players. I think the club should say sign or leave, then we move on and move some ageing players on also. Let's start seeing more of Loftus-Cheek and CHO and bring in some pacey exciting young players to help them.
Overall I think we are having a decent season with some big wins and big loses with top 4 the priority.

23 Dec 2018 16:33:20
good post and very fair assesment we all no we need a number 9 pity conte got rid of diego.

23 Dec 2018 17:48:45
NWBLUE your post is spot on mate. first and foremost the slating of Sarri must stop, it's immature and stupid. It's the same fans that wanted Sarri replace Conte calling for his head now. It's funny because I remember clearly that TOMB wanted Conte to stay and did not want Sarri initially. However, now that we have Sarri as our manager he is behind the man through thick and thin. That is what you call a mature fan. Someone who sticks by the boss no matter the situation. Some fans who wanted Sarri more than TOMB are slating Sarri heavily.


As explained previously we cannot blame Sarri for yesterday's loss, afterall we hit two posts and if im honest they should have been easy goals and would have been with more composure. Also hazard, Rudiger and Willian missed chances too. It should have been 3-4 goals for us.

Pep struggled in his first year, however when given the opportunity to buy his players he grasped it and now look at the machine that's been created.

It's clear, we need a striker, attacking right winger and a left back. Once we have quality in those positions we will be a force. If we had a goal scorer like Diego Costa then non of this happens.

23 Dec 2018 18:44:11
a right midfielder and a number 9 are priorities. wev nothing from a creative sense bar hazard let's be real about that. willian an pedro are decent and i like both of them but they don't offer enough consistantly although at least with pedro he runs himself to the ground.

23 Dec 2018 11:56:06
Here are the things I think need fixing at Chelsea currently:

1) not enough rotation - we always play our first eleven to get the job done against lesser teams in the Premier League. Sarri teams are notorious for this and always have a dip around Xmas. To be fair though, I can see him trying to play others but a lot of games need finishing off which brings me to.

2) lack of finishing. I was at the Bournemouth game on Weds and Giroud and our midfield are honestly the worst finishers I've ever seen in Chelsea shirts. It's not that they don't shoot or create chances, it's that, 80% of the time, they don't even get their shots on target. I miss Costa. We need another predator like
Suarez, not a sickly teenager like Morata. We also need a Richarlison or Saha who will bully defenders from the winger position.

The good news is that I believe that this is the only reason for concern right now. We have an excellent midfield and defence who are very adept at passing and keeping possession. A lot has been said about us not being clinical enough with our passing. But I think that will come once we have someone we actually want to pass to up front and know they won't squander it. I think we are passing it so much across the midfield as we are scared of the inevitable "pass it to Willian who fluffs his cross" or "cross it Morata who gets dispossessd again". There's only so many of them the team will endure before going "nope, not passing to you anymore. "

Anyway, have a good xmas Blues, see you in the other side!

23 Dec 2018 16:40:24
icardi is d 1 for me. bailey has refound a bit of form with leverkusen 2 mite be worth a gamble. when u look at players like sane etc they were good but weren't probably as consistant as they are now so ud imagine bailey has d qualities to be like sane etc to come an step an be better with better players.

23 Dec 2018 09:05:03
I’m assuming all the Manchester City fans want Pep Guardiola to be sacked after they lost to Crystal Palace, we should go for him 🤪😂.

23 Dec 2018 09:44:18
It's the same old negative fans that are over the moon with one win under sarri hyping sarri ball and then call for the sack of the manager after one loss. Don't you guys get fed up of chopping and changing. We have only had Benitez, Mourinho, Hiddink, Conte and Sarri as our manager in the last few years. Give the manager a chance.


There is a lot more to this than sacking the manager. Man City should sack pep now that he has lost 2 games in 3.

23 Dec 2018 10:03:43
How can Sarri be blamed for the missed opportunities yesterday?

Hazard hit the post when he should have scored?

Alonso hit the post when he should scored?

Hazard missed another chance but that was a decent save from Kasper?

Rudiger missed a bread and butter header from the corner kick?

Willian missed a chance at the start?

Do we blame Sarri for the above? 9n another day it could and should have been 3 or 4 easy.

23 Dec 2018 10:40:31
Exactly, Shak - we played quite decently and were very unlucky to concede that goal. I do think, however, that a lot of fans - including me - are frustrated with Sarri constantly using players that are having rough patches. However, just because one is frustrated, one has to see the greater picture, and I believe we've been playing more entertainingly than under recent managers and that Sarri simply needs time and perhaps a few more quality players. We should be happy, that for once the club seems more keen to back Sarri with players that he actually wants, so we might be in for a treat in the seasons to come!

23 Dec 2018 12:44:19
Some posters and fans don’t understand that we have no divine right to win every game.

Can I also add, that the atmosphere in the ground yesterday was not for the first time, ’total rubbish.

I think Sarri will have done very well to win one trophy this season and if we can squeeze into a Champions League spot I will be very happy.

23 Dec 2018 16:44:38
i love your posts tom u are honest an mature unlike other fans comin on during a game if were losing calling for 16 players to be sold its not fiffa these a real life people who have familys kids etc. its not easy to just say sell um all and buy 16 new players.

23 Dec 2018 17:34:55
I bet most of the fans that have slated Sarri after yesterday's result didn't even watch the full match. They probably seen the score on final result and decided to slate Sarri and have him sacked.

I can't think of any other reasonable explanation because we actually played well and should have scored 3-4 goals. We can't blame Sarri for missing chances.

24 Dec 2018 16:18:08
We can blame Sarri for continuously picking the players who miss most of the chances.

22 Dec 2018 22:06:32
Ed001, I have been reading up about the potential ban that we will face and the way it will affect the squad.
Here are the players who are either old, not good enough or running down their contracts:

1) Caballero
2) Green
3) Luiz
4) Zappacosta
5) Cahill
6) Fabregas
7) Kovacic (on loan)
8) Hazard
9) Pedro
10) Willian
11) CHO
12) Morata
13) Giroud

Even if we use existing resources to address some of the replacements (Ampadu for Luiz, Reece James for Zappacosta, Cumming for Green), there's still 10 players to be brought before we receive the lengthy ban.

How will the club go about such a revamp considering that nothing of this size has been done before?

{Ed001's Note - well Caballero still has a few years left in him. Green is only a 3rd choice keeper, you can just use a youth keeper until the ban lifts. Personally I hate the waste of money on a high waged 3rd choice keeper who never plays anyway. It is disgusting when there are so many with nothing and teams are just basically throwing away tens of thousands of pounds a week rather than having the balls to go with a youngster in that rare event two keepers are out injured at the same time.

The rest can be pretty much covered by loanees. You have a huge amount of loanees out, why not just use them in your team instead of farming them out? Personally I would ban any loans, it is wrong and alters the balance of the game to any team that benefits from loaning a player and also reduces the chances of youngsters breaking through from those teams.}

23 Dec 2018 09:00:59
Ed001, There was talk of UEFA/ FIFA introducing a limit to the amount of players a club could loan out a couple months back wasn’t there? I’ve not really heard anything about it since though. Do you know if anything’s happened with it?

{Ed001's Note - it is still planned for introduction in the summer.}

23 Dec 2018 11:12:34
Alonso should be the first name there!

23 Dec 2018 11:30:14
Surely the introduction of measures to reduce loaning will have to be brought in slowly in stages - if you do it all at once, you will flood the market and players will end up signing on!

23 Dec 2018 14:20:30
From what I have read, it will be implemented from the 20/ 21 season.