Yeah, I just saw this. If his mind were made up to stay, he'd be able to do something about it. He's gone.
We won't get max value and Willian will go for like 20-30 mil instead of the 50 Barca or maybe PSG would've paid a year before. It's gonna be an interesting summer.
It’s important to him, unlike courtois to leave on good terms. If he’s made the decision to leave it’s because Madrid have given him assurances that they won’t screw Chelsea on fee. If they try to he probably signs an extension with Chelsea. It seems incredibly stupid to someone on the outside but that’s just how hazard is wired.
Someone today said that interview was from 2 months ago and nothing has changed. Not sure I believe that but I can wish.
We were able to have the manager musical chairs and maintain success because of JT, lampard, drogba and Cech amongst others. Without a core of leaders the team needs more of a constant at manager.
Other than the fact that we have defenders who want to be midfielders, midfielders who want to be defenders, attackers who want to be midfielders, and defenders who want to be attackers, I think everything is going just fine.
I mean, I was all behind giving Sarri time, but when he comes out and says "I can't motivate these players and they won't do anything unless you overhaul the team" and then the team comes out and plays like this? If we're going to fire managers every 2-4 years (and there's no indication we won't) then there's no reason to keep him around. Just not working, on to the next.
Sarri should have 2 subs before the half is over. You need to take control of this group and stop rewarding the losers at fault for this shit with continued starts.
Just bring in lampard next year and come out and say we are rebuilding next season with an aim to compete the following season.
The transparency would be nice but that’s not how Roman does things. If Hazard leaves we’re effectively looking at a rebuilding year regardless.
If (when) Hazard leaves, is there a player on the team sheet whose name should be nailed outside Kante (obviously excluding Kepa)? I can't think of one. Plenty of guys who could/should start like Rudiger and Dave but no one you can absolutely count on. Part of why Lampard would be great - Bring him in as a leader and let the kids who want to play for the badge get PT. Again, just not how the club works. But that team would be much easier to root for.
The manager doesn't matter... again. This core of players rules the club and they're not particularly mentally tough.
Time to fire the players. The issue is we have 5-7 players on a combined £1 million a week that are paid double or triple their worth and are unsellable. No one will take Barkley, Alonso, Pedro, drinkwater amongst others and pay them what they are making now let alone give us a fee. No one has wasted money like us. It’s a 2-3 season rebuild unless we go back to playing counter attacking football with minimum possession.
Dave doing his best Ivanovic FB impersonation. Sterling makes tons of people look like shit but he’s been awful.
Nice dig at Roman which is well deserved. He’s left his team in the hands of someone who paid £35m for Danny drinkwater. You don’t become a billionaire by consistently making decisions as poor as that one. I’m now just rooting for absolute ruins for this season so the board wakes up to the reality that switching the manager won’t just magically fix the horrible job they’ve done at assembling a squad.
If nothing else, I respect Sarri as a person for remaining himself even if it takes him down in flames. He doesn’t give a fuck.
I agree but it was probably a poor decision on his part to take this job. Demanding ownership with no patience or clear direction at the top, roster completely wrong for his system, and inflexible to a fault on adapting the system. In hindsight it's a really terrible match for impatient leadership.
I just can’t respect his squad selection. I actually do respect his dedication to the tactical style of play he believes in. I just can’t see how playing ross Barkley, Alonso and Pedro makes sense.
He'll get a nice payday when he gets fired. The buyouts at this point are fucking comical while we lose out on top players to sign shit like Drinkwater.
This. This group continually showcases their mental weakness and entitled attitude. Only constant over the last few years is this group and their inconsistentcy. Time to clean house and build back.
Feel like people are forgetting this now as Sarri has been a disaster. Just because this hasn’t worked, doesn’t mean Conte should have stayed.
Conte was hostile to the board as soon as he was hired. I think it says a lot that he's still unemployed at this point despite the crazy manager turnover among most big European clubs. I don't know how much say he had in summer 2017 disaster(Morata, Bakayoko, Drinkwater, Zappacosta) but that basically screwed us for the next few years.
I don’t think Law is disputing that Conte was an asshole, just that winning two trophies with this side was a fucking miracle.
Conte would have been fine if the club backed him fully. The club were never going to do that. Once he wasn’t backed in summer it was never going to work. Sarri was supposed to be different. He didn’t care for the market and just wanted to coach. I think the issue is that he has a certain style he wants to play. Roman wants that style but that style requires great players that fit the system. The style isn’t the same as city but that’s the closest comparison. What was city’s biggest issue year 1 under pep? Fullbacks. Tactical awareness, supreme athleticism and having 2 guys you can rotate are key if you are playing every 3 days. Our squad isn’t built for that. Zappacosta sucks. Rahman sucks. Alonso sucks. Azpi isn’t a great fit for the system. Emerson could be good given a run of games but he isn’t right now. Our squad doesn’t simply have 1 issue like city did. That squad was almost complete. Now if we sack sarri we have Higuaín on high wages and a massive amount of money invested in Jorginho whom I don’t know how he fits in another system. It’s a year or 2 earlier than I wanted but it might be time for us to install lampard in the summer, rebuild the squad in the summer with the transfer ban incoming and come out and back the management team of lampard and Jody morris in a way to truly empower playing youth and instilling that the manager and not the players holds the power.