I like to think Chelsea stealing a point from Pool in September was the deciding factor for the league #Manchester City
I think he’s gone. My hope at this point is that we get a good fee and it doesn’t get ugly at all. It sucks but he’s always wanted Real Madrid and Chelsea have not shown enough ambition to keep a player of his caliber. People aren’t going to realize how good he is or how bad Willian/Pedro/Giroud/higuian are until they see what hazard does at Real Madrid with other talented players.
We fucked up building an elite squad that could challenge for titles and CL year over year. The contract things are unfortunate but they're by products of terrible club administration for the last four or five years. We'll all miss him but I wish him the best and hope we can get 100ish for him (and I think we will). Just don't buy fucking Coutinho FFS.
The early numbers I've seen leaked regarding Hazard are promising (100+) but if it's spent on Coutinho then gtfo.
I thought this was interesting. You can only really compare to the teams shooting as much as you but city, Liverpool and Tottenham all took at least 50% more of their shots inside the 6 yard box than we did. I think it’s a combination of terrible set pieces, poor striker and no one in the midfield until RLC in the final 25% of the season making late runs into the box.
I know it was discussed a few pages ago but Hazard's corners are about the only thing I'm not gonna miss. You can probably attribute half that figure to terrible corners from Hazard and Willian. You could also probably attribute a large part to crosses from the fullbacks that are at a minimum 10 yards off target. Dave's crosses to Morata were a nice combo for a decent part of 2017-18 but that feels like 5 years ago at this point.
RLC hurt. We have played more of our first team players than they have. So fucking dumb. Doesn’t look good for the Europa league final so it’s ross Barkley/kovacic for the final.
Word out of Chelsea land is torn Achilles for RLC. Unfuckingbelievable. Now we will start next season without hazard, CHO and RLC. Those were our 3 best attacking players this season.
OUR PLAYERS ACHILLES ARE FALLING OFF! Bring back Eva. At least it sounds like Kante will be fit for the final.
That’s not a common soccer injury. Something needs to be looked at. Was reading a twitter thread between people who know a lot more than any of us and I guess our top fitness guy joined lampard at derby. I don’t think you can be mad at our results in totality this season but Roman really cares about the fans inside the stadium and they just don’t like sarri. Wouldn’t surprise me if he brought in lampard. Been a rough 2 seasons now with fan discontent and fans will never hate frank. There’s risk with that though because he would be difficult to fire.
Just awful. So strange to have two of these in a month. Just have to hope he can get back to what he was in terms of physicality.
I have a bigger problem with fielding a strong lineup and actually trying with the field in that condition. Only smart player was hazard. Not sure if you watched but he went into the fetal position a few times and did his best to avoid any contact. Ruben got stepped on but I have to wonder if the condition of the pitch played a part. We had a starting XI for the whole first half and then brought on 4-5 other starting level players and didn’t bring on youth until a batch in the 60th and a batch around the 75th. People blaming sarri but it seems clear to me that it came from Roman. He attended his first game and set this game up. The revolution subbed on youth 20-30 minutes into the game but we didn’t with a cup final in 2 weeks. Was bizarre. Sarri was against this friendly so I doubt he pushed to play star players. Had to come from Roman.
I didn’t watch but the wagnh guys said the pitch was in terrible condition. Heads should roll for this shit, how hard is it to maintain a decent pitch?
Patriots and the New England revolution play on field turf I believe. Top European soccer teams will only play on grass so they threw a sheet of grass over the normal playing surface 3-4 days before the game. Had heavy rain day before, day of and during the game and the field was shit. Worst I’ve seen us play on in awhile.
At least this news dripped out today. Hopefully something official comes in the next couple of weeks.
I dunno about that sourcing...good sign I guess but I’ll wait for the more plugged in folks to weigh in.
I think you are thinking of Simon Johnson from the evening standard. Phillips is more fan but the guy he got the info from was right the last 2 times I saw him say something about CHO so we will see.
Hehehe we signed a guy you wanted and took one of your best ever players! I couldn't possibly understand why you guys wouldn't welcome me to your thread with open arms. I'm totally here for legit conversation.
So we haven’t asked for a freeze of the ban and it looks like we might just try and serve it knowing we can still sign kovacic and then work toward being able to make signings in summer 2020? That seems insane given the fact that this isn’t even a Europa league side without hazard and the CHO/RLC injuries but you never know with Chelsea these days. We probably have no transfer plan anyway so this could be a good move if we actual get a director of football in the next few months who can actually prepare for summer 2020. The issue is we won’t be able to sell champions league because this team is more likely to finish 7th than 4th without Eden, CHO and RLC.
I can agree with that. If that’s the case then I think it’s more likely that sarri moves on and lampard/Jody morris come in and Chelsea treat it like an actual rebuilding year where we blood youth. Results might not be great but it could pay dividends down the road. I just don’t know that I can stomach the fact that Willian and/or Pedro will have to start every game until CHO is healthy.
If our only option to sign a player in midfield is kovacic I’m sure both Real Madrid and kovacic’s agent will completely bend us over and make us pay a big premium for the Croatian Danny drinkwater.