I think they get better over the coming weeks. Werner looked like he’s pretty much on it from Day 1 to be fair and will work out fine.
That defense needs sorting though, they’re going no where until that happens. Goal keeper is shot as well by the look of things. I’m also keeping a keen eye on Havertz. if they get him going they’ll be a lot better but he was absolutely silent yesterday I believe.
Werner has started out pretty well but it must be said that he has played against teams that suit what he does best; ‘see space, run fast into space’. That’s his game and if it works, it works and good for him. I just think he’s going to have to seriously work on his game to really make an impression because I can genuinely see him come acropper the first time he faces a team like Palace and the like and wonder wtf is this shit.
I suspect he would have seen that before to be honest. bus parking is not exactly unique to the UK. Burnley might prove an interesting one for him. See how tough he is.
But I honestly thought he looked promising yesterday. Do I regret we didn’t sign him? No, not at all. As soon as I saw that were were interested in Thiago, that’s where my hopes lay to be honest, provided we could finance the deal. Jota is a real bonus that I wasn’t expecting and that’s also fantastic.
Nice piece:
Tl;dr - Kepa may be shit, but Lampard is shitter.
Right now, Frank is high odds for the sack race.
I hope so after I posted this 14 days ago
Yeah I voted for Frank as well, but Ole could give him a challenge. Whenever they both get sacked, they should try each other’s clubs. And give it another shot.
I said it before the start of the season, and this weekend supported it - they have an impressive group of players many of whom can do a variety of jobs, and while that may seem to be an advantage, for an inexperienced manager without a clear philosophy it can be a problem. He has already approached his two games of the season in two completely different ways, and used players in interesting roles that he gave up with after 1 game. It provides options that can lead a new manager into madness and his players into confusion and a lack of faith in their manager. You can see it going all Rodgers 2014-15 at some point, and for a group with so many young players and new players trying to settle, that is something that can go downhill very quickly.
I also thought it was interesting that McNulty’s write of on Beeb was very negative of Lampard, suggesting that the honeymoon period may not be over into his second season.
I think they have, to a degree bought well and i dont begrudge them spending this season after the transfer ban and having the Hazard cash. It’s an opportunity for them to make a step change and they’ve gone for it.
But I completely agree the pressure is on Lampard to deliver now. We’ll soon see if he has it and whether the new players fit his vision.
Way too early to jump to conclusions. Although we were on top, the red card did have a massive impact yesterday. Their defence is shaky though, and the goalkeeper situation not good. A fit Pulisic would have been a handful and who knows what will happen with Havertz.
Is it a really good thing that Frank gets the sack? The concerning part would be having a replacement manager, someone like Julian Nagelsmann from RB Leipzig, seeing the players that Chelsea now has, and would not mind giving PL a shot.
Frank will get time to really fuck it up i think,club leg end and all that shit.
Havertz looked really crap that first half, I think that pretty much secured it in Frank’s head to keep Mount on. Werner was interesting, his miss reminded me of Torres in his spell there. It will gel eventually, but I do wonder if that will come under a new manager.
Anyhow they are buying the French lad from Rennes, who I know nothing about, he is tall and that seems to be his main selling point. Glad it’s not Oblak then I would be concerned.
The article about the shot quality that Chelsea gives up is interesting, and puts a finger on the sense I have had that their defence is not that good despite some solid statistics.
If the chavs bin Frank during this season then they’ll get John Terry in,an even fatter cunt.
No doubt in a Wayne Bridge sense, Terry has his eye on Frank’s job.
Their team is so top heavy that it’s unworkable. Most of their money should have gone into top CB and GK. Two “boring” positions that don’t fit into the owners excitement levels.
If fat Fwank can’t get these players playing as a team he should be shot with a ball of his own shit.
According to the Beeb:
FinCEN Files: Roman Abramovich had secret stakes in rival players
"Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich held secret investments in footballers not owned by his club, an investigation has discovered.
The players included the Peruvian winger Andre Carrillo, who turned out against Chelsea in Champions League matches in 2014.
He held rights in the players through a company based in the British Virgin Islands.
Mr Abramovich’s spokeswoman stressed no rules or regulations were broken.
But former Football Association chairman Lord Triesman has questioned whether it was “proper” for the owner of a football club to have an interest in players in other teams.
A leak of documents - banks’ “suspicious activity reports” - that have been called the FinCEN Files and seen by BBC Panorama - has revealed that Mr Abramovich is behind an offshore company called Leiston Holdings.
Leiston was taking stakes in footballers overseas through third-party ownership (TPO).
This is where investors buy a share of a footballer’s future transfer value from cash-strapped clubs.
The practice was banned in the English Premier League in 2008 but not [internationally until 2015.]
Chelsea faced Sporting Lisbon in the Champions League group stage in 2014.
And Carrillo lined up for Sporting in both matches.
So in [Lisbon in September] and [Stamford Bridge in December,] Mr Abramovich had an interest in 12 players on the pitch.
Lord Triesman told Panorama: ‘I don’t think it can possibly be proper for the owner of a football club to own players in other football clubs. That is precisely why third-party ownership is banned.’
‘It casts suspicion and a shadow right across football. On the documents I’ve seen I would’ve wanted, as chairman of the FA, to investigate them.’
It comes as Mr Abramovich appears to be making [heavy investments in Chelsea] again this year.
In December 2016, a suspicious activity report (SAR) was filed about Mr Abramovich.
It identified more than $1bn of “suspicious payments involving offshore shell companies” - firms functioning only to manage the money put in them.
The SAR said many of the shell companies were ‘owned by Roman Abramovich… one of Russia’s most powerful oligarchs with close ties to Moscow & Vladimir Putin’."*
Can @Kopstar throw any light on the possible ramifications, if any, for cheatski.
Unfortunately there aren’t any. As the article identifies, TPO wasn’t banned worldwide until 2015 (Portugal being one of the last to do so) and the ban only extended to new 3rd party investment. Existing TPO had to be bought out at the next contract renewal or transfer so there were still a number of players with TPO for a few years after 2015, quite legitimately.