He runs things?
Reading between the lines, I think Pep’s comments demonstrate why I’ve always believed he’d never work for Roman. That and Roman deliberately ignoring his “do not approach me during my sabbatical." Which would set alarm bells ringing in itself.
If I were Pep and Roman disregarded my wishes when he was essentially courting me, I’d be very concerned with how I expected him to be when he had me on the payroll.
The odd thing is/was that apparently Tixi Bergstein met with Roman and seriously contemplated taking on the role that he and his team have at City. But Roman called an end to the meeting when Bergstein declared he’d take the job but he wanted to re-structure from top to bottom how the club was run. Roman felt the club was run fine the way it is.
See the problem I’ve got is I’ve always felt there’s too many chiefs at Chelsea all undermining each other, that the higher up you go there’s mistrust, general ‘back-stabbing’ and as grateful as I am to the man, I still feel Roman runs the football club as though it’s some other kind of business. Almost 16 years on and he’s still coming across like he knows very little about running a football club
That’s fine when you’re ploughing a lot of money in and bankrolling previously unparalleled spending sprees. But that model was only sustainable whilst you are fully continuing with that approach.
For me there appears to have been lack of planning for how to sustain success when the investment did dry up. With the benefit of hindsight, Bergstein might have been right?
I’m not saying because I want Pep, I’m saying because I think a re-structuring and a little more patience from above might have seen a few more academy graduates by now.
But on the other hand, we might never have had the trophies we’ve won.
Would you have preferred Bergstein’s ideas/ideals? Or was Roman right?
Does Roman need to change how.............
posted on 11/2/19
ªthat woman he introduced I'm not sure about her ".......
I tell you what JFDI,
she's probably got more "cojones"than most of that team we put out yesterday !
posted on 11/2/19
Roman's main problem (which has been consistent since 2003) is lack of clarity about what he wants. He leaps from one way of operating to another and either over corrects past mistakes or learns from them too slowly.
When you look at all our full time managerial appointments since Mourinho was sacked the first time, all of them seem like either a direct response to the previous regimes failings or an attempt to satisfy a personal obsession. Everything's reactionary in our decision making process, that's why we can't find any sort of consistency or club identity. And it's not limited to the managers, e.g. the issue of signing expensive squad filler is a direct response to us having left managers like Ancelotti & Mourinho (2nd reign) with bare bones squads in the past which lead to horrific spells of form during those seasons, it's a massive over correction.
It's a really hard one for me to go all in on because for the amount of mistakes Roman and his representatives make and no doubt will continue to make, I genuinely believe many of them come from a standpoint of trying to learn and fix past errors of judgement. I'd MUCH rather have our board than Arsenal's for example, that's a bunch of suits who flat out don't care about the club other than the money it generates - that's not us.
posted on 11/2/19
Comment Deleted by Site Moderator
posted on 11/2/19
comment by Just Shoot (U10408)
posted 23 minutes ago
comment by Sheriff JW Pepper (U1007)
posted 1 hour, 7 minutes ago
comment by Just Shoot (U10408)
posted 35 minutes ago
I think the best thing we can do is stop wasting money. We've spend over £200m on a goalkeeper, a guy that can't get in the Dortmund side and a guy that passes sideways or backwards. Just buy Mbappe instead!!
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Yeah ..i'm sure he's gagging to come and play in the Europa next term..if we're lucky
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But I'm sure you get my point. We have been spend a lot on mediocre to bad for a while now. Morata was a Real cast off and Batman wasn't pulling up trees. Should have combined the money and bought a real striker. 👍
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As I have said a lot lately - this depends on getting into the CL
There are no other alternatives to getting the best players
posted on 11/2/19
Excellent article Flash
posted on 11/2/19
Would you have preferred Bergstein’s ideas/ideals? Or was Roman right?
Tricky question.
On the one hand i can look back at all the success we have had during this period with some fond memories.
On the other, things probably would not be looking so bleak as they do right now. Its also fair to say that we have underachieved throughout this period - given the investment and being fortunate that no major challengers were around at the time.
posted on 12/2/19
I’ve believed for a long while now that something is not right with the club and the way it’s run. Someone is to blame but I’d be lying if I said I knew who or what the problem is.
The composition of squads over the last few years I’ve found baffling not just in recruitment but also in players we’ve let go. Most fans I think will agree the decision to let KDB go was a catastrophic one but other less high profile transfers out have equally perplexing, such as releasing Chalobah and Ake, RLC and Abraham on loan and bringing in the likes of Drinkwater, Barkley, Emerson, Zappacosta and Giroud (combined total approx. £105m).
I firmly believe that those squad filling signings should be abandoned in favour of using young, hungry players from the academy, which would free up millions of pounds to be spent on a fewer number of players but of much greater quality.
I’ve deliberately omitted the signings of Bakayoko and Morata as they were supposed to be main signings who were capable of being mainstays in the 1st eleven. The apparent unsuitability of both has to raise questions of the ability of whoever is responsible for being able to recruit players of the quality we need.
You can go back almost ten years to, what for me, is the biggest mystery in the history of Roman’s tenure with us. I still don’t understand why we passed up the chance of signing Aguero for an obviously waning Torres. There’s been a litany of bizarre transfer since that I struggle to understand.
If I’m going to criticise for the failures, I suppose it’s only fair to give credit for some of the successes, Hazard has been one of the greatest players to ever grace Stamford Bridge, Kante needs no introduction and Dave, Rudi, Mata, Willy and Cahill to name a few have been positive signings.
The constant mistakes on the structure of the playing staff, lead me to believe that we have no one above manager level that possess any or very little, footballing knowledge to be of any assistance to our managers (some who have not helped themselves), and that's where I believe Roman needs to make changes.
posted on 12/2/19
comment by JFDI (U1657)
posted 15 hours, 37 minutes ago
I think we went down this route when we used to blame Elmanalo, it wasn't his fault then. Buck, he doesn't bother me, he may not be a football man but he is a Chelsea fan since before Roman was interested in the club. He always gets criticised in a similar way to ensure.
We always have to blame someone do in that spirit.......
That woman he introduced, I'm not so sure about her.
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Yeah agreed. The woman you referring to is Marina ?
posted on 12/2/19
comment by BrummieBlue! (U3487)
posted 10 hours, 11 minutes ago
I’ve believed for a long while now that something is not right with the club and the way it’s run. Someone is to blame but I’d be lying if I said I knew who or what the problem is.
The composition of squads over the last few years I’ve found baffling not just in recruitment but also in players we’ve let go. Most fans I think will agree the decision to let KDB go was a catastrophic one but other less high profile transfers out have equally perplexing, such as releasing Chalobah and Ake, RLC and Abraham on loan and bringing in the likes of Drinkwater, Barkley, Emerson, Zappacosta and Giroud (combined total approx. £105m).
I firmly believe that those squad filling signings should be abandoned in favour of using young, hungry players from the academy, which would free up millions of pounds to be spent on a fewer number of players but of much greater quality.
I’ve deliberately omitted the signings of Bakayoko and Morata as they were supposed to be main signings who were capable of being mainstays in the 1st eleven. The apparent unsuitability of both has to raise questions of the ability of whoever is responsible for being able to recruit players of the quality we need.
You can go back almost ten years to, what for me, is the biggest mystery in the history of Roman’s tenure with us. I still don’t understand why we passed up the chance of signing Aguero for an obviously waning Torres. There’s been a litany of bizarre transfer since that I struggle to understand.
If I’m going to criticise for the failures, I suppose it’s only fair to give credit for some of the successes, Hazard has been one of the greatest players to ever grace Stamford Bridge, Kante needs no introduction and Dave, Rudi, Mata, Willy and Cahill to name a few have been positive signings.
The constant mistakes on the structure of the playing staff, lead me to believe that we have no one above manager level that possess any or very little, footballing knowledge to be of any assistance to our managers (some who have not helped themselves), and that's where I believe Roman needs to make changes.
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Good post Brummie. I agree with pretty much all of that.
Speaking of signings isn't it a worry that since signing Hazard back in 2012 we really don't have very many signings in that seven years since that we could say were great signings.
I can think of Costa and Kante as fitting into that category but after that I'm struggling a bit. Dave was a good signing as was Cahill. Mata was signed before 2012 so doesn't count.
Whatever way you paint it our record of really top signings has certainly diminished in the last few years which always leads me to question who exactly is buying our players ? And do they truly know what they're doing ? I'm not sure.
posted on 12/2/19
Roman's future actions will not be fueled by the 6-0 drubbing last week-end. Right now he is probably the laughing stock of the billionaire groupies he hangs out with who are probably making him the butt of many comments and jokes. Not to mention the tabloids around the world who having fun with him and his team.
It does make for some interesting chatter, but trying to second guess what he will next is probably a waste of time. At this time I suspect that he doesn't have a clue what his next move should be.