comment by Sheriff JW Pepper (U1007)
posted about an hour ago
comment by ＴＬＬＬ (U4640)
posted 1 hour, 45 minutes ago
I think we’ll spend £300m again. I expect us to bring in a striker and winger at least.
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We're in the fackin shat if we don't
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We could spend another 2bl makes feck all difference if its just speculative investment on babies

comment by CSTP (U1453)
posted 1 hour, 39 minutes ago
comment by Filip Jorgensen = Season Saved (U6489)
posted 1 hour, 37 minutes ago
History is rife with examples of teams having good and poor preseasons followed by the inverse season. You don't need to focus on one example.
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It’s a bit misleading to reduce the past 20+ years of this specific club to ‘one example’.

We have had good pre seasons followed by bad real seasons but never the opposite. Right now we’re on course for bad pre season, which historically has been followed by a bad real season. Can’t think of one example that says otherwise.

Does this mean we’re doomed? No of course not. Maybe the season will go well. The results of these matches themselves mean nothing and I cba to watch for that reason. But I don’t think it’s crazy to be a little bit concerned that the signs are not encouraging.
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If you expand the sample size to include other clubs then you'll find quite a few bad preseasons followed by major honours. I was also referring to the conversation about explanatory factors for last preseason being good followed by a rough first half of the season.

comment by Oscar. #TeamFury #TeamTrump2024 #FightFightFight (U12980)
posted 4 hours, 25 minutes ago
Sanchez is absolutely woeful still then

Such a joke, Petrovic was actually decent, now because we’ve got some Spanish bald clown as manager who has no clue, Sanchez is now back Lol
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Italian bald clown.

Also I should add of course I'm concerned, because we've swapped to Maresca (lol who), because our transfer policy has removed almost all senior players, because Chelsea has changed beyond recognition and because we seem to be bankrupting ourselves, destroying years of work to reach the top. Plenty of valid causes for concern. Preseason is very low on that list.

I'll be worried if Sanchez is our first choice keeper this season. I thought Petrovic was a definite upgrade last season. I can understand the new manager needing a good with ball at feet keeper for his system but all I ask is that we just have a good keeper in nets whoever that may be. Surely not a big ask for a club of our stature and wealth.

In addition this is where we come unstuck so often because we change everything up to the suit the current manager but then we get rid of the manager very easily. So the players we bought for the last manager often aren't suitable for the current manager. In effect our squad is in a near constant state of flux and never really suited to whichever manager we have in place lol. It's somewhat of an absurdity really but there you have it. This is Chelsea and this is how we're going to do it.

comment by Superb - The Director's Cut part deux (U6486)
posted 36 minutes ago
In addition this is where we come unstuck so often because we change everything up to the suit the current manager but then we get rid of the manager very easily. So the players we bought for the last manager often aren't suitable for the current manager. In effect our squad is in a near constant state of flux and never really suited to whichever manager we have in place lol. It's somewhat of an absurdity really but there you have it. This is Chelsea and this is how we're going to do it.
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I agree with this - although giving Maresca a 5 year contract suggests they want to change that tradition, and stick with this manager long term. Truthfully, outside of Tuchel I wasn’t particularly sad to see any of the other managers fired. I personally wouldn’t have sacked Poch, but I had no real love for him either.

Also, the players we bought for previous managers include Disasi, Badiashile, Sanchez, Petrovic, Kepa, Lukaku, Mudryk. I’d argue they’re not suitable for any Chelsea manager - not just the present one.

Disasi is serviceable at least
Bads on the other hand barely looks like a footballer since that injury

comment by BlueJ2 (U4630)
posted 1 hour, 9 minutes ago
comment by Oscar. #TeamFury #TeamTrump2024 #FightFightFight (U12980)
posted 4 hours, 25 minutes ago
Sanchez is absolutely woeful still then

Such a joke, Petrovic was actually decent, now because we’ve got some Spanish bald clown as manager who has no clue, Sanchez is now back Lol
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Italian bald clown.
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same thing too Oscar

Yeah but didn't we give Potter a really long contract as well ? Not sure if length of contract is any measure of attachment to any one manager. Maresca will get sacked quickly enough if he doesn't deliver.

comment by Superb - The Director's Cut part deux (U6486)
posted 4 minutes ago
Yeah but didn't we give Potter a really long contract as well ? Not sure if length of contract is any measure of attachment to any one manager. Maresca will get sacked quickly enough if he doesn't deliver.
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So hard to know what to expect really...he's got no track record of much

Palmer, Gallagher and Cucurella not joining us on the US tour.

comment by ＴＬＬＬ (U4640)
posted 7 minutes ago
Palmer, Gallagher and Cucurella not joining us on the US tour.
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Seen enough already

Although I have no interest in pre season, I just checked the match schedule, amount of travelling between venues and the days between returning to the UK and our first PL game. Seems very congested to me

comment by SWTN - Judas is number 1 (U7916)
posted about a minute ago
Although I have no interest in pre season, I just checked the match schedule, amount of travelling between venues and the days between returning to the UK and our first PL game. Seems very congested to me
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Yep with Euros we shouldn't have been doing a US tour for sure. No Euros /WC ok, but damn players aren't getting much time off.

At least the away kit is OK

Comment deleted by Site Moderator

comment by SWTN - Judas is number 1 (U7916)
posted 18 minutes ago
At least the away kit is OK
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Was going to say the same thing. Looks far better than the home one lol.

Enzo Fernandez has apologised — but there are no signs his six French team-mates have accepted the 23-year-old’s expressions of remorse.

{The Athletic}
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Apparently he's with the squad today, another thing for Maresca to sort out

Although we can all agree that for the most part actual results in preseason count for little, the fact is that bad results in preseason are very much scrutinized these days.

Long gone are the days when clubs had a preseason and fans were none the wiser what happened apart from reading up on results.

TalkSport have been covering our preseason with a fine tooth comb and whether we like it or not that gets people talking and adds pressure on a team going into a new season. In this case us.

I don't focus too much on the results in pre season, it's more a case of building up the team's fitness levels and for the coach to start implementing his style/footprint on the team.

It's also good a chance to integrate new signings into the team if we get our business done early. In our case we haven't really signed anyone for the 1st team so this doesn't apply to us.

The Celtic result was bad but they start their season this week so were expected to be ahead of us in terms of preparation. The idea should be to improve every game

Pre season is for sure an indicator, but in context, if we were expecting to mount a solid title challenge, a poor preseason would be worrying and a early warning that we were off the pace.

But our circumstances are very different.

Clearly, we have another new manager in, we have significant players returning from long term injury and if were honest are expectations are a top six finish considering what resources the club are providing the new manager with to immediately improve the squad.

imo, this pre-season is about players getting minutes, not getting injured and the manager getting the opportunity to access the players available on the tour

imo, this pre-season is about players getting minutes, not getting injured and the manager getting the opportunity to access the players available on the tour
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Totally agree. Although if we get tanked by City, Real and Inter after getting tanked by Celtic then watch our fans go into panic meltdown mode going into the start of the season lol. Not to mention the media having a field day with us.

yeah, the media, its all B/S.

But going forward, it will be interesting to see how the changes the club have made to performance monitoring staff and how we manage the health of the players.

Also if the returning players can stay fit , we shall see what is the real potential of this squad is?

A decent goal scorer in addition to what we have would be encouraging.

I don't think we're getting another goalscorer. We've brought in Marc Guiu and it looks like he'll be backup to Jackson.