Hazard Warning Signs - The Chelsea Transfer Thread

We have a strong academy but they alone are not he answer. The Manchester United Class of 1992, even in 1992, was an outlier. Teams do not win being heavily reliant on youth players. I understand the attraction of wanting to promote youth players but it hasn't happened yet and I can't see that happening anytime soon. Stars win games and trophies. Special players do.

No one in City's squad are promoted youth products. No one in Liverpool's squad are youth products. No one in United's squad are youth products. Yet, Chelsea are the only team that gets shit when we don't play our apparently amazing youth players.

 

Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard.

Also, no other club's youth team has won more silverware than us in the last 10 years

 

Ah yes, Rashford and Lingard. My mistake.

So in the teams above us, in terms of meaningful/impact players, there are Rashford, Lingard, maybe Harry Winks, maybe Iwobi; those two are a stretch.

 

Pogba was a Man U product as well. He left for Juve and PT at 18 but he’s one of theirs.

 

We won't be having this debate if we were still capable of spending big on top players every year. The fact is that we no longer can. Instead, we are now buying second rate players who become weak spots in our starting eleven. I refuse to believe that none of our academy players are at least as good as these players.

 

Whoever the next manager is this summer, needs the authority to axe/offload players with Club's backing. I believe Jose, Series 1, gained quick authority and took control of the dressing room when he brutally axed Crespo; and later earned respect by welcoming him back into fold.

For too long now the players have known they pull the strings, and we lost JT, Drogs, Cech and Lamps to at least guide that power in a strong, no quit, die before losing, full effort and winning way. (They would not have put up with this shit, would have been a few mysterious dressing room accidents and incidents - heck might have even been a shooting if Ashley was aroundtoo soon....)

This lot complained Jose, the sequel, was working them too hard after the title season, and tanked it, got rewarded with Conti who worked them even harder, laughed at that bit, won a title, then they got lax. bitched about being over worked, and tanked it. Got Sarri and were initially happy with less rules, less discipline, less physical work, later practices-well how is that working out.

Time a statement is made and a few get tanked pointedly and permanently, and the Club knows who are the bad apple dressing room whinging leaders. Let the next manager dump them quick and brutal.

And support the next manager by letting him bring in a couple of his own choices, to show the dressing room he can have players come and go himself, and they won't be saved by Marina. (even Sarri and the club would have been likely better off with Higuin last summer as Sarri really wanted.

Yes Conti and Roman got into an alpha dog pissing contest, was only going to be one winner, but I still say that could have been avoided if Conti was backed more and earlier, especially the second year, allowed to force out a couple players, bring in a couple where obviously needed, backed more on Costa-i want to go to China or Spain in the middle of a title race and beat up Chelsea staff.

If you are going to back and rebuild around a manager do it for a strong leader who has just won a title for you like Conti did year after year for his last team, not for a guy who has never even won a Cup in years and years of managing.

Why not rebuild around Sarri for the future, yes picture 11 Jorginho's and we will soon be matching the trophies won by Sarri in his prior career....er...therein lies the rub.

What do they say about trying the exact same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result?

So the players, who share a huuuuuge part of the blame as well, were good enough to win 2 of the last 4 PL titles and an FA Cup but can't understand football enough to play for a trophy-less coach of a 2nd place Italian team in a weak at the moment league, Juve the strong exception, but add 9 more Jorginhos and do the exact same thing over and over for a year or two and a different result will surely happen... yea "relegation" will be that different result.

Sayonara Sarri

 

Then we will keep seeing Alonso being burnt for pace. If height the only criteria he is looking at, then he shouldn't stay.

 

Reece James is the real deal. He could and should play for us today. He's at Wigan today (yeah I know) but he's light years ahead of anyone in that squad and better than almost anyone in the 'Chip.

 

Joe Gomez and Trent Alexander-Arnold? Jesus ********ing Christ every team above us is using their ********ing academy with success.

 

Zinchenko (however you spell it) at Citeh is another. It's us and us alone in the academy doldrums.

 

Harry Winks was good enough to force the sale of Dembele and oust Dier. He starts for a side light years ahead of us in terms of consistency.

 

I am not in the sack Sarri camp today but if he doesn't start to mix it up then see you ********ing later. Alonso is garbage right now, hot garbage. He has no chemistry with Hazard. Jorginho gets run through weekly or by passed like on Sunday. Luiz is getting skinned weekly. Our squad is filled with holes that sometimes play okay and other times are truly awful. Teams are happy to counter us with pace and our slow defenders bar Rüdiger and sort of Dave get killed.

 

Neither am I in the sack Sarri camp. But I agree with some of these points. Alonso has been crap, and to borrow Gary Neville's words, playing like a 10 year old on playstation. Jorginho just isn't giving enough protection to the back four.

 

My issue with Jorginho isn't that he's not Kante but that teams make him a pedestrian too easy by just bypassing him. Both of our flanks get skinned. If we had more pace at the back this wouldn't be that bad but we don't.

 

well I am, but I think blame is huuuge for players and Board as well. All need to learn from their errors


Mikel speaks to what I mentioned above;

"Mikel John Obi spoke last week about an earlier generation of Chelsea.

We were just so hungry. Did we take it a bit too far? Sometimes, yes, we had to. There were people fighting, grabbing round the neck, JT smashing the table and drinks. If we were losing a game you did not want to be in the dressing room.

That is not a description of how a team reacts only if they like the tactics, manager, training schedule, food, and playing time. Mikel describes an attitude that was instilled in those players. Chelsea no longer have that. Antonio Conte had a undying hatred for losing. He is the type of person who loses days of sleep over it. He had the necessary attitude, yet the players won their battle against him despite them giving up on so many battles where it counted on the pitch.

Too many players have not put forth the necessary effort for Chelsea’s issue to all come down on the manager. Isolating the blame to Maurizio Sarri (or Antonio Conte or Jose Mourinho or…) is biased and lazy. Ignoring the character issue at Chelsea is to be blinded by your passion. And if you do acknowledge it and still only blame Sarri, then I ask you, how can you be sure knowing what you do about this group of core players?"

https://theprideoflondon.com/2019/02/12/chelsea-players-free-pass/

 

Also think that is why it is important to have some homegrown youth incorporated into team constantly, to instill culture and continuity, JT and Lamps learned humbly shining shoes for and learning football from their strong willed elders and were well known for giving back to and spending time with our youth. A big secret to Sir Rednoses's success I think was the culture and continuity.

No not every player, but at least a handful continually is important. Harder to do these days but our youth has been dominant for a good while, surely we need to try harder to truly incorporate a few. Right now outside of Kante, Dave, perhaps Rudiger I have a hard time seeing the others making the effort or time to embrace the youth, Culture and Continuity of The Chelsea Football Club.

 

Club is in a really tough spot right now and it's their own fault for how they have handled things since Jose 1.0 left. We will look bad if we sack Sarri, but it could be more justified depending on how the rest of the season plays out.

The other option is "full support" of Sarri, but the scary thing is you have to question is he the right manager for the job. His stubbornness and lack of flexibility are major concerns for me. The simple fact could be that Sarri's style doesn't work well in this league. I am just concerned that we may enter a 1-2 year period with zero progress and then be starting over again.

It's just maddening how he does NOTHING with tactics during a game.

I would love to see what would happen this weekend if he started some different people and played Kante at CDM, but I realize 0% chance of that

 

Each one of those guys is a fringe player with the exception of RLC and maybe he would be getting more time if he wasn't hear. Each of the teams above us with the exception of Citeh have multiple players in positions that start regularly. We have players that are part of the squad. I still think AC should start as he makes far fewer mistakes than some of our other defenders and he faster than anyone bar Rüdiger.

I will agree however and say that this is the first time I've seen this many academy products be this close. With all that said however, both CHO and AC have been rumored to be on the way out because of limited opportunities so it's still not an ideal situation.

 

Won't shed a tear if the whole squad is sold with the exception of Kante and Kepa.

 

Interesting managerial rumour. . . Chelsea want former Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane to replace Maurizio Sarri.
That would keep Hazard happy right? Apparently it won't happen until the end of the season.

ZZ would attract the talent in the transfer market.

Our players have been fortunate to have played under great tactical and motivational managers - under Jose, Conte, Sarri and all the different systems - you would think that they would all be geniuses by now.

 

Chels are after the Ivory Coast midfielder Franck Kessie (22) but PSG are favourites to sign him.

 

If we hire Zinedane, he has to agree to do it now, not leave us hanging checking offers til summer, most importantly cause the emotional lift as well as the gaffering would get us in the CL.

He would only be screwing himself by waiting and watching us implode, which would indicate he is waiting for offers from someone else.

If he were to commit but wait, it would be that horrid Dead-Man-Walking like Ranari, with any authority left and any motivation left gone for Sarri. Ranari had class and still gave it his all, the players respected him and the dressing room was full of leaders, none of that is here now, it would be a disaster.

All for it, but has to be now, but another season without CL to recruit players and perhaps one last summer window before a ban will b a disaster.

 

Except for money, what's the attraction for a manager to come here?

-an academy underutilized
-aging players
-a nice training ground
-london
-Europa forever
-a challenge?

 

Zidane isn’t coming here. He’s likely headed to Bayern.