How crazy would this be: Chelsea extend Conte. Extend Hazard and Courtois 3 more years. Sign Kante for life. Then in the summer we buy Brandt, Draxler, Asensio. LOLOLOL
The 'problem' with Hazard is he is frankly too good for this team. He papers over so many cracks that tptb look over major flaws in player personnel. He is world class, an elite player and if he ever looks 'disinterested' it's probably because he is human and can't do it on his own. He fought to the end yesterday and grabbed the game by the neck. That we have statues at the back is not his fault. Maybe if he goes it exposes the deeper issues we have, maybe not, but only a teeny tiny minority would in anyway point fingers at our best player.
Going by all the polls in different sites, the support is still very strong for Conte which is good to see. Not that it matters much to the board.
We have three choices. Either the club finds someone who will fit their plan, the club back Conte in the manner he wants/needs in order for him to be successful, or we do what we've done and bring in someone new who has their own vision/ideas and will need investment and backing. Our stadium deal may well be the biggest hindrance to options 2 and 3.
Just like every other business...if we have holes, cover them up by not hiring appropriate staffing but instead split the work with the few good workers left. They won't complain.....for long....well until they've had enough and go find another job. This is essentially our model from our academy to the recent additions. Too many players in training mode and not game ready mode.
I don't know about all these excuses. Conte is a good manager and we have good players. We won the title last year, but with only domestic competitions to focus on. I don't expect us to win every year, but I expect competitiveness. We're in 4th, 5 points behind 2nd place and we're in a bad rut. The problem is that this is becoming a pattern. The policy is one out, one in. Not adding to the depth. I don't agree that Hazard is too good for this team. We have some world class players. Hazard is. Kante is. Azpilicueta is. Luiz is. Courtois is. And so on. It's not just one player + 10. We haven't significantly bolstered our attack in some time and I think we're most lacking up there.
We also lack true leadership on the field. Courtois barely speaks, Cahill never replaced Terry, Azpi tries but feel like he's been run into the ground. Although I had mixed feelings about Costa, he gave us that energy/attitude. We don't have that anymore.
It would be an absolute shame to lose Conte. He knew what our needs were in the summer and the board simply wasn't able to deliver enough. The board/Roman is never going to come out and say they messed up. Conte has stood over there watching it play out about how he thought it would for the most part. My only gripe is his being so inflexible and determination to play a couple of certain players. We just need to regroup, this week off is just what they need. Finish strong and get a top 4 finish, make a run in FA Cup and play a good tie with Barca. Lots to play for! Lots of people were really down on the team during the Champions League season, but look how that turned out.
we also need to play drinkwater over bakayoko. drinkwater is unremarkable but reliable, and better than most think as well. he's not elite or anything, but he's probably the best option we have in the middle right now alongside Kante. bakayoko needs to have a long hard look at himself. he complained about not being called up to the france squad and said he was just as good as any midfielder called up, not only is that not true, for him to think it is is delusional. does he have the tools? yea maybe. but he's not even close to being there yet.
Remember when we didn't have that many players under Jose and all it took Hiddink was dropping a couple of serial underperformers and we were suddenly in top 4 form? No, of course you don't. Do I expect us to look brilliant by doing things as simple as dropping Baka and Cahill? Not really but it sure is a start. Being inflexible and changing nothing killed Jose. Not adding players hurt him too but in the end he had a certain level of control over things and failed to do what he gets paid to do aka make the most of his current resources.
We have enough. We're stretched today because of injuries and really have been for a couple months, but his inflexibility and his unwillingness to replace out of form players is concerning. You of all people have to see the excuses for him as frustrating. I only say that because you won't give players the benefit of the doubt when it comes to adjusting to new leagues, teams, etc. This is not a shot at you either. Another worrying thing yesterday is we never made a 3rd substitution. When we went down 2-1 we didn't even attempt to go for it with an offensive minded substitution. Not only did our defenders give up, but so did Conte.
Yes, the emotional swing after they scored the 2nd was unbelievable. I know we are thin, but we do have options for the spots in question. DD for one has looked good when paired with Kante and it worked good enough for LC. Musonda could have been given a run out for another. I think a half youth, half experienced squad vs Norwich would have done something Another thing I think getting lost in the shuffle is just how badly we miss an in form Morata.
Who would you have him play? It is not just saying, play Hudson-Odoi because he will be better than the crap. In hindsight, Musonda might have given us another option but not sure who took the decision to loan him. He is definitely accountable for Bakayoko who has been useless for so long but maybe he has pressure to play a 40M player. But I doubt we will see Bakayoko soon after yesterday's 'performance' as Conte himself alluded to changes after yesterday's game. There are zero attackers on the bench. Giroud came into the team 3 days earlier and is recovering from a major injury. A midfield of Cesc-Kante just doesn't work and should never be played again. If only Morata had not injured his back from falling down at the slightest touch. Not saying Conte is completely blameless but he hardly has any options. We also have to remember, it has been a brutal January with no rest on a wafer thin squad. It was really showing yesterday. I also don't think the players are not playing for him. They were still trying to get a goal at 4-1 down so the Mirror articles are BS.
Not a shot at you @Wrath, rather me venting my frustration at Conte because I don't agree, a lot of this is on him. Play Batshuayi when we need a striker! Stop playing Bakayoko match after match especially when we can't get the 352 to work. Play Fabergas or Drinkwater! Play Willian in a front 3! Play Zappacosta over Moses instead of substituting him on at the 65th minute each match. Play Dave, AC, and Rüdiger. These issues aren't exclusive to yesterday or Bournemouth, this has been happening for months! We trot out the same group and remarkably we get a similar result. Now, on yesterday, Hazard, under no circumstances, is a lone target man, yet he continues to use him as such. Use the Giroud isn't ready excuse, fine, but he did it when we had a perfectly healthy striker available for selection. We play a two man midfield who can't keep the ********ing ball for the life of them and they're supposed to provide the linkup to 3 munchkins? Of course that doesn't work, so what's our solution? ********ing long balls for Hazard to head down? Those were our tactics yesterday. For two matches in a row, mediocre midfields demolished us. Literally the ran through us like a hot knife through butter. It should surprise no one what Watford were going to do which was press us at a high level and it worked like clockwork. We couldn't hold onto the ball to even get it to our front 3. Baka's first touch let him down even moreso than his abysmal passing yesterday. Fabergas is shit, slow, unathletic, etc... You know what he can do? Stay calm under pressure and pass the ********ing ball forward, sideways, backwards, and to our players and then move to another open spot to get it back to do it all over again. His calming demeanor would have done wonders. Additionally, apparently Willian wasn't fully fit. Awesome, now we lose him again if he's actually hurt. Guess who was fit....? You're right in that it isn't all Conte's fault, the players still have to perform. Conte can't control Baka's each and every touch or his decision to lunge at each tackle or help Hazard be the target man he so desperately wants him to be. He does however have control over who starts and what formation we play.
Two other points. 1.) I can't spell for shit or type when I'm frustrated. 2.) the Cult of the Manager at Chelsea is strange.
I'm too frustrated to even post a literate paragraph one day after that shitshow. I'm surprised I could get off 2 sentences without throwing out words like ********fest, ********ing bullshit, ********stick, etc.