I actually laughed at the "notoriously unproductive Chelsea academy" bit. Castles is a Mourinho partisan, this is what he does.
It's part Duncan Castles' swallowing Jose's knob; part rehashed article from summer; part more knob swallowing. Everton already spending Lukaku money on Pickford and Klassen. If we didn't buy him, someone did.
While I agree Castles is a douche, didn't Conte walk out on Juve (his club) like 2 or 3 days into preseason for similar backstage drama?
I don't think Emenalo would have any control over firing Conte. Emenalo gets a lot of shit on this forum, but his strategy overall has actually been quite successful - our net transfer spend the last few years has been almost 0. That's good news for the future of the club.
He has control over buying Papy and Hector mark 2. If he does that, Conte will walk. Overall I agree he has done well. His girl scout experience is working. However, the strategy seems more about sustenance than dominance. Maybe we just don't have the money. How else can you explain our gaping CM hole for years now?
We break from your transfer angst programming to bring you my new Chelsea Champions scarf. Remember, we're champions.
The question of how much we spend is not up to Emenalo. The technical director of a club is not its financial director. So while he may have bought Papy and Hector, it's likely he didn't have the resources. As for sustained excellence as opposed to dominance, you're right - we're obviously headed more in that direction, but we can't possibly outspend City and United. Roman is wealthy, but he's not going to sink 200M into the club every single year. United can afford to do that based on revenue (mostly), while City are basically owned by a country that sees to have no spending limit. Although, I suppose we'll see what Qatar's current predicament does to their spending.
To be honest, I don't think we have to sink 200M every year. A 80M verrati will be good for years and will take us to the next level. As opposed to a 100M Lukaku. We have made questionable buys like Cuadrado, salah, Papy, Hector, etc when a little more ambition might have got us a better player. 1 quality player is better than 5 mediocre players, Arsenal has taught us that. We may have recouped our investment but it left our first team lacking.
Look, it's not my money and I wish he spent more of it. But blowing 80mm on any player is really tough for us. Remember the harm Torres caused for years.
The Torres money was stupid at the time. Right now though, this is the striker market. If Belotti and Morata are worth close to 100mm, so is Lukaku. Is what it is. Meanwhile, Conte story has been roundly refuted.
YES, Seattle and Chelsea. that's my collection as well. do you have the half seattle half chelsea flag from the preseason game a few years back? i had to track that one down.
it was years ago now, while i was living in Seattle. you've reminded me though i need to get all my scarves out. i moved recently and never decided where i wanted to put them.
The price sucks but its not exactly confusing. Costa is as good as gone and we need a striker. Lukaku is the most obvious option. Most obvious doesn't always mean best but whatever.
New coach joining Conte's staff. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...6/Davide-Mazzotta-set-join-Chelsea-coach.html
I saw some papers were mentioning this yesterday. I won't pretend to know anything about staff makeup. Is this a big deal? Why is he pushing for a bigger staff?