I'm completely speechless. What the hell was Kepa thinking? That has to be the most disrespectful thing I've ever seen on a pitch. Chelsea was going to win this game and then just like that it all falls apart.
Roman should step in here. 1 - Fires Sarri immediately. He has completely lost control of this group of players. 2 - Sit Kepa then send him on a loan to Africa for $1. Let the rest of the players know you don't f*** around at this club.
The time to send a message to the players was about a decade ago. Picking on one of them who is a symptom, not the cause, achieves nothing. Besides, as has been shown time and again, football is a business first and it would be appalling business to push kepa away given his cost. Some heavy discipline is certainly warranted but sarris comments to the press has already given the club a way out of even doing that. Its a shitshow.
It's never too late to start making a change. Expecting things to change without taking initiatives, would be naive. The best business decision is to recognize when to take a lost and move on. There will be many clubs out there willing to pay a good sum for Kepa, you will recover most of your cost.
The change I am advocating is to start siphoning off the older players who hold the power in the first place. Talk of actually selling kepa is a knee jerk reaction imo and would be a foolish thing to do. Given we overspent for him I also doubt we would recover most of his fee.
A player once comes to the manager demanding to be paid more $$$. The next day, the manager traded/sold him to a rival club where he will get more $$$. The manager then immediately called a team meeting and asked if anyone else wanted more money. No one answered, the room was completely silenced. The manager and HIS team went on to win 3 championships in 5 years.
Sarri's comments are garbage but what is he supposed to say. I don't give a rats azz about how screwed up Chelsea has been or for how long. To not do something major about Kepa tomorrow just enables more of the same crap. At some point club management has to wake up and right the ship. It won't happen overnight but if you let crap like this occur without a major shakeup then well you get what you deserve. I am with smokarz....transfer him to some obscure hole for $1. That was the most disgusting thing I have even seen a player do toward his own coach in watching/playing/coaching/reffing this sport for over 50 years. No excuse. None. And yes is the plan was to switch keepers if it was headed to penalties should have been communicated before the match. Irrelevant to the behavior of Kepa. Please set a new tone before Pulisic gets there. Please.
And what makes you think the new players coming in will not form their own powers; after what they had witnessed on live television? Coaches are dispensable, players are dispensable; no one is bigger than a club or an organization. The owner, Roman, needs to take immediate actions. It will be his failure, not Sarri, when this clubs find themselves somewhere at the bottom half of the table.
One of the shocks of this game was waiting until the 89th minute for the Barley substitution and then a bigger shock that RLC was replacing him and Not Kovacic. Also, I think we should have brought on Higuain earlier in the game. Maybe around the 75th minute when we were gaining some momentum.
Roman is ultimately the problem. I love the old guard but player power was just as rampant if not more back then. JT, Lamps, Cole, Drogba all had their say in the sacking of managers. This is much bigger than one player or manager. There is a quick opportunity for this to be handled quickly and quietly. There has to be a public apology from Kepa which he has started by by Instagram post, but he needs to sit briefly. For those saying send him packing, that's a terrible decision. He's the most expensive player we've ever purchased and the .most expensive keeper ever. It's not that simple. You can't send him packing like the days of Bogarde. The club have made a massive investment in him. A message can be sent however. With all that said, if Roman isn't up for this he needs to sell and sell yesterday.
Eh. If we won, no one would care, which says all you need to know about it being disrespectful or a big deal. It sucked, but much worse was the Kun PK that went right through his hands after trash talking the whole time.
not excusing Kepa in any way but Sarri's little tizzy, rant, threatened exit, bs excuses are why he will never be a winner; he should have kept some strong cool calm and taken control of situation, pushed him off himself or better, order luiz et-al to do what they should have done themselves. It was an opportunity blown to earn some respect, authority and power back in the dressing room. And sure fine Kepa 2 weeks wages and add other harsh lessons but leaders don't quit on their players for one human ******** up (bad as it looked) at least he is a player with passion to play and as baldly as he handled the passion today we are not a Club that has to much desperate to play player passion. Sarrri can win back some respect , loyalty and power in dressing room by telling everyone to eff off, he will handle it and teach his young player respect behind closed doors his way, and get Kepa back on track. Handle it right and he may get his Luca Brasi in the dressing room. And no you don't throw away, without trying for a better approach, seventy million plus, your top keeper for the next decade plus, and lessen your chances for a CL place also worth near a 100 million plus, to show you can destroy a kid and piss higher What flawless saints you zero tolerance folks must be. Mind you Kepa should be running up things around the clock, shining his teammates shoes, be on the bench of youth games for a wee bit, while also being assured if he learns and shows respect, professionalism, he has a path back he can earn. And as Brock kind of said he makes the Kun stop, Jorginho and Luiz score, then he is the man of passion and heart who saved the day
Roman hasn’t seemed to be up for it since we won champions league. He finally got the last toy he had been wanting forever. He needs to reevaluate what Chelsea means to him. We don’t have to go back to the way of outspending everyone. We just need to have a coherent strategy and stick to it. This turntable of coaches has to end too. Take some of the power back. Or thanks for everything you done and please sell the team to someone who’s up for it.
Man, some old school discipline would be great here. Having him clean boots, wash the training kits, lug footballs to and from practice would teach him a lot of humility. Won't happen but still, would do him the world of good. As for the zero tolerance folks as soon as I saw that the number one priority was fixing things before pulisic arrived I moved on. I've no time for that YA myopia. I repeat the call for a Director of Football to be found asap. Someone with authority. The player power is endemic because they know managers come and go. Some consistency/continuity at the top level is required.
Wow. Well for one, happy to see that Sarri showed a little flexibility in throwing out a lineup that was a little unexpected. One of the most disappointing things to me was the Jorginho pk effort. Even my 9 year old said he is going bottom right. Jorginho's little skip is cute when it works and looks like a joke when it doesn't. At least put some pace on the shot ffs. He has success with his method no doubt, but every now and then you have to blast one in the corner to keep the GK guessing First time I have seen Luiz miss one in all the years of him taking them
So nobody things this could be the case of miscommunication? This was the 2nd time Kepa went down (cramp or whatever). Sarri thought he's done and made the call. Meanwhile, Kepa recovered and wanted to stay. Adrenaline rushing all around, gestures maybe more harsh than it looked.....I guess I don't think this is as big of a deal as most think.
I think it absolutely is a case of both. He didn't want to go off and he thought it was down to him being hurt.
After hearing both their comments, this is what it seemed like. It looked bad on first watch but can see there was a misunderstanding. Think Sarri and the team did really well today.
Didn’t see the game as I had a bunch of things but the following: Sari had the right idea with the formation. It worked against Citeh this season. More Emerson please. Kepa, Well I’ll give him credit but the whole thing could’ve been handled better.
If you ask me, I think the player power thing is overstated. Scolari wasn’t winning us anything and Villas-Boas was out of his depth. Man United’s recent run is proof that Jose is now toxic, and I don’t think the players wanted Ancelotti to leave. That said, a structure and a long term plan is needed.
Players have the power. That’s how it is. We just have to manage it properly. What are we going to do, loan our 70mm keeper somewhere? Come on. The bigger issue is that he should have saved the Aguero penalty. He hasn’t justified his fee.
I think the long-term plan has always been a Director of Football with a revolving door of managers/coaches. It has brought in the silverware after all. Problem is that we do not have a Director at the moment.