Welcome home Frank! Time to get my jersey out of the closet Just hoping the club get behind the man. He will have a lot of ups and downs but I am confident he can be successful.
Can't really blame Sarri for leaving. He was treated badly by the fans. He achieved a respectable level of success, winning the Europa League and finishing third in the league. Yes, there is a gap between Chelsea and the top 2 Liverpool and Manchester City. However, there is also a sizable spending gap, and it wasn't going to get any better. Onward to the bigger, better club (at the moment), Juventus.
“I want to work with the experienced players first and I want people here who want to be here" Yes.........get in there Frank! Anybody 'flirting' with other clubs can f**k off, even if results don't go our way if nothing else Frank Lampard will get a Chelsea team willing to bleed for the club. Already inspiring me much more than Sarri.
It is going to be very interesting. Frank spoke a lot about Kante and not so much about Jorghino. The transfer ban is really going to be his biggest obstacle. The next biggest obstacle the injuries to RLC and CHO. Even with all the yoof at his disposal, we are still 2-3 players short of a good team. We need a striker. I hope Tammy can be that player, but I confess that I don't rate him that much. Although he scored a lot of goals last season and that is all he has to keep doing. Tammy is Camberwell born and we all know Sarf Londoners are the best. I hope Tammy proves me wrong.
I don’t want us finishing 15th with players who “bleed for the club”. What an odd mentality. Hazard had been flirting with other clubs for years, and he was a joy to have at Chelsea.
To be accurate, Hazard was only really ever flirting with Real Madrid, not many other clubs. Hazard was a joy. Hazard has now left. And that really is okay. Loyalty when going to war or a battle or a football game is not "odd mentality" to be honest. I guess passion about football and about Chelsea FC is not everybody's cup of tea.
Isn't the point about Sarri that he was always seemed rather ambivalent about being here? He did OK for us I suppose but with the experienced players we've got and the young lads coming through I'd like to think we can do better. For me I always thought Sarri was a bit negative towards some of the fringe players, (like Drinkwater), whilst others could repeatedly give subpar performances and yet get picked over and over again. In all honesty I'm not sure how frank will do. Frankly, (npi), I suspect it's bit early in his managerial career... but we'll see. But I quite like the sounds I'm hearing so far. For example, he said he wanted the young lads and the first team to mix more and I think that will give a more team oriented feel around the place which helps in the long run. That approach has also worked well for us in the past although, tbf, we've also done well at other times such as under Ranieri who, IIRC, had a more 'elitist' approach. But, obviously these things are only worth something if the results follow. My guess, (well, hope!!!), is we could do as well as we did last year which, having lost our best attacking threat, would be a quite remarkable achievement if viewed dispassionately. Of course, being dispassionate isn't really a football fans thing, is it The more likely outcome is that we'll suffer from the transfer ban and from having lost our best attacking threat But, obviously... that's got sod-all to do with Frank who will likely be the clubs scapegoat for any perceived failing. Tactically it's probably a smart move by them... bring in a legend to satisfy the rubes and divert attention away from the strategy which actually LED to the transfer ban which is the major problem. Whether that works remains to be seen.
Danny Drinkwater is back training with the first team and Frank says everybody will be given a chance to show what they are made of. Frank is being kind. I am sure there will be players that won't make the grade.
Which is fair enough. I haven't got a problem with people playing or not playing... but I want the people in possession of the shirt to at least THINK there's some competition for it. Not the complacency and lack of effort we saw on some occasions last year. Whether you'd call that 'pashun' or something else is another matter but, bluntly, some guys just need a kick up the arse from time to time. The lack of intensity from the manager and 'I get paid whetever...), just seemed to be transmitted to the team on the pitch. That's not helpful. Like I say, the likelihood is we'll struggle a bit this year but just phoning it in, which we saw a few times last year, won't improve that situation. It'll only make it worse.
We finished third in a year where two other clubs had historically great seasons and won the Europa League. How much better were we going to do? This very much feels like the right level of the squad. We overperformed the first year under Conte, underperformed a bit the second. Seems like we got it right this year. As for not picking players like Drinkwater (or Cahill) - come on. Drinkwater shouldn’t have been bought and he’s clearly unsuited to Conte’s system. Same with Cahill. The issue was bringing in a manager who was clearly going to make some players redundant.
Well, strictly speaking, we came 3rd but we were 25-26 points behind the teams in 1st and 2nd and were only 1 point ahead of sperz in 4th who themselves were only 1 point ahead of LeArse in 5th so I'm not sure that's a reflection of the true position, other than in a technical sense. But, for me, I look at Liverpool and who they've been selecting and the guy that jumps out at me is Trent Alexander-Arnold. He only started making regular appearances in 2017, (19), and this past year, (29), and yet he's still only 20 years old so the question is, what chance is there that he'd be making that many appearances under the sorts of managers we've been having lately. Personally, I think there is absolutely ZERO chance, tbh. The thing is, it's not even about just the younger players who Klopp has played and we haven't... it's just an approach wee seem to be taking of constantly playing guys who seem to phone it in just because it's the 'safe' option. The manager knows he won't get the elbow if he plays Willian or Pedro on but he MIGHT if he sticks Hudson-Odoi out there and he screws up somewhere. I mean, bearing in mind Alexander-Arnold is a fullback. Hudson-Odoi is a forward so it shouldn't be as much of an issue with him making a blunder. So I suppose I'm saying that I agree we probably performed as you'd expect bearing in mind who we actually put out on the pitch but that it wasn't building anything for the future and that comes back to the basis on which the manager was employed. Which is kinda the point I guess...
CHO played this year. He was OK - he wasn’t actually that good. We make a lot of demands on managers, but also demand they play youth. That doesn’t really work. But then that goes back to my main issue with hiring Lampard - the club’s process seems very questionable and lurches back and forth.
I agree that winning things is nice but I was happy to attend games sing and shout (sometimes abuse) for years on end without ever getting a whiff of a trophy. Last year I was one of the many that had spent our hard earned cash watching some appalling performances. I don't care if Sarri ball followed the latest thinking in football tactics and was admired by afficionados. I thought it was boring as hell and I was ready to chuck it all in and go and watch rugby. I am looking forward to seeing some exciting football and if we loose a few along the way so be it.
Oh yes if course, I think Frank wants players to look at making Chelsea THE place to make a career for themselves, there is no doubt in my mind that Roy Bentley, Chopper Harris, John Terry or Lampard himself gave 'more' effort to the cause than Morata because they really felt that Chelsea IS their club.
I think it was mentioned upon above or somewhere here by someone recently, but one of the key things Supah brings, (and I like in players), is you feel and know they really care. One of the many things I did not like about sorri was I never got the feeling he gave a ******** about Chelsea or the supporters, just himself and his sorri way. Conti, Jose had passion for the Club and supporters while they were here as did RDM. Carlo, Guus, professionals, if not to that level had passion for being professionals and doing the job to their best and embraced the supporters. Also I think it is rare to see a team that bleeds for their club every minute, every match finish 15th, even if outclassed in talent, and, rare to see a team of pure uncaring mercenaries prosper.
I realised that I was really thinking about your comment about not finishing 15th. I have enjoyed many a game where we finished lower than 15th, and indeed not even in the top division. Conversely I have sat through a lot of tat this season. I would happily give up league position to get back to a club that I can be proud of. I reaise that this may be considered a perverse position by some.