He can’t keep bankrolling them forever you know. He doesn’t own a country.
It was logical he was going to let the club run itself at one stage.
Chelsea 2017/18 thread - FA Cup Champs, League chumps
- Thread starter duffer
- Start date
It was logical he was going to let the club run itself at one stage.
True, but I'm asking why now - what's changed?
Their recent spending has been horrible: Barkley, Zappacosta, Bakayoko, Morata and Drinkwater. Nah.
Prices and wages are increasing at an alarming rate and Roman has already spent a shit load.
Think they spent more than us in the summer.
Morata - 80 million
Bakayoko -40 million
Drinkwater -40 million
Rudiger -35 million
Zappacosta - 25 million
Giroud - 16 million
Barkley -16 million
Emerson -20 million
That is just 270 million, clearly taken away the funds.
Granted Barkley is a bit of a risk but is English and has potential. Zappacosta has played well for us generally and is a backup for Moses who granted looked much better last year. Wondering if that's got anything to do with Luiz not playing this year though.
Bakayoko is a class player, already got to a CL semi final and a key part of the Monaco team that finished above PSG. Granted his confidence has taken a battering as he's constantly criticized and given zero leeway by referees. That red card in 30 mins was particularly ridiculous when you see what Wilshere got away with against us and others have against City etc, Matic yesterday allowed to foul and elbow at will and never booked. He'll probably move back to another European league and shine again.
Morata is another one, he played well to start with. Seems to have fallen out with Conte. Got a two yellows in that FA cup game for exactly the same thing Kroos did to win a penalty against PSG. Wonder what he thought of that? Goal unfairly disallowed yesterday. He looked class for RM last year. He's got more Medals than pretty much anyone other player in the EPL, two CLs 4 leagues, 4 major cups and more. He's class and if it doesn't work out with us he'll go to another European team and shine again.
Drinkwater is another backup player, I've actually been quite impressed when he's actually played. He was injured for the first few months of the season and hasn't gelled with our forwards yet like he did with Vardy at Leicester.
Batshuayi looks like a different player for Dortmund. The club environment, players confidence and refereeing makes a huge difference to how players are perceived.
Roman can't keep up with the Manchester clubs forever. Chelsea is still a small club for fan base and sponsorships. Ironically I think Chelsea could become strong in the next few years when someone like LvG starts grooming some talented youngsters.
Wasn't Morata like 60m? IIRC, Madrid sold him for less to Chelsea, than what they quoted us.
They also sold Costa and Matic for around 100m.
I don't know much about Chelsea, but I think the narrative is that Roman has tied the purse strings (he wants Chelsea to run self sufficiently). But as you listed - they still spent a fair portion of money. I'm just not sure why they never got any of Conte's supposedly first team options in the summer - Sandro, Lukaku and Bonucci iirc (wasn't it?). Seems they just bought a lot of squad players and ended up loaning out Batshuayi.
Barkley I can see being a complete waste of money - albeit not a whole lot of money - as he's simply too injury prone and his mentality is questionable.
The likes of Zappacosta and Drinkwater are fine as squad players but I fully expected you's to go out and upgrade on Moses and not get another squad player in to challenge him. Morata really could go either way but right now, he's worse than Costa.
I have to disagree entirely on Bakayoko: for me and plenty of others, he looked the weak-link in that Monaco side. Plenty of the French posters called him out as a fraud well before you's signed him. You can dig up some of my own posts when I questioned whether he's any good and this was before he signed for Chelsea. He looks a poor player, to me but he's young and can improve. Again, is he better than Matic? That would be a no from me.
Overall, the transfer business was poor as I don't feel there were any players signed that would / will improve you's; they're either like-for-like or downgrades.
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Their recent signings are overpriced and terrible. We should try shift them Smalling for £50m 
The problem with their recent signings is that none of them are upgrades on what they have. They won the league last season and should have strengthened their first eleven, but they didn't. The fact Moses is still playing says it all.Their recent signings are overpriced and terrible. We should try shift them Smalling for £50m
How much did they sell? I don't think they spent much, net. Correct me if I'm wrong. Also, they're clearly going bargain basement with their signings now. That's a really poor summer, apart from Morata, not a bunch of players they were going to be heavily contested for.
The shift in their policy and actions is pretty stark.
surely you're winding us up?Out of all their recent signings, I can see Giroud being good value for money. Emerson may or may be good, I have no idea what he's like.
The rest of his post had merit but the part about Bakayoko left me stumped.
Agree a lot like for like, we did cruise the title last year though.
Matic is 6 years older than Baka and has much more EPL experience, when we signed him the first time he was probably a bit like Baka is now so we sold him to Benfica where he developed and then bought him again.
Agree Morata is worse than Costa, he's also younger though. Costa forced a move as he'd had enough in England. He looks class again for Atletico and played really well yesterday. He doesn't get all the media and referee hassle in Spain. I mean "Costa Crimes" from SKY ffs, come on who else's players get treated like that!
Baka needs to develop, not sure he'll actually get the chance with us though. Probably go off to Spain or Italy.
I'd maintain one of our biggest losses is not having Luiz in the centre of the back 3, his distribution from deep is class and he made very few mistakes last year. Christensen is a kid and shouldn't be playing every game yet.
I dunno his views on Morata are pretty batshit crazy as well
Now that you mention it..... I would have more faith in Morata coming good than Bakayoko though. The latter looks a bumbling mess.I dunno his views on Morata are pretty batshit crazy as well
Personally, I felt you's massively overachieved and as I said in here before the season even started, I didn't expect you's to have any credible title defence. Last season saw both us and City in transition and I feel that Conte hugely overachieved with the squad that was available to him. Big credit to him changing tactics which was obviously instrumental.
On Costa, yeah it was clear he wanted out. I just think going for Morata to lead the line and be an automatic first choice was an obvious gamble. As a rival fan, I was delighted with your summer business as I felt there was no obvious upgrades. There's a good squad there, but it's nothing special and I feel the money could have spent wiser.
Christensen is one of the few Chelsea players to come out of this season with any credit, he looks class. Strange any Chelsea fan wouldn't want him in the starting XI
I used to like morata and even thought he could do a better job for us but my god I am glad we didn't sign him. His attitude stinks. Whenever I see him, it's like he wants to cry. Him rolling over like a kid every time someone nudges him makes me want to puke on him. Costa was a jerk but he was a man who used to wind up and take fight with defenders but morata looks like a kid compared to Costa.
Will Roman wait that long? I think once they lose the return leg at Camp Nou, Conte is gone. BTW, maybe Conte is looking to get sacked sooner rather than later, and get a big payout for his early termination.
Little point sacking him before the end of the season now even if they are knocked out of the UCL, FA Cup and the Top 4 race in the next month, who would they get in? Too late in the season for another run for Hiddink.
If they were going to sack him then it would have been after Watford. Would have been perfect timing before Barca. Now it would be pointless before the end of season.
If they don’t sack him soon, they won’t make the Top 4. In the past, Roman has been fast to pull the trigger.
He looks a real top player in the making, for sure.
I love that people keep saying Roman hasn't tightened the purse because we've spent X amount and that's it. We're only spending because we're selling and it's been like that for almost 4 seasons now.
I don't remember a time I had more angst during a match than I did at halftime yesterday. We have a very encouraging performance against Barcelona almost completely wiped by Christensen's mistake and then we go into halftime tied with United and end up losing? It looked like we were playing a club like Southampton at the Bridge and just knocking it out about as if we knew we'd always have a handle of the game and it'd be a matter of time before we scored. It was fecking United @ OT and there was zero urgency to take the massive amount of space they were giving us. The players didn't look up for it at all. Morata was doing his best Torres impression yesterday. He looked like what I'd imagine I would like look trying to shield the ball from Smalling. If he's going to go down like that under every challenge, he's in the wrong country.
Some random things:
Hazard needed to come off - he was visibly tired and did nothing in the second half.
Christensen - wtf was he doing on the second goal?
I can't believe the club has employed Victor Moses for almost 6 full years.
Rudiger solid yet again. So far he is easily the best signing of the summer.
Azpilicueta with Marital dribbling at him looked like Cahill. I expect way more from him than that.
As of right now, IDK how Conte can pick Morata over Giroud.
I've been a loud Willian hater for YEARS. Best 2 matches (given the circumstances) in a Chelsea shirt?
Feck that line judge.
I don't remember a time I had more angst during a match than I did at halftime yesterday. We have a very encouraging performance against Barcelona almost completely wiped by Christensen's mistake and then we go into halftime tied with United and end up losing? It looked like we were playing a club like Southampton at the Bridge and just knocking it out about as if we knew we'd always have a handle of the game and it'd be a matter of time before we scored. It was fecking United @ OT and there was zero urgency to take the massive amount of space they were giving us. The players didn't look up for it at all. Morata was doing his best Torres impression yesterday. He looked like what I'd imagine I would like look trying to shield the ball from Smalling. If he's going to go down like that under every challenge, he's in the wrong country.
Some random things:
Hazard needed to come off - he was visibly tired and did nothing in the second half.
Christensen - wtf was he doing on the second goal?
I can't believe the club has employed Victor Moses for almost 6 full years.
Rudiger solid yet again. So far he is easily the best signing of the summer.
Azpilicueta with Marital dribbling at him looked like Cahill. I expect way more from him than that.
As of right now, IDK how Conte can pick Morata over Giroud.
I've been a loud Willian hater for YEARS. Best 2 matches (given the circumstances) in a Chelsea shirt?
Feck that line judge.
It’s more that they bought some terrible players and some who have been average.
Just speculation: Petro dollars ain't making as much profit as it used to be a decade ago. Transfer fee skyrocketed. Back then 100 mil per window is huge sum. Now 100mil is about to get you a class player (not exactly top class). Roman went through divorce too, so his fortune ain't as strong as a decade ago. Last but not least, the richer spenders appear in the block. Chelsea ain't exactly stopped being top spenders, just that their spending ain't amount the same strength as it used to be
All fair comment. I just wondered if he'd actively said enough is enough rather than him just making a sound and logical business call.
The earliest information I can find is his 2006 net worth according to Forbes, which was almost twice as much as it is now.
The original plan was supposed to build La Masia: London and that'd it take 10 years to do it. So to bridge the gap, he heavily spent to bring Chelsea to the top to lay the foundation for a self sustaining club.
He's grown bored of it.
Marina has convinced him this is how the club should be run, with her at the helm.
They decided that complying with FPP was priority #1.
His divorce/business has hurt his pockets AND the market's gone insane so the purchasing power he had has gone backwards on both fronts.
Clubs have evened the playing field in terms of meeting club and agents' valuations.
Expanding Stamford Bridge.
Who the hell knows. But it's fun trying to figure it out. I think that they were scared of FPP, which is why we've had a minimal net spend since 2014. Whoever's been in charge of players, which I'm going to say was a combination of Ememalo/Marina/Roman, has been completely found out and they can't make up the difference because Roman has half the money he used to, FPP, and the academy/loan system hasn't produced the players to make up for their failures.
Dont think that helps them get champions league places with a new manager in. Dont think he will go just after an exit in the champions league (Which is not a given either) considering chelsea were patient with jose and gave him more time (as per chelsea standards). He is in a stronger position than jose was when he got sacked. Think conte is right in wanting a big payout, even LVG did the same with us. Think they will have a hard time getting in the top 4 and will be very curious to see how they react if they go out of the CL.
There were leaks of his boring and very hard training regime from players, his scapegoating of Luiz was also another point and then his unhappiness in transfer windows and with transfer strategy of the club. It looks a bit ominous for him, but chelsea in these situations usually turn it around.
@Pete Dahh Sneak Yeah I was delighted when I saw it was Morata starting and not Giroud.
He's on the same boat with Putin, just another ATM machine.
The fallout from the sanctions is getting tighter around him and he probably fears of having any exposed capital in the west since it can be arrested.
Roman for Chelsea is not what it was 10 years ago, my opinion is that he will feck off sooner than later. Chelsea eventually will be back to the pre-Roman days, not saying they will be a worse team but they sure won't have access to the oil money spending spree like they used too. That is unless they'll be bought by City's sheiks.
The problem with this though, is that a lot of Chelsea fans were justifying the sale of Matic to United with the signing of Baka. Many fans and people in the media were portraying Baka as the ready-made replacement for Matic, and some even said it would be an upgrade. Now 6 months on and he's being called out as a weak link and you're suggesting he may need a loan/sale like Matic did to be ready. If that was the case, then why not keep Matic for another 2 years when it's clear he's right at his peak? Although I'm pretty sure that Conte didn't sanction the sale of Matic.
It just seems to me looking from the outside that Chelsea are happy to auction off their players and replace them with whoever is available in the market?
Sure seems to have been a rethink of the transfer food chain recently at Chelsea, might as well try for Willian in the summer whilst they're in this frame of mind, could throw in Mata to help them justify it.
Agreed, although Barkley for 15 is a bargain tbf
good question, they are absolutely minted. Filthy rich but they are way more prudent, to a fault almost
LVG is not going to win the EPL, even if he had 20 years to do it.
CFC are not hiring Moyes and they aren't hiring LVG.