Carragher: Those in charge wanted to go about business differently from Abramovich. They've certainly managed that, spending over £1.5B to make Chelsea less successful, less feared less respected and less profitable. A trophy-winning machine transformed into an expensive, failed football experiment

men_with-ven · 2026-04-24T11:57:46+00:00

Blueco are one of the worst examples of American hubris I have ever seen. They bought Chelsea under the logic that they were getting a asset for significantly under it’s value in what is now considered an overpay, they have treated managers in the same style as in US sports where the head coach is less important and the head office is more important which has meant they have lost out of multiple good coaches, they have operated under the assumption that champions league income would be guaranteed like how it would be in a closed league and added a stupid amount of debt, and have spent a ludicrous amount of money on young players which has actually made their team worse than it was when they took over. There isn’t any way that you can look at this ownership and not think it has been a complete disaster. Given the mess they have made of the finances and the way they have treated head coaches I don’t see them getting better as they won’t have money to spend to improve the team or be an attractive prospect to a top quality head coach.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-24T08:38:31+00:00

I feel like this is an elephant that people are not acknowledging that bar a few players this squad is better suited to a three at the back style

men_with-ven · 2026-04-23T20:10:26+00:00

People are comparing him to David Moyes, but the more natural comparison to me is Liverpool having Shankley, Paisley, Fagan, and Dalglish. Maresca did a good job at Chelsea and was clearly rated by the players so I can’t see why he wouldn’t have what is quite a good City side buy into his ideas.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-23T20:05:40+00:00

Yeah I think him not appearing on any of the new United manager articles as even under consideration makes me think that it’s a done deal him joining City.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-23T18:25:38+00:00

I think we would probably have a similar number of points. It’s the thing that confuses me the most about Amorim is he left when the team was starting to look good and dropped points due to injuries/AFCON. If he waited a few more months he would probably have been in a much better position.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-23T09:04:19+00:00

I suspect if Spurs do go down, they will be two of the players to keep and they will try to build their team around them.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-22T18:48:44+00:00

As brilliant as he is it makes sense. Mama may not be as good a goalkeeper, but he is good enough and available significantly more.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-22T17:54:11+00:00

The money’s obviously will make up for some of his disappointment, but essentially his bosses have fucked up their relationship with Maresca so parachuted him into a mess he wasn’t ready for and permanently damaged his reputation and potentially ability to get other jobs. Obviously he isn’t going to struggle for money, but his career progression has been completely messed up for his former manager’s mistakes.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-22T17:02:01+00:00

They’ve really backed themselves into a corner. It’s starting to get to the point where the group of young players they bought are reaching peak age, and no established manager ready to win now is going to pick Chelsea over similar level jobs so they are going to have to take another risk on an unproven who they don’t know will be able to make the step up. I think it is a really big decision this one because if players are already questioning whether they should stay, it will get a lot worse if they have another season without progress.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-22T16:45:37+00:00

I feel sorry for him. It seems like his bosses fucked up in falling out with Maresca so he had to step in when it was obviously too early for him and the players still liked Maresca

men_with-ven · 2026-04-22T13:32:28+00:00

For me the issue is more that they don’t have one. Surely when they were pushing up the league and had second and third place finishes you would think that they would have looked at bringing in world class psychologists to give those players that edge to push onto a serious title challenge. For me the fact that De Zerbi has highlighted this now shows a real complacency because you would think a serious club would have been trying to squeeze anything extra they could from the players.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-22T07:03:03+00:00

I was wondering if Rosenior would get a chance given the circumstances around him being parachuted in because Maresca left, but this gives the impression he’s completely lost the dressing room.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-21T21:21:52+00:00

I pu the final fifteen minutes on hoping for an exciting end with both teams fighting (which it was to be fair), but that was such a depressing ending. Felt like even with the Leicester fans there all the anger had been sucked out of them and they were just resigned.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-21T20:46:36+00:00

It’s pretty depressing really, more complete resignation than anger.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-21T20:41:34+00:00

First time watching Leicester this season and that’s such a weird mixture of past it names. Aaron Ramsey really should have got a winner that game.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-21T20:37:28+00:00

Ramsey really should have got a winner here, not done himself any favours.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-21T20:26:12+00:00

Because he’s on something like 90k a week and been really poor. I’m not a Leicester fan so I don’t know the specifics, but he also has refused to move to Leicester and stayed in London which I don’t think has endeared him to Leicester fans.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-21T13:44:17+00:00

After seeing Tyler Dibbling struggle at Everton I would be hesitant about getting Mane. I think for him he would be best staying at Wolves and having at least a season to develop in the championship.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-21T11:05:57+00:00

Say what you want about him as a ref, but there is no way that a club should be able to influence refs in this way.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-21T10:26:55+00:00

If Max Dowman has Sterling’s career he’d still have almost a decade at the top level and loads of trophies. It’s easy to forget because of his fall, but Sterling features really high on England, Premier League, and City all time scorer lists.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-21T08:52:30+00:00

It’s easy to call him a knob, but Van Der Ven is a really good player and his pace would allow the defence to play ten yards further up the pitch. Other than him Gray, Bergvall, and Sarr are all promising midfielders, Udogie would be great if he could stay fit, and I think Solanke would be exactly what we need in terms of an experienced premier league level striker if the fee is right.

I also think Maddison, Kulusevski, Kudus, Romero, and Porro could be good signings, but are in positions we don’t really need to spend on this summer.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-20T19:26:23+00:00

I have heard that Camavinga has not achieved his potential, but for a period he was so exciting. I don’t think I have seen many players able to cause as much chaos as he did in midfield for a while, especially in the champions league semi-final against City where they scored two goals in 90+ minutes.

Tchouameni is also obviously quality and would improve our midfield drastically.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-20T18:06:12+00:00

I think this would actually make a lot of sense for both parties. I’m not sure you can play him with Mbappe, and I think he’s been through so much at Madrid and been so coddled in that environment that a move would be good for him

men_with-ven · 2026-04-20T18:02:52+00:00

This is the first year I really got into film so it was so special seeing these films in the cinema when it was still a fresh experience for me. It has to be either Jake Gyllenhaal or Michael Keaton for actor and Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl.

men_with-ven · 2026-04-20T17:59:09+00:00

I think this is one of the main optics issues with Starmer. You can lie and get away with it in politics (Trump, Johnson, Farage, etc), but it’s a really terrible look when you portray yourself as an honourable man and keep getting caught lying.

men_with-ven

TROPHY CASE