Why Chelsea are ‘trillion-pound bottlejobs’ who will be ‘worse’ this season than last under Pochettino

Chelsea have eight keepers and more midfielders and wide forwards than they can possibly know what to do with. Things will get ‘worse’ under Enzo Maresca.

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The absolute state of it
Nice article from Mr Nicholson but he has forgotten the biggest problem in this issue. State ownership.

Which club has dominated the the last decade? Manchester City. And whilst some of that is of course down to Guardiola’s brilliance, none of it is possible without state funding (with a large chunk of that dressed up as sponsorship of course….and yes, the emails are real City fans, your club provided the originals at CAS).

State ownership drives up prices for everyone, hyper-inflation. Wages go up and transfer fees go up unnaturally. City and PSG don’t care, they’re not operating as a normal business with their unlimited state backing, dodgy sponsorship deals and hoardes of top lawyers to find ways around the rules. But the teams around them do have to function like a business, find real sponsorship, balance the books and adhere to the rules. The likes of Man Utd can of course keep up but go down the pyramid and it becomes impossible to compete and the gap gets bigger and bigger. If a modern day Jack Walker comes into Blackburn Rovers now, he’s got no chance, and not because of FFP or PSR, because a rich local businessman simply cannot compete with the wealth of autocratic states who do whatever they damn well please in order to achieve their nefarious goals.

The answer is to allow ambitious new owners a grace period, a few years or so to spend freely on improving facilities, the stadium, the youth academy and backroom staff in order to compete with the big boys long term. None of that works with state ownership though. And as for those who think financial regulations should be completely removed, what do you think would happen if City and Newcastle could spend without restriction? If you think the league is a closed shop now, imagine how high they could drive up transfer fees and wages to make sure no one else ever gets a sniff of glory.

State ownership is a bigger threat to the game than the Super League ever was and the proof is in the damage it’s done over the past twenty odd years. If City are found guilty in their upcoming case, and we all know they should be, then that should be the call for state ownership to be banned once and for all and let the sport have a new start where everyone has a chance.
MB

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Duly bloated
The amount of players that Chelsea currently have on the books is a bit mental and definitely overkill. But the same was said going into last season that Chelsea had a bloated squad but on multiple occasions we played games with just whoever was fit and just about made it work.

By the end of the season I was thankful for the so called bloated squad that at some points had a better starting 11 injured than fit. Man united and Newcastle had their seasons badly affected by many injuries and they are just the two that come to mind first I’m sure other premier league teams found themselves in similar situations throughout the season.

Is it just the norm now that you need bigger squads than what we have seen in the past? The extra workload put on players is taking its toll with injuries becoming much more frequent a bigger squad makes sense to a point. That said the Chelsea squad is undeniably Bloated, we have 8 goalkeepers for some reason, and more midfielders and wingers than we know what to do with.

I’m not going to complain though, at least the owners are doing something and if nothing else it’s entertaining, for everyone shouting about how terrible these guys are just compare them to the likes of Mike Ashley or The Glazers and you will feel much better about them. They have spent money like it comes from a tap in pursuit of success, no one can say they aren’t trying. Sure they’re not succeeding yet but who knows it might come good.

I still think this is gonna be a tough long season with many painful bumps in the road as the players get up to speed with the style of play. Top 4 would be great but I don’t think likely, Top 6 is more realistic aim for this season and anything above 6th would be a bonus. Even 6th won’t be easy just look at how Newcastle, West Ham and Aston Villa have strengthened and that makes 9 very competitive teams. Hell even Bournemouth are signing players from Barcelona and have Brazilian international Goalkeepers.
Aaron CFC Ireland.

I nailed my Chelsea prediction last year. Basically, that Pochettino’s pups would be a lot of fun but erratic and. So wouldn’t finish top 5. Yeah, I know. Pretty obvious really.

So let me post my inexperienced obvious prediction for what’ll happen this year. With key players back from injury and some exciting new buys like Pedro Neto… it’s going to be worse. Because it’s the Potter situation all over again. Inexperienced manager. Bloated squad. No experienced spine in the team. No leaders. No idea what our first eleven is…

This will all add up to a serious lack of goals – one of the real saving graces of last season – as Maresca’s all-possession style will stifle much of the creativity and flair Chelsea showed in their last few competitive games. And the defence? See Chelsea’s pre-season woes for what to expect. So my prediction… serious fan unrest and protests in November. Bottom half of table at Xmas. Final finish no higher than 10th. Brentford to do the double over us again. Convince me it ain’t so.
Bobbyhundreds.

Two points.

I agree this reign of madness by Clearlake has to stop, immoral and stupid “plan”. Stop killing the club!

No History Pre Abramovic? Do you think that football started with the premier league and is limited to it? Look, pre- abramovic Chelsea had some great times. Champions League v Barca etc. Knocking on the door for the prem with Hasselbaink and Flo knocking them in. Winning European and English competitions.

The no history jibe is old and a fallacy.
Stuart UK – The Shire

Boehly is smart. Can’t be billion pound bottle jobs if you spend a trillion.
Ed, Bristol 

Man Utd pessimism
I read badwolfs mail (and some others) and I honestly don’t understand the Man Utd pessimism. You’ve made good signings, early enough to have a pre season and while you might not have won games in pre season they’re not really about wins. They’re about fitness and tactic familiarity.

Dare I say that watching united throughout pre season you actually look like you have an intended style of play, which was shown again Vs city..I felt you deserved the win and city were a little fortunate.

It’s unusual to see so many united fans pessimistic when in the past you’re blindly optimistic when you had no need to be. I recall just two years ago in the run to a game against Liverpool when sky ran a “combined 11” poll. United fans swore that Maguire was better than van dijk, rashford was better than Salah and wan bissaka was better than Trent. Now suddenly united fans are celebrating selling wan bissaka.

You seem like a very confused bunch.

You have good reason for optimism this time, real optimism not just blind “I love my club” optimism. Don’t spoil it by having blind pessimism.

Also I too am a chuck palahniuck fan and understood that reference.
Lee

Sorry but the last few days and most specifically Sunday’s mail just sums up why United fans annoy me so much. They have become the very thing they mocked Liverpool fans about. Every single season they think they’ll be class. “But do we actually look forward to the future? 100%, more so than any summer since we signed Robin Van Persie.”

What utter nonsense. What about 14-15 when Di Maria, Falcao, Blind, Herrera etc signed? Oh ok then, what about 15-16 when they added Schweinsteiger, Memphis, Martial, Schneiderlin??? 16-17 then Ibra, Pogba and Baily were meant to carry them to the title. I remember all of this clearly. Sancho, Ronaldo and Varane had United fans buzzing a few years ago too. Lukaku was the missing piece of the jigsaw, Casemiro would shore things up.

It’s all nonsense. I hear it every single season. They’ll go on about these youth players coming through that will change things like Shoretire, Fosu Mensah, Tuanzebe, Amad, Garner. Even Mainoo who is a good player will crash back down to earth soon. I swear I’m watching a different player. Rico Lewis is probably better than him but gets less hype.

United fans see themselves as plucky underdogs when in reality City and Liverpool have just been smarter than them. I remember they were utter sh*te last season and won a few games over Xmas and thought they were the dogs b*llocks. I never have any faith in them. If they won the league this year, I wouldn’t be shocked if they came 7th the following year.
Dion

Charity case
Mark MCFC I’d beg to differ. The Community Shield is, and always has been (from when it began life as the Charity Shield) a glorified friendly. The fact that a few decades ago it could be shared in the result of a draw tells you everything.

The only fans who deem it to be an actual trophy when they win it seem to be Manchester based, for some reason.
James Outram, Wirral

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