On the ownership bust up, Walter and the Saudis are the key. My sense is that Boehly knows the majority of fans will be on his side. Suspect he’s happy to play the long game. Supporters have a role to play here. Make your voices heard.
#Chelsea
#CFC
@Chels_HQ
Was thinking exactly the same. Essien was head and shoulders Chelsea’s best midfielder, until injuries brought his career to a premature end.
Spent today with my 87 year old Dad who’s very sick in hospital in Teddington. The highlight was watching
#Chelsea
’s very impressive performance against West Ham. Thanks to all the players and staff for making our day.
Spent post
#Chelsea
game in Sir Alex’s box. Diplomatically praised United’s performance and specifically highlighted Amrabet’s contribution. Sir Alex’s response: “that’s all very well, but he was up against nothing”. Says it all really!
Make no mistake, we’re already seeing the consequences of the ownership dysfunction: new manger; Conor sold, sporting director shambles; Goldstein sidelined; sponsorship failures. This is categorically not a well run club/business. It’s time to protest.
#Chelsea
#Clearlakeout
RIP
@simonpoulter
who passed away last week. East Stand Upper STH and a Chelsea fan for 50 plus years. Intelligent, kind, witty, charming and one of my oldest friends. I miss him hugely already.
What a day out. One of the best individual
#Chelsea
performances I’ve ever seen. Cole Palmer is a genius. Privileged to be at the game. Decent atmosphere too.
#CFC
More owner PR. Until we see a signed contract to buy the Earls Court land, it’s not even worth substantively commenting on. These lot can’t even sell DDF to Greece, let alone pull off a multi-billion pound property deal.
Today was a genuinely special day. Went for a half time beer and was almost shell shocked. Couldn’t believe what I had seen. Now off to see my Dad in hospital to take him the match day programme. 💙
Genuinely worried about
#Chelsea
’s short term trajectory. The squad is so fundamentally flawed that it will need more than a few tweaks to fix it. There’s no quick fix. Who would manage us? Who would join us? Who would buy our players?
#Chelsea
look like a team that have been assembled by a man who knew nothing about football 2 years ago. Organisationally disjointed, players out of position and lacking in energy, desire and physicality.
The
#ESPNFC
pundits are ridiculously poor, particularly Nicol and Burley. Have always had an anti
#Chelsea
agenda. Their lack of objectivity is up there with Carragher. Embarrassingly poor!
🤡 | Steve Nicol: "If you like entertainment, chances, mistakes and all the things that go along with it, then you can go and watch
#Chelsea
and Brighton. If you like proper football, that was a joke. Those two teams were an absolute embarrassment defensively."
(
@ESPNFC
)
@siphillipssport
If I’m a Clearlake investor, I would be hopping mad if they increased their stake in Chelsea. Would be advocating that they sell at the earliest opportunity. Neither Eghbali or Feliciano have the skill set or experience to run a football club.
#Chelsea
lacked intensity in the second half. Midfield control fell away and Enzo faded badly. Needed more physicality and directness. Palmer worked hard but we missed his creativity further up the field. Substitutions were ineffectual. Mudryk and Felix had zero impact.
#CFC
Nkunku earns £195K p/week.
#Chelsea
squad building approach means he’ll be given less opportunities than cheaper options. Objectively thats madness. The self inflicted PSR wounds mean that if you’re cheap you play. It’s the opposite of meritorious. This strategy is unprecedented.
Worried any decision to sell Broja is being made at a time when he still doesn’t look 100% fit. It takes big men longer to recover full fitness and mobility after a serious injury. Think it’s premature to properly judge him.
#Chelsea
#Broja
Apart from the first five minutes, the midfield three has looked both formidable and physically imposing. Out ran, out fought and out worked Villa.
#Chelsea
Expect more empty seats for
#Chelsea
’s early kick off FA Cup game on Sunday. A friend said as of late Friday afternoon, his firm still had 12 corporate seats going spare, which they couldn’t give away! Of course, the game is sold out to regular fans!
#Boehly
’s been shocking all round, but his transfer strategy is his biggest failing - a strategy similar to the now relegated Southampton. In a league that’s more physical than ever, we’re bringing in a bunch of lightweight, inexperienced talent. Where’s the Ballacks, Makelekes
A welcome three points. Save for the Palace goal, the first half was excellent. First round of second half substitutes were bizarre, but the introduction of Noni changed the game. He definitely deserves a start against Luton.
#Chelsea
@baayelblue
Because this is a fight for the future of CFC something which we all have a stake in. Take your point about negative impact of protests, but ownership dysfunction is already impacting on-field performances. If you feel strongly about an issue, isn’t it right to raise your voice?
Half empty stadium for the third consecutive US pre-season game. Hate to say it, but after two years of Clearlake ownership, we’re no where near the same draw as we were under Roman.
Still Trying to get my head around the passing of Graham Thorpe. Averaged 46 in tests against the likes of Warne, Murali, Ambrose, Walsh, Donald, Pollock and McGrath, often on some less than perfect wickets.
Like the lineup. Lots of positives: Gilchrist starting; Colwill playing in the middle; Connor rested; reintegrating Enzo and Sterling; and a deserved return for Mudryk. Need decent intensity and aggression from the start, and impactful second half substitutions.
#Chelsea
’s owners PR is designed to create the impression that they’re the cleverest men in the room. To date the strategy has been an unmitigated disaster. Keep quiet until you have something definitive and meaningful to say. Currently you’re an embarrassment to the club.
@PaulWChappelle
You might be right. I just don’t think Boehly’s been anywhere near the helm for the last year/18 months. That’s not to say he doesn’t want that role back.
Everyone wants the owners to turn it around, but objectively, there’s no evidence to suggest that’s going to happen, at least in the short term. To suggest otherwise, is just irrational optimism.
#Chelsea
#Boehly
The unknown is whether
#Boehly
has the financial wherewithal/backing to compete with Clearlake. Mark Walter and Guggenheim dwarf Clearlake. Clearlake are relative minnows in the PE world. And that’s not even factoring any potential Saudi involvement.
#Chelsea
#CFC
Huge progress from
#Chelsea
. Very impressive first half. Quick, fluid, physical and well organised. Even Badiashile looked half decent! Lavia and KDH the stand outs. If we could finish, we would be six up.
Oh to be a fly on the wall at the
#Chelsea
LA Board Meeting over the weekend.
Hopefully Mark Walter (major
#CFC
shareholder and Chairman of the Dodgers) gave
#Bohely
and
#Eghbali
a major dressing down about the clown show they’ve presided over for the last 12 months.
Six week’s ago it looked like
#Chelsea
’s transfer strategy was focused on investing for the future. Four games into the season, winning and competing at the top end of the top end of the table in 23/24 seems an awfully long way off.
I’m hope I’m wrong, but the current lack of signings who are either experienced, leaders, physical or “Premier League proven” is a big worry. Perhaps “tanking” is too pejorative a word, but we definitely seem to be building for the future, not to win in 23/24.
Admittedly it’s very early days, but as a first press conference, that was impressive. Composed, authoritative and gave thoughtful and intelligent answers to all the questions.
On the SB atmosphere, supportive of a singing stand/moving away fans, but PSR dynamics prioritise the maximization of match day revenues. Given SB’s size, owners will want to increase average revenue per seat. Sadly that means more corporates, more tourists and even less singing.
@tim_rolls
Another example of the club/older fans blocking younger fans from attending games. In the 70s/80s when I first went to SB, the crowd was full of young kids. Thats what created the passion, atmosphere and excitement. Old hits like me can’t do that anymore.
Acutely remember the deflated feeling post the Fulham home game, after our Jan signings failed to transform our underperforming team. Not suggesting Sunday’s game is as pivotal, but it wld be nice to see
#Chelsea
progressing & most importantly, getting an away win against W/Ham.
@JacobsBen
@MrChelseaBlue
Typical American investor speak. Of course there’s no acknowledgment that his investor group has shown their inexperience, they’ve made significant mistakes, which in turn has produced an unacceptably poor first season. Less hubris and arrogance would make him more credible.
On the stadium, if we want to challenge for the UCL again, remain one of Europe’s largest teams/top six in Premier League, sign the world’s best players, we cannot sustainably/consistently do that unless we significantly increase the capacity of our stadium and match day revenues
Tell me how we can survive to pay £404m annually on wages and dare to miss the Champions League while playing in a 40,237 capacity stadium? It's even hard to sustain with UCL unless you reach semis or final every season.
For context, Arsenal make £1m more than Chelsea every
To date the Boehly reign has been an utter shit show. Replacing 3 with a tier one sponsor was an absolute priority & yet they’ve managed to balls that up. Being unfamiliar with the European transfer market is one thing but failing on the commercial side of the game is inexcusable
Four games into the preseason, still have no clue as to what the back four will look like against City in two weeks time. Apart from Gusto, all the other defenders have been hugely underwhelming.
Although I’ve been hugely critical of the owners in the past, to give them credit, they seem to have navigated the profit and sustainability regulations better than most.
Key was probably the way they managed player outgoings over the summer.
I suspected there was an element of disagreement amongst the owners, but I never imagined there was this level of dysfunction. Eghbali and Clearlake need to go. Narcissim of the worst kind.
@TydemanGil
@Bassman_93
100%. This is exactly the point. Clearlake are a relatively minor PE player. Why are they wasting their resources on this investment?
@ChicagoDmitry
@Bassman_93
I said on Thurs that the Sanchez purchase was almost certainly linked to Caicedo. Recent Brighton posturing is probably designed to give the impression there’s no link, to avoid the accusation that they’re colluding with CFC to deliberately minimise the sell on payment?
The height of dysfunctionality and stupidity is to produce an 18 page report, presumably to justify a decision already made by Eghbali and the SDs. A slap in the face for all those previously claiming we’re a well run organization. It’s an utter shambles!
Sources at
#Chelsea
say Paul Winstanley and Laurence Stewart delivered an 18-page report detailing why Mauricio Pochettino needed to be replaced, which Clearlake Capital supported, however Todd Boehly attempted to veto.
[via
@Lawton_Times
]