16 Mar 2025 19:44:16
Its been another tough season,
After the blatant struggles with e keeper and striker i was so pissed off to see chelsea sign another winger and midfielder this summer
But then I realised how bad the wingers we have now, id sell every 1 of them bar neto, and neto only gets kept because of his work rate and i feel he would perform better in a better team
Next season we could have a totally siifferent squad
Id sell disasi, chilwell, sanchez, enzo, madueke, terminate sancho indefinetly, sell nkuku, felix and chukwuemka, dewsbury hall and sterling and mudryk if he's back.
16 Mar 2025 20:05:17
First signing Sterling? I immediately Knew Chelsea were in trouble.
16 Mar 2025 21:23:56
Poch, I agree with most of your exits and would add a few more. You are also spot on about our wingers who are very poor and Neto is just the best of a bad bunch; 3 goals and 4 assists, hardly earth- shattering. He is more effective in a counter attacking team. LondonScot, you are right, I railed against us signing Sterling to no avail, it was the start of a pattern of poor signings which has left us with an unbalanced squad of players with poor mentality. Last summer’s window was the epitome of our disastrous recruitment policy . I am totally uninterested about reading about all these so called wonder kids we are signing .
16 Mar 2025 21:46:35
Jimbo, agreed. Add to that after a £1bn splurged to then adopt the narrative used by Maresca it is both embarrassing and incredible. Maresca’s latest “out” from winning the game is that Arsenal have had their manager for 5 years so Chelsea ain’t going to beat them. This has been going on since end of December. Jeez, even when the group were picking up points Maresca was tipping won’t be long till the wheels come off. Instead of getting better as he promised, he has smothered every instinct out of his players. He would give been as well phoning Arsenal and giving them the points and taking the group down the coast for a beach run. Keep them loose, until a fixture comes round that he thinks they can win. Joke, doesn’t cover it. But he is only part of this pantomime.
16 Mar 2025 22:06:10
I rallied against signing Lukaku to no avail.
I couldn’t see why we signed Felix or KDB but the club took no notice.
16 Mar 2025 23:00:11
Tom, agree about Felix, KDH and add Sancho, also said they were poor signings as I did about Sanchez but I wasn’t talking about the club taking any notice, as if they would, I was referring to some posters!?
16 Mar 2025 23:10:17
London, i seem to remember Arteta getting pelters from there fans fir at least the first two years of his tenure and some my gooner mates consider him a serial loser and excuse maker.
Ii was happy enough after the first 16 games of this season without getting carried away. I think I can wait until the end of the season before making a partial judgement.
16 Mar 2025 23:44:26
I don't yet buy into this club is in decline it may well work out that way in the next 9 league games but it is too early to tell.
Recruitment wise the big mistakes are Sterling, Felix, and to my eye Nkuku looks awful and the keepers and no forward and general lack of experience unsure about Enzo F,
Palmer Cacaido Jackson Neto Lavia are to my mind successes
I would put most of the wingers in the too early to tell pile
Obviously mistakes have be made I would of kept Tuchel, and kept Potter for longer and wouldn't of sacked Poch
I rate Maresca less than the 3 previous managers a few strange choices, and messaging to the players .
Finally buying players is not an exact science and generally blogs and forums are fickle and I include myself, easy to slag off players I don't think it's the fault of the players my major gripe is that anyone could see that Sanchez is awful when we have ownership Of Petrovic and Kepa and the sporting directors were negligent in not sorting this problem out and to a lesser extent the CF.
17 Mar 2025 05:33:04
Let me make it very clear, I am NOT saying that KDH or Felix are bad players I just would have preferred us to keep Ugo and Chuka in the squad.
The vast majority of posters on this site believed that Cucarella was one of our worst signings ever after a disastrous first season. Last season he was much improved and this season he has improved, in my opinion to be one of our “must play” players.
After 18 months at our club the vast majority of posters were saying Enzo was a total waste of money along with lots of other comments but his play “generally” this season has been much improved.
I have been critical about Disasi and although my one Villa supporter mate loves him, I think he is a liability. I hope he proves me wrong (I hope so) and the SD’s right because I think some players are slow burners or just take time to settle at a club.
17 Mar 2025 07:11:03
Tom live in an area of Villa supporters, Disasi lives 5 doors away the Villa supporters love him, not convinced myself
But he appears to try very hard and leaves it all on the pitch
in that way reminds me of a defensive Conor Gallaher.
17 Mar 2025 09:25:29
Spot on Seymns. He works hard and pumps the badge a lot but for me he is to quick to challenge and loves going to ground to make a tackle.
Anyway, I hope he has a good season in lots of levels.
17 Mar 2025 09:42:33
Get what you're saying seymns2 except Conor better in both defense and attack! Was ranked best in terms of turnover tackles in final third in whole of Europe before he left us.
Jimbo I had also railed against signing Sterling cos of his declining stats at City and fact that he was increasingly used by them only as a sub. Seemed mad at the price and - particularly - wages.
Woukd certainly add Cucurella now to players we should keep and his story of improvement should caution us all about too easily writing off players and realise that some take a while to adapt and improve after changing clubs (or leagues) while a few look great from the start and others never seem to improve or fit in. Confidence clearly hugely important - if especially perhaps for goalies and strikers - and with all players connected to right fit with other players and the manager: manager's tactics as well as personality and his favourites. How Sanchez - third ranked goalie at Brighton when signed by us - is still our number 1 after so many clagners that led directly to goals plus others that could have defies belief though I do recall that one great game he had away against Bournemouth!
17 Mar 2025 12:13:12
JBS, strangely and although I didn’t see the need to sign him, I think KDH could well come good. He is gradually showing very slow signs of improvement.
I can’t remember the current CG stats at AM but if I remember correctly at the moment they are not very impressive. Like a significant per of players in teams nowadays he is used as a squad player and not an untouchable. My guess is that would have been the same if he stayed at Chelsea.
17 Mar 2025 17:52:31
You may be right about JFH Tom and he did score that nice goal v Copenhagen but not as influential as CG to my mind. Yes Cg may not have been a regular if Lavia fit Tom but how often has Lavia been fit? I think CG could have rotated a bit more to good effect with EF too in midfield this season as did play well alongside Caicedo last thoird of last xseason. But point is whether Maresca and SDs have even made the right calls about who to keep or loan out or sell in terms of midfielders this season perghaps and is KDH better than Chucky say? or Santos and Casadei - though arguably more DM - for that matter.
17 Mar 2025 20:37:36
JBS, I agree CG would have got plenty of game time this season but that is with the benefit of hindsight.
I don’t think KDH and CG are a good comparison. A bit like you I would have kept Chuka rather than signing KDH but again I stress I’m not saying KDH is a bad player it’s just I think Chuka will prove to be better.
Once we decided CG was going I would have kept Ugo in my squad.
I didn’t see the need for Felix because I had belatedly agreed with some posters that Nkunku is a No 10 and not a striker. I feel sorry for Nkunku because he hasn’t had a run, mainly because of Palmers form, to play in what looks like his best position.