24 Feb 2026 07:50:56
I didn't want LR as our manager but I didn't want EM either.
I would have given EM until the end of the season and then made a judgement on his future at CFC.
Some wanted EM sacked last season, changed there mind when we won a couple of pots and then wanted him sacked again this season saying "things can't get any worse" when we went on, our now usual, December poor run of form.
We now have some of the same fans wanting LR sacked after a few games and these have been joined by fans who never wanted EM sacked or just don't like LR as apparently, he was a "teacher" or not experienced enough.
It is impossible to make all the fans happy about any appointment the club makes as manager. I personally wanted the Stuttgart manager and my guess is very few Chelsea supporters would agree with that choice.
I want to see LR given a chance. I have seen changes in our patterns of play that I like. My guess is if Palmer sticks away the sitter against Leeds and tucks away his one on one against Leeds Burnley a lot of the criticism would disappear. Of course that would only paper over the cracks, individual errors and lack of concentration seem to me to be a major long term issue at our club. Some say that's down to a lack of experience or leadership but I'm not sure I buy into either of those excuses.
I am reminded that our last six managers have all mentioned "mental weakness" at some stage in their tenure. I personally believe that is the problem with our players. They obviously want to win but their mentality allows them to lose. It's as if losing is exceptable. It's just my perception and I'm probably wrong but I'm very sure that constantly changing managers isn't going to alter their attitude, in fact it almost let's the players off the hook. If that makes sense.
24 Feb 2026 08:42:58
Tom, great post, which captures the whole piece around changing managers mid-season, in particular, very well. I was very much in favour of keeping Maresca until the end of the season and then fully reviewing the situation, a situation which could and should have been managed by all involved, but we went knee-jerk and now find ourselves treading water with Liam, who more than likely will be sacked in the summer anyway. I may well have been wrong, and usually am, but I think Maresca would have found a way to beat Arsenal in the cup semi-final, because he had a way of winning those big games.
I also think he would have achieved top 4 as well. He was a taskmaster and would not have allowed Cole Palmer and co. to be seen in Dubai nightclubs the week before an important Premier League game, and those small details make the difference at this level. You are correct in saying the players were let off the hook, and I now expect to see a response, which might show us if Liam is up to the job of delivering a pot, or at least getting that top 4/5 finish.
24 Feb 2026 09:20:20
I also believe that when the owners came out and said they have a 2030 project, straight away that gave everybody excuses. Greenaway, I have already said the players needed a break due to the number of games they have played, with no backups, as they are constantly on the treatment table.
24 Feb 2026 09:37:58
Bill, a player can rest at home with his family and friends. Liam sent them on a trip to Dubai, nearly 16 hours of air travel included, to party in nightclubs.
24 Feb 2026 10:52:15
First class travel nowadays is hardly onerous. Being in Dubai and getting some sun with your family (it was half term) seems reasonable to me. We didn't drop points because of a trip to Dubai. We have dropped 17pts at home from winning positions so far this season. As far as I know, we didn't have holidays prior to dropping points last Saturday.
24 Feb 2026 13:24:50
Tom, only time will tell, mate. I have decided to change my prediction of where we shall finish in the league this season, based on what I have seen of the new manager. Though I had us as a firm top 4 finish, I now think we shall finish 6th.
24 Feb 2026 13:26:01
Totally agree with you, Tom.
24 Feb 2026 21:51:50
It's interesting you mention mentality at times being at fault for dropped points - this is commonly where having experienced (experienced in winning specifically) pros can help - all good and well, saying these players are now experienced, but does that mean as much when the players have largely gained their experience with us or at lower table sides not used to winning silverware? Maybe we need a couple of old heads with experience winning trophies - specifically in defence, where imo it makes the most difference, ala Thiago Silva, say an Azpilicueta or even Gary Cahill type, who I think would be invaluable in this side at the minute.
24 Feb 2026 22:40:15
Kazblue, me being my usual pedantic self. It's not me who has mentioned players being weak mentally; it is something that the previous five managers have mentioned. As I've said many times before, I personally don't buy into the experience argument, but I am not against us signing players who are older as long as they are an upgrade. Obviously the most successful period for all us Chelsea fans was with the likes of JT (young), Cole (young), Lamps (young), Drogba (young-ish), and for me they all had a "we will not lose" mentality.
That attitude was taken on board by other players and was passed on to Dave, Cahill and quite a few others. That "we will not lose" mentality is the thing that seems sadly lacking to my sad old eyes. I do not see age (old or young) as a reason for not having that attitude. Managers who believed they might have some chance of longevity, I hope, would try to foster that mental toughness.
25 Feb 2026 11:06:45
Big difference between age vs experience in winning, but 17-23 year-olds are unlikely to have much experience in winning as a simple fact of life. And that experience is currently what we lack and have lacked for a few years now, yet not much seems to have been attempted to fix it.
25 Feb 2026 11:12:04
Tom, I think the point is that when we had young players like John Terry in 1998 (his debut year, I think?) we had a great balance between older, more experienced veterans and younger players. JT came into a side with the likes of Vialli, Wise and Poyet. Vrank joined from West Ham, already having had six seasons since his debut with West Ham.
Ashley Cole had been a star for Arsenal when he joined, aged 26 - in his prime, you might say. Drogba was about the same age, I think, when he came to us from Marseilles. Throughout our glory days we had a combo of youth and experience, and not least EPL experience, plus attention paid to having a strong spine to the team and ensuring leaders in it.
Mourinho, like many great managers, also had an eye in his prime - perhaps he still does, but club politics has changed in terms of the powers of managers - for leadership qualities in his players, as he told us himself! As well as that, there was a need for a strong spine and enough height in the squad to be able to defend well at set pieces and threaten from our own set pieces. I think JT remains the record holder for goals by a defender.
When Mourinho came in, he brought in ECL-winning Carvalho (26), UEFA winner of best club defender of the year for the previous season with Porto, to play alongside JT - JT himself by then about 24 and with six years EPL experience under his belt.
Importantly, they also had the by then 30 yr old Claude Makelele in front of them! I hardly need to remind anyone on here that we had the best defensive record in the league, and still do that season, and that JM presided over the best home record in our history. I think many of us just don't think we've got these things right in recent seasons.
We have to hope that in a few seasons time there will be enough EPL experience developed in the side and leaders through a stronger spine to the team. I think that is what Vision 2030 is about. The question is whether we can do well enough meantime to retain most of our best players and attract some more in weak spots that remain/upgrading.
We do have some fine young players, and my view, like some others, is that they would have been assisted - eg in defense - by playing alongside calm and collected quality in likes of a Silva.
25 Feb 2026 12:05:17
JBS, my point about the players I mentioned is that their age was no barrier to them being "leaders." Their age was no barrier to them being players who could not tolerate defeat.
25 Feb 2026 12:55:41
Kazblue, we have young players who have played in two winning finals for Chelsea and one World Cup winner. Of course they haven't won the Premiership or the Champions League yet, but we do have players who have proved they can win a knockout tournament.
25 Feb 2026 14:18:06
Fair enough, Tom, but my point is that CFC really took off when younger players - but not that young and with masses of EPL experience - were mixed in with older ones like a Makelele, or later a Ballack, or a slightly older Lampard or Terry, who developed proven ability to be calm under pressure, probably because they had experienced so much of it in huge games. I am sure Enzo F is one of those today who hates to lose, LC another I think, but is injured at the moment. Yet we simply don't seem to have enough calm heads under pressure to oversee good game management. Surely, for younger players, it is always helpful to have older, more experienced ones around them on the pitch and in the dressing room, and from whom they can learn by example.
I'd think this is particularly true for defenders and defensive midfielders. The squad needs to have a sufficient critical mass of players with calm, experienced heads to manage games better and not burn points at home as we've done far too often in home games. We want fortress Stamford Bridge again, even if never quite as secure as it was between 2004 and 2006! Perhaps we will get there in a few seasons' time -- by 2030 anyway?!
25 Feb 2026 14:31:52
JBS, I am not pointing the finger at EF or any other individual players. In my opinion, it's a collective weakness, and a weakness that has been highlighted by a succession of managers. We had experienced players under Sarri, and Tuchel even mentioned the same issue, and he had experienced players. I personally believe that a manager can make a huge difference to attitude and self-confidence.
I have no idea if LR can install that self-belief and desire, but I am convinced that changing managers isn't the correct solution. While I wouldn't want Jose back at our club, someone with that sort of gravitas may well have the desired effect. From the outside, Jose seemed to make the then Chelsea squad believe they were winners.
25 Feb 2026 15:10:11
Tom, the 2 cups we won are great n all, but come on - not on the same level at all as UCL or prem. CWC will become a big trophy, but the first edition was played out at a pretty friendly level and the Conference League is a joke tbh.
Yes, Enzo won the World Cup and is probably one of the few semi-leaders we have despite his shortcomings, however, bar him and James we don't have any others and that's a big problem.
25 Feb 2026 15:30:38
I think that you are right, Tom, about JM helping to create belief in players that were winners, and I would also not want yet another change of managers, especially mid-season. If we don't make ECL qualification, then all bets are off, you'd think, though. But, though I agree that the manager can make a big difference in terms of morale and instilling a winning mentality, that surely only happens if he has the right combination of players to keep on winning, or to win the large majority of the time, and perhaps especially at home in front of a mass of supporters. I think that part of our problem today is that even if we appointed a top manager, he may have too little say in player transfers or be able to influence the apparent "don't buy anyone over 23" (or whatever younger age it is) policy. So, with managers at CFC just becoming coaches, unless one we appoint has the combo of strength of character with acute managing-upward diplomacy to get transfers he wants to fill weak spots in the squad, buying youngsters seems to be almost our only policy in terms of coherent transfer business over recent seasons. This has not given our managers, some of whom may not have been up to the job anyway, the right collection of players for consistency of performance in the EPL.
Our squad, by now three seasons since the BueCo takeover, should have developed a really strong spine to the team by now, and included a considerable critical mass of EPL-seasoned and/or internationally proven top-quality experienced players. That would have helped those younger ones we have, many of whom have extraordinary skill and potential to be great stars, to develop as players in a more stable environment, imho. Perhaps we will get there by 2030. But yes, we might need a better 'manager'/coach with a stronger personality to persuade SDs to make some exceptions to their rules about youth. Cucurella, 27, Pedro Neto, 25, Joao Pedro, 24, and James, 24, seem to be our most composed players in terms of demeanour on the pitch and ability to read the game. Interestingly, the last two are the same age as Frank and JT were when JM inherited them in 2004, and they were among the youngest players in our then squad, I think, though the youngest was probably a certain goalkeeper called Petr Cech, who had just turned 23. Mind you, he had just achieved a GK record of not conceding a single goal for 903 minutes of consecutive game time for Sparta Prague!
25 Feb 2026 16:19:20
Kazblue, I obviously didn't suggest that the two club cups we won are comparable to the Premiership or the Champions League, but they are part of a journey that should help the players in competitions that are at least important to the club and some of us fans. I see the term leadership as running parallel to desire to win.
I repeat, it's a list of managers that have referred to Chelsea players being weak mentally, and that includes not just our current squad. The core of Chelsea was at its best when we had that "we are Chelsea and we will not be beaten" attitude. Sadly, at the moment, and for about the last 6/7 years, I haven't seen that attitude.
25 Feb 2026 16:24:16
JBS, I think JT was named skipper at 22. I think the age thing is something the media like to talk about, and we often make excuses about it, but the club has made this choice. I just think we need players who are winners and mentally tough. I would like to think that our SD's make sure those attributes are on any player's CV.
25 Feb 2026 16:54:25
Point is, how do you tell if a player is a winner if they haven't won anything yet? JT was obviously a strong personality, but he hadn't won anything until joined by the likes of Ricardo Carvalho and Makelele, and then he lifted the EPL trophy when he was 25. I think we will have to agree to differ about whether age and experience matter. I agree it isn't everything, and you can have a fair number of youngsters in a team, but I do think it helps them to develop among more emotionally mature, high-quality, experienced players.
Terry may have first captained CFC for a game or two aged 22, but he only became regular captain in 2004, i.e. when 24. And, crucially, he had played alongside the magisterial Marcel 'The Rock' Desailly for several seasons, who had arrived as a World Cup winner for France aged 31 in 1998, the year of JT's debut for us, by then becoming MD's vice-captain under Ranieri. Oh for a Marcel Desailly as a CB for us today, and a policy that allowed youth to learn from experience, as JT has said in the past that he learnt from MD.
25 Feb 2026 17:50:22
I think we have missed Colwill more than we realise. At the end of last season, he showed leadership qualities I didn't know he possessed. I think we will definitely be saying goodbye to Tosin and Badiashile. If the papers are to be believed, we might also sell Chalobah, and that would be strange because, for this season, he has been only marginally behind Cucurella as our best defender.
Of course, Sarr could well be a leader, and the lad at Strasbourg might also be the sort of player we are describing.