Chelsea will win the title next season (or this one…)

Matt Stead

Send your assessments of Chelsea and more to theeditor@football365.com

 

Slick City
To win the league you need a bit of luck to go your way, or in the case of City, the officials to help you out.

In fairness they are phenomenal.
Paul

 

Big Classy Sam
Dear F365,

I’d like to make a point about what Sam Allardyce said last night after Sian Massey-Ellis’ mistake for City’s second goal

“Listen we all make mistakes, she made a mistake and put her flag up too soon. You can’t tell me that rubbish about playing to the whistle, that’s nonsense, if the flag goes up you naturally stop. But saying that, she made one mistake. We made far more today.”

That shows an absolute touch of class from the big man. Admitting his own team’s shortcomings whist not going in too hard on a human error is exactly how you’d want managers to behave. Now granted this was the second goal in an absolute thrashing so didn’t make any difference and emotions weren’t running very high. I bet Massey-Ellis is thanking whatever god she believes in this morning for the final score because you can just imagine how the tabloids would’ve piled in if it was a game deciding goal.

Just thought it worth mentioning since he’s been much maligned on your pages in the past. Maybe the old dog can learn a trick or two?

Cheers
Andy, Cheshire

 

Isn’t it time that Sam Allardyce was replaced with Sam Allardyce? Come on; they’re leaking goals.
Adam Halliday , (Been a while on here), Saigon

 

 

Frank the caretaker
I think people are attributing too much to Frank’s lack of ability.

I’d like propose an alternate theory. Frank was never the long term manager at Chelsea, he was an interim…it’s just nobody knew it.

I think Roman took inspiration from United hierarchy who decided the best way to shield the club (temporarily) from fan fury is to appoint someone the fans are reticent to be furious about. A Fan Favourite. In United’s case they needed time to think and recover after a few years of mismanagent, seems to be working.

In the case of Chelsea they needed time as well but for different reasons –

1. They needed to wait out a transfer ban with a team that did need some replacements.
2. They needed to appoint a new manager. (A real one) but what do you do when you’ve hired (and fired) every major manager even when they win things? You wait, and appoint someone in the interim who will shield the club from the kneejerk fan fury seen at united and arsenal. Enter Frank.

Isn’t it odd he was fired after winning a game? (Actually no Chelsea have done that three times I think) maybe thats because finally a manager who had not previously been fired by Roman became available. And wouldn’t you know he will have the two most promising German players in current football, and he’s a German manager.

Hey maybe this is all Alex Jones territory but you have to admit, it’s a coincidence.

P.S utd fans feel free to mercilessly mock me. I know most took my previous posts as insults (even though they weren’t) but either way I’m being proven wrong and I’m big enough to admit it.
Lee

 

So is that it? Frank will be added to the merry-go-round list of ex players that have become managers, and get a go at every team in the league? Let’s sack Steve/Mark/Mick/Roy and get Frank!
Tim 

 

Lampard should join the United coaching setup. Imagine Fred smashing in 20 deflections a season, we’d win the b***** quadruple!
Manyooligan SoC

 

Was Lampard the director or the producer?
It’s always dangerous to talk about clubs other than the one you support, because your knowledge of what’s going on is usually half-baked, so that’s exactly what I’m going to do.

Here’s what surprised me about Chelsea. Last year the team did well, and all the academy players did the club proud. When you have a young team that’s coming together and finishing in the top 4, and likely to keep getting better, you’d think the focus would be on marginal and specific improvements, not an overhaul. Yet Chelsea went to town constructing another fantasy team which seems to have set them back this year.

I can understand the need for a new keeper, and even for Thiago Silva, but a lot of it seems to be largely scattergun. Mason Mount is probably the most exciting young player I’ve seen after Rashford. Instead of building around him, Chelsea spent money on Havertz who looks like he plays in the same position. You would have thought Chelsea could have moved instead for Thiago Alacantara, or James Rodrigues, seasoned playmakers who would benefit from all the young players doing the hard running, and who would dramatically improve the team through their experience and vision.

That money could have been spent where Chelsea are weak – a world class central defender at the top of his game – a Koulibaly, if the hype around him is to be believed.

Great movies are made by directors. Producer led movies can be successful but rarely great. Similarly great teams are built by managers not owners. I don’t know whether Lampard had a vision, or whether he was overruled, or ignored. But Chelsea’s history of playing fantasy football driven by the chequebook is the cause of both their successes and their failures over the past 2 decades. For all United’s woes in the transfer market, 80% of players are bought by the managers, not the money men.

Chelsea have a worryingly good squad. If Tuchel or whoever else comes in gets the jigsaw right, they could still be a title contender for this season.
Ved Sen (MUFC) 

 

Next year’s their year
I’m betting Chelsea will win the league next season, now that they have Tuchel (a very good coach) to manage that squad.
Néill (you heard it here first), Ireland

 

Tuch typing
I follow Dortmund, that yellow and black drew me in when I was 7 and I have loved them ever since. It pains me to say this, but they are the biggest bridesmaid team in all of Europe. Even in leagues where a team dominates for a decade, the number 2 position varies every so often. I’m looking at the likes of Juventus, PSG, Lyon back in the day. These teams dominated, but the the number 2 was never always the same team. In many other leagues with a top 2, the 2 share the spoils. Dortmund almost always come second. The only sunshine this team has seen recently was those 2 magical years under Klopp, before that final year meltdown,(be careful Liverpool).

In comes Thomas Tuchel, the next Jurgen Klopp. I for one was extremely excited to be honest, he had done an admirable job at Mainz, he would absolutely fly with proper exciting players. Well, tbh, I don’t know how to describe Tuchel football. Dortmund are perennial bridesmaids, so to come second shouldn’t be an achievement. Also, the football was meh,than exciting. It was functional football is the best way I can describe it.

He had a falling out with the club and left for PSG.  I don’t watch the French league , only when French teams play in the champions league and from what I picked up, there has been friction since he arrived.

If it’s true he has been brought in to help the struggling expensive German internationals, I don’t see it working out. There are more English players than German players,if he is seen to favour the struggling Germans,how does that work out in the dressing room? I’m inclined to side with Gary Neville on this one, and I can’t stand the man. Chelsea will be looking for a replacement in 18 or so months.

I’m also inclined to agree with some of the comments about how the acquisitions made caused an imbalance in a seemingly developing Chelsea squad. Ed Woodward, once said , if a quality player becomes available,Man U will go for him, or something to that effect. How did that Sanchez deal work out for Man U, Ed? Just asking for a friend who seemed to have done the exact same thing.
Dave(Impulse buying will not a great football club make), Somewhere

 

Ole v Mikel
You asked: “What would it take for Ole to be judged to be better than Arteta”.

I think they’re a good comparison as both are aiming to be the long-term successor to long-term successes. Both inherited dysfunctional squads with egos, wage inequality and players that needed moving on. Lampard, I would argue, had a different situation.

Ole has set about managing the squad first of all, which I think he’s done well, with the questions of Pogba and Lingard the only ones that need urgent answering. Once the squad is right, he needs to deliver silverware.

Arteta on the other hand has already delivered a trophy BEFORE doing his squad trimming. Now he’s started work on that, we can see league form suffering. I think the jury’s out on whether he can do a great job on that part (along with Edu), but whatever he does, he won the FA cup.

If Ole wants to be seen as better than Arteta (or Man Yoo fans want to claim it), he needs a trophy. At the end of the day, winning is what the game. is all about.
Mike, Arsenal fan locked down in Leeds. Laughing at an Arsenal fan telling a Man U fan that trophies matter more than rebuilding XD

P.S. Lampard will be fine. Plenty other clubs will be happy to over promote him again. He’s white, middle-aged and a media darling. Zero sympathy

 

A lovely season
In the ever excellent Prick of the Week piece, I stumbled across the line “…notably crap Premier League…”  (had to ad lib as work email filter kicked it back)

I had to read it twice to make sure I got it right (hang on, going back a third time to make sure I’m not seeing things…)  Yep, it’s still there.  I’m guessing Mr. Tickner’s comment is to do with Covid, no fans at games, etc… because for me, this has been a very good and entertaining Premier League.  No one running away with the title, very few points separating the top from tenth, quite a few surprising score lines this season with many teams unexpectedly dropping points (or many teams unexpectedly getting points perhaps?)

Many good surprises such as Leeds United, Aston Villa while some not so good surprises such as Wolves and Sheffield United.  Manchester United turning a quite crap team to start the league into a team that could very well win it.  Liverpool proving that they can drop points and yet still remain a threat to win it all again.  City wandering aimlessly only to start sneaking back up the table. Burnley with the “hold my beer” moment at Liverpool. The list goes on and on. Give me a team and I can give you a storyline that could make the front page.

For me, this has been a very good Premier League from a competitive point of view and I hope it continues this way.
TX Bill (I also hope Everton somehow find a way into the top six this season) EFC

 

Goal hanging
Keg, thanks for the response. I agree that in general offsides is to prevent goal hanging but I don’t  think goal hanging really applies here though.  The attacking team has to bring the ball over the half way line into their attacking half prior to offsides no longer being valid (in my proposed rule change).  You cant just sit on the opposing goalie and then have your goalie punt it from your own half.

So with the proposed rule change the defending team knows that as soon as the attacking team makes it past half way with the ball they now have to defend the entire attacking half.  Not only does this get rid of all the niggly offsides calls people love to complain about but actually increases attacking play and most likely goal scoring as the defending team must defend a larger area. In this scenario we are still keeping offsides for balls played from your own defending half to continue to prevent the goal hanging that we both agree would not be very enjoyable.

Think of it this way, how stupid is it that you can have a full back work their way down almost to the end line of their own attacking half and they can still play a ball into a striker that is technically offsides because the strikers armpit is ahead of the fullback who is 5 feet from the end of their attacking half.  Think of all the goal line scrambles that have had goals chalked off because so and so was 6 inches ahead of the last defender! Offsides is punishing good, fun, enjoyable attacking play here, not preventing goal hanging. That is one of the most insane things in football and severely hampers attacking play while providing no real value to the competitors or viewers.
Greg, Tampa, USA

 

Made a PGMOL’s ear of it
I said at the time the interpretation was wrong. This ‘tweaking of the rules’ proves that.

They released an excerpt of a much broader rule to justify a shocking decision. Again, I said you have to view the whole rule, and the whole rule suggests it should have been disallowed. It clearly never should have been a goal. Admitting it a week or so later when the furore has died down shirks responsibility.

The PGMOL are a joke. Can’t believe the presenters/pundits buy their shoddy excuses as well.

Ta,
Gary (AVFC)