[Football] Are Chelsea actually safe?

[Sarisbury Seagull]

I understand their goal of trying to buy a squad of young players on longer contracts that can improve together over time and are also on lower wages comparatively than older players to bring their overall wage expenditure down. In some ways it makes sense.

BUT, to spend a BILLION pounds on players in just over a year and end up with such an average first eleven and squad that is MILES behind the elite clubs in this country and Spurs is really quite something! It's in incredible achievement on their part.

Vile club, hope they rot.

 

[Kalimantan Gull]

There are quite a few differences between Potter and RDZ though. First of all, as you say De Zerbi is more of a purist, I also feel that he's less motivated by money. That's not a criticism of Potter; he has a young family while RDZ's kids are older, I'd also assume that De Zerbi has a few more sponds in the bank than Potter had (when he was at Brighton).

Secondly, Chelsea was a bit of an unknown quantity when Potter took over. Boehly spoke out bringing an end to the trigger-happy days and of building a project. It took about six months to realise that was a load of bollocks and managers can expect their P45 at any moment. On top of that, Potter was promised funds to build a team. He got the funds all right, but he got a bloated, disjointed squad - one that's got even more bloated under Poch. That's a bit of a mess for any future manager. It's not a place to build a reputation.

I'd also add that Potter had just taken us to 9th after a succession of bottom half finishes, and had just lost two of our best players in Bissouma and Cucurella. Moving to Chelsea in the Champions League was a clear step up in his career development.

A year later Brighton are a side that's come off a 6th place finish and in the Europa League, yes we continue to lose our best players but recruitment remains strong and the model has been shown to be a lot more robust than previously - a year ago we were a lot more worried about losing these players and manager than we are now.

In short Brighton are a lot more of a 'sure thing' than we were 12 months ago.

 

[schmunk]

the elite clubs in this country and Spurs

 

[Horses Arse]

 

[Hovegull]

United normally have a dodgy start and then pick up….but Chelsea have been consistently under achieving since last October.

 

[SAC]

United normally have a dodgy start and then pick up….but Chelsea have been consistently under achieving since last October.

Nope, I'd say they have been achieving just about right!

 

[fly high]

View attachment 166003

You forgot to say "and we can turn him into a pile of crap".

 

[JamesAndTheGiantHead]

 

[Hovegull]

Well….they’ve possibly got 3 points from Luton. It’s not looking great.