[Football] Potter & £323 million of talent into a 33 man squad.

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Pavilionaire

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
31,265
Potter's great strength was using his Emotional Intelligence degree to improve the players at his disposal. Building relationships and team spirit. This is not what is required at Chelsea. These players are the finished article already, used to winning. Enzo Fernandez is a case in point - what can Potter say to the World Cup winner when he himself has just 4 months of big club experience? What is needed is a manager with an aura, a proven track record at Europe''s elite clubs who the 33 players can look at and say "Yes, this guy is a proven winner who knows what he's talking about."
 






beorhthelm

A. Virgo, Football Genius
Jul 21, 2003
36,015
The issue for me isn't keeping people happy because we know Potter likes to tinker with lineups and play people in different positions. It's almost a given that one of the prima donnas will throw a sulk. It's "return on investment". How soon will Boehly really tolerate bad results for given that outlay? We all know our Graham has a bad patch in him.
just the one? long series of draws might have been ok for us, not going to cut it there.
 




Pavilionaire

Well-known member
Jul 7, 2003
31,265
They have too many players and should ask us nicely to take Colwill off their hands permanently to help.
You wonder how Colwill feels watching all these new players arrive at his parent club. You also wonder whether Potter might switch to 2 rather than 3 centre backs in order to accommodate one more of his new attacking superstars. If so, things will get even harder for Colwill to break into that team. And you wonder whether Colwill has indicated he would rather sign for us, and if that is a factor why we didn't sign Matvienko. He only has to look at Broja and Gallagher to see how things don't always work out how you hope returning to Chelsea from a loan spell.
 


nickbrighton

Well-known member
Feb 19, 2016
2,132
AFAIK a club can only add 3 players to their Euro squads for the knockout stages, no way is Potter keeping the new guys happy when they wont be allowed to play European football this season (and how many are cup tied anyway?)

the influx of new players means anyone on the fringes before this transfer window must now be really wondering how on earth the break into the reckoning.

Potter has an enourmous task just keeping tabs on everybody, let alone finding ways to get them playing time.

Billy Gilmour for example must actually be thinking he got out at the right time, and maybe Colwill will be wondering how on earth he fits in to the dressing room next season
 


Kalimantan Gull

Well-known member
Aug 13, 2003
13,438
Central Borneo / the Lizard
AFAIK a club can only add 3 players to their Euro squads for the knockout stages, no way is Potter keeping the new guys happy when they wont be allowed to play European football this season (and how many are cup tied anyway?)

the influx of new players means anyone on the fringes before this transfer window must now be really wondering how on earth the break into the reckoning.

Potter has an enourmous task just keeping tabs on everybody, let alone finding ways to get them playing time.

Billy Gilmour for example must actually be thinking he got out at the right time, and maybe Colwill will be wondering how on earth he fits in to the dressing room next season
No such thing as 'cup-tied' in European comps, but yes, can only add 3 new players to squad
 




willalbion

Well-known member
May 8, 2006
1,585
London
One would think they’ll be looking to sell academy graduates, as that enters the yearly balance sheet as pure profit and goes a long way to balancing the books for FFP. Seems the polar opposite to ‘the project’ Potter was sold.
 




Joey Jo Jo Jr. Shabadoo

I believe in Joe Hendry
Oct 4, 2003
12,070
Most of the new players signed don't have to be named in the 25 man PL squad as they still qualify as U21s. The cut off date for this season was players born on or after Jan 1st 2001. I think it's only Mudryk and Felix that are old enough to be named.

The problem is the Champions League squad which has a lot more complicated rules and underage players can only be added to the "b list" or whatever it is called if they've spent a certain number of seasons at the club. Some of the new signings won't be able to play in that competition.

Of course none of that matters when Potter is going to have a real hard time keeping a squad that big happy as its going to be difficult to give them all game time.
 




dazzer6666

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Mar 27, 2013
55,551
Burgess Hill
Fascinating to see how this plays out….going to be several players with high expectations being benched or even outside the squad on a regular basis, integrating all of them into some kind of shape/system will be tricky and pressure on Potter for results after so much spending (from the fans and media, if not Boehly) himself will be huge.

Not all of these players are going to work out……the long FFP-circumventing contracts are going to seriously bite them on the arse at some point.
 


Brian Fantana

Well-known member
Oct 8, 2006
7,552
In the field
It is a total mess really. Forgetting the somewhat suicidal financial aspects of some of the deals, the practicalities of keeping a squad of that size (and overall quality) happy is going to be an enormous task. Pep famously likes to work with a squad of only 19 for the very reason of not having to balance a huge number of egos who won't be involved in the matchday squad.
 


Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,888
West west west Sussex
Potter's great strength was using his Emotional Intelligence degree to improve the players at his disposal. Building relationships and team spirit.
As great strengths go it's beginning to look as solid as my great strength to not dip into an open bag of licorice allsorts.
 






Codner's Wallop

Well-known member
Sep 11, 2013
1,431
The great irony is that every time Chelsea either target or buy another world superstar, Potter’s heart probably sinks a bit further….
 


MJsGhost

Oooh Matron, I'm an
NSC Patron
Jun 26, 2009
5,026
East
It is a total mess really. Forgetting the somewhat suicidal financial aspects of some of the deals, the practicalities of keeping a squad of that size (and overall quality) happy is going to be an enormous task. Pep famously likes to work with a squad of only 19 for the very reason of not having to balance a huge number of egos who won't be involved in the matchday squad.
There is going to be an attempt at an enormous clearout in the summer - it'll be interesting to see how that goes.

My prediction is that they won't be able to shift as many as they'd like and will have to accept lower fees than market value for the ones they do shift as buying clubs won't be able to afford to match the wages they are on. There's only a handful of clubs outside the premier league that can even think about paying Chelsea-level wages, so there's going to be a lot of heavy-lifting required by the likes of Everton, West Ham and Palace (seemingly Forest too if they are still in the PL)
 


The Antikythera Mechanism

The oldest known computer
NSC Patron
Aug 7, 2003
8,087
I think the main problem will be that all these egocentric primadonnas will want to be top of the pecking order;

Well, I cost more than you,
Yes, but I'm paid more than you
I have more Twitter followers than you
etc. etc.
 




marcos3263

Well-known member
Oct 29, 2009
954
Fishersgate and Proud
They will lobby the F.A. to amend the substitutes bench to 25 and allow 20 subs each half.

Also 11 is an odd number - why 11? Shirley it would be neater to have 2 keepers, and 6 each of defenders, midfield and attackers= 20

Plus they could adopt the American football idea of an offence and defensive team with ad breaks in between change overs to keep the sponsors happy.

The game may suffer at first until we get used to it but think of the bigger picture
 


GT49er

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Feb 1, 2009
49,186
Gloucester
Potter's great strength was using his Emotional Intelligence degree to improve the players at his disposal. Building relationships and team spirit. This is not what is required at Chelsea. These players are the finished article already, used to winning. Enzo Fernandez is a case in point - what can Potter say to the World Cup winner when he himself has just 4 months of big club experience? What is needed is a manager with an aura, a proven track record at Europe''s elite clubs who the 33 players can look at and say "Yes, this guy is a proven winner who knows what he's talking about."
Written like a true Chelsea fan!! :wink::lolol:
 


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