The Football.....

[SpokeyDokey]

Welcome to the basement, Spokey.

Bit of an odd game to watch tbh - first 15 mins we were really good and we had some good chances throughout the game inc' two on the woodwork. Nevertheless we failed to take our chances whilst MUFC did take theirs and a well deserved win for them.

Turning point was the Zouma penalty - a player who I have very little faith in based on his last spell with us; a really slow clod of a man imo.

And, as expected, we are still a long way adrift on attacking firepower up front.

Expected a loss today but not that bad. No great expectations this season and none for the next either if I am being totally honest. We have a 2-3 year rebuild at least ahead of us.

Been a good run this millennium with 20 or so trophies in the bag so very happy with that. We have also financed the club internally for the best part of a decade now and are FFP compliant and we now need to see whether Roman sticks with us or we sell the business on which can inject more funding into the club to enable us to keep pace with the front runners on the spending front.

Not overly despondent post match, we are where we are and most Chelsea fans don't really need reminding where our current inadequacies lie - although as a very successful team we do understand that shots (some astute, some cheap and some just plain lies) will head our way.

I do hope that Frank gets a decent punt at managing the rebuild process though and eventually secures us even more silverware.

KTBFFH

 

[Smokin Joe]

Been a good run this millennium with 20 or so trophies in the bag so very happy with that. We have also financed the club internally for the best part of a decade now and are FFP compliant and we now need to see whether Roman sticks with us or we sell the business on which can inject more funding into the club to enable us to keep pace with the front runners on the spending front.

Your owner does appear to have lost interest, at least from an outside perspective. I wouldn't be surprised to see him walk.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Your owner does appear to have lost interest, at least from an outside perspective. I wouldn't be surprised to see him walk.

Yes, it would appear so although last year he did reject a £2.3 billion bid which may mean that was too light (official value is £2.6 billion although what's a mere £0.3 billion difference at that level of the market?) or that he's still keen to extend his 15 year stewardship.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Roman sunk a lot of money into the club, but even he has his limits. To outspend Man City now would require a massive cash injection and he must be wondering if it is worth it anymore.

 

[J1888]

Another big win for the Famous Glasgow Rangers today. 6 - 1 in a fixture that might have cost us last season. A few players starting to look a bit tasty running at defenders, none more so than Jordan Jones who seems to have loads of potential.

We welcome the chase

 

[StuAff]

Since the visa issue came up, he hasn't visited the club at all, I think. Even before the transfer ban came in, the new stadium project was put on hold. Chelsea's management are in a bind whatever they do, and so's Roman. In order to compete with the rest of the top clubs, never mind City, they don't necessarily need more money from Roman- if and when funding is available, the ban obviously prevents new players coming in anyway for the time being- but to spend smarter. If the management can build along the same lines Liverpool have, unearth a few cheaper but quality players, then they can compete. A new stadium would build revenue in the long term, but take it in the short term- Arsenal are still paying for the Emirates, on and off the pitch, Spurs will be in debt for years as well. But Stamford Bridge isn't going to get any bigger, there's only so much prices can be increased, and all the rivals now have considerably larger stadia. Without success on the pitch, Abramovich is more likely to want to cut his losses, but success would make it more attractive to potential buyers. And the longer this goes on, the harder it will be to close the gap on City and Liverpool. If Spurs can push on, and United make even a little progress…that's the top four places increasingly hard to reach.

 

[Smokin Joe]

Arsenal are still paying for the Emirates, on and off the pitch,

I would disagree with that. It assumes Arsenal, or any club for that matter, have an automatic right to be permanently top four. Despite the unrealistic expectations of many of their fans, Arsenal are one of the top clubs in England, always top half of the table and never in danger of relegation. At least eighty clubs in England would swap places with them in a heartbeat.

 

[StuAff]

I would disagree with that. It assumes Arsenal, or any club for that matter, have an automatic right to be permanently top four. Despite the unrealistic expectations of many of their fans, Arsenal are one of the top clubs in England, always top half of the table and never in danger of relegation. At least eighty clubs in England would swap places with them in a heartbeat.

You're absolutely right, their current position is the envy of many. I've posted much the same myself! However, Arsenal are paying for the Emirates- it was funded by a bond issue and debt repayments are about £25m a year, until 2031. Transfer budget is 'only' £45m a year or so. Huge by most standards, even in the PL, but pitiful compared to the clubs they're competing against. They are unlikely to make up the shortfall through success on the pitch, as CL qualification and the resulting gravy train is a stretch at best. Kroenke isn't interested in putting his own money into the club and wants a self-sustaining club. Hence the current moribund (by their former standards) state of affairs. They dug their expensive hole, and now they're stuck in it. Mediocrity most clubs would indeed love.

 

[Slick]

We welcome the chase

You couldn't quoted a better man. Still a poor imitation though.

https://rangers.co.uk/club/history/former-managers/bill-struth/

 

[Kempstonian]

Well we're already 3 points better off than last season and have equalled the number of away clean sheets!

 

[Seevio]

You know when you read in the news that Japanese scientists have spliced together the genes of a sea slug and an elephant?

That's Ole Gunnar Solkskjaer's accent, that is.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Roman sunk a lot of money into the club, but even he has his limits. To outspend Man City now would require a massive cash injection and he must be wondering if it is worth it anymore.

I don't think a massive cash injection is feasible but for different reasons than his interest level.

The only way he could inject a substantial amount of money into the club would be to build a new stadium.

Obviously new players etc can't be purchased via this method and as we have been fully FFP compliant (with no investigation hanging over us unlike MCFC) since being required to do so I doubt he would be so foolish to upset the apple cart now.

Interestingly, the CFC business model is seen by a number of other EPL clubs as being generally ahead of the game and being long-term sustainable. This despite the media/fan pillorying we get for our loanee system.

Our 'on hold' new stadium plan had an initial costing of £0.5 billion which was rapidly heading towards £1 billion for an estimated match day gain of £40-50 million pa. Whether that is an acceptable ROI is for Roman to determine. Bigger gains may be made by increasing our commercial revenue (we are currently 7th largest in the world on this criteria) and this is where we have fallen significantly behind MCFC (and we've always been well behind MUFC).

Some good stat's here in the slide show infographics.

https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pag.../articles/deloitte-football-money-league.html

A long while ago Roman instructed the Board that CFC was to be a self sustaining club, and that objective was achieved several years back and it is one which is maintained today. I can't see this position changing unless we have a massive long-term reversal in on-pitch performance with subsequent commercial sponsorship loss. Our sponsorship deals are long-term (esp' the Nike kit deal) and there'll be no significant potential drop off there for some time - £900 million over 15 years (ending 2032) is one of the biggest European football sponsorship deals ever.

So commercially we are sound as apart from the above, plus a good number of other commercial deals in place, we are back in the CL again and have banked some money from our recent transfer activities under our inbound transfer ban. Due to our 3rd place finish last season our TV Rights Income will also be a decent sum.

On pitch we are, of course, in a quandry. Having spent almost 50 years supporting CFC I have, of course, seen much weaker squads. This season is worrying though and Frank has a lot of workarounds to manage especially re our woeful lack of firepower up front and the less than stellar defence. I would see this as part of a short-term blip* for the club similar to that experienced since MUFC lost SAF albeit for different reasons.

* As long as the Board get their act together and avoid stupid bans (whose ramifications are far outweighed by the punishment imo) and stop buying duds on the transfer market.

On a more immediate note, unless Frank plays a shut-up shop and counter attacking game then I can see us being completely trashed by LFC in the Super Cup on Wednesday evening.

 

[postman]

This might upset a few,but i have already started.I love the build up on a Saturday of the football progs.Sky,BT all on Virgin for free.But when a female pundit all 5'2" of her comes on and starts spouting about the football and players off the prog goes.I like the blokey banter,which will go.These chaps have been pro's they know the dressing rooms inside and out,the tricks,pranks jokes the insider jokes.Sorry ladies not for me.

 

[SpokeyDokey]

This might upset a few,but i have already started.I love the build up on a Saturday of the football progs.Sky,BT all on Virgin for free.But when a female pundit all 5'2" of her comes on and starts spouting about the football and players off the prog goes.I like the blokey banter,which will go.These chaps have been pro's they know the dressing rooms inside and out,the tricks,pranks jokes the insider jokes.Sorry ladies not for me.

I like the unisex panels tbh - the ladies chosen have been in and around the game for some time and generally know their stuff. They are often a lot better than some of the male pundits who trot out interminable cliches and just sit there adding very little insight whilst picking up large/huge pay cheques. Give them a chance you may be pleasantly surprised.

I'm looking forward to the all female trio officiating the LFC/CFC Super Cup match on Weds night.

I am no fan of ladies football (I've tried) despite the best efforts of the BBC to ram it down my throat, but have no problem with them being involved in the male game in any capacity.

 

[AndyRM]

This might upset a few,but i have already started.I love the build up on a Saturday of the football progs.Sky,BT all on Virgin for free.But when a female pundit all 5'2" of her comes on and starts spouting about the football and players off the prog goes.I like the blokey banter,which will go.These chaps have been pro's they know the dressing rooms inside and out,the tricks,pranks jokes the insider jokes.Sorry ladies not for me.

Aye, women are famous for knowing nowt about football and having no banter.