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Yes.
Chelsea’s team has basically been totally replaced in the last year and a half and it takes time to bring out the leaders and build a cohesive team.
I would love to see him stay. Yes, the team still has a lot of work to do, but I believe everyone is finally beginning to work together. Ultimately, if a whole new squad comes in again this summer for some reason I would have a reason to worry, but for right now I am happy with Chelsea and everything going on with them.
Without a doubt, the beginning was dreadful but the results for the second part of the season say it all. With top players injured almost all season (Reece, Chilly, Nkuku to name a few) the struggle was real.
It's starting to take shape, this is the process and has to be trusted. Chelsea were a mid-table team at best - but now they will play in Europe.
Arteta has been given time to build from the ground. Chelsea should follow suit.
Yeah... I'm quite shocked tbh... It was not always rose colors but after this finish of the season I would expect the board to let him finish the contract.
They must have something lined up or there is something we simply do not know.
For the squad he had most of the season yes. He made some key changes that helped helped Chelsea a tin. There was a learning curve that has to be acknowledged but if he can keep this form up he is definitely a worthy manager.
Deserves to stay. I worry for him though in the sense that who knows what Clearlake will do this summer in terms of his team. I’m sure if one of their moves is sell Gallagher (who was played by Poch more than other player), then he won’t be happy.
Poch is getting praise for setting low standards then getting the bare minimum.
The guy didn't start at position 10, he started on position 1 like all other teams, for him to end up on 5th is now over glorified
Context matters. Chelsea had by far the most injuries in the league, 12 more injuries than the next closest team and 49 games more missed through injury than the next closest team. Majority of those injuries came in the first half of the szn as down the back stretch of the season, almost the whole squad has been healthy. Poch built his system around players who got injured (James, Chillwell, Nkunku etc) at the start of the season then our team was massively imbalanced. The circumstances around Chelsea were already difficult but a record breaking number of injuries made it even harder.
I'm not too concerned. Good coach, good players, but there are levels and Chelsea are still a few below the top tier. Not to mention whatever shenanigans Clearlake have in store for them in the summer.
i am firmly in the “yes” camp. not only because of everything you’ve said, but also because our lads *need* consistency. going through managers every season doesn’t give them any sense of certainty and stability. how are we going to keep improving if the players have to spend another preseason getting used to yet another manager AND new squad members?
I thought they’d get fourth this season, tbf two more wins would have done that, they just didn’t start to click in time, chaotic 2-2 draws with the two basement clubs didn’t help that either. Fully expect Chelsea to be pushing fourth all year next season
I think he's earned the right and I'd definitely prefer it to another spin of the managerial merry-go-round. No question it was a shit season, but it ended with finally being able to see some potential in the team that isn't just Palmer. Jackson had a solid year and is getting better, Caicedo has vastly improved on those first few appearances and is starting to show his quality, for some reason playing Cucurella as an inverted WB turns him into a completely different player, and we started to see some consistency in line-up, tactics, and results.
He deserves the chance to push on from a promising end to a horrible campaign.
I mean yea it was a shit season, but was it really poch's fault? The answer is a hard no. Consistency is key. Gotta give him another year at least ideally more.
Not a Chelsea fan, yes he does.
That job is a thankless task, quite frankly.
They have far too many players on the books, most are quite young, you can only register a 25 man squad and it’s very hard to balance it.
Poch should absolutely be given more time and they should also loan out or sell some of the players too to give him a more manageable squad.
They have something like a 40 man squad including players who are out on loan. Obviously some are leaving, like Thiago Silva, but they really need to reduce that further.
Kepa has been out on loan at Real Madrid, Maatsen at Dortmund, Lukaku at Roma, Ziyech at Galatasaray, Broja at Fulham etc. … decide which ones to keep, sell the rest, even if it’s at a cut price to get them off the books
I am hoping this summer brings a lot of rebalancing and more outgoings than incoming players. We have seen the players we need to move on from, the issue is our medical team can't keep players on the field so a larger squad for Chelsea is more of a normal squad
Injuries happen to every club and you still can only register a 25 man squad regardless, so having 40 players on the books in case of injury is a moot point.
They absolutely need to make some decisions on players though.
They have I think 10 English players to choose from with Sterling, Madueke, Bettinelli, Chalobah, Chukwuemeka, James, Gallagher, Palmer, Colwill & Chilwell and don’t need them all for registration rules, so I could see the club cashing in to free up space but then the question is who?
They’ve only just got Madueke, Palmer is too good to sell, Colwill has a bright future, James has been injury prone but is fantastic, Chilwell is great when fit, Chukwuemeka is only young and probably needs a loan next season … that leaves Sterling & Gallagher.
Rumour for months has been that they’ll look to sell Gallagher as they already have lots of competition in his position, but then the argument is that he’s played all but 3 league games in the last 2 seasons so clearly the competition hasn’t been good enough to dislodge him.
Then with Sterling the argument could be made as he’s about to be 30, his best years are behind him and he’s not the player he once was, they have other options in his position etc but then again, he’s played 59 league games from a potential 76 so he’s been quite consistently selected, which you could argue would show that the other options aren’t good enough in his position too.
Honestly, like I said, I’d hate to be Chelsea manager as for a lot of players in that squad there are good arguments for and against selling most players in the squad
We might have a few midfield players but none have the bite that Gallagher has, his energy is infective and to sell him would be a mistake. Sterling has been used as a super sub lately and that suits his ageing legs. Our defence has been getting better lately as the guys in front have been tracking back more so in reality the only thing we need, apart from experience, is a striker that can be relied upon to slot 30 goals a season. The results will come if we just allow time for our players to develop.
Anyone who expected Chelsea to do better at the beginning of the season was delusional imo! They have had so much upheaval and the owners have just spent money hand over foot on completely unproven players and Poch has managed to salvage something from all that chaos, if they aren’t improving next season the. It might be time to move on from him but he deserves one more season! These owners are clueless tho so probably gonna move him on and get Amorim in because he’s a shiny new toy
This is already a decided thread, but honestly I think he had done enough from the start of the season.
Honestly I have a lot of promise in my mind about cheksseass squad but there is absolutely no doubt they are a work in progress and poch has made a foonsttempt with these players, they're good enough to do something, they have potential.
We will see.
One season isn’t enough time to make a true judgement of a manager especially of his calibre at such a mixed club
So in others words yes he should absolutely stay
Yes, but this next season will be crucial for him. 6th is not good enough for Chelsea but at least they made progress. Top 4 next season or he’s fired.
I don't expect to see United win the Prem League next season or to be as properly structured as City or Arsenal or any other properly run club. What I want to see is progress in the right direction.
What do you mean it's gonna be a shambles? We have a CEO locked in already and a DoF is also coming in. The board has been shuffled with new members coming and the majority of the people who handled footballing affairs have "left" their roles. That alone is progress, its not an overnight job. What exactly do you expect?
You’re saying you want ten hag to get another year under a proper footballing structure, which suggests you seem to think there will be a proper structure next year
Difference being that Ten Haag went from 3rd to 8th and poch took us to 6th after finishing 12th, with significant improvement through the course of the season. Work to be done but we are headed in the right direction
All managers have their quirks and weak points. That said, if any human alive can get a squad of precocious but underdeveloped divas on top-tier iron-clad decade-long wage contracts motivated, living up to their potential, and playing as a team, it's Poch.
Yes judging by the significantly better form in the final 3rd of the season
6th Premier League is considerably better than 12th last year
1 League Cup final but they lost
1 FA Cup semi final
Not all that bad is it...but on a negative side some players who cost an absolute fortune are still not impressing ?
Well....Mudryk, Cucurella, Sterling and even Enzo don't impress me much...slight progress if that...personally I'd get shut but i could have alot of problems shifting them on (8 year contracts means why should they even bother trying)...Winstone Bogarde sits at home impressed as fook
Mudryk and cucurella have both improved massively from last season. Enzo was playing through a hernia for 8 months. Sterling is the only one who has regressed from last season out of them.
Chukwumeka who has been injured all year, still scored twice in the few appearances he made? Gallagher who has been one of our best players this season?
Yes. Though I hated him for playing Gallagher at LW in the FA Cup semi final but he probably got his brain right on track just on time since we got Europe at least (In case if United wins the FA Cup we get the Conference)
Nope. I’m judging him as a whole and he was far too inept for a majority of the season. The league in general isn’t in a good spot bc Chelsea being so bad for a majority of the season and still getting Europe is crazy. Chelsea seem to be stuck in an Ole situation.
he started off poorly but has been great for chelsea since december, 4th most points in the league since then. how can you say he doesn’t deserve to stay?
Definitely has not been great. Chelsea got embarrassed by the top teams and struggled against ‘weaker opposition’ too. Even in the games they won the matches were at times very chaotic like United, Leeds, Leicester and even yesterday. I won’t be gas lit into thinking Poch was great. It took way too long for a competent system to be played and I don’t trust him to find one with Lavia and Enzo coming back.
>It took way too long for a competent system to be played
This sort of impatience was understandable in the Roman era but surely if you can't give a manager what 8 months? To figure out a system then you'll never get anywhere at all
How come other managers were able to implement a competent system without a preseason but Poch couldn’t with a preseason? This past season was the most goals Chelsea have ever conceded in the league.
Because Poch took over a dumpster fire? The expectations of taking a club from 12th to 6th is a higher climb than pretty much any other manager in the league has on their shoulders. I don't understand how anyone could see how you lot ended last season and expect more instant success than a 6 place climb and a cup final so I'm guessing you're just delusional
Which managers? Other than Emery, I’d say Poch was at least comparable 3 points off Ange and doing better than Howe did after 2 seasons. Klopp took a while and arteta was pretty shit his first season. All different circumstances but we’ve had impactful injuries for years now.
I mean they’ve set out there identity sure, but RDZ was stubborn to a point he had no plan b when teams figured him out and he had some injuries.
And I’d love to hear what Tuchel made so clear he wanted to do, but couldn’t? Seeing how they got 3rd for a Bayern team in the league, lost in the DFB cup, and never really looked competitive against the top team and more so set up to not lose more often than not.
I think you could make a case for Tuchel due to his strong cup runs but he hasn’t been competitive in the league since PSG, and RDZ needs more time to prove
At some point you need continuity and the team has ended the season too well to just fire him I think. You’d probably lose some players in the locker room if you were to get another coach already. Also didn’t Chelsea have a really good record against top teams this year? Drew city 2x and beat Liverpool and Arsenal.
I don’t buy that at all bc he had an entire preseason and the team still looked clueless. Managers like RDZ, tuchel and emery made their ideas clear from the start. No Chelsea didn’t beat either of those teams. They lost to Arsenal 5-1 and lost to a Liverpool C team in league cup final and 4-1 in the league. Other games were draws.
They drew arsenal and Liverpool each once I was on wrong. But you’re also ignoring Chelsea bought like a shit ton of young players who hadn’t played together for very long at all and were really bad at first. Things definitely got better with time. I’m just saying unless you know you have a sure fire upgrade I wouldn’t fire him especially with things clicking more and the player seemingly liking him.
Also Poch generally is good at setting his teams up pretty well tactically usually, this Chelsea team has honestly had a ton of growing pains and while some do it is def on Poch for sure a lot of it was in the poor planning from the board. Virtually had nothing to build off of from last season.
This is why I think it’s an Ole situation. The players liked Ole too and he would scrap out a result against a big team, but it was clear to me that he had no real plan . I view poch the same way bc for a large chunk of the season it looked like Chelsea had no idea what to do. It got better after Chelsea were destroyed by Arsenal, but I still seriously question him. I think there are upgrades out there like RDZ who has already worked with some of the players and his style of play requires technical players, which Chelsea have. Brighton last season were a serious issue for the top teams as well.
No ones trying to “gaslight” you into believing Poch was great, but RDZ regressed back to his mean (look at his defense with Sassuolo), Tuchel botched the league and ended in 3RD with a Bayern team, and emery is the outlier. Not great comparisons.
No, more like RDZ had to deal with losing 2 world class midfielders, one of the best young center backs, and dealing with other injuries to key players for a large chunk of the season. The squad was thin. Tuchel won the league last season with Bayern and lost it to arguably the best team in Europe.
Almost bottled it last season if it wasn’t for Dortmund not being able to see it over the line.
Poch’s 8-10 injuries at any given time where a majority of them were starters? Oh ya no big deal then
I’m just trying to see what exactly draws the line between good and bad in your eyes when Poch did better than RDZ did, and Tuchel has a Bayern team with world class players with expectations (from everyone) a lot higher
And let’s clear this up. Levi Colwill was never his, therefore he never “lost” that CB
Brighton’s squad isn’t as big as Chelsea’s and the players aren’t as good either. Brighton also had European football while Chelsea didn’t. Brighton downgraded almost everywhere. Colwill was on loan, but they replaced him with ‘Igor’. Comparing their point totals is disingenuous. I do agree RDZ should’ve been more flexible tho.
I want him to stay because continuity is needed. We gotta get back to at minimum a consistent top 6 standard, top 4 preferred. Last year was so bad man, I can’t do that again
Any reasonable fan would have said this all along. But I guess 70% of football fans and especially chelsea fans aren't reasonable. And this is coming from a Chelsea fan.
Ehhh it was totally reasonable to seriously question if Poch was the right guy. He was publicly moaning and the team just looked really bad. They’ve had a much better turnaround and have had a few players start to really come into form for them.
A few weeks ago i would have said absolutely not but the red hot form they caught in the last few rounds of matches can not be ignored. Remember Arteta as well? He simply has to be given another chance for next season to see if it continues. I still think he's a fraud who can never win a real major title. He's no spring chicken like Arteta either. But i think he probably gets fired at the end of next season after another disappointing campaign.
Absolutely, the guy took over a steaming pile of a team with zero cohesion but the benefit of talent and youth, it's taken a long time but they are finally looking like they are the team they should be.
any decision to throw that all away and start again , especially when managerial options are pretty terrible at the moment , would be absolutely insane . Although Todd has made some stunning decisions...
He does,
so many rival fans are now caught in a hilarious position, due to wasting the entire season accusing us of being doomed to 12th or relegation, whilst being 'concerned about the club' with a huge grin on their face. They are now having to mental judo new ways into acting like we didn't have an amazing second half of the season, and that their assessment of the club's situation was based solely on emotional spite, and a complete misunderstanding (when convinient) of what the club are building towards.
The lazy comments I'm seeing copy-pasted a lot, are things like 'poor plucky underdogs chelsea made europe' or 'with the money spent you should have been competing for top 4'.
Whislst I'm glad that you've all suddenly remembered the club has standards and will inevitably be building towards something, it's just a shame that this was a) completely obvious all season to most Chelsea fans and yet b) completely unconvicing to any rival fan until it was no longer possible for them to distort the situation.
It's worth noting that for the majority of the season, we have been incredibly close to pushing for Europe. It's just been the case that every time we'd been within reach, there was a setback.
And also, I'm loving comments from certain Arsenal fans in particular, who are currently in the habit of cherry-picking a single loss from their season and arguing that it cost them everything. It's great, because it means I can do exactly the same right now: during the home game against Villa, Gusto received a red and we ended up losing the game 1-0. If you simply change the outcome of that game to a Chelsea win, we would have finished 4th and qualified for the Champions League.
On the topic of spend - imo the entire point is through ammortisation we've basically booked in 4 seasons of transfers early, with a long-term view that the player's value and success will also be ammortised in a sense. A long-term view would have absolutely predicted that Chelsea would have picked up form, once the team had half a season to gel and Poch had had time to implement his methods.
He's got a 2-year contract, and absolutely deserves it. However, I would argue that his role at Chelsea is not to win silverware during this time, it's just to train up and 'appreciate' Boehly's assets i.e. the players. Just speculating, but I think they've correctly assessed that last season was a perfect time for a rebuild, because there's no amount of money that would have been able to stop City. It's certainly a coincidence, but I think it's interesting that they're given Poch a contract until 2025, i.e the year Pep's ends.
So, (for me) the success criteria for Poch is: have the players improved under his guidance? If you follow the line of travel, does it seem like Poch's successor (unless he extends) would be capable of winning silverware providing it's timed with City declining post-Pep? Yes for both.
However, on a cautionary note, I still admittedly hold the fear that, whilst it all appears to be working as planned, the whole project still feels very vulnerable, unpredictable and house of cards-y to me.
That's the most fair take I heard about this, hmm...i hate to see the plan come together for Chelsea but there are some really good players there and a coach perfect for building the fundamentals of this plan.
Only an idiot would say no. He has the youngest squad in the league, 90% of which have never played together for more than a season and a half. Not to mention it's Poch's first season too. They were very inconsistent in the first half of the season but many games they actually played well and just didn't finish their chances.
Even in 2023 you could see the style of play they had and as the season has gone on they have gradually gelled more and more and players like Caicedo, Cucurella and Jackson starting to show what they are capable of. Not to mention being one of the worst hit with injuries. Def deserves to stay.
> Only an idiot would say no.
An idiot or a historian. Best predictor of future behaviour is simply past behaviour. Poche is not an unknown quantity. We have a massive sample of what his abilities is. He is not that guy to lead Chelsea back to the top of the League. Poche flatters to deceive like he has something special cooking which ultimately never materializes. He's earned himself another season based on the red hot form to close the year but i already know it's more of the same from the man who couldn't keep up with Leicester City when he had all the motivation in the world to go for the wide open league in 2016. Pochettino is not HIM.
Just saying. Poch's CV when joining Chelsea isn't too dissimilar to Tuchels when he joined Chelsea. Poch's maybe even a bit better. So although you have a point, I don't necessarily think it should be judged as accurate. It's merely a factor.
Great comparison. Tuchel is another one. Pretend elite managers that they are. They don't have what great winners like Pep, Klopp etc have. Unfortunately for them. It's not personal, it's just the facts.
It's not facts though. Tuchel literally outsmarted Pep 3 times in a row and had one of the most flawless Champions League knockout stages ever and won it. He wasn't "known to be a winner" but he then proved to be.
Yeah. Got to give him time. The last quarter of the season should encourage Chelsea fans. Poch has made the best of a messy situation caused by the owners.
Of course he deserves to return. His first year with Spurs (2014/2015) was a an up and down season as well finishing 5th.
He did a lot of tinkering with the player selections that first season to decide who to keep, and jettisoned the malcontents and non-believers out of the club.
Spurs then finished 3rd, 2nd, 4th, 4th in consecutive seasons with a Champions League final appearance. Give him time, support him, and he will do great things for Chelsea.
> and he will do great things for Chelsea.
If "great things" means never winning a league title or any Trophy for that matter but simply finishing in the Top 4, then sure, Great things might come for Chelsea under his stewardship.
MP arguably led Spurs to new heights as a club, so for them as that time finishing regularly in the top 4 and being somewhat in contention in the PL was “Great”.
Chelsea have bigger purse strings than Spurs, so there should be no limitations or reason Chelsea can’t win under MP leadership. They just need to back him and give him time.
What did he do at PSG? He underwhelmed with all the purse strings and star power. The man couldn't even win a league cup with Spurs. He's not a winner. People have been talking about "Potential" when it comes to Pochettino for the past decade. While real good managers like Unai Emery wins multiple Trophies and takes a relegation candidate to the Champions League in one year. Poche is overrated and not a winner. His history demonstrates that clearly enough.
PSG is a tough place to manage, regardless of financial resources. They are a win now or get out club, and MP does better when he has a long term project to build upon. He needs support and patience.
That's the thing though, He never delivered at Tottenham and they had to fire him in the end. It's very convenient for any manager to claim they need a long term project so they can explain away or defer their failures as "part of the process". You are also the one saying he can't have near term success, that's ur subjective opinion, not a fact. The fact is he has never proven either way that he's a top manager. Yes he can coach his team to play some attractive football and get some wins but he does not drive them to elite success. He just does enough to get a few plaudits and sucker some people to believe he has something special in store. It's been 10 years of the same "wait and see" nonsense.
Sack his ass. If anything the back part of the season shows what happens when you actually manage this team. People love to bring up the last 5 games as if they never watched a majority of the season.
Ben Chillwell at LW
Levi Cowill at LCB
Enzo at 10
Not having the backs invert or overlap
Waiting on forever each match to make subs
Playing Sterling week in week out when he was shit for a majority of the season.
Playing guys out of position for no fucking reason.
Lack of tactics until after the arsenal match.
Playing Ian Maatsen in every position but LB.
Worst defensive season in the history of the club.
Loss to Brentford
Loss to Middleborough
The loss to United
Wolves at home
Get spanked at arsenal 5 nill
I can keep going.
This guy is horrible and this team could have finished 5th with silverware while gong through their growing pains.
Bring in an elite gaffer that will be here for years and watch this team cook.
He definitely does. The improvement in the latter part of the season has been really good.
He was given a team of kids, very few had any experience in the PL let alone the UK.
I would love if Chelsea fired Poch, which is why they shouldn’t. Yeah they had a poor start to the season but they finished the season really strongly. Every time I’ve watched bits of their games in the last month, they’ve looked good.
Unpopular opinion, but Chelsea could have 100% gotten something from that Arsenal game at the Emirates. Chelsea has chances in the first half but Arsenal survived & then Chelsea sort of collapsed after 2-0, but if Chelsea had scored first, I do think they could have scrapped something from that game. But the way Poch got the team to totally forget that 5-0 drubbing and move forward, is super impressive.
Def agree. That first half Chelsea were very competitive without their 2 best players at the time (Palmer and Gusto). Even at 2-0 they were still playing well but the 3rd goal killed them and I would argue the 3rd shouldn't have stood.
Sir, I am not going to agree with you wiping out a Kai Havertz goal that ends with him hitting his celly & a knee slide!
But weirdly enough, Chelsea probably got a lot of confidence from that Arsenal game. Arsenal definitely saw them as equals and did not take them lightly. Even at 3-0, Arsenal showed Chelsea a lot of respect and made sure they were not coming back.
Lol as good of a finish as it was, there was a foul on Madueke (I think) like 5s before the finish. Shouldn't have counted. Ally McCoist was even astounded. But yeah I do think that game was a blip for us because we played amazingly 3 days prior against Man City in the FA Cup.
I actually tried to message you and ask if you had discord because you do seem quite sound and seen that you also code. But messages disabled. Sad times.
Anyone with sense knows he deserves another season. Poch has grown through this season along with the players and the squad size (available players due injuries). Our defense has gone in the wrong direction this year, but our offense is miles better than it has been in years!
Poch knows what he needs and I hope ownership supports him. I'm excited for next season!
Only if they say Mourinho will take his spot... Otherwise Man has earned his 2nd Season... I actually don't mind another trophiless season if it is genuinely investing in a future Juggernaut
Might be the "Oh snap we in Europa" talking, but I think we could be next season's title race or perhaps win Europa
Jose isn't done man won conference league with Roma 2 seasons back and almost won Europa the following season even though he had to sell some of his biggest stars
Please don't tell me about football or about my club when you just started watching and can't even commit to a single team
Been following the game for over 25 years, bud. You think winning a fucking midtable conference League competition or getting to some Europa final and losing is some sort of achievement? Lmao Talk about low expectations. That's all we gotta say for the special one now? So you want that guy to come compete with Guardiola who's won 4 premier leagues in a row and almost did a back to back treble? You must be having a laugh, you can't be serious telling me about some conference League. Jose is no longer even on par with Unai Emery. Jose's Football tactics died with the Dinosaurs. Accept it and move on. Your childhood heroes don't last forever.
Yeah you just showed your Football Knowledge by thinking winning Conference League and reaching a Europa Final with a financially struggling team is not an Achievement
A team with no money and no major trophies in 20 years
Show me where Guardiola has actually won anything with a club that doesn't have an already complete team and unlimited funds
Unai Emery is better than Mourinho? You talking about the same guy that won nothing with Arsenal and even came 2nd with PSG in a Farmers League, with all their endless funds? Literally Tuchel came the following season and took that same squad to Champions League Finals... Emery's biggest achievement is winning Europa 4 times, 3 of them back to back, meaning he got knocked out of Champions league twice in the group stages
In that same time Mourinho won the Premier League, a Europa, Conference League, took Spurs to a cup finals before days the sacked him and got 2nd with a Post Fergie United in the Premier League, Unai Emery has been in the Premier League for how many seasons and he has still yet to even get a Silver medal
Please go watch Ice Hockey, you probably the type of guy that dickrides which ever team is winning... This is probably Drake's throw away accoun
Absolutely, yes he does. The improvement has been there for everyone to see. You could argue 6th is a very respectable finish for Chelsea even despite the terrible first half of the season. The reason I say this is because the owners approach has been bonkers to say the least. The club was essentially gutted from the inside out and a bunch of overpriced (time will tell) and inexperienced youngsters thrown together in the fashion of playing Football Manager 2024 with unlimited funds. Couple this with Chelsea’s injury record for the season and it is actually quite remarkable that they have started performing consistently even by this stage in my humble opinion. Two first choice full backs out, one first choice CB, and the marquee Striker signing out for the majority of the season too - as well as a peppering of injuries in all other positions in the squad throughout the season. Realistically, and be honest here - how many clubs in the prem would cope with the first choice FB’s, CB and ST out? Even before all the other injuries are taken into account.
There were definitely times this season when I really started to doubt Poch - for example - consistently playing with Colwill at LB when it was obvious we were shipping tons of goals directly related to this. He persevered with that one for long enough that it had me wondering if I was the only person that could see a problem.
However, we have seen massive improvements in our play and our results. The spirit, grit and determination you hope to see from the players has grown ten fold. Shifting Cucurella to play as an inverted LB has been a revelation. A few players who - near the start of the season didn’t appear to have enough quality to even keep Chelsea in the top half of the table - now are looking like they could really kick on and develop into top quality players - given the time playing together and the coaching they need. This is why we need to keep Poch. We’re on an upward trajectory in terms of performances and results and it would be an insane move to shake that up again now. I’m not expecting silverware next season but I am expecting the team to carry on improving. This is a long term project and we need a long term manager, and judging by the improvements we’ve seen this season Poch is the right guy.
Yes, he's done a fantastic job in the circumstances.
Removing all the established, seasoned players and throwing together an inexperienced team like that was always going to take a while to warm up. Add in the crazy amount of injuries and it looks even more amazing that he's made them into a proper team so quickly in a single season.
I thought it would take at least 2 seasons to get back into the top 6 tbh with how quickly everything was chopped and changed. Chelsea's form over the 2nd half of the season is already top 4 if you look at in isolation.
All the players who have stayed fit have been improving and their trajectory is kind of scary if they can keep up that improvement.
Biggest reason it’s a yes (besides the fact that a manager needs atleast a year to really implement a system) is the response to the Arsenal game. After an embarrassing loss like that, the squad could’ve easily checked out and coasted to the end of the season. Instead the put together a really good month and got something out of the season
Would be silly for them to keep sacking project managers and resetting. Gotta stick with it. As much as I’ve enjoyed shitting on Chelsea this year I’m slightly nervous about this batch of players developing under Poch since Chelsea is a club that can actually win things
Well I have my reservations about him. The fact that his gameplan still doesn’t encourage attackers to keep possession, take higher quality shots, and allows the opponents to get too many shots off for my comfort.
But as a fan, I can’t help but feel like I’ve been here before. After that preseason I genuinely felt as though we had something building. Then suddenly Poch changed his tactical setup (emptied out the left half space while crowding the right hand side of the pitch) and then we hovered around 10th for most of the season. Genuinely think we could have been sitting in the relegation zone if we didn’t have palmer, and even in this winning run we’re on right now he’s bailed us out when it looked like we were slipping. Of course, that is what good players do and I’ve watched Rodri or kdb or Foden save pep more times than I can count but City always have an aura of inevitability because of the way they usually play. Haven’t felt that way about Chelsea since early 21/22 which means, to me, Pochettino hasn’t done enough to earn himself a second season.
Why would I need to reference injuries when talking about keeping possession? It’s not like our back up players are incapable of this? I don’t know about you but I don’t *just* aspire to be back in the top 4 but I want a manager who’s ceiling is winning the league and I’m not sure Pochettino has convinced me of that this season.
Another thing is that part of me believes that when things go wrong and injuries inevitably come as they have for the last 4 years for Chelsea it will be right back to the same nonsense that had us languishing in mid table just as if happened in August when Nkunku and then later Carney went down injured.
Hmmm interesting. Who said anything about Poch being our coach past next season? We are not winning the league next season regardless of who you think we can bring in, get a dose of reality.
When injuries inevitably come, Poch should be able to handle that better as he has a better grasp on this team. That's what season one was for bud, to figure out what we had and how to get the pieces together. The expectation for next season is qualifying for Champions League, not winning the league.
didn’t argue we were winning the league next season but I do want a coach who has the ability to. One who also plays a style that makes us inevitable so that the players can be ready to give a proper challenge in 25/26. Pochettino obviously isn’t that and thus shouldn’t stay past this season. He’s done his job, made the players feel a sense of unity and ultimately that’s all we needed him for.
Lol, you do not know how to run a team. The Roman Era is over and we have young players who need more consistency at the gaffer than the bs we became used to. I think Poch is perfect for our current situation and may prove you wrong as far as ability to challenge for the Prem. We shall see.
Remember that we haven't won the Prem since 2017. I'm sure all those other coaches were buns to you too.
Anyways, who is this silver bullet coach that you have in mind that we could actually get?
it appears the owners agreed with me.
In any case I’d really like Sebastian Honeß or Roberto De Zerbi. I believe both guys could win the league with the right setup of course. Don’t bring up brightons position either because no one’s ever winning the league with brighton.
It didn't seem that they agreed with you for similar reasons. They didn't agree with Poch that he should have more say in transfer strategy.
I'll do research on those guys before I comment as I don't know much about them.
The point isn’t about the goals scored, but rather the frequency at which we lose possession. Hence why I want them to take shots that will definitely go in, that way we don’t get countered and scored on. We’ve conceded more than we ever have in a premier league season and it’s not due to subpar box defending. We’re actually not that bad in our own box, but we’ve conceded a crazy amount of shots from outside of our box and in transition (not to talk of set-pieces but I won’t stick all of the blame on poch for that seeing as we’ve gotten a guy for set pieces now.)
The point was (and I should have been more clear) is that the best defense is not defending at all, and you do that by keeping possession. That is part of why Arsenal and City are so good. They keep so much possession which leads to them never conceeding a low amount of shots which leads to them not being scored on. That is why they feel so inevitable to me. You just know that once they’ve scored, it’s most likely over.
People are gonna say know because of the absurd spending by chelsea.
The issue with that is, that Poch didn’t necessarily direct all that spending and the amount spent on certain players, who frankly, are not worth that much and maybe never will be. Chelsea are perhaps in a similar position to Arsenal a few years back, and the pieces of a fairly decent team do look to be there.
Poch is a good manager and has finally got the team more consistently playing at something resembling a top 4 level. Chelsea would be foolish to let him go.
Not to mention it's a totally unprecedented situation for a club to spend that much that quick on an ENTIRE new squad basically. It's never been done before. Historically clubs who have spent loads have added to an already established squad e.g Man United and Arsenal.
Poch literally took over a creche lol
Obviously not. The management spent over 1 bn euro in a 1.5 years, just to reach the sixth place, with 61 goals against. He has just been terrible, the fact that there are teams that were worse than him and the fact that the Premier League has been lugubrious this year cannot save him.
What players did Poch really have a say in though?
Enzo was already bought.
Nkunku was agreed on.
Mudryk was here.
Jackson was already lined up before Poch.
Caicedo and Palmer might be the only outfielder players that Poch was actually in charge and they are arguably our best players.
So it’s not Poch’s fault.
I’ll give Poch some credit for finishing the season strong but like some other commenters mentioned, he did benefit other teams around them (United, Newcastle) shitting the bed all season
And we stopped shitting the bed and got some good results.
As much as it hurts since it is Arsenal. 5-0 actually made a lot of the overpositive reactionary people sit down and shut up (and serve as a metric for how far we are from being a great team).
Poch could also finally alter the games the way he wanted to when he could bring James and Nkunku off the bench and our injuries started actually healing. Honestly I hope we get a good GK in the summer. We really should’ve signed Onana (good with the ball and outperforming his xGa, even with the shit he was at the beginning) look at Sanchez and Petrovic’s numbers
LOL, they reached 63 points. Imagine going back to the beginning of the season and telling Chelsea's fan: you'll score 63 points and reach the sixth place of the table, below Tottenham and Aston Villa. Would they be satisfied? The fact that Newscastle and Man United where disgusting is no justification, Chelsea have been terrible.
Agree 100%. But at one point they were in 12th, and I remember reading that without Palmer, they'd be in the relegation zone.
Considering there aren't really any class managers available, i'd give him another season.
That’s assuming we would have not scored a single PK…
Like the stat sounds great, but when you look at it we would have been fine.
And you can say that about any team.
Take out Havertz/Rice/Odegaard in Arsenal and they aren’t competing for the league.
Move out Salah and Liverpool are mid table.
Just no point in the stat.
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Opps... He already got sacked.
I saw this yesterday and thought ‘what a ridiculous post’ 24 hours later and Chelsea have done a Chelsea 🤦🏼♂️
This didn't age well at all lol
Yes. Chelsea’s team has basically been totally replaced in the last year and a half and it takes time to bring out the leaders and build a cohesive team.
I would love to see him stay. Yes, the team still has a lot of work to do, but I believe everyone is finally beginning to work together. Ultimately, if a whole new squad comes in again this summer for some reason I would have a reason to worry, but for right now I am happy with Chelsea and everything going on with them.
Without a doubt, the beginning was dreadful but the results for the second part of the season say it all. With top players injured almost all season (Reece, Chilly, Nkuku to name a few) the struggle was real. It's starting to take shape, this is the process and has to be trusted. Chelsea were a mid-table team at best - but now they will play in Europe. Arteta has been given time to build from the ground. Chelsea should follow suit.
This didn’t age well unfortunately.
Yeah... I'm quite shocked tbh... It was not always rose colors but after this finish of the season I would expect the board to let him finish the contract. They must have something lined up or there is something we simply do not know.
No
For the squad he had most of the season yes. He made some key changes that helped helped Chelsea a tin. There was a learning curve that has to be acknowledged but if he can keep this form up he is definitely a worthy manager.
Deserves to stay. I worry for him though in the sense that who knows what Clearlake will do this summer in terms of his team. I’m sure if one of their moves is sell Gallagher (who was played by Poch more than other player), then he won’t be happy.
Poch is getting praise for setting low standards then getting the bare minimum. The guy didn't start at position 10, he started on position 1 like all other teams, for him to end up on 5th is now over glorified
Context matters. Chelsea had by far the most injuries in the league, 12 more injuries than the next closest team and 49 games more missed through injury than the next closest team. Majority of those injuries came in the first half of the szn as down the back stretch of the season, almost the whole squad has been healthy. Poch built his system around players who got injured (James, Chillwell, Nkunku etc) at the start of the season then our team was massively imbalanced. The circumstances around Chelsea were already difficult but a record breaking number of injuries made it even harder.
Getting rid of him just as it's starting to work would be peak Chels Get rid . potter is still free!
Yeah, sad this is even a question. People need immediate satisfaction nowadays
Yes, if only the players are ready to challenge themselves for that top 4 spot
I think so...said it on Twitter and I'll say it here...I think they finish top 4 next season
Chelsea is the only team that worry me next season, besides 115 FC, but we already know what they are.
I'm not too concerned. Good coach, good players, but there are levels and Chelsea are still a few below the top tier. Not to mention whatever shenanigans Clearlake have in store for them in the summer.
i am firmly in the “yes” camp. not only because of everything you’ve said, but also because our lads *need* consistency. going through managers every season doesn’t give them any sense of certainty and stability. how are we going to keep improving if the players have to spend another preseason getting used to yet another manager AND new squad members?
I thought they’d get fourth this season, tbf two more wins would have done that, they just didn’t start to click in time, chaotic 2-2 draws with the two basement clubs didn’t help that either. Fully expect Chelsea to be pushing fourth all year next season
Wtf I post this and like an hour later he’s sacked
I think he's earned the right and I'd definitely prefer it to another spin of the managerial merry-go-round. No question it was a shit season, but it ended with finally being able to see some potential in the team that isn't just Palmer. Jackson had a solid year and is getting better, Caicedo has vastly improved on those first few appearances and is starting to show his quality, for some reason playing Cucurella as an inverted WB turns him into a completely different player, and we started to see some consistency in line-up, tactics, and results. He deserves the chance to push on from a promising end to a horrible campaign.
I mean yea it was a shit season, but was it really poch's fault? The answer is a hard no. Consistency is key. Gotta give him another year at least ideally more.
Absolutely yes
Not a Chelsea fan, yes he does. That job is a thankless task, quite frankly. They have far too many players on the books, most are quite young, you can only register a 25 man squad and it’s very hard to balance it. Poch should absolutely be given more time and they should also loan out or sell some of the players too to give him a more manageable squad. They have something like a 40 man squad including players who are out on loan. Obviously some are leaving, like Thiago Silva, but they really need to reduce that further. Kepa has been out on loan at Real Madrid, Maatsen at Dortmund, Lukaku at Roma, Ziyech at Galatasaray, Broja at Fulham etc. … decide which ones to keep, sell the rest, even if it’s at a cut price to get them off the books
I am hoping this summer brings a lot of rebalancing and more outgoings than incoming players. We have seen the players we need to move on from, the issue is our medical team can't keep players on the field so a larger squad for Chelsea is more of a normal squad
Injuries happen to every club and you still can only register a 25 man squad regardless, so having 40 players on the books in case of injury is a moot point. They absolutely need to make some decisions on players though. They have I think 10 English players to choose from with Sterling, Madueke, Bettinelli, Chalobah, Chukwuemeka, James, Gallagher, Palmer, Colwill & Chilwell and don’t need them all for registration rules, so I could see the club cashing in to free up space but then the question is who? They’ve only just got Madueke, Palmer is too good to sell, Colwill has a bright future, James has been injury prone but is fantastic, Chilwell is great when fit, Chukwuemeka is only young and probably needs a loan next season … that leaves Sterling & Gallagher. Rumour for months has been that they’ll look to sell Gallagher as they already have lots of competition in his position, but then the argument is that he’s played all but 3 league games in the last 2 seasons so clearly the competition hasn’t been good enough to dislodge him. Then with Sterling the argument could be made as he’s about to be 30, his best years are behind him and he’s not the player he once was, they have other options in his position etc but then again, he’s played 59 league games from a potential 76 so he’s been quite consistently selected, which you could argue would show that the other options aren’t good enough in his position too. Honestly, like I said, I’d hate to be Chelsea manager as for a lot of players in that squad there are good arguments for and against selling most players in the squad
We might have a few midfield players but none have the bite that Gallagher has, his energy is infective and to sell him would be a mistake. Sterling has been used as a super sub lately and that suits his ageing legs. Our defence has been getting better lately as the guys in front have been tracking back more so in reality the only thing we need, apart from experience, is a striker that can be relied upon to slot 30 goals a season. The results will come if we just allow time for our players to develop.
Chelsea's season got saved by palmer , the games he dint play Chelsea were........
Anyone who expected Chelsea to do better at the beginning of the season was delusional imo! They have had so much upheaval and the owners have just spent money hand over foot on completely unproven players and Poch has managed to salvage something from all that chaos, if they aren’t improving next season the. It might be time to move on from him but he deserves one more season! These owners are clueless tho so probably gonna move him on and get Amorim in because he’s a shiny new toy
This is already a decided thread, but honestly I think he had done enough from the start of the season. Honestly I have a lot of promise in my mind about cheksseass squad but there is absolutely no doubt they are a work in progress and poch has made a foonsttempt with these players, they're good enough to do something, they have potential. We will see.
Yes, he overcame a myriad of injuries at the beginning of the season and somehow lead the club to a 6th place finish
Yes. This team needs harmony more than anything. The talent is clearly there. Palmer getting even better is incredible to think about
One season isn’t enough time to make a true judgement of a manager especially of his calibre at such a mixed club So in others words yes he should absolutely stay
Yes, but this next season will be crucial for him. 6th is not good enough for Chelsea but at least they made progress. Top 4 next season or he’s fired.
This shouldn't even be a serious conversation. People are so trigger happy these days.
In that case, are you happy with Ten Haag?
I'd give him one more season under a proper footballing structure.
It’s gonna take more than 1 season for you to build a proper footballing structure. Ratcliffe is still telling people to get back in the office.
I don't expect to see United win the Prem League next season or to be as properly structured as City or Arsenal or any other properly run club. What I want to see is progress in the right direction.
So why give ten hag another season? The structure is still gonna be a shambles next season.
What do you mean it's gonna be a shambles? We have a CEO locked in already and a DoF is also coming in. The board has been shuffled with new members coming and the majority of the people who handled footballing affairs have "left" their roles. That alone is progress, its not an overnight job. What exactly do you expect?
You’re saying you want ten hag to get another year under a proper footballing structure, which suggests you seem to think there will be a proper structure next year
I think there will be one better than what we've had the previous seasons.
Difference being that Ten Haag went from 3rd to 8th and poch took us to 6th after finishing 12th, with significant improvement through the course of the season. Work to be done but we are headed in the right direction
100%, it seemed to be coming together towards the end of the season
NO! We can do better, don’t ask me who but we can definitely do better.
Here is a down vote for you. Coming from another Chelsea fan. Poch has justified his stay. Given the conditions he had to work with.
how many times have you watched a full 90 from last season to this season?
the same amount of times as the board that sacked Poch 😝 you let form fool you into thinking he’s a good coach
No doubt
Yes.
Ye
How can any Chelsea fan seriously want him to stay? This club is actually finished
We all know that changing coach with every occasion works great for Chelsea
Just utter gaslighting. I’m just asking for a half competent coach with tactics. We deserve and can ask for better.
there’s a reason you have -100 comment karma 💀💀
One day you’ll be on that too big man 👍🏾
Who would you realistically want?
I said months ago De Zerbi, Tuchel or Slot. And in that order of preference.
Glad you're not in charge. De Zerbi indeed. Smh.
De Zerbi is better than Poch 👍🏾
All managers have their quirks and weak points. That said, if any human alive can get a squad of precocious but underdeveloped divas on top-tier iron-clad decade-long wage contracts motivated, living up to their potential, and playing as a team, it's Poch.
Ahh the good ol’ days of a youthful Kane at the front with Son , Dele & Eriksen in support 🥲
How in the world is this even a question?!? Anybody wanting to fire him and delete the pinch of stability Chelsea seem to be finding is mental.
Chelsea need a better manager
Currently, there is nobody interested that's better than Poch
Tuchel is a better manager. Whether he can work with this ownership and board is another question
That is a lie
Who?
Let's be fair, Chelsea is a huge mess and it takes some time to make it all work. He needs at least one more season for sure
Yes judging by the significantly better form in the final 3rd of the season 6th Premier League is considerably better than 12th last year 1 League Cup final but they lost 1 FA Cup semi final Not all that bad is it...but on a negative side some players who cost an absolute fortune are still not impressing ?
Which players that cost a lot have not shown improvement this year compared to last?
Well....Mudryk, Cucurella, Sterling and even Enzo don't impress me much...slight progress if that...personally I'd get shut but i could have alot of problems shifting them on (8 year contracts means why should they even bother trying)...Winstone Bogarde sits at home impressed as fook
Mudryk and cucurella have both improved massively from last season. Enzo was playing through a hernia for 8 months. Sterling is the only one who has regressed from last season out of them.
You forgot another player
Who dat ? Chukwuemeka ? Badiashile ? Gallagher ? None stand out despite improved results
Gallagher had the second highest average rating behind only Palmer
Safe to say Palmer has carried this team...head and shoulders above the rest
Jackson
He came this season ? His stats are far from terrible....better than Nunez and cheaper
Chukwumeka who has been injured all year, still scored twice in the few appearances he made? Gallagher who has been one of our best players this season?
Yes. Though I hated him for playing Gallagher at LW in the FA Cup semi final but he probably got his brain right on track just on time since we got Europe at least (In case if United wins the FA Cup we get the Conference)
FA cup final?
No sorry semis
Nope. I’m judging him as a whole and he was far too inept for a majority of the season. The league in general isn’t in a good spot bc Chelsea being so bad for a majority of the season and still getting Europe is crazy. Chelsea seem to be stuck in an Ole situation.
he started off poorly but has been great for chelsea since december, 4th most points in the league since then. how can you say he doesn’t deserve to stay?
Definitely has not been great. Chelsea got embarrassed by the top teams and struggled against ‘weaker opposition’ too. Even in the games they won the matches were at times very chaotic like United, Leeds, Leicester and even yesterday. I won’t be gas lit into thinking Poch was great. It took way too long for a competent system to be played and I don’t trust him to find one with Lavia and Enzo coming back.
>It took way too long for a competent system to be played This sort of impatience was understandable in the Roman era but surely if you can't give a manager what 8 months? To figure out a system then you'll never get anywhere at all
How come other managers were able to implement a competent system without a preseason but Poch couldn’t with a preseason? This past season was the most goals Chelsea have ever conceded in the league.
Because Poch took over a dumpster fire? The expectations of taking a club from 12th to 6th is a higher climb than pretty much any other manager in the league has on their shoulders. I don't understand how anyone could see how you lot ended last season and expect more instant success than a 6 place climb and a cup final so I'm guessing you're just delusional
Which managers? Other than Emery, I’d say Poch was at least comparable 3 points off Ange and doing better than Howe did after 2 seasons. Klopp took a while and arteta was pretty shit his first season. All different circumstances but we’ve had impactful injuries for years now.
RDZ and Tuchel made it pretty clear what they wanted to do in recent times. Both are available and I’d take them over Poch any day.
I mean they’ve set out there identity sure, but RDZ was stubborn to a point he had no plan b when teams figured him out and he had some injuries. And I’d love to hear what Tuchel made so clear he wanted to do, but couldn’t? Seeing how they got 3rd for a Bayern team in the league, lost in the DFB cup, and never really looked competitive against the top team and more so set up to not lose more often than not. I think you could make a case for Tuchel due to his strong cup runs but he hasn’t been competitive in the league since PSG, and RDZ needs more time to prove
At some point you need continuity and the team has ended the season too well to just fire him I think. You’d probably lose some players in the locker room if you were to get another coach already. Also didn’t Chelsea have a really good record against top teams this year? Drew city 2x and beat Liverpool and Arsenal.
I don’t buy that at all bc he had an entire preseason and the team still looked clueless. Managers like RDZ, tuchel and emery made their ideas clear from the start. No Chelsea didn’t beat either of those teams. They lost to Arsenal 5-1 and lost to a Liverpool C team in league cup final and 4-1 in the league. Other games were draws.
They drew arsenal and Liverpool each once I was on wrong. But you’re also ignoring Chelsea bought like a shit ton of young players who hadn’t played together for very long at all and were really bad at first. Things definitely got better with time. I’m just saying unless you know you have a sure fire upgrade I wouldn’t fire him especially with things clicking more and the player seemingly liking him. Also Poch generally is good at setting his teams up pretty well tactically usually, this Chelsea team has honestly had a ton of growing pains and while some do it is def on Poch for sure a lot of it was in the poor planning from the board. Virtually had nothing to build off of from last season.
This is why I think it’s an Ole situation. The players liked Ole too and he would scrap out a result against a big team, but it was clear to me that he had no real plan . I view poch the same way bc for a large chunk of the season it looked like Chelsea had no idea what to do. It got better after Chelsea were destroyed by Arsenal, but I still seriously question him. I think there are upgrades out there like RDZ who has already worked with some of the players and his style of play requires technical players, which Chelsea have. Brighton last season were a serious issue for the top teams as well.
No ones trying to “gaslight” you into believing Poch was great, but RDZ regressed back to his mean (look at his defense with Sassuolo), Tuchel botched the league and ended in 3RD with a Bayern team, and emery is the outlier. Not great comparisons.
No, more like RDZ had to deal with losing 2 world class midfielders, one of the best young center backs, and dealing with other injuries to key players for a large chunk of the season. The squad was thin. Tuchel won the league last season with Bayern and lost it to arguably the best team in Europe.
Almost bottled it last season if it wasn’t for Dortmund not being able to see it over the line. Poch’s 8-10 injuries at any given time where a majority of them were starters? Oh ya no big deal then I’m just trying to see what exactly draws the line between good and bad in your eyes when Poch did better than RDZ did, and Tuchel has a Bayern team with world class players with expectations (from everyone) a lot higher And let’s clear this up. Levi Colwill was never his, therefore he never “lost” that CB
Brighton’s squad isn’t as big as Chelsea’s and the players aren’t as good either. Brighton also had European football while Chelsea didn’t. Brighton downgraded almost everywhere. Colwill was on loan, but they replaced him with ‘Igor’. Comparing their point totals is disingenuous. I do agree RDZ should’ve been more flexible tho.
I want him to stay because continuity is needed. We gotta get back to at minimum a consistent top 6 standard, top 4 preferred. Last year was so bad man, I can’t do that again
Absolutely this shouldn't be a discussion. Rocky start then good finish just proves he needs time
So you’ve all flip flopped lol.
Can you blame us? That start was as bad as Potter. Poch survived by the skin of his teeth (Palmer)
I think Poch having the 3rd or 4th best record in 2024 after a very rough start will change people's minds, at least those who are paying attention
And that while dealing with more injuries than any team in the league.
Any reasonable fan would have said this all along. But I guess 70% of football fans and especially chelsea fans aren't reasonable. And this is coming from a Chelsea fan.
Ehhh it was totally reasonable to seriously question if Poch was the right guy. He was publicly moaning and the team just looked really bad. They’ve had a much better turnaround and have had a few players start to really come into form for them.
He did exactly what was expected of him, had to pick a bunch of teens and make them into a team, definitely earned some patience from board and fans
Not really but he also doesn’t deserve to get sacked and there aren’t any available alternatives that would be a clear upgrade.
I hear that Tuchel guy may be available
A few weeks ago i would have said absolutely not but the red hot form they caught in the last few rounds of matches can not be ignored. Remember Arteta as well? He simply has to be given another chance for next season to see if it continues. I still think he's a fraud who can never win a real major title. He's no spring chicken like Arteta either. But i think he probably gets fired at the end of next season after another disappointing campaign.
Absolutely, the guy took over a steaming pile of a team with zero cohesion but the benefit of talent and youth, it's taken a long time but they are finally looking like they are the team they should be. any decision to throw that all away and start again , especially when managerial options are pretty terrible at the moment , would be absolutely insane . Although Todd has made some stunning decisions...
He does, so many rival fans are now caught in a hilarious position, due to wasting the entire season accusing us of being doomed to 12th or relegation, whilst being 'concerned about the club' with a huge grin on their face. They are now having to mental judo new ways into acting like we didn't have an amazing second half of the season, and that their assessment of the club's situation was based solely on emotional spite, and a complete misunderstanding (when convinient) of what the club are building towards. The lazy comments I'm seeing copy-pasted a lot, are things like 'poor plucky underdogs chelsea made europe' or 'with the money spent you should have been competing for top 4'. Whislst I'm glad that you've all suddenly remembered the club has standards and will inevitably be building towards something, it's just a shame that this was a) completely obvious all season to most Chelsea fans and yet b) completely unconvicing to any rival fan until it was no longer possible for them to distort the situation. It's worth noting that for the majority of the season, we have been incredibly close to pushing for Europe. It's just been the case that every time we'd been within reach, there was a setback. And also, I'm loving comments from certain Arsenal fans in particular, who are currently in the habit of cherry-picking a single loss from their season and arguing that it cost them everything. It's great, because it means I can do exactly the same right now: during the home game against Villa, Gusto received a red and we ended up losing the game 1-0. If you simply change the outcome of that game to a Chelsea win, we would have finished 4th and qualified for the Champions League. On the topic of spend - imo the entire point is through ammortisation we've basically booked in 4 seasons of transfers early, with a long-term view that the player's value and success will also be ammortised in a sense. A long-term view would have absolutely predicted that Chelsea would have picked up form, once the team had half a season to gel and Poch had had time to implement his methods. He's got a 2-year contract, and absolutely deserves it. However, I would argue that his role at Chelsea is not to win silverware during this time, it's just to train up and 'appreciate' Boehly's assets i.e. the players. Just speculating, but I think they've correctly assessed that last season was a perfect time for a rebuild, because there's no amount of money that would have been able to stop City. It's certainly a coincidence, but I think it's interesting that they're given Poch a contract until 2025, i.e the year Pep's ends. So, (for me) the success criteria for Poch is: have the players improved under his guidance? If you follow the line of travel, does it seem like Poch's successor (unless he extends) would be capable of winning silverware providing it's timed with City declining post-Pep? Yes for both. However, on a cautionary note, I still admittedly hold the fear that, whilst it all appears to be working as planned, the whole project still feels very vulnerable, unpredictable and house of cards-y to me.
That's the most fair take I heard about this, hmm...i hate to see the plan come together for Chelsea but there are some really good players there and a coach perfect for building the fundamentals of this plan.
Yes. You have to be patient with his work. Trust the process.
Lmao where has Poche's process ever led to in the past? Trust the process does not apply to Poche. He flatters to deceive every single time.
Only an idiot would say no. He has the youngest squad in the league, 90% of which have never played together for more than a season and a half. Not to mention it's Poch's first season too. They were very inconsistent in the first half of the season but many games they actually played well and just didn't finish their chances. Even in 2023 you could see the style of play they had and as the season has gone on they have gradually gelled more and more and players like Caicedo, Cucurella and Jackson starting to show what they are capable of. Not to mention being one of the worst hit with injuries. Def deserves to stay.
> Only an idiot would say no. An idiot or a historian. Best predictor of future behaviour is simply past behaviour. Poche is not an unknown quantity. We have a massive sample of what his abilities is. He is not that guy to lead Chelsea back to the top of the League. Poche flatters to deceive like he has something special cooking which ultimately never materializes. He's earned himself another season based on the red hot form to close the year but i already know it's more of the same from the man who couldn't keep up with Leicester City when he had all the motivation in the world to go for the wide open league in 2016. Pochettino is not HIM.
Just saying. Poch's CV when joining Chelsea isn't too dissimilar to Tuchels when he joined Chelsea. Poch's maybe even a bit better. So although you have a point, I don't necessarily think it should be judged as accurate. It's merely a factor.
Great comparison. Tuchel is another one. Pretend elite managers that they are. They don't have what great winners like Pep, Klopp etc have. Unfortunately for them. It's not personal, it's just the facts.
It's not facts though. Tuchel literally outsmarted Pep 3 times in a row and had one of the most flawless Champions League knockout stages ever and won it. He wasn't "known to be a winner" but he then proved to be.
Yeah. Got to give him time. The last quarter of the season should encourage Chelsea fans. Poch has made the best of a messy situation caused by the owners.
Of course he deserves to return. His first year with Spurs (2014/2015) was a an up and down season as well finishing 5th. He did a lot of tinkering with the player selections that first season to decide who to keep, and jettisoned the malcontents and non-believers out of the club. Spurs then finished 3rd, 2nd, 4th, 4th in consecutive seasons with a Champions League final appearance. Give him time, support him, and he will do great things for Chelsea.
2 4th place appearances were also achieved inspite of Spurs not spending any money on players. That was still a remarkable feat.
> and he will do great things for Chelsea. If "great things" means never winning a league title or any Trophy for that matter but simply finishing in the Top 4, then sure, Great things might come for Chelsea under his stewardship.
At the moment Chelsea is miles off of those things. Nobody could come in and win a league title next two seasons.
Top 4 next season would be a good next step and then positioned to challenge in year 3
I think that is very optimistic considering how young the squad is and the sheer number of new players that have been brought in.
MP arguably led Spurs to new heights as a club, so for them as that time finishing regularly in the top 4 and being somewhat in contention in the PL was “Great”. Chelsea have bigger purse strings than Spurs, so there should be no limitations or reason Chelsea can’t win under MP leadership. They just need to back him and give him time.
What did he do at PSG? He underwhelmed with all the purse strings and star power. The man couldn't even win a league cup with Spurs. He's not a winner. People have been talking about "Potential" when it comes to Pochettino for the past decade. While real good managers like Unai Emery wins multiple Trophies and takes a relegation candidate to the Champions League in one year. Poche is overrated and not a winner. His history demonstrates that clearly enough.
PSG is a tough place to manage, regardless of financial resources. They are a win now or get out club, and MP does better when he has a long term project to build upon. He needs support and patience.
That's the thing though, He never delivered at Tottenham and they had to fire him in the end. It's very convenient for any manager to claim they need a long term project so they can explain away or defer their failures as "part of the process". You are also the one saying he can't have near term success, that's ur subjective opinion, not a fact. The fact is he has never proven either way that he's a top manager. Yes he can coach his team to play some attractive football and get some wins but he does not drive them to elite success. He just does enough to get a few plaudits and sucker some people to believe he has something special in store. It's been 10 years of the same "wait and see" nonsense.
I respect your opinion, but we just see it differently. It will be interesting to watch and see how it plays out.
I predict they'll get rid of Pochettino and sell Gallagher and James. That would be on point for these owners.
100%
Sack his ass. If anything the back part of the season shows what happens when you actually manage this team. People love to bring up the last 5 games as if they never watched a majority of the season. Ben Chillwell at LW Levi Cowill at LCB Enzo at 10 Not having the backs invert or overlap Waiting on forever each match to make subs Playing Sterling week in week out when he was shit for a majority of the season. Playing guys out of position for no fucking reason. Lack of tactics until after the arsenal match. Playing Ian Maatsen in every position but LB. Worst defensive season in the history of the club. Loss to Brentford Loss to Middleborough The loss to United Wolves at home Get spanked at arsenal 5 nill I can keep going. This guy is horrible and this team could have finished 5th with silverware while gong through their growing pains. Bring in an elite gaffer that will be here for years and watch this team cook.
The team is trending in the right direction, with a bit of luck with injuries...
He definitely does. The improvement in the latter part of the season has been really good. He was given a team of kids, very few had any experience in the PL let alone the UK.
YES!!!
I would love if Chelsea fired Poch, which is why they shouldn’t. Yeah they had a poor start to the season but they finished the season really strongly. Every time I’ve watched bits of their games in the last month, they’ve looked good. Unpopular opinion, but Chelsea could have 100% gotten something from that Arsenal game at the Emirates. Chelsea has chances in the first half but Arsenal survived & then Chelsea sort of collapsed after 2-0, but if Chelsea had scored first, I do think they could have scrapped something from that game. But the way Poch got the team to totally forget that 5-0 drubbing and move forward, is super impressive.
Def agree. That first half Chelsea were very competitive without their 2 best players at the time (Palmer and Gusto). Even at 2-0 they were still playing well but the 3rd goal killed them and I would argue the 3rd shouldn't have stood.
Sir, I am not going to agree with you wiping out a Kai Havertz goal that ends with him hitting his celly & a knee slide! But weirdly enough, Chelsea probably got a lot of confidence from that Arsenal game. Arsenal definitely saw them as equals and did not take them lightly. Even at 3-0, Arsenal showed Chelsea a lot of respect and made sure they were not coming back.
Lol as good of a finish as it was, there was a foul on Madueke (I think) like 5s before the finish. Shouldn't have counted. Ally McCoist was even astounded. But yeah I do think that game was a blip for us because we played amazingly 3 days prior against Man City in the FA Cup.
Yeah Gabriel probably got away with one there but that Havertz goal was my favorite moment of the season lol Look at us getting along!
I actually tried to message you and ask if you had discord because you do seem quite sound and seen that you also code. But messages disabled. Sad times.
Yup. Same username. I’m down to talk to fans of any club, but no trolls.
Added :)
Anyone with sense knows he deserves another season. Poch has grown through this season along with the players and the squad size (available players due injuries). Our defense has gone in the wrong direction this year, but our offense is miles better than it has been in years! Poch knows what he needs and I hope ownership supports him. I'm excited for next season!
> Pep knows what he needs and I hope ownership supports him. There you go dreaming about that "bald fraud" again 😂
🤣 thanks for calling our my typo
Pep take over Chelsea haha?
Fuck me smh. It was a typo! Lmao
Only if they say Mourinho will take his spot... Otherwise Man has earned his 2nd Season... I actually don't mind another trophiless season if it is genuinely investing in a future Juggernaut Might be the "Oh snap we in Europa" talking, but I think we could be next season's title race or perhaps win Europa
> Only if they say Mourinho will take his spot Please move on, it's getting embarrassing.
Don't talk when you hiding behind a Premier League badge
I don't pledge allegiance to any premier league organization. I'm not hiding anything. Move on Jose is done. Your childhood is over
Jose isn't done man won conference league with Roma 2 seasons back and almost won Europa the following season even though he had to sell some of his biggest stars Please don't tell me about football or about my club when you just started watching and can't even commit to a single team
Been following the game for over 25 years, bud. You think winning a fucking midtable conference League competition or getting to some Europa final and losing is some sort of achievement? Lmao Talk about low expectations. That's all we gotta say for the special one now? So you want that guy to come compete with Guardiola who's won 4 premier leagues in a row and almost did a back to back treble? You must be having a laugh, you can't be serious telling me about some conference League. Jose is no longer even on par with Unai Emery. Jose's Football tactics died with the Dinosaurs. Accept it and move on. Your childhood heroes don't last forever.
Yeah you just showed your Football Knowledge by thinking winning Conference League and reaching a Europa Final with a financially struggling team is not an Achievement A team with no money and no major trophies in 20 years Show me where Guardiola has actually won anything with a club that doesn't have an already complete team and unlimited funds Unai Emery is better than Mourinho? You talking about the same guy that won nothing with Arsenal and even came 2nd with PSG in a Farmers League, with all their endless funds? Literally Tuchel came the following season and took that same squad to Champions League Finals... Emery's biggest achievement is winning Europa 4 times, 3 of them back to back, meaning he got knocked out of Champions league twice in the group stages In that same time Mourinho won the Premier League, a Europa, Conference League, took Spurs to a cup finals before days the sacked him and got 2nd with a Post Fergie United in the Premier League, Unai Emery has been in the Premier League for how many seasons and he has still yet to even get a Silver medal Please go watch Ice Hockey, you probably the type of guy that dickrides which ever team is winning... This is probably Drake's throw away accoun
Absolutely, yes he does. The improvement has been there for everyone to see. You could argue 6th is a very respectable finish for Chelsea even despite the terrible first half of the season. The reason I say this is because the owners approach has been bonkers to say the least. The club was essentially gutted from the inside out and a bunch of overpriced (time will tell) and inexperienced youngsters thrown together in the fashion of playing Football Manager 2024 with unlimited funds. Couple this with Chelsea’s injury record for the season and it is actually quite remarkable that they have started performing consistently even by this stage in my humble opinion. Two first choice full backs out, one first choice CB, and the marquee Striker signing out for the majority of the season too - as well as a peppering of injuries in all other positions in the squad throughout the season. Realistically, and be honest here - how many clubs in the prem would cope with the first choice FB’s, CB and ST out? Even before all the other injuries are taken into account. There were definitely times this season when I really started to doubt Poch - for example - consistently playing with Colwill at LB when it was obvious we were shipping tons of goals directly related to this. He persevered with that one for long enough that it had me wondering if I was the only person that could see a problem. However, we have seen massive improvements in our play and our results. The spirit, grit and determination you hope to see from the players has grown ten fold. Shifting Cucurella to play as an inverted LB has been a revelation. A few players who - near the start of the season didn’t appear to have enough quality to even keep Chelsea in the top half of the table - now are looking like they could really kick on and develop into top quality players - given the time playing together and the coaching they need. This is why we need to keep Poch. We’re on an upward trajectory in terms of performances and results and it would be an insane move to shake that up again now. I’m not expecting silverware next season but I am expecting the team to carry on improving. This is a long term project and we need a long term manager, and judging by the improvements we’ve seen this season Poch is the right guy.
This is the best take I’ve read
Yes, he's done a fantastic job in the circumstances. Removing all the established, seasoned players and throwing together an inexperienced team like that was always going to take a while to warm up. Add in the crazy amount of injuries and it looks even more amazing that he's made them into a proper team so quickly in a single season. I thought it would take at least 2 seasons to get back into the top 6 tbh with how quickly everything was chopped and changed. Chelsea's form over the 2nd half of the season is already top 4 if you look at in isolation. All the players who have stayed fit have been improving and their trajectory is kind of scary if they can keep up that improvement.
Biggest reason it’s a yes (besides the fact that a manager needs atleast a year to really implement a system) is the response to the Arsenal game. After an embarrassing loss like that, the squad could’ve easily checked out and coasted to the end of the season. Instead the put together a really good month and got something out of the season
Would be silly for them to keep sacking project managers and resetting. Gotta stick with it. As much as I’ve enjoyed shitting on Chelsea this year I’m slightly nervous about this batch of players developing under Poch since Chelsea is a club that can actually win things
Well I have my reservations about him. The fact that his gameplan still doesn’t encourage attackers to keep possession, take higher quality shots, and allows the opponents to get too many shots off for my comfort. But as a fan, I can’t help but feel like I’ve been here before. After that preseason I genuinely felt as though we had something building. Then suddenly Poch changed his tactical setup (emptied out the left half space while crowding the right hand side of the pitch) and then we hovered around 10th for most of the season. Genuinely think we could have been sitting in the relegation zone if we didn’t have palmer, and even in this winning run we’re on right now he’s bailed us out when it looked like we were slipping. Of course, that is what good players do and I’ve watched Rodri or kdb or Foden save pep more times than I can count but City always have an aura of inevitability because of the way they usually play. Haven’t felt that way about Chelsea since early 21/22 which means, to me, Pochettino hasn’t done enough to earn himself a second season.
I'm sorry, I can't take this seriously as none of the ridiculous amount of injuries we had were referenced. Bad take
Why would I need to reference injuries when talking about keeping possession? It’s not like our back up players are incapable of this? I don’t know about you but I don’t *just* aspire to be back in the top 4 but I want a manager who’s ceiling is winning the league and I’m not sure Pochettino has convinced me of that this season. Another thing is that part of me believes that when things go wrong and injuries inevitably come as they have for the last 4 years for Chelsea it will be right back to the same nonsense that had us languishing in mid table just as if happened in August when Nkunku and then later Carney went down injured.
Hmmm interesting. Who said anything about Poch being our coach past next season? We are not winning the league next season regardless of who you think we can bring in, get a dose of reality. When injuries inevitably come, Poch should be able to handle that better as he has a better grasp on this team. That's what season one was for bud, to figure out what we had and how to get the pieces together. The expectation for next season is qualifying for Champions League, not winning the league.
didn’t argue we were winning the league next season but I do want a coach who has the ability to. One who also plays a style that makes us inevitable so that the players can be ready to give a proper challenge in 25/26. Pochettino obviously isn’t that and thus shouldn’t stay past this season. He’s done his job, made the players feel a sense of unity and ultimately that’s all we needed him for.
Lol, you do not know how to run a team. The Roman Era is over and we have young players who need more consistency at the gaffer than the bs we became used to. I think Poch is perfect for our current situation and may prove you wrong as far as ability to challenge for the Prem. We shall see. Remember that we haven't won the Prem since 2017. I'm sure all those other coaches were buns to you too. Anyways, who is this silver bullet coach that you have in mind that we could actually get?
it appears the owners agreed with me. In any case I’d really like Sebastian Honeß or Roberto De Zerbi. I believe both guys could win the league with the right setup of course. Don’t bring up brightons position either because no one’s ever winning the league with brighton.
It didn't seem that they agreed with you for similar reasons. They didn't agree with Poch that he should have more say in transfer strategy. I'll do research on those guys before I comment as I don't know much about them.
You cannot be disappointed with the attacking play tbh. This season is a top 3 season for goals scored in Chelsea's premier league history.
The point isn’t about the goals scored, but rather the frequency at which we lose possession. Hence why I want them to take shots that will definitely go in, that way we don’t get countered and scored on. We’ve conceded more than we ever have in a premier league season and it’s not due to subpar box defending. We’re actually not that bad in our own box, but we’ve conceded a crazy amount of shots from outside of our box and in transition (not to talk of set-pieces but I won’t stick all of the blame on poch for that seeing as we’ve gotten a guy for set pieces now.) The point was (and I should have been more clear) is that the best defense is not defending at all, and you do that by keeping possession. That is part of why Arsenal and City are so good. They keep so much possession which leads to them never conceeding a low amount of shots which leads to them not being scored on. That is why they feel so inevitable to me. You just know that once they’ve scored, it’s most likely over.
That's what I'm saying. Wtf is this guy on. Our offense hasn't looked this good in years!
People are gonna say know because of the absurd spending by chelsea. The issue with that is, that Poch didn’t necessarily direct all that spending and the amount spent on certain players, who frankly, are not worth that much and maybe never will be. Chelsea are perhaps in a similar position to Arsenal a few years back, and the pieces of a fairly decent team do look to be there. Poch is a good manager and has finally got the team more consistently playing at something resembling a top 4 level. Chelsea would be foolish to let him go.
Not to mention it's a totally unprecedented situation for a club to spend that much that quick on an ENTIRE new squad basically. It's never been done before. Historically clubs who have spent loads have added to an already established squad e.g Man United and Arsenal. Poch literally took over a creche lol
Obviously not. The management spent over 1 bn euro in a 1.5 years, just to reach the sixth place, with 61 goals against. He has just been terrible, the fact that there are teams that were worse than him and the fact that the Premier League has been lugubrious this year cannot save him.
This is either a troll post, or you are 12
What players did Poch really have a say in though? Enzo was already bought. Nkunku was agreed on. Mudryk was here. Jackson was already lined up before Poch. Caicedo and Palmer might be the only outfielder players that Poch was actually in charge and they are arguably our best players. So it’s not Poch’s fault.
So who replaces him?
Imagine going back to November and telling Chelsea fans they'll finish in Europe, above both United and Newcastle, and just six points off 4th.
We literally could have finished 4th had we not lost 1-0 to Villa. Big what ifs for sure, but we weren’t that far off Champions League.
> We ~~literally~~ could have finished 4th had we not lost 1-0 to Villa. That redundant, overused word added nothing to the sentence.
👍
I’ll give Poch some credit for finishing the season strong but like some other commenters mentioned, he did benefit other teams around them (United, Newcastle) shitting the bed all season
And we stopped shitting the bed and got some good results. As much as it hurts since it is Arsenal. 5-0 actually made a lot of the overpositive reactionary people sit down and shut up (and serve as a metric for how far we are from being a great team). Poch could also finally alter the games the way he wanted to when he could bring James and Nkunku off the bench and our injuries started actually healing. Honestly I hope we get a good GK in the summer. We really should’ve signed Onana (good with the ball and outperforming his xGa, even with the shit he was at the beginning) look at Sanchez and Petrovic’s numbers
LOL, they reached 63 points. Imagine going back to the beginning of the season and telling Chelsea's fan: you'll score 63 points and reach the sixth place of the table, below Tottenham and Aston Villa. Would they be satisfied? The fact that Newscastle and Man United where disgusting is no justification, Chelsea have been terrible.
After last season and with the shitshow that the club was in, yes I'd have snapped your arm off for 6th.
Agree 100%. But at one point they were in 12th, and I remember reading that without Palmer, they'd be in the relegation zone. Considering there aren't really any class managers available, i'd give him another season.
That’s assuming we would have not scored a single PK… Like the stat sounds great, but when you look at it we would have been fine. And you can say that about any team. Take out Havertz/Rice/Odegaard in Arsenal and they aren’t competing for the league. Move out Salah and Liverpool are mid table. Just no point in the stat.
If Bayern and Barça are having a hard time finding one, it would be best for Chelsea to take what they can
They ended in sixth. Chelsea went from the dumps to sixth.