A Fresh Start For Each And All?

[SerenityNigh]

I'm not sure that's quite right. Chelsea won the league in 2015 and 2017 so 2016 was clearly just an anomaly. We finished 7th and have lost one, possibly two of our best players since then. There is a genuine chance that we are actually 'really really bad'.

I guess. I don't think this is a club in relegation crisis a the moment. I mean I guess if we bring someone in who can't get 32 points in 29 matches, that's really bad, but I don't see that happening.

 

[Barnfred 55]

Until we know who the new manager will be, it’s hard for me to be as hopeful as your good self. Right now we are in upheaval and that is not a good place to be and will last sometime yet even beyond the managerial appointment. We have seen teams before sack managers early on only to sack again and still get relegated. Teams with good players do go down.
The issue here is not the quality of the players but their ability to play together. That is where Koeman failed and it is the nettle the next manager must grasp.
Worrying times.

Lets hope your pessimism is off the mark then.

 

[Lanolin]

The flip side to that argument is that, if the players in the squad are really really that bad (as in relegation quality bad) then the manager wasn't actually underperforming, and therefore shouldn't have been sacked.

Not sure it quite works like that.

Koeman clearly had a hand in signing the players, so he takes blame for that, and the way in which we lost was clearly at his door too - you can't lose 3-0 twice, 4-0 and 5-2 and get away with it - so I think it's clear he was underperforming.

I've said before that I don't think we'll be relegated, but the truth is I'm really not sure just how good this side is now. There are a number of players in the squad who are clearly below average in PL terms, whether because age has caught up with them (Williams, Jagielka), they haven't hit their peak (Holgate, Kenny) or they're just not very good (Martina). We then have a number of players who we think should be good, but have no record of achievement either with us or in the league. There's a genuine possibility that Klaassen and Sandro will never adapt to English football, that Sigurdsson really can't do it when he's out of his Swansea bubble, and that Keane isn't suited to a style of play other than that which he excelled in at Burnley. I hope that none of those things turn out to be the case, in which case you're right and we'll power up the league very soon, but I don't think we can rule out the possibility that we've done some poor business and left ourselves with a poor side.

 

[RomanReigns]

I'd welcome back the hadjuk split fans with open arms

We all deserve a second chance

 

[ToffeeDan]

Well any new manager is going to get more of a tune out of these players who were clearly sidelined and told to do one by Konman..

Barkley, Mirallas, Niasse (for the most part, though I commend his attitude in the face of such terrible odds), Dowell (stiffed to Forest), Galloway and Browning (ditto, to Sunderland), Besic (injury prone, yes, but hardly given much of a shout), Macca (it seems, see Besic), Kenny (only chosen as a last resort), Robles (more or less thrown out with the bathwater having done an ok job (at least compared to Stek, barring that one game at City)), Jags (ignored for Fat Lad), Ashley (who might go on a diet if Jags gets a look in and make fewer ricks), Lookman, Lennon, an off form Schneids, Garbutt

That's a rather large list.

 

[Efctrueblue]

The players have to prove they want to/deserve to be at our club now! Yes the manager takes most of the blame but the players are not totally excused!!

 

[Huyton Layne]

Let's forgive everyone. Barmby/Bilic managerial combo please.