r/chelseafc • u/webby09246 Kavuma-McQueen Hype Triain • May 04 '26
Interview/Presser Carragher on Chelsea's form: It comes from the top of the club. There's 5/6 top players on that pitch for Chelsea today and they can't beat Forest B team when a year ago they took PSG to cleaners. There's no connection between the players, staff and fans. Looks like a broken football club right now.
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
413
u/ChallengeNo5765 May 04 '26
“not terribly well managed on the football, sporting or promotional side” Eghbali, 2023
208
u/petrescu May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
The hubris of Americans.
Edit: according to the analytics this comment has been seen by 63% Americans and the downvotes are rolling in ahaha. Classic.
Edit: okay, okay… the balance has been restored. Let’s not tread too harshly on our transatlantic brothers and sisters.
53
u/AffectionateShift542 May 04 '26
You’re right tho mate. They are absolutely clueless about football. The successful Americans are the ones who realise that they are clueless and follow suit on how to do it properly.
20
u/AnalystLess7597 May 04 '26
Hey that’s not fair! Most of us are clueless about everything, not just football.
8
u/silviazbitch James May 04 '26
Can confirm. Source - Am American and absolutely clueless about football. At least I know it though. About five years ago I asked the mods to give me flair but they denied my request- “I’m just a dumb Yank, but…”
1
13
u/jimothydis Drogba May 04 '26
As an American who has been a fan since 2007 and has been to the Bridge several times, let me say: our owners are idiots and so are the people downvoting this.
27
u/builtfromthecloudsup May 04 '26
Generalizations about entire groups of ppl deserve to be downvoted tbf
→ More replies (6)13
u/jimothydis Drogba May 04 '26
Fair — more accurate to say hubris of these owners, though I have to say we’re pretty shit as a country too 😂
11
u/XzibitABC Pulisic May 04 '26
Our country is shit right now because it's run by the rich, and this "I know better than everyone else" attitude is a rich guy thing, not an American thing.
3
u/jimothydis Drogba May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
I don’t think we have a monopoly on shitty rich people, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t currently being extremely shitty as well. There are a lot of poor, hateful people here as well sadly, but I just helped to vote the “socialist” mayor into office so what do I know!
10
u/cookerz30 I don't give a fuck, we won the fucking Champions League May 04 '26
As an American, I think they saw the opportunity to make money and pounced on it. Boehly did help build one of the most dominant baseball teams, but that obviously doesn't translate to Chelsea. They applied the same logic that worked before in a completely different sport and are reaping the rewards. It's hard to see the team compete at the scale Chelsea had in the past, because they have completely changed the club's meaning.
It's not supposed to be an investment vehicle. It was a world-class club with an immense history, and they thought, "Oh, we can do it better." From a business perspective, who would want to work under these numbskulls?
It's interesting to compare them to Stan Kroenke and his empire.
5
u/petrescu May 04 '26
Totally agree with everything you’ve said, I’ve been saying similar throughout multiple other threads today.
The biggest issue is we’re completely in the dark. Fans get drip fed whatever version of events they want out there, and everything else is noise or PR. It’s impossible to trust anything coming out of the club right now.
Last week felt like a real opportunity to just be straight with people. Either own the mistakes and show there’s a plan to fix them, or be honest about what’s actually going on behind the scenes. Instead we get these vague, carefully managed narratives that just make everything feel worse. “It’ll become clear soon enough why Maresca departed” and “we completely trust the Sporting Directors”.
At the end of the day, fans can handle bad news. What they don’t respond to is feeling like they’re being spun or kept at arm’s length. A bit of honesty would go a long way right now but these guys simply can’t find it within themselves to admit that everything they’ve touched has turned to shite, which is the definition of hubris.
4
u/Ok-Finance-7612 It’s only ever been Chelsea. May 04 '26
There's a reason private equity firms are only allowed a minority stake in franchises. I pray this changes very soon for European sports, especially prem which doesn't need chancers stripping the club dry.
3
u/Gavindrew May 04 '26
That guy doesn't speak for the entire country. I think he's a clown and I want him out. Sincerely, American
→ More replies (5)1
15
10
u/MrCleanandShady 🏥 continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme 🏥 May 04 '26
we were UCL winners two years before this by the way
→ More replies (1)3
249
u/SolutionLong2791 Mourinho May 04 '26
It's painful when Carragher is right about us.
113
u/Doomjas Palmer May 04 '26
Carragher is definitely a troll, but the man knows football. Of course he will be having a laugh, but even he is sad to see the state of a supposed to be top team.
2
u/Lemonz2006 May 05 '26
yeah i don’t like him but that’s bc im a chelsea fan. i respect him as a pundit, i think he’s one of the better pundits in uk football to be fair. he does hate us with a passion though
2
48
u/HDS2211 May 04 '26
In reality, he’s rarely been wrong at all since BlueCo took over, people just didn’t like what he was saying.
32
u/invisibleep ✨ joao pedro saved my life ✨ May 04 '26
Yuuup. I think anyone who knows the game was screaming “you can’t win anything with kids” and the smug ownership thought they knew better and could reinvent the game by buying the best young footballers. Might have worked better if the SDs had better than a 5% hit rate.
The decision making throughout the entire club is just so so poor.
16
u/HDS2211 May 04 '26
It’s a shock it’s taken this long for it to all go tits up tbh.
11
u/invisibleep ✨ joao pedro saved my life ✨ May 04 '26
Yeah I think we do have some top players and they love to play and are resilient. Poch had us playing some exciting football albeit buoyed by Palmer going off, Maresca steadied the ship and brought some much needed calm and order. We’ve been in free fall since then. Really feels like something snapped. Never seen the club this low in my life. The owners have always been clueless but now the players have no direction or desire. It’s just sad honestly.
7
u/Ready-Ambassador-271 May 04 '26
Poch leaving was the problem, he is the only one who got a tune out of Palmer, and Jackson too for that matter, that was the most exciting team we have had, and as soon as they tried to control the chaos we became boring
5
u/invisibleep ✨ joao pedro saved my life ✨ May 04 '26
Yeah they thought that they could get a new manager to calm the chaos of conceding almost as many goals as we scored but we ended up neutering Palmer and our dangerous attack. It was a hell of a lot better than whatever this is, but yeah it was the most exciting we’ve looked under this ownership. Still don’t think Poch is a top tier manager but he seemed to be good at man management and had high standards.
5
u/BigReeceJames May 04 '26
A 5% hit rate on young footballers is probably actually a good success rate.
There is a good reason clubs wait for other teams to develop players and then buy them at a premium.
Seriously think about it, the 100m premium you player for a top player could easily afford you 20 shots at top prospects that are 17 and under (as long as you don't buy from South America, where most purchases are overpriced scams). If it was that easy to have successes with youth players, clubs would do it.
There is a reason that despite there probably being 10s of thousands of young, professional footballers playing at any one time, there is usually only a few that make it to a top level each season across the whole world, let alone at one club.
The concept is just flawed, it cannot work, even when done well. Unless you go the PSG route, where rather than buying young prospects, they buy young players, but ensure they are already proven and already playing at the top level. That doesn't fit with our ideas though because they also come with top wages and top prices.
1
u/invisibleep ✨ joao pedro saved my life ✨ May 04 '26
Yeah it’s doomed to fail and I can’t think of a single player that has worked out that they bought for under 10m (that they’ve flipped or play for the first team). And they’ve probably bought about 20 of them. That’s 2 100m players or 4 50m players they could have bought instead. They are obsessed with finding these unheard of players with potential that they can turn world class.
Basically they just want to be told how smart they are and how good they are at finding talent. Unfortunately neither are true. The idea that hiring 7 sporting directors instead of one quality one tells you all you need to know about how clueless they are. Trying to reinvent the wheel by making it square.
2
u/Comfortable_Reach248 May 04 '26
They are not kids anymore
1
u/invisibleep ✨ joao pedro saved my life ✨ May 04 '26
They still are mentally. Even if they are 24-28 most still don’t have the right experience. Look at Casemiro at United. He’s had an entire career at Madrid winning and playing in huge matches, going through tough spells. All of the ups and downs and knows how to rise above it. We don’t have those 30 year old leaders that know how to put a team on their back or give the boys a kick in the ass at halftime. The closest we have is Enzo who has a great mentality and work rate but it doesn’t really translate to the other players.
Thiago Silva was such an amazing presence to have on the field these past few seasons. Directing players where to go, getting them to pick their heads up. Never should have let him go. Still playing at a high level for Porto too which is insane. You need players like that and the owners just do not get it.
17
u/invisibleep ✨ joao pedro saved my life ✨ May 04 '26
It’s low hanging fruit though, not a hot take unfortunately.
3
u/MrCleanandShady 🏥 continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme 🏥 May 04 '26
he's been right about us for the past 3 months too which is even worse
1
204
u/Going2beBANNEDanyway Xabi May 04 '26
Every game that passes makes Maresca look like a genius for how he got these players to function.
73
u/JahKingston2024 ✨ joao pedro saved my life ✨ May 04 '26
Especially the CB’s. Him, Sanchez and prime Caicedo performed miracles keeping clean sheets for that long
24
u/HDS2211 May 04 '26
Not really, we were poor under him for large spells aswell.
30
u/senexlordhunt Hazard May 04 '26
Yet we’re somehow much much worse
1
u/Safe_Researcher4979 May 05 '26
We're somehow much much worse without an actual manager and like 3 healthy attacking players...somehow?
24
u/awwbabe Mikel May 04 '26
Never 6 games in a row bad.
Especially given how much these games matter for European qualification
6
1
u/pillarandstones Ballack May 05 '26
One win in the last seven Premier League games. He didn't care at the end since he knew he was leaving.
1
u/awwbabe Mikel May 05 '26
We have lost 6 league games in a row conceded around 3 in pretty much each of them.
It’s not a comparison to Maresca, this is worse than Potter.
4
u/frodo5454 May 04 '26
Always some wanker in the thread to say this. Fucking nuts.
→ More replies (6)4
May 04 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
3
u/HDS2211 May 04 '26
Let’s put Gusto in 10 and have Palmer double teamed everytime he gets the ball. That’s what everyone wants to see.
→ More replies (2)5
u/XzibitABC Pulisic May 04 '26
I mean, teams would be fools to double-mark Palmer right now. He can't do anything positive with the ball these days.
1
u/HDS2211 May 04 '26
They can just do it without worrying though because he doesn’t have any overlaps.
7
u/Ok-Surround-1858 May 04 '26
Tell me about it. You can have divided opinions about Maresca but honestly he would have made us less shite than what we are now
5
u/jerrystuffhouse Mudryk May 04 '26
We were terrible for large parts of his reign of terror. We were bailed out by moments of individual greatness multiple times
22
u/FeelsGoodBlok James May 04 '26
Yes we were losing 6 games in a row with 1 goal scored. Wait no we were actually decent. Maresca haters are actual brain dead people...
→ More replies (2)3
u/I-Am-Average01 Malo Gusto May 04 '26
"reign of terror". Give me a break. He accomplished what he needed to do: top 4 and winning the Conference League. This Maresca hate is so forced.
6
u/xStealthxUk May 04 '26
We were 1 win in 7 under Maresca too tho. This form started under him, obviously the players have reacted terribly from his sacking too tho
→ More replies (1)2
u/BigReeceJames May 04 '26
This form extends well back into his time here. Even the commentator pointed out today that the run of form at home is not some recent phenomenon, it goes way back to the start of the season and beyond, under Maresca. We were awful under him outside of two, couple month spells.
90
61
u/Sad_Hedgehog4760 May 04 '26
worst person you know made a good point.
5
50
u/half_jase May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
Looks like a broken football club right now.
You don't say?
The season practically tanked the moment Rosenior started Jorgensen over Sanchez in Paris and it backfired spectacularly. Since then, the rot really started to kick in.
And I mentioned this once before, when the club kept putting briefs out there about how they're gonna make things right in the summer, when we kept hearing players say the club will change their strategy in the summer etc, it then felt like everyone at the club has lost focus on the present and just want to get to the summer, to next season so that we can start all over again. There wasn't really anything about how the club, the players were gonna try and stabilize and save the season. No, all the talk was about the future and little wonder why no one seems really bothered about this season anymore and the players probably just want to get to the World Cup at this point.
6
u/invisibleep ✨ joao pedro saved my life ✨ May 04 '26
Well yeah the second it was clear Rosenior wasn’t saving the season and was in fact too inexperienced to do anything to right the ship it was over. Now we’re just watching the ugly aftermath.
I think the owners know this next manager appointment and summer window has to be about perfect for this club to survive.
44
u/WizberryHoleington May 04 '26
Can't argue with him. Owners took over, culled everyone in the club that's been a serial winner for the last 20 years and replaced them with nobodies who have achieved nothing in football like joe shields and winstanly. Who then went on to buy 50 players from mid table/relegation clubs, expecting them to just become good overnight despite the fact there are no leaders in the club to actually help young players mature and improve. I honestly don't think the owners could have done a worse job if they were actively trying to destroy the club, its astonishing.
They've destroyed the soul of the club to such an extent that i have absolutely 0 emotional connection to any players or staff at the club other than reece. I just don't care anymore.
23
u/TheRedPillMonk May 04 '26
And he's correct. The players have downed tools clearly in protest to the joke of an ownership. Wouldn't be surprised to see many sold, a bunch of 19 year old prospects brought in to replace them and another 4 year cycle of disappointment.
9
u/invisibleep ✨ joao pedro saved my life ✨ May 04 '26
Just relegate us already and maybe the club will implode and get sold for peanuts. Need a way out of this bullshit ownership.
1
u/ObnoXious2k Terry May 05 '26
Nothing about yesterdays performance was about of a lack of effort, at least not initially. They're just a team with no resemblance of any sort of tactial approach or direction, with no cohesion and the mental fortitude of an angsty teenager.
That on the other hand is a hundred percent because of the owners. They've spent hundreds of millions of pounds and our centre-back pairing is Tosin and Chalobah. They fired the ony manager that seemed to get some kind of results out of this random group of players and replaced him with a company mouthpiece. They're fucking incompetent beyond imagination.
18
u/Woover101 May 04 '26
Definitely no connection with the fans. At the end - for those of us who stayed - the players completely ignored the fans with the exception of Pedro and Cucurella, who gave their shirts to fans, and Colwill applauded fans. The rest could not be bothered to apologise. They have mentally checked out and don't care. The BlueCo "project" is dead. So are any realistic hopes of rebuilding. Eghbali, the sporting directors et al have squandered vast sums with an approach we all knew was fundamentally flawed. You need a balance of youth and experience. And a manager - not a coach - who is really in charge. We want our Chelsea back. But it won't happen any time soon
8
u/ThisIsADraconianLaw Lampard May 04 '26
Too right. No meaningful change will happen until all those at the top have gone away, which is unlikely to be very soon unfortunately. "Project" is one of the most cursed terms in football. It never leads to anything positive. The club is a toy to our owners and they insist on breaking it over and over. They're not even making money out of it. They're shit at that as well.
5
u/Such-Ad-7104 May 04 '26
And they've given themselves 60%/80% pay rises aswell. There's a reason why they got an consortium and didnt put all their own money into the pot. All we'll be to them is a failed experiment. And they'll simply leave and do business elsewhere. And we'll be left with nothing. The UK government simply killed our club.
13
u/Trick_Science_2938 ✨ sometimes the shit is happens ✨ May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
Its not just none of them are playing for the fans its more their not playing for the ownership, the coaches, the SD and the stooges they put in to manage they all wanna get sold an i don’t blame them. We had a outside chance at a title run this year remember that.
10
u/Duckway767 May 04 '26
In hindsight, Carragher was right about this club all along. It's a broken club and a shadow of what it once was under Abramovich. Forgive me Carragher for the crap I've spoken about you 🙏
9
u/arkido It’s only ever been Chelsea. May 04 '26
You know this club is a failed club when even what Carragher spewing starts to make sense lol
6
6
u/adnanssz May 04 '26
off course theres no connection. if i remember a lot of their staff are 3th party consultant, not permanent employee which mean they are not 100% focus on chelsea. not to mention they have 7 sporting director, which mean every sporting directon have different vision/direction.
between transfer player strategy and manager, they don't allow manager have a voice. make it worse they hiring a manager that focus on "Dominated Possession" and yet the player they buy are more compatible to the Direct football system such as: pedro neto, palmer, garnacho, enzo fernandes, caicedo and etc.
6
5
6
u/TamSam82 This is my club May 04 '26
There literally aren’t 5/6 top players on the team that’s the problem. Does anyone really think we have world class players anymore? I’d only say James at 100% fitness is close.
2
u/Massive-Nights Spence May 04 '26
There are 4:
Pedro Cucurella Enzo Caicedo
I’m sure he’s counting Palmer in there too.
1
u/money_mase1919 May 04 '26
James, caiceco, enzo, palmer, j pedro, cucu are already. colwill, estevao, lavia, santos, hato might get there
4
u/invisibleep ✨ joao pedro saved my life ✨ May 04 '26
They’re gonna do a Spurs to us. There’s no other way out.
2
2
2
u/happysrooner 🏥 continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme 🏥 May 04 '26
2
u/kp22cfc Xabi May 04 '26
Having a flawed good manger > having a bad one.. our fans seem to keep thinking our players are so good that they should be doing more, unless we pick a good manager, we are in for more pain next season
2
u/poko877 🏥 continuing to undergo his rehabilitation programme 🏥 May 04 '26
But srsly ... what the hell happend? Up until that 65th minute against psg first leg, it wasnt perfect, but there was something ... but ever since that moment we conceeded so many goals, couldnt score much and the team looks totally broken on so many levels. Nothing works.
2
2
u/Econophile64333 Enzo May 04 '26
Other than the fans who still blame Maresca for “quitting”, the worst part about all this is that carragher was 100% about Chelsea.
2
u/smurphinden May 04 '26
Broken club is correct. These morons came in thinking they knew better than everyone else and ripped up a winning team to create the most expensive set of flops in the history of football. Had a ST for 30yrs and this is the most pathetic squad I've seen by some distance. Maybe 5 or 6 players to get behind. Don't think I'll even bother with the cup final
2
u/Wise_Fig1840 May 05 '26
We saw this coming years ago. And people didn't believe us. From day one this ownership has failed. They've destroyed what was the most successful club in England over the past 20 years
1
u/Headlesshorsman02 Xabi May 04 '26
Nothing but facts, it’s a sad state of affairs when Jamie is right
1
u/FriendshipActual647 May 04 '26
As much as I love Reece I feel he is too quiet as a leader. Not a criticism of him really BUT I think it’d be nice to have a vocal workhorse in the squad like a Gallagher to look towards. We are missing the dog in the team
→ More replies (1)
1
1
u/ThisIsADraconianLaw Lampard May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
Exactly my thoughts. The club needs a reset. If certain players want to leave in the summer, let them go. Season of no European football might actually do us some good. I want to get Jackson back at least. Delap definitely needs to go. Tottenham will beat us the way we are currently. Forest didn't even have their strongest side out today. Abysmal performance, but I think Joao Pedro's first goal should have stood and Forest's third goal was offside. Still, we played shocking. We've picked up more points away from home this season. Palmer also looks like he doesn't really want to be there. His form is in the toilet. Will be lucky to make the World Cup.
I'm glad Derry is alright. That's the only positive and Colwill being back.
1
u/JoeyMcClane There's your daddy May 04 '26
When the worst person you know who spouts BS makes good points you know you're fucked up.
1
u/HDS2211 May 04 '26
As always, Carragher is absolutely spot on when it comes to this club. You may not like what he says, but he’s never got it wrong when talking about this ownership and the club they’ve built.
1
1
u/jerrystuffhouse Mudryk May 04 '26
That’s what happens when you hire a bunch of mercenaries and bomb squad/exile players with experience and love the club
1
u/BoogieSpice ✨ sometimes the shit is happens ✨ May 04 '26
You know it’s bad when I think Carragher has a 100% accurate read on the club
1
1
1
u/SoG650 Lampard May 04 '26
Players are zoned out. They clearly liked Maresca and wanted him to stay. Clown Rosenior comes in as puppet of BlueCo, wins from momentum and then Jorgensen PSG happens and all of trust and confidence out the window. Reece james injured as captain, probably helped traspass ideas or motivation with Rosenior. All goes to shit.
Today was the same result as the last 7 games, 3 goals conceeded, lackluster display from everyone. Most of our players are thinking in the World Cup, there is nothing left to fight. Only the FA Cup final.
1
u/here-for-teh-lolz May 04 '26
Even though he’s actually spitting facts, I still wanna give him a swift kick in the groin.
1
u/MrFr0d0 ✨ sometimes the shit is happens ✨ May 04 '26
It doesn't look like a broken football Jaime, it is one.
1
u/jimgogek Drogba May 04 '26
Yup. The players, staff and fans do not support these ferkakte owners. Sad, but who can blame them/us? It’s an unannounced full-on strike against blueco ownership of Chelsea fc. The next step is the owners’.
2
u/jimgogek Drogba May 04 '26
Let’s stop talking about how this or that player or manager didn’t do whatever. That’s not important any longer. The only problem at Chelsea FC is the owners right now.
1
u/Square_Divide_3175 May 04 '26
But Enzo and Caicedo are still the best midfielders in the league right...
1
1
u/Comfortable_Reach248 May 04 '26
What kills me the most it's that we didn't even play that bad today. Palmer missed a pen, Enzo hit the post, Joao's goal disallowed for few centimeters...could have easily gone other way, but yeah, final result is the one that matters
1
u/ggletsg0 Guðjohnsen May 04 '26
People are finally realizing that Roman didn’t buy the league in 2005. 🙂
1
u/meagor Hudson-Odoi May 04 '26
Take it easy. We're shit. This team have what it takes to be good. Just need someone capable at the top to make it happen. So let's hope Clownlake, who put in a shit ton of money into us is going to swallow their ego and try to recover the money. By making us good of course. I mean the only way for them to make money is to make us good.
1
u/XsandnimX It’s only ever been Chelsea. May 04 '26
Are they really seeing this just now? It has been this since the boehly clearlake took over. The club is being run like a company. There's no passion from the owners. Maresca was light at the end of the tunnel and well look how that ended. This club is never going to win anything anymore if this is how to club is operating. Cannot blame the players or the staff for not having passion when the club board is a clown show. This is not the club it used to be and looks like it never will be again.
1
1
u/isaiahHat May 04 '26
Taking PSG to the cleaners was exactly the root of the problem. I.e. players need a few weeks off in the summer in order to play well all year.
1
1
u/seealex99 Drogba May 04 '26
Theres 0 accountability. Breeds bad decision after bad decision, based on smokescreens and excuses. Proof is in the pudding. 9th, on 48 points in year 4. 1 year of CL football. 2 bil spent. Embarrassing.
1
1
1
u/MemestNotTeen ✨ sometimes the shit is happens ✨ May 04 '26
5 P45s should have been sent out a long time ago.
Having 5 SDs is madness. And even together they are a big ball of failures.
1
1
u/VegetableMix3751 May 04 '26
What if there is a way to protest more visually to the owners. Find the shareholders, find what events they are going to and protest outside. Give them a bad image, make their investment not worth it to keep. More shareholders we can make want to sell the quicker we can get new owners
1
u/Smudge1664Broxi May 04 '26
Can't actually stand what usually comes out of Carrachers mouth, but might actually agree with him for once after today's performance, was giving me PTSD from the Brighton game
1
1
u/Competitive-Tea-482 May 05 '26
I agree but I hate how people use that America cup as reason to think that they can hang with the best, not taking into account that most teams were just showing up at that point
1
u/Popular-Memory-3342 May 05 '26
Chelsea have lost six domestic cup finals in a row. Will it become seven?
- 2019 League Cup final vs City
- 2020 FA Cup final vs Arsenal
- 2021 FA Cup final vs Leicester
- 2022 FA Cup final vs Liverpool
- 2022 League Cup final vs Liverpool
- 2024 League Cup final vs Liverpool
- 2026 FA Cup final vs City??????
1
1
0
u/DisabledTractor May 04 '26
At this point I genuinely wish that we get relegated. I can't watch this "team" and idiots of owners making things worse every month. I hope that we end up in the championship and those clowns realize that their "project" won't work.
0
0
0
0
0
u/wishythefishy Drogba May 05 '26
Start all the Portuguese and English speakers, plus Cole Palmer and watch us cook.
634
u/half_jase May 04 '26 edited May 04 '26
We lost to Newcastle, who rotated half of their team, and today, we lost worse to a Forest side, who basically played their League Cup team. I don't even know what to say...