How much did Chelsea ruin us this season?

[Finnegan]

I know a lot of people will disagree but I still believe sincerely we'd have survived if he'd stayed. 

 

We'd have still sold KDH, just to Brighton instead and probably still have replaced with him with Bounanotte as a result. 

 

We wouldn't have bombed the cash on Skipp, we wouldn't have wasted time with Ayew, BDCR and Edouard. The squad wouldn't be infinitely better but we'd probably have picked up a couple of promising young loans or something instead who would have had more impact. 

 

But mostly, the squad would have just had some self belief, some fight, some actual direction and a bit of morale. 

 

You can complain the players are too weak mentally or they don't care enough or they're too entitled and you might be right in some cases. But they've basically had zero coaching and off field leadership all season and what you're witnessing currently is the result of that. 

 

I'm not suggesting Enzo is the best coach in the league or that his style of football would have been ideal for us this year but his sheer presence and his bond with the squad would have been a massive difference maker. 

 

At very, very least we'd be taking it down to the last day with Wolves instead of going out with a whimper but I honestly don't think it'd have come to that. 

 

[Chown]

The Cooper bashing still goes on doesn’t it? The bloke got 15 goals and 10 points in 12 PL games out of this squad. Who realistically could have we got that would have got a better return out of our squad than that? I’d argue the best managers in Europe would do well to get this team to score 15 goals in 12 PL games.

[dooflip]

2 hours ago, Tielemans63 said:

Leicester City ****ed Leicester City. No point blaming Chelsea. Entirely self-inflicted 

Agreed. Chelsea didn’t help. But we handled it all very badly.

 

even last season we paid good money for players we shouldn’t have - coady winks etc.

 

enzo leaving meant we had to scrabble around for a manager when we didn’t expect to. That led to a poor choice that then influenced our transfer strategy. I still cannot believe the money we spent and what we got in return. Bek was the only sensible buy. Bdcr, ayew, edouard, skip. Ffs.

Coulibaly I have actually really liked when I’ve seen him, and feel he could actually be our best option, especially if we are playing wing backs.

 

We are going to have largely the same squad next year. Mads goes, for a lot less than he would have done next season. Bek probably, at us breaking even. Who the hell is buying anyone else? We are terrible.

Those players on show tonight were championship players at best.

[Number 6]

I think it ****ed us in a few ways:

 

1. Immediately killed any positive vibes. We were right back to dreading the season and had no positive carry over.

2. Transfer window would have been much better under Enzo.

3. Timing was awful. We all thought a points deduction was incoming and this limited our options, culminating in two awful appointments.

 

I actually don't think Enzo would have kept us up but I think we'd be in a better place than we are now and the season might have had some positives. It's not an excuse for those in charge though.

[LCFCCKEANO]

He would’ve been sacked in November/December, fans were already turning on him in the months prior to the champ title, It would’ve taken either a Moyes type hit or an Iraola/Frank type, we went for Iraola/Frank and ended up with Koeman’s simple cousin

[murphy]

I think that Chelsea poaching Enzo did screw us, but not for the reasons you might think. 

 

After evading the points deduction we needed faultless recruitment and a plan.  Unfortunately, losing Maresca led to the geniuses at KP towers to appoint Steve Cooper.  That led to signing the likes of skipp, Ayew, Decorva Reid etc and that screwed us. 

 

I think we would have struggled with Maresca at the helm.  When he left, we should have recognised that we lacked quality, bought in pace and set up to counter attack and mitigate that lack of quality.  Cooper was never the answer and we then gambled and got even worse! 

 

 

 

[honeybradger]

28 minutes ago, Chown said:

The Cooper bashing still goes on doesn’t it? The bloke got 15 goals and 10 points in 12 PL games out of this squad. Who realistically could have we got that would have got a better return out of our squad than that? I’d argue the best managers in Europe would do well to get this team to score 15 goals in 12 PL games.

We were outplayed by Ipswich and Southampton under Cooper, the only reason he got points against them (half his points tally) were them getting two silly red cards. He benched Fatawu and Ricardo, signed Ayew, Cordova Reid and Skipp.

 

Cooper was a horrible manager for us, the best thing he did was getting sacked and getting replaced by Van Nistelrooy as it made him look half competent in comparison.

 

I say this as someone who thought he would do a job for Leicester when he signed because of what he did at Forest so I had no bias against him.

Edited 7 April by honeybradger

[funkyrobot]

2 hours ago, Bilo said:

We'd have been in the same position. Enzo would have made the exact same errors that Russell Martin did.

Enzo is a better coach than Martin. He’s a better coach and man manager than Cooper and RVN. We would’ve been in a better position had he stayed and had we kept KDH.We certainly wouldn’t’ve signed Ayew, BDCR, Edouard or Skipp. He wouldn’t’ve sidelined Fatawu and Mavididi, he wouldn’t’ve used VK, he wouldn’t set up a midfield with just 2 non creative 6’s in. Bouba and Ndidi. He wouldn’t get in to arguments about commuting. Yes the club is a shambles from senior management down but with this in mind Chelsea effectively ruined any hope when they took our manager and our best player. 

[cityfanlee23]

I don't think Enzo is anywhere near as special as many think, and I wanted him to be replaced because I didn't believe his style would work, but there is absolutely no doubt he is better than SC and RVN, I think we would have gone down, but it would have atleast been fighting, and I think we would be in a far healthier situation now regarding players on the books and would likely be going down without the likes of BDCR, Ayew, Skipp and Edouard on the books. 

[Pliskin]

3 hours ago, An Away Move said:

This season has been an abomination. How different would it have been if Chelsea didn’t knee cap us on arrival into The Premier League by poaching Maresca. I think it really ****ed us up. The fantasy is that he might have kept us up if he’d stayed. But you have to look at Ipswich who kept their highly rated manager and barely doing better than us at the moment. 

Chelsea? This is precisely why we are in the shit, delusional fans…..

 

King power et al are to blame for this season. 

[The Horse's Mouth]

Enzo would’ve been gone by Christmas, far too stubborn in his system, would’ve been kompany esque 

[Larry_LCFC]

Only so much you can polish a turd. Enzo polished it good in the Championship but the lack of recruitment was always coming to bite us in the arse. Don't get me wrong, RVN is the worst manager we've ever had, but the squad is absolutely vile beyond words.

[Dan]

They've exposed us for what we really are.

[funkyrobot]

7 hours ago, Pliskin said:

Chelsea? This is precisely why we are in the shit, delusional fans…..

 

King power et al are to blame for this season. 

No LCFC fan disputes the terrible mismanagement by the KP senior team but If you don’t think Chelsea poaching our manager and our best player on the eve of the new season has had any impact on our season then you could be accused of being delusional!😂

Edited 8 April by funkyrobot

[funkyrobot]

6 hours ago, Larry_LCFC said:

Only so much you can polish a turd. Enzo polished it good in the Championship but the lack of recruitment was always coming to bite us in the arse. Don't get me wrong, RVN is the worst manager we've ever had, but the squad is absolutely vile beyond words.

The point is there’s absolutely no way Enzo would’ve chucked money and contracts at Skipp, Okoli, Ayew, BDCR and Edouard. Our squad would’ve been way more competitive had the money been spent by Enzo than Cooper. 

[Jazzy_Jeff]

Had a huge impact.

 

We’ll never know how well  KDH would have done and if Enzo was in charge we would not have signed the dross that we did. 

[An Away Move]

36 minutes ago, Jazzy_Jeff said:

Had a huge impact.

 

We’ll never know how well  KDH would have done and if Enzo was in charge we would not have signed the dross that we did. 

Indeed. And let’s not underestimate how bedded in Maresca’s style was. To go from that to Cooper ball and RvN since has been catastrophic. This is why Rudkin should lose his job. No joined up long term succession strategy. 

[An Away Move]

7 hours ago, cityfanlee23 said:

I don't think Enzo is anywhere near as special as many think, and I wanted him to be replaced because I didn't believe his style would work, but there is absolutely no doubt he is better than SC and RVN, I think we would have gone down, but it would have atleast been fighting, and I think we would be in a far healthier situation now regarding players on the books and would likely be going down without the likes of BDCR, Ayew, Skipp and Edouard on the books. 

I think Enzo would have kept Nelson and Alves around too, which would not have weakened the first team and links academy to squad, which is important for development of players and financial assets. . 

[Claudio Fannieri]

8 hours ago, Chown said:

The Cooper bashing still goes on doesn’t it? The bloke got 15 goals and 10 points in 12 PL games out of this squad. Who realistically could have we got that would have got a better return out of our squad than that? I’d argue the best managers in Europe would do well to get this team to score 15 goals in 12 PL games.

It was Cooper who insisted on signing players with premier league experience so we spaff money on BDCR, Ayew, Eduoard and Skipp, all of which barely get a sniff, then he excludes Ricardo. We conceded chances at an alarming rate and only for horrendous finishing and our goalkeeper making unreal saves were we spared from a number of heavy defeats. 
 

Ruud is appalling, been a terrible appointment but so was Cooper, the work he did to let the structure and culture unravel in such a short space of time makes him equally as culpable to the absolute shit show of a season. 

[Chrysalis]

They helped us, if Enzo stayed we would be around 10 points fighting with Southampton for 20th.

[Terraloon]

1 hour ago, Jazzy_Jeff said:

Had a huge impact.

 

We’ll never know how well  KDH would have done and if Enzo was in charge we would not have signed the dross that we did. 

Enzo left first all intents days after the end of the 23/24 season. Most on here couldn’t wait to see the back of him so it’s total hypocrisy for the majority to point the finger now.
 

Most clubs that loose the services of their manager are in a position to appoint another within days .

 

Some of those appointments inevitably fail others don’t. Sometimes their predecessor had simply  lost the plot others it’s because they aren’t up to it but when you drill down it’s more often than not the resources ( players ) simply aren’t up to standard and that’s the real issue at LCFC in season 24/25.

When it comes to KDH he was leaving partly down to his ambition but it mainly revolves around the balance sheet . He in all probability would have been a starter had he stayed but from everything I have seen he is at best a lower PL team player at best.Would he have made a difference? Who knows 
 

Irrespective if he hadn’t been sold what would have been  the consequences?

 

Relegation is all but confirmed. With that  relegation will come problems that weren’t there two seasons ago. The blame isn’t Chelsea’s the blame lies with LCFC hierarchy and as I said in another thread decisions made in seasons past will come back to haunt.
 

When many were dancing a hop and a skip when the club avoided scrutiny I was concerned that those “victories” would ultimately be a negative. I did and still believe that it would have been better to face up to the excesses and take the medicine at the time . Now there will be no mitigation and if the EFL does indeed have jurisdiction or a PL sanction follows LCFC then promotion is going to be a huge challenge to say the least.

 

 

 

Edited 8 April by Terraloon

[ceebeefox]

11 hours ago, An Away Move said:

This season has been an abomination. How different would it have been if Chelsea didn’t knee cap us on arrival into The Premier League by poaching Maresca. I think it really ****ed us up. The fantasy is that he might have kept us up if he’d stayed. But you have to look at Ipswich who kept their highly rated manager and barely doing better than us at the moment. 

Damaged but not ruined by taking KDH, yes, Enzo, no.

[Glasgow fox]

Not as much as a little man called Brendan

[oadby.fox]

Can someone explain to me why KDH and Maresca leaving was beneficial for financial reasons?

 

Firstly, weren’t the issues regarding PSR concerning our prior stint in the league? Secondly, if we did need the money, then our transfer business didn’t really reflect that. Couldn’t we have (hypothetically) kept both KDH and Maresca, and simply not signed Skipps, Edouard, and one of Ayew or DCR? Similarly, we could’ve sold Kristiansen to Bologna and done some mixture of the above. Skipps only cost a little bit less than KDH and offers pretty much 0 footballing value. None of it made any financial sense at the time and still doesn’t. I suppose my ultimate point is that, once again, we’ve gone out to sign players who most of us could’ve predicted would add very little quality, players that will now be on good wages and hard to shift in the championship. KDH didn’t want to leave and was one of our best players. So to replace him with Skipp and co at cost makes very little sense. 

[honeybradger]

5 minutes ago, oadby.fox said:

Can someone explain to me why KDH and Maresca leaving was beneficial for financial reasons?

 

Firstly, weren’t the issues regarding PSR concerning our prior stint in the league? Secondly, if we did need the money, then our transfer business didn’t really reflect that. Couldn’t we have (hypothetically) kept both KDH and Maresca, and simply not signed Skipps, Edouard, and one of Ayew or DCR? Similarly, we could’ve sold Kristiansen to Bologna and done some mixture of the above. Skipps only cost a little bit less than KDH and offers pretty much 0 footballing value. None of it made any financial sense at the time and still doesn’t. I suppose my ultimate point is that, once again, we’ve gone out to sign players who most of us could’ve predicted would add very little quality, players that will now be on good wages and hard to shift in the championship. KDH didn’t want to leave and was one of our best players. So to replace him with Skipp and co at cost makes very little sense. 

The KDH and Maresca sales were not in the same accounting period as the Skipp, Reid etc buys. Selling kristiansen would have resulted in a further loss as sales go on the accounting books as (sell value) - (purchase value)*(years since purchase/contract length) and we wouldnt have been able to sell for £10mil.