All things Poch, our fanbase and what I believe we need!
I have steered clear from talking about Chelsea properly for my last couple of articles, now it is time to give my thoughts.........
Good Afternoon Ladies and Gents,
The current situation and feeling around the club is really frustrating me at the minute and the players/management aren’t the biggest frustration for me.
Through MY lifetime we have been so incredibly successful and spoilt, we have constantly hired and fired managers, spent hundreds of millions on players and reaped the rewards from all of this. BUT this is one of the reasons we all feel so low about how we have been over the last 2 years or so, we have NEVER had any sustainability to dominate and be successful like a Man City (2018-2023) or Man U of many eras.
Whether we can see it or not right now, this is what the board and owners are trying to build for the future, it does not and will not happen overnight and we have to accept that, HOWEVER that does not mean we should just sit there and accept bad performances or results, it is a fine line between the two in my view.
In my opinion I am DESPERATE for us to dominate and be successful with some longevity, don’t get me wrong I have loved every trophy we have ever won, BUT how great would it be to dominate and be the favourite for every single competition we enter for a sustained period of time? For that to happen I have already accepted we will be inconsistent for a while, look at Arsenal when Arteta came in, 8th, 8th, 5th, 2nd. or Klopp when he joined Liverpool. It does not and will not happen overnight.
Our fanbase (predominantly on social media) are incredibly Toxic and I cannot believe I am seeing people even mention Poch out. Firstly, who the hell would replace him? Secondly, we will keep going around in this horrible merry-go-round of hiring and firing every year when all we need is a little bit of continuity and some time to gel and bring everything together.
We need some other things on top of that, like some experience and some older figures, a World-Class Striker and to trim the squad a little further. After that we just need hard work and continuity on the training ground and I believe it will all come together.
My thoughts on Poch are this. Can he improve? YES. Has he made in imprint of the team? YES. Does he deserve the time and backing from everyone? YES.
We need to give Poch the time and the resources he fully needs, although this is a new squad with a ridiculous amount of new players, we have to remember that Poch has only had a say in a few of these signings and is now starting to get more and more power over all sorts of elements at the club and recruitment levels.
We need to improve, but at the same time we need to accept that we will not improve without small failures, it is the mistakes and the things that go wrong in life that help us learn and grow in my view. There is no guarantee that we get through this phase of the transition and we come out the end of it as a dominant force, BUT I can see the long term vision of the club, it is the short term that is suffering for it currently, IF we can find a balance to work towards our long term goals, whilst performing well in the short term that is the Happy-Medium I believe we need.
Thank you all for reading and please feel free to give me your opinions in the comments!
Luke Rushbrook
See, I agree with all of this. And living in America I can tell you that the Dodgers are incredibly well run and if we end up looking like them we’ll be an even greater winning machine than Roman ever built.
My emotions do get the best of me and I’ve been a bit negative on here of late. Pains me to see my Chelsea destroyed. I am hoping for brighter days!
Every time a manager is underperforming the question is who will replace him. Every time a replacement is found. It will be no different this time. It's absolutely the wrong question to ask. The right way to do it is to set some metrics which constitute sufficient grounds for firing either in terms of results or performances, pick your own metrics. If you think you might fire him then it's probably better to do it as early as possible to give the new guy whoever it might be time.
Personally I would fire Poch. I have great hopes for this squad and I think they are being let down by the manager. Certainly injuries, youth are all contributions but he hasn't helped himself.