Mark Kelly

I know we could go back and forth for days on this , I am happy to concede that he could have handled the Costa debacle differently but would counter with the fact in the press conference after the fall out he really truly did not look like a bloke who'd got a telling off over it , he laughed uproariously at the suggestion that Costa was blaming him! Also , maybe my senses are dulled but I honestly do not remember the football being as boring as everyone else does , for sure it was a bit uninspiring and the City game was a travesty but given the players at his disposal I think he did as well as could be expected . Particularly when he apparently didn't want half of them anyway ! A good few posters blamed Conte for the loss of points at Huddersfield (?) and the players got off scott free , but how are we to be certain it wasn't the players taking it a bit easier so they could be sure of not injuring themselves in the run up to the cup final? Shifting the balance , again , moot point , he felt he had to play 3-4-3 / 3-5-2 or 5-3-2 if it helps to get the best out of the players in hand , it's perfectly feasible to suggest that to do so he needed players in the defensive positions to cover for injuries , he'd just won the league with a squad he thought were not up to much so it's unlikely he would buy players to fulfil a different formation when he believed the formation he'd picked was the winning one. Sarri I will also concede has been badly served by the board , there's no real quality there , there's two stellar players , one who could well be off regardless and an awful lot of padding I am just reticent to get behind someone who may well be leading us all up the garden path with this panacea of attractive football . I'll take successful winning football any day of the week , particularly with this board and this budget . Pep wanted ten new signings to play "his" football , Sarri has had 2/3 with one on the way which is unfair to him in my opinion when he is tasked with changing the entire philosophy of the club , I'm just uncertain given the restraints we are under that that is the philosophy we should be following , we can only ever be second best to City on those terms.

I think that Candreva over ZappaCosta would have been rewarding a manager who'd just taken the squad from 10th to Champions at the first attempt , equalling the consecutive win record along the way for a job well done instead of thumbing their nose at him and telling him he should know his place. Maybe that tiny concession would have enabled the pair of them to work together in greater not lesser harmony and maybe that would have been reflected on the pitch . I agree wholeheartedly with Costa being a big loss but he didn't want to be here and Conte did get the season out of him before allowing him to return to AM. Also again , other than letting Costa go , the issue of incompetent strikers can be laid firmly at the board who seemingly ,whatever they do get a pass from some people , Conte made the best out of getting Morata who has not looked any worse than Higuain has to be honest.

Costa wanted to leave , he asked to leave three times , Conte let him go , the club even had a press conference where Conte and the press officer laughed it up together , now Conte has got the hump the board are pretending it was an issue. He didn't leave us with what we currently had , the board did by not backing the manager with the players he wanted but players of a similar ilk that he didn't want and rarely played (his fault entirely imho) , once more , the board employed someone to do a job and then actively made that job harder to do . On purpose. I remember he wanted Candreva , he's old and finished was one of the comments used to demonstrate what an idiot Conte was , Sarri has been gifted Higuain (later than he initially wanted , yet more board based disembling) it's difficult to see why Candreva (vastly superior to Moses) was an issue when Higuain is not ( I like Higuain by the way but the point remains )

With less players Conte won the league the season before the board did for him. What does that tell you ? You're right the players are and always have been limited , Conte reorganised them so their frailties weren't as apparent, take a look at them now. I'm not saying he was perfect but he's been practically written out of history for getting the hump!

With all due respect , Conte has been appointed the sole cause of our failure to get into the Champions League , the architect of the Costa falling out , the purchaser and identifyer of sub-standard players and purveyor of the most boring football ever seen , regularly and literally on this board , you may believe they have been stripped of nuance but they have not it was said plainly and accusingly at the time . I remain constant here in my opinion that whatever we think of him as a person , as he is undoubtedly flawed , he remains a far , far better and more successful coach than Sarri will ever be favouring winning football over aesthetic football . We backed the wrong horse.

Me too . We then had the fall out with the board which if the consensus on here is to believed was all Conte's fault , which I disagree with entirely and have said as much previously . The thought that someone as intelligent , football savvy with a proven winning record would suddenly decide to buy any old rubbish because "Italian" is beyond me . To be castigated for winning the FA cup at the expense of a fourth place finish whilst Sarri is being advised to prioritise the Europa league is also galling to me , particularly when Conte shouldered the blame entirely for it when the players didn't "turn up" against Huddersfield when we know they have a propensity for doing just that as we have yet again witnessed to our despair recently. Conte has gone , not because he was a bad manager , not because our football wasn't easy on the eye but because he was hindered by someone who believed they knew best and they clearly ( as we see now ) didn't and had the temerity to stand up for himself . Conte said again and again that these players did not have it in them to win the league playing the attractive football the owner demanded and look at them now , Cardiff have as much chance of a top four finish. Conte is far from blameless in this , he cut his nose off to spite his face and by all accounts was a hostile presence at the training ground but in my opinion was betrayed by the board and certain players which made him this way . We won the league , we won the cup , we won thirteen games in a row equalling the record and all this is forgotten because a few supporters were bored to tears by it all . It's not boring now is it ? What's boring about "Dairy lea" football where you need a 95th minute goal to draw at home to a newly promoted side ? Sarri the great improver has improved Alonso into a liability , Barkley into a timid ghost , Azpillicueta into a ropey right back and Cahill into retirement . It's a con job .

The idea behind the POV is that , lets be honest , we're not pulling any trees up at the moment , we can give the marginalised players the opportunity to have a go and if it all goes horribly wrong ( I'm kinda with you on that ) at least we can say , " Well , you had your opportunity , off you pop " and then fill our boots after the ban is up. We're writing a season off in effect but in all honesty I can't see Sarri magically getting blood from a stone or the board actually putting their money where their mouth is anyway even if the ban is not upheld .

I think that's where the "work with what you have , not what you want to have" option comes in , Conte ( I know , I know ) said he simply didn't have the players to play an expansive attacking game and win so chose to be much more defensive minded , Sarri is being stubborn and trying to make a silk purse out of a sows ear with in my opinion a squad without any real and tangible quality in it , bar one or two players , and one of them has had his game tweaked and is suffering because of it. Without a proper rebuild , any coach would struggle. At this point in time I honestly believe the transfer ban could be the catalyst for real change , the dissatisfied youth players and loan army can all try and stake a claim for game time , the more mature members of the squad will either sign one year extensions or be off ( Giroud is already making rumblings ) and with a transfer ban in place and the squad decimated , surely even the media would cut the man in charge some slack ?

I wonder what the common denominator between the two sets of results is?

Much as I am keen to endorse this sentiment ( you know me well enough by now ) our two cards were probably absolute last ditch "christ ! where did he come from ?" lunges and there's were all probably a lot less hysterical.

My issue in employing a manager with a style / philosophy as it is , is why bother when the best side in the country play exactly the same way and are fully backed by their board to the tune of two teams of players who would immediately improve our team if we bought them ? Surely all you can get out of that is second place ? We certainly won't get any extra admiration from the media or fairer treatment at the hands of the officials . Why don't we do something else so that when we come up against the likes of City and Barca they are uncomfortable playing against it ? We have the template , JM mk1 . Let's have an well organised side with goals from every department with a bit of muscle and desire instead of this watered down gooner/city hybrid that flatters to deceive.

He has been trying , up until the Everton game where Costa had more of an influence on proceedings than he did , he's given up after dreadful , dreadful service .

It's not the fanbase we should be worried about it's the board until they get their marching orders it ain't getting any better

An awful lot of truth in all of that , I remember when football was fun and supporting Chelsea felt like a badge of honour , now we're a poor facsimile of Arsenal , I expect we'll have white sleeves next season.

We're definitely not winning this . They fight for every point they get and are good (as any side should be, unless you're an elite side like Chelsea) at set pieces . 2-0.