Christoph Freund

This topic contains 20 replies, has 8 voices, and was last updated by  nine nine nine 1 year, 6 months ago.

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  • #2135658

    nine nine nine
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    “Christoph Freund has agreed to become Chelsea’s new sporting director, sources have confirmed to 90min, which will see him make the switch from Red Bull Salzburg.

    The 45-year-old had already been in talks with Chelsea – as 90min earlier revealed. Those talks have now progressed further this weekend, with sources confirming an agreement has been reached.

    Chelsea’s lack of a Premier League match this weekend gave their hierarchy the chance to progress and they have now agreed terms with Freund. 90min is told he has spoken at length with new head coach Graham Potter, who in turn has green-lighted the appointment of the Austrian.

    Freund was pinpointed by co-owner Todd Boehly as the right man for the role after the club had failed to persuade former Liverpool man Michael Edwards to take charge.

    Chelsea also spoke to the likes of Paul Mitchell and Luis Campos about the role. But Freund was offered the job by Boehly and he has agreed to take charge – having been given the blessing by Red Bull Salzburg to negotiate terms with Chelsea.

    Freund signed a new long-term deal at Salzburg earlier this year, but they have not tried to prevent him from leaving, recognising that the opportunity to move to Stamford Bridge is a huge one.

    Chelsea are now set to finalise terms with Salzburg and Freund, but are expected to confirm his appointment early next week.”

    #2135814
    aindro
    aindro
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    Not sure who he is, what he has accomplished. But I see his appointment as one step forward for Chelsea FC to achieve stability. Football matters have to be handled by an expert, not by some rookies like Boehly or Eghbali. I really hope we’ll continue to progress and not to regress under this new custodian: Boehly & co, Graham Potter & possibly Freund should he agree the terms.

    We have good players but demotivated and underperformed, a good but fairly inexperienced head coach and new owners. It can go both ways but I do hope we are going upward.

    #2135919

    nine nine nine
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    Aindro, Freund has got a good reputation and bought players like Haaland and Mane to Salzburg but seemingly Salzburg don’t want to let him go and he has a contract until 2026 so we’ll have to see what happens.

    If not Freund the Club seem committed to having a Sporting Director in place by the start of the World Cup.

    #2136222
    Blueowner
    Blueowner
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    This guy no longer coming, I suppose the safe environment of Salzburg is the main reason. Wonder who else is available and willing to take this job?

    #2136232

    nine nine nine
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    • :

    Chelsea are already working on alternatives to Christoph Freund, who is surprisingly staying at Red Bull Salzburg despite agreeing a deal to become the new director of football at Stamford Bridge.

    Everything looked set for Freund to leave Salzburg for Chelsea, with a five-year contract ready for him, and with the Blues left very surprised at failing to get the deal over the line, according to Fabrizio Romano.

    Writing in his exclusive column for CaughtOffside, Romano said that Chelsea are now working on other options for the role, and are talking to more than one candidate.

    “It was a very big surprise as a deal between Freund and Chelsea was 100% agreed on Sunday afternoon,” Romano explained.

    “Both parties were ready to sign contracts this week on a five year deal but then it collapsed because Red Bull group bosses wanted to keep Freund as important part of the project.

    “It was an incredible situation, changed in 24 hours – so it’s a big blow but at same point Chelsea are already in contact with other candidates, more than one. The race is open.”

    It seems that names are being kept secret for the moment, but one imagines these will end up becoming public soon enough.

    #2136404
    aindro
    aindro
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    This is what worries me. Chelsea are no longer a preferred destination. In the summer, players rejected us for other clubs. Now directors of football.

    #2136467

    nine nine nine
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    To be fair Aindro Freund had just signed a new contract until 2026 and you wonder in the wisdom in going after him given that.

    It would have been messy and costly to get him out of that contract but make no mistake he wanted to come before Salzburg stood firm against him leaving.

    With all due respect to Salzburg Chelsea are a much bigger Club than Salzburg.

    When you chase any signing in football there’s always a chance you won’t get them. That applies to all Clubs.

    #2136511
    chelsea1967
    chelsea1967
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    You sort of wonder why Salzburg gave Chelsea authority to speak to Freund in the first place. Surely they should have made it be known in the first instance to the authorities at Chelsea that they had no intention in releasing him from his contract at any price instead of wasting everybodies time and effort.

    #2136531
    Luckydestiny
    Luckydestiny
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    Salzburg aren’t a big deal in themselves but the organisation that owns them is. To me it looks as though this guy used our interest to get himself a better deal with the RB organisation.

    It’s reported he made salzburg 500m profit in player sales, Mane and haaland two standouts. Now to be honest is chelsea that type of club? We can’t fill our first team with promising 17/18 year olds and have the luxury of still being able to compete. Ultimately the best young players are always going to be better off making break through at clubs like salzburg where they can play regularly, whether we poach their DOF or not.

    So he was either using us to increase his position within RB, or he looked at the job, compared it to what he has gained a reputation for, and decided this isn’t for me.

    It is rather embarrassing but in all honesty I think we need a DOF with experience at bigger clubs.

    #2136544
    devchels
    devchels
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    Agreed lucky, I am a bit worried looking at Freund, he has done a great job where he is and as you say I do not think he is up to a job at a top flight club. It also worries me a bit with Todd we have an excellent academy that has worked in the past is he trying to undermine this, I know with the new loan rules it is getting harder but we still need this to bring superior youngsters through to the first team and sell on those that do not make the Chelsea grade.

    #2136547

    nine nine nine
    Moderator
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    I think when things got a bit difficult in getting out of Salzburg Freund probably thought is this Chelsea job perhaps a bit too big for me and he was comfortable where he was without the level of pressure he would be under at Chelsea.

    Agree with Lucky we need someone a bit more experienced could be a fortunate escape for both parties.

    #2136593
    Blueowner
    Blueowner
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    Don’t think Todd is a worry at all, he clearly wants the academy to succeed without having to loan out a huge amount of all those players unnecessarily. If they not wanted sell them why hang onto them. You can see by the young brilliant youngsters his bringing in his thoughts are on the future. My biggest worry as always are the people managing the first team. It’s only Potters first game but tbh I was not impressed with his starting 11. Let’s see what transpires and hope he goes well.

    #2136601

    nine nine nine
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    That’s a new record for Chelsea fans Blueowner concerns about the new Manager after just one game.😊

    #2136789
    aindro
    aindro
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    For sure Boehly & co aren’t a worry. They want to achieve successes at Chelsea, I personnally can feel it. But I just that the way Boehly has conducted the business (the club here) so far may have raised big doubts in people. As I commented on the other thread, I think the way he does things is just too abrupt. He won’t be able to change the culture, the mentality, anything, overnight.

    #2136854
    chelsea1967
    chelsea1967
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    New vision, structure, style. Always going to be some eyebrow raising selections and selecting Cesar Azpilicueta to start ahead of Wesley Fofana and Kalidou Koulibaly the biggest surprise. That had my eyebrows working overtime Ancelotti style. My first thoughts were that if we played City with that set up we’d get destroyed but they went OK against the average opponent in Salzburg. Potter is not stupid and I think we best trust in him as we move ahead. He would no doubt select the side to suit whatever opponent we face and is in an early experimental stage as well as trying to get his squad to play his style. Early days and he needs time. If we drop points here and there so be it. What is another option? Any new manager needs time if their vision is different to that we are used to. The only manager that I saw that was irrelevant was Avram Grant. The players simply did their thing they were that good and the results made Grant look like a world beater which, of course, he wasn’t by a long shot. Sadly these days we don’t have that quality of player.

    #2136856
    aindro
    aindro
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    Indeed, gone are Terry, Lamps, Drog, Cole, Essien, even Anelka. They were really good. I hope Potter will not get too much pressure to deliver results. If he stays loyal to his concept that has built Ostersund & Brighton: he may just build the core of our future team. We have James, Mount, Gallagher, Broja. Chalobah. Fofana is young too.

    Back to the topic, I think Boehly realizes that we need to build. Develop. Instead of buy all the time. Hence he recruited Potter from a smaller club. Tried to recrute Freund, also from a smaller club. Bought Chukwuemeka, Cesadei, Slonina

    #2136863
    Blaze
    Blaze
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    Aindro looks like that’s the way the club may go, buy a few experienced players, bring in a local decent coach and to keep everything going as smoothly as possible for now but in reality they building for the future with some very good youth buys and more to come. I was also surprised Potter went for Aubameyang and Azpliquetea with Silva bearing in mind these 3 ages total over 100 years, Chillwill and Fofana should be starters at the back, however more worrying is that he appears to favour Jorginho who many fans believe his game is not conducive to the rest of the team. But OK we see how it goes, he probably had his own reasons as its his first game in charge.

    #2136870

    nine nine nine
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    • :

    Salzburg was a one off game and Potter had just 4 days with the players prior to that game overall it was a vastly improved performance and the team selected was purely to try and win the Salzburg game which would have happened bar a defensive hiccup from Silva who up to that mistake had a perfect performance.

    #2136933
    NIBlue
    NIBlue
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    This is a key role for the future going forward, combined with a knowledgeable Head Scout.

    Success with the academy was not an overnight change, it took years in the development and it was the 13/14 season when we started to reap the rewards of the previous years investment, which coincided with the start of our decline.

    From the 2013/14 to the 2018/19 season we won 16 titles across the youth set up. Since then two.

    Okay Covid played a part, but we have also seen a lot of youngsters move on recently because of the lack of first team opportunity, and let’s face it, if not for the transfer ban it is highly unlikely that James, Mount and Abraham would have been given the chances they were.

    The years of investment in the Academy were slowly being undone under the previous Management regime, who looked upon the players as purely financial assets as opposed to future on field assets.

    The previous Management Team had clearly no preparation in place to meet the demands of change to the New Loan Model, given the number of players who were still on our books, and for the life of me I cannot understand how so many players, last season and this, were getting to or got to the stage that they could move on a free. The sanctions are no excuse whatsoever as they were but a short moment in time ofvwhen negotiations could happen.

    I am quietly optimistic, (and as always being a Chelsea Supporter have a pinch of anxious) about the new ownership and management team.
    They seem to have a better crasp of the concept that we are first and foremost a Football Club that provides a massive business opportunity. They appear to realise that it is what happens on the pitch that influences the off pitch activity. Just look at the fact that the new owner took time out to reassure CHO.

    There will be ups and downs on the way, but long term its looking good.

    #2137035
    aindro
    aindro
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    NIBlue: I honestly think the contrary. We’d never take advantage of our academy until the transfer ban. Mount, James, previously Abraham all got more opportunities when we suffered from that transfer ban. The only previous academy players who had a lot of influence in our successes was only John Terry. But we really had a good core in players we’d acquired from young age like Lampard, Cech, Courtois & Essien, and at their golden age (25-28) like Cole, Drogba & Cahill. We can also put Hazard, Kanté & Diego Costa in this category. But except Kanté (who is barely there due to injuries), they are all gone.

    Now our approach has to change, we can’t just buy all the time. We have our academy graduates who can become the new core. But our buys IMO weren’t top. The only acquisition who really has marked his influence at Chelsea is Kanté. After him, our buys IMO haven’t been top class. Hence the importance of director of football IMO. Get top players but also balance with the academy graduates to achieve optimal results.

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