Going by your loose definition of world class i'd include Bailly, Valencia, & Matic to our list. I agree with you thought a large part of our problem is we don't have a single attacking player who's world class which is our problem. Spending 75m on the likes of Lukaku was a waste when you have higher potential forwards like Martial/Rashford. Every team has that top level wide creative player except for us, and we wonder why we can't score consistently...
Don’t make me laugh, please.
Who would Matic replace at Barca, Real Madrid or Bayern? Is Matic better than Rakitic/Busquets? Is he better than Kroos/Modric/Casemiro? Is he better than Vidal?
Then you mentioned Valencia? The only reason we love Antonio here is because of the effort he puts in. As far as his ability is concerned, he’s several tiers below Alves, Carvajal, etc. He’s not World class.
I can agree with you on Bailly. He’s very good but what good is a player if he’s only played 8 games out of the 20 league games played so far. His value is on the pitch, not on the bench. If he’s not available to feature in the big games, then it’s the same as not having him here at all.
Solid from back to front? 
We conceded 53 league goals that season and Begovic was considered by many fans to be our 2nd best player of the campaign. We could barely string two passes together and could only score ourselves from set pieces and opposition cock up's. Hiddink steady'd the ship yes but he didn't fix the numerous flaws in the squad. We had only one defender who was top class, the rest were either bang average or past it, and to compound that they couldn't play out from the back and lost/panic hoofed the ball under the slightest pressure. Our midfield consisted off Matic, Mikel and Cesc two of which were bang average and the other can only perform well when given space to operate, Hazard and Costa were off form most of the season, Pedro looked a flop at the time and Willian is also bang average.
Did it help Conte not having Europe? Ofcourse, but please don't pretend he had a ready made, well conditioned squad, because it couldn't have been further from the truth.
Conte still won the league with the bulk of players he inherited from Jose. Courtois, Azpilicueta, Fabregas, Matic, Costa, Pedro, Willian, Cahill, etc.
There was nothing broken at Chelsea, the players just conspired to get rid of their manager. Their league victory in 2014/15 wasn’t a fluke. Conte’s job of getting the team to play to their ability was easier than the dross Jose inherited at OT.
not sure what all the guff is about spending - I do have some sympathy for Jose on the fact he's trying to build a team from the awful transfer regimes of Moyes and LVG but 18 months in we aren't where we should be and we look desperate in attack at times
The board should take all the blame here.
a good coach gets the best out of players......an example was Fergie who won the league with ease and without resorting to Chelsea/City spending
Fergie spent money too. Let’s not forget he paid 30 odd million for Rio as far back as 2002. Rooney was a teenager when Fergie forked £30m to get him from Everton.
have a look at the team that lined up.vrs Arsenal when we beat them 8-2..... the likes of Cleverley and Ando in midfield, Young, Welbeck in attack....Fergie knew how to develop a team that were hard to beat and, most importantly, had a fluid and cohesive attacking strategy.
That era was different & Fergie had plenty of time to work his magic to get the team playing like he wants them to. Fergie went without a title from 2003 to 2007. At no point was there a panic that he might lose his job. It’s a different circumstance to Jose. Some of our fans are already saying he should go.
sadly that's where Mourinho is failing..... pound for pound we are miles behind City, and even Spurs and Liverpool in terms of creating an effective attacking team
I'd love to see what Poch would do with our budget
Poch will of course beat majority of the teams in the top 8 at OT and then lose scandalously to them playing away from home. You guys don’t realise the pressure that comes with managing a mammoth club like Man Utd. A club where you are expected to win every game even if 80% of your squad is injured.
I’m afraid - Poch does not have the clout to manage Man Utd. He would drag us down to LVG level. There’s no manager in the world at the moment that can step in those shoes apart from Jose/Pep. We have Jose, the next step is for the board to back him to the hilt. Give him what he wants. He’s done it before, he will do it again.
