Monroe Transfer

Honestly I don't think I'd get that excited if England managed to actually go somewhere in a tournament. I just have no connection to them at all - I want them to do well but emotionally I'm just not that bothered. The loss against Germany didn't affect me. Whether my interest levels would increase if England made the semis/final, I don't know. I wouldn't be in tears if we lost either way, that I'm sure of. Sad, unpatriotic, a shame, call it what you will.

Looking more and more fucked as times goes on. Left it too late to change the manager. Can only assume Lerner presumed they'd be too good to go down, or the other clubs not good enough to stay up. Might not be everyone's cup of tea, but to me they're a proper, famous, old club that have been synonymous with the top flight during my lifetime at least. To have them not They've just been dreadful all season, but not catastrophically so, thus the media glare has avoided them for the most part. They've done just enough to stay out of the zone but now they're right on the brink of it. They're got 3 really tricky ties coming up (the next one is a derby at the Hawthorns!), and have played a game more than Bolton.

People wrote Chelsea off before Barca. Why write them off again? They proved the doubters wrong.

Oh please. Stick to cricket.

Agreed. I just don't want us to miss out on something by a fine margin, or because a certain London club had to ruin it by something beyond our control. To get this far and to lose out because of Chelsea or because of that Vermaelen goal would be hard to take, but as you say either way there's a lot to be positive about. Still, we'll see. The next few weeks will be massive, both short term and perhaps even long term if we make the CL.

You're doing a very good Bayern Munich side a huge disservice right there. Not sure why some think it's a foregone conclusion that Real will overcome their deficit and go through to the final.

So now someones told me that the PL site says that third place doesn't have to endure the play-offs.... ... this is all so, so confusing

What a wonderfully pointless post.

You realise Bayern Munich are currently the ones with one foot in the final, right?

So as things stand it's terrible for us. If we finish fourth we'll have to endure a horrible week after the season ends, and then 90+ minutes to decide what European competition we'll be playing in next season. Even if we finish third, them winning it will mean we'll have to get into the CL via the play-offs. I want to avoid the play-offs at all cost if we finish in the top 4, firstly because I don't want a repeat of Partizan and secondly because the play-offs take place at the end of august (making transfers very awkward, as we saw with Arsenal this pre-season).

Nonsense. Just like the nonsense spouted before the semis had started along the lines of "it's Barca, they're invincible, Chelsea will never beat them". Chelsea still have a very strong squad, as they would with all that money. They also seem to attract a lot of.... fortunate things (could call it being jammy I guess).

Followed that up with this moment of cringe-worthiness.

Ben Arfa is twice the player he is.

All the players being out means little, Chelsea have luck on their side.

If Chelsea win the CL and we finish third, we'll have to qualify for the CL via the play-offs. Stupid UEFA rule.

Fucks sake man, cmon Barca. Both CBs injured, down to 10 men. They simply can't mess this up.

Ban CT from the football forum during the summer pls

Since when was Ba a midfielder!?

He was so shocked earlier on in the season when he finally scored for them that he didn't know how to celebrate and ended up doing some dance.

We already have a good mix of ages, and you'd expect some of the younger ones to really push on next year. Colo is the only starter who is not in his 20s or a teenager. And Shola is the only other one in his 30s who'll play for us for the remainder of the season. And both of them only turned 30 themselves in recent months. Average age of 25-26, which is perfect really. Approaching peak years, plenty of experience already. It's a fairly young squad, all things considered. We're not relying on 31+ year olds like Chelsea (Drogba is 34), Liverpool (Gerrard, almost 32) and Man Utd (Scholes, 37).

Saw something on Skysports.com. Bebe was a bargain

That Man City game will likely be huuuuge for both clubs. Especially if they beat Man Utd and we beat Wigan (plus whatever happens in between those matches at the Bridge). And it's on TV as well.

Get rid of that sig already.

I wasn't defending him tbh, more wondering why in comparison the others got away with it to an extent on forums such as this (I'm not talking about the man in the street as I have no right to).

I don't quite understand how the other players from that time usually don't get half as much disdain as he does.