Howay

Only a mackem could try to turn a comparison to Simeone into a negative. “Ahhhh marra Simeone? Knaaas nowt his team just bullies, don’t play proper football like the lads”.

Agree with this. It’s a risk but our owners see it as a measured risk to get us to our long term aims. We are establishing ourselves as hard negotiators who pay a fair price but won’t be taken to the cleaners, or panic. We did this in the most uncomfortable position imaginable 12 months ago when we refused to give in to demands for Botman, or Carlos, and it’s worked out for us. We now have that to fall back on in negotiations as proof us walking away isn’t a bluff, players know it (see Gordon quotes regarding not wanting to miss his chance) and clubs are learning. Contrast that to Chelsea who are a complete fucking laughing stock, tried to play hardball with Benfica and have ended up paying exactly what Benfica demanded. While Chelsea are an extreme I think Manchester United are another example who get their eyes ripped out on basically every deal because they’ve established themselves as a soft touch who will overpay/panic (I think Ajax wanted 80m for Anthony earlier in the window which Man Utd walked away from before coming back and paying 20m more). It makes me nervous and I really wanted us to sign a CM, but I trust the owners plan and Howe to get us to where we need to be. It could mean we miss CL this season, but the upside if we manage to get it this season is fucking huge as Isegrim points out.

Just being straight up racist now, what a fanbase. In fact another of the racists decided to hop in and double down on the racism.

Apparently Chelsea forgot to submit any of the paper work for Ziyech’s move to PSG, so his move collapsed while he was sat at PSG’s general office. Considering some are making out that Boehly and his lot are cunning geniuses navigating FFP in ways no one has they look more like a bunch of amateurs who will cause severe issues down the line imo.

He was booked, so there’s a fucking ridiculous rule where if the player was booked it’s deemed the ref hadn’t missed the incident he just saw it as a bookable offense so they won’t upgrade the punishment despite everyone and their dog knowing the decision was completely wrong. Makes a fucking farce of the entire thing but here we are.

Aye, I think it’ll be a big indicator of ASMs future if Murphy starts. There’s surely no argument that ASM isn’t fit at this point so if he doesn’t start it’s clear he’s just not favored.

Absolutely fucking buzzing, can’t believe we’re in a final this soon after take over. Good finishes by Longstaff for both his goals, if he can start hitting the target like that more often it’ll really help us in the second half of the season, we went to bits second half and lost our cool at times but fortunately it didn’t cost us. Losing Bruno for three games is wank but the rest might actually do him some good.

Class. I always love them bringing up play-off trips to Wembley as being a point of pride, you only go because you’re not good enough for automatic promotion if we’re at the stage of counting that shite then we’ve got two recent league titles, fucking morons.

We did the right thing, the deals weren’t there so we didn’t overstretch for lesser targets. Getting rid of Shelvey is a no brainer, I know Glooms view on him but my personal opinion is he’s absolutely no miss whatsoever so I think we’ve done phenomenal business getting shot of him for what we did, plus the bloke is a cunt (Jonjo not Gloom 😉). Maybe we could have made our top 4 challenge stronger, but at the same time I fancy our chances even with the current CM especially with Gordon coming in meaning J7 can drop to CM as and when needed. We will have a lot more firepower in the second half of the season with Isak and Gordon, having those two in will also stop Almiron getting the coverage he’s received recently. I don’t think Connor Gallagher was the separator between us getting Top 4 or not tbh.

Aye it seems very PR-ish, I think Man City will focus on Bellingham in summer. I’m not bothered either way, if we get top 4 (tbh even if we don’t) the summer is going to be a completely different market for us compared to the one a year ago. We’ve kept our powder very dry and could make a big splash with CL income coming in.

Ah well

https://swissramble.substack.com/p/will-chelseas-transfer-spend-break Here’s the piece, so their losses are fucking huge each year and unlikely to improve but they’ve been overcoming them with massive player sales. The issue they have is that’s less likely going forward, which has started telling with the struggles to move on the likes of Bakayoko, Lukaku, Ziyech, etc.

Aye I’ve been searching about out of interest to try and find someone that discusses the more medium term impacts for chelsea, as there’s just a lot screaming on about how it’s fine right this minute but not many discussing down the line. Swiss ramble did a piece where it’s basically saying they need to have big sales like they did recently, but he questioned on if that’s realistic. Surely this will end in trouble.

Absolute scumbags. The wanker having a go at Gordon for not getting out of his car is an absolute melt, I’m sure you’d have got right out your car as a 21 year old kid at night to a crowd of blokes with their faces covered hurling abuse at you. It’s pathetic man, it’s a fucking game of football you scummy twat. No wonder Gordon couldn’t get out quick enough, it’ll make it hard to attract players going forward as well as anyone that’s seen that would think twice about going.

He really can’t get anything right can he? Freddy Woodman was sold in summer.

The sale of Gordon going down well (nsfw language, if anyone can understand it)

Tindall

wykiki’s main man at it again

Interesting that it looks like Gordon put in a transfer request to leave Everton, they just put out a statement about him leaving and stated that in there. We’re massive now lads. Not Sunderland massive, as we all know we all dream of one day playing the type of attacking football that the “new entertainers” as they are now being dubbed play, I guess we will just have to console ourselves by being such a big draw that one of the countries biggest prospects puts in a transfer request to join us from his boyhood club, and maybe some CL football will soften the blow next year.

Chelsea have lost the plot like. £115m apparently, higher than his £105m release clause so they can pay in installments (irrelevant for FFP since that’s based on contract length not payment structure). They’re surely going to be buckled? It’s close to what? £600m this season? So even if they were all on 10 year contracts (which they aren’t) that’s a £60m per year FFP hit ignoring wages etc, so factor in wages, bonuses and other clauses and it’s surely close to £100m FFP hit every year before you even factor in the players they already had, and transfer fees they’re still amortizing (Lukaku, Havertz, Ziyech etc). Call it £150m a season FFP hit, they’d have to have around £350m income on their bottom line for FFP purposes just to clear that £105m loss over a 3 year period hurdle? That’s a fucking high bar considering CL is a long shot for next season, and it’s not even factoring in the different FFP for European purposes, they must have nearly 35 first team squad members.

Aye, I think a loan to us would be ideal for him as it’s a positive high flying side he’d look decent in even if he wasn’t spectacular, which would set him up for a move in the summer - going to Everton could see him headed for the Championship on big wages with a big fee, and a fan base who would threaten him. I agree with Tom in that I’m not a huge fan of Gallagher, he’s a hard worker but I’ve not seen loads else. He was rated at Palace and if Howe/team are interested I’d give him a chance, I do think he’s lower down the list though which is why we want him on loan. The point is probably moot anyway as I highly doubt Chelsea would let him go to us.

He’d be mental to go there tbh. I suppose if they offer enough money it might tempt him but he will get a move to a steadier club in the near future.

The wages are the separator between him and Longstaff, that’s why I see Shelvey as someone we need shot of now and Longstaff can be a squad member. I think if he does go it’ll only be if we get someone in as you say. I’m hoping it’s just a loan as it seems like we’re not bringing in our top target for the role in the way that Gordon, Bruno, Botman, Pope, Tripps and Isak were our main targets. Gallagher or Berge would both be canny but I think Berge has a bit of a crap injury record?

RTG will have had that one circled and underlined on the calendar, meanwhile we didn’t have a fucking clue it was happening. I assumed they would be a lot higher than us given they’re the best academy in the world and we’ve had 14 years of Mike Ashley ignoring ours.

I think the difference with him to others under Bruce is he didn’t fucking try, Almiron, Joelinton, and a few others were shite but they worked Shelvey basically downed tools knowing he was getting picked regardless. He has ability but he’s just another in a massive line of players whose attitude stinks, for me he doesn’t deserve a chance under Howe, we’ve seen him under Howe and it was pretty average - his performances were nowhere near Bruno which is the calibre of player we are aiming to bring in and having deadwood like him is blocking that. Having another year of him on £80k a week would have been an issue, getting rid now is the best solution as we’ve not needed him at all this season. I’m sorry like I just can’t get my head around people watching this prick for 7 fucking years and wanting to see more of him, we can and will buy better players than he ever was even when he tried his fucking hardest for the 3-5 games a season where he did. I can’t stand him as a player, and he’s also one of them where I’ve heard enough accounts from people where I can safely assume I wouldn’t like him as a person. Good riddance to a waste of talent. I’ll be happy even if we don’t replace him, he’s done nowt this season and we now have Joelinton freed up to play CM with Gordon coming in. We need to be supporting and backing Howe, allowing him to bring in top players that fit in his system not hoping he can carry on polishing turds.