Vesper

Our board has made so many BAD moves and fails in t-market that they are paralysed in fear I think.

OMG, I am outside smoking and just LOL'd so loud that neighbours lights came on. Its 2 11 am here btw.

Yep. Too bad (NOT) he cant be renewed as he is 30. Has to wait till his current one runs out, and fucking surely we sell him before that.

that is hardly earth-shattering production its really good yes, but the fact it is by far the best on the team in both categories is frightening Messi has 23 goals and 13 assists in 22 games CR7 has 15 and 8 Neymar has 18 and 9 Kane has 20 and 6 Luis Suárez has 16 and 7 Mauro Icardi has 16 and 4 Ousmane Dembélé has 10 and 5 in the equivalent of a third of a full Barca 50 or so game season season Robert Lewandowski has 22 and 5 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has 16 and 4 Salah has 17 and 8 Mbappe has 17 and 10 Griezmann has 14 and 7 Raheem Sterling has 11 and 11 Sane has 10 and 11 Nicolas Pepe has 13 and 8 Hirving Lozano has 15 and 9 Pogba, ffs has 9 and 8 (and that is even scarier considering he had shit under Mo) Jadon Sancho has 7 and 10, as an 18yo, in the equivalent of 15 full games Luka Jovic has 17 and 4 Sébastien Haller hs 12 and 11 so, nope 10 and 10 is not anything that makes me stand in awe, especially as Sarriball is supposed to be this goal-scoring machine 20 and 20 (if he gets there) would be a career year, I hope he does just for reference another winger's career year was 73 goals and 29 assists (that's in one Barca-only season 2011-12) for the calendar year of 2012 he had 91 goals and 41 assists in all comps

Klopp plays direct simple (well simpler than most) football, seems to be working out oki for him. Juventus too. Bayern under Jupp Heynckes, Manure under OGS, also seem to follow that model. Mo won the CL at Inter playing it, well after tiki taka came onto the scene. Tiki-taka was just a revival and update of the 1920's to 1942 Schalker Kreisel ie. Schalke spinning top https://halbfeldflanke.de/2015/12/der-schalker-kreisel/ http://gottfriedfuchs.blogspot.com/2014/06/schalker-kreisel.html

Callum Hudson-Odoi urged to quit Chelsea by Jadon Sancho and join him in Germany The talented youngster could leave Stamford Bridge and follow Sancho to the Bundesliga https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/callum-hudson-odoi-urged-quit-13852549 little fucker

The Telegraph, especially Matt Law, is usually rock solid. https://twitter.com/Matt_Law_DT

1993 to 2013 Fergie Manure teams were playing simple football, simply brutal, simply devastating a shit tonne of the time. Our 2004-2006 Mo teams played simple football too, with same results, from a different style.

No clue why Sarri didnt try and use Kovacic as Jorgi backup and Cesc as a consistent 60th, 70th minute lock-picker sub. Also, like you said, RLC at striker and Barkley at RW. Barkley seems much more a winger than RLC, and I can so see RLC at striker. I know I am really being silly now, but also wouldn't have minded at all to see Kovacic given a trial at RB. Thats how Barca found out about how great a RB Sergi Roberto was. He was a CMF almost with exact same role Kovacic has for us. They are the same size basically, and both technical as hell. I HATE that Sarri is not experimental at ALL. EVERY other big team is, some more than others, but most all are. Klopp played Fabihno at centre-back ffs the last game. Sarri's big experiment was this bloody stupid false nine shit, when he KNOWS Eden is NOT at ALL a similar player to Dries Mertens, as Mertens is a box-dweller poacher. Dont take my word for it here is the man himself: Hazard, however, has different ideas. "Dries is more of a striker than me," he insisted. "I am more like a playmaker. Since I started [playing] football I like to come and touch the ball. Dries is not like this, he just wants to stay in the box. That's why he scores a lot of goals. "We are different, but I know Sarri likes to change some positions and that happens sometimes." http://www.espn.com/soccer/chelsea/story/3737759/eden-hazard-prefers-winger-despite-recent-shift-under-maurizio-sarri

Oh, yes, that article was already posted, I just tossed it up again as it was the perfect rejoinder to the Cassano critique. I trust Pirlo (who has a rep as being REALLY picky, to a fault) over him all day long. The only other Italian MFer Pirlo is so high on, btw, is main target for DH DMF backup of Joginho, Sandro Tonali. It is why I thought Barella AND Tonali both brought in would be genius, as Barella, besides an upgrade over Kovacic/Barkley at the 3rd spot in MF, can also play a DH DMF at times so we could truly ease in the 18yo Tonali. Paredes, IF he comes for six months and then we sell him to Boca Jrs and bring in Barella (hopefully via a buy now and 6 month loan back to Cagliari so his wife can give birth in Italy with him there by her side) AND Sandro in the summer, would be the ultimate brilliant all round move. Round it off with Kovacic being allowed to go back to RM, who would sell him to his favourite place, Inter. All would be happy and on teams they could flourish on and and also actually LIKE where they are at I think at 3-dimensional chess levels, hope the board does too.

I hope so, but let me ask a question. I am known as a person who really follows the other big 4 lagues. I get a lot of stick about certain players I rate not being proven in the EPL, due to the frenetic pace. I would counter than almost all of my choices/options/picks/favs that I recco are usually superb athletes and very much up to the pace of the league. That all said, (and Serie A is the slowest of all the Big 5 leagues) why is it that some (not at all singling you out) think that an already slowing down player, who struggles with fitness, and is obviously on the decline in an already slower league, will be able to come and do better in our full-stop action cauldron of play?

Alonso will hit the post 3 times, and be lauded as having a truly massive offensive impact.

Nicolo Barella: The Cagliari midfielder lauded by Andrea Pirlo https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/45589553

So says the Real Madrid massive bust who is known throughout much of his career as having a shit attitude, poor workrate, and poor fitness levels. I smell jelly........... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Cassano Real Madrid Cassano became the second ever Italian player to sign for Real Madrid after former Roma teammate Christian Panucci. His debut came on 18 January 2006 in a Spanish Cup match against Real Betis, and scored his first goal just three minutes after entering the match in the second half.[11] Just four months into his tenure with the club, however, he began gaining weight due to poor eating habits, which resulted in Madrid fining him for every gram he remained over his playing weight,[25] and earned him the nickname "Gordito".[26] On 30 October, Real Madrid's official website announced that Cassano had been suspended due to his "disrespect" of Capello, who had joined the club at the beginning of 2006–07 season, following a dressing room argument arising from his omission from the team after a game against Gimnàstic de Tarragona,[27] and was subsequently benched along with David Beckham and Ronaldo. In an interview with a Roman radio station, Cassano said he would "walk all the way back" to rejoin Roma, and indicated his eagerness to make peace with Totti, with whom Cassano had conflicted with before his departure from Roma. Cassano, however, remained with Madrid after the January 2007 transfer window had closed, and the rest of his season was cut short by an ankle injury. Despite winning the 2006–07 La Liga title with Real Madrid, Cassano only made seven league appearances, scoring just a single goal.[28] In an interview with Spanish radio in July 2007, Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón described Cassano's attitude as "unsustainable in the last couple of months" and indicated that he would be leaving the club.[29]

19 goals in 21 games, all comps and instead our board is looking at an overweight, rapidly declining 31yo who has scored one goal since October and will probably cost around the same (within £10m either way or so) 36 24 16 6 his league goal tallies the last 3 and a half years

good luck with that

I tuned in only right after h/t and he was bossing the game for around 20, 25 minutes, has tailed off now

This better be a 6 month loan cant take more than 6 months of watching him on the tubby trot this has disaster written all over it

That is exactly what I have been saying since I saw his wife doesn't want to move now as she is 6 months pregnant.

lol Cesc is running riot atm and the Marseille fans are doing Olé, Olé, Olé for Monaco, eeeek

Cesc debut forgot about this Olympique de Marseille vs Monaco 1 1 2nd half https://www.vipleague.bz/olympique-de-marseille-vs-monaco-streaming-link-1

TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR MUST GAZUMP CHELSEA TO THEIR MAIN TRANSFER TARGET IF HARRY KANE'S INJURY IS BAD https://www.thesportsman.com/articles/tottenham-hotspur-must-gazump-chelsea-to-their-main-transfer-target-if-harry-kane-s-injury-is-bad Harry Kane hobbled off the Wembley pitch in distress following Tottenham Hotspur's disappointing 1-0 loss at the hands of a galvanised Manchester United on Sunday and Mauricio Pochettino looked an anxious figure when asked about the England captain's injury. "It was a bad tackle in the last moment. We will assess him," Pochettino told Sky Sports in the aftermath of a result that sees their quest for Premier League glory hit a significant bump in the road. In the closing moments of the match Kane went in for a tackle with United defenders Victor Lindelof and Phil Jones, but dropped to the turf clutching his left ankle, and the Spurs striker looked genuinely hurt as United celebrated another victory under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's stewardship. As Spurs title journey derailed somewhat it could be a lot worse in the long run, as they are not only losing Son-Heung Min to the Asian Cup after today's game, they could potentially lose hotshot Kane and that will only leave Fernando Llorente as the only experienced striker in the squad. snip

Cagliari boss hints Nicolo Barella will stay at club despite Chelsea transfer links https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/13/cagliari-boss-hints-nicolo-barella-will-stay-club-despite-chelsea-transfer-links-8339987/ snip Cagliari want as much as £45million for the 21-year-old Barella, while the more experienced Paredes would cost around £30m. After Chelsea battled to a 2-1 win over Newcastle, Maurizio Sarri appealed again to the club to make signings. ‘Today Jorginho was in trouble and on the bench there wasn’t a player for that position,’ Sarri said. ‘I need an option for Jorginho.’ Sarri has insisted again and again he has no power over transfers, but is thought to be more keen on Barella than Paredes. Chelsea are also fielding offers for their Brazilian forward Willian, and Sarri was asked about the pursuit of Paredes and Barella. ‘I have no idea,’ Sarri said. ‘It’s not too much [of a worry for me]. [If] the club is worried, I don’t know. ‘The club knows very well my opinion. I need the player there [in that position]. It depends on the club decision, I think. I cannot do anything more.’ snip