Vesper

Kalidou Koulibaly given two-match ban despite being subjected to racist monkey chants https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/12/27/carlo-ancelotti-says-inter-milan-napoli-should-have-stopped/?li_source=LI&li_medium=li-recommendation-widget The Italian football federation [FIGC] have ignored criticism and upheld a two-match ban for Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly for a red card in the game against Milan on Wednesday when he was subjected to racist monkey chants from the Inter fans. The Senegal international’s treatment at the hands of the Inter fans has drawn worldwide condemnation, including from Napoli manager Carlo Ancelotti and Serie A’s biggest star Cristiano Ronaldo, now at Juventus. Nevertheless the FIGC has insisted on Koulibaly serving the two-match ban for a second yellow card given for sarcastically applauding the referee Paolo Mazzoleni when he was originally booked in the 80th minute of the game. The FIGC has also ruled that Inter must play two home games behind closed doors, and a third with a partial closure of San Siro. During the match itself, Ancelotti had asked for the game to be halted until the abuse stopped, but was refused. He said that his team would walk off the next time one of their players were racially abused. Ancelotti said: “It [the racial abuse] shook him [Koulibaly]. He's a good-mannered player and he was bombarded by the stadium. Despite our requests and the chanting, the game wasn't suspended. I think it should have been. Next time we'll stop playing ourselves. “It was impossible for him to be calm. He cares a lot about the issue of racism and he commits a lot of time to the matter, including in society. What happened is unacceptable, not just for us but for Italian football as a whole.” snip

a few weeks earlier Matt Law said his valuation was at least £60m https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2018/07/03/chelsea-open-barcelona-offers-willian-fund-summer-spending/

Absolutely disagree on Fernandinho. That DH DMF position is massively key to their team (same as it is for us) and they literally have no player other than Fernandinho who can function there well. He is also soon 34yo, and it is simply not reflective of today's market that they can just plug in a player there for under 50m. Jorginho cost us more than that. DH DMF is the hardest potions to fill at WC level, they are so rare. Danilo is not ambipedal btw, so obviously he is primarily a RB. None of the top fullbacks in the world function equally well on either side, none. We went through that shit with Azpi several years ago. Real Madrid have three great RB's (one on loan) All of them in the top 15-20 or so in world. It isnt like Shitty is only team who stocks up on players.

Isn't Gilmour more of an offensive type MF as well? His stats sure look like it. Most of his game time is at CMF or AMF.

She turned down £65m and wanted £70-75m. She is crazy.

Not making excuses for Pep, lol, that is ridiculous, merely commenting on the state of the team at a couple positions. I get it, you hate Pep.

£72m is a shit tonne. I have been a huge booster of him, but that was when his valuation was £40m to £50m. Did Dortmund lower cost on Pulisic? Last I saw they wanted £70m, the £60m seems to be newspaper assumptions. Hope they are right. Also, the London bookies are saying he is on verge of going to Klopp and Victimpool. (granted it is The Mirror) V'Pool has American owners, which means they would love to have the best USA player for marketing purposes. Football-wise, makes no sense for him to go to a team who already have 3 great wingers, 2 of whom are RWers like him (unless they shift him to LW, as he is right-footed) Christian Pulisic "on brink" of Liverpool transfer as Borussia Dortmund man is linked Jurgen Klopp has been linked with a reunion with the American star https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/christian-pulisic-on-brink-liverpool-13782788

Moses and Alonso played Wingback, not a trad fullback, so that is apples to oranges. Pep has no real backup for Fernandinho, and Fernandinho is utterly key to his system. You are seeing it right now. Delph has been shambolic at multiple times at LB this year (Wednesday being a perfect example), again we are seeing that right now. Now he is stuck with Oleksandr Zinchenko, who he has never shown great faith in. Maybe Zinchenko finally comes good and the Mendy injury will be a blessing in disguise. The other area I said Shitty would soon buy is a 3rd CB, as their backups to Stones and Laporte are a huge drop off. Otamendi is a fraud, and Kompany is closing in on being a 33yo spent force and is in the trainers room more than the pitch for years now. I dont see Foden or Ilkay Gündogan as like for like replacements at DH DMF, that is neither's game at all. At Victimpool, Lovren and Henderson have greatly diminished roles this year, although due to Gomez's injury Lovren now starts. Matip is also another option at CB as well. If Jorginho went down and Cesc is not here,who takes over at DH DMF? Kovacic I would guess, but is that ideal? Maybe Drinkwater gets rehabbed. Maybe Ampadu gets plugged in. Lets hope we never have to find out. At key positions, depth matters, especially when you are aiming to be the best club in the world like Shitty is. My whole point was that it was both arrogant and stupid of Pep to say they were complete and needed no adds. The last few weeks have shown this to be very much not true. Time will tell if I am right or wrong. I like my chances.

He was played on tbe wrong side. He is not a RW. I really am starting to question Sarri's decisions on multiple levels. If it wasn't for Hazard, we would be mid-table or worse. I see a regressing team. Sorry to be so negative, but it is what I truly see atm. We had best do big business in January.

All I do is look at the maths plus rate the players we can get for that cash. It isnt rocket science once you get to certain levels (ie.Mbappe, Icardi, de Ligt, etc) I see almost no long term insight going on at board level. Look at the shambolic train wrecks that were Costa and Courtois deals. Look at what will happen with Eden if he doesnt renew. I repeated what I said before , ther is ZERO chance Real gives us Isco, plus Kovacic, PLUS 100m euros for Hazard now. That is well over over £200m in valuation for a player they can grab on free in 16 months or for £100m or so this coming summer. They refused to pay £200m (Marina price) last summer. If we are going to drop £70m on Pulisic, why not drop £2m more and get a true RWer, Pepe who is a shit tonne more productive and athletic? thats 24 league goals and 14 assists in a 38 game season Pulisic can only dream of that type of production Or fine, do Pulisic but FFS, sell the bloody deadwood and simply-not-good enough players and buy the rest of the top notch players. We have now missed out (almost assuredly) on de Light and Lucas Hernandez and (if he renews) Icardi, etc etc For AMF, Isco is great but has never been a huge scorer look at Pablo Sarabia's numbers tracking to 30 goals and 16 assists, all comps at AMF And he is a bargain (and same age, a month younger) compared to Isco Carpe diem!

Here is the list that would have generated £620m in revenue this summer, ALL real offers here is what it could have purchased

We fucked that up last summer. Wilian is exposed as a fraud now for the world to see, as he has collapsed despite the fact he plays on a massive team with a super offensive-oriented manager who obviously has rated him. I do say try for the £65m, BUT (and its purely psychological) he is now over the 30yo barrier and he has played like shit (same as Morata and Alonso) for half a season now. His rep is damaged. Try for 65, but 50m or above is fine. Its just the way the cookie has crumbled. Lets say 60m euros. That is around 56m quid back in summer (54m now) We need to go for a serious RW. Aleft footed one! No, not Pulisic (overpriced and right footed) Obviously (to me) Nicolas Pepe is a legit target. £72m is a lot, BUT is only around £18m more net if we sell Willian for 60m euros. There just are not that many great RWers out there. Leon Bailey? Huge slump, and fucked up mentality. IF he was around £35m, then hell yes, roll that dice, but for all his issues, I dont see Bayer Leverkusen dumping him for only 35m. Bernardeschi is an option (not the best one), but Juve are cunts to deal with, Chiesa is not a true RW. Suso is an upgrade but not close to Pepe. Dembele isnt going to be sold by Barca. I would take him IN A FLASH even for £90m or so, but Messi has demanded he stays. Messi is not a fool. Dembele is potentially the equal of any winger on planet not named Mbappe. PEPE is the correct play. For LW : We should buy Mbappe (sell Eden) Its an upgrade on Eden at LW I would sell Kante (IF that bullshit Isco plus Kova plus 100m euros story actually happened) if it meant we actually could FFP afford Mbappe and Icardi both, plus the rest of the candy store. We could have sold deadwood and few starters (Eden included but not Kante) this summer, based off REAL offers and raised £620m! That is without selling Kante, Add him in and it is around 1 BILLION USD (£750m) we could have raised. Kante and Eden are world class, BUT we have Sarri (so Kante is cock blocked) and Mbappe is better than Eden. The team that 750m quid could buy is CL winning level for years. That is 'buy Icardi, Mbappe and every other top target (90m offer for de Light, which Ajax would have taken FOR SURE) level' cash. All those offers were real, not remotely fantasy. And, if the board was like ANY ruthless financial firm in the world (I work for one) there is ZERO chance we could not have bought ALL on the big boy list, Roman is a fucking billionaire (like many of our clients), he shits lawyers (to do the paperwork) out his ass. Money talks, bullshit walks. All the buys would have been revenue neutral due to those massive sales. At most we would have spent £50 to 100m net. We would have had one of the top 3 or 4 squads in the world. But, nope, we are stuck on stupid and quickly going to be stuck on seized if shit really goes south. I do not believe Roman or the board give a shit anymore. Either that or little old me has more financial and football sense than the entire organisation (which is not true). I think differently than most people, its why I have achieved what I have at my age. Shame to see our owner and board don't want to be the best in world anymore. True shame. Anyone who say they do want that is delusional, wilfully so, The net spend would be FAR less than what PSG and Shitty have done. CFC will suffer for not doing it.

If she gets £50m for him I will call her a genius.

Barca are going to sell Malcom and Barca is far warmer and sunnier than London, so more like Brasil. He will love it there.

I think Real still wants him. We were crazy to not take their £45m this summer. Some on here said we should hold out for £55 or even £60m!. Chilwell will cost £50m, Firpo 45m. If we sell Alonso for even only that £45m, that's only a £5m net spend for Chilwell, and even break for Firpo, for a huge upgrade (and those are both 5,6 years younger too) LB and RW (because they both are left-footed positions) are hard as fuck to find great quality for, far harder than RB and LW, simply as left-footed athletes are far rarer than right-footed. Rarest of all are ambipedals, they are gold if they are also great footballers.

I think Rudiger plays more on the left at CB than Luiz. I did say AFTER CF btw. But it is a large issue. If Emerson is so poor he cannot even come close to benching Alonso, then he needs to be sold. We will never win trophies to any significant degree with Alonso playing as a trad LB. I will be shocked if we win the EL or FA Cup or even the Carabao Cup with him there. He is simply nowhere near the class of player we need on the left.

The board really does need to back him big time in the next two windows. That thought terrifies me, lolol.

Alonso, after striker, and maybe Willian (I say no) is the biggest structural weak point on the team. He was okay as a wingback. Wingback is not an option. All the best teams have dominant fullback play. Look at Shitty. Mendy goes down and the wheels come off (I do admit Fernandinho is a huge part too). Barca, Liverpool, Juve, Real the past 5 years (again, Marcelo has been shit so far this year, and has really hurt them) Bayern (injuries have forced thier hand at fullback to rheir great troubles) all, when at best form all have superb fullback play. We do not have anywhere near it.

You completely miss the point. But oh well, you can play the 'wait till it is self-evident' safe route and only talk about things when they are imminent, not try to truly think ahead and suss out true inflection points in advance I choose to be proactive, not reactive. So hovadina back at ya.

If we wanna keep Eden, (and even if we dont end up keeping, in fact even MORE important if we lose him) we best start benching Alonso and BUY CHILWELL (I am convinced on him, the HG thing tips it to dead even with Firpo, as we do (or will) have HG issues) Only player Eden went truly out of way congratulate was Ben and we all know he wants Alonso benched, per those new articles

Lose head to head and you may not be around in the last few weeks

other than those Spuds games, we should steamroll through the rest

Battle for the final CL berth. Whats your idea of a big game?

Sat, Jan 19 Arsenal v Chelsea 6:30 PM English Premier League probably in top 3 most important games of the year