Vesper

I hope they fucking crash and burn. Most arrogant club in world sport.

Ah. one of my besties is from Porto Alegre. She is Swedish/Danish/Norwegian but born there in Rio Grande do Sul. Her family story is pretty extraordinary and also fucked up (father's side via grandfather and great-uncles ( the Norse/Dane part) were Nazis who came to Brasil via the rat-lines post WWII). Anywhoooo.... Only 7 or so of those RWers are undoable. I even said that. Most would not be THAT huge of a gamble, and it is not like we would be selling a truly great player. Willian is never going to be that. We simply have to replace him. He isn't good enough. If you think he is then we just simply disagree. After Luiz and our strikers, he is our worst starter. Then Alonso and Azpi. Those last two are due to Sarriball. I rate Alonso as a wing-back, but we dont play wingbacks. Alonso is too slow and cannot track back when he gets too far forward. He also cannot beat people 1 on 1 due to turtle pace from a standstill. Azpi is simply not good enough with offensive thrusting and is worn down due to insane minutes the last 4 or 5 years.

Mendy and Roberston are better EPL LB's hands down. Davies maybe too, even Rose if he ever rehabs from his injury. IF Emerson gets back to pre Roma injusry level (he is getting there, just slowly) HE is better than Alonso as well. I also absolutely rate Junior Firpo (I forgot to list him above) over Alonso, absolutely. We just profoundly disagree on Alonso worth as a LB. As a wing-back, well, different story. Problem is, we do not use wing-backs and NEVER will under Sarri. No guarantees the next manager will either, and by then Alonso is quickly staring at 30yo and almost all fullbacks fade out FAST post 30. As for teams in the EPL who are worse than Fulham over the course of the year, IMHO Cardiff Southampton (insanely mismanaged over the years, they could have been right there with Everton challenging for 7th or 8th most years) Brighton Huddersfield Burnley (certainly worse talent -wise, and Dyche may finally be running out of miracles) Newcastle (see Burnley, sub in Rafa for Dyche) Palace (especially if Zaha leaves, they are fucked then)

The massive problem with Willian is that the board (ie Roman et al.) AND Sarri rate him top 10 or near in the world in RW'ers. This is crazy on multiple fronts as Willian is a LWer by nature not even a true RW. Marina demanded 75 MILLION QUID from Barca for him. She (ie Roman, her puppetmaster) turned down £65m. Let's look at the only RWers in the world that we kow for sure they rate (via actions of board, also via common sense rankings, AND the words of Sarri himself) over Willian. Mbappe Messi Salah Sterling Bernardo Silva (HUGE fuck-up by us as we could have had him (he also can play MF) but went for fucking Donkeyoko instead) Federico Chiesa (Sarri's own words, but I must add his natural position IMHO is at LW) Federico Bernardeschi (Sarri's own words) Gareth Bale (I would do a straight swap plus say £10m to 20m, no more, as Bale is soon 30 too, but obviously as massive upgrade, although thsi will NEVER happen, unless its included in some crazy Eden deal) Ousmane Dembélé (who can play either wing, and I add him on rep, I am not even sure if we rate him over Willian, which is insane IF, and thsi is a huge IF, Dembele gets his head on right) that's IT MAYBE Pulisic too, (not sure on that, so much rumours and I think that Pulisic, whilst better than Willian by far, is NOT our best option) that puts Willian in top ten RW in WORLD in their eyes. Here are all the players the do NOT rate above Willian at RW (by actions, words, or lack of effort to chase, or simple gut feel from me) this list is jaw-dropping to me (and I have to add, is not in order) every one of these would be/would have been an upgrade over Willian IMHO, although obviously some more than others Riyad Mahrez Jadon Sancho (would be my actual number one want , especially as he can play either wing, but Shitty have a buy-back/right to match deal with Dortmund, so he will NEVER be allowed to come here until he is sold again) Nicolas Pépé (my number one choice if we cannot prise out Chiesa and/or mayo Bernardeschi, all things considered, super young explosive talent) Leon Bailey (like Dembele, has personal issues, unlike Dembele he is having a shit year, I think is worth a gamble perhaps if Bayer decides to dump him) Douglas Costa (as long as he doesnt head butt and spit on people, LOLOLOL, would be a terror on the right with his pace) Florian Thauvin (many haters here for him, but I absolutely would consider him an upgrade) Malcom (wow did we fuck that one up) Suso Hirving Lozano Iñaki Williams David Neres Ángel Correa Matteo Politano (tracking to 10 goals and 14 assists if he played full time for Inter) Wilfried Zaha Domenico Berardi (very underrated, tracking to 14-15 goals, 11-12 assists for a bog standard Sassuolo team) thats 25 RWers who would be an upgrade over Willian (almost all younger, most by far, and most , save for 6 or 7, would be doable)

great post, totally agree

Sessegnon is not your normal 18yo, he is now in middle of his 3rd year starting, and is an immense talent. Put him on our team and give him a month or two to adjust and Alonso is on the bench. Alonso as best EPL LB? LOLOL you conveniently forget Benjamin Mendy (miles better) and also Robertson from Victimpool. All 3 (counting Sessegnon) are miles better for Sarriball. Mendy is a top 4 or 5 LB in world, only ones I would rate over him are Alaba, Lucas Hernandez, and maybe Jordi Alba and Alex Sandro. Marcelo is ageing and not good enough defensively, but still would probably bench Alonso (at least for a season or two more) Jose Gaya is vastly superior to Alonso as well, as is Alex Telles. Faouzi Ghoulam, when healthy as well and maybe Wendell from Bayer Leverkusen. ALL of those (save for Marcelo) are vastly faster and better defensively, and many are just as skilled in offensive flow (and there Marcelo blows away Alonso). You focus on literally the weakest player I posted André Schürrle (who like I said is still capable of a big moment, regardless of other shortcomings) whilst ignoring the many other dangerous players they have. Mitrovic has scored 21 goals in his last 28 games (granted some at Championship level) but has 7 in EPL this year, tracking out to 18-20 league goals. Is Morata going to score that? Is Giroud? They might not hit that many COMBINED and they are on a vastly superior team (us). Also, Seri is a class MF, nothing has as of yet convinced me otherwise. Bottom line If you think Fulham is as weak a team as we will see (or close to it) in the EPL this year, I really have to question that hard. Claudio Ranieri is a damn good manager, if he gets them clicking and they buy a good CB in January (Malang Sarr from OGC Nice would be perfect and they could actually prise him away then, or also Rúben Dias from Benfica (much harder pull) or Waldemar Anton of Hannover 96 (22yo, a big, fast physical CB on a relegation-bound team, perfect for brutal EPL play), plus a right fullback (I am not sold on Tim Fosu-Mensah atm, and think Fulham were stupid to let Ryan Fredericks move to the Hammers) and deffo a decent true RW, they could like be a viper of a team come February or March to play.

Alonso has ONE GOAL all year, all comps Emerson's positional defensive play is equal to Alonso's and he has far better pace. Alonso is so slow that he is even shit on overlapping runs oft-times. Emerson FINALLY looks to be getting back to pre-Roma injury pace, which is explosive compared to La Tortuga.

Fulham are absolutely not your typical bottom of the table EPL team. They are loaded with first rate talent in many positions. Ryan Sessegnon LB and Aleksandar Mitrovic CF would start for us (ZERO chance Alonso is better Sessegnon, and Ryan also can play winger and AMF) André Zambo Anguissa DMF and Jean Michaël Seri CMF are both great young MF'ers, and I could see them both as rotational starters here, especially Seri. Sergio Rico would make a great back-up GK for us, far better than what we have now, unless Macin Bulka matures very quickly Tom Cairney is simply a better player than Drinkwater IMHO, not that that affects our main team starters and regular rotation, but he is a savvy and dangerous MF'er André Schürrle is a dangerous ex- Chels player, He is always capable of explosive moves and is loads better than your average winger on a bottom 3,4 EPL team. Fulham has a horrid back 4 (Sessegnon plays at MF and winger mostly this year so far) and also no real remotely acceptable true RW, that is their weaknesses.

If CHO leaves I am calling for Sarri's head. Simple. We are going to lose Eden soon. Time to face that reality. If those bans hit and we lose them both with no buys, we are so fucked. Imagine 2 years of Moses, a 31, 32yo Willian and a 33, 34yo Pedro as our wingers. Plus, if we dont deal in January and bans come right after, Giroud and Morata as our strikers. I wont even have to call for his head. He will bang on be sacked by the holidays 2019. Oh, unless Musonda, Tammy and Bats save us!!!! NOT, so fucking NOT.

Michael Ballack circa 2000-2006. In today's game, closest would be SMS, IF he had a true motor, which he doesn't atm. He needs a coach like Pep to take him to next level. Pogba would be second probably, when his head is on straight, like in the WC. Also, Frenkie de Jong, Ruben Neves, Dele Alli (I can feel the hate already, lolol), Saúl Níguez, Naby Keita, Tanguy Ndombélé, Adrien Rabiot, and Corentin Tolisso have similar all-round traits, but might be short atm in one department or the other. Keep an eye on 16yo Ryan Gravenberch from Ajax. Very possibly the next Dutch superstar MF, but its still too early to completely predict that. The Netherlands are my darkhorse team for 2022. They are playing superb footie and are crazy young. If we (England and Sweden in my case) dont win it in 2022, I will be probably rooting for the Netherlands to finally break their duck. Although, France will probably repeat and have potentially the greatest team ever, perhaps knocking off Brasil 1970. Long time to go until then.

We are crazy if we get rid of Cesc, he is tailor-made for games like this. His end-product passing is insane. Miles beyond Jorginho or most in the entire EPL.

awww, you missed a happy game

RLC over Barkley for AMF atm

he looked seriously dangerous tonight and is just loads quicker than La Tortuga (Alonso)

Luiz and Willian cannot be in plan A, B, C, D,.... they are breathtakingly shit

good result, I am happy

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Wanna see CHO score.

PAOK punters have great time anywhere. They are awesome. Lol

HD Streams https://www.vipleague.cc/chelsea-vs-paok-salonika-streaming-link-1 http://unitedsronaldo.blogspot.com/p/cantona.html http://unitedsronaldo.blogspot.com/p/manchester-united-4.html

hmm, all week long Sarri was saying he was out

So he is saying a 4 2 1 3? Sarri wont do it. At least he has always refused to do it. Barkley would truly have to be a beast then too. Obviously Isco or Kai Havertz or another truly WC AMF would make it far more potent.

RB Salzburg's Amadou Haidara out for four months with knee injury https://www.goal.com/en-ng/news/rb-salzburgs-amadou-haidara-out-for-four-months-with-knee/14keqhajibric1ssj92yben6dy The youngster has been ruled of action for the rest of 2018 and will hope to be back in time for 2019 Afcon RB Salzburg have confirmed that Mali’s Amadou Haidara will be out of action for at least four months with a knee ligament injury. Haidara missed Salzburg’s last league outing against Austrian Wien but he was in action for the entire 90 minutes as RB Salzburg defeated Rosenborg 5-2 in their last Uefa Europa League outing earlier this month. The injury prompted the 20-year-old to withdraw from Mali’s 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Gabon last week. snip

I think as an 18yo (19 next year) he would be happy enough getting the minutes Cesc has so far (maybe a bit more). I think he can learn and start to play more and more over 3, 4 years until he is ready to supplant Jorginho (who will be 30yo in 3 years and 20 days) as the regular starter (if he progresses as I think he should) There is no reason we cannot split time between 2 players (Jorginho with bulk of minutes for now) in the DH DMF role My main target for NOW play is, as I have banged on for ages, Frenkie de Jong, as he can play almost anywhere on the field, from CB to DMF (trad) to deep holding MF (Jorgi style) to fullback to CMF to AMF to even a winger or a 10.