Vesper

pen for Real

Militão is shit

almost 2 nil Marselle cuntois saved Real

hamstring

nil 1 Marseille

TAA off injured after a few minutes looks like he did his hammie

Union St.-Gilloise beat PSV 1 3 at PSV

2 nil

far far too early to definitively rate Gittens

poor GKing by Unai Simon very poor

1 nil Arse Martinelli scores on a counter 30 seconds after he came on

extremely detailed post in re Noni

correct

West Ham are considering a move for Nuno Espirito Santo should they sack manager Graham Potter. (Alan Nixon)

Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior’s Real Madrid fortunes could hardly be more contrasting https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6630757/2025/09/16/kylian-mbappe-vinicius-junior-real-madrid-contrast If you wanted to see the contrasting fortunes of Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior at Real Madrid, you only had to watch the team’s 2-1 win against Real Sociedad. Mbappe’s fine solo goal and excellent assist showed the 26-year-old France captain is now Madrid’s undisputed on-pitch leader. Vinicius Jr’s subdued display and early substitution were further evidence of the 25-year-old Brazil winger’s lack of form. Less than 12 months ago, it was an entirely different story. Vinicius Jr’s stunning hat-trick in last October’s 5-2 Champions League win against Borussia Dortmund underlined why he was then many people’s favourite to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or. Four days later, Mbappe’s record eight offsides in Madrid’s 4-0 defeat to Barcelona symbolised his struggles while settling in at the Bernabeu following fitness issues and personal problems. That Clasico defeat was an early sign of the issues Carlo Ancelotti’s side would experience throughout last season. Vinicius Jr thrived the previous year in Ancelotti’s counter-attacking set-up, scoring the winning goal in the 2024 Champions League final and playing a crucial role in his side lifting the La Liga trophy. But his disappointment at missing out to Manchester City’s Rodri for the Ballon d’Or — which led to Madrid boycotting the ceremony — was followed by a serious dip in his on-pitch performances. Things have not gone to plan for Vinicius Jr since his hat-trick against Dortmund (Denis Doyle/Getty Images) Vinicius Jr scored just three goals in 16 La Liga games from January to May 2025, and only once in six Champions League knockout games as they were knocked out in the quarter-finals by Arsenal. He was not the only Madrid player whose form dipped as the season progressed towards a dismal end. But knowledgeable sources — speaking on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships, like all those consulted for this story — say he knew his campaign was not up to the required standard. At the same time, Mbappe’s contribution and confidence grew as the season progressed. At a January news conference, the summer arrival from Paris Saint-Germain said he had been cautious about imposing himself on and off the pitch in his first months at Madrid, but had since made a “mental” change, as “I knew I had to do more”. Mbappe finished the season with eight goals in their last five La Liga games, including a hat-trick in a 4-3 defeat to Barca, a result which ended any realistic chances of Madrid defending their league title. His total of 44 goals was a record for any debut Madrid season, while 31 efforts in La Liga gave him the Golden Shoe award for the top scorer in Europe’s top five leagues. When Alonso replaced Ancelotti as coach in May, the former Madrid, Liverpool and Spain midfielder set about introducing a proactive tactical approach to dominate possession and territory. This means Madrid’s forwards are required to do more off-the-ball work and have fewer opportunities for sprinting into space on the counter. Alonso knew fitting both superstar strikers into such a system was a major challenge. Staff sources say the initial plan had both players as centre-forwards, but with Vinicius Jr moving out towards the left more. Madrid were unable to trial that idea during the Club World Cup due to a viral infection suffered by Mbappe. Vinicius Jr started all six of their games in the United States but again performed well below his best. Alonso planned to bench Vinicius Jr for the last of those, the semi-final against PSG, before Trent Alexander-Arnold picked up an injury. A 4-3-3 shape with Mbappe on the left wing and Vinicius Jr in his less favoured position on the right was then ruthlessly exploited and punished as Luis Enrique’s Champions League holders won 4-0. What You Should Read Next Why is Vinicius Jr out of favour at Real Madrid? From Ballon d'Or disappointment to contract complications, there's been a lot going on behind the scenes During the early stages of this season, Alonso’s doubts over Vinicius Jr’s role in the team have continued. The Brazilian was benched for the second game at Real Oviedo, with Rodrygo starting on the left wing instead. Vinicius Jr had not been informed and was surprised by the decision — although he came on as a substitute and channeled his disappointment into a goal and an assist for Mbappe in the 63rd minute. Alonso replied sternly when asked if he understood Vinicius Jr being upset at being left out of the starting line-up: “In football, decisions are made thinking of the collective, and everyone has to understand that”. Sources on both sides have told The Athletic the start between coach and player has not been ideal. Against Real Mallorca at home the following weekend, Vinicius Jr returned to the starting XI and scored the winner in a 2-1 victory. Sources say the coaching staff have confidence the Brazilian can return to his best form, but Alonso has been clear his selection decisions are made on merit, not reputation. Mbappe has started all four games at centre-forward, looking sharp and confident while scoring four goals, making him La Liga’s top scorer. He is now a much more commanding presence around the team, taking penalties and sometimes free-kicks while relishing his status as the team’s most important player. Mbappe is La Liga’s top scorer with four goals (Antonio Villalba/Real Madrid via Getty Images) “Kylian is fundamental, he’s in great shape, both his football and his personality,” Alonso said last Friday. “He takes that (leadership) role every day, although these responsibilities must be shared so we keep developing as a team.” Mbappe’s goal against Real Sociedad came when he lethally capitalised on a mistake by their back line to race clear and slot home. After Dean Huijsen’s controversial red card, he showed further leadership by creating the chance for Arda Guler to put them 2-0 ahead with an excellent dribble and unselfish pass. “Today’s goal was my type of goal, but the assist was more important as it was a key moment in the game,” Mbappe told Real Madrid TV afterwards. “I feel really good, the season has started well, for the team and me.” Meanwhile, Vinicius Jr had one off-target shot and caused few problems for La Real before being replaced on 67 minutes. He has now completed only one of 10 games under Alonso. For some who know him, it feels uncomfortably like when Zinedine Zidane was Madrid coach and Zidane clearly did not trust the (then much younger) Vinicius Jr. Mbappe’s superstar status was further seen this summer when he took the No 10 shirt, even though club policy dictates longer-serving players should get first dibs. The club had the final say and Mbappe was given the same number he wears with France, despite interest from Arda Guler, who had been at Madrid for longer. The No 10 shirt is further proof of Mbappe’s status at Madrid (Diego Souto/Getty Images) Compare that to how fans have sometimes whistled Vinicius Jr at the Bernabeu in recent months. Talks over renewing his current contract — which ends in 2027 — remain deadlocked. His camp have used the ‘signing bonus’ secured by Mbappe on arrival from PSG as an argument for a bumper pay-rise for their client, something the club hierarchy have yet to accept. The forwards have egos, but there is no suggestion of friction, and each has often spoken positively about their team-mate in public. Even so, everyone agrees they are not connecting well on the pitch, and there are no clear examples of both excelling in the same big game. Nobody at the Bernabeu is questioning Alonso’s management of the situation, or of the team generally, but it remains to be seen how happy Vinicius Jr will be if he continues to play second fiddle to Mbappe.

On 2 September 2025, Premier League club Manchester City announced the signing of Donnarumma on a five-year deal, with an option for a further year, for a reported transfer fee of £26 million. His salary is reportedly £13m this season £14m in the 2nd and 3rd year and £15m in the 4th and 5th years (and probably £15m the 6th year, the option year, as well) that is £71m just in salary for 5 years, and probably £86m if they exercise the option PLUS he can earn salary bonus of around £2.5m per season based off performance (personal and club) that kicks it up to around a potential £101m in toto just in salary/bonuses for the full 6 years add in the £26m tranfer fee £127m total potential outlay for 6 years and his agent perhaps got some pay-off as well (I admit I do not know that, nor do I know IF he himself got a signing bonus) I simply cannot see our owners committing to that level of spend for a GKer, not with so many already on our books and Penders hopefully coming into our Sr team soon

There are not ALL that many actually 'marquee' AND remotely available players in postions we need GK Diogo Costa Gregor Kobel (not really suited to our style of play) plus 3 older (33, 34yo next summer) ones: Jan Oblak Emiliano Martinez Alisson LCB Alessandro Bastoni Murillo Alessandro Buongiorno RCB (no clear perfect 'big name' targets) Leny Yoro (probably not possible next summer, maybe never) Bremer (but will be 29yo in March) Giorgio Scalvini only IF fully recovered Ronald Araujo only IF he gets back to WC level, which is a big if DMF Bruno Guimarães (but turns 29yo in fall 2026) Aurélien Tchouaméni (probably not available) Aleksandar Pavlovic (crazy hard pull) Adam Wharton Carlos Baleba (insanely expensive) Ruben Neves (wild card, crazy good passer and a less costly fee, a real vet and leader, I love him, but he turns 29yo in March) CMF Nicolò Barella (but turns 30yo in march 2027) Gavi Eduardo Camavinga Sandro Tonali Warren Zaïre-Emery Frenkie de Jong (turns 30yo at the end of next season (26/27) though) AMF Jamal Musiala (IF recovered, and also he would cost well over £100m IF Bayern would even sell and IF he would even want to come here) Morgan Rogers Fermin Lopez (do not think he leaves Barca next summer either) Nico Paz (Real Mardid will exercise their buy-back though, so very unlikely) Winger Kenan Yildiz Rodrygo Bradley Barcola Rafael Leão (hard pass) Malick Fofana CF (all 3 are likely not available, plus almost all top CFs are now locked in at new or old clubs, the 3 listed are the only ones even potentially not situated like that) Julian Alvarez Lautaro Martinez Victor Osimhen so as you can see there are only five main targets for me that would be 'marquee' signings IMHO: Diogo Costa (and probably not needed IF Penders is soon ready) Bastoni (my dream CB signing for years) Adam Wharton Morgan Rogers Kenan Yıldız wild card signing of a non GK vet; Ruben Neves

Chelsea https://thedailybriefing.io/i/173635710/Chelsea Chelsea had a £70m bid for Juventus striker Kenan Yildiz rejected over the summer, with the Italian side hoping to tie the 20-year-old Turkey international down to a long-term contract. (Calciomercato) Enzo Maresca confirms Marc Guiu out was his decision and no injury: “We know Marc from last year. But in this moment, one of them was out from the squad…I wanted to give George a bit confidence. Against Fulham, he did well and he was okay. The season is so long”. Chelsea, Everton and Brighton have all made contact with Barcelona over teenage midfielder Marc Bernal. (Mundo Deportivo)

Fermín on Chelsea proposal: “I never had any doubts about staying at Barcelona. There were speculations, but in the end I always wanted to stay here. And I will fight to stay here for many years!”.

John Terry wants to see Chelsea make marquee signings again Terry with some very interesting comments indeed https://siphillipstalkschelsea.substack.com/p/john-terry-wants-to-see-Chelsea-make I find it even more interesting reading comments from John Terry or hearing him speaking about Chelsea these days because he works for the club still. He’s still got a role within the academy so he will always need to be a little bit careful with what he says. So it intrigued me even more to hear him telling the club to start making some marquee signings again, and this is something that I know many of us agree with. I don’t think anyone would want the club to rip up the script fully and change back to the Roman Abramovich days of making marquee signings - because there has proven to be many positives in the way we recruit at the moment as well as negatives. However, and what I hope Terry means by his comments below, we all want to see more balance with our recruitment. This summer would have been the perfect time to do that by adding a big name in goal and at the back, it would have solved one issue that keeps coming up. “We're officially the best team in the world so we're happy with that,” Terry joked on talkSPORT late last week. “I don’t want too much pressure on the boys because we are a young squad. “With this year and with the experience of pushing the other teams close I think we have a chance to be up there and we should be because we’re Chelsea. “I think any top side or any young and experienced player going into the season saying, 'We can’t win it,' shouldn’t be playing at the top level. “So I think every Chelsea player should believe we can go and win it. “Do I think we will? No, I don’t being honest with you but I think we’ll be right amongst it and I think we should be.” Asked how Chelsea can leapfrog Liverpool and win their first Premier League title since 2017, Terry said: “I’d love to see us in the mix for big signings if we want to be back to our very best and at the top winning Premier Leagues year after year. “I think the only thing we’re missing at the moment is those marquee signings.” “[This Season], I think Liverpool are the strongest side,” he added. “I think Manchester City have shown vulnerability again this season. “I’m not sure Chelsea have enough experience within their squad to push them.” So once again, Terry is mentioning a lack of experience and big names within the squad. As you know, I mostly agree with the captain, leader, legend here. What about you? Terry also went on to speak on Enzo Maresca and how he rates him. “I’ve been very impressed with him to be honest. He’s very inviting with me as I’m obviously working in the academy,” Terry revealed. “I get to see him work and he’s very personal with the players. “I think the biggest thing for any manager this year is being close to the players and he seems to have a really good connection with the younger players. “He’s very young himself. He understands the players, he understands what they want and he’s certainly getting the best out of them at the moment.”

spank the Bavarians like it's 2012

'I'm worried' - Gary Neville reacts to Man City 3-0 win over Man Utd | The Gary Neville Podcast

Lost In the Kingdom of Kitsch Kitsch, addiction, and the emotional architecture of MAGA https://cybelecanterel.substack.com/p/lost-in-the-kingdom-of-kitsch The cultural aesthetic of MAGA is as instantly recognizable as it is idiosyncratic: red hats, golden crosses, genre-laden realist memes, and endless flags. But why? Why the plastic patriotism, the sentimental religiosity, when the core ideology has so little to do with either actual Christianity or actual American history? A short answer: the aesthetic is kitsch. MAGA kitsch. Christo-fascist kitsch. And kitsch is not incidental— it’s the scaffolding that props up the movement’s values and delivers its psychic charge. It’s the addictive element that manages followers’ anxiety and fear of change; the glue that solidifies their group identity. Art critic Clement Greenberg, in 1939 (another important year for kitsch), defined it as artifacts of mass culture based on “vicarious experience” and “faked sensations.” Its representations are shallow and stereotypical, yet emotionally intense, pulling from a reservoir of shared cultural archetypes and reproducing them in emotionally blunt, instantly recognizable forms. Milan Kundera sharpened it further: “Kitsch is the absolute denial of shit…a folding screen set up to curtain off death.” Philosopher Tomas Kulka, in his book Kitsch and Art, adds three rules to the definition: Kitsch depicts objects or themes that are highly charged with stock emotions. The objects or themes depicted by kitsch are instantly and effortlessly identifiable. Kitsch does not substantially enrich our associations relating to the depicted objects or themes. If art is ambiguity and evocation, kitsch is certainty and prescription. Art asks. Kitsch does exactly what it says on the tin. Think of kitsch as an anxiety management technology: it rejects ambiguity, nuance, and difference— precisely the qualities in life that create emotional friction and require the ability to manage discomfort. Instead, it offers emotional clarity: stock images, stock emotions, stock answers. This clarity is addictive. Neuroscience has shown that emotionally charged experiences, whether joy or outrage, activate the brain’s mesolimbic dopamine system, the circuitry that underlies motivation and reward. Intense emotional arousal spikes dopamine (the craving, seeking circuit), reinforcing the behavior that triggered the spike, regardless of whether the emotion is positive or negative. This is why engaging with outrage on social media, or the spectacle of a rally, can feel compulsive: the brain learns to crave and seek out similar experiences. At the same time, collective rituals like chanting, singing, and waving symbols boost oxytocin, the neuropeptide that strengthens in-group trust and bonding. Oxytocin doesn’t just produce “warm fuzzies”— it sharpens the divide between in-group and out-group, amplifying hostility toward outsiders, and reinforcing personal boundary collapse with insiders. The addictive power of kitsch isn’t just neurological. Research in political psychology shows that conservatism is consistently associated with heightened needs for order, structure, cognitive closure, and with discomfort in the face of ambiguity. Layered onto this is experiential avoidance— the tendency to suppress or flee from unpleasant internal states. Psychologists Luigi Leone and Antonio Chirumbolo found that higher levels of experiential avoidance were positively correlated with right-wing authoritarianism and conservative attitudes. People who cannot tolerate inner conflict, uncertainty, or discomfort are more likely to gravitate toward rigid belief systems that promise clarity and order. Kitsch, in this light, functions as a psychological narcotic. Its sentimental symbols and emotional spectacles allow adherents to bypass discomfort, suppress nuance, and substitute stock images for lived complexity. The dopamine/oxytocin loop provides the chemical reinforcement; experiential avoidance supplies the cognitive vulnerability. Together, they create an almost closed system: a worldview in which difficult realities are screened out and replaced with emotionally gratifying fictions. This helps explain why kitsch-dominated worldviews are so sticky. As education policy scholar Catherine Lugg puts it, “Kitsch is art that engages the emotions and deliberately ignores the intellect, a form of cultural anesthesia”. Kitsch provides a behavioral shortcut around discomfort and ambiguity, rewarding avoidance with a hit of certainty. And once that loop is entrenched, critical faculties are dampened and the individual is caught in a cycle of craving and release. Social theorist Theodor Adorno saw this dynamic coming long before psychology and neuroscience confirmed it. In The Authoritarian Personality, he and his collaborators described the rigid, conventional, ambiguity-intolerant mindset that gravitated toward fascism. Such individuals, they argued, defended against inner conflict by projecting it outward, seeking comfort in authority and uniformity. In Dialectic of Enlightenment, Adorno and Max Horkheimer diagnosed how the “culture industry” fed this structure by mass-producing kitsch-like cultural goods that gratified emotions while discouraging critical thought. What contemporary neuroscience calls dopamine reinforcement and what psychologists call experiential avoidance, Adorno had already described as cultural anesthesia—a narcotic cycle that keeps people transfixed, gratified, and politically pliant. Kitsch is the lingua franca of consumer capitalism. From chain restaurants to Disney’s Epcot, consumerism attempts to create novelty without friction, a craving for more of what we already know. The only ambiguity permitted in this system is the gap between what we have bought and what we could buy. Marketing collapses this gap into identity itself: who we are versus who we could be if only we purchased the missing pieces. Fascism works the same psychological seam: it exploits the gap between what its followers feel— anxiety, rejection, fear of change and difference— and what it promises they could feel: enmeshment, boundary collapse, and the regression to a womb-like belonging…forever. The spectacle of rallies, the flood of symbols, the orchestrated chants: all are kitsch rituals engineered to simultaneously collapse the boundaries of the group inside, and to close the walls against the groups outside. The logic of the loop: stoke anxiety and fear, then relieve it through group spectacle and performance, ad infinitum. Donald Trump embodies kitsch with almost comic literalness. His gaudy towers dripping with faux-gold interiors and ersatz Versailles styling are simulacra of wealth rather than wealth itself. His hand gestures, oversized signatures, and stagecraft with planes and flags— all attempt to jackhammer consumerist “success” into the cultural consciousness. For his followers, this aesthetic works like a drug. The gold-plated spectacle delivers the dopamine thrill of status and the oxytocin warmth of validation. To people who feel disempowered, Trump offers a transfusion of counterfeit power: his “success” is fake enough to be accessible, but insistent enough to feel real. Writer James Howard Kunstler described the experience of being inside Trump’s now-bankrupt Taj Mahal casino in the early ‘90s: Kitsch transforms Trump into an emotional commodity: the product people buy, over and over, to feel powerful and relevant in a world that makes them feel powerless and forgotten. Though Trump instinctively speaks this language, he did not invent it. American history is littered with racialized, kitsched-up narratives designed to sanitize structural violence into consumable archetypes. The “welfare queen,” the “illegal alien,” the “problem child,” the immigrant anglicized into acceptability— all are kitsch figures, caricatures instantly recognizable, emotionally loaded, stripped of complexity. From the Republic’s early assimilation myths, through the New Deal’s sanitized portrayals of the “worthy poor,” to Reagan and Clinton’s demolition of welfare via the “undeserving poor,” American politics has leaned on kitsch to paper over contradictions. These symbolic figures are players in what Kundera called the “dictatorship of the heart”: images that everyone recognizes, that induce feelings before thought, and that enforce conformity by punishing difference. MAGA inherits this lineage wholesale and remixes it. Its imagery— saintly founding fathers, hard-hatted, muscular white workers, sentimentalized Anglo-Protestant nuclear families— exists not to describe shared reality but to overwrite it with emotional shorthand. Pluralism, negotiation, and change are swapped out for stock images of dominance and homogeneity. The past is imagined as pure, the present as unbearable, and the future as redeemable only through exclusion. This is why MAGA Christianity is not Christianity in any meaningful sense. It is kitsch Christianity: emotionally loaded symbols stripped of theological depth and deployed as an anxiety management system. Crosses, slogans, patriotic hymns, and nostalgic fantasies offer an endless buffet of anesthetizing “hits.” If only every deviant, dissenter, or difference could be subordinated or eliminated, then unease would disappear. But this is an impossible fiction—one concealed by the true beneficiaries of the system: those already at the top of the hierarchy. The wealthy and powerful require a loyal base transfixed by spectacle, hooked on its chemical rush, mobilized against phantoms in order to consolidate their own position. The psychology of authoritarianism predisposes those intolerant of ambiguity to seek certainty; experiential avoidance drives them to flee discomfort into rigid dogmas; dopamine and oxytocin loops reinforce the cycle with chemical urgency. As philosopher Walter Benjamin warned, kitsch fashions its figures “in the interior.” It does not merely surround us; it colonizes us. In MAGA kitsch, the emotional lies have become lived truth, and the addictive loop itself has become the politics. Kitsch provides the medium, history supplies the symbols, and Trump embodies the spectacle. Trump and MAGA are thus not an aberration but a culmination—an avatar of the patterns woven into the fabric of the American psyche. They have, in various incarnations, been with us from the beginning, and are unlikely to fade away no matter how much scrubbing we do. When the next reckoning comes, we must take into account the systemic aspects that continue to support its appeal. Inequality, psychology, and addictive cycles play instrumental roles in who falls to fascist kitsch and who is resistant to it.

A quick crash course in blackpill accelerationism: the memes are the ideology.