Vesper

‘I no longer want to hide’: Jakub Jankto, Czech international, comes out as gay Highest-profile current male footballer to come out ‘I want to live my life in freedom without fear’ https://www.theguardian.com/football/2023/feb/13/jakub-jankto-czech-footballer-comes-out-as-gay Jakub Jankto, the Czech Republic international and Getafe midfielder on loan at Sparta Prague, has come out as gay. The 27-year-old is the highest-profile current male footballer to publicly come out after Josh Cavallo of Adelaide United and Jake Daniels of Blackpool revealed their sexuality in 2021 and 2022 respectively. “Hi, I’m Jakub Jankto,” he said in a video published on Twitter. “Like everybody else, I have my strengths, I have my weaknesses; I have a family, I have my friends. “I have a job, which I have been doing it as best as I can, for years, with seriousness, professionalism and passion. Like everybody else, I also want to live my life in freedom without fears, without prejudice, without violence, but with love. “I am homosexual, and I no longer want to hide myself.” Sparta Prague released a statement in support of Jankto’s decision to come out: “Jakub spoke openly about his sexual orientation with the club some time ago. Everything else concerns his personal life. No further comments. No more questions. You have our support. Live your life, Jakub. Nothing else matters.” The official Premier League Twitter account replied to Jankto’s message by posting: “We’re with you, Jakub. Football is for everyone”, while Fifpro, the global union for players, tweeted “Live your life, Jakub. Proud” along with a heart emoji.

If we buy Cancelo (a righted footer who turns 30yo at the end of next season) for 70m fucking euros I am going to lose my mind and for LEFT BACK??? he was ok as an emergency LB for Citeh for a spell, but then really fell off what is it about teams being STUPID with fullbacks? if we wanta right footer (and he is very affordable) who can play LB and RB then the answer is the same as always Joakim Mæhle

hard pass on Raya way too short and I think he is just overrated in general

Chelsea board firmly behind Potter https://theathletic.com/4187294/2023/02/13/united-sale-qatar-var-potter/ Chelsea’s draw at West Ham United on Saturday means Graham Potter’s side have won just two of their last 13 Premier League matches, leaving them ninth in the table and 10 points off the top four. The run of results, especially with so much money spent in the summer and January transfer windows, has led to some unrest among supporters. The Champions League is the last chance the club have for silverware this season. But though some fans are questioning whether Potter is the right man to lead the club in the post-Roman Abramovich era, the club’s owners have no such concerns, reports David Ornstein, whose column returns next week. Potter has struggled but is under no pressure (Photo: Julian Finney/Getty Images) The feeling within the Chelsea hierarchy is that the former Brighton coach should be judged in years not months and they are confident they have one of the best managers in the game. They have a lot of changes still to make at the club and decided early on not to judge him on whether they qualify for the Champions League this season. The leadership team feel Potter coming in mid-season with a squad that needed such a big overhaul meant success was always very unlikely in the short term and that there is still a lot of change to come to what is now a youthful team. It’s felt he has been very unlucky with injuries too. The success of Mikel Arteta at Arsenal with a young squad after a mixed start is also seen as reassuring and the board feel that it will take some time for all the new faces to gel and understand Potter’s tactics and methods.

that's a massive blow to Spuds he was having a great season

Rodrigo Bentancur out for season with ACL rupture https://theathletic.com/4189699/2023/02/13/rodrigo-bentancur-injury-news-tottenham/ Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Rodrigo Bentancur has been ruled out for the rest of the season. The 25-year-old midfielder has “ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee”, Spurs confirmed in a statement on Monday. The statement said: “We can confirm that Rodrigo Bentancur has ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee and will be out of action for the remainder of the campaign. “He will undergo surgery before beginning his rehabilitation with our medical staff.“We’re all behind you, Rodrigo.” The news will come as a significant blow to Spurs head coach Antonio Conte. Bentancur has established himself as one of Tottenham’s most important players since moving to the club from Juventus in January 2022. He has played 18 Premier League games this season, scoring five goals, including in Tottenham’s 4-1 mauling at the hands of Leicester City on Saturday. GO DEEPER Spurs trapped in recurring nightmare as their search for consistency goes on

Joao Felix looks at home at Chelsea and is already making a case for longer stay https://theathletic.com/4185663/2023/02/12/joao-felix-Chelsea-west-ham/ Todd Boehly’s smile during Chelsea’s 1-1 draw at West Ham United looked bittersweet. When the TV cameras panned back to where the Chelsea chairman was sitting at the London Stadium, the player who caused him to beam broadly the most was one the club do not even own. Joao Felix had to wait a month to make his second appearance since joining from Atletico Madrid on loan after serving a three-match suspension for a red card at Fulham. But for his second game running, the Portugal international was Chelsea’s best player. Chelsea’s co-owners have spent more than £500million ($603m) — not including add-ons — on new players since taking over last summer. Joao Felix’s loan fee cost Chelsea £9.7m, a decision that was criticised, but you can already see why the 23-year-old is valued so highly. Most of the recent arrivals have not made an instant impact. Out of the other 17 (including another loan in Denis Zakaria) to join in the past two transfer windows, only Benoit Badiashile and Enzo Fernandez have made similarly strong starts. There has not been a great deal for Chelsea fans to get excited about on the pitch. Their team have won just two of their past 12 games in all competitions, scoring only six goals in the process. But Joao Felix is giving them some hope, a reason to get off their seats and a catchy song about coming from Portugal and ‘hating the Arsenal‘. Against West Ham, he also did what seems alien to many of his team-mates: he found the back of the net. It helped that, with the assist, Fernandez provided the kind of vision and creativity that has also been lacking too much from Chelsea’s play. But Joao Felix’s well-timed run also caught West Ham’s defence unawares, and his finish was just too good for Lukasz Fabianski. The attack has been crying out for this kind of spark, which is one of the reasons the Boehly-Clearlake consortium sanctioned a significant transfer spend in January. Mykhailo Mudryk and Noni Madueke have shown flashes of what they will bring once they settle in, but Joao Felix already looks like he has been at Chelsea for some time and is enjoying the opportunity to represent the west London club. Talking to the Spanish newspaper AS before the fixture, he said: “I’ve only been here a few weeks, a month. I know everything. I am very comfortable, but nobody knows the future.” You get the impression he would like to make the move permanent already. However, there was no option to buy included in the loan and Atletico also extended his contract until 2027 to protect his value and their position. Reports in Spain last week said Atletico value Joao Felix at £124m, although Chelsea believe they can be persuaded to accept a lower sum than that. If he keeps playing like this, he will give the hierarchy a decision to make. They do not intend to sign another raft of players in the summer but are prepared to spend big again in a few key positions. One of those will be another forward, despite having already put a deal in place to sign RB Leipzig forward Christopher Nkunku. When Chelsea made their loan move for Joao Felix, they did so on the proviso that if he impresses, the club will consider adding him to the squad on a permanent basis. Granted, Joao Felix faded in the second half against West Ham, surely a symptom of not playing for a month, but his numbers still stood out. In Graham Potter’s side, the Portugal forward registered the most shots (three) and shots on target (two), supplied the most crosses (eight) and was also Chelsea’s most-fouled player (three) — an indication of how much West Ham struggled to contain him. Among the attacking players who started the game for Chelsea, which included Kai Havertz, Mudryk and Madueke, he also had the most touches (66) and passes (35). What was noticeable is that even though he started out as a No 10 behind Havertz in a 4-2-3-1 formation, Joao Felix roamed all over the pitch, giving all his new team-mates an option to pass to at some point, as his touch map below shows: A sign of just how confident he is in a Chelsea shirt was provided by one scooped pass over a bewildered Jarrod Bowen, followed later by a smart jink that sent Said Benrahma on his way to the nearby Stratford train station. Perhaps all the acquisitions will click too late to correct all the damage inflicted on their standing in the Premier League table, but Joao Felix can help inspire a Champions League run. They face Borussia Dortmund in the first leg of their last-16 tie on Wednesday in Germany and his name has been added to Chelsea’s squad for the knockout phase. “I love the atmosphere in the Premier League,” Joao Felix told Chelsea’s Fifth Stand app after the West Ham game. “Now it’s about focusing on the next game. It’s the Champions League — that’s the competition we want to win. Our Champions League starts on Wednesday and it needs to be ours.” That’s just the kind of fighting talk Boehly and the supporters want to hear.

Joined: Jul 16, 2014 Contract expires: Jun 30, 2028 Date of last contract extension: Jul 20, 2022

Potter needs to tell CuCu to pass the ball to Mudryk or his ass is going to rot on the reserve team

Leicester likely fucked us hard with Fofana as well, for even more money, unless he recovers 100% they fucked over Manure with slabhead for damn near the same amount (actually more on the t fee)

I am absolutely in favour of buying him or a loan with an obligation to buy in 2024 I think if Felix had went to the right club instead of 'offensive graveyard for most' Atleti, he would be a top 10 player in the world already for a couple of years

that video enrages me more what the fuckery is up with that shit?????

and the tramp's bird celebrating by drinking a champagne flute of piss in the passenger seat

a horrid loss under Tuchel

we simply cannot keep letting what will soon be (if we just say fuck it and do not renew and do not sell) hundreds of millions of quid worth of players leave on frees we lost 80m to 90m or so on just AC (who is doing better at Barca than Rudi is at Real) and Rudiger

btw, it is pretty cool that you can buy a flat and live on the pitch of the old Gladbach Bökelbergstadion (de Kull) also, you should have beaten Pool in the 1977 European Cup final, lolol

how much do you attribute being on a not so top class team to this?

Barella to me is the closest atm there is to Kante in terms of a pinball pest/destroyer ball of energy BUT he will be such a hard and expensive pull my ideal realistic (as we are going to start to lose CMF/DMFs like crazy soon I think) would be to grab Kone and Lavia if not Kone, then buy Zakaria IF he finishes the year strong, and maybe we do both we need to really start clearing out the dregs and rolling the dice on the young lads Carney (home grown U21), Santos (U21 and will count as HG eventually), Kone, Enzo, Lavia (homegrown U21), Casadei (U21, just missed being HG eligible), and Zakaria bye-bye soon to Kova (I think he will not renew, sad but its a complex situ) and same for many more, likely Mount, RLC, Kante, likely Gallagher (still stunned we turned down 50m, ffs, from NUFC) etc

Chelsea feel Brazilian gem has already increased in value https://www.Chelsea-news.co/2023/02/Chelsea-feel-brazilian-gem-has-already-increased-in-value/ Chelsea are very happy and excited about Brazilian wonderkid Andrey Santos, according to Fabrizio Romano. The Blues are actively working on a work permit and the club want him to stay this season and add depth into Graham Potter’s squad. Chelsea signed Santos from Vasco Da Gama for 12.5 million Euros, initially the deal was said to include add ons to take the total fee up to 20 million Euros but Chelsea managed to close the deal for 12.5, no add ons included. The club feel that he is already worth 20-25 million Euros even though he hasn’t kicked a ball for Chelsea yet, this is because he has scored 5 goals in the U20 South American Championships in 6 games, despite being a midfielder. After the conclusion of the tournament, Chelsea expect to have Santos flying to London to join up with the team. You can listen to the talk about Andrey Santos from 3 minutes down below.

Chelsea duo Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Mateo Kovacic are unlikely to sign contract extensions beyond 2024. https://www.caughtoffside.com/2023/02/12/Chelsea-duo-unlikely-to-sign-contract-extensions-beyond-2024/ With Chelsea bringing in a host of new players over the last few transfer windows and spending likely to continue in the summer, some of Chelsea’s current crop may be sweating over their future at the club. If Chelsea continue bringing in multiple players per window, they will naturally have to offload a fair few in order to name a 25-man Premier League squad. Now, according to Simon Phillips, speaking to GiveMeSport, Kovacic and Loftus-Cheek could be two of the players that leave Chelsea over the next 18 months. “You’ve got the situations with Mateo Kovacic’s contract, 2024, Loftus-Cheek as well, 2024. So those are two midfielders that I’d be surprised with if any of them ended up extending as things stand.” Chelsea have plenty of midfield options now that Enzo Fernandez has joined the club and if Denis Zakaria is signed on a permanent deal you’d imagine Loftus-Cheek or Kovacic will begin to consider their options. Both players only have a year left on their deals in the summer so it could be time for Chelsea to cash in to avoid them leaving on free transfers. Chelsea are continuously linked to even more midfielders despite their recent signings and you wouldn’t put it past Todd Boehly splashing the cash once again in the summer.

I want him sacked NOW I clearly delineated when I went Potter out and I shall remain consistent

if we do not thrash SOTON, Potter MUST be sacked, they are a horrid side, the worst on the league now Roméo Lavia is the only player they have who interests me Livramento blew out his knee Bella-Kotchap also hurt his knee, but not as badly as Livramento did his look at SOTON's attackers, most are either fairly to really poor or are very very young Joe Aribo Kamaldeen Sulemana Mohamed Elyounoussi Mislav Orsic Moussa Djenepo Samuel Edozie Theo Walcott Ché Adams Adam Armstrong Paul Onuachu Sékou Mara

it isn't just Rashford, he is working miracles on defence with players like Luke Shaw (as a bloody CB!!) and Fred, AWB, the dwarf Lisandro, etc etc hell, he even has slabhead playing better