Vesper

better stated than I did! agree 100 per cent Oblak has that same killer mentality so does Ederson and ter Stegen and Alisson and Donnarumma I see it in Mamardashvili and Meslier too I so hope Slonina has it

I am not sure IF Slonina is ready at his age Date of birth May 15, 2004 (age 18) maybe he is, we need to find out before the summer as what we have now is NOT acceptable Kepa is oki (but so expensive) as a backup and Mendy was a one season wonder and is now on the wrong side of 30 anyway and is not likely going to improve IMHO

yes, Meslier is the most likely who is closest to the top especially as the top 2 have HUGE release clauses 120m euros for Oblak (I am sure that will not be held up as do or die though) and 100m euros for Giorgi Mamardashvili 😞

We still supposedly, the last I saw, are going to hire an overall Sporting Director 2 names are far and away my 2 choices for that role Christoph Freund (now that the RB owner died, maybe he will have a rethink) and Michael Edwards I think Pool will get Paul Mitchell

for GKer I have a shortness issue with David Raya he is only 1.82m or 1.83m depending on when and where you look that worries me I hope in 3, 4 years Slonina is our number one but no guarantees on that so......... here are my 40 top keepers, in some semblance of order Raya is on the list, just not that high Jan Oblak Giorgi Mamardashvili Illan Meslier Mike Maignan Dominik Livakovic Odysseas Vlachodimos Emiliano Martínez Matvey Safonov Dean Henderson Diogo Costa Robert Sánchez David Raya Nick Pope Gregor Kobel Unai Simón Alban Lafont Juan Musso Ugurcan Cakir André Onana Anatoliy Trubin Justin Bijlow Maarten Vandevoordt Alex Meret Guglielmo Vicario Alexander Nübel Predrag Rajković Marco Carnesecchi Gavin Bazunu Daniil Khudyakov Bento Sam Johnstone Cleiton Etienne Green Lucas Chevalier Thomas Strakosha Brenno Andriy Lunin Yann Sommer Mattia Perin Gonçalo Ribeiro (17yo)

it would not be Caicedo as Potter was his manager, so no surprise there nor Mac Allister, same reason nor any Napoli players (the poison dwarf would have went insane) I would guess it was in no order your guess, Lavia or Gvardiol or Bellingham (iffy) or Rafael Leão (iffy) or Rice or Dusan Vlahovic or Skriniar or Dumfries or Matheus Nunes or Anthony Gordon or Amadou Onana or Marcus Thuram or Arsen Zakharyan not Barella, Inter said stay away now as soon as we asked

Fabrizio Romano's Daily Briefing 🔵 Behind the scenes: Enzo Fernandez Chelsea deal almost collapsed More details on Enzo Fernandez's record-breaking move to Chelsea https://caughtoffside.substack.com/p/behind-the-scenes-enzo-fernandez The Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea deal was a really mad one - many things happened behind the scenes. It’s important to start by saying the player has been crucial. When everything started in January, the player was pushing very hard, and skipped training. When talks started again towards the end of January, Enzo remained very professional, but was praying for president Rui Costa to let him join Chelsea. The president had no intention to accept until the final few minutes of the transfer window, so Enzo was crucial. At the beginning of January, Chelsea made a bid of €85m plus add ons for Fernandez, and with the possibility of players being included in the deal. Benfica said no, they wanted the release clause or nothing. Rui Costa was furious with Chelsea, but they were still there. Eventually they did it, they first tried €100m plus players, but Benfica again said no - €120m or nothing. So Chelsea offered €120m paid in instalments, but again for Benfica it wasn’t enough. After a crazy 20 hours of negotiations, Benfica were still not budging. Chelsea were ready to have the player for a medical in London, but Benfica weren’t allowing it. Enzo was desperate and was pushing, and Chelsea tried again after 20 hours of negotiations from Tuesday morning to the final moments of Deadline Day, so how did they do it? The payment will be in six instalments, but with a big amount - €40m - paid up front. Fernandez has signed a contract until 2031, there was never any issue between the player and Chelsea, the only issue was Benfica president Rui Costa. The whole Chelsea board did incredible work, all together pushing to get this signing done. It was a big fight. At one point, at around 8pm yesterday the deal was 100% collapsed, but Chelsea didn’t give up, Enzo was pushing, and the medical was eventually done after midnight. Here we go!

Juve are in shambles, I think if ever there was a good time to pull Miretti, it is now, IF we actually rate him those 2, plus our Cesare Casadei are all similar Italian CMF's all 3 are close in age too Fabio Miretti Date of birth/Age: Aug 3, 2003 (19) Cesare Casadei Date of birth/Age: Jan 10, 2003 (20) Nicolò Fagioli Date of birth/Age: Feb 12, 2001 (21)

IF (and the only reason I would think would be he just keeps getting injured) we sell Chilwell there are only 3 left backs I am going to accept Alphonso Davies (Bayern may just sell him, he is unhappy, having a bit of a drop in form, and they just bought Cancelo who plays better on the left than the right) Nuno Mendes (but FFS, we just pissed off PSG something terrible) Theo Hernández (I am a bit off the boil due to his poor defence) Borna Sosa will also surely be a target, but I worry about his defence as well

I know why there is the speculation on Kova. Kova turns 30 at the end of next season, and his contract expires right after he turns 30, on Jun 30, 2024 That is about the most unclear case of a player's age and contract expiration as you can get, certianly within a year either way for both age and contract relative to age expiration date. If he was 2 years younger, then sure, renew him for 4 years, as he would be 32yo old at the very end (so the age of him from now until then would be playing at age 26, 27 to just turning at the end 32 (so 31yo in reality for the last year), aka prime AF years. BUT he is not two years younger, so the same situ yields playing time from 28, 29 now to just turning 34yo, in reality 33 for most of the last year, so 2 or even 3 pretty not prime years. Its a real quandary. This summer is the last you can get max or near max money for him, we all know that except for a few CFs, then the top GKers, and of course Messi/CR7 types, the value slams down when you hit 30 years of age or more, especially 31. Some people always fight with me (not just here, lol, every where I talk about footie, real life or internet) about my age theory for football, but look at the record, I am spot on I truly feel. I also am flexible and make more exceptions now, as I now have more years of real time observation myself, and have relaxed a lot on CFs and CBs. Look at my predictions on fullbacks and DMFs and the 30yo age barrier, and how, for instance, I called Kante's downfall (and said sell him for several years) due to predicted injures (from both age and minutes performing his style of atomic pinball of death and destruction play) years in advance.

Kvaratskhelia Vs. Nkunku Vs. Mudryk | Skills Duels

Marks and Sparks???? we are way above that somewhat quotidian level we are deffo shopping in Harrods Food Hall or the Harvey Nichols Foodmarket

I am surprised you did not mention Fabio Miretti over Nicolò Fagioli versus

he is just pissed that we have the first yank modern EPL owners who actually splash cash in never before seen ways and do it smartly (other than the summer 2022 madness, as Boehly had no true advice in his ears then, so got roped on some crazy bad deals) FSG at Pool and the Kroenkes at Arse try to do things on the cheap too much and the Manure Glazers spent a shedload, but badly for ages

I am a huge sceptic of so much in football I RIP apart players I do not rate and even then if I see a special player I dig in and go hardcore on my track record on those, going all the way back to 2012 Eden and of course de Bruyne (I will never get over us selling with no buyback or right of first refusal, never), is pretty damn solid and Enzo IS in that 'OMFG I WANT them SOOOOOOOOOOOO BADLY' category here are some of them (and to show I am doing thsi is complete good faith, I cannot claim Salah, nor Ruben Dias, nor Benz, nor VVD, nor Modric, nor Håland at Salzburg, nor Vini Jr, nor even Kante at Leicester (loved the signing, did not see how MONSTER the wee baldy man would go) and I would never count Messi or CR7) so.............. Bellingham Enzo Gvardiol Osimhen Warren Zaïre-Emery (16yo who is, from all I can see, a different planet level good MFer already) Hakimi in early Dortmund days Tchouameni (GRRRRRRRRRRRR, fucking board in 2021, fucking our shit scouts, GRRRRRRRR) Nuno Mendes whilst at Sporting, and now obviously, PSG Ronald Araújo (gutted when we failed to prise him from Barca, I think he may end up better even than Skriniar) Nkunku (starting in 2021 a switch flipped) Camavinga at Rennes Skriniar (for ages) Oblak (for ages) Alphonso Davies (I saw his first games as a LB, as he came as a winger from Vancouver in the MLS, and was like HOLY FUCK) Nicolò Barella (for years) not quite there yet with 2: Rafael Leão and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia (but getting closer) now older Mbappe whilst at Monaco, now he is a pipe dream KK ages ago (OH THE IRONY!! as I took him off my lists 2 years back, the proof is on this board, and IMHO he is the worst buy Boehly did) Kimmich (as a RB, ages ago, I will not claim I saw him also going WC at DMF) Alex Sandro (ages ago) Thiago Silva (for ages, but then I gave up, oh foolish me!) Lewa at Dortmund (Bayern days is too easy), ALWAYS thought he was vastly better back back then than peak Auba ever was Eden at Lille (I was the opposite of the Oscar fans, I was SO exited about Hazard, and a bit sceptical on Oscar) Leonardo Bonucci (2009/10 whilst he was at Bari (my brother's BF way back then was a DJ from Bari (omg, he was so fooking hawt, if I wasn't a lesbi and if I was 3 year older or so back then, well, fag hag time!! lolol) who spun in London and Ibiza as well as Rome and he was a football NUTTER, who raved about him every time we talked footie), you could tell the lad was SPECIAL)

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/enzo-fernandez-the-biography

yes, the deal is long done and dusted, he comes in early summer

become Swedish Lillördag (Little Saturday Swedish: lillördag) is a European concept especially celebrated in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Bulgaria that adds Wednesday to the list of "drinking days". Many nightclubs and bars stay open late and offer many kinds of little Saturday specials such as music shows and drink specials. If Wednesdays are Little Saturdays, then Tuesdays are Little Fridays...

we should REALLY try and help PSG sort this have Thiago help that is a BAD club to piss off I never had very much ill will at all towards them either they do buy so many of my favourite targets though, lol player they bought or have I wanted badly some these are from years ago (italics) Gianluigi Donnarumma (was my 2nd choice after Oblak for ages) Marquinhos Presnel Kimpembe Nuno Mendes Achraf Hakimi Nordi Mukiele Warren Zaïre-Emery Defensive Midfield Mar 8, 2006 (16) my newest youth obsession, crazy good, sky's the limit Marco Verratti Vitinha Carlos Soler Kylian Mbappé Hugo Ekitiké

we had our shot in 2012 ☹️ Chelsea rejected 13-year-old Mbappe for not being able to defend https://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2018/09/14/5b9b7b3f46163fcb198b456e.html

what a bitter bitter rinsed cunt that old cunt is

still gutted Robben did not score on that breakaway the poor Dutchies, what heartbreaks they have had at the WC the footballing powerhouses (and this includes over the entire sweep of the WC) that have not won a WC Netherlands Portugal Croatia (most amazing ultra small footballing nation ever, and just think if they were part of a re-united Yugoslavia team, see below) Sweden (4 top 4 WC finishes, we should have won in 1994, as we had Brasil on the ropes, and we showed our class in the 3rd place game, plus we almost won in 1958, would have if not for a certain 17yo Brasilian who ended up the greatest player ever, lol) now we may well never come close again though, who knows, maybe if there is a crazy global war and we take in 2 million or more refugees, like we did from 1996 to 2016, lol) Hungary (REALLY should have won in 1954) Belgium Czechoslovakia (doesn't exist anymore) that is it in terms of still current or historical powerhouses (the Soviet Union poofed over 30 years ago, so did Yugoslavia (my dog what teams they would have if 100 per cent reunited again, they have had, if you count the counties that made them up and then one they did themselves, FIVE top 4 WC finishes) and then Denmark and Poland had spells of dominance, but nothing like the other teams listed, same for Chile and Colombia, and no African nation qualifies, sorry Africa

10000% that is Joe Shields

10000% that is Joe Shields