Vesper

2022-23 UEFA Nations League, Group Stage Italy England https://livestreams.totalsportek.com/game/italy-vs-england/1946/

I can see Leão going for over £130m. Bellingham, Leão, Rice, Nkunku, Vlahović (perhaps, but doubtful), Neymar (perhaps), Skriniar (unless he renews), Oblak (unless he renews), Osimhen, Bernardo Silva (perhaps), De Jong (perhaps but doubtful), Gvardiol, João Félix (perhaps), Wirtz (if fully recovered), Barella (perhaps), Chiesa (if fully recovered) and Sergej Milinković-Savić (last possible year for him in terms of a huge money move, as he turns 29yo in the middle of next season, so already I am very wary of a huge outlay) are the only truly world class (ATM) players who MAY be available this coming summer. Only 7 of those (I listed status above if not a lock) are locks to be available and Rice will likely cost around £150m. Rice, Leão, and Bellingham are easily the 3 most expensive. CR7 is no longer WC, and Ousame Dembele needs to show he is back for good.

He is one of the very few elite wingers who will be available in 2023. Plus he is a left-footed RW. Chiesa, Oyarzabel, and Wirtz (more of an AMF) all had horrid injuries. I fear we do not have the pull to grab either Leão or Nkunku (he is more of an SS and AMF). Bowen has had a horrid start. That leaves, besides Diaby: Ousmane Dembélé, but now no longer free, he will cost €50m due to his new release clause. Then: RW Khvicha Kvaratskhelia RW Yéremy Pino RW Hirving Lozano RW Viktor Tsygankov RW Ismaïla Sarr RW Noni Madueke RW Nico Williams RW Luiz Henrique LW Mykhaylo Mudryk LW Cody Gakpo LW Anthony Gordon LW Allan Saint-Maximin LW Pedro Neto LW Kamaldeen Sulemana

WhoScored.com Europe's best XI this season:

absolute banger, just wow

Mou in the new Stormzy video, lolol

Facility fees kept us from being a clear third, as we had less live matches

Thomas Tuchel may 'have words with other managers' to ruin 'babyish' Chelsea star's career https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/1672810/Chelsea-Thomas-Tuchel-Graham-Potter-sack-manager-Premier-League-Champions-League

I am pretty bearish on our prospects for summer 2023 No CL, if that happens, will fuck us hard I do not think we have decent shots at most all of the top players who will be remotely available in 2023 I think the only ones we have a shot at (and many will be close to, or more than £90-100m) are Declan Rice (but HARD pass at £150m) Victor Osimhen (will not be easy) Josko Gvardiol (and if we do not lock him up in January, our chances go down and down) Moisés Caicedo (will not be easy at all) Moussa Diaby Mikel Oyarzabal (if fully recovered) Kouadio Koné I think we have little to no chance on Jude Bellingham Christopher Nkunku Bernardo Silva ???? Dušan Vlahović ???? Lautaro Martínez ???? Florian Wirtz (if fully recovered) João Félix ???? Rafael Leão ???? Sergej Milinković-Savić Nicolò Barella ???? Achraf Hakimi ???? Federico Chiesa (if fully recovered) ???? Milan Skriniar ???? Frenkie de Jong ???? Alessandro Bastoni ???? Theo Hernández ???? (if we dump Chilwell, which is really unlikely) Jan Oblak ???? José Gayà

agree 😪

Christoph Freund would have plugged a lot of the leaks around transfers, and now we failed to get him.

I cannot believe we are stuck with this spent draught-horse for almost 2 more years Chelsea: 'No way' £150k-a-week star should start at Stamford Bridge https://www.givemesport.com/88061583-Chelsea-no-way-150k-a-week-star-should-start-at-stamford-bridge Chelsea defender Cesar Azpilicueta has suffered a ‘very clear’ decline in the early stages of the current campaign, according to journalist Simon Phillips. The 33-year-old has been an outstanding servant for the Blues, but it seems as though his age is finally catching up with him just weeks after he penned a new contract with the club.

"Dumbfounded" Christian Pulisic details how Thomas Tuchel misled him at Chelsea The American international quickly fell out of favour at Stamford Bridge under the reign of Champions League winning manager Thomas Tuchel and has now told his side of the story https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/Chelsea-pulisic-tuchel-dropped-claim-28040213

same issues still

Blocked (posting AND clicking on posts which then yields 404 errors) most of the day and now deep night. Pretty much done here until it's fixed. The board's overall functionality is a hot mess. Sorry, hope all keep safe.

and the boke is only turned 22 less than 2 months ago, and has only been at Citeh 2 and half months! Lewa and Benz were NOWHERE near his level at the same age, not even remotely close Lewa Benz Håland 100 goals in his last 99 topflight games for 2 clubs (Dortmund and Citeh) 120 goals in last 120 games when Norway (hardly a powerhouse side) goals are added in at ages 19 to barely 22 insanity

massive triple blows No Michael Edwards No Luis Campos No Christoph Freund by far my top 3 sporting director picks fuckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

we look like clowns

Fabrizio Romano's Daily Briefing Why Chelsea have chosen Christoph Freund https://caughtoffside.substack.com/p/subscribers-only-what-next-for-lukaku So who is Christoph Freund? It’s important to say that Graham Potter approved the move. Why? Because Freund is considered one of the best sporting directors around. He works hard behind the scenes, and he’s turned down many other offers from the Premier League in the last few years. Freund wanted to be respectful to Salzburg, but he’s told them about the opportunity at Chelsea, and now it’s only a matter of time before it’s done. It’s really imminent. What Freund did at Salzburg is incredible - they invested in Erling Haaland and he became one of the best strikers in the world. Sadio Mane was also signed by Freund at Salzburg, and we’ve seen what he’s done in Europe in the last few years. Naby Keita was another discovered by Freund. I could mention many others, Patson Daka at Leicester for example. He made more than €500m from player sales - incredible work, it’s not easy to do that kind of work. All these factors made a difference for Chelsea. No change on Romelu Lukaku’s situation at Chelsea Freund will have a lot of work to do at Chelsea, on signings, loans, player sales. One name that’s cropped up already is Romelu Lukaku, but my understanding is that there is no update to speak of just yet. Nothing has changed between Lukaku and Chelsea. The point is the player - he's only focused on Inter project and he hopes to continue there also next season. No one has called him on the Chelsea side, so I think the comeback is not a priority for both the club and the player right now. What next for Mykhaylo Mudryk? Despite growing speculation, I have no updates on Mudryk now – I think he will be linked with 15 clubs in the next three months, and it’s normal as he’s a top talent, but nothing will be decided now. Shakhtar will take their time and I’m sure they want more than €45-50m for Mudryk … but we’ve to see how his performances in the Champions League will be in the next weeks. I’m a big fan of the player, still only 21 years old and doing important things in the Champions League, but I can’t currently say much more in terms of where we’ll be seeing him in the future. Should Bayern Munich have signed Cristiano Ronaldo? It’s not been the best start to the season for Bayern Munich, but we can ignore any talk of Thomas Tuchel returning to management at the Allianz Arena any time soon. Bayern are very clear on their position - they are protecting Nagelsmann with the whole board and they are denying all the rumours on other managers. At the moment, this is not changing. It’s normal that any club would miss a player like Robert Lewandowski. I think Cristiano Ronaldo was a great option for them to replace their top scorer, but I understand their traditional policy on transfers is different. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wasn’t a candidate for Brighton It’s inevitable that plenty of managers will be linked with a job when an opening becomes available, but I’m not convinced by the recent rumours about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer being one of the candidates for Brighton. I'm told the only man wanted by Brighton was Roberto de Zerbi, the real main priority. I have no information on Solskjaer and talks with Brighton. The situation is really quiet around Ole as of now. I'm sure he would be a good call for many Premier League clubs, but he needs a clear and long-term project. West Ham couldn’t agree personal terms with Arnaut Danjuma I’ve been asked by some fans about Arnaut Danjuma - we heard a lot about him earlier in the summer, but speculation ended up dying down. So what happened? Despite links with Newcastle and some other clubs, the real interest was there from West Ham. They wanted Danjuma but the deal collapsed because of personal terms, there was no agreement with the player. In the end, Danjuma decided to stay at Villarreal. We’ll see if he becomes an option for English clubs again in the future. Ethan Nwaneri shows Arsenal’s academy is one of the best in the business What a moment it was for Ethan Nwaneri and Arsenal this weekend! The 15-year-old made history by becoming the youngest ever player in the Premier League, and it’s a testament to the Gunners’ academy. It's pretty clear Arsenal are doing a fantastic job with young players. The academy is excellent, they're very good in the scouting system but also in how they present their long-term project to players and their parents. It's just the beginning - they have at least two or three talents ready to shine in the next months, but it will take some time and they prefer to keep names quiet as they don't want to put too much expectation on these young kids.

Chelsea not close to appointing Christoph Freund, or any other sporting director — reports Premature articulation https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/Chelsea-fc-transfer-rumours-news/2022/9/20/23362517/Chelsea-not-close-to-appointing-christoph-freund-or-any-other-sporting-director-reports Like when you accidental tap on an Instagram post instead of scrolling, and then you desperately try to un-like the thing before it becomes immediately awkward, there is now a “good chance” that Christoph Freund is going to stay with RB Salzburg instead of joining Chelsea. That’s the latest twist in this brief saga, with The Athletic blaming their incorrect reporting on the “optimism inside Stamford Bridge” while others continue to double down on technicalities, like a supposed “verbal agreement”? Given the momentous reporting over the past couple days, RB Salzburg’s claims to the contrary seemed a bit Brighton-esque yesterday as they tried to make it clear through a couple different channels that not only is Freund not going anywhere, but that no one has actually said anything about this to them (be that Chelsea or Christoph himself). But unlike in the case of Marc Cucurella, this time, it looks like the club’s word is the one to go with it. The Athletic add that not only are Chelsea not close to signing Freund, the appointment of any sporting director is “not imminent”. Womp womp wompppppp... And so, back to waiting.

How Chelsea’s teen signing Cesare Casadei is settling in after €20m move https://theathletic.com/3602613/2022/09/18/Chelsea-cesare-casadei/ Amid Chelsea’s record transfer spend this summer, midfielder Cesare Casadei’s arrival from Inter Milan has been somewhat overlooked. Normally, the fact Chelsea spent an initial €15million (£13.1m; $15m) on a 19-year-old with the potential of another €5m in add-ons would have generated a lot more fanfare as well as scrutiny. But when the club commits £250million-plus on new talent and sacks their Champions League-winning head coach, Thomas Tuchel, just seven games into the campaign, you can see why the teenager is not exactly in the limelight right now. This is actually proving to be a good thing. Chelsea considered loaning him out when they purchased the midfielder in order to give him some first-team experience straight away — the closest he got to a senior match at Inter was being an unused substitute at Sassuolo in February. But the club decided against it because they felt the best thing was for him to get a chance to settle in at Chelsea, to feel what the place is all about and be a part of things. The academy also felt it was important he was given the chance to learn English, something that will obviously be crucial if he is to develop into a potential first-team player. He has a basic understanding of the language but is now taking three lessons a week to become more fluent. This was no opportunistic purchase. He had been scouted and been on the radar of academy director Neil Bath for some time. The fact he scored an impressive 24 goals and created seven assists in two seasons for Inter Milan’s under-19s naturally caught the club’s attention, especially as 17 of those strikes came in 2021-22 to help the Serie A club win the under-19 championship. He also played for Italy as they reached the last four at the European Under-19 Championships this summer, a tournament England would go on to win with Chelsea youngsters Harvey Vale and Carney Chukwuemeka, who joined from Aston Villa in a deal worth up to £20million after the tournament, in the side. You might suspect his arrival for such a large fee might cause suspicion, jealousy and angst among some of his new teammates. Yet it didn’t take many training sessions for everyone to be convinced of his quality. It is understood he was quickly accepted by all. To say he didn’t enjoy the best of starts is a bit of an understatement, suffering the ignominy of being sent off for a pair of yellow card offences on his debut in a 1-0 defeat at Sutton United in the EFL Trophy. But he showed great strength of character to bounce back just three days later by scoring in his first Premier League 2 match to help secure a 2-0 win at Everton. On Saturday, The Athletic took the opportunity to see him in the flesh for the first time and see whether the hype is justified. While the senior squad were involved in a friendly behind closed doors at Brighton, a match arranged due to the Premier League fixture with Liverpool being postponed, Casadei was the most expensive player on the pitch as Chelsea’s under-21s took on an unbeaten Crystal Palace under-21s in front of just over 600 people at Selhurst Park. This was a genuine test at this level. Crystal Palace are a fine team with physical and fast runners. Every time a Chelsea player dwelled too long on the ball, their opponents were pressing them in a flash. In the early stages, the game looked a bit too quick for the youngster. Playing beside Lewis Hall ahead of the back four in a 4-2-3-1 formation, he gave the ball away a couple of times too easily. On one occasion, it almost cost a goal as Malcolm Ebiowei cut inside and shot just over the bar. During an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, he was asked about people comparing him to Serbia midfielder Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, as well as how he studied Inter duo Marcelo Brozovic and Nicolo Barella. He replied: “I like him (Milinkovic-Savic) a lot for the characteristics he has and for how he plays, he is a player from whom I draw inspiration. But to get to those levels you have to work a lot. “At Inter, I obviously look at the midfielders, in particular Brozovic and Barella: they are two great champions. What would I steal from them? Barella’s intensity and Brozovic’s calmness with the ball.” Initially, it was hard to marry up these ambitious comments with the player being overrun in the opening minutes. But the longer the first half progressed, the more he began to dictate play and look the part. It helped that Chelsea had the exciting winger Omari Hutchinson, who they signed from Arsenal’s academy, as an outlet on the right wing. In truth, he was stealing the show, scoring in each half and hitting a superb 25-yard free-kick against the inside of the post. But good players always seem to be able to find that little bit of extra time and space to express themselves. Two sublime cross-field passes by Casadei to Dylan Williams and Dion Rankine provoked ‘oohs’ of admiration from the Crystal Palace supporters. He didn’t cause much of a goal threat in the first-half, which was surprising given he is a box-to-box midfielder. A member of Chelsea’s camp made a point of highlighting to The Athletic at the interval that this was unusual for him. It did seem that he was taking it in turns with Hall to join the attack or drop back to cover. Perhaps some words were said by coach Mark Robinson at the interval because Casadei was more of a presence up front in the second half. Hutchinson’s second goal came because of the Italian. At 6ft 1in, Casadei has already built a reputation of being good in the air. You could see that as he rose majestically to head Derrick Abu’s cross towards goal. It took a tremendous save from keeper Owen Goodman to deny him, but the ball went straight to Hutchinson to find the net on the rebound. He was rewarded, albeit fortunately, following another run into the area when Hall’s shot hit him and deflected into the corner to give Robinson’s team what looked like a comfortable 3-1 lead. You could argue he made his own luck by advancing into a dangerous position in the first place. Encouragingly he tracked back to negate Crystal Palace counter-attacks on more than one occasion, by fair means and foul, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. Chelsea contrived to concede two goals in the last 10 minutes to leave with only a 3-3 draw. The visitors’ assured passing game disappeared and Casadei was one of the individuals who went missing as Crystal Palace pushed forward to exert greater pressure. That was the time when Chelsea needed his assuredness in possession. Yet you couldn’t hear him demanding the ball from the others around him, taking the lead. Perhaps that will come when he feels more comfortable in English. Still, there were a lot more positives than negatives and two goals from three appearances is a good return. Chelsea will assess things again in January to see whether a loan would suit him better, but there was enough evidence during his display at Crystal Palace to explain why the club bought him in the first place. Whether he ends up proving value for money remains to be seen.

it is madness, it let me post that on the 5th attempt I am sure I will be blocked again soon

after those 2 replies, it IMMEDIATELY started blocking me again nothing works , smileys are blank, notifications spins and spins any link goes to

it took me 16 attempts to post that

the site is basically unusable for me I am on the verge of walking away it constantly logs me out or locks up when I try and log back in it says I do not have an account it refuses to let me post for hours in a row, the posts just disappear and it kicks me up to the top of the thread page I was posting in it has been going on for weeks and weeks ( 2 months now?), ever since that big update that took away the text size button (that has been replaced but in a different place, no longer next to the text colour button) and also changed the formatting (and even before that, when another update changed the default text size when copying and pasting) I have cleared all cookies and cleared cache, nothing helps I constantly get this when I click on notifications it just spins and spins posts with social media content often look like this