Pizy

Yeah, Delap feels like the safest of the names. He’s not a striker signing that I’d be excited about necessarily but if he’s who we decide on I won’t be angry or anything. At least you’ll know with him that even when he isn’t scoring he’s an almighty pain in the ass for defenders. But again the question remains whether he’s the sort of #9 that elevates us to where we want to be. Is he a striker who we can eventually see hitting those Drogba/Harry Kane/RvP/Aguero numbers and consistently winning matches? Or is he just simply someone who is interchangeable with Jackson and will rotate in and out with him putting up similar numbers?

Ekitike feels to me like he’d be a lot like Jackson in that they will do a lot of really nice things, they’re great to have in your squad as a top club, but not good enough to be THE guy to lead you to the very top. But tbf the only striker available this summer that would be that finishing piece are Osimhen and Gyokeres who are almost certainly impossible for us. So with that being the case would you rather have Ekitike, Seśko, or Delap? Ekitike looks to have the highest ceiling/natural talent. Delap has the tenacity and work ethic that’s perfectly suited to the PL as we’ve seen. Seśko would surely be MUCH more of a box presence than Nico and therefor would probably do well in our setup. I don’t know which I’d prefer.

Agree completely. He looks like your stereotypical “big fish in a small pond” English player who looks very good at a smaller profile club where everything revolves around him but will then disappear at a club where expectations are sky high and you’re just another cog in the machine. I’d be delighted as a rival team if City go for him instead of Wirtz for example who I thought for sure Pep would go after.

Shockingly, I actually feel better about us beating Newcastle than I do Man United. No matter how dogshit United have been in recent years (and my word, they’re AWFUL this season) we really just drop to their level and shit the bed against them repeatedly.

If Palace get something tomorrow o think Forest will buckle under the pressure and we’ll get top 5 in the end.

We’ve been linked with this kid, right? Looks exactly the sort of profile our sporting people are obsessed with. Teenager with superstar potential eventually.

New shirt sponsor looks terrible.

Looks like a nailed on Pep player.

These owners are supposed to be business geniuses and yet we’re still doing deals like this like some small time outfit. A shirt sponsor for a handful of games only? We’re now 3 years into their ownership and are STILL without a long term front sponsor. Literally how is that possible?

I know PSR pressure is real but Villa selling Morgan Rogers feels really unlikely. Much like Wharton at Palace he feels like a future superstar who they hold on to for as long as possible before eventually selling for some absurd Rice/Caicedo sort of price.

I think these owners are absolutely desperate to avoid another Lukaku/Sterling/Koulibaly. Older players on monster wages who will be incredibly difficult to move on if they don’t work out.

These are all strikers who will be after £250k per week or more. I think the days of Chelsea paying these kinds of wages for new signings are over under these owners. High transfer fees are no issue with Clearlake as we’ve seen. If Roman still owned the club then Osimhen would 100% be a Chelsea player. We’d probably go and get Alisson or Ederson as our new keeper as well. This ownership will pay huge fees for players (Caicedo, Enzo, Lavia, all these expensive teenagers etc) but ONLY if they will accept modest wages relative to those transfer fees. Like if Osimhen could be had for 75m + £150k per week I think they’d do it. But he apparently wants double that from a PL club. Isak is impossible for under £150m most likely. Lautaro is their talisman and is probably unloveable as well. He’s also surely on massive wages or would be in order to move. Gyokeres is probably only possible if we finish in the UCL AND if Arsenal/Liverpool/whoever else don’t go for him. So with all that in mind, that leaves us with gambling on a much lesser striker and hoping they develop.

I don’t know if I can handle us signing yet another ineffective wide attacker. Gittens, like Garnacho, has massive bust written all over him.

This is the window that will finally cement what they’re actually about. They’ve spent the past 3 years stockpiling teenagers and young players to “set us up for the next 10 years” or whatever. Fine, we’ve now got loads of ultra promising kids. Have they now learned having watched this season that we desperately need some ready made, experienced players injected into the side? Or will they continue the same strategy and buy more 18-19 year olds? Continuing on this same way after they’ve seen us collapse in the second half of the season due to inexperience and naivety will ensure that the exact same thing happens next season. We will be fighting for 5th again. Arse, Liverpool, and City will be going out and signing 2-3 key players to complete their squads in a surgical way. If we don’t do the same we will be light years behind them once again next season. We’ve got Estevão, Santos, and that midfielder from Sporting coming in. That’s enough youth. Get us some finished products now.

See lots of people on Twitter saying Tah has been really shit this season after his move didn’t happen.

Murillo is a left footed, left sided CB too, right? I know Huijsen is as well but he’s super two footed. With Colwill here it feels weird that we’re interested in left footed, left sided CB’s. Colwill has been poor this season but I highly doubt we’re thinking of moving on.

Huijsen just seems like such a stupid signing/target for our current team. He’s obviously a big talent and could become a top CB in a few years but that’s just not the profile we need right now. He’s not a defender who comes in and elevates us, settles things down, and organizes the whole team from the back like a JT/VVD/Kompany/Thiago Silva. That is what we desperately need. A general at the back who takes command on the pitch. Signing yet another kid in such a massively important position feels like malpractice. He’ll be just like Colwill has been where he can look brilliant at times but will make too many errors because he’s a kid. We need stability and experience from whichever CB we sign this summer, not another teenager. Huijsen is the sort of CB that is the perfect signing for a club like Liverpool where he can learn alongside VVD and be gradually phased in over a season or two. Putting him next to Colwill feels like a bad idea. Unless Maresca is planning to switch to a back 3 next season I just can’t see this going well.

Genuinely wish the season would just end today. Don’t think we have the ability to win a single game the rest of the way.

Jackson is absolutely stinking it up again. Awful. If he isn’t relegated to the bench next season we’re just as fucked as we are now. He is not a starting striker.

Getting out worked and out fought by yet another smaller, much less talented team. Been a constant theme since the Christmas collapse. So unbelievably sloppy. And Colwill is flashing major fraud alerts this season. Look at him here today, ffs. I think I’ve counted about 8 long balls played up to Jimenez’s chest and he is easily winning every one of them by pinning Colwill effortlessly. Now a silly foul for a yellow.

I honestly don’t think we’re going to win another league game this season. UCL hopes died with that shambolic Ipswich performance. Had we comfortably beaten them like we should have and taken confidence into this match tomorrow I’d still make us the favorite for 5th. But now after that Ipswich performance + that dogshit game against Warsaw confidence and belief are in the gutter. Fully expect Fulham to run us off the pitch tomorrow and for plenty more booing of the team.

Seems like every other team chasing those UCL spots is super hungry, motivated, and up for it. Whilst we look like a dead fish floating at the surface. Feels like ages ago City & Pep were having their very own version of our infamous Mourinho season when we finished 10th. They lost like 8 in 10 or whatever it was and we’re getting battered. Shows how horrific we’ve been the second half of the season that they’re now likely to stay comfortably ahead of us during this run in.

I love Carlo but talk of wanting him back at this point is silly. He seems to have moved firmly into the “vibes” manager role like late stage Sir Alex where he’s basically the figurehead and his assistants are the ones who do the actual coaching. He’s absolutely not a manager who would be ideal to coach up a young team like ours. Tbh, if Maresca goes I’d take a chance on Marco Silva. He consistently gets his teams playing good football and maximizing his squad with very limited funds. Him knowing the Premier League and not needing months to get up to speed would be a bonus.

There are no world class managers that are available. Or even those that could be pried away from their clubs if we offered because we’re such a mess at the top. So if we end up sacking Maresca we’d be right back to taking a chance on someone who’s risky. I don’t think there’s any chance whatsoever that they get rid of him before the end of the season. Even if things get even more toxic than they are now there’s really no point this late on. If he goes it’s once the season is done.

Thing is, when you look at that Arse team and they show us exactly what we desperately need in certain areas but at the same time we are right on their level in other key areas. In CM we are even I’d say. We will likely even have better depth than they will entering next season when Andrey Santos returns and we have that kid from Sporting to add to Caicedo, Enzo, and Lavia. In that #10 spot Odegaard & Palmer are of similar quality level. Neither of us have a true CF and will be bringing one in this summer. Saka aside I wouldn’t take any of their wide players over ours and ours aren’t that great. The only huge difference between us and them in CB & keeper. If we can have one of those surgical summers like we did when we bought Cesc and Costa a decade ago we can take a huge leap. If these owners were deadly serious and went out and splashed the cash on Osimhen, a world class CB, and a top keeper we would instantly be title contenders. Trouble of course is that these guys will instead go out and get a project striker, a good but not great or even better than what we have CB, and not get a keeper at all.