OneMoSalah

Martial on. Shit. also forgot to say before KO why did they refer to OGS as a young/up and coming manager? Hes been a manager since like 2008 or 2011 if you dont consider Utd reserves.... he may only he later 40s but hes been coaching for over 10 years....

Yeah hasnt been in the game. Hasnt been all too bad this season though but not top top quality.

Fernandes and Fred going down for nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Decent start. Need a bit more cutting edge in final third. Azpi having a bit of joy on the right when we push up.

Despite him playing for Arsenal I am delighted he has shaken off the injury issues at the start of the season and beginning to cement himself as one of the top fullbacks in his age bracket. Having seen him make it through from a kid at Celtic to playing there, for Scotland and now looking very comfortable at Arsenal, it is exciting to see how far he can go. He has huge talent and his mentality and leadership which was developed at Celtic is the sort all top top players have and any young player should aspire to have. He is almost an old school footballer in that sense. Trains hard, plays hard, a real man in comparison to some of these other modern day youngsters. He will turn out a real bargain if he can keep going on top of what hes done with Arteta. He is a player with so much experience and leadership skills for such a young age and you can see he is becoming more influential at Arsenal now as well in that regard imo. His workrate is also fantastic as it has always been. If Guendouzi had this mentality and work ethic he would be a great player for them too. But he has been slowly walking down the wrong path since Arteta walked in there.

Chinese shareholders bought a 20% (I think?) share in Atletico few years back before selling them after IIRC. They made Simeone is one of highest paid managers and gave bumper deals to Oblak and a few others at the time.

For all the talk of blocking path of Callum I have been disappointed most of the time hes played this season under Frank. I know he had the injury but still felt he could do more. And with Ruben. They were at higher levels last season with probably similar amounts of game time prior to Sarri giving them a proper run.

No it wont but getting a taste for trophies is also a much needed step for some of this group.... it will give some of these guys a taste of what its like to win trophies here which is essential for the likes of Mount, James, Tomori, Pulisic, Tammy, Billy etc to progress here and shape how they are as senior players/leaders in the future, as I think they will still be around 5, 6 or 7 years down the line if they keep making improvements. Its all well and good developing, becoming good players but you need to be hungry to be successful and trophies, be it FA cups or carabao cups or league titles or CLs or Super cups etc give them the experience and hopefully make them want more and the want the bigger ones. I mean Drogba, Lampard, Terry, Cole, Cech etc were all in all top players but they were winners too. Plus its always nice to get a trophy regardless. Even Sarri getting the Europa last season, we knew it wasn't the best of marriages so to speak but that trophy win brought him his first managerial trophy and this cup can be the same for Frank. It shouldnt be written off. And nobody is saying it would make up for no CL Football but it is also a step in the right direction. I am sure OGS will be telling the United boys how serious it is as well this game and that an opportunity to play in a final is big. At big clubs you want to be competitive across the board, league, CL, the cup competitions. Its no surprise the likes of Ferguson, Mourinho, Pep... some of the world’s most successful managers, have all take/taken these cups in the past seriously be it in England or Spain or Germany or Italy. All serial winners.

Would be some team but pretty certain Dani Olmo is Spanish and has been capped/called up.

Ferran Torres? Apparently City bound. Desperate to work with Pep.

Tbf Juve fans didnt want Allegri at first and only warmed to him after his first season. I don’t expect them to change manager anytime soon particularly when they win Serie A. I think someone like Sarri as he said about when he was in Napoli and also here, he needs a season or whatever to embed the principles of his football and then build on it after. I have seen some of the games and they are very predictable but I think theres been glimpses of what they could do if they keep going down that path and next season, Id imagine it would get better. Plus they have an aging squad, regardless of manager, they need to freshen it up.

Just going by what was reported by several papers.

I still think selling Jorginho will be a mistake. Regardless of if we end up signing Declan Rice or not. I don't see Rice as an outstanding midfielder or central defender, good perhaps but he still needs to do a lot more for me to be considered as someone who will come here and make a huge huge difference and warrant the fee. Also I do hope that Frank and the club arent going to go mad and sign up every half decent English player for crazy money when there is clearly better value out there in foreign players still as we’ve seen with Werner and Ziyech. As we could potentially see with Tagliaco or Onana or Van der Beek or whoever else. I mean what are we talking Rice - 70m, Chilwell - 75m, look at how much Maguire went for as well - 80m. Good players but hardly worth that sort of outlay at this present moment and you could probably find a handful of guys in other European leagues just as good for half the price. I mean we have been linked with signing Nick Pope, which would be a shrewd move if he is our number 2 as he has proved himself in the PL and is very very solid but again I dont think he would make a real difference in the starting 11 week in week out and be a big improvement on Kepa - who people seem to want to throw to the wolves without remembering he has had good performances this season also as well as a very good debut campaign last year. I mean I don’t grudge us paying 70/75m for Havertz because he is an outstanding talent but those guys mentioned before arent going to be on the sort of level he is in the next 2 or 3 years if he keeps following this trajectory. This may be the Scotsman in me but realistically there aren’t many English players I would say are worth 70/75m or more at present bar Harry Kane, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, Joe Gomez, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Raheem Sterling. Maybe if Jordan Henderson was 5 years younger he would be valued at that in present day. I get having a homegrown core in the squad but surely the academy boys should be that core and a few exceptional homegrown players if we can get them. Rice has more of a chance than Chilwell IMO but I think he still has to prove himself more. He has played virtually every week with West Ham as a DM or as a CB and their league position shows that they have been poor at keeping the ball out. So how people think signing him for 70m will make a massive difference to our backline or midfield when he cannot vastly improve West Hams is odd, if he was playing to the level Virgil van Dijk was at Southampton or Kante was at Leicester then I could see the argument but for me he hasnt been anywhere near close. They have conceded 59 goals, the joint 4th most goals conceded this season. 4 more than last season.

Hopefully not. But it does look more likely he goes there than anywhere else, they lack a player of that ilk despite having Naby Keita. Although same was said about Werner going to Pool then look what happened... who knows

I dont think Kepa would be an issue there (or here with a better DF and organisation...). They are going to concede half as many chances as we do on average at least. Plus they have a settled back 4 and midfield that doesn't change every 2nd game. I dont think Real Madrid were keen on Kepa for no reason, just like I dont think we dropped 71m on him for no reason. There is something there. Not as good as Oblak is or Courtois is or Cech was but reasonably talented and can be a very good GK. Got a good laugh at the bit in bold 🤣 Reek 1

If we were going to lose Jorginho, we should jump all over Thiago Alcantara. 29 years old but could easily play at this level to he is 33 or 34 as he is purely a technical footballer. 32m apparently is what they want for him. Has won virtually everything at club level Too.

If Atalanta can beat PSG they can beat anyone. Really struggle to keep the ball out of their own net but have a real tendency to get a lot of goals. Who knows if they could go all the way, they’ve done remarkable to get this far and do so well in Serie A and when you see teams like these do well you always root for them a bit because it would mean so so much and throw a spanner in the works.

Chance for getting to a final for silverware, don't rotate too heavily, put a good enough side out to do the job with 3 or 4 changes then depending how it is going make some changes to freshen guys up for the next games. I would imagine United will probably only change a few as well. The chance to get to a final and win a trophy is key for this group and Frank as a manager. The first trophy is always the hardest. Plus it will make the season look better. But we all know still plenty to do.

Seen something about this today. Out August 5th, certainly will be an interesting watch. Wenger and Drogba both involved with it. Few others too, Pogba, Pires and Evra IIRC. Should be good, bound to be a few stories about the 2010 WC which will be interesting

Exactly. Plus it gives Gilmour less pressure to develop into his position as well in the longer run as we will still have a more reliable experienced head who can fill in and start certain games without putting too much pressure on him if he doesnt do as well as he did in his first 2 starts, which will always be a point mentioned if he doesnt do overly well or even still plays good but not to that level.

Real shame to see. Just shows that having won a world cup or PL or German Cup etc or whatever doesn't always mean people are willing to push through these injuries to maintain their career or push through the mental struggle and scrutiny many people in football deal with. There is much more to life than football and being content and happy with your own life is definitely better than pushing through those barriers which I could only imagine would be incredibly difficult and underwhelming at times. Andre has had a successful career and done things many will not as well as having experienced different countries, life styles etc as well as securing his family financially for life I would imagine, so hopefully he can get what he wants out the rest of his life. Hope he finds it. Pity it didnt work out for him here or at Dortmund but thats football.

Weird one. I think he’d still be able to find a club but with covid maybe he has reservations about that and his wages..?

In the season Kane played regularly at Spurs they renewed his contract in February, on improved terms. They have had a wage structure in place which suited them better because they didnt have consist revenue and bonuses from the CL which they have done for a while now. Lets not forget that regardless of what you, me or anyone thinks of Tammy he is in a position where he can ask for these wages. Firstly because he will probably point to his goals this season and go well without them where would we be? Which for me they have been absolutely vital in some games and I would hate to think if we would even be in the top 6 or 8 without them because conversion has been a problem as much as anything this season and as badly as Tammy is playing and as good as Giroud is doing, Giroud has always been a streaky player throughout his career. You cannot count on him to score every week but then he will go on a run for 5 or 6 games before going back to the same inconsistent streaky form. Secondly what he has done this season, particularly up to December warrants a similar deal to what Callum got based on the fact we gave in and gave somebody who really was in a position to negotiate favourably for himself in the long run despite having done nothing of real note. If you cannot see that is why Tammy is asking for a pay packet more in line with these figures and maybe other senior players around the club, then I do not know. Lets not forget the club went to him after the start of the season where he had been scoring for fun to discuss new terms, what did they expect? I dont get your point about you'd be willing to grudgingly accept giving him 100k a week but not 30k more? Its just incredibly stupid in my opinion because in terms of the club and the money they have another 30k a week is hardly a huge hit when you consider the wages Luiz and Gaz freed up leaving, what Willian and Pedro will free up leaving, what some of the loan players who are sold will free up.... its not a huge difference in the eyes of a club of Chelsea’s stature and even then this scenario is what we have created giving Hudson Odoi, Drinkwater, Barkley near 100k+ a week or Baba Rahman who’s played maybe 10 games in 5 years and is apparently on over 80k a week. You cannot say that Tammy hasnt done more than those guys in half a season than what they have done throughout their entire careers here? Thirdly this wouldnt be Abrahams first contract extension here. It would be his 2nd. Since signing the first one he has scored 50 goals. It may be at different levels but the progressions clearly there and despite his struggles since 2020 started, lets be honest who hasnt struggled bar Pulisic, its not uncommon for younger CFs to struggle with consistency yet alone championship players who make the jump to a top 10 team, never mind a team competing for third or forth. He was never going to be a top top player in my eyes or he might never reach the levels of a Drogba or Aguero or Torres at Liverpool but he has surprised me this season at the beginning and will probably surprise us again next season at some point. I mean I get the whole pay quality for quality but you also have to reward people who have been key to the cause when you review this season. Its like a business, do you think they dont give bonuses or pay rises to people who have done well over a period of time? I get the clamouring for Kai Havertz but if you think that saving 30k a week over the duration of a 4 or 5 year contract is going to make a huge difference in the longrun when we have just given Werner a 200k a week deal, Ziyech a 100k a week deal, allegedly we will offer Havertz 200k a week as well... again, they may be quality players but whats to stop us saying 6 months down the line it was far too much either the fee or wages? Like with Kepa? Or Tammy wanting these wages? Or Callums wages that have added more expectation to what he should be capable of for me as it is a huge pay compared to Tomori, Mount, Abrahams current contract and a collection of first team players. Football fans are as fickle as anything else these days and it is true for all of us who support whatever team, it is the truth. Kepa could have had a blinder this season but someone would say he still isn’t worth 71mn. Someone could say CHO isnt worth that wages even if he scored 20 goals this season. As much as youd want to see more consistency from Mount, Tomori, James and Tammy lets not forget they were all Championship players last year. Its not their performances that have cost us as deeply this season as much as anything. The senior heads have been equally as inconsistent and the coaching hasnt been fantastic either in the defensive side of things.

De Ligt is on an extraordinary wage, his salary is like 14-15m a year basic with a shit tonne of bonuses that can take it up to 20m or beyond apparently. Plus hes just started to find his feet in Italy after a tough start. Would be nice though but like Oblak near financially impossible to pull off imo. Those level of players dont take a huge pay cut. Plus name one player who has ever come here and taken a pay cut in the last 10 years? It would be a rarity to find a name.

More like if we finished chances in games we would already be in the CL. Or defended set pieces better as a group. Not as if Kepa has dropped every second goal we have conceded into the net.... A nice moment for Eden winning La Liga with Real but he has very much been ordinary there due to the stop start nature of his season. Id imagine they will want much more next season but I wonder where Real would of been without Benzema’s goals this season. Barca also surely gone to change their manager, Setien looks out of his depth and their transfers have been very poor since Neymar left. Real mess there.