manpe

We could do much worse than someone like Pulisic being a media machine. He is actually a useful squad player. If he accepts that he won't be playing every game, then having players like him is good for the team. It's not like he's completely wank, it is being overly exaggerated. He's simply inconsistent, but on his day he can be a handful for the opponent. You can't expect a squad player to be consistently world class, if he was he'd be a definite starter. But I'm good with having him as long as he accepts his role in the team and if Tuchel won't be forced to use him more.

All depends on the players he will have at his disposal I suppose. If Chelsea team consisted only of players that PSG, City or Liverpool have, no way would he be playing 5 atb. It was never his go-to formation at Dortmund or PSG, only at Chelsea did he make it his main one for reasons that we saw under Lampard. We need at least 2 CBs who can play in 4 atb formation without being babysitted and a proper DMF in front of them (Jorginho is not it)... Somewhy I doubt we can pull them all off this summer, we will probably need one more summer transfer window.

Good. Great to see that a young player is able to add to his stats on a consistent basis, well on course in his learning curve. I expect him to explode in 2-3 seasons, have high expectations for him.

Hard to believe that they'd be so naive. The board must have had serious doubts about him for the money he was asking for, as he'd been performing at the highest level only for under half a season by that time. Before that they were ready to sell, Rüdiger was always in-and-out of the team, never quite cemented his place and was mostly known as a rash player with silly mistakes in him, so they perhaps took a more patient approach and waited until January to see if he'd be able to perform consistently at the highest level before offering him a long-term bumper contract that goes well beyond into his 30s. Remember, our club is very careful when it concerns players over 30. The club probably thought they'd still have plenty of time after the turn of the year, because Rüdiger signaled his intention to stay and his performances had merited that bumper contract, so back behind the negotiation table they went. But then the war happened and the rest is history. Like Rüdiger said, the sanctions situation affects everybody at the club and it is topic nr 1 on players' minds, so the sanctions sealed the deal for him. Fuck war. To be fair Rüdiger played nothing like he has been playing under TT. Mistake after mistake, awful positional awareness... he was a liability, Lampard recognized that. WE wanted him dropped and gone. Zouma, for all his faults, was more reliable at the back in a 2 CB defence. I don't know how it's possible that a player performs like a clown in one formation, but then like the world's best in another. Is it REALLY that dependant on the system for him? Or is it the confidence and belief that he gets from the coach more important? Was Frank simply a bad man manager? Maybe Rüdiger needs to feel like the main man for him to be up for the fight? We'll perhaps get answers to some of those questions when he plays in a back 4 for Madrid. One thing is for sure, we'll miss him under Tuchel's specific system and management, but if we got a new manager down the line, then who knows, we might have been stuck on another dreg on high wages running down his contract...

The most interesting piece from that article: Unfortunately, my contract negotiations had already started to get difficult last fall. Business is business, but when you don’t hear any news from the club from August to January, the situation becomes complicated. After the first offer, there was a long gap of just nothing. We’re not robots, you know? You cannot wait for months with so much uncertainty about your future. Obviously, no one saw the sanctions coming, but in the end, other big clubs were showing interest, and I had to make a decision. I will leave it at that, because business aside, I have nothing bad to say about this club. If true it seems the club weren't that interested in extending him anyway.

Has anyone asked those nutjobs what is so pro-life about producing more broken people and families? Is it all only about religion?

I thought Barca were interested in him only because he'd come for free, are they ready to pay a fee for him? It also wouldn't make much sense for Chelsea to let him leave considering AC, Rüdiger and probably also Alonso and maybe Sarr are leaving. We'd have no defence left, we'd need to sign two CBs, a RWB and LWB... At least Azpi covers one CB and RWB position, one or two less signings needed for another year. Unless we promote some kids, are there any capable of filling their shoes?

What's this talk about Azpi leaving? I thought he got extended 1 more year due to some clause in his contract, am I missing something here?

I only care about results on the pitch. I don't know anything about any of the bidding parties. Can anybody tell me who, in your opinion, would be the best owner for us in terms of ensuring results in games?

Second - manpe Third - "Hit list" 😆 Get a life King Kante.

What are you talking about? There are no elections in Russia. What you are referring to are staged and completely fixed theatrical performances for their people. Putin will die in office, best we can hope for is that it will be by assassination rather than age.

I still don't understand how that prevents us from being sanctioned though? Him transferring the running of the club to somebody else doesn't change the fact that we are still OWNED by him. If they wanted to sanction us that little statement wouldn't stop them, would it? I want to see Abramovich condemn Russia's actions in Ukraine. If he doesn't, I'm all for selling the club.

You answered none of my questions.

What about the time he threw stuff at the cat while it was trying to get away? Or when he let a CHILD put the cat on a counter and then SLAPPED it across its head off the counter? How about the example it sets for the child? Regarding the kick - he threw the cat down like a football before kicking it. If the cat was already on the ground then I might even agree with you that it was just a push, but the cat was falling down when the kick happened, so by the laws of physics the force of the kick was much stronger than it would be if the cat was static. It was definitely enough to potentially injure it. Now a thought experiment to you. Let's imagine that YOU can't feel pain and are not easily injured. In that case, would it make it okay for people to just push you around, throw shit at you, kick and slap you how they please for their amusement? After all, you don't feel pain and are not easily injured, so it must make it totally fine, right...?

That's one positive thing about social media. You have absolute morons filming their crimes and sharing them online out of sheer stupidity. Thank fuck they were stupid enough to film and share it, otherwise no-one would know. And it 100% wasn't the first time and wouldn't have been the last had he not implicated himself like a fool, which just goes to show the total lack of intelligence he has.

You are so ignorant on the topic you obviously have no idea what you're talking about, you're just repeating some old bullshit stereotypes of cats. They are much more complex animals than you could ever fathom.

How can you possibly know that the cat takes it as a game and doesn't get hurt? "Because it's a cat"...? Fuck you and fuck Zouma.

What a finish by Azpi 🥳 Didn't expect that.

In that video vs France he looks motivated and up to it. He did also for us in the first couple of games, he actually looked good, but then he started sulking for some reason and now he doesn't look bothered anymore. The interview said everything we need to know - he doesn't want to be here and it shows. In most of the situations you see in that video he would carelessly lose to ball or get bullied by defenders playing for us - that's not something you can blame on the manager or his teammates. He wants to be recognized as world class like Lewa or Ronaldo, but he doesn't have the attitude nor skills to back that up. A tactical setup can only help you up to a point, but if you depend solely on the system being built around catering to your strenghts but otherwise are useless, then that makes you a "system player" not a world class one.

About what?

I have a feeling Lukaku's presence is demoralizing to the team, not only because he said he didn't want to be at Chelsea. Yesterday Ziyech overhit a pass to him on the right flank, Lukaku got to it but obviously lost it because that's what he does. Then he turned to Ziyech and started complaining with that sourpuss face of his, instead of showing some encouragement with a thumbs up saying "thanks for spotting me" or "better luck next time" or whatever, but no he had to be all pissy about it. I would hate to play with a teammate like that. And when Ziyech scored he didn't celebrate at all, not even a smile, what was that all about? What's going on with our players' moral?

Can't believe Havertz sat out 80 minutes in favour of Lukaku, who did nothing. We won the CL with Havertz leading the line, can't Tuchel remember that? Took far too long to make changes.

I don't know if the data in Spotrac is accurate, but if it is, then Werner and Lukaku both are earning well above 200K and Chilwell near 200K. Rüdiger has done more than any of them and has been a longer servant. If I was him, I would also be asking 200K at the very least. He is more important than all of them combined and has proven himself as a leader.

I don't understand what you guys expect from a January window? Would Digne or Dest really be better? Both apparently want permanent transfers, not loans. Dest is also a right-back, a right-footed player... Why is he even in discussion for LWB? Has he ever played that position? Dest could come in as backup to Reece judging by Tuchel's recent comments, but that still leaves our left side exposed. Which leaves only Digne as a realistic option for LWB, but do we want an emergency stopgap on a permanent transfer without trying him out first (loaning)? I would want permanent transfers only for players that are truly quality and are in the club's future plans, not a wantaway who is being offered around to clubs because of his stinky attitude. If we could loan him first, sure why not, but otherwise a BIG no from me. What does that leave us? Emerson or Maatsen, neither are ideal, but probably the best options we got.

Did he? I swear he played some cup games. I think he even played LCB position once or twice.