Jype

I found it hilarious after their Aston Villa game when Ole with a straight face said the decision on Bruno Fernandes was in fact a clear penalty and not a mistake by the ref. He was even looking at replays of the incident on a screen during the interview when he said that. There's defending your own players by not throwing them under the bus when they're accused of diving and then there's being totally deluded. I mean, how hard is it to admit they got lucky with a decision and move on? And the same happens almost every week, really starting to irritate me. Never liked him as a player, and even less now as a manager.

I have a feeling Emenalo's departure had something to do with the transfer ban situation.Him leaving came so out of the blue and it wasn't long after that it was reported the club was being investigated by FIFA for the rule breaches. My theory is that behind the scenes Emenalo took the blame and resigned as a result. Could be wrong though.

I don't think anyone is doubting whether they're fresh enough for this game but if they start today, can they play again on Wednesday and still keep their level competitive enough? And as for the latter point, it's much better to start without them and sub them on at like 60mins or so if needed than starting and then having to sub off early.

I'm not so sure. Ole could be tempted now with the 'easier' final ahead but they've looked really tired in the last few games and tomorrow will be their third match this week having already played on Monday and Thursday so it's not like they've gotten any rest. Solskjaer used the same XI five games in a row and despite looking like they were running on fumes against Southampton they still only made two changes for their last game at Palace (one of which was forced because Shaw was injured). For us the players have rested a couple days more than Man Utd so maybe in a better position to play full strength but it's a tricky one. Wednesday's game at Anfield is a massive one and we'd be in a much better position to get a result from that if some important players are rested tomorrow. If Frank goes for the cup glory with full strength team and still ends up getting shafted both tomorrow and against Liverpool, some awkward questions will be asked. Kepa - Alonso, Christensen, Zouma, James - Jorginho, Barkley, Kovacic - Pedro, Abraham, CHO Maybe something like that? Rest the front three (Puli, Giroud, Willian) and Azpi. Could also do with 3 at the back and go with Rüdiger instead of Barkley.

Definitely. While facing Arsenal in a potential final is still by no means a walkover it's still way easier than playing City. I would think Lamps and Ole will have to think their game plan again, I'm quite sure both have been planning to rest some players and play a rotated squad but the increased possibility of winning their first trophy as a manager in English football could tempt them into playing full strength teams. What an end to the season this is going to be. A few games left and it could still end with a cup trophy and qualifying for CL football for next season or it could all go wrong and leave us empty handed with nothing but EL footy.

Martinez looks way too good a keeper to be second choice at fucking Arsenal.

Still so bitter about Lampard's Derby knocking them out in the playoffs.

I don't think wages are going to be a big problem. The total wage bill is surely down from the last couple of years following the inclusion of club homegrown youth in the squad and some of the higher paid players like Morata, Hazard, Luiz, Cesc etc. all having left and Willian, Pedro + others still to go. But even so I'd say there's absolutely no way the club are paying £400K/wk to anyone not named Mbappe or Messi because it'd totally break the wage structure at the club. At the moment I believe only Kante gets £250-300K/week but after him there is a huge drop in wages and I don't think anyone gets even 200k. A few players are in the £150-180K region (Werner, Kepa) and most of the other first teamers are somewhere between £100K to £150K. If Havertz joins he'll get roughly the same as Werner I would think. However, transfers are not as simple math as @NikkiCFC made it out to be. Club has had to rely on sales and CL money to break-even financially so net spend doesn't really mean anything regarding the club's spending power. Transfer finances are also divided to the contract length and are way more complicated than just "sell player for price of X and buy other player for price of Y" so it's really difficult to say what effect a transfer has on the club finances. But as long as Marina has okayed the signings, they should be financially feasible for the club. Based on rumours she is far from being done so there either must still be a lot of money left or she's super confident of getting good prices for the deadwood again.

He still had a contract at Dortmund for another season but he chose to end it early, so I doubt that's the case. They would have at least found a loan club for him if he wanted to.

Retired at 29. Wonder what's up with that?

Sure. If Marina can land Havertz, Rice, Oblak and a quality LB on top of Werner and Ziyech already confirmed then we'll adjust expectations accordingly. But for the life of me I can't see all of that happening especially in one go (easily 350m gross spend), which means there will more than likely be some areas left to improve later (my guess would be GK). And even if all that were to happen, the new signings still need time to gel so I wouldn't be expecting 95+ points for next season. Somewhere between 80-90 maybe if none of the signings turn out to be flops, but that gap is just too much in one season if we're being realistic. City's improvement between Pep's first and second seasons was 22 points and that's with a squad that already had world class players like KdB, Silva, Aguero, Sterling, Sane, Fernandinho, Kompany etc. to begin with. Going from ~65pts this season to ~95 the next is too much to ask IMHO.

That's the thing, there doesn't seem to be any obvious candidates who are available. Marina could try throwing money at Milan for Romagnoli or maybe Skriniar at Inter, but I'm not sure if either of those are realistic signings. Rice has shown plenty of leadership qualities at West Ham already at 21yo but as a CB he's nowhere near the finished article. But at the right price he'd probably be my pick and then just hope he develops into a class CB quickly enough.

Yeah, I totally agree. But next season is still a big part of the squad rebuild that began last summer with the youth. By the looks of things there will be at least 4 new signings for the coming season, possibly even more, so it takes time for new players to fully settle and many of the current young players are still in a critical phase of their development too. The way I see it, Liverpool's trajectory under Klopp is the way to go. Right now we're roughly at the same position where they were when Klopp took over (inheriting a squad with no signings of his own, performances varying from promising to really shit) and our next season could be comparable to Liverpool's 2016/17 too when they finished at 76 pts playing exciting football with a bad defense and GK hindering their chances of mounting a title challenge. Then after adding the final missing pieces with Alisson+VVD look at where they are now. So for next season I'd be happy with just a comfortable top4 finish (~75-80pts) which would already be a huge improvement over this season and then in the 21/22 it's time for a title push. Serious questions will have to be asked if the team still isn't capable of challenging for the league title in 2022.

One thing at a time. The squad won't be ready for a serious title push next season anyway so I'd much rather watch the team play exciting football and score lots of goals while still comfortably getting top4 than another season of the same inefficient shit attack play and scrape top4 through a more solid defense.

We could be hearing something regarding Telles' future pretty soon. Porto managed to confirm their league title on Wednesday this week and there's just two round left to play so now that everything is settled they might begin negotiations for a move. Like mentioned above, PSG extended Kurzawa by four more years so maybe they're out of the race. If they went after another LB, they would have to shift Bernat somewhere and I haven't seen any rumors on that. Kurzawa and Bernat are both bad players (worse than Alonso/Emerson imo) but perhaps PSG can't afford to spend on a new full-back with coronavirus probably affecting their FFP status. Let's just hope Inter and Juve stay out of the race for Telles because then they won't go for our deadwoods.

I like Aké and I'd happily take take him as rotational CB instead of Christensen if he was available at a cut-price following Bournemouth's potential relegation but I'm not so convinced he's what the team needs. There are already enough decent options at CB but what we severely need is some leadership at the back, someone who is vocal enough and takes charge of organizing the whole defence. None of Rüdiger, Zouma, Christensen, Tomori or even Aké are like that and I'm pretty sure they never will be either. This season they've looked pretty bad but playing next to a class CB who leads the line properly I'd like to think their performances would go up to a different level.

Come on, nobody is paying 30m for Batshuayi. A shit player with an expiring contract (2021). Also no chance of selling both Alonso and Emerson if only one LB is brought in and even a budget option for that matter. No guarantees beforehand that Tagliafico would do any better. Of course Azpi can play LB too but 3 fullbacks is still too few total.

I'm doing my bit to help the cause, just stuck 100€ on Leicester to win on Sunday. Maybe that will jinx it like my bets usually do.

This lot doesn't have it in them, too inexperienced.

Odds from a betting site: Tottenham 2,42 - draw 3,58 - Leicester 3,22 So in percentages that approximates to roughly 40% - 30% - 30% Of course the bookies odds are never fully accurate but that's the best objective benchmark we've got. Either way it should be a close one. Got real potential for a truly horrible Sunday, seeing as our FA Cup semi against VARchester is right after Leicester's match.

Really starting to dread the idea of going into the last round with 63pts and both them other cunts at 65pts colluding for a draw. Still long ways to go before that scenario can materialize tho. Leicester are the underdogs against Spurs and we still have a chance of getting at least a draw from Anfield but I still got a bad feeling about this.

Even Rio Ferdinand on BT Sport said it was a clear pen. But gotta get United on CL one way or another, it's fucking ridiculous.

For Tomori I think it'd only be a loan. That's what the Athletic wrote last week, saying Fik is still highly rated at the club and a permanent move is out of the question. Dumping Batshuayi to West Ham would be perfect though.

I wish it were that easy. Even under normal circumstances I don't think there are clubs outside the top3 in Spain who can afford to pay that much for any player and definitely not now with the coronavirus effect on club finances. So unless Atletico were to agree to a swap with Kepa + money for Oblak I think the only way to offload him is with a loan deal. Valencia are looking to sell Cillessen and they're probably after a new first-choice keeper if they succeed so that could be an option. And even if Atletico are open to make a deal, Oblak himself would also need to agree so all in all I don't see how this transfer could work out. At the moment Atletico are closer to being a serious contender for titles and Oblak seems settled in Madrid so it might not be easy to convince him. I really hope a swap does happen because it would solve two problems at once but my expectations are not high.

No chance he leaves. I'd think Barkley is the first one out the door as far as central midfielders are concerned, despite his somewhat decent form of late. RLC is still coming back from one of the worst injuries a footballer can have and the club certainly seem to believe in him, based on the fact he was given a big contract (120k/wk) just last summer despite his injury. That said, I think at least in the short term RLC will only be an impact player from the bench. His skill set is so different than any of the other CMs at the club so it's good to have him as a tactical option and he'll still get plenty of game time especially next season with 5 subs per game still being a thing. Even this summer he's played 220 mins after the restart so averaging around 30 minutes per game and that's after he's only just come back into the squad. If, given time, he eventually makes a full recovery from the achilles injury as well as overcome the back issues he's had in his career I could easily see him becoming a starter ahead of the likes of Kovacic or Mount (and that's coming from someone who rates both highly), though it's still a very long way for him to go before that can happen.