Jase

cc @Tomo https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/john-terry-Chelsea-fc-tottenham-job-b936648.html “My ambition is very, very clear,” he told the newspaper. “There’s an end goal for me and that’s managing Chelsea Football Club. My team will be winning — hopefully — very honest, very organised, very well drilled, very well prepared and with a back four. “I look at Lamps [Frank Lampard] and Stevie [Gerrard] and the success they’ve both had. Lamps in his first season at Chelsea, and what Stevie’s done up at Rangers is unbelievable. l probably wasn’t ready to go into coaching then. I am now. But I’m not just going to jump into anything. I’ve turned down two jobs since I’ve been here. “Decent-sized clubs. But it’s going to take something special for me to leave here. I’ve got one more year left at Villa. I’m in a privileged position because I’m in no rush. I want to be a No 1 but I’ll get there at some point.”

lol Tuchel... https://www.theguardian.com/football/2021/may/22/thomas-tuchel-ready-risk-key-players-maintain-chelseas-momentum The German also gave an interesting answer when asked if he remembered where he was when Chelsea last played in a Champions League final – their 2012 victory over Bayern Munich. “I think I was in Munich at home and watched it on TV,” he said. “Let’s say it was not absolutely well deserved. It felt more like a burglary.”

Bremen, Schalke and Hamburg all in the second division next season.

No one is saying Rice being PL proven will guarantee him to be a success but compare him with someone who is still untested in this league, there's more chance of Rice being a success. Neither pro or anti Tchouameni/Rice here but if spending extra 10-20 million guarantee us more of a sure thing, I'd rather choose the more expensive option. COVID-19 pandemic or not, what's 40-50 million these days? It's like the old big 30 million transfers before the market became as wild as it is today. If/when we sell the deadwoods, the money coming in can easily cover the 40-50 million or at least part of it. It's also funny you mentioned about spending smartly when last summer, we spent over 200 million on new players, including 70 million+ on Havertz, who has the potential but isn't world class right now and this summer, we're talking about potentially spending over 100 million on a new striker.

Let's not try to cover it up here. You have people calling Rice a clown, overrated, overpriced or whatever else. No one seems to be talking about his actual ability. And if we can use Abraham to lower the fee to about 40-50 million, then not sure why are we complaining. Someone like Tchouameni - who has supposedly been compared to Bakayoko! - may be cheaper but he's still untested in this league and no guarantee he'll be a success.

The difference between then and now is we could use Abraham to lower the price in a player + cash for player deal. West Ham also need a striker since Antonio is a tad injury prone. There's two advantages to this if we make it happen - (a) we let go of an unwanted player and (b) Rice already knows the league and has less question marks over him than Tchouameni (based on some responses here).

Is it just me or do some people's dislike of Rice here seems to be more about his nationality rather than his actual ability etc? Call me paranoid but I refuse to believe stories that say Tuchel wants Player A, B, C until we know for sure he's staying, *ahem* regardless of what happens in these last two games.

Totally forgot Scotland are in the same group with England and Croatia.

Can't remember if there were other clubs interested in him. We confirmed the signing in February last year, IIRC.

Serie A says "HELLO!".

Could have another potential opening at Wolves. Nuno is leaving after the final game this weekend.

Only problem is half of the squad is unsuited to playing the back 4.

Saw this bit in an article about United's transfer plans... https://theathletic.com/2601799/?source=twitteruk At the start of 2021, Erling Haaland was United’s principal target for the centre-forward role but as his agent, Mino Raiola, made his way around Europe it became clear the cost of any deal for the 20-year-old Borussia Dortmund striker would surpass all expectations. The prospective €150 million transfer price, plus agent fees and salary demands of £500,000 per week, which would break many clubs’ wage structures, certainly led United to re-evaluate. To that end, outgoing executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward recently informed manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer that the cost of his Norwegian countryman would be too prohibitive and, by mutual decision to avoid any saga, the Haaland pursuit was put on hold. Multiple sources believe that Dortmund expect Haaland to stay for another season now Champions League qualification has been secured. Haaland’s €75 million (£64 million) release clause comes into effect in the summer of 2022. Manchester City were previously confident but there is a school of thought that Real Madrid stand out as the striker’s first-choice destination.

According to The Athletic, United are still after Sancho and are ahead of the queue. 70-80 million could be enough to get him this summer.

Think the main reason no one went for Ziyech is because he played in the Dutch Eredivisie. Players who come to the Premier League from that league do not have a great record in England. And the main reason why we were able to get Havertz unopposed was because the others couldn't afford him last summer, when the pandemic first hit clubs. We could afford him because of Roman and the unspent money from the summer before.

LOL It ain't happening with us.

Would be nicer if our attackers can be more consistent!

It's absolute nonsense if a player is choosing which competition to turn up for. Getting disillusioned from the lack of starts? Since the last international break, Pulisic has started 9 of the 14 games in all competitions, including 3 of the last 4 games and playing a total of 815 minutes. Out of our attackers, only Mount (12 starts; 1,075 minutes) and Werner (10 starts; 829 minutes) have had more starts and played more minutes in the same period.

Hmm. Don't those remember opportunities being clear cut.

You can't compare Kane with Messi because Messi is Messi. Guardiola hasn't always bought ready made players and they don't really need Kane to be firm favorites. They are always the favorites anyway and they could potentially win the treble this season pretty much without a striker.

Even so, no guarantee Guardiola will go for Kane anyway. Also, IF Messi becomes available this summer, would Guardiola go for him instead?

Maybe or he could be overplaying his cards. I mean, he stupidly signed that 6-year contract and gave his future to Levy. Have also mentioned before, if you're gonna spend 100m+ on a striker, you would be better off spending it on someone like Haaland. Kane will guarantee instant success because of his age but in terms of long term investment, he makes no sense if someone like Haaland is available. No point spending 100m+ now on a player and then potentially needing to spend big again in 2-3 years time.

Pardon my memory but can you remember any chance that Pulisic created recently should have resulted in a goal or goals? And even if you take away the assists, hard to remember him getting at the end of chances. That's without mentioning his quiet performances.