Fulham Broadway

Yup there's a reason Citeh and liverpool ditched him -on his day, outstanding, but regular headless chicken brain fart moments - giving the ball away, and fucking up when its easier to score

When the new owners came in part of the employment culling was the scouting set up. Some of our best scouts ended up at Liverpool and Man City - with Clownlake deciding to rely more on data driven info for players.

Leeches out

The groups of multiple owners will eventually be stronger than the controlling bodies. Breakaway league attempts and fan protests looming.

Yeah results can be rigged in a roundabout way that benefit the MCO (multiple club owners) investment. Figures from around two years ago showed around 200 clubs had multiple owners. Can see so many problems with this. It creates different tiers of clubs: the parent and a feeder club. If you are a fan of a parent club then you are lucky, but not if you are a fan of a feeder club. It could also be the end of transfers as we know it as there could only be transfers between the groups clubs. As a player you can start off with a feeder club and move up to a parent club, but this promotes inequality and poisons the competitiveness of the market. If you have this group of clubs that trade between themselves and shift players back and forth it is cheaper and puts them at a competitive advantage. Larger groups will appear and pose a threat to the game’s governing bodies. Alex Phillips, reckons there is a solution. He is former head of governance at UEFA, and says that the increase in MCOs does not have to be bad if regulated differently. “You have to ask what the purpose of an MCO is,” says Phillips. “If it’s to evade taxes and launder money then it’s obviously bad but if it is investment then it doesn’t have to be. From a financial perspective, it can make a lot of sense. But regulators should regulate from a transfer perspective and regulate the number of contracts each club can offer. If you limit contracts, clubs need to rely on their academies.” This, he argues, would stop clubs stockpiling players and instead of alienating fans could create a greater bond. MCOs are unlikely to go away any time soon and how the game’s administrators deal with regulating challenge will affect the relationship between fans, players and clubs in the years ahead. At the moment it seems the governing bodies dont want to rock the boat - I reckon thats because of the billions invested, the TV rights, the hospitality and bribes (i'm guessing here) and where do they fucking start - the tiger is in the room. It's a growing trend, not just multiple club ownership, but player ownership as well. There was some posts back in another thread about players having no loyalty to a particular club, those days are long gone. UEFA now have 6500 players from 195 clubs – that are employed by 27 multi-club investment groups, a third of which are based in the US. Makes all the furore years back about Tevez 3rd party ownership seem cute now.

Really is an appalling official

Remember when Gallas went to the Arse -there was fucking uproar, now its just, meh, so what

So true. To be fair I think a lot of it is driven by the Mr 15% agents. Parasites, but you know what really galls me, is when there's a crunch match, a derby, cup game against one of your rivals -and this applies to all teams. A game that means life or death to the fans - yet you see the players joking and laughing with each other in the tunnel and after the match. Something JT, Drogs, Lampard etc would never have done.

That's the spirit.

The 25-year-old is one of several high-quality attacking players to have come out of France in the past few years. He joined Leipzig in 2019 from Paris St-Germain after he realised he could not progress while in the shadow of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and others. Leipzig offered Nkunku regular playing time - he has averaged 42 competitive games per season over the past four years - and the chance to refine his game. At first, the Paris native played as a winger under manager Julian Nagelsmann while occasionally being employed in the number 10 role. Domenico Tedesco was the first coach who regularly fielded Nkunku as a striker and Marco Rose continued that tactic after replacing the now-Belgium manager last September. While Nkunku was able to showcase his dribbling skills and agility in tight spaces when playing as a winger, he turned into a ruthless goalscorer in the central striker role. He scored 35 goals in all competitions during the 2021-22 campaign and was named Bundesliga Player of the Season. What Chelsea have acquired is a tactically versatile and technically highly proficient player who combines creativity with a drive towards goal. Nkunku may make numerous stepovers and all kinds of dummies, but he is usually focused on getting the ball into the penalty area. According to the analytics site FBref.com, Nkunku has been among the best 10 per cent of forwards in Europe's top-five leagues in several key statistics during the past calendar year, including non-penalty goals per 90 minutes, pass completion percentage and successful take-ons. Mauricio Pochettino, who will officially take over at Chelsea on 1 July, has usually preferred a tactical system with one central striker. Nkunku could well be employed in that role. With Kai Havertz expected to leave and Romelu Lukaku unlikely to return to Stamford Bridge, the Frenchman would seem to make the most sense for the position. Equally, he could also be selected on the wing with a licence to roam to the inside. He displayed his tactical versatility during the recent German Cup final, which RB Leipzig won 2-0 against Eintracht Frankfurt. Nkunku started the game as the lone striker in Leipzig's 4-2-3-1, holding the ball up and combining with Dani Olmo or Dominik Szoboszlai. During the second half he moved to the wing when Yussuf Poulsen came on to provide a more physical presence. When he was employed in a wider area, Nkunku again showed his speed and progressive passing qualities. He also scored the opening goal as he drifted in from the left side in the 71st minute. The Frenchman has made the most of his past four years in the Bundesliga. However, while he has received praise for his performances, won two German Cup finals with Leipzig and received the trophy for the best goal scorer of the 2022-23 Bundesliga season, Nkunku has also had to deal with setbacks. He suffered a ligament tear in his knee in the days before the World Cup in Qatar and was denied the chance to represent his home country in the tournament. While Mbappe and the rest were playing in the final against Argentina, Nkunku was working towards his comeback. He looked rusty in his first few outings and had another setback when he suffering a torn muscle fibre. After recovering from that second injury, Nkunku steadily improved his form, peaking in the final few weeks of the season as Leipzig secured a spot in the 2023-24 Champions League and won the German Cup final. "Having played in Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga, I now want to play in the Premier League, one of the strongest in the world," Nkunku said on Wednesday. He has been in the shadow of Mbappe and a other stellar countrymen in recent years, but the move to England and an ambitious and financially powerful club should offer Nkunku the stage to gain more international exposure and take his game to the next level.

Think this multiple team ownership is a house of cards waiting to collapse once results that are rigged can't be hidden

Football is a business first and foremost. Business is corrupt. In other news, Pope wears a funny hat....

7-0 As the commentary says on FIFA 23 when you're 7-0 up ''the opponents are going to find it hard to come back from this''

5-0

3-0

North Macedonia no pushovers beating Italy and Germany. 2-0

No Grealish, manchild is still hungover apparently and split his tight shorts

Spain scrape a win

Laporte fucks it

Modric cool as a cucumber

Penalty shoot out Croatia v Spain

League have refused Boehly a lucrative shirt sponsorship deal with Paramount as 'it would upset other broadcasters' Just thinking if it was the Sheiks at Citeh, the league would have said, ''yup that's fine, and thanks for the brown envelopes.''

Definitely an advantage if we're in a relegation battle...😉

Looking at the fixtures - we face none of the 'big six' in our last 7 matches.

Yup am more optimistic of a new hungry young face, than a Dzeko, Lukaku massive wage comfortable already done it type. Fingers crossed