Reddish-Blue

That's the biggest issue of all though. Felix is a luxury player but he's also streets ahead of Sancho/Madueke/Neto. Felix was at least playing his part in the Conference league and could have offered Maresca a different option for the next 2 months. I mentioned it here weeks ago that Newcastle/City would get it together and opposition teams aren't stupid, they know as long as they keep Palmer quiet, our attack is useless.

We didn't have those top managers under the current ownership. Potter was just like Moyes at United, same can probably be said of Maresca by the end of his reign. Poch was the only manager who actually suited the current ownership. 😆

They are children, when you think about it. Sancho had a fight with his manager at United and said he wouldn't play for them again, then somehow United offloaded him to us, Nkunku wanted out the whole window (was begging Bayern Munich to take him) and now he's starting again We had to beg Crystal Palace to cancel Chalobah's loan deal as we had no other CB's available other than Disasi Enzo - Caicedo is one of the worst midfield pairings out there. No wonder why Poch put Gallagher-Caicedo together, at least they would run around like crazy. We're swapping goalkeepers for fun half way through the season, i don't see our rivals doing that...unless their GK is injured.

Thats what happens when you count on half-shift players like Madueke, Sancho to lead the attack. United were delighted to get rid of Sancho and we happily accepted him? If Maresca is here next season, we won't be a top 4 side and eventually Palmer will get bored and ask to leave to play CL football like his England national team mates and we'll go back to hovering around 6th place again.

The board listened to the manager, he didn't want Chilwell, loaned, he didn't want Disasi, loaned, he didn't want Felix, loaned.

So now the board and directors are telling Maresca to play that badly on the pitch? Somehow the team look visibly worse in the 2nd half of most games, after getting instructions from Maresca (the great Championship level manager). 0 shots on target is beyond pathetic.

To be fair, in 5 years time, all those kids we've been hoarding will probably come good and live up to their potential and we would be a decent team on Football manager 2030 edition.

It was expected that we would eventually feel the burn from lack of depth and then the club allows Felix to leave on deadline day without a replacement. Guess it's going to Nkunku/Neto/Palmer rotating up front until Jackson is back. Any half decent strikers in the academy?

Only the players in BOLD have buyers in the market. Tosin, Chalobah, Madueke as they are all HG. No-one will buy Wes Fofana, Broja is a walking injury, Sterling is on ridiculous wages (same with Nkunku) and Sanchez is a walking error in goal.

If Vinicius doesn't get bored and run off to Saudi, Real Madrid will be amongst the UCL contenders for years to come.

Next few fixtures: Brighton (A), Villa (A), then Southampton (H), Leicester (H)....probably 0 points away and then 4 points at home as we love to hand out gifts to teams below us in the table.

Sancho and Madueke are the same quality as CHO, yet we let our academy winger leave for 5m and then paid 30m for Madueke and have an obligation to pay 25m for Sancho. To think Havertz is still better than our whole attack (bar Palmer). Take Palmer out and we're mid table again.

Our whole attack except Palmer would be out the door if Conte was in charge 😆

With a Championship level manager at the helm. We really went from Conte - Tuchel era to bang average managers like Harry Potter and Maresca. 😄

Drogba's one was a bit harder to finish, Lampard's perfect 1-2 with Drogba, getting the right weight on the pass and hoping Drogba would get on the end of it and poke it home. Tel's one was a cross into the box that Villa didn't react to and he had to make contact... Nowhere near as difficult....and Danso missed from point blank range 😆

https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2025/2/8/24361426/cole-palmer-trevoh-chalobah-mathis-amougou-added-to-uefa-conference-league-squad https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/article/enzo-maresca-outlines-adaptation-process-for-mathis-amougou

Not sure who else he was supposed to bring on? There were only two choices, Madueke or George as we had no striker on the bench and Felix ran off to Milan. Anyway, feel like the bigger concern for the rest of the season is actually in midfield as there's no rotation available for Caicedo or Enzo.

Of course the bench is going to be weak. Jackson, Guiu both out injured, Lavia & Fofana made of glass, Mudryk suspended, Felix loaned out for some reason with no replacement.

Funny thing is, Guehi would be the best CB at the club (if he was to come back). Chalobah was only called back because they realised they can't count on Fofana or Badiashile for any serious minutes. That's how poor our current CB's are 😆

Lavia and Fofana out of Conference League due to injuries. Palmer, that new french youngster we signed and Chalobah were added.

You realise that Tosin is 27...and he was added to the squad in the last transfer window.

Everyone knew that was coming, why else would Mendes help Felix go to AC Milan on a 6 month loan? I wouldn't be shocked if Milan tried a Tomori for Felix swap deal in the summer.

What did people expect? Spurs to suddenly change and become a team with winning mentality? Will never forget them sacking Mourinho before a cup final.....like that's your 1 chance of potentially winning a trophy and you sack a coach with so much cup history 😆

Slonina is still only 20, and he's had 1 season of European football under his belt. As for Penders, there's no way the club bring him in next season for first team football, will definitely be a Courtois style, loan for 1-2 seasons in a good league. If Sanchez survives the next transfer window....then that means we've settled for being mid-table.

It seemed like the plan for our attack was: If United were happy to take Nkunku , then we would take Garnacho in some sort of swap deal. I don't get how you sign an attacker like Felix in the previous window and then come January, you are happy to accept a 5 million loan deal with no buy option attached. Bottom line: guess this means minutes for T.George and M.Guiu as we have no other backup and Mudryk has vanished.