Nicolas Pepe

[Vesper 30,219]

18 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

I know Mrs and it infuriates me it really does.

And whatever we could get for the est of the furniture and its getting on for £1/2B I bet.

I calculated selling off all but 11 of loan army (keeping 3 to main, 8 out on loan for new max)  and it generates

£250 to £275m

so you are actually a wee UNDER

almost exactly two thirds of a BILLION QUID right there

[Unionjack 7,531]

Fuckin mind boggling Mrs!

What we could do with that!!

Why doesn't Roman know this?

Why hasn't the Granny tight arse done owt about it?

You would honestly think a business woman of her level would be all over doing it.

[Vesper 30,219]

5 minutes ago, Unionjack said:

Fuckin mind boggling Mrs!

What we could do with that!!

Why doesn't Roman know this?

Why hasn't the Granny tight arse done owt about it?

You would honestly think a business woman of her level would be all over doing it.

Most of what the board does footballer wise just boggles my mind. I can TOTALLY understand the Pulisic buy as even if he ends up a semi-middling player, his marketing value is immense, but most of the rest is just enraging. Especially the contractual bungling and the shit desperation buys. Morata, Bats, Bakayoko were calculated gambles that didn't pan out, and we may only lose around £40m or £50m max total, that is just the breaks. But the rest is just insane, not even going back to the horrid sales of KDB, Salah, etc. We turned down £630m in hard offers last summer alone. Wrap yer head around that.

I look at the big, cumulative picture from a medium to long term event horizon, and I assure you, it is not good for my mental state of mind, even worse for my purely emotional mood. I am not a footie executive, but I am a trained financial professional who deals in valuations versus both perceived and real-time self-evident risk measurements, and it drives me absolutely batshit cray.

A wee little deal, Cesc, whose loss (and misuse as he should have been used as 60th, 70th minute lock-picker CMF sub in tight games, THAT part is on Sarri) will surely bite us in the jacobs at some point soon (as we FAILED on both Barella and Paredes), shows that the board was, is, and will be in clown-car mode in perpetuity.

[the wes 7,212]

We need to get this guy hes carrying Lille OSC this season it would be interested to see were Lille OSC would be in the French league without Pépé goals and assists this season

[Yeboii 1,844]

Our last purchase from Lille worked out pretty well  

[NikkiCFC 8,334]

1 minute ago, Yeboii said:

Our last purchase from Lille worked out pretty well  

In general we bought so many great players from Ligue1. 

Drogba, Cech, Azpilicueta, Malouda, Essien, Hazard...

[Special Juan 28,139]

Massive wealth of talent in Ligue1...N'Dombele is absolute top drawer for Lyon, along with Aouar and Ferland Mendy, to name a few.

[Vesper 30,219]

2 hours ago, Special Juan said:

Massive dearth of talent in Ligue1...

You really thinks so?

I think there is a shit tonne of great young players there

also France has blown Brasil away as the best producer nation of top players in my opinion

[Special Juan 28,139]

9 minutes ago, Vesper said:

You really thinks so?

I think there is a shit tonne of great young players there

also France has blown Brasil away as the best producer nation of top players in my opinion

Which is what I said.

Now edited due to predictive saying dearth instead of wealth.

[Vesper 30,219]

16 minutes ago, Special Juan said:

 

Now edited due to predictive saying dearth instead of wealth.

ahhhhhhhhh, lolol

[LAM09 7,062]

In general we bought so many great players from Ligue1. 
Drogba, Cech, Azpilicueta, Malouda, Essien, Hazard...

Djilobodji too [emoji3]

[NikkiCFC 8,334]

4 minutes ago, LAM09 said:

Djilobodji too

And Bakayoko 

[!Hazard! 3,394]

4 hours ago, Vesper said:

You really thinks so?

I think there is a shit tonne of great young players there

also France has blown Brasil away as the best producer nation of top players in my opinion

France has high levels of inequality these days and for many kids (of which many are of African descent )sports is the only escape from those horrid banlieus. France has effectively followed the American model as high percentage of their top sports talent comes from those poor ghettos. I don't know what going on in Brazilian favelas but they don't seem to be producing top talents at the same rate as in previous decades. 

[Unionjack 7,531]

On 2/5/2019 at 0:28 AM, !Hazard! said:

France has high levels of inequality these days and for many kids (of which many are of African descent )sports is the only escape from those horrid banlieus. France has effectively followed the American model as high percentage of their top sports talent comes from those poor ghettos. I don't know what going on in Brazilian favelas but they don't seem to be producing top talents at the same rate as in previous decades. 

I was thinking about this since it has been made crystal clear that the team have a lack of fighting spirit.

Made me wonder whether now the lads all have a few quid, living comfortably, yoof driving to practice ib £250k sports cars, have that hunger any more?

You would expect getting players from those poorer areas o cities//countries they had the fire in their bellies to want to go out, get better, prove themselves. And I would guess that if a club was to show faith in them they would want to give it back to them.

 

I also had a conversation with @Sideshow Luiz about team spirit. We had both talked about how at one time (mot so very long ago) the team was made up of many various captains of their national teams. This of course is a great help both spirit wise,attitude,character,footballing mind and just being a professional. We now have 1.

The idea of Pulisic coming from a U.S. sporting background also came up. We thought that the training these American sports people got both in skills and mindset gave them that professional attitude, the mental urge to achieve.

That type of character has slowly been lost over the years and we need to look into getting it back.

The times (in the PL at least) of yoof getting a bolloking and told to clean players boots are long gone. So we need to be looking at other ways to instill it into the lads at some level.

[Sideshow Luiz 2,310]

6 hours ago, Unionjack said:

I was thinking about this since it has been made crystal clear that the team have a lack of fighting spirit.

Made me wonder whether now the lads all have a few quid, living comfortably, yoof driving to practice ib £250k sports cars, have that hunger any more?

You would expect getting players from those poorer areas o cities//countries they had the fire in their bellies to want to go out, get better, prove themselves. And I would guess that if a club was to show faith in them they would want to give it back to them.

 

I also had a conversation with @Sideshow Luiz about team spirit. We had both talked about how at one time (mot so very long ago) the team was made up of many various captains of their national teams. This of course is a great help both spirit wise,attitude,character,footballing mind and just being a professional. We now have 1.

The idea of Pulisic coming from a U.S. sporting background also came up. We thought that the training these American sports people got both in skills and mindset gave them that professional attitude, the mental urge to achieve.

That type of character has slowly been lost over the years and we need to look into getting it back.

The times (in the PL at least) of yoof getting a bolloking and told to clean players boots are long gone. So we need to be looking at other ways to instill it into the lads at some level.

Well, it's not just the US sporting background.  There are plenty of NBA, NFL, and MLB players that waste their gifts and/or don't have the right mentality.  But, it seems that the top US footballers all generally work hard.  Those guys were not always the most athletic players growing up.  So, to compete they had to be more tenacious, IMO.

I think that winning teams have to have a mix of youth and experience.  There's a reason why serial winner like Jose (I know he's fallen from grace, but they guy wants and wins trophies) values experience.  Someone in the dressing room needs to be a leader besides the coach.  A 20 year old making 3 times as much as the coach might not always listen to him (this isn't all), but they'll listen to a JT, or Drogba, or Lamps.

Leadership doesn't come across in the stats or the youtube highlight videos.  But, in some ways, previous coaches have already identified it.  Players who have been made captain of their team at club level, or international, even U-21.

It's something that the New England Patriots have done and they are a dynasty (long one) in a league that's designed to not have dynasties.  

I've shared this with @Unionjack before.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidching/2018/02/01/unheralded-factor-in-patriots-winning-culture-a-roster-loaded-with-college-captains/#67898ec224fc

[!Hazard! 3,394]

It's not just a Chelsea problem though. To me all Premier League top6 teams seem to lack those traditional captains to the extent which makes me wonder if those types of characters even exist in the modern game. None of the top teams in Europe seem to loaded with those types of personalities the way were, or United were, 10 years ago.

[Vesper 30,219]

21 minutes ago, !Hazard! said:

It's not just a Chelsea problem though. To me all Premier League top6 teams seem to lack those traditional captains to the extent which makes me wonder if those types of characters even exist in the modern game. None of the top teams in Europe seem to loaded with those types of personalities the way were, or United were, 10 years ago.

Juventus

Giorgio Chiellini

Andrea Barzagli

Leonardo Bonucci

Miralem Pjanic

Blaise Matuidi

Mario Mandzukic

Cristiano Ronaldo

 

all have been or are currently captains of clubs and/or national teams at multiple times in careers

 

 

[Unionjack 7,531]

26 minutes ago, !Hazard! said:

It's not just a Chelsea problem though. To me all Premier League top6 teams seem to lack those traditional captains to the extent which makes me wonder if those types of characters even exist in the modern game. None of the top teams in Europe seem to loaded with those types of personalities the way were, or United were, 10 years ago.

Wonder why this is.

theres still academys - but I suppose worldwide the apprenticeship system has or is fastly disappearing.

But I woulda still thought that the young players from the poorer areas would still  have that touch more hunger and desire .

I'm provably over thinking it tho.                                                                                              

[!Hazard! 3,394]

1 hour ago, Vesper said:

Juventus

Giorgio Chiellini

Andrea Barzagli

Leonardo Bonucci

Miralem Pjanic

Blaise Matuidi

Mario Mandzukic

Cristiano Ronaldo

 

all have been or are currently captains of clubs and/or national teams at multiple times in careers

 

 

You're right, why didn't I think of Juve. But look at their age structure though. This season might be their last opportunity to win the Champions League

[Vesper 30,219]

3 minutes ago, !Hazard! said:

You're right, why didn't I think of Juve. But look at their age structure though. This season might be their last opportunity to win the Champions League

Oh for sure, they are RAPIDLY ageing. Impossible to see that team together in 2020-21. Maybe even in 2019-20. I think they have as good a shot at winning CL as any team this year. Would rather them than most others left, for many different reasons.

I think one of only 4 teams have real shots at winning CL (I am sure my picks will not be popular)

Juventus

Shitty

Barca (especially if Umtiti comes back fully healed and on fire)

PSG (only if Neymar comes back fully healed and on fire)

 

Darkhorses    Borussia Dortmund (only if Akanji comes back fully healed and on fire and Reus stays healthy, as he has a minor injury now)

Atletico Madrid (most under the radar top 10 team in Europe atm, no one is talking about them)

 

Do not see Victimpool, Bayern, Real Madrid or Manure winning

No chance (watch one win!!! lolol) Porto, Spuds, Roma, Ajax, Lyon, and BY FAR the worst team left, Schalke

 

Outrageous that Roma and Schalke got luck of groups and draws (Porto is actually really dangerous) and are still in there

 

Biggest victims of that were Napoli and Inter (by far the biggest threats to us winning the EL, along with Arse, Sevilla, and my dark horse there, Red Bull Salzburg who just CRUSHED RB Leipzig, their 'big brothers' (they would be truly dangerous if they still had one of my favourite young MFers, Amadou Haidara, who blew his knee out and was just sold to the already-mentioned sister team, RB Leipzig)