[FUTBOL] Weekend Fixtures featuring Man City v Spurs and a Monday game (15-18 Dec)

[Reg]

There's a few games on Sky Sports Mix, including Sevilla tonight. http://www.live-footballontv.com

Friday
Sheffield Wednesday v Wolves - 19:45 SS

Saturday
Leicester City v Crystal Palace - 12:30 SS
Arsenal v Newcastle
Brighton v Burnley
Chelsea v Southampton
Stoke v West Ham
Watford v Huddersfield
Man City v Tottenham - 17:30 BT

Aberdeen v Hibernian - 12:30 BT
Cardiff City v Hull City - 17:30 SS

Sunday
West Brom v Man Utd - 14:15 SS
AFC Bournemouth v Liverpool - 16:30 SS

Hearts v Celtic - 12:30 SS

Monday
Everton v Swansea - 20:00 SS

[Baz]

Shocking round of games. Hopefully I can find a decent stream of the City-Spurs game.

[Lewis]

Absolutely corking SUPER SUNDAY that.

[-james-]

The defending looks SPL standard, but I love this (https://streamable.com/d25zb) by Thomas Lemar just now.

Ligue 1, mate has rather faltered this season, so Monaco are going to get about a third of what they were offered for him a few months ago.

[Giggles]

Leicester v Palace is on Sky One.

[John]

Attenbrough is on Sky Atlantic. Orders of magnitude more interesting than Palace.

[Giggles]

Yeah, weekend football thread.

[Disco]

But who really wants to watch things dredged from the depths surrounded by garbage?

Attenborough it is then.

[Giggles]

Fasirly shit so far. Not shit enough to warrant a nature programme, but it would need to improve.

[Giggles]

That defending and goalkeeping :face:

And the cheek of Benteke to be giving it the big lad after scoring too.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Hodgson surely in line for the England job after the World Cup if he keeps this going.

Leicester are a good team and should go on to win this. I like a lot of their team, Ndidi especially, and also Albrighton and Chilwell. What do we have at left wing back for England, Ryan Bertrand? I'd be looking at Chilwell there are long as we play with a 5 and not a 4.

[Waffdon]

Palace will finish around mid table if Loftus Cheek and especially Zaha stay fit. Mental considering their start.

[John]

Leicester should really have taken the forty five million for Mahrez. He's just a lightweight pleb against a team who'll fight with them, and that's most teams now that they're Premier League Winning Leicester.

[phonics]

Hodgson is definitely the best of the 'safe hands' every chairman picks from.

[Waffdon]

Hodgson surely in line for the England job after the World Cup if he keeps this going.

Leicester are a good team and should go on to win this. I like a lot of their team, Ndidi especially, and also Albrighton and Chilwell. What do we have at left wing back for England, Ryan Bertrand? I'd be looking at Chilwell there are long as we play with a 5 and not a 4.

Danny Rose will be first choice, surely? He’s an upgrade on Chilwell regardless.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I forgot that Danny Rose exists.

[Giggles]

Is Danny Rose not horribly unfit now and can't get a game?

[John]

Breathtaking stupidity from Ndidi. What a mug.

[Giggles]

He deserved to go for the absolute shitness of the dive alone.

[Waffdon]

Zaha :drool:

No idea why Palace didn’t ask for a penalty there.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Zaha is brilliant, and all the more so because if he went to any bigger club than Palace he would be shit. I hope he's sensible enough to stay there for the rest of his career.

[Giggles]

He's primed for failure at a Liverpool or a Spurs in the summer.

[John]

Harry Maguire somehow looks like the union of Ilkay Gundogan and Christopher Ecclestone, two men who could barely look more different.

[Jimmy Floyd]

He looks like the village blacksmith is what he looks like.

[John Arne]

Quality save. Schmeichel-esq.

[niko_cee]

This has got spawny 1-0 Burnley win written all over it. Dirty fuckers.

[Waffdon]

Marco Silva really can’t organise a defence.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Troy Deeney with the Christmas red card, good to see that that still goes on.

[Baz]

Ozil’s strike was good: https://imgtc.com/w/o2rqVG7

Sign him up, José.

[Giggles]

Why are Stoke and West Aaaaam only at half time?

[Boydy]

There was some problem with the generators in the stadium.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Stoke forgot to pay the electricity bill so the kick off was delayed.

[Waffdon]

No David Silva (who is far better than De Bruyne) today. On the Harry Kane hype train.

[Giggles]

How many goals has that Mooy lad got? Seems like every time I'm checking the scores his name is there.

[Samadini]

He's scored in two other games. Really good player though.

[Shindig]

Bottom three. If this takeover doesn't happen, Rafa's walking.

[-james-]

Harry Winks, anointed saviour of English football, was a stinking poo in that first half

[Waffdon]

Bottom three. If this takeover doesn't happen, Rafa's walking.

He’s fucking shite anyway.

[-james-]

City. :alan:

[Giggles]

City are a machine.

[Baz]

City. :alan:Robbie Earle’s doing exactly that on this NBC stream.


How many goals has that Mooy lad got? Seems like every time I'm checking the scores his name is there.He’s also the worlds baldest man. Makes Jonjo Shelvey look like Harry Henderson.

[Foe]

Deli Ali has been absolutely hopeless this season from what I've seen.

That Spurs performance was absolutely horse.

[Reg]

Felt like two points dropped given how Burnley approached it, time wasting from their first goal kick. I didn't understand that: you're in the top six but come to Brighton for a draw?

We were okay but a little unimaginative. And we've not learnt that Murray can't run yet, so too many wasted passes went over his head to nobody.

People really have become obsessed with the transfer window. We apparently need pretty much an entirely new squad despite being 13th in our first top flight season for decades. Somebody reckoned we needed physical midfielders to avoid giving free kicks away(?) and those physical midfielders also need to be creative.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Fernandinho maybe? Everyone has their price.

The time wasting from goal kicks thing makes sense really, if you're a team like Burnley you thrive on there being as little open play as possible.

[Shindig]

He’s fucking shite anyway.

We're shite. :(

[Reg]

Fernandinho maybe? Everyone has their price.

The time wasting from goal kicks thing makes sense really, if you're a team like Burnley you thrive on there being as little open play as possible.
Yeah, it's just peculiar that they're top six and only believe they can take corners and head the ball away. Their goals for/against pretty much sum them up, I guess: 16/12 in 17 matches.

[Weaver]

Any idea what the craic with David Silva is? A few of the City players have posted things like ‘This one’s for you mate’ and stuff like that, and there’s a picture of the squad celebrating afterwards and one’s holding a ‘Silva 21’ shirt?

[Boydy]

He's dead.

[Lewis]

Dead bald.

[Reg]

Just flicked the Roma game on and saw another VAR decision. About three and a half minutes between the ref initially booking Dzeko for diving and the penalty being taken. That did feel a bit much...

I wonder if it's worth changing the rules so the off field chaps just tell the ref their own call on something, rather than have him make a decision, then stand there listening to his earpiece, trot over to a screen, watch the whole thing again, then finally trot back to change his mind.

[Jimmy Floyd]

'Can you rock and roll that for me, Dermot...'

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/dec/15/manchester-city-football-group-ferran-soriano

This is an interesting article. Key takeaways:

- Ferran Soriano is a megalomaniac
- Football is becoming more and more like baseball, with 'farm clubs' and speculative trading on players
- They're going to make billions from mass farming Chinese children to teach them football
- He thinks football will be the biggest sport in every country, including USA and India. Good luck with that.

It's hard to know if it will all work beautifully for them or if it's some bullshit. Rival networks will soon form, although lol at Barcelona for missing their chance.

[Reg]

Good article that, Jim. The China football in schools bit is creepy.

On a lighter note, Match of the Day is worth watching to see Linekar and Ian Wright taking the piss out of Keown.

[Lewis]

If all of the sponsorship agreements are arranged to cover every club, and all of the 'transfer income will end up back in a single corporate pot', it sounds like it would be pretty easy for the Big Clubs to have 'City Football Group' classed as one complete loss-making venture that fails the fair play stuff in a major way.

[Baz]

Any idea what the craic with David Silva is? A few of the City players have posted things like ‘This one’s for you mate’ and stuff like that, and there’s a picture of the squad celebrating afterwards and one’s holding a ‘Silva 21’ shirt?According to the Internet his wife has had a baby; and he has been diagnosed with cancer. :rolleyes:

[Baz]

https://i.imgur.com/n7ZzlOb.gif

:drool:

[Magic]

Verona and Hearts. :drool:

[Jimmy Floyd]

Alli is on my life ban list along with Suarez. He shouldn't be allowed to play the game again. Time after time snidey little violent shite. Fuck off.

[Magic]

Add Cameron Jerome.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If all of the sponsorship agreements are arranged to cover every club, and all of the 'transfer income will end up back in a single corporate pot', it sounds like it would be pretty easy for the Big Clubs to have 'City Football Group' classed as one complete loss-making venture that fails the fair play stuff in a major way.

The rules of UEFA competitions will be small fry if the world goes as they think it will.

[Magic]

Lol AC had 28 shots, finished with 10 and down by 3 goals. Cunts.

[Kikó]

Nasty tackles those and intentional. Compare and contrast with our Pogs and it's ridiculous.

[Giggles]

You'd all need to dry your eyes and put your handbags away. Nearly every team getting a pasting throws in some of those.

[Kikó]

I'm all for it against city.

[Jimmy Floyd]

You'd all need to dry your eyes and put your handbags away. Nearly every team getting a pasting throws in some of those.

I'm all for leaving the odd foot in but Alli is just a cunt. He has cold, dead eyes as well, and didn't he cut ties with his mum in order to concentrate on football? Clearly a total wrong un.

[Giggles]

I'm all for leaving the odd foot in but Alli is just a cunt. He has cold, dead eyes as well, and didn't he cut ties with his mum in order to concentrate on football? Clearly a total wrong un.

Oh yeah he's definitely a little nacker but the game is full of them.

[Lewis]

The rules of UEFA competitions will be small fry if the world goes as they think it will.

It's ultimately all aimed at making City the top dog, which means winning Champions Leagues. The only thing stopping the others making those rules even more restrictive is our MASSIVE broadcasting deals, but they can always thrash something out over one of those informal currywursts if the 'old model' is threatened.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Bodgers 3-0 down at Hearts as well, Shergar nodding in the third.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's ultimately all aimed at making City the top dog, which means winning Champions Leagues. The only thing stopping the others making those rules even more restrictive is our MASSIVE broadcasting deals, but they can always thrash something out over one of those informal currywursts if the 'old model' is threatened.

Is it? By the sounds of that article it's aimed at creating a global corporation which makes massive profits, of which City winning Champions Leagues (if they are still a thing in 20 years) would only be helping towards.

If I were United, I'd be taking a rain check on the noodle deals and starting to set up a few farm clubs myself. Chelsea have been doing it for a while in a less world-domination sort of way.

[Lewis]

That might be what the suits want, but I refuse to believe that the sand people (and the Chinese government) are primarily in this for what is still a relatively small amount of money.

[Pleb]

West Brom XI: Foster, Nyom, Hegazi, Evans, Gibbs, Burke, Livermore, Yacob, Krychowiak, McClean, Rondon.
Man Utd XI: De Gea, Valencia, Smalling, Jones, Young, Herrera, Matic, Lingard, Mata, Rashford, Lukaku.

[Giggles]

Sportsperson of year McClean to score and get sent off.

[phonics]

Yacob, McClean and Livermore all in the same team. :drool:

United are going to spend 90% of the game getting kicked into the air. Yacob is lowkey the dirtiest Argentinian in the top 5 leagues. 5'2 but he doesn't need height to snap your shins in half.

[phonics]

What the fuck is this interview?

https://i.imgur.com/DO80N1j.png

I would be sacked if I was told to interview someone and came back with this.

At least zoom in a bit so you can't see the staff milling about round the corner ffs.

[Danny]

Yacob, McClean and Livermore all in the same team. :drool:

United are going to spend 90% of the game getting kicked into the air. Yacob is lowkey the dirtiest Argentinian in the top 5 leagues. 5'2 but he doesn't need height to snap your shins in half.

Yacob is 6′0.

[Giggles]

These lineups on sky where the players look like rejects at a 5ive audition are brutal.

[Danny]

I'm all for leaving the odd foot in but Alli is just a cunt. He has cold, dead eyes as well, and didn't he cut ties with his mum in order to concentrate on football? Clearly a total wrong un.

His dad fucked off to the US after he was born and his mum was a pisshead. He might be a dick but he has done right in telling them to fuck off now.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I didn't know his mum was a pisshead.

[igor_balis]

Neville is right about the midfield 3. Three fucking DMs yet again. I'm still not entirely sure what Jake Liveremore is for.

[Kikó]

Rashford having strength then. Lad.

[igor_balis]

Krychowiak is quality though, best player we've had since Valero.

[Giggles]

United are so slow and ponderous now. Horrible team to watch.

[Kikó]

Absolute shit.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Rondon's first touch is a thing of beauty. Like space debris hitting the moon.

[igor_balis]

Rondon's first touch is a thing of beauty. Like space debris hitting the moon.

We've never really replaced Odemwingie.

God, replace Rondon with Peter at his best, and replace Livermore with, i dunno, fuck knows, Graham Dorrans or someone, and the side is a billion times better.

[Lewis]

That was a good header, and so was the one in the week. I didn't know he was particularly great in the air, so maybe Lukaku has that Jermain Defoe thing where the less time he has to think about it the better his finishing is.

[igor_balis]

We're going down.

[Kikó]

Park the bus park the bus.

[niko_cee]

If I were United, I'd be taking a rain check on the noodle deals and starting to set up a few farm clubs myself. Chelsea have been doing it for a while in a less world-domination sort of way.

People have been at the club farming business for years. Is there any proof it actually works? Signing up the next Luis Suarez at 7 and having him play at Althletico Tostada for the next 10 years is only going to turn him into the next Cherno Samba. I'm very much of the opinion that the safety net of a deal with a 'big club' is a major hindrance to the development of players and I don't really see how farming them out to Cape Cod Citizens makes any difference to that. It's maybe good as a model for making transfer profits, but when you don't need the money, what is the point in that? Chelsea have run quite a good youth selling programme, but it hasn't really seen them produce anything of note for themselves.

[igor_balis]

Fuck off Neville, if that wasn't a young English Utd player you'd have slaughtered him for simulation.

[Pleb]

How are we not running away with this?

Albion look proper garbage.

[Baz]

What’s on Rojo’s head?

[Jimmy Floyd]

People have been at the club farming business for years. Is there any proof it actually works? Signing up the next Luis Suarez at 7 and having him play at Althletico Tostada for the next 10 years is only going to turn him into the next Cherno Samba. I'm very much of the opinion that the safety net of a deal with a 'big club' is a major hindrance to the development of players and I don't really see how farming them out to Cape Cod Citizens makes any difference to that. It's maybe good as a model for making transfer profits, but when you don't need the money, what is the point in that? Chelsea have run quite a good youth selling programme, but it hasn't really seen them produce anything of note for themselves.

I'll put it a different way. If I were a United executive I'd be wanting to set up farm clubs.

[igor_balis]

'mon Brunty

[Reg]

I'd almost rather watch van Gaal's team than Mourinho's when it's like this. I know they're good at seeing out games but does it have to be this dull? Why not go for 3-0 and 4-0. There's no threat from West Brom on the counter, just keep the ball and do as you'd do at 0-0.

[Jimmy Floyd]

GNev has been determined to slate West Brom the club almost from minute 1 here, have they refused to do a Class of 92 collection outside?

[Pleb]

Woof.

[Ian]

We deserved that.

[igor_balis]

GNev has been determined to slate West Brom the club almost from minute 1 here, have they refused to do a Class of 92 collection outside?

Bad memories perhaps - he says a game here where he "made Jerome Thomas look like Ronaldo" was when he knew he was done as a player.

Also, HELLO!

[Pleb]

Rashford for Martial?

Fucking woof.

[Kikó]

Mourinho out.

[Giggles]

Everyone cease saying woof immediately.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I'd almost rather watch van Gaal's team than Mourinho's when it's like this. I know they're good at seeing out games but does it have to be this dull? Why not go for 3-0 and 4-0. There's no threat from West Brom on the counter, just keep the ball and do as you'd do at 0-0.

In his first Chelsea spell there were certain easy games when we went 1-0 or 2-0 early on and I'm fairly certain he instructed them to make no attempt to score. Just stultifying football.

[niko_cee]

I'll put it a different way. If I were a United executive I'd be wanting to set up farm clubs.

I sort of get that (although don't they live for noode deals) but when you read stuff like this:


It’s like venture capital in that if you invest 10 million each in 10 players, you just need one to get to the top who is going to be worth 100 million.

It's not only baffling on a basic level (wouldn't it be better, or at least the same, to just shell out the £100m for the good one?) but it bespeaks of wider plan which I just don't see working. (Good) Players who are loaned out are absolute wank 99.9% of the time. Look at Renato Sanches. What the fuck is going on there?

[igor_balis]

Everyone cease saying woof immediately.

Or what, mate? Everyone knows your bark is worse than your bite.

[Pleb]

We're on the ropes lads.

[Giggles]

Or what, mate? Everyone knows your bark is worse than your bite.

Meow.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Mourinho out.

The Express today thinks so.

[niko_cee]

How United win these games is completely beyond me, and they've been doing it forever (I was going to say since they've been wank post-Fergie, but it was probably before then as well).

[Jimmy Floyd]

How United win these games is completely beyond me, and they've been doing it forever (I was going to say since they've been wank post-Fergie, but it was probably before then as well).

Team fear the club name, as West Brom did for the first 70 minutes today.

[igor_balis]

Team fear the club name, as West Brom did for the first 70 minutes today.

Nah bollocks, we're just not very good.

[Ian]

Do they still? It feels like most of the threat has been undone on that front, beyond there still being some good players who might do you given the chance.

[Lewis]

I missed Arsenal in fourth. Arsene Wenger. :cool:

[Kikó]

West Brom aren't that good and we were able to grind it out with our better players. It's not that pretty without Pogba but another win. March on.

[Pleb]

Bournemouth XI: Begovic, A Smith, Francis, Aké, Daniels, Ibe, L Cook, Surman, Pugh, King, Defoe
Liverpool: Mignolet, Gomez, Lovren, Klavan, Robertson, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Henderson, Wijnaldum, Salah, Firmino, Coutinho

[Baz]

Ming starts, FFS.

[Jimmy Floyd]

As they said in the studio, it was a penalty when Young bodychecked McClean in front of the keeper. The biggest weakness of first-ruling refs is that they never give a penalty for anything that looks or feels unusual or unexpected. To get a penalty it has to be a very orthodox two players going for the ball and one is late type of scenario. They need to see it coming five seconds before it happens or you'll never get a spot kick.

[Reg]

In his first Chelsea spell there were certain easy games when we went 1-0 or 2-0 early on and I'm fairly certain he instructed them to make no attempt to score. Just stultifying football.
And he doesn't even get joy from crushing that of others nowadays.

That wasn't as bad as when he brought on Fellaini, 1-0 up, got the whole team to sit deeper than the Earth's inner core only to watch the clown-haired melon concede a penalty and draw 1-1.

[Offshore Toon]

Kane and Alli have been making dirty challenges for a while now. They're both horrible cunts. England players definitely get protected.

[niko_cee]

Klavan and Lovren holding the high line. What could possibly go wrong?

[Waffdon]

Salah is a council version of Arjen Robben.

[Pleb]

Bournemouth are having a nightmare.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Aké and Daniels were out on the piss with Giggles last night I think.

[Baz]

Salah is a council version of Arjen Robben.:lol:

[Gray Fox]

3-0 up away to Bournemouth. What could possibly go wrong?

[Waffdon]

I don’t mean to be biased, but Andy Robertson is laughably better than any Liverpool defender.

[Lewis]

Sky deserved this one-sided bollocks for trying to invent a rivalry between the two teams.

[Magic]

I don’t mean to be biased, but Andy Robertson is laughably better than any Liverpool defender.

1 in 3 of your posts mention that cunt.

[Weaver]

I don’t mean to be biased, but Andy Robertson is laughably better than any Liverpool defender.

Your man GMS scored a hat-trick for Aberdeen yesterday. You loved that guy.

[Giggles]

I don’t mean to be biased, but Andy Robertson is laughably better than any Liverpool defender.

Is he not a Liverpool defender himself?

[Waffdon]

1 in 3 of your posts mention that cunt.

He’s the love of my life. Must be a thing about our left backs, because our current one is also sound as fuck. No danger he’ll amount to much though, considering he’s onit every weekend with us. Great guy though and my claim to fame if he moves onto better things.

[igor_balis]

Your man GMS scored a hat-trick for Aberdeen yesterday. You loved that guy.

Still always initially think GMS is Gary McSheffrey and get really confused.

[Foe]

Waff can have the left backs, GMS is all mine.

He's quality.

[Mike]

I don’t mean to be biased, but Andy Robertson is laughably better than any Liverpool defender.
That’s Joe Gomez

[Jimmy Floyd]

Griezmann's just tweeted a picture of himself blacked up. RIP him.

[Lewis]

I don't think 'blacked up' does it justice.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Fucking hell, what was he thinking?

[Giggles]

I don't see much wrong but he's going to get hammered for it.

[Samadini]

Didn't even realise it was him.

https://i.imgur.com/AEZ3VtK.jpg

[randomlegend]

https://twitter.com/antogriezmann/status/942488799485054976

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DRRkkJOX4AETBQc.jpg

Aye here it is :D

[Waffdon]

All the Liverpool, Celtic and all the other ambulance chasing fans will be in outrage.

It’s a costume ffs

[Lewis]

I wonder if he did his arse/cock.

[Lewis]

Sam 'Big Sam' Allardyce was just introduced on Sports Personality of the Year as 'Big Sam Allardyce', which officially converts it from nickname to title.

[niko_cee]

That's amazing.

He'll be a national hero in Spain.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I was going to say, I remember a load of Alonso fans doing it to mock Hamilton a while ago, it's kind of normal there.

[Lewis]

'(Translated by Twitter [not me lol]) Calm down guys, I'm fan of the Harlem globetrotters and the good times... it's a ✌ tribute'

Yes mate. :cool:

[Lewis]

And he's deleted it. Yet another thing he's BOTTLED.

[Giggles]

Still there.

[Giggles]

That's a bullshit freekick and booking.

[Waffdon]

Ashley Williams is a disgrace.

[Waffdon]

Rooney’s penalty record must be horrific.

[Baz]

Almost as bad as his boxing career.

[Lewis]

It is a bit shit, but I don't remember him ever missing one that mattered at United, and he probably scored the rebounds from half his misses.

[Baz]

That’s something Ronaldo would do on purpose so nobody could say yeah but like 10% of your goals were penalties.

[Waffdon]

Absolutely love that Jonjoe Kenny. Wee snide cunt too.

[Giggles]

"A bad lad" is a nice way of putting it.

https://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/2017/1218/928309-dele-alli-is-a-bad-lad-says-eamon-dunphy/

[niko_cee]

Some of the comments towards the end of that piece are quality.


"Bayern Munich are not going to be able to compete, never mind Liverpool. What happens when Bayern Munich can’t compete?

"I watched Juventus and Inter Milan play a 0-0 last week. There ain’t no football in Italy. Nothing.

"If you lose Italy, then you might lose Spain.

"You look at Barcelona at the moment. Gerard Deulofeu, who couldn’t get in the Everton team, is a starter. There have other players; Paulinho, who was at Spurs. He’s brutal."

:D

[Giggles]

He's a complete hack who says most things for effect but his podcast is gold for such stuff.

[Magic]

He's obviously not watched much Italian football, the thick potato Mick cunt.

[Giggles]

He's obviously not watched much Italian football, the thick potato Mick cunt.

Don't be so angry all the time MJ, none of us rode her.

[Magic]

Eamonn?

[Jimmy Floyd]

With Italian football, people want it to be better than it is. There are 2-3 alright teams per year, but I doubt any Italian side will ever win the European Cup again. It's been eight years since Mourinho's Inter did it and there's no sign of the next one coming along.

[Magic]

Apart from Juve...

[Kikó]

Inter, Roma, Juve and Napoli are all good teams.

There are four teams that can win the champions league. PSG, city, Barcelona, real.

[Magic]

Cue Shakhtar winning it.

[niko_cee]

On the back of that (apparently) 'impressive' performance the other day find it mildly interesting looking at the comparative season stats for Alex "career-suicide" Oxlade-Chamberlain and Harry "the saviour of English football" Winks. About the same. Maybe he made the right decision after all?

[Ian]

Have people been bigging up Harry Winks that much? Because I didn't know much about him before his England call-up and I've not heard that much about him since either.

[Magic]

Only deluded Yids and those CUNTS on TalkShite who are desperate for England to be better than absolutely woeful.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Cracking letter about us on F365 (heavily edited down):


What Chelsea needs right now is not squad players. We need world class players who are probably game changers. Imagine Chelsea lining up 3-5-2. As in: Courtois, Azpi, Christensen, Rudiger, Mahrez, Alex Sandro, Kante, Fabregas, Ozil, Hazard, Morata. Bench/Reserve: Pedro , Zouma, Cahill, Zappacosta, Alex is Sanchez, Aubameyang, Willy, Moses and Bakayoko, Alonso, along with academy players.

Given the City situation, it does not look likely any team let alone Chelsea will be able to win PL for next 2-3 years, unless we go all out and get worldies.

Too many foreigners mate, check the rules. We didn't sign Drinkwater because of his classy passing, peerless engine or north west gangland chic marketing potential.

[Danny]

Mahrez as a wingback? :lol:

[Disco]

Makes you wonder how their brain works.

[Jimmy Floyd]

People in general haven't seemed to latch onto the whole homegrown thing. Clubs do not have one squad, they have two: 17 foreigners (max) and 8 homegrown (min). Both squads need filling and then you combine them to form the actual team.

Chelsea only have a 23 man squad at the moment because we only have six homegrown (Christensen, Moses, Cahill, Musonda, Drinkwater and, laughably, Fabregas). To sign another foreigner we would have to get rid of an existing one. No surprise we're being linked with people like Wilfried Zaha, whilst trying to freeze out David Luiz and Batshuayi for no particular reason.