Let's All Lol at Chelsea

[randomlegend]

I know discussion has started in the football thread but probably warrants its own thread.

Abramovich sanctioned and assets frozen. Can't sell the club. Not allowed to sell any more tickets. Merchandise shop to close. Can't buy or sell players. Can't renew players contracts.

Nice not to support the most lolworthy club of the day for once.

[Magic]

They've absolutely fucking ruined the Premiership so hopefully they are truly fucked.

[Waffdon]

It won’t stick.

If the government are getting to pick them a new owner then it’s clearly all been a set up to get their mate Cundy in charge since he was in the photos of the infamous Christmas parties.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It will stick. Some things are bigger than football.

I don't think we'll go out of business or anything, but the days of plenty are over. Weirdly it might help us get better (not richer, but better) next ownership, as the bastard parade are probably out if government are administering a sale.

[randomlegend]

It won’t stick.

If the government are getting to pick them a new owner then it’s clearly all been a set up to get their mate Cundy in charge since he was in the photos of the infamous Christmas parties.

:happycry:

[Bernanke]

Can't wait for Lukaku to be a government owned asset.

Stolen.

[Waffdon]

We’ll see.

The one thing I don’t get is not allowing supporters. Let them go in for free if they’re that arsed. Does that mean half the ground will be empty at Wembley for the Semi Finals? :D

[Ben]

I'm in the "not going to stick" camp. At the end of the day, the war in Ukraine will become less newsworthy and billionaires tend to band together in time of need; Government sanctions on Russians in general will begin to unwind within six months.

[Jimmy Floyd]

They've said 'Abramovich won't receive a penny from the sale'. There is no rowing back from that statement.

[niko_cee]

Waff's response is glorious.


Sanctions are a political, not legal instrument. This does not imply that they don’t need to have a legal basis — the UN Charter in the case of UN sanctions, and national legal acts for national sanctions. However, there is no, or only very limited, legal recourse by those who are sanctioned against sanctions.

I'm not really sure how you even go about challenging them, which, in a broader context is possibly problematic, but let's just lol for now.

[Waffdon]

Matt Law is also reporting the club can still be sold and there are still interested parties. Might be more now if it’s available on the cheap.

No statement from the club yet is odd

[niko_cee]

We’ll see.

The one thing I don’t get is not allowing supporters. Let them go in for free if they’re that arsed. Does that mean half the ground will be empty at Wembley for the Semi Finals? :D

Presumably the FA just won't give them any tickets to sell, and will sell them themselves.

Not that they're in the semi yet.

[Waffdon]

They've said 'Abramovich won't receive a penny from the sale'. There is no rowing back from that statement.

He made out it was all going to the Ukrainians anyway. Could have been a lot of shite, mind.

[Jimmy Floyd]

The most lol thing I've seen thus far is that we aren't allowed to spend more than £20,000 on away travel, which might mean they need to go to the Lille game in a booze cruise style convoy.

[Ben]

They've said 'Abramovich won't receive a penny from the sale'. There is no rowing back from that statement.

U-turns are a Tory specialty. Don't hold your breath.

[Jimmy Floyd]

He made out it was all going to the Ukrainians anyway. Could have been a lot of shite, mind.

He didn't. He said 'the victims of the conflict in Ukraine'. Big difference.

[Waffdon]

Presumably the FA just won't give them any tickets to sell, and will sell them themselves.

Not that they're in the semi yet.

But they’re due half the admission figures regardless if they even have fans there. Same with the Middlesbrough game.

[Luke Emia]

The most lol thing I've seen thus far is that we aren't allowed to spend more than £20,000 on away travel, which might mean they need to go to the Lille game in a booze cruise style convoy.

Yep. That would make you assume as well that there is no hotel travel the night before a game and would be coaches only to away games.

[Ben]

There'll be an obvious loophole there, the Government aren't that clever. It'll be paid for by players and reimbursed in bonuses or whatever.

[randomlegend]

There'll be an obvious loophole there, the Government aren't that clever. It'll be paid for by players and reimbursed in bonuses or whatever.

Given what Jimmy quoted, I imagine any attempts at loopholery which just be met with "Nah you're not doing that either".

[-james-]

The most lol thing I've seen thus far is that we aren't allowed to spend more than £20,000 on away travel, which might mean they need to go to the Lille game in a booze cruise style convoy.

Shame the club world cup has already been. I reckon Kante would've put a shift in and rowed you across in a couple of hours.

[niko_cee]

I don't really get all the lolworthy details [like that and all the ticket stuff].

Surely by seizing the thing off him he's no longer going to be benefiting financially from it. How does it even work, if the war stops tomorrow do the oligarchs get all their stuff back? Once it's seized, and no longer in his possession/control/whatever isn't that a done deal?

[Jimmy Floyd]

I think there's a general failure to understand that the Russian invasion means we're into a slightly different era now. I'm not sure all this 'oh the lizards will billionaire their way out of this' applies anymore, when it comes to Russia-related stuff. It's happened fast, but things do happen fast nowadays.

[Ben]

This is the same Government that allowed billions to be fraudulently taken from taxpayers with COVID business loans then wrote it off because they acknowledged they couldn't recover it, remember. Sanctioning a Russian suddenly hasn't made them competent.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's not even the same government it was two weeks ago, the world has changed.

[Baz]

Why are Man City fine? Their owners pay to bomb the fuck out of Yemen.

[-james-]

Why are Man City fine? Their owners pay to bomb the fuck out of Yemen.

I reckon Delia Smith and maybe the Thais at Leicester are the only owners with clean hands. Got to remember it's white people that the Russians have attacked here.

[Waffdon]

I don't really get all the lolworthy details [like that and all the ticket stuff].

Surely by seizing the thing off him he's no longer going to be benefiting financially from it. How does it even work, if the war stops tomorrow do the oligarchs get all their stuff back? Once it's seized, and no longer in his possession/control/whatever isn't that a done deal?

I just don’t understand how you can’t allow away fans in the league. It’s not like Chelsea get that money.

[Spikey M]

I'm just glad Waff is 100% not a Chelsea fan.

[Waffdon]

I’m just glad my Middlesbrough away tickets have already been posted

[Jimmy Floyd]

He seems to be a lot more representative of online Chelsea fans than me, reading around.

[Waffdon]

I’ll make sure to do Roman proud.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

:harold:

[Ben]

I’m just glad my Middlesbrough away tickets have already been posted

Why you so excited to come to smogland and get turned over?

[John Arne]

I just don’t understand how you can’t allow away fans in the league. It’s not like Chelsea get that money.

You don't think Chelsea get the money from selling tickets to their stadium to away fans?

[phonics]

1501890508876132353

[Lewis]

If they have to start shedding salaries United want Marina WhatsherMILF, the manager, any of their defenders...

[-james-]

I don't buy that Chelsea are done. Some yank will buy them.

[randomlegend]

I don't buy that Chelsea are done. Some yank will buy them.

So they're done, then.

[Luke Emia]

Yeah if they are bought by an American they will be run as a business. Which will make it more difficult for them to sustain success you would imagine as they don't have the 'legacy fans' etcetera. Plus you would imagine they will be a pretty toxic brand to sponsors whilst all this plays out.

[Ben]

They've definitely peaked if Roman doesn't have some kind of redemption arc.

[Jimmy Floyd]

We are now a lot bigger than we were 20 years ago, have a global fanbase, a big UK fanbase, massive networks within the game, and so on. We could go back to being the Ken Bates era top 10 comedy fest, but we wouldn't go any lower than that in the long run. Short run, if there was a shock treatment and the sale didn't happen for months, it's not impossible we could go down for a season.

[Waffdon]

You don't think Chelsea get the money from selling tickets to their stadium to away fans?

I’m on about Chelsea fans buying tickets for Newcastle or Brentford away. Why would they get money for that? Why if Abramovich is getting no money can they still not sell tickets if they’re still getting TV and prize money? What’s the difference?

I don’t know if the government think Chelsea’s a money laundering scheme for Russia or what. If it is, it’s not a very good one considering the club has never been run as a money making scheme. They hold about half of the highest losses ever made by a PL club

[Jimmy Floyd]

Money laundering isn't making profit. It's taking tainted money and hiding it in a clean organisation. Think Stringer Bell and his laughable print shop.

[Waffdon]

They’ll be sold to the American and the Swiss grandad on the cheap and turn into Arsenal. The only upside being all their decent players aside from Kante/Silva are all mid 20s at most.

[-james-]

So they're done, then.

United are the only ones who got cucked. Arsenal, Liverpool, Villa don't really have anything to complain about, do they?

A step down from oil money, sure, but you can laugh it off with but morals, mate.

[randomlegend]

United are the only ones who got cucked. Arsenal, Liverpool, Villa don't really have anything to complain about, do they?

A step down from oil money, sure, but you can laugh it off with but morals, mate.

Arsenal don't have anything to complain about :happycry:

[wullie]

Any time I see a decent player in the Championship, chances are they've been in the Chelsea youth setup. If they can't renew player contracts now it's going to be a second tier free for all next season

[-james-]

Arsenal don't have anything to complain about :happycry:

It's hard to deny they're on a steep upward trajectory. White, Saka, Ramsdale, Gabriel, Tierney, Odegaard, Tomiyasu, ESR, Martinelli, Lokonga, Tavares all yet to enter peak years.

They've turned a corner with their recruitment, don't you think? Third highest net spend since 2014 or so on top of a new stadium, and almost everyone they've signed in the past 3 or so seasons has been a hit.

Look at United. Who of this squad do you want to still be around in three or four years? Sancho, Elanga, erm.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's a far cry from the days of Dixon and Winterburn holding a tight offside line on their way to sporadic title glory.

[niko_cee]

Has there been a major lack of investment under any of the various Americans? Liverpool's first bunch were hucksters, but didn't stick around long enough to do serious damage [save nearly getting the club nationalised]. The current mob seem fine even if they have a fairly strict 'model' they seem to operate. United's may have coined it out of the club, but United have hardly been left behind in money terms, is their fans' objection that they aren't simply outspending everyone as they had become accustomed to or just that they've been run badly despite all the money? That feels like it can happen to anyone. Arsenal have fallen by the wayside, but isn't that just returning to long term average? They still seem to have been spending money whilst being rubbish.

[Jimmy Floyd]

US baseball is currently shut down / on strike because the owners are in a collective strop about being expected to spend money on their teams, that's where English football ends up if it gets fully yankified.

[Ben]

That means all the Big Four sports over there have had a lockout in the past decade. The MLS could well be next because they have collective bargaining agreements too, which might make football in general wake up a bit.

[niko_cee]

Chelsea's wage bill is £28m a week? [per Pat Nevin]

That seems steep.

[Ben]

Codswallop. Man Utd is £4m.

[niko_cee]

Yeah, I think something has gone awry there.

£28m a month covering every wage they pay to everyone? Still seems pretty wild unless Marina's on £10m a month, which wouldn't surprise me.

[Jimmy Floyd]

https://salarysport.com/football/premier-league/chelsea-f.c./

This has it at £3.4 million a week, and I doubt the tea lady's on quadruple that. Mason Mount slumming it on 76k a week while Saul rakes in over 200k, what a world.

[Waffdon]

How on earth has Lottie Cheek managed to swindle £150,000

[niko_cee]

Must have a good agent.

These things always seem a bit sketchy, but they don't half throw up some anomalous comparisons. Sancho raking in a cool quarter of a million every week. Good lord. Same for Grealish. City's wage bill seems a bit suspiciously low, do their wages follow the price of oil?

[Luke Emia]

City just pay players by shell companies don't they?

In terms of the Americans Liverpool's are ok but nothing more. People say about the investment when we bough VVD, Fabinho & Allisson but they never buy them if they don't get the stupid money for Coutinho and I remain convinced by that. What they have done well in the past few years is sell the shite for decent money. With that in mind it's good to see Eddie Howe at Newcastle with money on the hip.

[Lewis]

The Glazers' peak scummery was during the Sir Alex Ferguson years when it didn't really matter on the pitch, but since then they have more than backed the various managers. It's just that in doing so they have also been content to let Ed Woodward run the place like a dickhead. That is their real crime over the past decade, along with letting the ground fall to pieces.

[igor_balis]

This is the same Government that allowed billions to be fraudulently taken from taxpayers with COVID business loans then wrote it off because they acknowledged they couldn't recover it, remember. Sanctioning a Russian suddenly hasn't made them competent.

Lolz I was working in high street retail banking when they rolled the covid business loans out and even the most stupid and/or apathetic of my colleagues were like "err but..." when head office explained how they worked.

I remember someone having a business customer from Romania who'd had his business account for about 10 days request to withdraw all £50,000 from his account in physical cash, an amount way above the cut-off where we'd ask them to come back two days later by default so we had time to do due diligence even pre covid. We looked at his account, the 50k credit was the only transaction on the fucking account, and management still basically just shrugged their shoulders, told us to give them the money and "fill out the money laundering form". My man woulda been back in Bucharest for at least a fortnight before any cunt opened that email. Fair play.

[Don]

This is the best you're gonna get when you got soft shites shitting the bed over a runny nose and making policy men rush unprecedented shit through.

[John Arne]

I’m on about Chelsea fans buying tickets for Newcastle or Brentford away. Why would they get money for that? Why if Abramovich is getting no money can they still not sell tickets if they’re still getting TV and prize money? What’s the difference?

I don’t know if the government think Chelsea’s a money laundering scheme for Russia or what. If it is, it’s not a very good one considering the club has never been run as a money making scheme. They hold about half of the highest losses ever made by a PL club

Ah, I thought you meant away fans going to The Bridge. Either way, a quick Google suggests that a portion of a ticket price (usually a admin fee) is charged by clubs selling tickets to away games, too - so that may be the reason stopping Chelsea fans attending away games.

[Lofty]

The Glazers' peak scummery was during the Sir Alex Ferguson years when it didn't really matter on the pitch, but since then they have more than backed the various managers. It's just that in doing so they have also been content to let Ed Woodward run the place like a dickhead. That is their real crime over the past decade, along with letting the ground fall to pieces.

Remember when they went to sign Herrera but ended up talking to some randon guys who were nothing to do with it so had to delay the transfer for a window :D I would say apart from FSG, that is the biggest problem yank owners experience: incompetent underlings here, especially when it comes to continental business (also see Nicholas Pepe's move to Arsenal).

[Ian]

I think we all knew what was coming when Woodward spent a summer being told to fuck off by Fabregas and then when he finally worked out he wasn't just playing hard to get his plan B was Fellainimania.

Who is obviously a legend but quite a different player from Fabregas it must be said...

[Waffdon]

The Govt allowing another Saudi organisation to take over Chelsea would be hilarious

[Ben]

They buy lots of weapons off us innit.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've been reading around a lot the last couple of days and reflecting as to why my instincts on this are so far, far different from the majority of Chelsea fan opinion, at least online and I can only assume more widely.

My view is basically that we had this coming to us, and if you want to run with the blood money, and if you want to enjoy the fruits of the blood money, you have to know that at some point it's going to catch up with you. I don't see that as complicated at all, so I was really left scratching my head for a time as to why I wasn't seeing this view anywhere at a time when RA's mate is flattening Ukraine.

What I've decided is that it comes down to people and priorities, and for some reason, a very large proportion of contemporary football fans are in it for one thing which is to see their team win tomorrow. Not next week, not in two years - tomorrow. If you like, fans are like kind of anxious children, desperate for the shot of affirmation that a positive result will bring them. As such their relationship with their club has become incredibly juvenile: it's not something rooted in a community or collective belonging or anything like that, like we all try to believe it is. It is simply an extension of the fracturing and isolation of life in the 21st century. These fans have told themselves a story that Abramovich is a Great Thing, like it's a teddy bear they can cling to at night. When reality hits, they lash out, because it strikes at the heart of their deepest insecurities to know that because of this, Chelsea might not win tomorrow.

It's an incredibly similar process (in reverse) to how the same proportion of Newcastle fans have approached their Saudi ownership. They need to tell themselves a certain story, and the absurd justifications - mainly whatabouts, but also in many cases genuine twisting of the truth - are like a shield from reality, a necessary narrative that will protect them from the fear that they might have to stop lying to themselves. Newcastle fans will have their judgement day too, as will any fanbase that submits themselves to control by these sorts of people and tells themselves these bedtime stories. That applies to every filthy owner in history, whether it's Tapie, or blood-sucking American venture capital, or murderers, or those who want to go into a super league.

The part I don't get is how, in all these fans, there isn't even the basis of a social conscience that can even hope to compete with the main priority of your football team winning tomorrow. Is it because society's institutions have been broken down so much that football team affiliation is the only affiliation people have, to the point where it becomes life or death stuff?

If Saudis buy Chelsea, for example, I will be out on day one, because there is a specific reason why I couldn't look myself in the mirror even wanting them to win. That red line was not crossed with Russians, so I'm not painting myself to be some pious saint. But I know I have a particular line around particular issues. Do these other people not have a line? What if Putin himself took over? Would they sing his name too? Lots of them would.

Is it just because I have a steady job and a warm bed and other interests and so I don't need Chelsea to win tomorrow? I don't think so. I am as anxious and insecure as anyone I know. I just have some fucking perspective, and that seems to come at a very high price these days.

Sorry, I just had to write it all down somewhere.

[Lewis]

You've already seen them win everything. I would possibly give up on United if the Saudis bought them, but would happily see every Middle Eastern gay hoyed off a building for an England World Cup win.

[Ian]

I'm already well past the point of only really watching United out of something between a habit and a sense of obligation that only I'm holding myself to. It wouldn't take much at all to tip me over into not bothering at all I think.

[Kikó]

That's a brilliant post Jim especially regarding priorities and the break down from the community. I understand why United fans didn't walk away when the glazers took over in 2005 because they didn't want to sacrifice their love of the buzz for the owners (and in comparison the glazers are just unscrupulous rather than international criminals). I'm happy that the vast majority haven't become apologists for them unlike the city and Newcastle fans.

THE GROUP are all having a renaissance watching lower league football and it really is what football is supposed to be. Connection with a community and an affordable Saturday.

[Spikey M]

I'm all for lolling at Chelsea - and will continue to do so - but if Chelsea are sold at knife point to the fucking Saudi's then the whole sport may need consignment to the bin.

Allowing the Newcastle takeover made sense in a world where sport was apolitical. But in this new world - where it clearly fucking isn't - there can be no basis for allowing it. The Saudis are doing the exact same thing the Russians are, just to brown people. And their human rights record is possibly even worse.

That said; where do you find a squeaky clean Billionaire? Bring back fan ownership.

[Ben]

The Saudis executed 81 people yesterday.

[Kikó]

1502862164801032199?t=KhurwLUahrhkJkUliGEj4A&s=19

Strap yourself in for the replies.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Grown men and bedtime stories.

[Lewis]

It really does seem to be the case that the Saudis get worse coverage because they butchered that journalist.

[Disco]

You chop up one guy.

[Lewis]

It's just strange that their involvement was seen as some higher level of badness. The UAE are partners in their Yemen escapades, and City also have minority Chinese ownership; but they never killed a journalist (or at least not one who was mates with Western journalists), so 'Pep' gets invited to opine on Tuchel rather than explain whether he considers his own position to be similarly compromised.

[Disco]

That's just brown people paying browner people to kill other brown people whereas people are likely to click on/read about Russia.

[Spikey M]

It's just strange that their involvement was seen as some higher level of badness. The UAE are partners in their Yemen escapades, and City also have minority Chinese ownership; but they never killed a journalist (or at least not one who was mates with Western journalists), so 'Pep' gets invited to opine on Tuchel rather than explain whether he considers his own position to be similarly compromised.

I think "The Saudis" is used as a catch all term for all of the Middle Eastern oil states (who actually remembers Oman exists ffs?). It was easier when you could just call them Cheeky Arabs.

[phonics]

I think the fact that Saudi clearly being involved in 9/11 never gets talked about is weird.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've never worked that theory out, given that it absolutely collapsed the price of oil overnight.

[Lewis]

I think it's also that 1) Saudi Arabia is sufficiently involved with the Americans/West that people feel like they can attack them as an extension of that; and 2) there is a strain of deluded thinking that sees the House of Saud as some sort of perverting influence on the country and its population of otherwise moderate, non-mental Muslims, rather than the least terrible option for them and us.

[ScousePig]

I've been reading around a lot the last couple of days and reflecting as to why my instincts on this are so far, far different from the majority of Chelsea fan opinion, at least online and I can only assume more widely.

My view is basically that we had this coming to us, and if you want to run with the blood money, and if you want to enjoy the fruits of the blood money, you have to know that at some point it's going to catch up with you. I don't see that as complicated at all, so I was really left scratching my head for a time as to why I wasn't seeing this view anywhere at a time when RA's mate is flattening Ukraine.

What I've decided is that it comes down to people and priorities, and for some reason, a very large proportion of contemporary football fans are in it for one thing which is to see their team win tomorrow. Not next week, not in two years - tomorrow. If you like, fans are like kind of anxious children, desperate for the shot of affirmation that a positive result will bring them. As such their relationship with their club has become incredibly juvenile: it's not something rooted in a community or collective belonging or anything like that, like we all try to believe it is. It is simply an extension of the fracturing and isolation of life in the 21st century. These fans have told themselves a story that Abramovich is a Great Thing, like it's a teddy bear they can cling to at night. When reality hits, they lash out, because it strikes at the heart of their deepest insecurities to know that because of this, Chelsea might not win tomorrow.

It's an incredibly similar process (in reverse) to how the same proportion of Newcastle fans have approached their Saudi ownership. They need to tell themselves a certain story, and the absurd justifications - mainly whatabouts, but also in many cases genuine twisting of the truth - are like a shield from reality, a necessary narrative that will protect them from the fear that they might have to stop lying to themselves. Newcastle fans will have their judgement day too, as will any fanbase that submits themselves to control by these sorts of people and tells themselves these bedtime stories. That applies to every filthy owner in history, whether it's Tapie, or blood-sucking American venture capital, or murderers, or those who want to go into a super league.

The part I don't get is how, in all these fans, there isn't even the basis of a social conscience that can even hope to compete with the main priority of your football team winning tomorrow. Is it because society's institutions have been broken down so much that football team affiliation is the only affiliation people have, to the point where it becomes life or death stuff?

If Saudis buy Chelsea, for example, I will be out on day one, because there is a specific reason why I couldn't look myself in the mirror even wanting them to win. That red line was not crossed with Russians, so I'm not painting myself to be some pious saint. But I know I have a particular line around particular issues. Do these other people not have a line? What if Putin himself took over? Would they sing his name too? Lots of them would.

Is it just because I have a steady job and a warm bed and other interests and so I don't need Chelsea to win tomorrow? I don't think so. I am as anxious and insecure as anyone I know. I just have some fucking perspective, and that seems to come at a very high price these days.

Sorry, I just had to write it all down somewhere.

From a relatively neutral position (and almost certainly the biggest fans messageboard outside the Premier League) the second paragraph is very much in line with the views of Sunderland fans, and your third paragraph is something often discussed on our board with regards our current malaise versus expectations: in our case it's winning tomorrow versus building some sort of platform or foundation for the future.

A quick point about Luke Edwards and his ilk - the north east journalists have firmly embedded themselves with the Saudi ownership.

[Shindig]

"Well, y'knaw, it's good for the club. Gives the community a real lift. They've suffered for so long, etc ..."

I'd rather we had someone else in charge. All I can hope for is an ownership that operates the club well, well within sensible boundaries.

[Giggles]

I’m down to third tier here now for soccer to go and watch (which is the only point really). I’m not far enough removed from it not to be bothered with Shelbourne as a club yet, but I presume that’ll come with years of not going. Maybe it’s just time for giving up on it altogether outside the national team.

[Ben]

I've never worked that theory out, given that it absolutely collapsed the price of oil overnight.

If we ever needed another 9/11 it's now. >£100 to tank my car today. Outrageous.

[Spikey M]

If we ever needed another 9/11 it's now. >£100 to tank my car today. Outrageous.

I put £50 in yesterday and it was only just above half way. I nearly cried.

I filled it entirely for £60 about 2 months ago.

[Ben]

This rumoured oil glut later in the year better come to fruition because fuck paying these rates long-term. At least it's a global problem so at least the French will riot about it on our behalf.

[Waffdon]

£52 for the missus’ Fiat earlier today. What a car

[Giggles]

I still don’t pay for fuel. Until I find a time when we’re so fucked that they sack me - :cool:

[Ben]

Everyone at my work is buying electric cars because bizarrely (unless there's some tax break I don't know about?) the client have set up a load of charging points so nobody even has to use their home electric. My monthly fuel bill is getting somewhere near a monthly payment on a Tesla.

[Giggles]

Sucked in :drool:

[Lewis]

The commuting CUNT I hate at work reckons the job stops making financial sense at £1.20 a litre, so I like to keep going on and on about the price of petrol and gloat about planning to cycle in during the good weather.

'I might even get an electric scooter and charge it here!'

[Giggles]

What should be done is to stick to petrol and diesel and let every country grind to a halt when it runs out. An apt punishment for how governments have let other means be implemented.

[Offshore Toon]

If we ever needed another 9/11 it's now. >£100 to tank my car today. Outrageous.


I put £50 in yesterday and it was only just above half way. I nearly cried.

I filled it entirely for £60 about 2 months ago.

I'm getting a fuel card from work next week. Free petrol. :drool:

[Magic]

Taxable. :drool:

[Luca]

Spent $140 on fuel the other day. That’s about £85, or 537 potatoes for you Giggles.

Can someone plutonium pill Putin, please?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

£65 to half fill the 9 seater yesterday.

[Shindig]

Planning a run on some Ukrainians?

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

It would need to dip under 1.10 a litre to make it worthwhile.

Or I'd need Mellin to pull his finger out.

[Shindig]

You'd make that back at £350 a head.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I'd be worn down brutally in the negotiation phase after a mere smile.

[Giggles]

Spent $140 on fuel the other day. That’s about £85, or 537 potatoes for you Giggles.

Can someone plutonium pill Putin, please?

I’d make a similar joke if I knew what nationality you were pretending to be this week.

[Luca]

97 bottles of maple syrup or 63 prosciuttos. I’ve only got two nationalities.

[ScousePig]

I put £50 in yesterday and it was only just above half way. I nearly cried.

I filled it entirely for £60 about 2 months ago.

I put £55 in on Monday, £60 Wednesday and I need to put in another £50 tomorrow after work.

Nearly all for Sunderland. The shits.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

I’d make a similar joke if I knew what nationality you were pretending to be this week.

You're confusing him with Kiko.

[Luca]

We’re similarly attractive so I can see why.

[Giggles]

We’re similarly attractive so I can see why.

You wish munchkin. Kiko is the lords gift to the world.

[Kikó]

Thanks giggles. And this week I'm mostly Ukrainian.

[Jimmy Floyd]

This shit is what I'm talking about.

1502991695977320452

[Ben]

Barry, 65, took early retirement on a final salary pension, voted for Brexit, hates "woke" culture and paying taxes.

[Waffdon]

This shit is what I'm talking about.

1502991695977320452

You could have picked much worse to moan about. He’s not even moaning about the sanctions on Abramovich, it’s the fact fans can’t go and buy tickets for a match. Which is indeed stupid.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I don't think it's stupid at all, until the club is under new ownership or at least until a bid has been approved and the due process is underway.

Fans are all too willing to believe that football exists in some kind of vacuum which should be unaffected by the outside world. It doesn't.

[Spikey M]

It did until recently. Remember Poppy-gate? Halcyon days, they were.

[Pepe]

I remember that time Rambo and Pele got to play a match even in the middle of a WAR. We should go back to those days.

[Shindig]

They didn't win.

[Foe]

£2 a litre please. :yn:

[SincereTheRebel]

Drogba and they managed to stop a war for 90 minutes between the Muslim and Christian sides of the ivory coast. Get him involved.

[Lofty]

If Saudis buy Chelsea, for example, I will be out on day one, because there is a specific reason why I couldn't look myself in the mirror even wanting them to win.

Bad news, Jim.

[Shindig]

I thought some Americans were in the box seat?

[Lofty]

Something on social media saying Saudi Media Group have offered £2.7 Billion.

[Jimmy Floyd]

We'll have to see exactly who 'Saudi Media Group' are and whether their bid gets accpeted.

The good news is I live literally 50 yards from another ground, albeit they're in the 9th tier of English football so I might need to buy them to get things moving.

[Disco]

That's basically the propaganda wing of the Saudi government.

[Jimmy Floyd]

If it's anything to do with the folk beheading deviants, I'm done. Saudi members of the public might be different.

[Disco]

This programme has been provided by the King Fahd Glorious Printing Complex

Very much the beheaders I'm afraid.

[Shindig]

"Saudi Concrete and Ballpoint Pens Ltd." They're the ones to watch out for.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Hopefully whichever mysterious entity it is that decides which offer to accept will see the PR, erm, disbenefits of selling to the Saudis.

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

At least you've got rid of one monster.

[Lewis]

Look at him trying to wriggle out of what he said earlier like the duplicitous lowlife the new owners think he is.

[Giggles]

Was thinking the same, turned on a sixpence there.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I've now read into 'Saudi Media', if they buy it's RIP me.

[Pepe]

I look forward to the 'its liberating to watch football without following any club, just for the love of the sport' posts, followed by the inevitable 'they are not that bad after all.'

[Jimmy Floyd]

I don't know what I'd do, really. It's difficult to imagine ever not wanting Chelsea to win over another club, in the broadest sense, but I couldn't actively devote time and effort to following them if they had those people running it, kind of for the same reason I will not travel to certain countries while certain laws are in place - they clearly don't want me.

I found the Newcastle LGBT twitter thing, where they came out basically in staunch defence of MBS, utterly baffling.

[Kikó]

Just go and support Dulwich and forget the whole thing.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I honestly can't think of anything worse than supporting Dulwich. Can't even get there on the tube.

[Spikey M]

I honestly can't think of anything worse than supporting Dulwich. Can't even get there on the tube.

Southend.

[Luke Emia]

The thing that I always find strange from adults when it comes to talking about their clubs is that they can't differentiate between the owners and their clubs. Newcastle, Chelsea and City fans have all proved to be a bit mental in different ways. No one is saying they can't continue to support their clubs but being able to say executing 81 people in one day isn't how we would like the owners of our club to act shouldn't be that hard. But, the more common answer seems to be 'No it's just different cultures we shouldn't apply the same rules to them'. Mike Ashley is a cunt but lets face facts at least he's never cut up a journalist.

For me personally if someone like the Saudi's pitched up at Liverpool then it would be the point whereby no more of my money would go into the club at all and I would think long and hard about if I could even continue to support a club with that kind of regime as owners.

[Luke Emia]

Southend.

He's not an animal - Colchester.

[Kikó]

Yeah but the UK buy arms from Saudi and they own Disney mate.

[Kikó]

I honestly can't think of anything worse than supporting Dulwich. Can't even get there on the tube.

If Barnet hadn't been that much of an effort to get to, I'd probably have watched a few more games there. It's a great set-up.

[Manc]

The Super League must be within touching distance now.

[Clunge]

Went to Dulwich at the weekend. It’s perfectly set up for people not interested in actually watching football.

[mo]

Sutton are on the up, although apparently playing fairly standard League Two fare. Effectively at least.

[Pen]

Yeah but the UK buy arms from Saudi and they own Disney mate.

I didn’t know about them owning Disney. Feels like a missed opportunity to not redo some of the classics to make islam known in a more positive light. Snow White and the seven dwarves could probably be quite easily turned into Muhammed and the seven virgins and you could pick whether the evil step mum stuff is played from a shia/sunni or muslim/christian angle.

[niko_cee]

Chelsea want their cup game played behind closed doors for reasons of sporting integrity?

:happycry:

Just chuck them out of everything. Let the remnants of the club wash up where they will. Sporting integrity?

[Waffdon]

They’re great for how much you get rattled by them every single day :lol:

[Ben]

The FA hate us so there's a slim chance they'll back Chelsea on this. :facepalm:

[Jimmy Floyd]

Is there - wait for it - an agenda against Middlesbrough FC?

[niko_cee]

I did very much enjoy Carragher's off the deep end rant on sky last night, and the presenters awkward weaseling thereafter. Gary Neville also looked like he might be having a road to Damascus moment in terms of the 'regeneration' associated with odious ownership maybe not really being a good thing.

[Waffdon]

His rant about the youth academy was the weirdest thing every considering all the decent ones they’ve sold or helped win them the CL were there from about 6 years old.

Chelsea fans also not being able to go to a memorial where the tickets were free of charge is also weird behaviour

[Jimmy Floyd]

Carragher is one of those RAWK weirdos from the mid 2000s who think every time Chelsea win a game, five scouse children starve to death.

[Jimmy Floyd]

I have no idea what they are doing asking for the game to play behind closed doors, proper heads have gone idiocy, how to lose any sympathy that some neutrals may have.

That said, Steve Gibson's statement hardly rises above it, utterly pathetic all round.

[niko_cee]

The request is genuinely insane. I've no idea what they are thinking.

Local lad done good Steve Gibson probably a far better model of ownership than exists at most clubs, but without really knowing anything about it I'd wager he's not had his name sung by the fans all that often, if ever.

[Ben]

but without really knowing anything about it I'd wager he's not had his name sung by the fans all that often, if ever.

You couldn't be more wrong. Multiple times every game.

[niko_cee]

Well that's very refreshing.

[Lewis]

I did very much enjoy Carragher's off the deep end rant on sky last night, and the presenters awkward weaseling thereafter. Gary Neville also looked like he might be having a road to Damascus moment in terms of the 'regeneration' associated with odious ownership maybe not really being a good thing.

Gary Neville's pained face admitting 'I might be wrong' about football helping to reform Qatar and Saudi Arabia should be on his gravestone.

[randomlegend]

Chelsea fans moaning about how it's not fair that the sanctions affect them can suck a fat one to be honest.

They were more than happy to enjoy all the benefits of their oligarch's blood money. They can suffer some of the consequences now they finally come to roost.

[Jimmy Floyd]

A lot of them seem to have drunk so much of the Abramovich kool aid over the years that there's no coming back, but as well as that, I think there's a general thing with all football fans now whereby you defend the shirt to your last breath, a mindset I really can't comprehend.

Maybe it's because football club affiliation is the only thing that gives their lives meaning.

[Yevrah]

A lot of this stuff ties into what I was ham-fistedly trying to get across when the European Super League was proposed - it's already happened, the game has gone to hell in a handcart and it happened years ago.

Now the ESL may have been worse, but the stunning lack of awareness of how sporting integrity hasn't really existed in the game for a long time is probably a trick the devil would have been proud of.

[niko_cee]

Having to form a view on the relative morality of your club's owner is a bit of a 21st century phenomenon, so it's understandable that standard CLEARLY A PENALTY myopia drifts in.

That said, I do sort of understand the Chelsea whataboutery. Abramovich maybe a bad man, I don't know, he's certainly a shrewd operator and undoubtedly flirted with the bounds of legitimate behaviour to amass his fortune [as did everyone who benefited in the post-Soviet carve-up in all likelihood and it's hardly new information] - but there are other 'ownerships' [chiefly the Saudis] who are straight-up bad guys. Maybe the City mob too, I don't know. All the hand wringing because some lunatic has started a war seems a bit off to me in some ways when 81 executions in a day is completely OK.

Chelsea complaining about sporting integrity is a bit like that Russian statement after someone tore down their gates in Dublin though.

[Ben]

Well that's very refreshing.

We’ve got enthusiastic fans but about four songs so it’s out of necessity more than reverence usually.

[Ben]

Chelsea have backed down already. Quicker U-turn than the Tories.

[Waffdon]

EU have now sanctioned him and the reasons given are hilarious. I’m sure that’ll hold up in court.

[Kikó]

Didn't expect waffles to be a Roman fanboy.

[Spikey M]

Chav$ki rent boi innit

[Giggles]

Didn't expect waffles to be a Roman fanboy.

He’s an ‘absolutely anything to do with Chelsea’ fanboy.

[randomlegend]

Him calling someone a horrible chav the other day was beyond lol.

[Waffdon]

Do go on, darling.

[Lewis]

Having to form a view on the relative morality of your club's owner is a bit of a 21st century phenomenon, so it's understandable that standard CLEARLY A PENALTY myopia drifts in.

That said, I do sort of understand the Chelsea whataboutery. Abramovich maybe a bad man, I don't know, he's certainly a shrewd operator and undoubtedly flirted with the bounds of legitimate behaviour to amass his fortune [as did everyone who benefited in the post-Soviet carve-up in all likelihood and it's hardly new information] - but there are other 'ownerships' [chiefly the Saudis] who are straight-up bad guys. Maybe the City mob too, I don't know. All the hand wringing because some lunatic has started a war seems a bit off to me in some ways when 81 executions in a day is completely OK.

Chelsea complaining about sporting integrity is a bit like that Russian statement after someone tore down their gates in Dublin though.

I keep reading that SPORTSWASHING DOESN'T WORK, but all of the specific focus on Chelsea and Newcastle suggests that it does.

[niko_cee]

We’ve got enthusiastic fans but about four songs so it’s out of necessity more than reverence usually.

One of our songs, One of our songs, That Stevie Gibson, He's one of our songs.

[Jimmy Floyd]

Hope they still go back to 'One Job on Teeside' on occasion.

[Giggles]

CJay


1503790872848216076

[Spikey M]

https://i.ibb.co/CKJnkL1/CQbby-GWWs-AUCcy-J.jpg

[CJay]

CJay


1503790872848216076

:D

Surprised that's got as many likes as that - how many people appreciate where Finn Harps (a real no mark team outside of Ireland with no significant location identifier in their name) play relative to some other teams in Ireland?

[Jimmy Floyd]

I know the geography of Ireland, have heard of Finn Harps, and had no idea it was in Donegal. Would have guessed Galway or something.

That said, they're not exactly that bad. The ones that amaze me are the Canary Island teams going to mainland Spain every week, and anything in the Russian second tier.

[CJay]

I'd be interested to know who has it the worst in terms of long-distance travel in a national league, but not enough money for an overnight stay or a flight. Probably is some provincial outfit in Russia.

Harps will occasionally shell out for an overnight. Usually if it's a big match and they get some supporters club funding.

[Ben]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021%E2%80%9322_Russian_Football_National_League#S tadia_by_locations

Khabarovsk's closest away game is 3000km. They also have to go to Kaliningrad which is 7000km (16hr plane journey).

Absolutely mental.

[Manc]

An inspired kit choice.

[Lewis]

I had an immense FM save with Vladivostok once. Attracting players was a nightmare.

[Yevrah]

Russia's always been a decent staple of a journeyman game, presumably Miles will hit it with the banhammer for FM23.

[Waffdon]

1506674941244157959

All hail Roman :drool:

[Lewis]

Parading his Nobel Peace Prize on the pitch like the Golden Boot before the 2022/23 season opener.

[Ben]

It would be peak Tories if they forced a sale of Chelsea to some Saudi executioners then it transpires Roman saved us from WW3.

[Ben]

Well that ticket embargo lasted long.

[Waffdon]

Can sell tickets for away games and cup games but not allowed home fans in league games but away fans can go. All this whilst they’ve given permission for Abramovich’s holding company to release £30m in funds to keep them ticking over. What a shitshow

[Sir Andy Mahowry]

Should have let the cunts go under.

[Giggles]

Why are womens games allowed home fans and mens aren’t? Are they a separate company or something?

[Waffdon]

Nope, just standard make it up as you go along from the government.

[Ben]

The excuse will be the women's team can't sustain themselves without ticket revenue whereas the men's team wouldn't notice the difference because all that sweet TV money is still rolling in.

[Giggles]

Between that and the cash injection it’s all just for show then.

[Waffdon]

1506674941244157959

All hail Roman :drool:

1508176467150188545/

Why’s he been sanctioned again? :wub:

A leader amongst men

[Lewis]

He'll probably get poisoned now.

[Giggles]

Like a modern day Jesus.

[Spikey M]

1508176467150188545/

Why’s he been sanctioned again? :wub:

A leader amongst men

You're coming across like one of those weird teenagers that like Kpop.

[Waffdon]

Every. Single. Time.

Woo

[Manc]

Of all the hills to die on.

[Waffdon]

He'll probably get poisoned now.

According to Wall Street journal, he has been :lol:

[Waffdon]

1520025238511226880

Offfft

[Jimmy Floyd]

Non merci, he's a crook if ever I saw one.

[Ben]

They're all crooks at that level. You don't accumulate billions without trodding on people along the way.

[Kikó]

Top red Jim. Very disappointed.

[Waffdon]

With a Chelsea season ticket. Some boi

[Manc]

Will that involve Chelsea relocating to Monaco?

[niko_cee]

I've no idea about Nice, but all the British sporting organisations he buys into (Sky, Mercedes) seems to turn to shit in short order.

[Jimmy Floyd]

It's a failed bid, the Boehly one has won. Still seems overvalued to me.

[Ian]

A cursory Wiki-ing suggests he's not a total bastard so I assume I just need to dig deeper.

[Jimmy Floyd]

He has shit hair and teeth, so I want him out.

[phonics]

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is the one that's been removed by the Oscars/Globes because there's a bunch of rapists in it no?

[Shindig]

<Ken Bates' music hits>

Whatever that music is.

[Lewis]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgXOu0z9jy4

Unbelievably...

[Shindig]

Another win for the internet.

[randomlegend]

Apparently Roman has decided he wants his loan paid back.

[Spikey M]

:drool:

[Waffdon]

He can’t write it off because it’s frozen. It’s a load of scaremongering for extra clicks

[randomlegend]

It won’t stick.

If the government are getting to pick them a new owner then it’s clearly all been a set up to get their mate Cundy in charge since he was in the photos of the infamous Christmas parties.


He can’t write it off because it’s frozen. It’s a load of scaremongering for extra clicks

:harold:

[Lewis]

https://i.imgur.com/F4ifj6D.jpg

The moment the rot set in.

[Waffdon]

:harold:

I was scaremongering for clicks

[Alex]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgXOu0z9jy4

Unbelievably...

:D

As barren as the Bates years were at Leeds, they did have some comedy merit. You had to sort of admire what a cantankerous old bastard he was.

The apex being when he he got embroiled in a row with Chelsea (which he was clearly very keen for) after they tapped up a couple of our young players, and referred to their upper management as "shysters from Siberia", or something to that effect.

They then lodged an official complaint against him alleging offensive language, to which his response was (in an official club statement, might I add, this was on the website) that he hadn't laughed at anything as much "since Ma caught her tits in the mangle". :D

[Jimmy Floyd]

Ken Bates was a quality owner for us. Bought for £1, sold to Abramovich for hundreds of millions. Also had a few people killed, presided over some top-class noncing, and put up an electric fence along the way, for shits and giggles.

[Manc]

Giggles

[Giggles]

Who’s shits though?

[randomlegend]

https://www.chelseafc.com/en/news/2022/05/06/club-statement

[Ben]

The Beeb reckon the sale might be falling apart and that evergreen anonymous Whitehall source is pinning it all on Roman obviously.

[Clunge]

Shouldn't this thread be renamed Let's All Lol at Chelsea and Arsenal?

[randomlegend]

https://www.premierleague.com/news/2634055

[Waffdon]

The boys are back in town. Kounde, Gvardiol, Neymar, Rice and the mighty Ivan Perisic all to come in like a good old FM save.

[randomlegend]

Anyone who spends what West Ham want for Rice has brain damage,

[Yevrah]

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is the one that's been removed by the Oscars/Globes because there's a bunch of rapists in it no?

Maybe. All I heard was it was full of old white Men, which is a bit of a problem if you go anywhere diversity at your awards ceremony.