Naitch

10 hours ago, King Ellis said:

It's crazy because, whilst not discounting the success of people like Real Madrid or Liverpool who have countless European trophies, they have been won over the space of several decades. Like 70 years in Real's case. But Sevilla have won this competition 7 times in less than 20 years.

Further to this, Frankfurt winning last year's competition are the only non-Spanish or English team to win the Europa League in 13 years. Mind you, the Champions League would be similar if not for Bayern Munich.

14 hours ago, stokeriño said:

Zakaria departing makes sense. Didn't play much and you'd assume there were reasons.

RLC clearly reached his ceiling over the past few seasons - a utility man, no more. Get a little cash for him and be done with it.

Manuel Ugarte of Sporting is apparently Poch's choice as a defensive midfield acquisition, according to Fabrizio a couple of days back. 

I'm fine with all of the likely departures so far. RLC is the only one I'd consider keeping, precisely because he's capable of covering most of the pitch, but cashing in and reducing the squad size as much as possible has to be the priority right now.

Stamford Bridge flash sale - everyone (except James, Chilwell, Enzo) must go!

South security was super lax, you could've gotten literally anything in without any issues whatsoever. That's obviously good for certain people who want to have a good time without spending festival prices, but comes with major safety risks as well.

Pedestrian entry/exit was probably the best I've ever experienced but I heard that the car park was a nightmare in and out, with some people taking ~3 hours to leave. My group drove from our hotel for the NOFX gig last night and the route just isn't fit for heavy festival traffic, so I'm hardly surprised.

No idea if there were any water point issues but the one next to the stage they kept up for NOFX (whatever the one Enter Shikari headlined on was called) was totally fine yesterday.

Apparently Gianluca Vialli was the last permanent Premier League player-manager. Who was the last interim one? Giggs? It would've been Lallana at Brighton earlier this season if the Queen hadn't pegged it.

That's the twist, the sponsorship logo on each shirt will be infused with hydrochloric acid.

Game over for Tottenham attacker as announcement confirms first major summer exit (msn.com)

11 hours ago, DavidMarrio said:

Happy that it's Luton/Coventry in the final. Will be massive for either side getting promoted and least with either of them it's someone who's not been in the top flight for some time. 

I remember one of the first Liverpool games I went to as a kid was against Coventry when they had Gary Macca playing for them 

Agreed. I don't remember Coventry's last PL tenure so it will feel like a fresh team in the league to me regardless now.

40 minutes ago, Gazz said:

The entrance to Luton's Executive Suites

And if you turn right to find the away fans entrance... is the ground even capable of hosting Premier League football? Wouldn't be surprised if they end up playing in Milton Keynes for the season, if they win the playoff final.

I'm not sure how many options the US have up front but I imagine he'll be a better option than Josh Sargent.

I love that one of the Irish jury members' sole justification for having the role was that he's done it once before.

And that's the bottom line because @METALMAN said so!

Looks like something Harry Maguire would be wearing the next time he punches a police officer.

41 minutes ago, Colly said:

What's the source for the map?

This was the specific one I saw, from Manchester Evening News: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/manchester-derby-map-men-survey-687267

Looks like that one's over a decade old but they did a more recent one in 2018: https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/derby-day-map-shows-parts-15407574

38 minutes ago, DavidMarrio said:

A lot of families are split red/blue. I think a lot of rivalry is more to do with the chance to wind the other one up. 

Is their much of a geographical split between Liverpool and Everton? I saw an interesting map recently that showed how Manchester is roughly split east Man City and west Man Utd, with a few more pockets of blue on the outskirts (and the bulk of Utd's fans down south ).

It's kind of hard to gauge how location affects club support when there's only one major club within an hours drive in any direction. There are some interesting Norwich/Ipswich splits in towns along the Norfolk-Suffolk border though!

We legit could've fielded this team as recently as last year:

Baxter

(Dujon) Sterling | Clarke-Salter | Miazga | Rahman

Bakayako

Hudson-Odoi | Barkley | Drinkwater | Kenedy

Batshuayi

Bolded players are still under contract...

43 minutes ago, FLiam said:

Yeah, Chelsea are going to have a lot of trouble offloading players this summer. Too many are on huge salaries and teams won’t want to pay a big fee plus salary. Wouldn’t surprise me if they ended up having to pay players to leave like we did a few years ago.

And, by following a similar trajectory, we too can finish 2nd to Man City in a couple of seasons' time.

@stokeriño Maybe I just want to see Neymar playing in the Championship for the 24/25 season 

I'd actually be interested in Neymar at Chelsea if we can get rid of like 4 other attacking players first, ideally including Sterling, but neither of those are likely to happen. It can't be any more chaotic and abysmal than things are right now.

1 hour ago, lanky316 said:

Some of them appear to already be on their holidays.

The same thing happened last year. It's a Chelsea Thing™.

Does the proposal itself not demonstrate that the restriction is arbitrary?

What year was the Create-a-Club feature introduced?

Just worked out that Chelsea scored more league goals in March (6) than they did in November, January, February, and April combined (5). That second group only rises to seven if you add December too...

Meanwhile, Man City are currently on 15 league goals in April (averaging 3.75 goals per game) with one still to play before the month ends.

I think that was the case after his Everton tenure too, to be honest. While it's difficult to understand his starting lineup selections at Chelsea, especially now that there's literally nothing to play for except pride, the players are as much to blame as Tuchel/Potter/Lampard.

Let's not forget that Tuchel questioned the ability of his squad before the season even started, and while there have been lots of additions since then, none of them have exactly been a positive impact aside from Fernandez and possibly Badiashile.

Apparently Reece James and Mason Mount are out for the rest of the season? I don't think that's a bad thing, given that Chelsea don't have anything left to play for at this point. Let them rest up and give some younger players the minutes. I want to see Datro Fofana, Chukwuemeka, Hutchinson, and Hall getting some first-team experience.

I'm also hopeful not to see Aubameyeng, Felix, Zakaria or Ziyech put on a blue shirt again.

I totally forgot about that one. Looking it up also led me to discover Wikipedia pages for the following:

Belgian Big Three (Brugge, Anderlecht, Standard Liege)

Costa Rican Big Three (Saprissa, Alajuelence, Herediano)

Greek Big Three (AEK, Olympiacos, Panathanaikos)

Dutch Big Three (Ajax, Feyenoord, PSV)

Peruvian Big Three (Alianza Lima, Sporting Cristal, Universitario)

Swedish Big Three (AIK, Goteborg, Malmo)

Turkish Big Three (Besiktas, Fenerbache, Galatasaray)

Mexican Big Four (Club America, Cruz Azul, Guadalajara, Pumas)

Argentine Big Five (River Plate, Boca Juniors, Independiente, Racing Club, San Lorenzo)

Brazilian Big Twelve (Atlético Mineiro, Botafogo, Corinthians, Cruzeiro, Flamengo, Fluminense, Grêmio, Internacional, Palmeiras, Santos, São Paulo, Vasco da Gama)