I’m sure Gio’s parents are working on that as we speak.
Post Transfer Deadline Thread EPL
- Thread starter Allan McMurray
- Start date
I’m sure they can find dirt somewhere and ruin more friendships along the way.
Nor should they.
If my parents operated that way I’d be MORTIFIED. Probably to the point where we’d need a lengthy break.
Frank is my guy. Exciting to have him back. But probably best that it’s just til the end of the season though.
Now let’s go out and win the Champions League!!!
If you were going to fire Harry Potter just to bring in Lampard you may as well have brought in Ron Weasley instead.
Nah. It’s the perfect move. He’s a club legend coming in to finish the year and these clueless owners can take their time and hire the right coach.
Well they aren't going anywhere anyway, so hiring a bad coach for a short time isn't going to hurt anything.
So here is the lowdown:
Lampard is here to buy some time and get us to the end of the season. Is he a candidate long term? No. I don’t see that or hear that at all. Now, win the Champions League and all bets are off. Lol. Gus Hiddink came out and said Chelsea should let Frank take over the build. As much as I love Frank, and he’s a big reason why I became a Chelsea fan, I don’t think he’s a good manager yet. He’s a good leader and a good representative for the club, but not ready to be Manager.
The list of candidates is supposed to be 7 deep right now. Julian Nagelsmann, Luis Enrique and Mauricio Pochettino are 3, and I know they’ve reached out Jose Mourinho too. As much as I love Jose for being a Chelsea legend and as an entertainer, I’m not sure if the game has passed him by. US national team, I’d take him in a second. But at Chelsea I’d be worried. I don’t know what @mike412 thinks, but personally I like Enrique from that list.
The one to keep an eye on is Carlo Ancelotti. He won the double for Chelsea a decade ago and then got fired by Abromovich the next year for being in 2nd place. The new owners are thought to be interested in seeing how Madrid’s season ends up. Carlo could be on the outs. And one thing about Carlo that the Penguins should have learned from (@recruitsreadtheseboards), Carlo believes that no matter how good you are and how much success you’ve had, your shelf life as a manager should not be longer than 6 years at one place because your message and ways of doing things gets stale (ahem Mike Sullivan).
So whether Madrid keep him or not, I think he might be an option in May.
They are also talking with some manager out of Brazil. So I think that’s 7 guys mentioned in this post, if you include Lampard who I don’t think is a legit candidate.
I’ll be watching tomorrow at 10 AM when Super Frankie Lampard is on the touch line. Maybe he starts Pulisic. Pulisic was best under him a few years back.
I really want Pulisic to get more time. I mean he’s still young but when you are a field player time is never on your side. Make the best with the short window of time especially for a guy who is always injured.
I like Luis Enrique, but I think his big fault is inflexibility and holding grudges. Iago Aspas has been the top Spanish citizen goal scorer in La Liga for the last decade. An argument could be made that he has single-handedly kept Celta Vigo in the top division during that time. He not only scores goals; he scores important goals.
Yet, he never got a call-up to the national team when Enrique was manager because of some dispute they had when Enrique was at Barca. Considering the difficulties Spain has had finding scoring from their forwards, that was inexcusable.
He did win a treble his first season at Barca, but he also had Messi, Neymar and Suarez up front and Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets all in their prime in midfield. And no serious injuries. He changed the style and they became a little more vertical, but on that team I’m not sure it mattered.
Everything I have read is that the RM players love Ancelotti. Whether he will just leave on his own, I have no idea, but I don’t see him getting fired. If he had an older squad I could see him leaving because he is bored, but with Vinicius, Valverde, Rodrigo, Camavinga, Tchoumeni, et al, he has some really good young talent to mould.
Yet, he never got a call-up to the national team when Enrique was manager because of some dispute they had when Enrique was at Barca. Considering the difficulties Spain has had finding scoring from their forwards, that was inexcusable.
He did win a treble his first season at Barca, but he also had Messi, Neymar and Suarez up front and Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets all in their prime in midfield. And no serious injuries. He changed the style and they became a little more vertical, but on that team I’m not sure it mattered.
Everything I have read is that the RM players love Ancelotti. Whether he will just leave on his own, I have no idea, but I don’t see him getting fired. If he had an older squad I could see him leaving because he is bored, but with Vinicius, Valverde, Rodrigo, Camavinga, Tchoumeni, et al, he has some really good young talent to mould.
Last edited:
@Fk_Pitt
What on earth must you be feeling? Rodney was touching a little bit about it on the Grumps this morning, buying every player possible and having nothing to show.
Could they begin to have issues FFP? No Euro revenue next season, possibly will have a tough time selling players they bought high on and top lads not wanting to come in because no Champion League next season.
They really need to hit a homerun with a manager.
While I personally don't mind seeing this happen to Chelsea, I do feel for you because I know how passionate you are about them.
What on earth must you be feeling? Rodney was touching a little bit about it on the Grumps this morning, buying every player possible and having nothing to show.
Could they begin to have issues FFP? No Euro revenue next season, possibly will have a tough time selling players they bought high on and top lads not wanting to come in because no Champion League next season.
They really need to hit a homerun with a manager.
While I personally don't mind seeing this happen to Chelsea, I do feel for you because I know how passionate you are about them.
Honestly? I’m ok. It’s not like I’m a long suffering fan of a club that doesn’t win or doesn’t have a chance because of the money in the game. And we were world champs a year ago and I got to exeperience all that with my 82 year old father and those are memories I’ll always have.
I didn’t listen to the Grumps this AM but I did listen to Charlie and Tony Meola and I still enjoyed the discussion. And the discussion points really should be obvious, and that’s money doesn’t always buy success.
I dont know who the football people are there making decisions. But Todd Boehly needs help. He let go of Marina and Petr Cech (and Tuchel), so who are the football decision makers? I didn’t like the release of those decision makers and the summer signings I didn’t like either. I’m some American dolt and those things were obvious to me. Cucurella, Aubameyang, sterling were bad, and even the ones they missed on were nothing to be excited about.
They spent 650 million after winning a world title and will finish in the bottom half of the league a year later. That’s nuts. I think it’s good for sports to see such an epic fail.
I’m looking forward to the summer because they have over 30 players, enough for two squads, and many of them will have to be sold. And there are still some holes to fill.
Let’s see if Pochettino can pull it all together. It’s a shame though because if they could have waited a little longer, they could have maybe brought Carlo Ancelotti back. Maybe…
As far as FFP, does anyone really understand it? And if they aren’t playing in Europe, which they aren’t, I’m not sure it even comes into play? I’m not sure. But they have a lot of players to sell…so that should help balance the books.
Koulibaly, Kovacic, Chalobah, Aubamayang,and Ziyech are probably gone for starters. Pulisic, Mount and Gallagher could be gone as well. And I’d look to see what Havertz brings on the open market but haven’t heard anything about him.
I think you are looking at them from a logical, knowledgeable fan point of view, and nothing that Boehly has done says he has any basic understanding of soccer. I mean there are a few of us on this board that know a hell of a lot more about the game and none of us would be dumb enough to try to run a team on our own. As far as I can tell, he doesn’t have anyone who understands the sport and the business side of it. He just throws money around at players without any concept of how they fit the system.
Speaking of the system, he also had fired too many managers for the team to have a system. He has acquired some players presumably recommended by managers to fit their system and then those managers have been fired. So there is no system. Just a lot of square pegs and round holes.
With all the Arab money backing City, they would be just as bad if they didn’t have Txiki and Pep running the team. Yes, they spend, but they also make money. They got 55 Million Euros from Barcelona for Ferran Torres, who has had about as much impact as I have had on Barca’s season. Pep understands that the game runs through the midfield and look at the midfield he has put together. He also understands when it’s time to cut players loose. David Silva was a great player, one of my all time favorites. He can still play the game and is doing okay at Real Sociedad, but Pep understood he needed to be replaced at City. I guarantee you none of their current midfield will grow old still playing for City.
If Boehly hires a duo like that, parks his ego in LA and stays out of their way, Chelsea will be fine. Right now, it is a walking clown show.
Alemány, who I personally think is the glue that has held.Barca together despite the fact that it’s last two Presidents have been a crook and a clown, is leaving in June. I’m terrified of what will happen after that. The fact is that right now Xavi is too attached to some of his former teammates to get Barca moving quickly in the right direction. They resigned Sergio Roberto for another year. They probably are going to resign Alba and Busquets. All three of them need to be gone. They have a real problem with their physio team. All teams get injuries; they get too many for it not to be partially the result of conditioning problems. Pedri gets an injury in January which originally was going to keep him out for 3 weeks, it kept him out for 3 months. Dembele was out more than twice as long as predicted. DeJong also missed more than twice the time typical with his injury. When it happens over and over again, it’s a problem. Xavi is too close to those people and doesn’t see it.
I guess what it comes down to right now is the morality of the English to force Roman to sell. Not sure this all would be happening if he was still in ownership.
For FFP, I think it's a balance of spending and bringing in revenues. Not getting to a certain point of being in the red that you'll never be able to ever dig out. I believe that is what Everton quite possibly could be fighting soon. It seems like Champions League helps alot of teams comply. Again I could be so far off on this. It's not a salary cap
The big question is will Chelsea reasonably be able to sell off some of these players on high wages and brought in for big transfer fee's. What kind of return will they get on them and more importantly what kind of players will be attracted to West London in a non-Champions League year.
Boehly is a disaster of an owner. I think his thought was he could just step right in and pick up with Roman was doing. Well getting rid of Marina, Peter Cech and I'm sure others isn't a great start.
Mike described it quite well, just tossing money around. It's almost like he's playing the Manager mode of Fifa 23 with a cheat code of unlimited transfer fee's and wage fee's.
I think, I'm sure you do as well, Puli needs to pop smoke immediately. He's never getting a fair shake there and really hasn't. Maybe a lil Eddie Howe action in Newcastle? I still think the Bundesliga would be a hit for him. Still highest level, just not on Schalke or Hertha.
On a different note, how insufferable would it be Haaland were with Man United?
What sticks in my crawl is the whole Roman thing. Mike laid out reasons why Roman was a scumbag, but other people will lay out the reason he is a huge philanthropist who does a lot of good in the world. Life is full of nuances. That’s the way of the world. It was politicians who decided Roman couldn’t own Chelsea anymore. And then recently I read an article about a Russian (can’t remember if it was an oligarch or not) who wasn’t sanctioned by the US, while others with the same profile as him were sanctioned. The difference with the Russian who escaped sanctions? He had connections with Joe and Hunter Biden. That infuriated me. I’m not trying to take this thread into a political discussion, as it could have been connections to Donald and Jared Kushner and I’d be saying the same thing…I don’t like politicians sticking their noses into stuff when they are mostly scum of the earth too. If Roman was in bed with the right people, he’d still own Chelsea.
Yeah I don’t know what to think about that. Lol. Everton was just bad. We are seeing now how bad Leeds is. It wasn’t Jesse’s fault.
Who you know. That says it all.
Politicians are bottom feeders. NTAC's who suck of the taxpayer tit then get rich with all their connections. What politician ever comes out breaking even in finances? None.
Regardless of that little rant, It'll be very interesting to see what happens in the summer with Chelsea. What will the summer tour look like.
Shiny toys aren't always the best. How wild is it though that mathematically, they're not safe from relegation with 5 matches left. Now in now way am I suggesting they're in trouble, but 5 games left and still not "safe" is wild.
Jesse got the shaft much like Bob Bradley did at Swansea. Never given the proper support and always had plenty of people rooting for their failure. Why, 1 reason and 1 reason only, they're Yanks.
@Allan McMurray
As far as Haaland, yeah, I’d hate him if he were at United. As far as City, it just doesn’t bother me. I’m not sure why.
I just have a buddy who is a huge City fan and he can be obnoxious at times. And he’s the kind of guy who is has always been infatuated with young players before most people don’t know who they are. He does it so much, and most of these young players don’t amount to much, so I just laugh off everything he says. Well, when he told me Haaland was going to be the best goal scorer in the world one day the time he scored 8 goals in a youth game, I scoffed at it. And now like 5-6 years later Haaland is scoring 50-60 goals for Man City of all teams. I like Haaland. I think he’s a neat personality, but my friend makes me want to hate him.
As far as Haaland, yeah, I’d hate him if he were at United. As far as City, it just doesn’t bother me. I’m not sure why.
I just have a buddy who is a huge City fan and he can be obnoxious at times. And he’s the kind of guy who is has always been infatuated with young players before most people don’t know who they are. He does it so much, and most of these young players don’t amount to much, so I just laugh off everything he says. Well, when he told me Haaland was going to be the best goal scorer in the world one day the time he scored 8 goals in a youth game, I scoffed at it. And now like 5-6 years later Haaland is scoring 50-60 goals for Man City of all teams. I like Haaland. I think he’s a neat personality, but my friend makes me want to hate him.
Was reading something the other day that said that Leeds under Marsch was underperforming their underlying numbers and since his firing they have been not only performing worse on the field but their underlying numbers have gone into the crapper.
That's a bad combination. And gets you big Sam.
Big Sam the Cat. I think West Brom was the first team he wasn't able to rescue from relegation. He has an impressive resume with keeping teams up.
Well it’s karma because like 5 games into the season I was one of the ones wondering if United would be in a relegation fight.
I don’t know if you listen to the football show on XM. As I said above, I listened to Charlie silitano and Tony Meola today. Usually it’s Neil Barnett (Chelsea media guy) who hosts the show with Charlie. But today it was Tony. They said Neil did all the math and figured it out and said that it was mathematically impossible for Chelsea to be relegated because of who plays who in remaining matches. Teams that would have to pass Chelsea are playing other teams who would also have to pass Chelsea and it just doesn’t add up. So I’ll take Neil’s word for it and sleep comfortably. Lol. But, Chelsea’s last 3 matches are against City, United and New Castle. They could conceivably finish like 16 or 17.
The only thing is Leeds has been without Tyler Adams under this manager. That makes a difference. Just to show you how disconnected I’ve been because my team has been so bad…I don’t even know what happened to Adams and what his prognosis is.
Don't read ESPN then, because they had a writer go through the remaining matches and come up with a scenario that gets Chelsea relegated.
Having said that, it was based on some results that would be really far fetched. For example Leeds playing City to a draw this weekend.
I don’t read ESPN’s soccer stuff at all. It’s the worst. Mathematically they could be right though. But again, Neil is dialed in more than anyone there.
Could you imagine spending 600 million on a team that a few months earlier won a club World Cup, and then see them relegated?
That would make the neighbors just down the street over the moon, finishing 16, 17 or so. I don't think Fulham has ever finished above Chelsea in the top flight.
That's alot of figuring out by Neil, but that's what he gets paid for.
Terrible luck down the stretch with Timbo breaking his arm and Pereira breaking his ankle in the Man City match. Thankfully it was now and not in November. Fulham have been tremendous this season. Gave City their best game in awhile last weekend and played decent enough yesterday in Anfield.
Imagine being Everton, spending over 500 billion pounds since 2016 and in 2 consecutive relegation battles. I don't think they win that battle this year.
Decent chance Hoffenheim goes down. Also their big money benefactor has indicated that they're going to comply with 50 plus 1 so the days of them living beyond their means are likely over. They are coached by an American though.
Sevilla would be OK, provided they make win the Europa this year.
