midds

The little arsehole today couldn't even stay consistent for a single half of football. The bar for a foul was just being waved up and down at precisely his own discretion throughout the match. One minute he was letting it flow and waving players to their feet and 3 minutes later giving fouls for players collapsing as soon as they were touched. Makes for an incredibly frustrating watch, it breaks the play up, lots of restarts and was exactly the type of referee you want if you're looking to grind a point out. We were undoubtedly poor today and didn't deserve to win but thought the ref was giving them the exact performance Leeds were dying to have. He's not the reason we didn't win but the way he went about things didn't help

Feels like a bit of return to Rafa's short blanket atm. We've got 2 points and 2 clean sheets away from home, look solid and largely untroubled at the back but haven't caused enough damage at the other end either. An injection of quality in the final third could come in handy very soon... We also took 18/18 out of the bottom 6 last year so dropping points to the shite so early is also a bit annoying but there are reasons why, we'll click soon and fly up the league

Would 2 be enough for a 55ish game season though? Even off the bench he'd get lots of minutes coming on to keep the main 2 guys fresh

Ah right, gotcha I'm essentially ruling him out of the equation tbh. Not getting shot of him doesn't mean we can't bring anyone else in imo. We know he's moving on soon enough and the books will eventually balance before the end of June. Continue to buy players, rule the snake out and move him on when the number is good enough - that's my position

I was talking specifically about the chants in the ground about him being a cunt. No idea what the 'boat' shit even is, I'll watch the clips

Totally agree, he's a toxic piece of shit who's gone out of his way to cause as much disruption and shit for this club as he can. If fans want to give him shit and call him a cunt during games then all power to them, he's hurting the club they/we all support and don't think the chants have any impact on his eventual price, the number is the number and if it's not met then he gets parked until January. PIF won't budge because a few hundred fans slag the cunt off ffs

They needed the points on the board and they've probably got what they needed to give them a chance from the very gentle fixtures. 4 points would have been poor but 6 is about right for what they're targeting

He's ony going to improve if he actually gets significant minutes on the pitch. There's something there but we're in a catch 22 with him atm - he's not doing enough in games but because of that Howe doesn't trust him to bring him on very often which means he doesn't really improve which means he's not developing which means he's not doing enough in games and round and round we go. A loan would be ideal but we just don't have the numbers to allow him to go as we're short as fuck up top. It's a puzzle and I'm not sure what the solution is in all honesty

Not going to pile in on him today, he's tried something different and it plainly hasn't worked unfortunately. We didn't cause enough problems for them and couldn't open them up but it wasn't for the lack of effort. Only slight criticism from me is not changing it sooner once it was apparent that they could handle us. We looked in control for most of the game but couldn't create or finish a decent chance. It does feel like 2 points dropped but the context of the tough fixtures, rejections, red cards, injuries and the Isak situation it's been a fucking horrible few months. Get 2 more in, regroup, close the window and pick it up again after the Internationals

He's just using the squad and getting players into the season, I don't hate it at all. It's going to be a long season and got no problem with him managing minutes in August. Plus Elanga off the bench could be pua leeful tbh

Steady on. It's not like they're trying to shoehorn 'Buffalo Soldier' into a chant for the latest arrival or anything...

The 2 big lads up top

They just strike me as a club that is more interested in making money on each deal they pull off rather than getting 3 points each weekend. Making a book profit on a 21 year old player by farming him out on loan for 2 seasons for fees, absorbing the drop in amortisation into the accounts and flipping him for a £8.4m profit 3 years later (or whatever) is way more important than how that player develops as a footballer and his career. They're just pieces of valuable meat and treated like cattle. It's as equally vile as it is profitable

Honestly not sure Chelsea are even in the business of building a football team anymore. Seems like it's all about buying and selling, stockpiling assets, moving money and players around in order to make as much money as possible, they're a hedge fund just investing and trading in human beings and the cash made/lost is the overriding priority. The football is just the thing that the assets happen to do in the background, weird and very peculiar way of running a football club Then again they've just won the Club World Cup so who the fuck am I to criticise the way they operate

Whenever this second bid comes in, whenever it happens, it needs to be rejected immediately. If they've tapped him up, encouraged him to go on strike etc all summer they're not walking away after only 2 bids, they'll be desperate to get him and we need to get every single penny out of them for him. Don't give a fucking inch. Rinse them out

Sincerely hope that Krafth goes through him like a combine-harvester while they're on International duty next week

Loan Frattesi this season and just pay for him out of the prize money after we've won the CL. Simple

We get Woltemade & Wissa and this cunt could be launched into the sun for all I care. Couldn't give a tenth of a fuck what happens to him

I've got us on about 15 points (4W, 3D, 1L) - probably a bit optimistic but it would put us through in the top dozen and a decent chance of making the last 16. Homes are nice, Barca being the huge one, aways are tricky but not impossible - Paris and Marseille will be really tricky but the other 2 are nice trips. It's what being a football fan is all about, looking forward to watching it all

Assuming the Woltemade deal goes through then we're just 1 thing away from it being a 9/10 window imo. Either Isak stays and performs (under duress obviously but I couldn't give a fuck about that) OR Wissa comes in and we're fucking set. The striker situation was the make or break hole to fill and credit to them they've eventually pulled it off with Woltemade and one of the other things falling into place. Cautiously optimistic now, it was always going to define the window as a whole

Did he 'want Newcastle' or 'only want Newcastle'? It's important

Know absolutely nothing about him but if he's half as good as the reaction on here suggests then he'll be amazing

What did you make of his interview after the game last night? Some really strange comments to make imo

Some would say he already has...

Can't blame Wolves for not selling like, it's a ridiculous time to buy/sell a big striker. Whatever has or hasn't happened for every move to collapse at the end of the day we don't have a striker and unless that's sorted, by hook or by crook, then it'll impact the entirety of the season. That's not acceptable in any way shape or form. This is why people were so frustrated and angry 4 or 5 weeks ago - not doing business on major areas of the squad early enough meant we'd be in this situation, it's not bad luck, it's poor from the transfer team. I'll give them credit for the players they have signed but it'll not count for much unless they get a striker in soon