The College Dropout

Yeh. Chelsea go into Europa. Man U to Conference.

No they would swap with Chelsea.

You're right - Chelsea could/should persist with 4 of these + 1 injury prone player. But they won't.

I haven’t rated Dubs for a long time. Pope was always going to be a significant upgrade. It will be difficult to replace Pope. A definitively better GK than Pope will be one of the best 5 GKs in the league. see Vicario. Got a lot of praise earlier but always looked flappy to me. By the end of the season he was targeted at set pieces. Weak as piss. He may develop into a top goalkeeper but he’s not better than Pope now.

They had a poor season and finished above us.

For the club Europe is a net positive - no doubt. Revenue and coefficients and a squad and management used to competing on multiple fronts. We will use that additional revenue to invest to the max. Most other clubs not usually in Europe probably won’t. On a single season basis. On the basis we can invest and keep our players. It’s a positive not being in Europe. But we need to put back to back European campaigns in and back to back CL places.

Jenas was a coward of a player though. He’s talking coward things. He played in the uefa cup for us. Had we beaten Marseille that season and won the uefa cup he would be a legend around her. Honestly fuck him and his opinion. Winners want to win. We need that mentality. Jenas was at clubs with losers mentality. Maybe he was happy going to the SF of uefa. He was happy to play for spurs rather than arsenal. He was happy finishing 6th. Happy to retire at 31. He’s a prick.

IMO we have by far the strongest squad not playing in Europe. We already over achieved by getting the best out of Isak and Bruno and the others. We got 60 points this season. We should be looking to get 10 more points next season. That will put us in the CL or very close.

The main aim would be promotion. Worry about the PL when you get there.

We’ll be the only club in that top 8 not in Europe. And that will give us an advantage in league form should we keep our Crown Jewels. If everyone is as good as we think they are. We should challenge for top 4 imo.

I’ll keep screaming it. Net spend is a poor figure to judge how a club should perform. wages is #1. squad cost is #2. we finished 4th while being 7th and 8th on this list. We finished 7th this season while being no higher then 7th on both of those criteria.

GK one step too far away from the centre of goal. Have Armstrong do much goal to aim for.

Not being in Europe is a net positive for league performance. Assuming you can spend the same and attract the same level of player. Which we probably won’t. But if we can keep the band together we’ll do well.

They think they’re Real Madrid.

And be back in pot 4.

You able to get tickets to the CL final? I’d buy em off you.

Winning it about £20m all in including gates.

I’m more concerned with the financial implications.

And they beat us to do so. They beat Liverpool and City to do so. we’ve not beat a ‘big side’ in a QF/SF/F in my lifetime and it shows. Man U showing up when it matters for a cup is on brand. Relatively mediocre Liverpool sides of yesteryear did the same. Same with Arsenal.

The only silver lining here is if we can keep the band together. We’ll challenge for the top 4 next season. And give the domestic comps a real go.

By being the best English player of his generation

He's a massive liar. It's a bit of a nightmare from a FPL perspective.

Mateta had some decent underlying data for a while before he caught fire. Some of that is the system, players around him but it's also movement and anticipation. I used to think he was a solid but unspectacular finisher. I think against Liverpool he had one saved on the line but IMO it was the wrong shot selection, that dink he did gave the Liverpool defender a chance to prevent it. I thought that kind of thing was why he was a good/solid midtable striker but no more (like a Chris Wood). But in the last few weeks he's been making the right decisions, his technique and composure always looked good to me but obviously improves a bit with confidence. Will be interesting to see how he gets on next season. Definitely think it's a purple patch but I suspect he'll continue to be a good striker going forward. I always liked Wissa as well. I think he's getting better season-on-season. Under good managers and clubs midtable strikers can really kick-on.

I think we need a playmaker type at RW rather than a goalscorer (like Mbeumo - who I like a lot). Olise would be my pick. No idea how feasible that is.

Love Nick Pope. This guy doesn’t sweeper keep.