The College Dropout

Also a major figure in the Isak debacle

Such a poor hire.

Agreed. They weren’t much good when they beat us recently either.

Didn’t see it. I genuinely think ppl who won’t Var scrapped have forgotten what it feels like to lose a game of football due to a bad decision. It happened regularly.

Yep.

I’m not.

Nah it’s not. The Aguero goal where he was offside the entire time was worse. Didier Drogba got a yellow card for simulation for getting kicked in the chest by a Man U GK. We really forget how bad things were regularly.

That’s an example of the bs that can happen without VAR. Peoppe have forgotten. Refereeing pre VAR was absolutely awful.

I sais for a long time we were too light at CM. We needed another Tonali to rotate effectively with the starting 3 + a Ramsey like player. Bruno has played a crazy amount of games over the last few years. He’s another one who we haven’t managers his international load at all. Enzo Fernandes and Gabriel have been rested from squads as an example. Not Bruno G - playing in fucking Japan. Robust as fuck but finally gets his big injury. Honestly I’m just hoping he’s good for the World Cup. For his own sake.

He should be ok for the WC? Shame he'll miss the big CL games.

Might as well had kept Frank.

Don't think i've ever watched a Conference League game from start to finish. Maybe seen 2 finals in some part.

Criminal that Sissoko and Gini never played CM together in a 3.

A lot of right footed contributions too.

Isak has always been a striker. People invent weird narratives. Sometimes more withdrawn. But he’s never been a left winger or regularly played wide. Isak was widely regarded as a talented wonderkid striker but he flopped at Dortmund and had a bad season at Sociedad. I like Woltemade but his career or reputation prior to joining us wasn’t that high until 2025. He was always going to require a lot more development than Isak. Woltemade wasn’t regarded as the same level of talent at all.

Dango looks such a layer. Strong and quick. Dribbling ability.

Brighton have been a boring side for so long. Their whole style of play is boring. Mitoma looked great that one year they had a proper attacking manager. My boy Minteh is wasted over there. Bring him hyem

Yep. Brentford it’s stark and a big example but it’s increasingly becoming the way that the way the club is led upstairs is by far the biggest indicator of success. Also similar is true for some of their players. Wissa bagged goals but nobody thought he was elite. Thiago and Schade are scoring a lot of goals. Nobody thinks they’re elite either. It’s something about Brentford’s style that gets their attackers high Xg opportunities.

But they are not. Their revenue is higher than Chelsea’s and their wages to revenue % is the lowest in the league. Spurs is 42%. Ours is 68%, Liverpool is 63%. Spurs could try a lot harder to compete if the people controlling their club wanted too. Nothing to do with the rules or their revenue.

I’m an armchair follower of Spurs and PL financials. Spurs position is entirely self made. Even when they spend big money they cheap out.

But Levy is a shareholder himself and he was empowered by the major shareholders. They would know Spurs have the lowest wages to revenue ratio in the league for years and had no issue with it. Is there evidence of some grand ambition from the larger shareholders? They were happy enough with Levy’s approach for what.. 20 years? Again. Spurs are not limited by PSR. Their ceiling is self imposed.

I don't think this is true or it wasn't true. What's held Spurs back is Spurs is run for business profitability right now. They had more revenue than Arsenal for 2 or 3 seasons and have one of the lowest (maybe the lowest) Wages to turnover ratio in the entire league. Their owners have put an artificial wage cap on them. The thing with Spurs is that they have already been to their owner's targets. New stadium, champions league football, profitable club - that's the height of their ambition - their maximum growth. Liverpool owners see Liverpool at the top table of European football - competitive for winning titles and CL as their ambition. That's their ambition and targeted maximum growth. Arsenal owners are similar. Their revenue is higher than Chelsea's pre-transfer activity. It's not PSR stopping them paying bigger wages. The ambition and competence (and PSR) of a clubs ownership is the main factor in success. Ours are ambitious but are they competent?

All of our signings have issues and concerns tbf. it seems all Brentford attackers get G/A - it’s good data but not the be all and end all for me. I think a players ceiling is reliant on their technical ability. I’ve seen nothing from Wissa there at all. Zilch. I think a players floor is more dependent on their mentality and athleticism. He’s decent at best in both. Some good movement at times but no composure, sometimes a bit lazy looking. I can’t see both he and Wolte being a success here and I hope/believe one of them will. But I don’t know who is more likey. One seems to have ability but no real track record. The other has a small track record but not seen any ability. Bad situation.

I said in another post I think Wolte is a bad fit. I’m not arguing that he’s going to be a success with us. But with talent and ability there’s a chance. I doubt he can succeed here as a 9 but he does have a chance.