The College Dropout

No need to be sensitive. My biggest concern is with the exit of Staveley we don’t have anyone that is passionate about the clubs success at the head of the club. We haven’t had strong direction or competence since she left.

Arsenal have still lower wages and squad cost than the other 2/3. At a point their revenue was bottom of the top 6 but they’ve done well to rebuild. Their merch game is A1 too.

Oh yeh and teams in Europe get league games moved to help them rest for Europe. Our TV channels would never allow it. Sunday 4:30 super Sunday and then Weds CL standard

Par for us has been 7th/8th for some time. Kieran Maguire or someone on Twitter will have squad cost table somewhere. But wages matter more than squad cost. Financially £60m on Havertz is a level above £55m on Elanga due to the wages. The more pertinent point is there's a fairly big gap between our wage bill and the level below. Which gives us a major advantage over the field if we are not in Europe. Being in Europe and bottom of that top 8 shows you what a tough challenge we have being competitive on all fronts. We are going to play 15/16 top level games more than the majority of the PL, that's going to cost us points.

I'm not belittling Villa - I think they've done tremendously well. But to suggest we would rather be in the Europa League is madness. If Villa had got in the Champions League this season they would've been an even bigger problem for us. They would have a stronger squad than they do now almost certainly. Winning the Europa League is also super tough for PL teams if they are competing in the PL properly. Last year Spurs & Man U gave up on the league in February at the latest. I suspect Villa will go full strength in the PL every week until CL is mathematically secure. I'm not sure they can keep competing strongly on both fronts until the end of the season - unless they strengthen again

‘It’s a shame we didn’t get Europa’ Jesuuuu Christo you guys are lost. I think our best midfield is having our 3 well rested. It’s better than any Sean Longstaff 3. But I agree any Howe midfield needs strong runners

"Soulless" as in the Ownership and decision makers. From the outside it looks like you've bought some highly rated youngsters and hoped it would all work out eventually.

I agree the experience of those 2 is needed. My impression of this Spurs era is that you’ve become a shit Chelsea. A young and talented squad that lacks experience and leadership. And the overall club doesn’t have a productive vision or purpose so it’s all a bit aimless and without heart. A soulless club imo. Is that a fair take?

I disagree. They had a gentleman's agreement. Wissa is in the latter half of his career and he had not earned dizzying money in his career. It was Brentford doing him dirty imo.

Imagine the wages won’t be cheap.

Yeh but he’s a right back. Udogie seems to always be injured.

How much choice do managers have these days? At most clubs, managers get what they are given. + Mateta is off and Nketiah isn't good so they need someone for right now.

Jumping ship from the Titanic seems sensible. Palace need another 10 points to stay up. Wolves need 30. I don't think Wolves are as bad as the table suggests. But it's a long way to catch Forest or Leeds

Maybe sitting out AFCON was impacting him too. Having to watch it at home but not partake - his boys did well and he was a big miss for them.

Barnes is definitely Mane like actually. Mane-lite maybe. In that both a little under-rated due to a lack of flash at their level. Quick but not the best dribblers at their level. Good off the ball movement, very composed and clinical finishers. Trent to Mane was a big reason Liverpool were resillient against deep blocks. Trent is going to find a great pass and Mane will make the run.

Aye it's that English teams can't play each other in the group stages. It may not have always been true. But now - the PL is by far the strongest league in the world overall. No other league comes close. Liverpool are 4th, Chelsea are 6th, we are 8th, Spurs are 14th in the PL - when we do win in the PL it's often by 1 or 2 goals. But in the CL when we win we are putting belt to arse. The Premier League is far harder than most CL teams. Big European teams like Bayern & PSG will start to benefit when they can rotate all their team in March to keep their best team rested and still win. PL teams can't do that.

Casemiro was better than Busquets as an all round player. For tiki taka and similar systems Busqueta is perfect and far better than Casemiro. Casemiro could play possession, could play transitional, would crash the box and come up with goals.

Casemiro's going to be a loss. Still a good player for them. Thankfully, he wasted some of his last most able years under Amorim and Ten Hag.

I genuinely think that’s where you’ve gone wrong. Never thought he was good enough technically for that level nor did he have proof of being consistently mentally excellent (movement in the box). The PL is tough man. Etikite has 8 goals. Joao Pedro has 7. Gyokeres has scored 5. It’s a tough league to go and score.

PL tax. The best team in the PL is the biggest, fastest and strongest with quality. Most other teams are similar to them, just inferior including us.

His pressing is really good aye.

Performances recently have been solid imo. He's not getting himself into good goalscoring opportunities or showing class when it matters which is an issue. But his crossing has been good, he's working hard and being a threat. He's not getting many opportunities like he did for his goal in the PL. Teams are being more direct. He's not the confidence or the ability to pull off goals like Barnes scored. I've been satisfied with him in recent weeks. But I never thought he was a top player.

Been putting in good crosses recently. That's been the best part of his game on the ball recently. Running at players and crossing.

Had a colleague from Azerbaijan that would use a brown hand emoji.

Was a meh signing for me at the time. Was more excited by Hall, Tino & Tonali. We needed more numbers in that window but PSR didn't allow it. The quality was brilliant.