TRon

Talking shite.

That all looks good on paper, but as we saw with the cup final, getting over the final hurdle brings a pressure all of it's own. Liverpool are capable of winning their remaining games, and it's not impossible to see a scenario where we stumble with the finish line approaching, especially if they've closed the gap to 3 points, and us with a tough game against Arsenal to come. Not that I think it will happen like that, I think if we need to win our last few matches we'll win. But until we've seen how we cope with the pressure of the last few games you can't take anything for granted. Going to be a supercharged atmosphere at St James on Sunday either way, I think it will be like the Spurs game and more.

Same here. Didn't really feel nervous for the cup final because we had hit the buffers, and we had lost a bit of confidence while Man U were on their best run of form. The cup final just came at the wrong time for us, if we were playing that game now I'd expect us to win it.

Yes, just find it weird to wrap my head around Barcelona agreeing to sell anybody considering their transfer activity in the summer when they were equally broke.

That was my first thought as well, but we do have some big profile Brazilians here now, and CL football to offer. Might be more tempting than we imagine. Although I don't imagine he's on a small salary at Barca.

Aye I sort of figured that out from the subsequent replies, sometimes seems hard to remember how shambolically they've been run in the last few years.

That would be crazy even by their standards, but we'd still have to persuade him to come here. I guess with the CL and Bruno here, anything is possible.

I think a lot will depend on if he can show up for the run-in. It would be huge if he was available for Arsenal or Leeds, could make a real difference in clinching the CL spot. If he's not there then he'll have been missing when we needed him most. Not to forget he's already missed the last three games which were big games. None of this is his fault, but it does lessen our reliance on him, and strengthen the case for replacing him if we can get a better fit for Howe's future plans. Assuming Howe would be open to selling him obviously.

That's a hell of a quote by Wrighty tbf.

Why would they sell him then?

Yeah, no one is arguing Chelsea's rise to glory in the last 20-30 years, we are really talking prior to the influx of foreign money when Premier clubs had to generate their own funds to prove their value. When Ken Bates was the owner I recall him being particularly shit. But English football wasn't as big a deal back then, it was probably the era before satellite television took the Premier league around the world. Younger fans just assume Chelsea were always huge, but they were a mid-table club who didn't win that much prior to Harding's involvement. I don't think they had a massive ground capacity either, still not sure their local catchment area is that big even now.

And 20 of those years were down to Abramovich money. So 10 years if you exclude those is hardly a ringing endorsement of their history. But yes, certainly around the world now they are regarded as a big club, but that's down to the influx of Russian funds. Prior to that they were just another London club which was considered less important than Arsenal or Spurs.

According to the Times, he's set to receive £3m over the four games if Leeds stay up. Just the 500k if they don't. He didn't get fat by underselling himself, that's for sure.

That's always how I saw Chelsea, they had a bit of glamour about them just because of being in one of the swankiest parts of London, but they never seemed to have the passion of a football city like Leeds or Newcastle pre-Abramovic. A big club yes, but as they weren't even considered the biggest club in London, then I always see them as not quite at the level of the one club cities. Obviously this will sound like nonsense to those who have grown up in the last couple of decades and assume Chelsea were lording it over everyone else before that as well.

I'm not really talking about tactics or player profiles not fitting with them tbh, just think when a team has been performing as badly as Leeds recently, it's in our favour not to see anything change until after we play them. It's more pyschological than coaching ability. Although most players would dread playing for Allardyce so there is a good chance that there won't be any positive reaction from the players. Especially if City can turn them over heavily.

We could have done without Leeds sacking their manager tbh, they looked down and out. Any change is likely to see players try to raise their games in front of a new manager, even if it's Sam Allardyce. Hopefully Man City will give them a good caning before we play them, just to deflate the new manager bounce.

He's got skill, he's got pace, and he looks like a tenacious tackler, so you can see exactly why we would have wanted him, he does fit our style, or at least he will once he's up to speed. The only question mark would be his end product, I guess Ashworth and co must have done their homework, they'll have seen a lot more than us. He is getting into good positions to score so that shows potential.

Roy Hodgson is the only one who's worked out, and I'm still not sure that Vieira wouldn't have got similar results from those fixtures. Long term Hodgson isn't the answer, but they aren't going to complain, he's done what was needed. Lampard is just a joke figure now, and Dyche's hard man persona is not really doing much for Everton.

I like him, he's got a lot going for him, but I'm not sure he strikes the ball particularly well. Pretty sure when I watched a youtube compilation when we signed him most of his goals were tap ins. And there weren't that many of them.

I actually have a soft spot for Leeds down the years (don't ask why, even I don't know) enjoyed their rise under Bielsa, but no club with Allardyce as manager will ever get anything but contempt from me.

Not a great night for him to put in a performance like that. Looked the epitomy of a luxury player. No one doubts what he can do with the ball, but he was too easy to hustle off it last night, and looked very one paced.

From Bielsa to Allardyce. What a bang up job the Leeds owners are doing.

That was a bit shit like.

I wonder who the alternative would be if he decided to go elsewhere? There's not going to be a shortage of clubs interested, so we must have someone else lined up as well in the event he decides against Newcastle.