brummie

TBF that 'OMG they're out performing XG' shite from last season has carried on. We've had some seriously iffy spells, and some seriously good ones. The away at your place was our last really convincing away league performance. We've just had successive shite results against teams we should really have beaten. We've managed to 'manage' the whole season brilliantly, though, and Emery deserves huge credit for that. You also look at the sort of performances John McGinn has put in recently, too, those don't get plucked out of the air. Emery isn't perfect, he's got plenty of things wrong this season (Spurs for example, which was a desperate low) but over the course of the season he's managed the whole spell superbly. When he came 4 years ago, we were 17th and stinking of (another) relegation. To do what he has done since then with a pathetic small net spend compared to the managers he's competing with, and the loaded nature of the system, is just incredible.

Yep, most important player for the way we play out for almost the entire season. Massive stroke of luck.

Indeed. Got to the CL quarter final, missed out on qualification for CL on goal difference on the last day.

To be fair, we've just come out of a prolonged bout of awful form where we put together a run of truly dreadful results.

Hi all!

Our net spend over recent seasons is genuinely negligible. But somehow we're still under pressure to sell our best players every summer. Not sure how rules like that are meant to be improving football.

Chelsea are such a terrible, terrible club, for so many reasons.

Attendance figures are tickets sold, they include people who have tickets not turning up.

I hate to say I told you so. But, I told you so.

Apart from the points-on-the-board metric, over a significant period of time, obvs.

i'd still like to win it, and so would pretty much anyone if they found themselves in the semi finals. Also, in the Champions League this year: Pafos (which sounds like a minor Greek philosopher), Qarabag (a Radio 6 Music-friendly mostly-instrumentals band), USG (isn't that a mid-low level sportswear retailer), Bodo Glimt (a Tolkien character), and Kairat (someone's cat walked over the keyboard whilst UEFA were typing their name into the draw).

Don't agree with that, I'd be happy to win anything, and I was gutted when we lost in the Conf semi finals. It's a European trophy.

I don't think it is about loans suiting a manager's ways, it's about suiting the PSR corner we - and you - find ourselves in This time last year we were doing unexpectedly well in the CL, and the Rashford and Asensio loans were sensationally good. They were a shot in the arm just when we needed one. This year, Luiz back in is a good move too. Tielemans is out for 8 weeks, McGinn for 6, and Kamara the season. We can't just see those injuries happen and do nothing. At the same time, as they're recent events, we won't have had players lined up and ready to pull the trigger on, and January is January. Also worth remembering, Emery is not the greatest about developing young talent, but he's fucking brilliant at turning average players into much better ones. Look at Lindelof. He's been absolutely excellent for us. Who'd have thought that?

Of course not. Emery's his biological father.

Quite pleased with the mooted Luiz return (esp with Tielemans out), and I am prepared to be convinced on the Tammy return, too.

Honestly, what is the point in even trying with these cunts just doing what they want no matter the price. Football is ruined.

I agree. They gave us a tough game, and I saw most of their match at Anfield, and for a good chunk of the second half, Wolves were well on top. They're clearly not good enough, but I don't think they are 2 points level bad.

Everyone in the UK who has signed up with a paid-for VPN service this year.

That's interesting, because that is the exact same argument a lot of people made at Villa (as you know, what with you being one of us, UTV! HEITS! etc, Toony) - Man City came into 'money' shortly after we did under Lerner. Man City, despite coming into significantly more money than we did, still made a point of appointing the sporting leadership of Barcelona, to look after their investment, whilst Randy Lerner appointed someone who used to run a call centre for him, for MBNA. And that's why Lerner's money was pissed away. In short, I entirely agree with your Dad. These things are important. I'd also say - not wanting to bring us into this, but it's valid - a big part of Emery's current success is the structure built around him, from top to bottom. I think that is vital at any club, no matter how much cash they've got.

He'll do what he always does - have a brief good spell (ie now), then be out for the rest of the season with a badly chafed fanny or something.

You could argue that, yes, but not that we were slightly ahead of you, not by a long way.

We were in the championship and literally two days from administration when our owners arrived and got promoted a year later. Absolutely on our knees. We got promoted, stayed up on the last day of the season after, and were 17th the year after when they sacked Gerrard. We were barely surviving at PL level when Emery came in. He's been incredible. Three years of European football, reaching the CL QF and beating PSG (and very nearly knocking them out) and a record that shows us as more or less the third biggest points winners since he joined us is just mind bendingly good. It's fucking nuts. I'm not saying we're going to do stupid stuff like win the title or owt, but fuck me, what an insanely good job he's done from a low starting point. And obviously, whilst being unable to spend what we'd be able to (ring a bell?) and under one form of PSR madness the whole time.

The big thing to take from that is that, we were getting battered for an hour, then Emery makes a triple substitution and totally changes the game, and we win. After years of managers who'd just stand and stare and change nothing, it's incredibly refreshing.

What I like is we can win by playing excellently (Arsenal, Man City), but also by grinding one out when needed (Wolves recently) and by pure fucking spirit (today). You can’t rely on always playing a blinder. It’s just not like that.

look at our results over the last two seasons. You don’t fluke consistency like that. the one thing we are is undeniably well coached.