timeEd32

You'd probably be the first in line to criticize if they played 90 min and got hurt again.

The commentators seem more sympathetic to our plight this season than some of the people on here.

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I'm ready for Barnes more than anyone.

For some reason I find it hilarious that Blackburn walk out to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I'd vote for that.

He only goes with Joelinton's nanny for support.

No Shearer, Sutton, Gamst Pedersen, or Roque Santa Cruz so I think we're good.

Can't complain about that, though I worry for Isak and Willock. I hope they aren't also starting on Saturday.

For comparison, this is before Everton and with Pope. If you extend it through the Forest game, the midpoint of the season, we were 6th in xGA and 1st in xG.

Thanks for everything Paul, but excellent news.

Wow, pray for Joe.

It's impossible me for to gauge what's realistic or acceptable because until it happens I'm having trouble assuming we'll have Isak, Willock, and whomever else for the rest of the season. If that happens and we get Pope back for the last couple months I'd be very confident in finishing 7th.

This is the part that keeps getting left out of some of the freak outs when we're linked with some of these players though (and I'm not saying this is you, I don't know). But there's no reason to think we're interested in expensive versions of these players. Our reaction to Onana for £60m, McTominay for £30-40m, and Phillips for a £7m loan fee + £40m buy clause may have been the same as on here - dismay and laughter. We may have wanted Onana for £40m, McTominay for £20m or less, and Phillips for a modest, no strings attached loan fee to deal with an emergency. Maybe it's still underwhelming, but those numbers also wouldn't really be worthy of panic.

Why are you potentially judging him or anyone on things that didn't happen? If we assume there's some truth to every link we've heard then many fit the same pattern of PL-based players we've signed. Pope - relegated Gordon - financial problems; falling out with club Tino - relegated; injury Barnes - relegated Hall - financial problems; surplus McTominay - frozen out (at the time) Onana - major financial problems Phillips - not playing and very available The difference with the latter three is we clearly weren't happy with the asking prices. There's probably dozens of others we've inquired about and I'd bet that many of them fall into the category of distressed or vulnerable assets.

Yeah, they will get to where they need to but that's just to make them compliant. I don't see how they'll have much wiggle room for any big spending this summer having missed the CL again. In their current three year period, this season, which features no Champions League and almost certainly out of the top 6, is replacing 2020/21 when they won the Champions League. That's almost £120m in revenue gone from the books. Next season, 2024/25, which will almost certainly not have CL revenue, will replace 2021/22 which included a CL QF and £123m in player sales. Chelsea do not have the matchday or commercial income of the others. They have survived on big Champions League money and player sales. Without CL money, less PL merit money, and selling from a decreasing position of strength they are in a dangerous position. A manager clicking with a group of young players is increasingly feeling like their only way out.

I hope they sack him because the smart thing to do given their financial situation and his track record is to give him some more time. I did think he'd make more of an impact by now though.

We had gotten money for Mitrovic and Merino the summer before and then Ayoze that summer. It is weird though. Ashley probably lost a bet with that agent.

Given the circumstances I have no reservations giving the most promising manager we've had in two decades a pass this season whether we finish 9th, 10th, 11th, whatever.

All comes down to the what penalties are. UEFA's cost control ratio, which is what the PL might copy, also has a published set of fines for each threshold. At least for less egregious offenses it acts more like a luxury tax of sorts. If the PL implements a similar rule but the punishments are either secretive or points deductions then it's a very different system.

There’s a lot of things that bother me about this whole discussion but another is the fact that this will all be resolved soon enough. Eddie is not going to put 10 men behind the ball to eke out results in the name of job security. We will either get back to our best or some of you will be proven right that he’s been found out, hit a ceiling, whatever. If that’s the case he’ll be out of a job sometime between November and May of next year. So, again, patience.

The stadium interest payments are one of the core issues, but the loan was given to Everton FC, not the separate entity building the stadium, and the PL argued it was used to fund the club’s operations. Importantly, the appeals board seems to agree with the PL. The appeals board basically ruled the PL went too far with the punishment and failed to use existing benchmarks. But they did not accept any of Everton’s arguments that would change the calculations.

I hesitate to say this because that post was in reply to a comedy act and I’m not trying to start a Keegan vs Howe debate, but Eddie took a team the world had never heard of that was about to get relegated to the Conference and was under a transfer embargo for 14 more months to the Premier League in six years (and kept them there for five).