leffe186

Captain Pedant says No!

Used to be a sticky listing other clubs’ fan forums. Anyone know where Chelsea fans hang out now? The Shed End seemed a bit quiet.

Oh yeah, but how boring would it be if we just went for the predictable ones . There have only been six predictions so far. ASM is also really easy to type.

I’m all right with it tbh. They still give away an indirect free-kick in their own area and a red card for that seems harsh. Think it’s very different from - say - a centre-back tipping the ball over the bar. I really don’t think we’ll see a sudden spate of keepers picking up back-passes.

We’re making random guesses at this point . Maybe injuries?

Not sure if Howe wins Manager of the Year if you get 7th tbh.

Well Villa got relegated. Everton postponed the shitstorm a bit with COVID but are seeing it bite now.

Like someone said, with so much of the window left and the World Cup this year these are just wild guesses rather than predictions. But here goes: Premier League: Winners: Man City Runners Up: Liverpool 3rd-6th: Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, Spurs Relegation: Bournemouth, Southampton, Everton Overachievers: Fulham Underperformers: Everton Top Goal Scorer: Darwin Nunez Break Out Year: Saliba Season to Forget: Leicester/Everton PFA Player of the Year: Nunez PFA Young Player of the Year: Saliba Manager of the Year: Pep First manager to quit/be sacked: Lampard Championship Winners: West Brom Runners Up: Middlesbrough Play-Offs: Burnley, Stoke City, Sheffield United, Watford Relegation: Sunderland, Rotherham, Blackpool League One Promotion: Ipswich, Sheff Wed, Portsmouth Relegation: Derby, Accrington Stanley, Shrewsbury League Two Promotion: Stockport, Bradford, Mighty O’s Relegation: Harrogate, Newport County, Barrow Newcastle United Where will we finish?: 8th Top Goalscorer?: Wilson Season to forget: ASM Who will be the first player to be sent off for us?: Shelvey FA Cup: Spurs League Cup: Spurs EFL Trophy: Sheffield Wednesday Europe La Liga winner: Barcelona Serie A winner: Juve Bundesliga winner: Augsbu- naaah, Bayern Munich Champions League winner: Man City Europa League winner: Roma Conference League Winner: Absolutely no idea - someone who drops down from another competition World Player of the Year: Haaland World Young player: Pedri

Dunno. £60M+? More than Tielemans or Barnes.

The key point is that I believe that homosexuality is not a choice. Living your life by rules laid down by a deity and interpreted by people is. We can argue those points if you like, but I’d like to avoid getting hung up on absolutes or semantics. Unless they have a critical impact on Transfer Rumours.

Supposedly. Reading between the lines, Tielemans is being shopped around, but nobody’s bitten yet (despite Arsenal being heavily linked). We‘d rather have Maddison for HG reasons (partly) but Leicester would only be tempted to sell if they cannot shift Tielemans.

Well one reason to fear some religious people is that they only seem to deal in absolutes, which is rather borne out by your first couple of lines.

I suspect the reason these links are coming up now might be because they supposedly really need money and they haven’t sold Tielemans yet. He’s been the prime candidate for a move to generate cash, but the longer it drags on the more chance there is that they get desperate and look to shift a different asset. With all their contracts drying up, they might have to sell somebody they clearly don’t want to, like Barnes or Maddison.

I can’t find a simple breakdown tbh. It’s clear you can’t just “do what you want” any more but there are a couple of obvious glitches. The fact that Man City and Chelsea did just do what they want for years was the initial reason FFP was brought in. Then Man City started the comedy “sponsorships”. Then COVID came along which you had to allow for. Then Chelsea seemed to be able to just magic away their debt accrued by annual losses, unlike QPR. The TV deal gives English clubs loads of leeway. The COVID years seem to have put FFP on hold for a bit. Arsenal did cut their wage bill back. It just seems like they’ve still gambled on getting into the CL this year.

I presume that allowances were made for COVID. Like, that list of the 25 biggest annual losses includes 10 during COVID years. What’s irksome is that when you strip those out, you’re still left with 15. The clubs responsible for the 15 biggest annual losses in “normal” seasons are - Everton once, Villa once, City four times and Chelsea nine times. Year after year they made spectacular losses. And all that money Abramovich pumped into Chelsea looks like just disappearing into thin air: https://www.thechelseachronicle.com/news/report-costly-qpr-financial-fair-play-case-shows-what-chelsea-could-face-after-abramovichs-decision/ As your lawyer pointed out in the above article, QPR fell foul of FFP because writing off their debt (£60M!) was considered an equity contribution. The argument about Chelsea (and presumably Man City) is that those losses and that debt were largely accrued before FFP.

They keep losing money though: It just feels like they’re really going to struggle if they miss out on the CL again this year. Dunno, maybe I’m missing something.

There’s only so much you can do. I mean, look at the year we knocked them out as well. That was an unbelievable tie, although arguably he fucked it a bit with his team in the first leg. It’s the usual thing, sometimes you just need a little break at the right time. All you can do is maximize the odds of winning a trophy.

I truly, truly don’t understand where they’re getting the money. They’ve not been in the CL for years now.

Fabio Vieira.

Naturally

Nope.

Sorry, for this window!

…although to be fair, looking at Transfermarkt this would only be their third official transfer in the top 20 by fee. Without looking, name the only club with three transfers in the top 20 right now.

Enjoying seeing Chelsea get merked, but this is still all fucking ludicrous.

Yeah, the sellable assets are a big gap to bridge. I was surprised to see Chelsea’s squad value go up so much, but when you check the details you see that they have 32 players listed . It includes all their army of loanees who are now back at the club. Spurs’ value (and presumably some of the others too) is bolstered by guys like Reguilon and Ndombele who are obviously not going to play a part this season. It’s probably going to take a couple of years, but you’ve got a lot of money that’s going to come in and the sponsorship deals have already started. More importantly in the short term you have an excellent manager, a squad that has already performed vastly better and the full backing of the fans which will likely lead to an improved home record. This year is a wild card because of the World Cup. I genuinely believe that anything can happen, although it should be Man City, Liverpool and the rest. The following year will be key, particularly with (as seems likely) five CL places up for grabs.