leffe186

I think if we win even a draw basically send them down. We’d be miles ahead on goal difference.

Urgh. I think we were split down the middle. A lot of people are confident that we’ll get a win or two in the last couple of games and so wanted a draw. A lot, like me, just want to make sure we have the best possible chance to stay up, which meant a West Ham loss. I’m not confident at all in us getting even one win at home, however well we played against Villa. And frankly, I am too old for this shit. I couldn’t watch, for all sorts of reasons. Not least because Arsenal can be horrible to watch. I hope and pray we stay up, obviously, and if this is the deciding match both ways then I’m ok with it. Because it highlighted what Arsenal are - a nervous and twitchy club that has decided gamesmanship, exploiting referees and set pieces are the best way to win. When it came down to it I realized n following the BBC text that actually I wasn’t too fussed either way, I just didn’t want West Ham to win. They nearly did. I was glad when Arsenal scored just because it meant West Ham wouldn’t get a late winner. When West Ham equalized I was kinda happy too. Just…this might be the best of both worlds. We get a West Ham loss but Arsenal won in a shitty way that highlights their essential shittiness. I’m sure their fans don’t care. I do. That’s enough.

Stick another asterisk on that title, lads

Glad to be back, Keefaz?

Been like that for a while. I guess Rangers had the opportunity to get the toxicity out of their system early on in the season. Glad Mikey Moore is doing so well now.

It’s just another aspect of the system that massively favours the big clubs. There is an argument that it might have contributed to the breadth and depth of talent we have as a country by giving more youngsters the opportunity to have a higher level of competition and coaching, but I feel uncomfortable about having such a huge amount of youngsters on loan throughout the pyramid. I guess I’d rather have it than the Spanish or German system where (presuming they still do this, I’m not as engaged as I was) big clubs have reserve teams in the lower division. There’s always going to be a trade-off. I guess the first red line I want to be drawn is to outlaw proper feeder clubs like in the BlueCo system.

Yeah it’s always been the case, like, for decades. Notts Forest is just easier to say, and nobody outside Nottingham gave the slightest shit. Of course when we all realized Forest fans did we were happy to not comply. I don’t know the history but Spurscommunity has been autocorrecting “Notts” to “Nottingham” for a while. Really annoying, because we’ve been loaning kids to Notts County for a couple of years now.

Tbf he appears to be a caricature of a movie baddie.

Feels like this will have been a factor in Iraola’s decision.

Oh I agree, it’s open to question. But you’re using the wrong Kane timeline for your argument. You need to ask what would have happened if he’d stayed at Spurs without being loaned out and getting the experience at Orient etc. Maybe he’d have got a few games coming on as sub, maybe we’d have sold him to somebody else. The elephant in the room is whether the loan system should exist at all, and honestly I’d rather it didn’t.

You just know Maguire’s guffs are agricultural.

Different horses for different courses. You could argue that it was critical in the development of the best English player of the last decade and more. Saliba isn’t what he is now without being allowed to continue his development on loan. It’s an inexact science, but you’d struggle to argue that it never works.

Aren’t Chelsea on some kind of restriction vis-a-vis sales?

It’s one of the reasons Arteta does what he does. At this level it doesn’t matter who you are, it’s hard to break down a well- parked bus. We’re probably about to see a World Cup full of it. One option is to maximise set-pieces and gamesmanship.

Basically a mad scramble for that 8th place presuming Brentford lose today.

Got it, cheers.

Obviously I’ve had other things on my mind, but are we thinking it will be nine in Europe? Top four CL, Villa CL via Europa, 6th CL via money, 7th and 8th Europa, 9th Conference?

One of my all time favourites. I used to be a quiet fan of USSR/CCCP football - bit difficult now with a wife with Ukrainian family

At Stamford Bridge? I wouldn’t be putting any money on it.

Semi final If the cup changes have done nothing else they’ve made the end-of-season run in more interesting. Every single Premier League team will feel like if they can squeak into Europe they have a fantastic chance of a trophy. Adding more English sides to the CL has downgraded that slightly too I think. Not in quality, just in excitement and novelty.

While it does feel silly that we’ll probably see English clubs win both minor European trophies again, I’d forgotten how samey the Europa/UEFA has always been. Since the UEFA became the Europa, there have been 16 Europa Cups. Spanish clubs have won 9 and English clubs 4. Sevilla themselves have won 7 of the last 20. Back in the late 80s-90s Italy won 8 of 11. Twas ever thus.

Burn it all down, then build it again, then burn it all down again.

That’s not real, surely?

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 50 years of watching football it’s that the word “deserve” is meaningless

I absolutely think you have a chance of Europe and should try really really hard for the next two weeks.