ponsaelius

Ritchie is a far better footballer than Gouffran and I'm genuinely stunned as to what the fuck people have been watching and their respective opinions on football to come to such a conclusion. His delivery and ability on the ball is far better, and his level of quality in our play along with Shelvey is one of the reasons we're dominating games at this level. Gouffran is a turd. A winger who can't cross, pass or take people on. He's filling a space, and it's useful for sure, the workrate and the odd goal, but replacing him with a proper left winger would improve the side in the way Routledge did with the 09/10 side. He's the position we'd most benefit from upgrading on in January, but it seems people have become so used to watching dross over the years that wide players with no ability have become accepted and even vaunted.

He's shite and a cunt. Wouldn't take him back on a free.

Gouffran is shite, though.

He's shite.

There's a BBC Africa department, because of colonial and linguistic links. That's where the award is from. There is no BBC South America or BBC Asia.

'The Gouff' is shite

selling our captain when we have no need to, sounds a great idea

He's one of the players who has benefited the most from Rafa coming in as manager, such is the way we play and are coached now. There is now an actual insistence on playing from the back, looking for 1-2s, passing and moving. This is essentially him as a player. I don't think he really has many stand out skills physically or technically, but he has a good football grounding and benefits massively from now having options to pass the ball to. I'd give him a new deal. Solid, still a decent age and will provide some continuity going back into the PL. Long term he's not the answer, but we can upgrade in time.

I'm not judging the quality of the league on one game, anyway. I know its usually a lot more fun to watch than that despite the uneven spread of talent amongst teams. Just annoyed me how much this ref seemed determined to referee the game in an apparent attempt to make the game flow when in reality he did the exact opposite.

It was really, really awful though. Apparently the referee was 'letting the game flow' by allowing players to have free reign to kick the opposition for 90 minutes. Incredulous stuff. Then he seemed to think it was fucking hilarious that the game had descended into such an unwatchable shitshow (of his making) that Toronto fans were throwing objects at corner takers. Pissing himself as his assistant tried to tell him a can of stella and poutine had just flown past Ivanschitz head.

I watched the final and I've got to say it was one of the worst games I've ever seen, refereed by a fucking eejit.

Waxxa today Best game for us by miles. Some form from him might be nice, especially if Shelvey gets banned. That said he'll be off in January.

what the fuck is the point of this

I'm sure Kante had a buy-out clause.

It's completely incomparable to us. We spent £6 million on Vurnon Anita that summer, essentially a break even since we got some chump change for Best and Forster. They've spent £60 million on Slimani, Musa, Kaputska, Mendy. They agreed a £38 million deal with Adrien Silva at the end of the window before it fell through. The problem wasn't a lack of ambition. It was just bad decision making.

They made a mess of the transfer window and Ranieri has failed to readjust this season. Losing Kante, they lost all the protection for their two limited and aging CBs. Because Huth and Morgan were such a key part of them winning last year, they've showed too much loyalty to them, and without Kante there they've been massively exposed in that 4-4-2. Kante made that system work, without him its a mess. Spending £50 million on Slimani and Musa might have made sense - strengthen and upgrade on the likes of Albrighton, Okazaki, Ulloa - but it all looks futile when what made them successful has gone. Without the system working, confidence has suffered, they players are losing a bit of faith in Ranieri and he's failing to change the system for the new reality.

neesy man Watched it last night. Would highly recommend.

Somebody shit away from home.

Storyville (which are almost always excellent) on Beitar Jerusalem tomorrow. Should be interesting. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b084xppx

As long as he has Benteke, they'll never be in relegation trouble. He's the anchor that will keep them in purgatory. Personally I'd rather just see the cunt out of a job.

Stinking week

I'm still a bit in shock like. This is up their with the worst and most frustrating weeks in a lifetime supporting us. I can take defeats, but the last two games have been fucking intolerable for varying reasons.

Reckon i'll pull away from watching our games for a while. Honestly can't be arsed watching football with officiating like that. Just makes a mockery of the sport. We'll go up but I'd like to just fastforward to that point now tbh.