ponsaelius

'Theyre not straight into the last 16' Yeah because they've basically made it a last 24 instead . 10 games before you've even got down to your last 16 is just ridiculous. It's an expanded and bloated fixture list with watered down stakes, I can't see how it can be seen any other way.

It's just not true, very few have anything in particular to play for, and there is almost no jeopardy. At worst you end up still through in a play off anyway. City are the only jeopardy and they'll get through anyway. They'd have also struggled in a group format this season anyway based on their form.

No guarantee you have that at all, there's a rather complex fresh draw for the Play Off round.

There's been a load of utterly inconsequential shite from what I've watched. Has had the air of regular season NBA. Nobody really particularly arsed because they're all guaranteed to progress in some form or another. Inter had their ressies out for the Arsenal game and rested for the weekend because it was basically done and dusted at MD4.

Can somebody remind me what is great about this CL format? Other than City potentially going out (but ultimately not) there is literally nothing at stake. 27th-36th are all completely out with nothing to play for whatsoever. There's a handful of teams with a chance of either moving into top 8 or dropping out to the marginally more onerous punishment of having yet more fucking games. It's not even like the placing matters once you're guaranteed top 8 - so Barca/Liverpool etc have no motivation whatsoever either. At least with the old format winning the group remained a clear carrot. They've all played an extra two games for less drama, and any drama there is remains confused and hard to follow due to the random nature of the fixtures. No wonder there's empty seats at games, it's a total mess.

That would be very annoying

Mitchell did sign Cunha for Red Bull back in the day

We had a great midweek, and possibly the worst weekend. Cancelled out. Lots of teams playing each other next couple of weeks - 6 points would be huge.

I think that goes without saying? None of the articles even say that, only that's what he's valued at.

Why not? Juventus are trying to sign a CB and their director has previously tried to sign Kelly at his last club. It's been reported by tier 1 journalists in Italy, not randoms. I think it unlikely they will have made an offer substantial enough or structured in a way to make us sell, but it's more unlikely there's nothing in it at all.

Down to 5th

He is pretty average. But average CB basically costs you about £15 million now. Everton got 10 for Ben Godfey in the summer. Italian sporting directors love signing random short termist shite that they'll end up needing to punt in a years time.

Not much between them tbh, but are extremely different players in what they offer, so it feels weird that the manager doesn't really know which one he prefers. It should be obvious depending on what he wants from a striker. The thing is Man Utd are a graveyard for even top talent, have been for ages now, so the likes of those two don't really stand a chance particularly with the expectations of the level required. At another lesser club I'm sure they'd both be doing OK.

Ipswich are actually just shite. Will go down by about 7-8 points in the end once Everton and Wolves put some wins together.

Given it's been reported by multiple reliable journalists, and Juve's sporting director previously wanted to sign him for Napoli, I'd say it's definitely not absolute bollocks. Whether the fee is enough for us to sell or the player goes for it is another thing entirely.

I'm not sure he is a better CB than full back tbh. The West Ham game he didn't look comfortable in the position at all, reading of the game particularly aerially looked really poor. Possibly a player that would suit a back three.

Take quite a turnaround for them to even finish top half now.

Think DCL will end up doing better under Moyes and Everton will end up offering him the money to keep him. They've got a lot of aging players out of contract particularly in midfield and a big rebuilding job to do, could probably do without needing to buy a new striker as well.

Very unlikely but I'd absolutely love if Athletic could somehow get themselves in the title race. The other three do keep faltering.

Just clocked Southampton's goal difference

Everton 4 points behind Spurs with a game in hand is astonishing like

I'm sure he's OK, don't get me wrong, but we have 2 left backs and two LCBs in addition to him. Even if the reported wages are well wide of the mark they will be relatively high given the free agency and he is basically a poor allocation of resources and you could absolutely see him being one of those players we end up stuck with in a few years. Don't forget he's had injury problems too. If you can get a solid cash offer that frees up mobility in the market elsewhere I think you've got to seriously think about it.

If we can get 25 million for Almiron and Kelly surely we can do at least one deal FFS?

Juve transfer business under Giuntoli is so bad, I can absolutely believe it.

He's been playing in a back four for weeks, now a back three. Definitely been hung out to dry by their injuries.