ponsaelius

Sue perb

Iwobi up top for Everton?

That's the strongest, most competent looking Chelsea team I've seen all season. Every time I usually look at their line-up I'm left scratching my head where all the money went (and still the case tbf) but that actually looks decent.

I'd absolutely love to live in London like, for a while, if I earned at least double what I do currently and was gifted a house. It's an absolutely superb city if you're comfortable financially. That said I would question the sum motivation of any footballer who would put location ahead of their footballing career. As long as you're a serious club being in the north should be no barrier to attracting serious professionals. Liverpool and Manchester clubs are the case in point there. Plus to top level footballers their geographical base becomes almost irrelevant these days, tbh. You have family life and work - and then you have the financial means to do and go as you please in your time off anyway.

I know it's easy to say this is as a neutral observer but I just can't see Everton going down from today's fixtures.

A lot of Ultras in Europe just don't massively care about the actual football being played on the pitch. Or certainly try to give the impression that is the case to highten their own importance. This is particularly true in Italy. The ultra movement was historically always just a vehicle to be subversive, for social outsiders to get away with things you can't normally do in society, to cause mayhem and mischief. Inspired in part by English hooliganism but forming an entirely new subculture. So much of what they do separates themselves from the actual football. The vast tifos and displays will be fundamentally in support of the team, but also aggrandise and celebrate the ultras themselves, distract from the field of play, slapping themselves on the back. They will regularly sing songs about not giving a fuck about the football or the players. This is always quite alien to the way English support is. But it's not always a bad thing, tbh. Italian ultras will regularly sack off a game they think is too expensive, usually choosing instead to do something more productive. Like the Milan ultras boycotting the last game of the season because Juve are charging 80 euros and instead donating their time and money to help with the flood victims in Emilia Romagna. It shows the clubs can't rely on their support unequivocally - which IMO is no bad thing. The power dynamic between the fans, the clubs and the players remains more clearly balanced. It can also have a negative influence for sure though. We can see with our own club how powerful unity between all sides can be and sometimes the motives of ultra groups undermines this. Equally Mike Ashley wouldn't have survived as long as he did if our fans had more backbone. German football I struggle with a bit more to understand the fan culture, and find it more manufactured, but I know less about it admittedly. However I think the power dynamic is still there to some degree where the clubs know they can't take the custom of the fans for granted.

Yeah I don't disagree. Personally I'd have an open knockout draw with very limited seeding but that's not what the 'product' wants. And I'd have the revenue split exactly equally amongst all participating clubs. There's obviously the question of how that impacts smaller leagues with the champion hoovering up huge revenue and winning every year - but that could be dealt with by distributing revenue to the leagues themselves perhaps.

I have no issue with us being in pot 4. That's absolutely fair enough as we have not been in Europe for a decade. Indeed the fact we get straight into the group stages and get given a load of coefficient points based purely on the league we are in (which puts us ahead of Celtic) is unfair in itself. It represents the way European football has already been skewed against smaller leagues, mirroring the way the finances are shared out. Really if we finish fourth we should be playing a qualifier and starting with zero points. If we get dumped out by Partizan Belgrade then that's fair enough - we have enough of a financial advantage that we should have to deal with that. Instead clubs from the big leagues don't even have that risk anymore. The distribution of financial revenue based on previous performance is scandalous when you accompany it with a coefficient system, though. It basically rigs the entire thing in favour of clubs who are already there.

Martin Samuel is a slug who does talk a lot of shite but he has been writing these pieces on FFP and the protectionist nature of football finance for years tbf. Very consistent with his opinion.

Greasy, slow, archetypal Portuguese national team player, and bitterly called us a long ball team. No thanks. My bet is he's still stuck in Wolverhampton come August.

Got to try and get to Kenilworth Road before it goes like, whether in the away end or otherwise.

Hope Maxi and Gordon get a go from the start. Not that bothered otherwise. Can see a change in system if we're as short in midfield as it sounds. Funnily enough the last time we went to a back 3 was this fixture last year as the whole midfield was injured.

Toney isn't, but all the others are aye. 2nd and 3rd choice goalkeepers are quite a common thing to use to fulfill home grown spots (see Scott Carson, Tom Heaton etc). It's the one position where we have quite a few who have made it pro so would be decent shouts. Jak Alnwick is backup for Cardiff these days in addition to the 3 mentioned.

Could have a situation where Dummett isn't in the PL squad but makes the CL squad just because we have nobody else who is Club HG, and it's better than just naming one fewer players.

There's definitely a lot to be said for not signing too many players as well, mind. We all thought we needed more last summer and actually we got it spot on with the 3 we signed (I'm taking Targett as already in the building). They added genuine quality to the spine of the team. Players we thought weren't good enough have stepped up massively, and not having significant turnover of players has retained and actually fostered the team spirit. It's a crucial balancing act. It's definitely better to focus on quality rather than quantity. We just have to get the balance right because we're going to get so many more injuries next year. Basically I'm saying 2-3 doesn't sound enough, but 6 might actually be too much.

Do-able that tbf as long as it doesn't go to ET. Main issue will be getting on the tube if you leave on full time cos of crowd control. So might be best to leave slightly early.

Eddie said 2-3 which sounds low. I think we need 4 quality signings as a minimum.

Got to say I love football but really struggle with pretty much all types of football podcasts. I'm always surprised they get as much traction as they do.

If they get good money for Clarke then they probably shouldn't bemoan it too much, tbh. For as long as I can remember Sunderland have been a club that bought and sold terribly and seemed to actively make players worse. In Clarke they have resurrected a once promising career that was drifting and given him a platform to perform in a decent footballing outfit. It is a sign that their transfer model is actually working.

Not the player I expected to miss out last game. Quite interesting if he's been playing through this for a while.

Tierney can play CB too. He's a good balance between a defensive LB like Burn but who offers more going forward.

£65+ is scandalous in terms of the actual quality as an item of clothing, tbh. If you could see it as a donation to your clubs revenue then it might be justifiable (I bought my local non league team shirt last season), but my understanding is most of the huge profit margin goes to the manufacturer.

Genuinely couldn't give a fuck about this game hope we play a total banter team tbh

As chaotic and absurd as Forest's recruitment strategy was they stuck with their manager and it's paid off for them. So fair play tbh.

Maybe because Dubravka is better?