Stottie

I think Jackson is pretty good and creates some chances by himself through his pace and strength. Here's a list of Chelsea's most expensive strikers from Transfermarkt. Lots of underachievement and unrealized potential here.

Arguably haven't had success at striker since Diego Costa. Jackson's one of the better ones.

CEO and stadium may be far more important than DoF in the big picture. They will affect revenue, which determines our transfer budget. I would be more concerned about DoF if we were in a situation where we had doubts about Howe or someone was likely to come and poach him. The most likely suitor, England, is off the table for a while. Arsenal had a huge dropoff this year, 15 points and 30GD down, but the idea of them even remotely considering Howe will still sound ludicrous to most people, even those who sat through us outplaying them (with Callum Wilson!) for most of the match two weeks ago.

Bruno was on every data nerd's radar and many were amazed that we signed him and not Arsenal or Liverpool. Tonali is way more enigmatic and is loved by folk who watch and feel games, not folks who like analyze them with numbers. The "should have moved him on" issue is more complicated than it appears and tends to rely on hindsight. Wilson was still very good when available in 23/24, scoring 9 (two pens) in 990 league minutes. The huge dropoff has come this season, not the one before. A maximize value-based approach to squad management may have driven us to get some cash for Murphy last summer due to his age, but would have missed him getting all those goal contributions.

Just on Mitchell saying last year that we should be more "data driven", on what data did we sign Tonali? What data indicates him being good now? He clearly passes the eye test, but unless its a minor stat like sprints or something, I don't think its there in the data.

Wasn't Klopp given Salah by the Moneyball people? Iirc he wanted a German lad instead.

Presumably this will be gardening leave, otherwise he takes the big book of NUFC targets compiled by Nickson and the other scouts with him. We may have had three summer windows with three different people handling transfers, but the net result has been a cup, two CL qualifications, a wage bill that is still only something like 8th highest, and lots of great players who could be sold for healthy fees if push ever came to shove. If three different people can get it right, maybe its not such a difficult or important role after all.

Even if Rogers touches the ball first, the rule is presumably intended to stop keepers getting injured from being kicked in the hand. Which can happen even if the striker touches the ball first. It is possible and probably sensible to set the level of what is "excessive force" differently when its studs on hands.

I'm half surprised Christian Eriksen's legs can still manage a penalty run-up, but he managed it and sealed the deal. Well in lad!

My word. Terrible performance but ulitmately irrelevant because events elsewhere meant it didn't cost us. We ended up fifth and that is good enough for what we want. As many have said over the years, the league table does not lie. I take it this means 50M plus for our transfer kitty and Villa selling Morgan Rogers. Crack a beer lads! Great craic over the season and it was a pleasure to spend it with you.

Losing a straightforward fixture but still getting a Champions League place by benefitting from dodgy refereeing decision in another match. Take a bow lads!

Doesn't obstruct the line of sight but would impede any timely dive, so interfering in my book.

Nutmeg pass?

Great goal. Should on-loan players kiss the badge? fwiw, I don't mind ex-players celebrating, and some attempts not to are weird.

Mbeumo has got four goals in five starts playing CF this season. This brings lots of extra value to what he offers at RW.

Szobo was release clause. Mac Allister too, as part of a contract extension he signed earlier that year. Nunez was overpay. A fair bit of Liverpool's money is from overseas fans due to historic success. They vastly outsell Chelsea and Man City shirts etc. even when those teams are winning the league.

I don't watch La Liga, but he's dropped off a bit this season by the sounds.

Insert your own "farmer's league" comment. Harry Kane has certainly been making hay!

Bruno F would be a near-perfect KDB replacement for Man City. Him on 300 grand a week would be lower wages! They could roll out another "Welcome to Manchester" poster like they did with Tevez. Rodri back, Bruno F creating, and maybe a defender or two with better fitness than Stones and they'd be back to 85+ points. That Bruno will be way out of our wages-for-age-profile league, but presumably Isak will end the summer as our new top earner. What we willing to pay will have to ratchet up too.

Good result for us, I would have thought. Spurs doing it in normal time, so no Man U hangover next week or massive draining game. No Man U CL, so longer for them to get back to being anything like they were under OGS, never mind long before. Spurs didn't get CL for fifth last year due to Man U and us finishing bottom of our CL groups and wrecking the England coefficient (which is top 2 8 seasons out of 10), so them getting it a season late is not completely unfair. Spurs have had a massive dropoff this year, so nothing to fear there. They already had massive PSR headroom, their matchday is huge, so more money won't matter that much.

Trophy and third or fourth with one to play, which is Everton home. I would have snapped your hand off for this at Christmas, never mind when the season started. Just to remind everyone, but we've not bought a first teamer for three transfer windows. PSR meant the wild crazy dribbling kid we had who scored in the CL had to be sold.

Competed fairly well and lost to a worldie and their keeper as MoM. Tino clean through and stopping kind of summed it up for me. Bruno had a good game but missed an easier chance than Rice took. We're a good team, much better than the past, but the too dependent on Isak for the killer instinct. Win next week, which we should do, and it won't matter.

Challenging for the ball has to be "involved". I don't mind the goal being given, but real time with no VAR delay would be vastly preferable. Taking so long to come up with a decision with arguable logic is bad for the game.

Congrats to Palace! I would have vastly preferred to see them hang on 10v11 but it's not their fault they didn't have to. They did defend well, the keeper played a blinder, and yeah, there's no "magic of the cup" if only one of six teams ever wins. Chelsea vs. Liverpool was like 120 minutes of watching paint dry twice last season. If VAR can make that level of clanger, there is a strong case for scrapping it, celebrating goals as they go in, and going back to claiming every bad decision "evens itself out over the season" (which they don't).

New low for VAR