Stottie

Dunno if he will but Delap needs to play. He's very much "work in progress". Forgetting financials and age profiles, on current ability alone, I'd expect Mateta or Wissa to score more for them. Chelsea need Delap to step up and as a CL club, they can't wait long for that to happen. Before joining Chelsea, Nkunku was Bundesliga Player of the Season. I don't know if thats a Bundesliga thing, a Chelsea thing, or an injury thing, but they're now going with a player from a relegated club. I dunno if he deserves it, I don't watch Chelsea, but there could well be a player still in there if someone can get it out. This is not Jadon Sancho who's had 5000 Premier League minutes. Nkunku's only had 11 starts.

Two versatile first teamers would do me, RW who can play CF and a nonsoft AM whose good on the ball. Someone good enough to depose Murphy (who's good) and someone good enough to depose Joelinton (who's also good), esp. in games we're expected to win. I'm playing the "Botman is like a new signing" card in defence.

Rats!

Falk can falk off! Err, not you Fak....

I'd be well up for this! When he missed that one near the end at SJP, it felt like it was DCL failing his audition. However if Chris Wood can turn it around against my expectations, maybe DCL can too.

There would be logic to selling Tino if the idea is for a system with only one attacking fullback and PSR denying us funds to strengthen other parts of the team. Just fantasy football, but if Tino would fund Guehi and a Man City young un for Eddie to work with, McAtee or Bobb, maybe go for it. There would be less need for Tino when Guehi finally brings the recovery pace we've lacked at CB. My impression of Gordon is that he needs Hall and his level drops off without him. I can't recall Brentford having a first choice RB who combines with Mbeumo, so we mightn't need one either when he joins....

Presumably we can justify Sela paying us more if we're in at least eight CL games. The same goes for other sponsors with links to Saudi, such as Noon. A few mill here and there will help the kitty nicely.

Man U squad now worth less than ours according to Transfermarkt's guideline numbers. Not bad considering where we were at the takeover. https://www.transfermarkt.com/marktwertetop/wertvollstemannschaften

Dunno. Was that an EU rule? Presumably post-Brexit rules would apply now, at least for domestic competitions.

Just for fun, instead of just buying keepers, could we sign James Tavernier as club trained and bring him on for free kicks in the final ten minutes? It sounds like he's made a great career for himself as some kind of Ryan Taylor regen. He's scored over 100 goals from right back!

The classic criticism of Mbeumo is that he's just on a hot streak, which is (also) kind of suggested with stats because his goals scored exceeds his xG by the most of any player in the league. However, his goals scored number is not much more than a more nerdy stat called his xGOT number, which is the quality of the actual shots he took. xG is about the quality of chance, based on shot position, and applies to "the average striker". xGOT is the quality of the strikes taken by that player, regardless of whether it was an easy or difficult chance. Mbeumo's xGOT exceeding his xG says to me that he's a good finisher. Penalties are very high in xG, so someone scoring lots of them will not exceed xG by very much. This suggests Mbeumo's total is not heavily pen dependent. https://www.fotmob.com/en/leagues/47/stats/season/23685/players/expected_goalsontarget/premier-league Isak's total exceeds his xGOT by three, suggesting a couple of em were saveable. That chipped pen that seemed to go through Matt Sels and left him tangled in the net certainly was.

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.