Deuce

You know I support the loan system, man. We should use it more. No reason Shane has been here his whole career. I agree we should use it more, but that is scandalous. They buy somebody like Kevin de Bruyne for more than most clubs' transfer record, and then ship him off somewhere. I wouldn't be surprised if he plays less than 10 games for them. It's hoarding. Having a finger in every pot. It also emphasises how they're not even remotely close to being self-sufficient. Most clubs have to make do with unwanted high-earning players until they get shot of them, whereas Chelsea will just keep them while still spending bucketloads, or loan them while still paying a lot of their wages. It completely takes the piss. Totally agree. Should be limited to 5 or summink. Agreed. That being said, the quality of the reserve league needs to improve for clubs to want to keep their players in fold.

Dunno if I'm gonna drop him next week or not. 5 points is nothing to scoff at but he needs to be scoring goals.

Hazard

Schwarzer Baines, Cole, Jenkinson Hazard, Ben Arfa, Dembele, Fellaini © Ba, Fletcher, Tevez (V) (Clyne, Nolan, Koscielny on bench) If Hazard doesn't have a solid game this week, I'll drop him. Think Chelsea might crush Norwich though.

I'd be a lot more comfortable with Forster playing rather than Timber.

Tweezers pls

Wouldn't be bad, would prefer Ferguson and possible Amalfitano for Marveaux and Obertan though. I want to see Marv get another chance, but aye Fergie deserves a start/chance. I can see Fergie coming on as an impact sub next two games. Maybe Fergie's getting the start this weekend?

Sideline officials in the PL are only part-time, correct?

Players can be easily booked if they're clearly wasting time. The clock is stopped for various reasons in Rugby and it works just fine there. It will quickly become apparent if there are issues with ball boys, and it could be dealt with very easily (in the same way they dealt with Stoke giving their ball boys team-specific instructions). The "opening doors to x" argument is nonsense and holds back the game. It really does come down the enforcement. Refs need to start doling out cards for blatant time wasting (and diving).

It's blatantly three minority kids against those innocent little Aryans. Like watching Jesse Owens and Co. crush the Germans at the '36 Olympics

Is there really no one who keeps track of total time lost to substitutions/injuries and then adds it as extra time? That's how I thought (hoped) it worked. Guess it really is more arbitrary in reality.

Scores goals eh? Garbage player.

Anyone watching Schalke-Montpellier by chance? Interested to see how Mapou is holding up.

He's been nothing but solid for Fulham the past 5+ years.

Very good PL player. Underrated even.

Actually, I think they compare quite favorably. Both are central midfielders who do better going forward than holding or dropping to defend.

No-one's heard of them man, or those that have think they're shit. I had a hard time explaining last week to a group of Europeans and Americans why the derby match was a big deal for us, as they just thought Newcastle's stature was on another level to that lot. That's because Newcastle really are on another level

The rest of this post is but I agree with the bolded.

Think he'd be better off in a league on the continent. He's not PL quality just yet, but he could easily play in better leagues than the Tippeligaen. Actually like to see him cut his teeth in the Eredivise for a couple years. Plenty of space for him to move there.

Bayern

How do you see that shaking out formation-wise?

Didn't see this posted anywhere: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/blog/_/name/espnfcunited/id/794?cc=5901

Guaranteed no matter what they slap on the kit, everyone's gonna hate it.

44 this week. Somehow Tevez picked up the bonus 13 points from Ba kept me alive. Should've had him captaining