Collage

He was already with us tbf, guess it helped. Charnley: Right Martin, so I’m just going to fax you the contract... Dubravka: What? I’m right here!

Weird take. What a little freak. Yeah, Gazza didn't get any sympathy at all, like

I'm not totally convinced regarding Perez. He had a good second half of the season and I would be OK with him being a starting player in August, but at the same time wouldn't complain if we were to upgrade in that position. i think there's a chance he'd be better and more productive with better striking options in front of him personally, certainly not guaranteed but not impossible Yeah. Anyway, upgrading our strikers is a priority.

I'm not totally convinced regarding Perez. He had a good second half of the season and I would be OK with him being a starting player in August, but at the same time wouldn't complain if we were to upgrade in that position.

First half was a bit shite, second was pure laughs though. I’m referring to the quality of the football on display.

Lousy final, Bale’s first goal aside.

Two mistakes like that in a final...wew

Game on

Yep

We’re basically in this final

Josemi Joselu there is nothing we can do

Who's that? Östersund's manager. Worked absolute miracles there, taking them from the Swedish third division to knock out stages of the EL, playing mostly really good football and on a shoestring budget, even by Swedish standards. Highly debatable. Not really. Their most recent season had their annual budget at £5 million (compared to £350,000 when Potter took over). AIK, Hammarby, Elfsborg, Göteborg, Helsingborg, Djurgården, Kalmar, Hacken, Norrkoping all have from £7.5 million to £22 million a year. Their £5 mill were the budget during their surprise EL season. Before that it was even lower. It’s a crazy achievement by Potter and his team. I'm not questioning Potter at all, he's done a great job. The #1 explanation for their success is money though. Large sums have been injected into the club by the city and local real estate company Östersundshem. The ÖFK chairman used to be it's CEO, not anymore though as he's arrested for fraud/financial crime. There are several indications of them paying high wages. Again, I'm not questioning their achievements, just saying "shoestring budget" is incorrect. Might post more when I'm not at work, if I can be arsed. But as I said, it's debatable.

I absolutely love the man. Please stay forever.

Who's that? Östersund's manager. Worked absolute miracles there, taking them from the Swedish third division to knock out stages of the EL, playing mostly really good football and on a shoestring budget, even by Swedish standards. Highly debatable.

Opens on the 9th of June according to this: https://www.fifatms.com/itms/worldwide-transfer-windows-calendar/

Losing him is the issue really, where he goes is irrelevant. Nah, if he was going to Spurs or back to Liverpool or even back to Valencia or something I'd understand it and there's not much you can do about it, but West Ham are a badly run club who have never done anything good over any kind of sustained period in my lifetime I agree. After the initial shock I’m calmer now. He won’t go to fucking West Ham.

Oh well. Where to from here? I'm not going to fool myself and say "this is it". Doesn't work like that.

Even trying to look at it from a Mike Ashley perspective, not giving Rafa control over transfers doesn't make sense to me. Ashley decides the size of the transfer/salary budget, why not make sure it's used in the best way possible businesswise?

Why would Rafa join West Ham? Can't see it.

So fucking strange coming from someone working in media with opinions on football.

Imagining someone at the LMA dinner tapping SA - bragging about his management awesomeness - on the shoulder, showing his phone and going "Have you seen this?" is pretty funny.

Arteta would be a huge gamble. Could go either way I feel.

Better than Garry Brady, hopefully.

"Don't be yourself"

I doubt Rafa agrees with you. Yeah, he's probably off. Decent backup for Lescalles and Lejeune would be nice, I'm not a big fan of Clark.