Kid Icarus

That January was very much softened with the signings of Bruno, Trippier, Burn, Wood, Targett. If we'd a window like that where we'd addressed other areas then I don't think anyone would be in uproar. We're approaching Guehi like he's the final piece of the puzzle when we still have other areas that need serious work.

Because he's overseeing all of it.

In a team trying to raise the ceiling of quality up to the level of Isak, Bruno, Tonali, Gordon, Tripper etc, do you think the things you've listed come anywhere close to doing that when we're still regularly playing Burn, Longstaff, Almiron, Murphy? All of them are great professionals and can do a job, but we should be moving down the pecking order and being replaced with high quality players if we want to progress. Tonali (a player we bought last summer) for Longstaff is the only one on the cards at the moment. We still have no replacement for Schar, no Pope back up, no starting RW, Wilson is still here and crocked. If we'd taken care of any of these things in this window it would be fine, but we've done nothing.

I would argue that you're making my point for me tbh, but each to their own.

It's a fair comparison, but unless I'm mistaken VVD and Allison were the last pieces of the Liverpool puzzle. We're a long way off that. EDIT: And they also bought Salah when they got VVD

That's not what stagnating means, it just means standing still. You can be standing still in 7th or 17th and doing so is going to be based on what you and the clubs around you do in the market. We've done nothing, but ultimately the point is that we have players right now that wouldn't want to stagnate in 7th and them leaving would exacerbate our situation unless we reinvested and had a 2nd phase.

I'm no pessemist, but the likes of Bruno, Isak and Gordon genuinely aren't going to be okay with just sitting around with us stagnating. They'll want to win things and are good enough to.

We know to a very high likelihood that it's Guehi or nothing. That just on its own, with no alternative to him and no successful contingency to spend it on an RW is poor, and that's me being kind. Frankly I think it's unprofessional.

Not really no. Not unless you're okay with having less chance of getting into Europe, losing your best players, potentially losing your manager, and ultimately fizzing out.

Palace and Parish are famous for this, it's not them who are unprofessional if you bank the house on their word.

Not really, because what we know is mainly informed by whether we've signed anyone or not and it being less than 48 hours until the deadline. If we'd been linked with everyone or noone all the time or none of the time that would still be the case. It's unbelievably poor.

Honestly the media doesn't really come into it that much for me. They could have stayed silent and the reality would still be that we haven't looked anywhere close to signing any other CB or a RW, or having alternatives lined up, which is frankly incredibily unprofessional. The rest about us constantly persevering with Guehi is just the cherry on the top.

Aye, Mitchell and Eales

John Percy is extremely reliable as well, at least with Midlands clubs anyway

There really is no sense of bedwetting or hyperbole about this like, it's been objectively pathetic the way they've gone about this.

Tbf Would look outside if he told me the sky was blue

Who could have possibly predicted that Palace would do business like this? Aside from anyone who'd taken a cursory glance of their business under Parish that is.

100%. It's been nothing short of embarrassing

Waheeey

Think you might be proving their point there tbh, our luck was horrendous.

He's a complete fucking bellend but that's really funny

The originals tracksuit top is absolutely beautiful like. I 100% overpaid for it, but I love it.

Do you know how borderline it is between being in the bottom 20% and the top 10% for a centre back? 1 extra pass out of 10. 80.5% pass completion is absolutely decent like, particularly when he's been at fullback most of the time and the average for full backs in 78%. Now do our other defenders... Schar 82% Trippier 75% Botman 90% Livramento 85% Hall 80% Lascelles 85% Krafth 84% Bonus: Guehi 86% Saliba 90%

What a load of shite

Maresca's personality certainly suits Chelsea