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I’d rather see 11 youth players, relegation and a complete reset. And I genuinely, genuinely mean that.

Seen quite a lot of people reveling in the prospect of Chelsea folding as a club or something equally drastic. Fair enough if you want to revel in the downfall of Abramovich or those at the club who actually have a say and have done very well out of his ownership, but the wanton laughter at the fans is a bit much for me, they didn't sell the club to him in the first place and you'd be genuinely gutted if it happened to your club. Don't bother replying with the "plastics" shouts or trying to claim that the fans who sung his name during the silence the other day represent all Chelsea fans either. It just makes you a total bore. People didn't laugh at Bury or Wimbledon fans when their clubs went under. Regardless of Abramovich or the fact that Chelsea have ridden higher than those clubs for a long time, genuine fans hold their football club as a sincere part of their life and in that respect, Chelsea are no different. Maybe I've just gone soft but it seems to have strayed from banter to real nastiness in some quarters (not here from what I've seen).

It's started already.... our new kit for next season

You’ll be doing it soon enough to be fair

United also sign players without really thinking about what their impact on the pitch in the short and long term will be. I think a prime example of that is signing Ronaldo purely to stop City from signing him - world class player on paper but he doesn't really fit in with what United really needed from a striker. Or signing Harry Maguire for an insane fee to "make a statement." There's other examples too, but those are easy ones to pick out. Pep and Klopp sign players that fit in with their systems. There is a desired way of playing and the players are targeted based off how well they'd fit into their respective systems. That's also why last season with all of our many injuries, we looked extra shite and went on a terrible run of results (the worst in our club's history, strangely enough) - the injuries caused our system to break down and we had no real answer to that until we had enough players that we could get back to the platform of how we generally play. I don't think Solksjaer ever really did that - first off, it seemed all of the positives of Solksjaer were in his man-management skills and being the "nice guy" to come in after Mourinho went fully toxic on them. Secondly, Solksjaer's not really the sort of manager that I'd call a brilliant tactician. And I think his signings reflected players that were brought in for other reasons rather than how they'd impact his tactics (other than Ighalo & Bruno Fernandes imo, maybe a case for Cavani too). And with Klopp (and even Pep tbh, I think he had a disapointing first season considering the squad he inherited and his reputation as being the most influential manager of this generation)... they didn't come in and find their squads immediately easy to work with to get playing at the level we expect of those clubs now. It's not so easy to say "well with United's expensive squad they should be performing a lot better" because if money was all that mattered, United would be a lot better than they are right now. They've not had a manager that's proven they're a good fit in modern club football for a long while now, van Gaal was passed his prime as a top club manager by several years - his last season at Bayern Munich was considered a big failure. Mourinho was maybe a better shout, but his tactics hadn't evolved from when he was still a top manager and football had moved on. Solksjaer I think did a good job in clearing out the toxicity Mourinho left... but he should never have been given the job full time because he just tactically is not the kind of manager you can hope to gain success with at a top club. Ralph Rangnick's got the pedigree in terms of building up a football club, as a manager and behind the scenes, but let's be realistic... he's never managed a club with the weight of expectation like United. So tactically he's probably got the right sort of ideas for United... but he's also managing far bigger egos and far more expectant fans than I think he's ever had to deal with in his life. And at the end of the day, I think the players deserve the brunt of criticism from people after so many years of failing with so many different managers. If we believe the reports that United players are unsettled by not knowing if Rangnick's staying or not... it looks a bit like this. Mourinho: "he's too mean" Solksjaer: "he's too nice" Rangnick: "we aren't sure if we like him or not because we don't know if he's staying" and the reports of comparing his assistant to Ted Lasso... it just strikes me as a bunch of players who think they're better than they are because they are at Manchester United, that know that if they play poorly they're probably safe and the manager will get the axe. Couple that with players like Pogba, who's inconsistent as fuck and doesn't really have the mentality you'd expect of a talented top level player with his reputation, or Ronaldo, who sulk and/or kick out when things aren't going their way, or players like Maguire who can play consistently poorly but act like they're the hottest shit around, Lingard who's upset he didn't get to move when he wanted being reportedly the source of numerous leaks from the dressing room to undermine management, etc... I'm just not sure they've got the right mix of people to be at a club that's expected to win things at the top level. tl;dr - I think there's a mix of reasons why United haven't done well despite having an expensive squad with lots of good players on paper. For too long there's been no semblance of a tactical plan for United in the short term or building a club's identity up - until this season (and even then, who knows if Rangnick's the man for the job), too many players that think they're at United because they're good enough when they aren't, and too many shit attitudes within the squad. United need both a short term plan & a short term plan, as well as a clearout of players that either aren't good enough or have shit attitudes (or both).

I would love that for you. Fingers crossed x

Now this is podracing... Brilliant camera angle.

We'll be fighting for the championship title against Chelsea.

Impressed again with Ralf’s take on Rashy. Saying he has had plenty of game time and he can look to go in the summer if he is unhappy.

If they threw Chelsea out of the league, it'll open up a massive can of worms regarding other owners and their wealth and set a precedent. They're juggling trying to seem tough on Putin's lackeys and not completely upsetting the balance of football by fully looking into these owners because Abramovich is not the only one who's obtained his money by questionable means.

His agent is a proper dickhead isn't he?

When it comes to countries that people know a lot about, everything is kept separate. When it comes to countries people don't know a lot about, everything is connected.

So that’s Chelsea and Man Citeh now unable to sell tickets.

Seems a bit harsh on Chelsea fans to be barred from football matches if my understanding that that is the case isn't wide of the mark. I'm less sceptical than some about some of these sanctions because I believe any source of pressure on the Russian government that might help reduce the consequences of what they're doing sooner and more effectively. However, I don't know why not selling tickets to Chelsea fans are a part of these sanctions. If they want to punish Abramovich for his links to Putin or try and drive a wedge between them, I mean he's already basically been forced to give up the football club. Why punish the fans as well? I get that they don't want to allow people to put more money in his pocket until he sells the club, but surely they can just seize the profits and make sure the proceeds go to charities affiliated to Chelsea or something.

We both have much better players.

Good news for Chelsea in my eyes. If they no longer have the freedom to pay what they like for players, and have to be more frugal, then it will stop them wasting money buying back people they originally flogged because they didn't make the instant impact they expected. Patience will be required. Equally, they may actually keep and play some of the promising youngsters they have than see them breakout at other clubs like we've seen recently with your Gallagher's, Livramento's and Broja's. I mean, they have one of the best youth acadamies going currently, it's an excellent resource for developing their squad for the next decade or so, they will be fine. I expect the new breed of Chelsea fan will be crying into their cornflakes but quite frankly, if they lose a few plastics along the way then fuck 'em, they'll be better for it. I got good mates who are Chelsea boys pre-Roman era, when Stamford Bridge was basically a dog track with a couple stands. They had a history before Roman and they'll make a new one for themselves after him.