Dr. Gonzo

I think it’s harder to go back to business as usual with China now that Xi has reverted them back to closer to their pre-90s government. Things like their currency control - making RMB hard to bring out of the China, lack of IP control, and worries about what will happen if China decides to take the “one China” policy far enough to take Taiwan as their own (like companies that operated in Russia before Ukraine invaded) are all serious issues western business has with China. They’ll still use the cheap labour but expansion is less likely than it was 5-7 years ago.

He’s 22 and he’s come into a Chelsea side that were/are not up to much. He’s probably a better player than what he’s shown. United were on a mission today, Chelsea look like they have for a while - feeling sorry for themselves and wanting the season to end. It’s not surprising what could have been a more even match ends up a thrashing where one team had chances but just couldn’t score, imo. I’d be patient with him. You paid over the odds for a kid from the Ukrainian league just to stop Arsenal from getting him & he’s got a long contract, so it seems only logical to wait for him to adjust to the massive step up. Plus he’s got 7 years left or something, so he’s probably sticking around for a while might as well be patient.

I mean it can be, but we’d have to be totally shit. And honestly for playing as bad as we did for so long… I’m not even sure we deserve Europa League football, so to somehow squeak 5th place despite looking lost for so long is pretty fortunate. If more teams turned up against us in that long stretch where it felt like anyone could beat us… we’d be in a much worse position. Either we got incredibly lucky navigating results while the side looked asleep other than Alisson at times… or there’s a lot of shit teams in the league. I’m optimistic that with wages freed up by the departing players, we’re likely going to see some incoming transfers - regardless of FSG’s penny pinching habits, they need the CL revenue. For them to make the most money off their football club, they’ll want us in the CL as much as possible. Firmino & Milner were important in our best years with Klopp - Oxlade-Chamberlain & Keita on pretty large wages as well. We won’t be buying Bellingham… but we need multiple midfielders and probably a defender. If they address the needs the squad has like I think they have to, and those signings pan out… we have a good chance at a much better season. Obviously it could go bad if the new signings end up being shit or we don’t make any but I think with a bit of a refresh in the midfield we’ve probably got a good chance at a decent season.

I'm not even disappointed. Given how absolutely crap we were for most of the season, us getting 5th indicates that if we aren't totally shit next year we can definitely do some damage next year.

Gotta say I think Rodgers would be a hilarious appointment. I still think he should go to a decent Serie A side and give that 2 years to show what he can do as a short term manager - I think it's pretty clear he's only effective at a club in short bursts and is 100% the wrong guy to oversee a rebuild. I feel for @Storts and other Spurs fans though - I have no fucking idea out of who's a realistic candidate for the job that I'd want to bring in. Spurs have a decent squad, but one that's very badly in need of reinforcements for the future. I imagine Kane's probably not to keen on yet another season with a club that's trying to match his ambitions but falling short and needing to rebuild again. I think it's fairly likely he will want away from the club again. But it's hard to have any faith in Levy & co. to match the ambition of fans/Kane and bring in the right sort of person to oversee the rebuilding of the squad. Mourinho was brought in as a serial winner to get Spurs to end their trophy drought and they sacked him on the eve of a final. They brought Conte in after sacking Mourinho and... I don't know why... but expected it to be different to Mourinho. But they've both defense minded managers... Conte's probably even more defensive minded, without the same man-management skills as Mourinho and while being a notoriously ruthless manager in training which often leads to his players feeling burnt out after not too long. I imagine Spurs fans want a manager who's philosophy on football matches their historic philosophy on football - attractive & expansive attacking football is what I've come to expect from Spurs over my life... I understand it. It's nicer to watch good football. I think fans could forgive Mourinho/Conte style management if it meant some silverware in the trophy room. Obviously the "best case" scenario for them is someone that plays the sort of football they'd want to see... but can also help them turn the corner and go on to be genuinely competitive on all fronts when the squad is at that level.... but that's a massive ask, I think, especially with some of the names that have been thrown out. Honestly, if they give Rodgers 2 years to impart his philosophy on players... but they also spend the next 2 years looking for Rodgers' replacement (and also giving him minimal say in transfers, although that's pretty tough with their DOF banned from football - or did they replace him?) and planning to bin Rodgers off after he's taken Spurs back to playing decent football... that might be their best long-term option. Bit shit for Rodgers, but fuck him tbh.

I'm surprised you had any faith in Chelsea to help us. They can't even help themselves. Clueless ownership, no real stable planning for the future... or even for the short term, and players that don't look like they give a fuck so long as they keep getting paid.

Higher than I thought tbh. I think Ron DeSantis's chances of getting the republican nomination are pretty low right now after his twitter disaster - he and Elon Musk end up looking like clowns ready to take on lots of public ridicule... whereas the democrats and the MAGA idiots are getting ample opportunity to shit on him constantly. I also think his political prospects are a lot lower than they would have been had he not pissed off one of the largest employers and biggest draws of tourism to Florida, so I think him deciding to go to war with Disney was... idiotic. But outside of Florida... it seems just, very easy to attack DeSantis on the Disney stuff. "If you can't handle Disney, how can you handle China?' Is something I imagine any decent journalist would want to ask at any press conference on the campaign trail. He doesn't really have an answer that works for a question like that - it'll just make him angry and he'll try to do the Trump thing where he attempts to bully a journalist... but it hasn't really worked for him on the national level acting like that.

Mushrooms, ground pepper, minced garlic cloves & shallots, salt, parsley, and cheese (I use different sorts depending on what I've got around).

There was a time I thought he'd be a brilliant replacement for Gini Wijnaldum. But honestly, the way he's let his standards drop over the last 2 seasons were massive red flags. We had 2/3 of a season where it looked like some players were just coasting... it made me question the mentality of some of the players until they started to turn it around (which also took a bit of a tactical shift from Klopp to build up some form because the old tactics were also shit). Truthfully he's probably somewhere in between how he was at his best a few years ago and how poor he's been this season. There's things like confidence that play a part in how a player performs. But when you see a player look like they can no longer be bothered to turn up to at least put a shift in for the sake of the fans attending the matches for more than a season... it's a worrying display of the wrong sort of attitude any football fan wants to see of their players.

Well shit I'll try that again... 2 6

Are we? I don't really see how he fits in with us tbh.

That's shit RIP

It's plain as day that they'd be doing the same sort of financial doping for their sportwashing project as their Emirati puppets. So it's not really surprising - I wouldn't expect them to try to hide it.

2 6

It's mental how I went from thinking "wow he's brilliant, top clubs will want to be snapping him up soon" to thinking "what a lazy piece of shit" - I dunno if it's a bad attitude or if he's just got massive confidence issues... but he's been so poor this year and last year I think we started to see signs of him getting out on the pitch and not giving a fuck. I'm not a Leicester fan... but if I was... I think I'd really dislike him tbh. I can forgive a player that doesn't necessarily have the quality... but puts in the effort and fight. But he's got the quality and has refused to put up the sort of fight Leicester needed this season.