Dr. Gonzo

Mexico fucked up big time tbh, they responded too slow and didn’t take things seriously enough to impose restrictions early on. Story of pretty much most of the American countries other than Canada tbh. But Mexico’s inaction after seeing what was going on with their neighbors to the north and in Brazil... it makes it almost unforgivable. In San Diego, which is right on the border, the communities most effected by the virus were/are the post codes literally right on the border. There are also lots of people, both Americans and Mexicans, that live in Tijuana/Ensenada and work in the San Diego - because the pay is so much higher in the US, but housing is so much more affordable, so to them it’s worth the 2hr+ commute (although the fast-track card to get across the border helps cut that time significantly). I’m sure that’s the case with many other cities on the border that have a sister city literally right across the other side of the border. Neither the US nor Mexico shut down the border (I think both sides were scared to further slow trade down in the face of an economic meltdown), or placed restrictions on border crossings. Mexico didn’t put restrictions on as many public gatherings or businesses until far too late, which meant you’d get Americans tired of being home for weeks/months driving down to Mexico so they could go to bars and shit like that and enjoy the fun they were missing out on. When you’ve got lack of direction from the government (which both the US and Mexico have, just in different ways), you rely on people to be responsible enough to prevent outbreaks. Humanity’s history demonstrates that most people aren’t responsible at all. But Mexico exploding with cases shouldn’t surprise anyone tbh. It’s a country that’s had decades of political instability and the home of the most violent scenes of the drug war. And it’s neighbor to the north is essentially the global equivalent of a rich methhead that also does steroids. It’s never good to have a meth head as a neighbor, but it’s much worse to have a meth head neighbor that’s strong and rich enough to do whatever it wants. And they haven’t even got their own house in order from decades of instability. That’s why the country’s been such a mess for so long, and why a crisis like this will hit it so bad.

Yup - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-53630497

I've started playing Rocket League again. That game is timeless imo, I'll probably be playing it for as long as they keep servers up and running.

I'm not sure cost shouldn't be a factor? If Coutinho was a cheaper player and not on bigger wages, he'd probably still be getting a chance at Barca to turn his career around. With great expense comes great expectation. I think Pulisic's done well actually for his first season though. You can argue his price was pretty high (although pre-covid prices... seemed to be a decent price for a potentially great winger if he unlocks that promise he showed pretty early on), but I think expectations were a bit tempered because he was coming off the back of a season where he didn't look as good as when he first broke out (which can be an issue if you never kick on... Dele Alli...), Chelsea had just lost their main creative spark in Hazard, and I think people were willing to afford him the time to settle in. And when he first joined... yeah, looked a bit shite... but that sometimes happens when you switch leagues, so you just have to hope they eventually settle in. And his role in the side changed and he swapped flanks and pretty clearly settled in - I think he's done a good job to show his manager that he's got plenty of reason to rely on him in the coming season. And I think value for money wise, if he keeps that up... there's no way he can reasonably be labeled a flop. And labeling him one in a first season like that would have been harsh, regardless because we've seen in the past some players are a bit shit when they first join a club. Then they really kick on and show everyone how good they can be.

Most talented players are still talented when they flop, they're just in a circumstance that doesn't set them up for success. Two good examples are Salah and KDB, didn't make the cut at Chelsea and then prospered elsewhere. It's different when an expensive signing fails because of some sort of physical reason, but shit like Pulisic not looking as good in his final season at Dortmund or not fitting in right away at Chelsea doesn't necessarily mean he's suddenly gone from looking great to shit. Maybe he's a confidence player, maybe he needs to be used in a really specific way to get the best out of him? Who knows. But yeah, players flop all the time. Doesn't mean players can't still be pretty good players just in a shit circumstance. When a player never rebounds from flopping (like say someone like Balotelli) then I think it's a more fair label. But had Pulisic been that bad for that long that we'd just assume he was no longer a talented young player? Nah. Especially not during his first season in a new league.

These top level athletes are hyper competitive. These individual awards are things they can point to that set them apart from their colleagues at the end of the day. And when your colleagues are some of the best footballers in the world, that’s got to feel great to people who are hardwired to be constantly competing. The other day Vardy was talking about the golden boot like it was just as good as winning the league, so it’s pretty clear to the players personally... these individual honours are very very important. I’m sure most of us would agree... Mane was rewarded for his excellent season with a league winners medal. He’s also clearly one of the most admired players in the league for what he’s done this season. He’s got fans, pundits, players all singing his praises. He’ll be remembered for his efforts this season. But I don’t think it’s surprising elite level athletes competing at the best care a lot about the recognition in their fields.

Oh shit, happy birthday @DeadLinesman even though I'm several days late now.

On that top graph there’s a club that’s missing at least 2 instances of light green for VAR review giving blatant non-penalties as penalties tbh.

I see the “they never do no matter who you are” and then I remember every fucking pundit in England telling us Roy Hodgson wasn’t out of his depth with Liverpool and we should be happy to be right near the relegation spots. The media never turned on him, we were just lucky our American owners took a pulse of the fan base and did something to remedy the intense toxicity around the club. Chelsea are so quick to sack though, it might not even matter if the media loves him

Tbh it’s a bit shit having a media darling at the helm when everything goes wrong. The media doubles down its support of their man and attacks the fans that are critical and then there’s this air of toxicity whenever you play. But tbh I like Fat Frank and he’s a legend, even though I don’t really like Chelsea, so hopefully the time never comes when he’s lost the plot and the media will come out and try to gaslight Chelsea fans. Would be shit for everyone involved. Well except people who hate Chelsea, they’d love it.

Lol as if the media would ever turn against Fat Frank. Aside from being well “in” with the media as one of their darlings, he’s related to the Redknapps. If shit ever goes really wrong with his tenure, the media will never be screaming for the axe to come down on him.

I mean, depends how you look at it. He's not done well since leaving us, and maybe he never will reach those heights again because he'll never be on a team that good again that's built around him. But maybe he will. But in terms of a players "physical prime/peak". He's 28, most people's physical prime is 28-29 (granted, not true for everyone). But chances he's a completely spent force, when he's not a player that really relied on pace or physicality primarily... and hasn't had injuries to affect those parts of his game, I think are unlikely. He's failed at Barca and Bayern because he does best when a side's attack runs through him, whereas at Barca and Bayern they've got better players than him and they're not going to change what's worked for them to build a side around him. Tbh, I don't even know why Barca signed him as they didn't want to use him where he proved effective for us. I think Bayern fans have said he's done alright, but not as good as a player that's on the kind of wages and would cost the amount he costs should do. I think he needs to do what he did when he left Inter, or similar to what Riquelme did in leaving Barca - go to a club that'll make him a centrepiece of how they create and attack, and you'll get the best from Coutinho. You can argue this makes him a bit of a "luxury player" because when there's a solid team unit... you might argue he doesn't quite fit in and maybe the side is better without him. I think if Arsenal signed him and built their midfield and attack around him feeding Aubamayang, they'd end up looking a lot fucking better going forward than they do currently. Although, should he be a priority for them? Probably not... but I don't know. There's so much about Arsenal - I think Arsenal need big changes in defense and midfield and I'm glad I'm not anywhere near involved in figuring out how they start going about being less mediocre.

Any signings they make, unless they clear the deadwood (which may be harder than it sounds), will inflate their wage bill. If they want to cut the wage bill, there's a big chunk just going to one man that's not made any real meaningful contribution to the club in years. But they're never going to shift off Ozil without subsidising some of his wages, so they're a bit fucked in that regard.

This is just false

We tried that for a while... it didn't really work out as well as buying a top keeper, defender, and defensive midfielder while having those good attackers though.

Pretty poor for a player-manager like him, tbh.

They also lost their best player last season and so much of everything good Chelsea did last season ran through Hazard. He was a big loss for them. Tbf, there've been questions asked of him on why Chelsea haven't improved their defending (especially on set pieces because he played for Mourinho ). I think all things considered, with a transfer ban and losing their best player... he's had a decent season. I do agree with you, he's a media darling so he'll probably never really get the same criticism he'd get if he were say some Spanish guy who says "good ebening." I do think it's weird how Chelsea look to be spending big to revamp their attack, when really I think they ought to be focusing on fixing that defense up... because they'll immediately see an improvement in the amount of points they get next season if they spend big on defenders. Maybe the idea is with the revamped attack, they'll be spending less time defending. But I think there's a more simple solution to improving this Chelsea side.

Nah we've got plenty of old people on here. And old people don't say probs.

We're building new training facilities, we've got a big wage budget. When Arsenal were building a new stadium, they were also a bit tight with money as well. We didn't just sign VVD, Fabinho and Alisson out of nowhere - we had to sell Coutinho for that. I'm not saying we're not going to make signings or that we're skint. It's just we're not likely to be making any big money moves right now.

Not a lot to level at him right now, tbh. At the beginning of the season, Chelsea fans were talking about hoping for top 6... so he's beaten that. And I think cup run would just be a plus for them... and now they're in a FA Cup final. They're shit at defending, but he's done well this season - not a lot to criticise really. For us to be signing Havertz, we'd need to be selling someone more expensive than Shaqiri would go for tbh. It'd be someone like Mane or Salah for the fees that are being talked about with Havertz... and in that case, I'd rather go with what we know works for the system we're employing on the pitch now than make wholesale changes. I definitely think the squad could do with some rejuvenation, but all of our important players... I want to keep those. Gini Wijnaldum signing a contract extension is our most pressing thing to work out this summer, tbh. After that we've got to bolster the depth at the club with players that can push the starting XI. With covid, I don't see us dropping serious money on massive players this season.

I always liked him and I like Roma, for some reason, so I hope he goes on to have a good end to his career. I think Serie A football will suit him a bit better than the prem nowadays.

Chelsea haven’t really spent money like they used to and have actually made a lot of money off sales. And they had a transfer ban for breaking rules on signing youngsters (which is actually funny as this is the first year in a long time they’ve really relied on their, very good mind you, academy). I’m sure now they’ve seen how to get away with breaking FFP we might see a less “self-sufficient” Chelsea again though. But I actually think Werner at the price they paid is a pretty good deal in this day and age... so even that you can’t so much level the charge that was once true that they were ruining the transfer market. PSG & Citeh sort of well upped the ante there tbh. Chelsea were always going to spend a lot after the ban was over and they sold Hazard. I’m not that surprised. But if we see them sign Havertz and an expensive CB... yeah they’re probably breaking FFP rules and are ready to not give evidence over in a timely fashion and pay a comparatively small fine.

Ozil’s a spent force, Coutinho’s in his prime, does a lot more defensive work than Ozick, and it’s not that long ago he was one of the best players in the league. He’d walk into your midfield, easy. Arsenal aren’t too big that they can’t build a side around Coutinho to improve where they are currently. Especially not in their current state. And the best you’ll see from him is when the side is built around him in attack.

If Covid threatens to cancel next season... I imagine fans still wouldn’t be allowed in. And a lot of lower league clubs would likely fold, so let’s hope covid is under control sooner rather than later.

Lol our closest title rival this season was covid-19