11 hours ago, The Boehly Babes said:

@nonotnowjim are you about for this famous meet up to finally happen?!

Not this week - currently over in italy. Back in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, so will let Ukraine B take me out for a coffee on sunday or next week if he is about.

14 minutes ago, nonotnowjim said:

Not this week - currently over in italy. Back in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, so will let Ukraine B take me out for a coffee on sunday or next week if he is about.

What do you do for a living? You always seem to be everywhere.

1 hour ago, nonotnowjim said:

Not this week - currently over in italy. Back in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, so will let Ukraine B take me out for a coffee on sunday or next week if he is about.

And you've brought us, finally, some warm weather. Good on you.

53 minutes ago, PloKoon13 said:

What do you do for a living? You always seem to be everywhere.

Not much.... the travelling gets in the way of work. 🫣

I have worked overseas since 2008, aside from 2yrs back in London in 2017 ish.

Pakistan, Beirut, Nigeria and now UAE. Working on a variety of thematic areas (ranging from Immigration, Foreign Policy, Conflict and stabilisation, CT).

The recent travel spree has been outside the norm!

Edit: All lies....i am constantly in the USA if you believe UB

Edited June 10, 20251 yr by nonotnowjim

1 minute ago, dermott said:

And you've brought us, finally, some warm weather. Good on you.

the football sucks....but the view is bearable

The Juvenile approach to the Mike Maignan deal was that last straw on the camel for some; possibly myself included. Todd, I have faith YOU want winning teams, but I don’t know how much say you even have there now. The 401k managers and the bargain director twins seem to think you get awards for portfolio valuations.

You guys made some mistakes with strategically breaking from “the plan” in the beginning. Sterling’s contract is a nightmare, I get it. But you can’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. The players want the structure they agree to to be important, but they also want to win if they are worth their salt, and they’ll leave anyway if we don’t win things. The Maignan signing could have been team changing, and the way it was handled was petulant and embarrassing. Another team will see him available and pay that cheap fee. And no, our goalies are NOT good enough.

You are also basketball owners so you should know this: 4 quarters don’t equal a dollar. You can’t replace a dollar signing 100 quarters.

Your scouts are horrible. I came on here and begged you not to sign Nkunku, a flimsy, delicate flower that liked to sneak into the lanes left by other players to put away goals. Not good enough in the ball. Not creative. Needs another striker to play off of, but can’t play the wings. My exact synopsis. We have wasted/lost enough on signings like him and Felix (non promising-youth signings) to fund an Osimhen, Rodrygo, etc etc 10 times over.

This team can win. But the time to sign 5 undervalued options at each spot to find one is OVER. We have fleshed out a decent team, and now we need targeted, known killers. They can even fit the age models for the most part, but don’t waiver. If everything tells you we need to add Morgan rogers? Do it, but don’t sign some guy a metrics site says is “close” to save 30m. The other teams are gearing up. “Close” will leave you in 10th after next season.

18 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

What do you do for a living? You always seem to be everywhere.

Hes an international man whore....

don’t like these Twitter accounts but the summary is funny. Year 4 of the circus is here.

I'm not familiar with that Twitter account, but that is a f**king (I suspect deliberately and disingenuously) terrible summary of this 9-day window. Why does it totally fail to mention the Delap signing?

42 minutes ago, bluedave said:

I'm not familiar with that Twitter account, but that is a f**king (I suspect deliberately and disingenuously) terrible summary of this 9-day window. Why does it totally fail to mention the Delap signing?

TBF while I do think Delap is a good signing at a virtually risk free price it was a release clause (fixed £30m if Ipswich got relegated), it’s when the board have to negotiate a transfer fee with other clubs that our incompetence appears.

Edited June 11, 20251 yr by 2211

1 hour ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

don’t like these Twitter accounts but the summary is funny. Year 4 of the circus is here.

Compare and contrast to City's negotiators, who have landed all the targets they went for to strengthen for the Club World Cup (Ait-Nouri, Cherki, and now Reijnders confirmed as well) and also managed to take Bettinelli off our hands to replace Carson as their 3rd keeper. No guarantees any of them will work out of course, but at least they have taken some positive action to address weaknesses in the squad.

30 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

Compare and contrast to City's negotiators, who have landed all the targets they went for to strengthen for the Club World Cup (Ait-Nouri, Cherki, and now Reijnders confirmed as well) and also managed to take Bettinelli off our hands to replace Carson as their 3rd keeper. No guarantees any of them will work out of course, but at least they have taken some positive action to address weaknesses in the squad.

Exactly!

I honestly don’t understand people praising the board from walking away from these deals when City just got on with it and got targets that IMO improve them without trying to hoodwink their fans by going on about “CWC Tax”.

1 hour ago, 2211 said:

TBF while I do think Delap is a good signing at a virtually risk free price it was a release clause (fixed £30m if Ipswich got relegated), it’s when the board have to negotiate a transfer fee with other clubs that our incompetence appears.

The Delap signing was our most significant activity during the 9-day window, so to leave it off the "summary" seems very suspicious.

I'm generally in favour of not allowing the likes of Dortmund, Milan, etc., gauge us for exorbitant fees in order to 'get it done' before some nonsense deadline, but that seems to be an unpopular opinion on here. The real transfer window runs from June 16th until September 1st.

These owners are not interested in winning anything for at least 3 years based on the actions that these directors are taking.

We are in the same position in 2004, just a few injection of quality players in the right spots would easily have us winning the league.

We are doing an Arsenal

1 hour ago, 2211 said:

Exactly!

I honestly don’t understand people praising the board from walking away from these deals when City just got on with it and got targets that IMO improve them without trying to hoodwink their fans by going on about “CWC Tax”.

Not sure who is praising the board of walking away from deals. If you talk about Maignan he was offered to us. We weren't actively trying to find a keeper.

Gittens deal we could still go for after the CWC.

I don't understand why people get their feelings so hurt over these player rumour -cases...we know next to nothing of them. For me it is weird we live in a world where we even hear this much of them.

City and PSG are praised here for their business and actions like they are the second coming of the Christ. Whatever our people do is the worst work we've ever seen...to magnify just a bit 😂. This forum should be named TheBlackAndWhite dot com

31 minutes ago, evissy said:

Not sure who is praising the board of walking away from deals. If you talk about Maignan he was offered to us. We weren't actively trying to find a keeper.

Gittens deal we could still go for after the CWC.

I don't understand why people get their feelings so hurt over these player rumour -cases...we know next to nothing of them. For me it is weird we live in a world where we even hear this much of them.

City and PSG are praised here for their business and actions like they are the second coming of the Christ. Whatever our people do is the worst work we've ever seen...to magnify just a bit 😂. This forum should be named TheBlackAndWhite dot com

Rock on Evissy !

I'd like to propose a change of username for you to BlueCo Tinted Spectacles - quite catchy I think !

I am as critical as anyone of these owners, specifically the SDs, but I can't see a problem in refusing to get bent over a barrel for a moonshot at winning $125m.

On the other hand, being a post-season comp in the USA this is potentially a better financial and commercial opportunity than any hope we have in the Champions League, a good opportunity to expand our mark on American (both Nth and Sth) audiences. I'm actually surprised the club isn't taking it more seriously for that reason.

Best regards,

Blueco Tinted Spectacles

11 minutes ago, SydneyChelsea said:

I am as critical as anyone of these owners, specifically the SDs, but I can't see a problem in refusing to get bent over a barrel for a moonshot at winning $125m.

On the other hand, being a post-season comp in the USA this is potentially a better financial and commercial opportunity than any hope we have in the Champions League, a good opportunity to expand our mark on American (both Nth and Sth) audiences. I'm actually surprised the club isn't taking it more seriously for that reason.

Club World Cup is a bit weird comp (new ones usually are) on how we will approach it. Do we start the pre-season early with this comp or is it an extension to the past season. I am sure we are not among the favourites to win it so how do we see it..?

Good point on the exposure. We need a broader fanbase and America is brilliant place to expand it.

41 minutes ago, evissy said:

Not sure who is praising the board of walking away from deals. If you talk about Maignan he was offered to us. We weren't actively trying to find a keeper.

Gittens deal we could still go for after the CWC.

I don't understand why people get their feelings so hurt over these player rumour -cases...we know next to nothing of them. For me it is weird we live in a world where we even hear this much of them.

City and PSG are praised here for their business and actions like they are the second coming of the Christ. Whatever our people do is the worst work we've ever seen...to magnify just a bit 😂. This forum should be named TheBlackAndWhite dot com

They are people saying we were right to walk away and not pay the extra few million.

While this kinda thing happens quite a bit Chelsea chose to brief the media every step of the way and play out the whole saga in public.

Take the Maignan case, surely you do the deal more without the daily media briefings, or say we are not interested we’re good with the goalkeepers with have or do it with conviction.

Chelsea chose none of these options.

City have been decisive and addressed what they consider areas that needed strengthening, while there’s no guarantee all their signings will be a success that is the way to try and improve and move the needle.

And as for the bit where you said we was offered Maignan and wasn’t actively looking for a new goalkeeper, if you prefer the strategy of being offered players instead of manually addressing parts of the team that need improvement and seeking out the right players then I honestly don’t know what to say to you.

You must really struggle with door to door salesman 😂

Edited June 11, 20251 yr by 2211

12 minutes ago, evissy said:

Best regards,

Blueco Tinted Spectacles

Spent 1.6billion, sold academy players to save their bacon for spending that amount of money and found loopholes to avoid PSRs issues.

Fantastic position.

It's often easy to forget we have the most expensive squad in the league, it's actually mind boggling.

3 minutes ago, 2211 said:

They are people saying we were right to walk away and not pay the extra few million.

1.While this kinda thing happens quite a bit Chelsea chose to brief the media every step of the way and play out the whole saga in public.

Take the Maignan case, surely you do the deal more without the daily media briefings, or say we are not interested we’re good with the goalkeepers with have or do it with conviction.

Chelsea chose none of these options.

City have been decisive and addressed what they consider areas that need strengthening, while there’s no guarantee all their signings will be a success that is the way to try and improve and move the needle.

2. And as for the bit where you said we was offered Maignan and wasn’t actively looking for a keeper, if you prefer the being offered players as opposed to addressing parts of the team that need improvement and seeking out the right players then I don’t know what to say to you.

3. You must really struggle with door to door salesman 😂

1. We were actively briefing the media? Is this true and how can you tell? So they send this info willingly to journalists all the way through the twists and turns? I don't know how this thing works honestly.

2. Maignan was an opportunity they chose to look at. Not sure what to tell you. We still have the summer window after CWC. It doesn't change anything if you were emotionally invested in getting Maignan. He was an opportunity and we valued him lower than Milan. End of story.

I am sure they are offered tens of players every window. If there is something there they might take a look.

3. I will always make some coffee offer biscuits to all and every lost soul that wanders behind my door. Be it security system salesman, Jehovan witness or a delivery guy. 😃😉

5 minutes ago, evissy said:

I will always make some coffee offer biscuits to all and every lost soul that wanders behind my door. Be it security system salesman, Jehovan witness or a delivery guy. 😃😉

Just be careful please and never buy a chocolate teapot from these door to door salesman 😉

I tried to serve tea from it and it ended up being a bit useless. It was only 59,99.