10 hours ago, nonotnowjim said:

Not my point at all.

We can think that the final league position is acceptable - or even good - without dropping standards to the extent that we are celebrating failure.

A quiet resolve to get better - build on the foundation - and move forward, whilst acknowledging that 4th place was a good final league position, would be professional and show the players have the right mentality. Instead they show a small club mentality - with an OTT self congratulating w**kfest.

We lost to Liverpool. We lost to arsenal. We lost to both, whilst playing sh*t football.

Maresca has clearly done an outstanding job to get us into the Champions' League (even without this 5th place nonsense) with naught but an irredeemable donkey up front.

In the same breath everyone seems to be suddenly praising Maresca for squeaking out a 1-0 win at Nottingham Forest to gain Champions League football in the weakest Premier League season in modern history it’s worth remembering we should have never been in that position in the first place.

Defensively the final 3rd of the season we’ve definitely improved leaps and bounds.

Offensively we’ve regressed massively as the season has worn on.

That needs fixing going into next year. If it wasn’t for the unforgivable run of form between December-April we’d have had CL secured weeks ago.

City will strengthen this summer, Liverpool won’t weaken, Arsenal will finally get a competent striker this summer, Spurs will sack Ange off and be more tactically astute next season, Utd don’t have any European distractions so should improve in the league, Newcastle with CL qualification will be able to strengthen that squad and hang on to Isak. The only ‘threat’ I expect to be worse off is Villa.

The football we play is boring, to the point of tears. But it’s worked. Hopefully with some more confidence in himself and the squads ability Maresca will Open things up a little more next year and allow us to be challengers instead of also rans.

2 hours ago, Sexyfootball said:

Don't like the bloke but he gets credit for fixing the defence (7 clean sheets in our last 12 games, including five 1-0 wins, is undoubtedly what got us over the line to CL qualification), albeit amusing that most people still want a new goal keeper and centre back, and have concerns about the defensive qualities of the left back.

He's also got us back in the Champions League in a very competitive year, which is noteworthy in itself.

Still multiple question marks for me though. Needs to find a way to retain the defensive solidity but also improve the attacking intent and entertainment level. I suspect key to that will be whether we stick with the likes of Fernandez, Jackson, Neto, Madueke, Sancho or go to market in search of better players. Hoping Estevao will be the right level to help Palmer more than that lot. Striker signing needs to be the priority for me, and maybe even two of them.

Going by this, if Santos and Estevao are the bees knees, we only really need one striker to complete the squad for now.

2 hours ago, PloKoon13 said:

Maresca has clearly done an outstanding job to get us into the Champions' League (even without this 5th place nonsense) with naught but an irredeemable donkey up front.

Ahh - but you see, Maresca is the fool who kept selecting him. So it is his fault that he was playing in the first place, leaving us slugging it out with one hand behind our back.

31 minutes ago, Deino said:

Going by this, if Santos and Estevao are the bees knees, we only really need one striker to complete the squad for now.

I mean, it's a leap of faith and all that, but yes that could well be the case.

Santos and Essugo to bolster the midfield pivot options where Fernandez has looked weak.

Estevao to be more productive in the front 4 than Neto/Sancho ; Tyrique George to kick on. Two strikers who actually look natural in the role and have the right instinct. Guiu does have these attributes but is a bit too raw/young to play a leading role for me, although I'd fancy him to step up if he was given the opportunity. xG of 73 vs actual goals of 64 says we definitely need some additions up front, even if the club hierarchy are blind to the Jackson eye test !

Think we need a left back and a #1 GK though. Defence has looked much improved, but I'm not sure how sustainable that will be without reinforcements somewhere as I think we had some good luck at times not to concede more than we did. Looking at our xGA on the Understat website for example, we should have shipped 54 in the league, so conceding only 43 was probably a combination factor of some above average shot stopping from Sanchez and some poor finishing from opponents saving us 11 goals against. Certainly on the eye test we do still seem to give up a lot of good chances (to Wood yesterday for example).

Interesting that on xPTS we were 6th (vs 5th last season). Got to love the stats LOL

https://understat.com/league/EPL

16 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I wish we had a few Maracas, it may make the performances more enjoyable.

Ffs, spell correct has done me dirty 🤣

The squad for next season UCL in mind I though I'd compare our squad to also youthful PSG's side and their predicted UCL final starting XI:

GK: Gianluigi Donnarumma - World Class

RB: Achraf Hakimi - World Class

CB: Marquinhos - World Class

CB: Willian Pacho – The 23-year-old

LB: Nuno Mendes - 22 yr old

CM: Joao Neves – 20-year-old

*CM: Vitinha – 25 year old

*CM: Fabian Ruiz - age 29 won Euro's with Spain

*amazing midfield duo that fits Enrique's idea perfectly.

RW: Desire Doue – Celebrates his 20th birthday three days after the final

ST: Ousmane Dembele – Ballon D'or candidate

LW: Khvicha Kvaratskhelia – World Class

I agree with many that our starting XI is pretty far from the level of PSG's and the age profile for us is much lower and the experience on that level is laughable. James, Sancho and Cucurella has the experience on that level, Enzo less so.

I am sure we are not going to win the UCL next season but we must get a bit of experience and especially quality to the squad during the summer; keeper (Petrovic), striker, center back and a winger (what happens to MM and Sancho?). If someone is thinking what the circumstances are, they are this.

BUT to reiterate we have very much talent and potential in our squad most competitiors are in envy. Not all of them will see their long contracts run through and the squad needs tweaking but the basis is good.

I've been reading footy 365 and listening to MOTD on iplayer.

Footy 365 said after our rocky patch we only won by one goal and lost only to Arsenal and Newcastle.

We also had the youngest team in the League.

Micah Richards and Lineker both think Chelsea did well considering Maresca was a new manager and had a young squad.

4 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

Micah Richards and Lineker both think Chelsea did well considering Maresca was a new manager and had a young squad.

After his social media presence I think Linekars opinions mean absolutely f**k all the Anti-Semitic Commie c**t.

8 minutes ago, The Boehly Babes said:

After his social media presence I think Linekars opinions mean absolutely f**k all the Anti-Semitic Commie c**t.

I think he is still a pretty solid football mind.

However I suggest not listening to pundits on Chelsea. Use your own brain. It is much better as a tool assessing our business.

Carragher himself was so badly embarrassed by Chelsea on his day he is always choosing the negative outcome to us as he hates us.

Never listen to pundits.

52 minutes ago, The Boehly Babes said:

After his social media presence I think Linekers opinions mean absolutely f**k all the Anti-Semitic Commie c**t.

I think he his comments on football normally have merit though on other things he should not have used his position to promote his other opinions on politics and world affairs.

1 hour ago, Sexyfootball said:

I mean, it's a leap of faith and all that, but yes that could well be the case.

Santos and Essugo to bolster the midfield pivot options where Fernandez has looked weak.

Estevao to be more productive in the front 4 than Neto/Sancho ; Tyrique George to kick on. Two strikers who actually look natural in the role and have the right instinct. Guiu does have these attributes but is a bit too raw/young to play a leading role for me, although I'd fancy him to step up if he was given the opportunity. xG of 73 vs actual goals of 64 says we definitely need some additions up front, even if the club hierarchy are blind to the Jackson eye test !

Think we need a left back and a #1 GK though. Defence has looked much improved, but I'm not sure how sustainable that will be without reinforcements somewhere as I think we had some good luck at times not to concede more than we did. Looking at our xGA on the Understat website for example, we should have shipped 54 in the league, so conceding only 43 was probably a combination factor of some above average shot stopping from Sanchez and some poor finishing from opponents saving us 11 goals against. Certainly on the eye test we do still seem to give up a lot of good chances (to Wood yesterday for example).

Interesting that on xPTS we were 6th (vs 5th last season). Got to love the stats LOL

https://understat.com/league/EPL

Personally, I think Cucu is good enough, granted I don't watch football much recently but there isn't a lot out there that's better than Cucu these days. GK-wise Sanchez is actually good when he sticks to basics and fundamentals, could we get someone better? For sure, but we have a lot of GK clearouts before we can begin signing one imo.

In order of urgency, I'd say we need

1 Striker (who can create goals out of nothing)

1 creative forward (physically better than Sancho but can share the burden of playmaking and goalscoring from Palmer, hoping that's)

1 midfielder (Essugo or Santos would be perfect if they continue their form)

1 CB (we should sell Fofana, Badiashile, whoever else other than Trevoh, Tosin(for now) and Colwill) someone like a Thiago whose done it all but still has a chip on his shoulder

1 LB (someone better than Cucu)

1 GK (after we sell Kepa, Bergstrom, Slonina and whoever else keeper we don't need)

I think a team of

GK: New keeper, Petrovic, Sanchez

LB: new LB, Cucu

RB: James, Gusto

CB: Colwill, Trevoh, Tosin, new CB

CM: Lavia, Caicedo, Enzo, Santos, Essugo

RW: Palmer, Madueke

LW: Neto, Estevao

CF: new CF, Guiu

Is good enough for challenging on all fronts with youth on their side. We can put in some top performing youth to close the gaps.

Asking for 5 signings is a bit much but considering we don't have an urgent need for the CB,GK, LB positions we can integrate the loanees back depending on how the window shapes up.

That said, we need to sell Mudryk, Sterling, Kepa, the random GKs we keep hoarding, Ben (if he really can't get into Maresca's side), Felix, Disasi, Ugochukwu, Carney, Veiga and the other youth loanees that can't kick on. I'm on the fence on Fofana but can't count on his legs for now so I'd rather we sell now than continuing on hoping

Sell Enzo if the proposal is good but only if we sign someone better first.

Edited May 26, 20251 yr by Deino

12 minutes ago, Deino said:

Personally, I think Cucu is good enough, granted I don't watch football much recently but there isn't a lot out there that's better than Cucu these days. GK-wise Sanchez is actually good when he sticks to basics and fundamentals, could we get someone better? For sure, but we have a lot of GK clearouts before we can begin signing one imo.

In order of urgency, I'd say we need

1 Striker (who can create goals out of nothing)

1 creative forward (physically better than Sancho but can share the burden of playmaking and goalscoring from Palmer, hoping that's)

1 midfielder (Essugo or Santos would be perfect if they continue their form)

1 CB (we should sell Fofana, Badiashile, whoever else other than Trevoh, Tosin(for now) and Colwill) someone like a Thiago whose done it all but still has a chip on his shoulder

1 LB (someone better than Cucu)

1 GK (after we sell Kepa, Bergstrom, Slonina and whoever else keeper we don't need)

I think a team of

GK: New keeper, Petrovic, Sanchez

LB: new LB, Cucu

RB: James, Gusto

CB: Colwill, Trevoh, Tosin, new CB

CM: Lavia, Caicedo, Enzo, Santos, Essugo

RW: Palmer, Madueke

LW: Neto, Estevao

CF: new CF, Guiu

Is good enough for challenging on all fronts with youth on their side. We can put in some top performing youth to close the gaps.

Asking for 5 signings is a bit much but considering we don't have an urgent need for the CB,GK, LB positions we can integrate the loanees back depending on how the window shapes up.

That said, we need to sell Mudryk, Sterling, Kepa, the random GKs we keep hoarding, Ben (if he really can't get into Maresca's side), Felix, Disasi, Ugochukwu, Carney, Veiga and the other youth loanees that can't kick on. I'm on the fence on Fofana but can't count on his legs for now so I'd rather we sell now than continuing on hoping

Sell Enzo if the proposal is good but only if we sign someone better first.

Where’s Jackson?

15 minutes ago, Dr. Socrates said:

Where’s Jackson?

Kidnapped by jim probably.

20 minutes ago, Dr. Socrates said:

Where’s Jackson?

Hopefully sold to a lower league team.if they want him

Edited May 26, 20251 yr by guddy69

56 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

I think he his comments on football normally have merit though on other things he should not have used his position to promote his other opinions on politics and world affairs.

Eh, Andrew Neil whilst on the BBC routinely wrote for the pro-Tory outlet Spectator

Jeremy Clarkson tweeted out that striking workers should be shot in front of their families

Lineker himself tweeted out to 'bin Corbyn' a few years back, which seemed to generate no controversy at all.

Not to mention the director general of the BBC, Tim Davie, quite literally stood as a Conservative MP candidate in 1993.

If he'd made political comments live on MOTD that's one thing, but he hasn't been any less impartial than the others on the station.

Edited May 26, 20251 yr by Drogba1

1 hour ago, The Boehly Babes said:

After his social media presence I think Linekars opinions mean absolutely f**k all the Anti-Semitic Commie c**t.

Umm, it was those " commie c**ts" who were imprisoned in Concentration camps along with Jews.

And it was the ultra right wing who put them there . And those " commie c**ts" were the first to liberate Jews and others from those camps. .

That said , Linker was way out of order using the old right wing image of rats in his criticism of Israel, any criticism of course is labelled antisemitism anyway.. , we've had our very own right wing racists and antisemitic groups attaching themselve to our club in the past along with our very own " Auswitch" song celebrating the gassing of Jews. . Abramovich as a Jew put in place educational trips ( I think).to educate fans about the Holocaust..

Thankfully, and hopefully, that's all in the past, although Enzo Fernandez managed to bring the club back into the spotlight again with his "songs," . Enough politics for now, so pleased we got CL football, we won't have the luxury of playing a midweek "B" squad though, let's see how far we can go .

Come on you BLUES !!

1 minute ago, The Rising Sun said:

Umm, it was those " commie c**ts" who were imprisoned in Concentration camps along with Jews.

And it was the ultra right wing who put them there . And those " commie c**ts" were the first to liberate Jews and others from those camps. .

That said , Linker was way out of order using the old right wing image of rats in his criticism of Israel, any criticism of course is labelled antisemitism anyway.. , we've had our very own right wing racists and antisemitic groups attaching themselve to our club in the past along with our very own " Auswitch" song celebrating the gassing of Jews. . Abramovich as a Jew put in place educational trips ( I think).to educate fans about the Holocaust..

Thankfully, and hopefully, that's all in the past, although Enzo Fernandez managed to bring the club back into the spotlight again with his "songs," . Enough politics for now, so pleased we got CL football, we won't have the luxury of playing a midweek "B" squad though, let's see how far we can go .

Come on you BLUES !!

Should also be mentioned that Lineker immediately deleted the post and apologised when he saw that a rat emoji was racist towards Jewish people, but that wasn't enough for the cancel mob

I don't think most people on the street would know that a rat comparison is uniquely historically racist towards Jewish people, in a way that it wouldn't be towards other races

I hate everyone on here who wants Enzo Maresca sacked. You might be mentally unwell. With W Fofana injured and R James not playing often either, Maresca has done brilliantly. I wanted T Tuchel to come back, would we have won the league with Tuchel? Almost certainly no. As for "entertainment", well B Shankly apparently said, "if you want to be entertained, go to the circus". B Clough's Forest didn't entertain neutrals much of the time.

I agree with most Aussies and Americans, football-soccer isn't all that entertaining to watch. Generally NFL and NRL matches are more entertaining to watch than top class soccer matches.

We're in the Champions League so he deserves to start next season.

I would like him sacked but I can't complain if he stays. We achieved Champions league but as someone said, we shouldn't have been in this position in the first place. Taking a points away from home in 2025 before yesterday is criminal.

We're so lucky Forest had a meltdown and that Liverpool were hungover.

I domt care about the football, I care about the results. When the results and the football are both bad, we have a massive problem and that's what Maresca served us in 2025.

Exciting, fast, entertaining football isn't impossible to play.. It's a choice.

14 minutes ago, Llangennech said:

I hate everyone on here who wants Enzo Maresca sacked. You might be mentally unwell. With W Fofana injured and R James not playing often either, Maresca has done brilliantly. I wanted T Tuchel to come back, would we have won the league with Tuchel? Almost certainly no. As for "entertainment", well B Shankly apparently said, "if you want to be entertained, go to the circus". B Clough's Forest didn't entertain neutrals much of the time.

I agree with most Aussies and Americans, football-soccer isn't all that entertaining to watch. Generally NFL and NRL matches are more entertaining to watch than top class soccer matches.

29 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Exciting, fast, entertaining football isn't impossible to play.. It's a choice.

It doesn't even have to be a full on 90min exciting, fast, entertaining football.

Even a 50-70minute one is good enough

21 minutes ago, The Rising Sun said:

Exciting, fast, entertaining football isn't impossible to play.. It's a choice.

Fast at times is possible at times. Only three or four teams in Europe can play like that as you need many top top players. We don't have a plethora of top players. Look how we won the 2021 Champions League. Look at the money Mr Abramovic threw at the team to try and get us to play like Barcelona, we can't play like them as we don't interpret the laws the same way as La Liga. I'm going off the point now, back to the point, we don't have many very good players.

1 hour ago, Drogba1 said:

Eh, Andrew Neil whilst on the BBC routinely wrote for the pro-Tory outlet Spectator

Jeremy Clarkson tweeted out that striking workers should be shot in front of their families

Lineker himself tweeted out to 'bin Corbyn' a few years back, which seemed to generate no controversy at all.

Not to mention the director general of the BBC, Tim Davie, quite literally stood as a Conservative MP candidate in 1993.

If he'd made political comments live on MOTD that's one thing, but he hasn't been any less impartial than the others on the station.

💯 % this.

1 hour ago, Llangennech said:

Fast at times is possible at times. Only three or four teams in Europe can play like that as you need many top top players. We don't have a plethora of top players. Look how we won the 2021 Champions League. Look at the money Mr Abramovic threw at the team to try and get us to play like Barcelona, we can't play like them as we don't interpret the laws the same way as La Liga. I'm going off the point now, back to the point, we don't have many very good players.

Thanks for reply mate.. We showed that we actually could play fast, exciting football during early season and were 2nd at one point. . It was terrific to watch. But this wasn't what Maresca wanted, he wanted us to " control" the game

Once Maresca had imposed his preferred, control, slow, style on the team it was dreadful to watch.