19 minutes ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Playing out from the back only really works if the opponents press you. When an opponent lets us have it we don't seem to have a plan B and we just recycle the ball lazily between out CB's and GK until Palmer comes and picks the ball up which drags our best player out of the attack.

Boring and lazy, i want to see counter attacking football again.

I always think of the Monty Python Philosophers football match when we play like that ...

6 minutes ago, Sexyfootball said:

I always think of the Monty Python Philosophers football match when we play like that ...

Archimedes yells "Eureka!" as he discovers the notion of kicking the ball.

Is it just me or is Neto looking a decent forward as a No.9 or inverted No.9

Palmer's form is now at Jackson levels and Nkunku scored with a brave header so it now looks like we have some competition up front.

We may beat Leicester at home and recover 4th assuming we lose 4th today.

Edited February 26, 20251 yr by strider6004

3 minutes ago, strider6004 said:

Is it just me or is Neto looking a decentmforward as a No.9 or inverted No.9

Palmers form is now at Jackson levels and Nkunku scored with a brave header now looks like we have some competition up front.

Neto had experience at 9 at Wolves. Using his speed to draw defenders out of position, running in behind. A decent option under the current circumstances.

2 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

You're championing one warlord over another because of what the media has told you is good or bad.

Back to the original point though, Roman had no credible link to Putin in recent times and certainly not the invasion of Ukraine, therefore this anti-Roman revisionism comes across as nothing more than virtue signaling. The man was scapegoated by the corrupt UK Government and we'd be lucky to be able to welcome him back to the club one day.

I dont accept any of that. You have opinions based on exactly the same information as mine yet yours seem to be more valid in your eyes. I see different leaders in the West yet the same in Russia. Western leaders are allowed to have opposition and if you cant see that I give up. I accept we live under a form of Big Brother but theres very little denying the difference in leadership issues I have mentioned.

The credability of the links to Roman are well reported and its up to you if you believe thats fake news.

As a fan base we need to put the Abramovich years behind us and move on. He is never coming back.

Years ago I liked to think that football was a place I could go to where fair competiion was upheld and we could go along to a match and forget our worries. Now it seems tainted by politics and large business. I'd like the game to get back to how it was before and if you see that as virtue signalling then so be it.

2 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

Playing out from the back only really works if the opponents press you. When an opponent lets us have it we don't seem to have a plan B and we just recycle the ball lazily between out CB's and GK until Palmer comes and picks the ball up which drags our best player out of the attack.

Boring and lazy, i want to see counter attacking football again.

When they don't press you the problem comes closer to their half. Congestion. That is something we have struggled with as well. But the games what I refer to as Goalies going long have been games where opponent presses us deep. Like most sides do these days. I would if I faced us.

Has Maresca really come out and said the keeper will be dropped if he plays it long?

What a f**king idiot. Maresca-Ball is so, so dull. Looking forward to a future without him to be honest.

3 minutes ago, Nibs said:

Has Maresca really come out and said the keeper will be dropped if he plays it long?

What a f**king idiot. Maresca-Ball is so, so dull. Looking forward to a future without him to be honest.

Yep he did, said if he plays it long the keeper will be dropped.

4 hours ago, dermott said:

Archimedes yells "Eureka!" as he discovers the notion of kicking the ball.

For those who have absolutely no idea what we are talking about ... here is the match !

1 hour ago, El regreso said:

Yep he did, said if he plays it long the keeper will be dropped.

HOW LONG IS LONG?

WHAT ABOUT THOSE STUPID GOALKICKS WHERE COLWILL PASSES IT TO HIM AND JORGENSEN PUNTS IT UPFIELD?

3 hours ago, Andy North said:

I dont accept any of that. You have opinions based on exactly the same information as mine yet yours seem to be more valid in your eyes. I see different leaders in the West yet the same in Russia. Western leaders are allowed to have opposition and if you cant see that I give up. I accept we live under a form of Big Brother but theres very little denying the difference in leadership issues I have mentioned.

The credability of the links to Roman are well reported and its up to you if you believe thats fake news.

As a fan base we need to put the Abramovich years behind us and move on. He is never coming back.

Years ago I liked to think that football was a place I could go to where fair competiion was upheld and we could go along to a match and forget our worries. Now it seems tainted by politics and large business. I'd like the game to get back to how it was before and if you see that as virtue signalling then so be it.

correct, I'm stating my opinion just like you stated yours. Of course mine will seem more valid in my eyes, as it's my opinion. Much he same as I'm sure you see yours as more valid.

Back to the original point of Roman, there is still nothing concrete linking him to the invasion of Ukraine other than a company he's on the board of made steel that was used in Russian military vehicles half a decade ago? I mean come on, really? Also what links does he have to Putin directly? Credible ones, not just ones spouted by Western media.

Russia is a poorly run country, I'm not arguing differently. I'm asking once again what this has to do with Roman and why this lead to him being scapegoated by our own incredibly corrupt government?

You're right, Roman will never be back. The PL and Chelsea are much worse for it. At least we have these lovely western owners like Ratcliffe making club employees jobless and Clearlake focusing only on their own profit and loading the club up with debt.

ALL THE OTHER COACHES HAVE WORKED OUT MARESCAS TACTICS OF PASSING IT OUT FROM THE BACK, THEY ARE QUITE HAPPY TO LET OUR DEFENDERS HAVE THE BALL, AS LONG AS IT DOESNT GET TO PALMER THEY KNOW THE REST CAN BARELY HURT THEM, GUSTO (RUINED BY THE CLOWN) USED TO GET FORWARD AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, UNDER THIS IDIOT HE BARELY GETS OVER THE HALF WAY LINE AND IS SCARED TO PUT THE BALL IN THE BOX WHEN HE DOES, 99% OF THE TIME HE PASSES IT BACKWARDS

Took a break from this place whilst our form was bad as the ratios of reactionary crap against logical posts (don’t get me wrong, there’s loads of you that consistently make good points) just goes insane.

I don’t get to many games, but prior to our good run earlier in the year, the groans and moans from fans about us playing out from the back were loud, booing the players at half time and generally giving this ‘process’ no time.

Fast forward a few weeks, we’re doing the same stuff, but with confidence and good results. Suddenly Maresca is the second coming and we’re playing the best football in years.

Now we are back to the start, but the reality is that nothing has changed. The football has remained the same, we never reverted to playing like prime stoke to get into a title race, so why would we now?

Fed up of making the same point over and over again, the board and the owners are at fault and deserve the blame. It’s been a long 2 months but I can’t fathom Maresca getting the boot based on what we have seen so far

18 hours ago, Andy North said:

All I can say is that country has been run by many tyrants and no people deserve to be treated that way. It has huge geopolitical problems and desperately needs a revolution.

Welcome to England! 👀

1 hour ago, POCH OUT said:

HOW LONG IS LONG?

WHAT ABOUT THOSE STUPID GOALKICKS WHERE COLWILL PASSES IT TO HIM AND JORGENSEN PUNTS IT UPFIELD?

I would like to see Jorgensen kick it upfield in 1st minute of match and see what Maresca does.

Genuinely would be funny if he get subbed off.

Congrats on stuffing championship team Southampton...

But that was an unconvincing 4-0 win - Play like that against Maresca's former team and they'll turn us over simply by desire.

https://youtu.be/y4CXY6TVBMc?si=mBJLY7Y0DbsrED7P

might try this formation!!

10 hours ago, RMH said:

I was in the MHL and we weren't necessarily moaning (it was more moaning than booing) directly to Jorgensen but to the constant passes between him and defenders without any ability to advance. Fans are bored to death in the stands, and have been for a while now.

That's how I heard it too. Moaning rather than booing, and the fans have every right to voice their frustrations. This has been going on for years now and we have shown zero progression with this type of football.

5 hours ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

correct, I'm stating my opinion just like you stated yours. Of course mine will seem more valid in my eyes, as it's my opinion. Much he same as I'm sure you see yours as more valid.

Back to the original point of Roman, there is still nothing concrete linking him to the invasion of Ukraine other than a company he's on the board of made steel that was used in Russian military vehicles half a decade ago? I mean come on, really? Also what links does he have to Putin directly? Credible ones, not just ones spouted by Western media.

Russia is a poorly run country, I'm not arguing differently. I'm asking once again what this has to do with Roman and why this lead to him being scapegoated by our own incredibly corrupt government?

You're right, Roman will never be back. The PL and Chelsea are much worse for it. At least we have these lovely western owners like Ratcliffe making club employees jobless and Clearlake focusing only on their own profit and loading the club up with debt.

Putin got a lot of credit for stamping out the oligarchs by forcing them to contribute and Roman was one of these and even became governor of an Eastern region.

For me he had Hobson's choice and had to oblige.

The problem is the US wanted global hegemony and made a grab for it in the 80s so them and Saudi armed the Mujahideen to destroy the Soviets and Gorbachev charmed by people like Thatcher thought he could trust the friendly West,the West probalby had other ideas and wanted to break up the Russian federation. By having to sell off state companies to the people instead of giving them ration tickets. Certain people like Abramovich were poised to snap them up knowing their true value, he was certainly one of dozens, doing this.

This was the time when a Georgian was appointed to set up Ukraines borders and they were given Crimea, I recall this only because an analyst here in the UK said this was madness and would certainly lead to trouble, he said Crimea was Russian like Hawaii is American and Gibraltar is British.

So our government under May would not renew Roman's passport as they wanted to be pc with the US and because he knew Putin he was seen as damaged politically as battle lines were being drawn up by the US Dems (they support the Irish against Britain and hate Russia), the Reublicans have the Christians and like Midlde Eastern fossil fuels.

We have similar demographic splits with political parties too though both normally try to stay on good terms with the US.

@Ukraine Bolt sorry mate, probably worth a read... https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2023-11-14/secret-deal-links-roman-abramovich-to-putins-wallet

The lawfare that all super rich use kept a lot of the unsavoury stuff out of the public domain. Plus, super wealthy folk can use companies etc etc... its why we're all getting poorer and the super wealthy keep getting richer.

Despite all the above, Roman was a one off, glad we were the beneficiries.

Cheers Roman

That feels like quite a tough run in.

Remaining fixtures:

Leicester H

Arsenal A

Spurs H

Brentford A

Ipswich H

Fulham A

Everton H

Liverpool H

Newcastle A

Man U H

Forest A

I don’t have much faith in us getting top 4. We’re not good enough and can’t grind out a win. No clean sheets hurt our chances massively as well.

After Leicester it's a pretty tough run. I could see us getting points at Spurs and Ipwsich, but not too optimistic about the other 2 out 5 games. I mean 10 out of 15 be a good return out of the next 5 games. With no domestic cup games, should be pretty focused for those league games.

On 26/02/2025 at 00:29, Andy North said:

You know I'm championing democracy.

I've tried to understand the Russian people. I've visited St Petersberg read Solzenitzen and Dostoyefsky and others. All I can say is that country has been run by many tyrants and no people deserve to be treated that way. It has huge geopolitical problems and desperately needs a revolution.

The people are disenfranchised and have no say at all but still thier leader sends them off to fight thier neighbours.

COYB.

Why don't you stick to keeping championing democracy in your own country? Has it ever occured to you that most countries out there aren't democratic, have no history of democracy and don't need the West to teach them how to live, especially since they have longer history than quite a few western powers? What is this obsession with interfering in everybody's business and the arrogance to feel you know better? Try starting revolutions in your own f**king neck of the woods, let's see how that's gonna work out for you.

11 hours ago, bluetrooper said:

@Ukraine Bolt sorry mate, probably worth a read... https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2023-11-14/secret-deal-links-roman-abramovich-to-putins-wallet

The lawfare that all super rich use kept a lot of the unsavoury stuff out of the public domain. Plus, super wealthy folk can use companies etc etc... its why we're all getting poorer and the super wealthy keep getting richer.

Despite all the above, Roman was a one off, glad we were the beneficiries.

Cheers Roman

So a company he's a shareholder of donated a miniscule sum of money to someone that Putin knows in 2010?

1 hour ago, Ukraine Bolt said:

So a company he's a shareholder of donated a miniscule sum of money to someone that Putin knows in 2010?

You need to move on... or perhaps think about the thousands of Ukrainians who have died since 2014 because a sovereign country has been invaded. Putin has sent nearly 1 million Russians to be either killed or maimed in Ukraine and i do find it bad taste to cry for our former owner.

If you choose to ignore the evidence of wrongdoing, that's on you. Personally, I can no longer and wont trust anyone who holds an Israeli passport and invests in a genocidal basket case state to avoid prosecution...

Israel’s Law of Return Lets Crim...

Israel’s Law of Return Lets Criminals Abroad Run From the...

Israel routinely refuses to extradite its own citizens — including people who’ve flown there purely to escape justice. Its Law of Return rewards criminals who can claim a vague connection to Israel...

We do live in a post-truth world where incorrect opinions are more valid simply because you believe them more viciforusly than someone else.

Anyhow, the football is miserable enough without having to remember the good times under our former boss... who incidentally was massaging the books, a problem that still hasnt gone away and the club will pay a price for.

Have a good one mate. 🖖