Quenda is 18, and will play where he is told. Frimpong scored 14 from wing back under Alonso, if he is putting up numbers like that, i dont think he will be complaining.

Juve need money. No CL.

2 hours ago, Bob stark said:

You cannot use academy player to impose standard. That will be unfair to those academy kids.

Agreed. McFarlane can f**k right off though, for picking the same players over and over who have clearly a: checked out and b: is simply not good enough. Playing the likes of Fofana over Josh is such a stupid thing to do on ALL levels - in the sport term but most of all in the term. But hey, thats BlueCo for you. Nobody really looks after the long term well being of the Club

Under Alonso, we can at least go into next season with a little optimism.

My main hopes is that whether we are able to offload any of the deadwood or not, we will not see on a regular basis, the likes of

Gusto, Badiashille, Fofana, Tosin, Enzo, Neto, Garnacho etc

I want to see a fresh, hungry looking squad, playing a much better brand of football. I don't expect him to play loads of Academy players, but it would be good to see one or two introduced to the first team squad, which again would help freshen things up and hopefully balanced by at least a couple of quality, older signings.

Whilst I don’t think Alonso himself is a bad appointment, I still have no optimism for next season. There’s no way enough changes can be made to this awful squad to allow any discernible improvement.

And I think it’s massively naive and overly optimistic to think the owners/SDs are going to change what they’re up to. Alonso has already been dumped with half of Strasbourg’s inexperienced players for next season before he’s even started the job.

I’m really glad we didn’t make Europe. That means we don’t really need a massive squad, so let the clear out begin.

Get rid of Enzo Fernandez, Cucurella, plus several fringe players like Garnacho, Fofana etc.

That alone should give us alot of money to spend. Let Alonso decide who he wants to sign. 3 or 4 players.

One game a week, we should be, at the very least, mount a weak title challenge, with top 4 very comfortably secured.

6 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

I’m really glad we didn’t make Europe. That means we don’t really need a massive squad, so let the clear out begin.

Get rid of Enzo Fernandez, Cucurella, plus several fringe players like Garnacho, Fofana etc.

That alone should give us alot of money to spend. Let Alonso decide who he wants to sign. 3 or 4 players.

One game a week, we should be, at the very least, mount a weak title challenge, with top 4 very comfortably secured.

6 minutes ago, dansubrosa said:

I’m really glad we didn’t make Europe. That means we don’t really need a massive squad, so let the clear out begin.

Get rid of Enzo Fernandez, Cucurella, plus several fringe players like Garnacho, Fofana etc.

That alone should give us alot of money to spend. Let Alonso decide who he wants to sign. 3 or 4 players.

One game a week, we should be, at the very least, mount a weak title challenge, with top 4 very comfortably secured.

Those amongst us that are more PSR savvy than me can probably correct me but I would imagine that if we have amortised our squad cost over years but the sales are booked to the current year, surely we need to drip feed our sales over a number of windows to offset against that recurring cost.

If we sold 15 players this summer (like there is any hope of that anyway) wouldn't this form part of an overall calculation for a three year period. Maybe I'm taking an extreme view but in my head I am thinking that we will need to have a pipeline of sales to feed the annualised debt figures

I read Silva was currently getting his UEFA license?

16 minutes ago, mojo said:

What, really?

48 minutes ago, mojo said:

Great News if true but why the f**k are the CB’s listed as Colwill, Badiashille and whoever arrives. That sounds like that Frog c**t will be here another season!

It should read Colwill, Acheampong and whoever arrives this summer.

Even when they’re leaking to the media to keep us positive they f**k it up.

41 minutes ago, The Boehly Babes said:

Great News if true but why the f**k are the CB’s listed as Colwill, Badiashille and whoever arrives. That sounds like that Frog c**t will be here another season!

It should read Colwill, Acheampong and whoever arrives this summer.

Even when they’re leaking to the media to keep us positive they f**k it up.

You and your tautology.

14 hours ago, WhiteWall said:

I'd play the kids if we're sh*t anyway. If Garnacho cannot perform the basic function of control and passing and is unwilling to bust his lungs running, then I'd play Derry instead. What's the cost? In fact not throwing these players away and playing the kids instead sends the wrong message as to what is the acceptable standard.

The minimum standards line needs to be drawn and if a player consistently fails to meet that standard he cannot play. Simple as. It's about creating a team, regardless of the merits and worth of any of the individuals within it.

Andy Robertson was talking after his exit from Liverpool about his time there. Mentality was everything in that squad and I see absolutely none of it in our current squad.

I think our tactical set up actually drains our squad. Where does desire fit into Maresca’s or Rosenior’s tactics? It’s hard to show desire with 80% sideways passes.

Under Alonso we have to be more progressive and play quicker.

4 minutes ago, 19seventyone said:

Andy Robertson was talking after his exit from Liverpool about his time there. Mentality was everything in that squad and I see absolutely none of it in our current squad.

I think our tactical set up actually drains our squad. Where does desire fit into Maresca’s or Rosenior’s tactics? It’s hard to show desire with 80% sideways passes.

Under Alonso we have to be more progressive and play quicker.

Mentality comes from the manager - you are right. In maresca’s first season the board did him one with no Jan additions when Jackson and palmer and fofana were injured.. he had the Cajuns .. in the second season they tried the same sh*t and his head was turned .. this board is the only reason for all evils..

Had some optimism for a week or so. All gone now. The players know the project is dead, regardless of manager. Enzo and Cucurella pushing to leave. Palmer won't be far behind, now Man Utd are doing well again. Then Caicedo probably. Just seems like we're in the midst of a decline into nothingness and lower mid table for the foreseeable future.

3 minutes ago, Zeta said:

Had some optimism for a week or so. All gone now. The players know the project is dead, regardless of manager. Enzo and Cucurella pushing to leave. Palmer won't be far behind, now Man Utd are doing well again. Then Caicedo probably. Just seems like we're in the midst of a decline into nothingness and lower mid table for the foreseeable future.

Whilst I share your lack of optimism. Surely Alonso wouldn’t have taken the job without some discussion with owners, SDs and players whereby some degree of assurance was given that his best half dozen players wouldn’t all up and leave before the season starts? If that were to happen, I’d expect and understand for Alonso to walk out with them.

16 minutes ago, Snedger said:

Whilst I share your lack of optimism. Surely Alonso wouldn’t have taken the job without some discussion with owners, SDs and players whereby some degree of assurance was given that his best half dozen players wouldn’t all up and leave before the season starts? If that were to happen, I’d expect and understand for Alonso to walk out with them.

That's essentially what I'm expecting. Him to not last the season.

24 minutes ago, Snedger said:

Whilst I share your lack of optimism. Surely Alonso wouldn’t have taken the job without some discussion with owners, SDs and players whereby some degree of assurance was given that his best half dozen players wouldn’t all up and leave before the season starts? If that were to happen, I’d expect and understand for Alonso to walk out with them.

Wouldn't put it past this lot to have lied through their teeth to get Alonso to sign.

I get the pessimism I really do but I’m hopeful the line in the sand has been drawn with Alonso coming in.

He needs to be given time to get 26 players he trusts but when he runs down the touchline and knee slides in front of the Kop after a 97th minute Chelsea winner he’ll get as much time as he needs from me.

One thing I’m certain of is that come the start of the season we will all (with a few exceptions) be feeling a lot more positive than we do today.

1 hour ago, 19seventyone said:

Andy Robertson was talking after his exit from Liverpool about his time there. Mentality was everything in that squad and I see absolutely none of it in our current squad.

I think our tactical set up actually drains our squad. Where does desire fit into Maresca’s or Rosenior’s tactics? It’s hard to show desire with 80% sideways passes.

Under Alonso we have to be more progressive and play quicker.

I was watching us against Sunderland try and do the whole bait the press thing, our defenders managed it a few times, but it's always for nothing. We take all of that time with one phase of our build up play and it only gets us to the half way line, and most of the time we can't even manage that. Even if we successfully bait and beat the press, we still have an entire half of the pitch to break down the opposition. It's asking for too much intricacy to be successful. You need the absolute best ball playing defenders and midfielders for this to work, and we certainly don't have that. The only team that does have it is PSG.

The whole thing needs to be scrapped. Even if it means sacrificing a bit of possession, we need to build attacks faster. It's excruciating watching our brand of football as it is.

4 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

I was watching us against Sunderland try and do the whole bait the press thing, our defenders managed it a few times, but it's always for nothing. We take all of that time with one phase of our build up play and it only gets us to the half way line, and most of the time we can't even manage that. Even if we successfully bait and beat the press, we still have an entire half of the pitch to break down the opposition. It's asking for too much intricacy to be successful. You need the absolute best ball playing defenders and midfielders for this to work, and we certainly don't have that. The only team that does have it is PSG.

The whole thing needs to be scrapped. Even if it means sacrificing a bit of possession, we need to build attacks faster. It's excruciating watching our brand of football as it is.

To do this you need a lot of movement and rotation to create options or pin point accuracy.. unfortunately the truth is our players don’t put in the effort to create options for one another because they are definitely not that talented .. then when you see the front line do many players don’t like to receive on tight spaces - Neto Garnacho delap gusto Cc - all of whoM tend to be heavily involved in the build up.

Hopefully a pre season and no World Cup helps with their fitness levels because these lot looked so gassed all the time.

5 hours ago, Scott Harris said:

The only team that does have it is PSG.

And even they literally kick the ball to the corner flag so that they can counter-press high up the field, lol.

Alonso's Leverkusen were very much a counter-attacking, counter-pressing side. Real Madrid's stars, including Valverde who you'd think would be tailor-made for that football, didn't want to play like that or run so much.

Edited May 26May 26 by SydneyChelsea

Non youth min

Arse 91

City 79

United 64 (their gk is 22, if you remove him, it is probably 75)

Villa 88

Liverpool 70

Chelsea 68 (2nd best behind our role model Brighton)

If you want to compete now and in the future, you sign player around 24 (this chart use 23). If you keep signing kids, you basically keep building your team for the future.

8 hours ago, Zeta said:

That's essentially what I'm expecting. Him to not last the season.

Ok, what do you want to drink?

Have one….. let’s see what the summer brings….. then we take a flame thrower to it!

8 hours ago, yaz said:

Wouldn't put it past this lot to have lied through their teeth to get Alonso to sign.

Vulture capitalist and Z- Level football directors lying …… am shocked I tell you so shocked 😳🤣😂

9 hours ago, 19seventyone said:

Andy Robertson was talking after his exit from Liverpool about his time there. Mentality was everything in that squad and I see absolutely none of it in our current squad.

I think our tactical set up actually drains our squad. Where does desire fit into Maresca’s or Rosenior’s tactics? It’s hard to show desire with 80% sideways passes.

Under Alonso we have to be more progressive and play quicker.

I believe the best defense is not the so called parking the bus but is by stopping the opposition from having the ball. Progressive pass is risky especially when the technical quality is already lacking and plus with fragile defense and GK then the sideway pass recycling possession tactic is seen as a mitigation approach. Such tactic does drain the forwards from making run though, I've seen when they did, the ball was recycling back, it's really frustrating to watch.