Who would you have left out of the initial squad to fit in those loan signings. I think we sold Dembele to create a space in the CL squad for Foyth. There was no space for Tielemans.
You would need to leave out a serial crock, we have many of those, Lamela, Aurier, Wanyama to name 3.
Victor Wanyama for a start. He wasn't fit at the start of the season and now, he's still nowhere near the same player. It's a harsh world but his time with us was done before this season started when he got injured again in the States. Mitch Vorm is an obvious second. Having 3 foreign keepers is a luxury we cannot afford. Hugo, Gazza and a youngster is a better risk than 3 injured central midfielders who had no proper pre-season again. After that it's tougher but if we could have got someone, then Serge Aurier, Llorente and Erik Lamela should have been looking over their shoulders, sweating on a place that they'd scarcely earned.
Add to that the deal was loan only with no option to make the deal permanent (as it is at Leicester) so if we did loan in Tielemans and wanted to make the deal permanent Monaco could just think of a number that would alert the big spenders and cover their FFP worries for a couple of seasons, a la Marseilles and Batshuayi a few summers back
Semi's are great to be in but moaning at the fact we've lost 7 in the last 11 in the league, picking up just 10 points with our once secured 3rd spot now out of our hands, is certainly something that gives just cause to moan about I'd say.
Yep, though I hate the fact we now need to rely on other teams. So annoying knowing that third should've been sewn up weeks back and yet as of yesterday/ today, we haven't even sewn up fourth with just more game to play.
As I have said before I think those players will have contract clauses requiring them to be in our squads. If they had no chance of being fit that would be different.
We are going to play badly in a few matches every season. There is no way to control which those will be. If everyone had had the matches in the opposite order with the same results eveyone would be saying how well we had done to get over a bad start. That would equally be wrong.
Given Vorm's contract situation and Victor's injuries, having them void their contracts (if possible) wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world. I think Vic might have swallowed it to stay. We needed to dare on this.
Even if such a clause was in their contracts, cancelling Vorm's and paying him the compensation for the final 6 months would've been worthwhile if it meant getting someone like Tielemans in.
13 league defeats is more than a few. That's over a third of games. We had a 9 point gap over the chasing pack at gameweek 26 with players talking of a title challenge. At gameweek 37, Chelsea can go above us by a point, Arsenal can go just one point behind and Utd two behind if they all win their games in hand. Now our players are saying **** all and there's a strong possibility of losing our CL spot if we don't beat a in-form Everton on the final day of the season.
Already asked and answered. We are fine when we're the underdogs and there is no objective pressure to win. When we go in as favourites and the pressure is on, we choke. As for your second point, don't be too dismissive of our rivals. In your 3 year window, Chelsea have won the league, United have finished above us and Arsenal have closed the gap dramatically. All 4 teams are now in pretty much the same situation: first XIs nowhere near the required standard to compete for the title, and wider squads lacking proper strength in depth. If Chelsea's transfer ban is upheld that will be a massive boost for us as they, like United, blow us out of the water financially. I'd say United and Arsenal need even bigger makeovers than we do but if we piss about again this summer and they don't, we could be in serious, serious trouble next season. We have gone from being in command of our own destiny to constantly looking over our shoulders at what everyone else is doing. In that regard I see lots of comparisons with Harry's last season here: Solid starting XI, smattering of world class talent, not enough strength in depth and a manager who fails to learn from his own mistakes - usually a sign that he has hit his ceiling, although as said elsewhere I have seen more than enough from him to give him at least 2 more years.
Watched a Mexican game last night. Talk about all go.If you receive the ball,you get instantly chopped.Anyway,the player I thought was very interesting was the bald center forward Diego something or other.Has a long surname. Fast,skilful,takes many a wack from defenders,lays off balls to his colleagues,lefty and scored a beauty.He plays for Tijuana.European bound?
Also hit him in the back and stamped on his foot. Look at where the ref is for that incident, though. How the **** could he possibly miss it?
