Salah’s got the silver medal sewn up easily but Richarlison is the world record holder in this event. He was my most hated player in the Prem and now I have to support him.
The difference is Salah gets a free kick or penalty but very rarely a yellow card. Richarlison gets less free kicks/penalties and more yellows. Now he plays for us it will be less of the former and more of the latter. Conte has to get to work on him.
Richarlison dives more than Salah (and that takes some doing) so it’s not a surprise he gets more yellows, not forgetting he’s also a more combative player defensively than Salah so is likely to get yellows for fouls committed too. Now that he plays for us will make little difference. He’ll still dive and at times he’ll get away with it, others he won’t.
Richarlison will be wasting his time diving at Spurs, just like Harry Kane he will get nothing from the officials. If you wear a red shirt on the other hand, expect to have gifts raining down on you from the refs, as well as being let off with clear red cards and allowed to cynically stop counter attacks punishment free. Varpool and Penited in particular, with the arrogance of their style of play, playing on the referee bias and drawing soft fouls as well as committing tactical fouls to stop their opponents, they know they will get away with almost all of it, so continue to do it.
Richarlison is head and shoulders above anyone that’s dived in the Prem for me. Drogba, Robben, Mane, Salah, Bruno etc don’t come close in a 1v1 battle for king diver.
Still can’t compete with the dive king for me. He’s already dived about 5 times in pre-season for us, dread to think what he’ll be doing in games that matter, lol. Was probably averaging 5-10 dives a game with Everton and I don’t even think that’s an exaggeration.
The worst thing about the two I mentioned for me is that they're utterly **** at it. They dive constantly, it's really obvious and they still get the decisions. Look at this crap, against Man Utd of all teams: How is anyone stupid enough to give that decision? Ridiculous.
Yeah Vardy became a specialist at that little trick of sticking your leg out for penalties. The reason I've hated Richarlison and make him top of the list is that he dives absolutely anywhere and everywhere on the pitch. Most dive for penalties or goal scoring freekick opportunities, he dives in his own half for literally no advantage, winds me the **** up. There's things I'm gonna like about him here, very much a fighter and he has a great work ethic but I know he's also gonna piss me off falling all over the place.
Juve trying to sign Werner on loan. Chelsea gonna try and play without a striker in their squad this season or something?
As I mentioned it a while back, it's probably worth posting what the current last issue of Private Eye says about Chelsea The private equity shape of things to come at Stamford Bridge is indicated by the complex post-Roman Abramovich corporate structure for the Premier League club now owned by American Todd Boehly and his US and Swiss partners led by Clearlake Capital, major funders of the £4.25bn deal. The £2.5bn paid for Chelsea (another £1.75bn is pledged for future investment in the stadium, academy and players) went to a Treasury-controlled UK bank account intended to prevent the sanctioned Abramovich from benefitting from the sale. He has stated that the "net proceeds" will go to an as yet unidentified charity for unspecified "victims of the war in Ukraine". On 30 May, the Abramovich-controlled company Fordstam ceased to be the owner of the club's immediate parent company, Chelsea FC, bought from Ken Bates and others in 2003 for £60.7m cash. It has been renamed Chelsea FC Holdings. However, four days before that change of control, the company issued 3,069,461 new shares for £61.4m cash. Who paid and why is as yet unclear. A new company, Blueco 22, replaced Fordstam. On 1 June, Boehly and fellow American billionaire Behdad Eghbali, a co-founder of Clearlake, became directors of Chelsea FC Holdings and the club. Also on 1 June, 1000 new shares in Chelsea FC Holdings were issued for £100m cash, presumably from Blueco 22. This UK company in turn is controlled by Blues Partners. Between 6 May and 25 May, "significant control" of Blues Partners, which then had just two issued shares, was first held by Boehly, who was then joined by Blues Investment Midco. Midco is a style of company name resonant with leveraged private equity deals. These are the companies that often borrow the money that provides the gearing for equity investors. Boehly was then replaced by Blueco 22 Investor Holdings (controlled by Boehly), only for that stake of up to 50 percent to return to Boehly. After that share shuffle, 150m new A and 94m B shares in Blues Partners were issued for just £20. Blues Investment Midco lists Eghbali and his Clearlake co-founder Jose Feliciano as directors. Clearlake funds are reportedly providing 60 percent of the money for the Chelsea deal. On 30 May, Midco issued 1000 new shares for £1.5m - a sum which closely resembled the number of A shares issued that day by Blues Partners, representing around a 61 percent share stake. Eghbali signed on behalf of the sole Midco shareholder, Blues Partners GP LLC - limited liability company or corporation, depending in which US state or tax haven it is incorporated. GP is the general/managing partner of Blues Investment Holdings LP or limited partnership. Offshore general and limited partnerships are often used as vehicles by private equity fund investors. A UK limited partnership, Blueco 22 Holdings LP, shares control of Blues Partners with Midco. The general partner is Boehly via non-UK Blueco 22 Holdings LLC. The limited partners are Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss plus Guggenheim Partners CEO Mark Walter, Boehly's partner in the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team. The likely vehicle for their Chelsea investment. Last week a new UK company joined the Chelsea team, Blueco 22 Midco, controlled by Blueco 22. This dizzying corporate dance is part of the no doubt highly tax-efficient financial engineering behind the Chelsea takeover. The structure will subsequently reveal how that £4.25bn has been funded, who has invested and owns what, and how big and costly a debt burden Chelsea will be carrying from next season. No more interest-free £1.5bn Abramovich loans, stand by for higher ticket prices. The American private equity playbook is to look for a way out at a big profit after three to five years. Elliott Management recently exited after four years from its stake in Italian champions Milan to another investment manager, RedBird Capital.
Sucky just posted a link on the Prem board about Firmino closing in on a deal to Juve. If that happens, I wonder if Pool will replace him? They’ve lost Mane, Origi and now potentially Firmino, all three scored regular and/ or important goals for them. Pressure on Diaz to score more and Nunez to hit the ground running will have increased.
