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Gary Neville -

‘I think Chelsea… they will be worried about Tottenham a little bit, but they will be more worried about Manchester City.

<laugh> I'm not sue what motivated him to say something that stupid. Even if Citeh beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge and that's an IF of walloping great proportions, they'll still be 8 points behind them with a massively worse goal difference and only 8 games left. Anyone catching Chelsea is a real outside bet. The team that threw away a lead against that Arsenal team TWICE doesn't scream out Champions at me but then again I've not got Neville's insight. Thank god.
 
[ Courtesy of The Day Today ]

Eminent medical science researcher Dr RDBD, identifies new medical condition.

Dr RDBD, whose achievements include the discovery of the mental condition
now known as HIAGnation, today presented his research results on the visual
impairment he has provisionally called "Spurslexia" .

Spurslexia (or 'Spurs blindness' ) occurs when the sufferer also has been afflicted
by Pundit syndrome, and affects the ability to see certain words. In his research
paper, Dr RDBD presents the ground-breaking Spurslexia table, a zero-cost means
of identifying sufferers. For example, Spurslexia suffers see the following table :

Chelsea 69
Spurs 62
Liverpool 59
Man City 58
Man Utd 52

as :

Chelsea 69
Liverpool 59
Man City 58
Man Utd 52


Dr RDBD, although not hopeful a cure for the condition is possible in the near
future, believes that both identifying / devising a test for the condition is a
major breakthrough in improving the human condition for the better.
 
Having exposed just how badly the SPL has regressed in recent times, Brendan Rodgers proved the delusion wasn't beaten out of him when Liverpool sacked him by stating that, if Celtic were in the Premier League, they'd be a top six team.

When the Mousers sack you because your delusion is even too much for them to
stomach, that is the time you seek professional medical treatment.
 
Having exposed just how badly the SPL has regressed in recent times, Brendan Rodgers proved the delusion wasn't beaten out of him when Liverpool sacked him by stating that, if Celtic were in the Premier League, they'd be a top six team.

Chelsea
Tottenham
Liverpool
Man City
Man Utd
Arsenal
Everton
West Brom
Stoke
Southampton

That's the current top half of the Premier League, and which of those teams does anyone realistically think Celtic would get four points off in a season, let alone six?

They'd do well to make the top six in League One (which, incidentally, is where many SPL players are recruited from).
 
They'd do well to make the top six in League One (which, incidentally, is where many SPL players are recruited from).

Like many of the 'grand old European clubs' their future is as a footnote of the success of clubs from Spain, Italy, Germany and maybe, just maybe, England once again. Clubs like Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord and clubs from Portugal, Belgium, Austria, Russia and its satellites and all the others have little prospect of holding on to their best players.

These clubs may have great histories and be able to fill sizable stadia but their TV rights are worth very little and that's their lot, unless something truly extraordinary happens to the world of football.
 
The Celtic question is irrelevant without qualifiers.
Would they compete with their current players or current financing? No.
Would they compete if they were to replace a current Premier League team? To some extent, I think that they would.

Now that's not to say that they'd win anything or even finish in a European place.
Even their attendances don't say anything about that, as Newcastle get 50-odd thousand and they got relegated.
It depends on how they would be run and how their fans would deal with having genuine competition.
We simply have no idea about either of those things.

Thankfully none of this is particularly relevant. They're not in the English system and probably never will be.
Judging by the mess they've made of their own, I'm going to say that's a good thing.
 
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Like many of the 'grand old European clubs' their future is as a footnote of the success of clubs from Spain, Italy, Germany and maybe, just maybe, England once again. Clubs like Ajax, PSV, Feyenoord and clubs from Portugal, Belgium, Austria, Russia and its satellites and all the others have little prospect of holding on to their best players.

These clubs may have great histories and be able to fill sizable stadia but their TV rights are worth very little and that's their lot, unless something truly extraordinary happens to the world of football.
The issue isn't holding onto their players, after all Ajax were still a force in the 90s even though they regularly saw large chunks of their squad heading to Serie A, the issue is their players are leaving so much sooner than they used to.

For example, in the 80s Ajax kept hold of Bergkamp and van Basten for a good five or six seasons before they headed to Italy, in the 90s they kept hold of Davids and Overmars for five years while van der Saar remained for the best part of a decade, while in the early part of the last decade they kept hold of Sneijder and van der Vaart for a good five years - but more recently players either leave much earlier,for example Eriksen was there for just three years, or they don't even make it to the first team such as Man Utd signing Fosu-Mensah straight out of Ajax's academy before he'd even made his debut.
 
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wow sounding like the mousers here and their media against them conspiracy.

Got away with a few from Costa but how about all the Alli dives (surprised he's on he pitch half the time, he's as petulant as costa)? Or just from the palace game the townsend handball?

Anyway, good luck and may the best team win.
By my own count, Chelsea has gotten three to six points more edge from the calls than we have. But, not having seen every game Chelsea has played, and having just possibly a bit of bias, I don't think my opinion counts for much.

In any case, Chelsea's 13 game winning streak will be what people remember if they do win.

Wednesday's a pivotal day, I think. If Spurs pick up points on Chelsea, there's a race. If not, not.

As you say, may the best team win.

As long as it's Spurs.
 
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It would be nice to see a race for the title. And for the top four places.

I suspect that we won't see either, but here's hoping.

The race for both is still on.
I suspect that settling who is in / order of the top 4 may go to the last game
of the season (the PL champion will probably be decided well before then) .
 
Bayern Munich manager Carlo Ancelotti has played down talk of a possible reunion with Gareth Bale, calling rumours linking the 27-year-old Real Madrid and Wales forward to the German side "a myth". (Daily Mail)

It's more likely to be true than all those "Bale To United" fairy-tales!
 
Tottenham and England midfielder Dele Alli, 20, would be a huge hit at Real Madrid, according to Swansea manager and former Real assistant coach Paul Clement. (Daily Star)

<doh>
Yeah, on Real's bench!

Who would he replace in their current starting XI?
 
Tottenham and England midfielder Dele Alli, 20, would be a huge hit at Real Madrid, according to Swansea manager and former Real assistant coach Paul Clement. (Daily Star)

<doh>
Yeah, on Real's bench!

Who would he replace in their current starting XI?
Quite ****ty behaviour, this.
He wouldn't like it if Pochettino suggested that Llorente or Sigurdsson should **** off in the summer.
 
Are you guys really taking the Daily Star and no quotes (at least in that extract) to heart?
Quotes - and you lot are not excluded
Clement, who coached some of the world’s best players during his time alongside Carlo Ancelotti in Madrid, said: “Why can’t he make the step up? He’s still so young.
“All the best players get linked with Real Madrid, Eden Hazard is another one who is being linked at the moment.
“But if these teams want to do well and challenge for trophies, they’ve got to try and keep their best players.”
 
Quotes - and you lot are not excluded
Clement, who coached some of the world’s best players during his time alongside Carlo Ancelotti in Madrid, said: “Why can’t he make the step up? He’s still so young.
“All the best players get linked with Real Madrid, Eden Hazard is another one who is being linked at the moment.
“But if these teams want to do well and challenge for trophies, they’ve got to try and keep their best players.”

Presumably he's been asked about Deli Alli from how he responds rather than randomly plucked him out and tried to "unsettle" him.

Obviously the sensible thing is to say no comment, but managers being probably fairly egotistical thought he'd give his honest view. I don't really see anything wrong with what he's said. He hasn't said he should move on, just said he's a great player and is linked because he's a fantastic player. Then he said the club should keep its best players.

Not sure where the outrage of him telling alli to move to Real has come from based on spursdisciples extract. Apologies if i haven't got the full quote at hand.