Consigliere

I doubt anything worse than a fine will come of the investigation against City. Should be clear by now that the only clubs bearing the brunt of FFP violations are ones that cannot afford to throw tens of millions at an army of lawyers. I wouldn't be surprised if government officials intervene on behalf of the UAE just like what happened when Saudi Arabia bought Newcastle. The Premier League has also well and truly sold out (they did so years ago).

Real Madrid have confirmed that Benzema will be leaving. The club will hold a farewell tribute for him on Tuesday. https://www.realmadrid.com/noticias/2023/06/04/comunicado-oficial-benzema

A closer game than I expected it to be. I still maintain that De Gea is almost as much of a liability as Maguire these days. The biggest issue, and one which has plagued us all season, was up front. We created some decent opportunities but that final pass/shot was severely lacking as usual. Overall, Ten Hag's first season has been a decent one especially considering the shit show he walked into and Ronaldo trying his best to undermine him during the first half of the season.

If Levy even agrees to open negotiations that is. If Kane isn't extending and agrees to leave England then Levy might consider it palatable to sell Kane abroad though. From Real's perspective, Kane would make the most sense as he is the most like-for-like player to Benzema that they could get i.e. Someone who is capable of playing both as a traditional CF and dropping deeper to act as a playmaker. It would also allow Real time to slowly integrate Endrick into the squad.

The difficulty that Sevilla have with consistently qualifying for the CL via league position is that: 1) 3 out of the 4 CL spots in Spain are locked down. Barca, Real and Atleti have by far the strongest squads in La Liga so even if one (or more) of them have a sub par season, they still end up in the top 4. 2) Sevilla operates on a modest budget and are a selling club so their squad depth isn't that great. 3) They are usually a good cup side, consistently getting to at least the QF stage of the Copa del Rey (each round of the CdR is played over two legs except for the final). Combined with the games they play in the CL and/or EL, this strains their squad which often negatively impacts their league form.

Di Marzio reporting that Benzema has informed Real Madrid that he intends to accept the offer from Saudi Arabia. Apparently there will be a press conference later today.

It's a weird one for sure and tough to explain. Over the past 15 years, regardless of manager or personnel, Sevilla just seem able to consistently up their game to another level in the Europa League. It's a fantastic achievement for them especially given their resources and the fact that they're usually a selling club.

Reports that Al-Ittihad have made Benzema an offer of €100m/year plus bonuses. The reports say that he will communicate his decision to Real Madrid soon. If he ends up leaving then I could see Real making a move for Kane. The Spurs journos have reported that Levy would rather risk Kane leaving on a free at the end of next season than selling him to a PL side.

United rejecting several loan offers from Turkish clubs in January was a red flag to me. That screamed that the higher ups have little to no intention of giving Greenwood the boot. If United's brass give Greenwood the all clear then I can see Ten Hag being quite happy to make use of him. Given his stance when it came to Promes and his defence of Overmars, I don't see Ten Hag taking the high road here. If he believes that Greenwood will be useful to him, I expect he’d have no issues integrating him into the squad.

Bamford was fit this season. It's the series of serious injuries he suffered last season that looks to have affected him. Everton might look to raid Leicester instead for Iheanacho or Daka.

Dyche, baby!

We were quite poor in the first half again. Much, much better in the second half. These last two games don't bode well for the cup final. If we have a first half against City like we did against Chelsea and Fulham, they will wreck us.

Southampton/Liverpool is the game to watch for neutrals.

True. Bayern gave Dortmund so many openings this season and they proceeded to bottle every one of them. Disappointing. He's done a pretty good job at Roma - last seasons Conference League win was Roma's first trophy in 14 years and now he's got them to another European final. If he manages to win the EL then he'd have gone a long way to rehabilitating his reputation and bigger clubs will probably start to consider him again.