Consigliere

Ouch! Potter>>>>Rangnick We threw away the whole season for nothing. Might have been acceptable if Rangnick was going to perform a similar role that he did for Red Bull but now we know that his role is a very peripheral one. Should have just hired Conte in that case then we'd have stood a much better chance of finishing 4th at least.

United's players look like they are having a spa day. Knew I shouldn't have wasted my time watching this game. A poor season is one thing but the lack of fight is galling.

Bristol Rovers have secured promotion to League One in dramatic fashion. They started the day level on points with Northampton but with a worse goal difference of 5 goals. Northampton won 3-1 while Bristol Rovers won 7-0 to level up the GD but finish ahead by virtue of goals scored. When Newcastle loanee Elliot Anderson scored the 7th goal, Rovers fans invaded the pitch which led to a delay - Joey Barton and Rovers owner had to get on the mic to appeal for calm as the referee threatened to abandon the match if there was another pitch invasion.

Other teams have had to cope with injuries too. How did Abramovich getting sanctioned materially impact Chelsea? It's not as though they couldn't sign who they wanted or were forced into selling players. At the end of the day, given the quality and depth of the squad at his disposal, Chelsea should be around 10 points better off than they actually are.

Lol. Chelsea not looking as secure as they should be in the top 4. Tuchel has massively underachieved in the league this season.

Lucas Moura was considered to be among the best young players in the world at one point too. Pogba is not a generational talent. That's moronic. De Bruyne is a generational talent; Pogba is not even half the player KdB is. I'd be surprised if City sign him. He's not good enough and too lazy to play in their midfield. Pogba is the very definition of a luxury player. He's neither a replacement for Gundogan nor Fernandinho. PSG would be his best bet - he can get a fat paycheck while phoning it in, jogging around the pitch and not helping out defensively and still win league and cup titles.

Pogba is not a generational talent in any way. He's too lazy to play in City's midfield. He's also made of glass and looking for a big payday. The conspirator in me says that this is just City messing with Joel Glazer hoping that he panics and gives an injury prone Pogba who only shows up for a dozen games a season a 500k/week contract.

Some good news for Derby County. https://www.efl.com/news/2022/may/efl-statement-derby-county-update-update/

Depends how Real's midfield gets on. Casemiro, Kroos and Modric are an intelligent trio who are great technically but a bit over the hill when it comes to physicality. They've been bullied and overrun in 3 out of 4 halves against PSG, the 2nd leg against Chelsea and the 1st leg against City (minus Casemiro). However, none of those sides were able to take full advantage of their near total dominance. Liverpool seems much less likely to let Real off the hook if their midfield folds. The advantage that Real does have though is that they've already wrapped up the league title so can now rest key players.

In other words, Real Madrid have beaten the three petro cunts. Florentino Perez has achieved his goal and saved football.

Sadly, this means the CL is in the bag for Liverpool. If Real play the final the way they've performed throughout the knockout stage, Liverpool will win easily. Klopp>Guardiola.

Real Madrid have been much more solid defensively in this game. Their midfield hasn't gotten overrun like they did in the first leg either.

Renovations are not fully complete yet.

That was a great half for Villarreal. Still expect Liverpool to win the tie, but very happy that Villarreal is making them clench.

Martyn Ziegler reporting in The Times that the Chelsea sale appears to have hit a major obstacle as Abramovich is apparently attempting to renege on his promise to write off the £1.6 billion debt owed to him. The report says that the bidders were informed last week that the club wants to restructure the way the club is being sold, which would include paying off the debt from Chelsea’s parent company Fordstam Ltd to a Jersey-based company Camberley International Investments, which appears to be linked to Abramovich. There are major concerns over allowing that to happen given Abramovich is under sanctions and has had assets frozen.

Massive win for Everton. They need to show this kind of workrate and intensity for their remaining games.

The club has confirmed that the injury is serious - femoral shaft fracture - and he's going to be out for a lengthy period. He's scheduled to undergo surgery soon.

Some great games today. Mainz upsetting Bayern. Dortmund/Bochum was fantastic. Bochum went 2-0 up within the first ten minutes. A Haaland hattrick put Dortmund 3-2 up and then 2 goals for Bochum in the last 10 minutes gave them a 4-3 win. Forest were electric against Swansea. 2nd place is gonna be a straight shootout between Forest and Bournemouth. Forest are 3 points behind with 2 games to play but with a better goal difference of one - the two sides play each other on Tuesday night. Real Madrid have wrapped up the title (currently 4-0 up against Espanyol with a few minutes left).

Evra sighs in relief.

Carrick wasn't going to take the job anyway. Reports were that he wanted to leave when Solskjaer was sacked but accepted to be caretaker for a few games until the board hired someone else. Eta. Iirc, he did say that it did not feel right for him to stay on after Solksjaer was sacked.

We need to replace Pogba and Matic. Even if VdB is given another chance, that leaves us with 4 midfielders. You cannot go into a season with only 4 first team midfielders. Eta. If EtH plays a 4-3-3, we need 6 first team midfielders at least (7 would be the ideal number for depth).

I think Rice will be too expensive for anyone this year - some reports were saying West Ham would only accept a ludicrous price this year ranging from £120-150m. I don't think anyone would be willing to fork over that kind of money for Rice. Kane isn't joining United either since he wants trophies and he isn't going to get that at United plus Levy isn't selling to United. Maybe PSG might be in for Kane when Mbappe leaves and since Icardi is a dud, they will need a CF. Levy would be much more willing to do a deal with them too. With all the players leaving, Greenwood's career at United being over and others who are disgruntled and looking to leave, United will need to make six or seven signings. Blowing 200+ million on two players would not help much. Rangnick has been appointed as Austria's manager. Reports say he will still fulfill his consultancy role at United.

This has been a horribly one-sided game. Villarreal have absolutely no answer to Liverpool's press and are thus pinned in their own half and have offered zero attacking threat.