Is this based on 1 in 1 out for numbers or for finances? Sesko would have cost about double what we received for Nketiah.

We did pretty much break even on transfer finances this summer. I’m not surprised we spent less than the last couple of years but I definitely it Ely think there is money there that wasn’t spent because the right player wasn’t available or the timing wasn’t right. Raya was a given so the budget was set aside for that. And it felt like Calafiori and Merino were our first choice signings. There must be money there for a striker.

Both really. It’s ok spending 55 in if we are getting 30 back etc.

Felt like if a prime target like Nico Williams agreed to come they might have gone for it but there was never a chance of us signing a 80-100 million pound striker.

I think it’s quite telling we loaned in a keeper rather than buying Garcia. A logical move but last season we’d have probably not baulked at signing a 25 million pound keeper. It’s hardly bank breaking. That may relate more to Edus team getting fed up at constantly signing and selling back up keepers and opting for an obvious reserve in Neto though.

I don’t think there was much money to spend unless an exceptional opportunity turned up.

Completely ridiculous. A player attempting to kick the ball can stop at almost any stage prior to being 5cm from kicking it.

The fact that everyone, include the ref analyst is saying this is a definite red while that Brighton tosser didn't even get spoken to is crazy.

Get rid of VAR it's *%^@*** useless.

Anyone deliberately kicking a player on the follow through, regardless of whether they're trying to play the ball quickly should be an instant red. It would stop this b%*&s%*^ overnight but we'll likely need to wait for someone's leg to be broken before any change is made.

not sure what the ref was looking at apart from maybe the UFO that sent the ball rocketing off down the other end of the pitch.

https://youtu.be/Sgyze2sxaUE

Nasser - top man.

Stories today that we were seriously considering Bryan Mbuemo from Brentford late in the transfer window. Really interesting, I think he’s a hugely underrated player and very effective. Quick and a smart finisher. Younger than you’d think too.

We only have 3 senior english players in the squad. Saka, Rice, White. Raya, Saliba, Martinelli, Sterling all count towards our home grown quota. and Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly are coming through but any future windows need to seriously consider ensuring we're picking up some of the best English talent - whether that is for a first 11 position or for younger players who contribute to the squad.

It's very difficult to prize any english players away from a fellow top 6 club, so for marquee signings I'd be looking at the likes of Eze, Gordon, Rodgers. Some younger English players could be Adam Wharton at Palace, Moran Whittaker at Plymouth, Lewis Miley at Newcastle

Calafiori taken off injured tonight for Italy in their game v France. Fingers crossed he’s ok.
Looked like a kick to the calf and then caught his studs in the turf as he fell

I wish they’d get rid of these international friendlies at the start of the season. Don’t really care about them and would much rather watch some PL after waiting months for the season to start. Focus on local football rather than friendlies which anre even more irrelevant when the Euros have just finished.

They are literally the most pointless bore ever.

You know there are 22 players on the pitch right?

100%. They are a disruption to the season. Have them later on.

Farewell Big Man. I remember him and Joe Baker being sent off for fighting in an FA Cup match.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/ar ... 2348nw4yqo

I watched the France v Italy game last night and Calafiori was incredible.

He played at a LCB/LB but moved into midfield regularly to start attacks.

It's the first time I've really watched him for more than a few minutes and he was awesome. I usually take international performances with a pinch of salt (most games are a level down from PL standard except when the big boys play each other) but this was against a decent France side.

What was evident for a big powerful bloke was his sureness, lightness of touch and composure on the ball even under pressure.

I was actually amazed by how good he was, he's just 22 and only has 6 caps after all but he looked like the heartbeat of the Italy side. If that's his normal level then we have a generational talent on our hands.

Sadly, he went off injured but lets hope its nothing long term.

Rice and Grealish score against Ireland.

Rice didn't celebrate but Grealish did. I hate the booing.

I was born in England but my nationality is a blend of the UK and Ireland. I’m quite proud of it.

Have to say I sympathise with Rice. Yep I get that mate, I had all of my uncles calling me a *%^@ on all sides.

So do I. So many players bosrn in England gave us great service. Shut up and move on. I went for a 3-0 to England. Could be more.

Sub Rice you idiot.

https://x.com/skysportsnews/status/1832 ... -j6VVZXEoA

Rice was immense for England. Said himself in his interview he’s not been anywhere near fully fit for us in the prem so far, but felt back to himself today. We haven’t seen tonight’s Rice for us yet this season. Sadly he missed the spurs game but he should be firing now for City

He is widely disliked here because he chose England over Ireland. It even leads to bias in some commentary. Kevin Doyle was ludicrously critical of him in the Euros.

It grates with me because the decision to choose one national team over another is made at a really young age when a player is trying to make it as a pro in a sport where the chances of making it are incredibly small. Rice played 3 full senior games for Ireland, having played for us under-age also. Grealish only played for Ireland below senior level. So in Rice's case, if blame is to be attributed, I would say it lies with the FIFA rules and with how the FAI handled the situation.

I am normally not a fan of the non-celebration but I thought Rice got it right this evening.

He said the non celebration was for respect for his Irish grandparents who are no longer here.
No offence to Ireland but if you’re born in England to English parents and one side of your family has Irish grandparents so you have the chance to play for either national team and are good enough for both then you’re going to choose England. I’m guessing a bit but I think Rice’s 3 appearances for Ireland were when he wasn’t a shoe in for the England team, I’d also guess that if you asked him what nationality he ‘felt’ like he was he’d say English.

If we want a new striker who can take us to the absolute elite level then we’re talking about a striker with close to that 1 in 1 goal scoring rate, like Haaland, or Salah or Mbappe. Any striker doing that reliably is out of our reach for many reasons so we’re after the holy grail of a striker who might be able to do that in our team, so a huge element of risk about any transfer.

Gyokeres as 50 in 55 for Sporting, and his banging them in for the national side as well. Buying from Portugal, or Holland has notorious risks. Nunez looked deadly for Benfica and looks clumsy and untidy in his finishing for Liverpool. But Suarez who looked good at Ajax then was amazing for Liverpool.

Sesko looks more like a good link striker than elite goal scorer, a killer. Gyokeres looks to me more like a killer. Just scoring lots of classic striker goals and displaying lots of classic 9 attributes.

https://x.com/quophi50/status/183176414 ... -j6VVZXEoA

This 100%. The laugh about it is a majority of the Irish players in the stands support English teams. Rice has said supported England as a kid and I'm guessing like all players he jumped at the chance to play in that team. Harry Kane, who's father is Irish, wanted to play for us when he was younger. The geniuses at the FAI scouting system thought he wasn't good enough.

And then remembering there is also Cascarino who the Irish happily had play for them 88 times despite not having a single cell of Irish blood. I understand it was an honest misunderstanding though.
I’m sure sensible Irish fans don’t really care about Rice and Grealish.

If I was good enough at football I could qualify to play for Wales through a grandmother, but not one part of me feels Welsh

We could certainly use that. Gyokeres looks like the real deal to me and cheap for 100 million.

On the question of strikers. Havertz had a very lively game again for Germany. A penalty, taken brilliantly, and won himself, and hit the woodwork twice.

It just shows what an absolute graveyard for talent Chelsea has become. Hopefully playing in a decent setup can also get Sterling back to something near his true level. And hopefully the likes of Gyokeres will take note.

Also, I am sure all of the booers

a) work for Irish companies and buy only Irish goods
b) holiday in Bundoran
c) never allow foreign lagers or wines to besmirch their lips.

Or are they only patriotic when it suit them?

A player shouldn't be able to switch countries once he has played for the senior team. I would actually bring that back to U21. But you can't blame a kid for choosing whatever route is open to him especially at underage levels. There is a monetary aspect to this too. The money to be made from being an English international is much bigger than for the Irish equivalent.

Nationality isn't always black and white though. We've had Irish internationals who were born in England but consider themselves Irish. Kevin Kilbane, born and raised in Preston, declined a call-up to the England U18s because he wanted to play for Ireland.

My brother has lived in London for over 30 years. His wife is American. Their son doesn't support the England team at all. He's definitely a London boy and a big Arsenal fan and while I would consider him English, I think it's far from straight forward for him. To use your own words, he has no English blood in terms of his parents' heritage. He has no interest in the Irish football team, but certainly supports Ireland in rugby. And....he now lives in Chicago.

BTW, Cascarino did actually qualify under the grandparents rule. His mother was adopted as opposed to being the biological daughter of his Irish grandfather. So there's no problem with that.

I’ll be pretty disappointed if Saka and Rice are run in to the ground playing 90 minutes again against Finland on Tuesday.

Rice annoyingly probably will because of his suspension, but Saka - England have Bowen and Madueke who need to see if they can cut it at this level. It’s also grinding how Palmer and Foden have both withdrawn from these internationals. The next round we need to be more ruthless and pull Saka out

Hi Dec, you'll know better than me but Cascarino said in his autobiography: "I didn't qualify for Ireland. I was a fraud. A fake Irishman" I know you can qualify via a grandparent, but I don't know what the rules are with an adoption, in theory it shouldn't change anything. If you as a parent adopt a child with a different nationality then they surely have the right to have the same nationality as their parent.

Jesus reported to be fit for the Spurs game
Calafiori back with Arsenal and the injury is thought not to be serious, could easily be fit for the Spurs game
Tomiyasu progressing well but Spurs may come too soon.

Hi Soc,
Calafiori is incredibly exciting. I think it might be a while before we see his true swashbuckling carries from CB as I expect him to naturally play it a bit safer when he gets his chance has he finds his feet and confidence in the side. But I think a big reason for us signing him (and Merino!) is in some of those games where we play highly organised sides who tactically 'work us out'. Take Bayern for example, they overloaded their left to shut off the trio of White, Saka, Ødegaard and let our left side and left sided CB (Gabriel) have the ball. Gabriel is more than capable on the ball but Calafiori offers the carrying ability to break lines with a bit of thrust. It is a small tweak to make the defence ever more versatile and strong, and I think Arteta really buys in to the mantra of the attacks starting with the defence.

Hi Rich,

Cascarino did indeed say that in his autobiography, but the FAI subsequently clarified that there was no breach of process because an adoption is no grounds for contesting nationality. Cascarino didn't know his mother was adopted when he started the process of declaring for Ireland. It was a nice juicy story to sell his book though. In fairness to Cascarino, he still refers to the Irish team as "us". He didn't just hang up the green jersey never to be seen again in Ireland.

Ødegaard has gone off injured playing for Norway. He can’t walk. Man were *%^@*** cursed.

Just need Saka to pick up an injury tomorrow now and we are totally screwed for the weekend.

Just seen this. Can’t see how he recovers for the NLD in less than a week, could easily miss a few weeks if it’s a bad twist or sprain.

So that’s Rice, Merino and Ødegaard all out of the NLD.

What annoys me the most is Foden has a bit of a cold so got pulled from the Internationals, Palmer pulled out with a ‘knock’ but will be fully fit for Chelsea’s next game. Ødegaard had a bad knock v Brighton and he’s not pulled from these internationals to recover. Saka gets flogged by England every meaningless game too.

We need to start pulling players out. Every other team does it all the bloody time

Just seen it. That’s a bad one.

Would be handy to have an Emile Smith Rowe knocking about.

Back 4 will be fine, just a choice of who plays left back, Zinchenko/Calafiori/Timber. Jorginho and Partey will almost certainly both start. I can’t see Arteta turning to youth in an injury crisis.

If Jesus is fit I could see him starting up top and Havertz dropping in to a 10/8 position.

I think Saka could do a great job as a 10 but I don’t think Arteta will do it and that’s probably the right idea to not move too many around.

Zinchenko may come in to midfield if we want to maintain Havertz physicality up front but Zinchenko/Jorginho/Partey could be quite a flat and one paced midfield.

Really not ideal to have such a depleted midfield ahead of an away game v Spurs.

Indeed. It would have been far better to have kept Emile Smith Rowe and sold Vieira, but from a financial standpoint it had to be Smith Rowe.

Just play Nwaneri now. He has buckets of talent and knows exactly what the NLD is about.