Hobsons Choice

Lamare bwhaaaat? Leftfield!

To be fair, if we play a 9-4-6-2 formation with 3 goalies, we'll win more than we lose.

It seems reasonably clear to me that the reason for many of our fans feeling disappointment with the window (myself included a little bit) is down to expectation given the season we just had. The comments in this season's match thread so far, which have repeatedly mentioned the strength of our bench, illustrate to me at least that we have improved our squad depth considerably this summer, and I think we all realise that our drop off at the end of last season was in part due to our limited depth leading to our players being gassed for the final run in. That element I think we have improved, even if not monumentally. The only objective arguments which make sense to me regarding the window being a poor one are; that we lost Dougie (which does suck, obviously), and that we were expecting big name signings on the back of CL qualification. As I've mentioned before, the loss of Doug is a blow, but in terms of influence on games, I don't think Doug was all that influential. Last year we got more ppg with Doug out of the side (1.63ppg), than with him in it (1.44ppg). I would argue that the effect that the loss of Pau when he got injured showed the real effect of a principal player's influence on results. Last year we got 2.06ppg with Pau in the side, and 0.88ppg with him out. In terms of the big signing argument, yeah it would have been nice, but what matters is team cohesion, and how we get results as a collective. I'm not nearly as down on the window as some on here, although I understand why there is some disgruntlement.

For context, and excluding players who actually played a good portion of the season, Chelsea spent £188M in 23/24 on players who played fewer than 16 Premier League games last year. Of those, £165M of talent played fewer than 12 games, and £78M of talent played fewer than 2 games. There is definitely a problem with the rules.

Feels like we really need a right back. Kosta is gonna have to wear some big boy pants now.

RFK out. Is that game over? He had like 5% of the vote.

Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiibbbbbbbuuuuuuuuuuu. Get in.

Is that the first ever VT Pingu joke? I think it might just be! Congratulations.

That's just the intellectual rigour I would expect from one of their arguments.

That's where people spreading it, or sections of it on social media (forums like this for example) come in. Floaters might not be avidly watching the DNC, but they might just pick something up elsewhere, and it might just resonate. That's how the Republicans have been dissemination their message, through channels like X.

What a speech. Aspirational, barbed without being crass, motivational. Just excellent.

Worth pointing out that Trump now is older than Biden was when he took office.

From info in the press he seems to be trying to engineer a move back to City. Question is, would that knock out a domino at City that we .might want to obtain?

We do........all from corners? What is this voodoo?

I thought I heard that when he was here recently, he was helping behind the scenes with the coaching? I may have just made that up in my head though.

Unbelievably his goal was only the ninth fastest debut goal since the start of the Premier League era.

Good luck, bud. I did it last year, and I can tell you you won't regret it.

The ref at the Southampton Newcastle match lost the plot completely. Totally out of control. Schar should not have led with his head obviously but Brereton Diaz should be ashamed of that conduct.

Hang on, didn't Dyche go on a massive one a couple of years ago against diving. Calvert Lewin being defended by Dychio after an awful, awful dive. Hypocrite.

Watching MOTD. English refs are absolute bobbins.

Currently our joint top scorer!!

Yeeeeeeeessssss! Told you boys.

The BBC live reporting feed keeps putting up quotes from Steve Sidwell gushing over West Ham. It's horrible.

Sooooo boring West Ham. We have a player linked with you, you bring on a player linked with us. So Childish.

Hey West Ham......Ssssssssssssshhhhhhhhh.