qwertyell

16 goals and 5 assists from the wing last season. Overpaid for him, yes. Carrillo-style insane money spunked up the wall for literally no return? Not even close.

Seems unlikely we enticed the guy who captained Chelsea to the u23s title with the promise of playing more u23 football in a lower division. I'd guess he'll either be part of the first team squad or loaned out to play proper football.

RB/RWB/RM, 18. He's Chelsea's current Academy Player of the Year, and they're desperate for him to stay. But he doesn't believe there's a pathway into the team for him - their pursuit of Hakimi this summer confirmed that. Chelsea's previous Academy Player of the Years: Billy Gilmour, Conor Gallagher, Reece James, Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori, and Dom Solanke. Their Academy is the best in the country, and their best prospect is available - and probably on the cheap.

Sell. All the ability in the world is pretty useless to us if he obviously doesn't want to be here. We're going to need everyone putting themselves on the line week in week out if we're going to scrape our way to survival again. There's already enough mental weakness in the squad (two 9-0s, the most points dropped from winning positions in the league) without having our number nine going through the motions waiting for his big move.

Wait... have they been the same player all along? Now it starts to make sense... Olufunwa looks like he's got a squad number (42) and is training with the first team today. Think he's a RB.

"Scandalous". Bloody hell. Championship clubs have spent the past year with cap in hand pleading poverty and demanding that Premier League clubs give them a bigger slice of their pie to keep them in business. Even those like us who are financially in poor shape themselves. But apparently they can afford to turn down £8m and risk losing a player for nothing in a year. Huh, how about that? We're trying to sign him as cheaply as possible; they're trying to sell him as expensively as possible. No scandal here, just the reality of every transfer negotiation ever.

He left a club that just got relegated to join Liverpool.

God that's so weak. Armstrong and a past it mascot, two nothing players, and a total flop. And it doesn't even look like an area of the team we're prioritising strengthening.

When have we had quality first teamers as back up full backs? Our best premier league season ever, we had Cuco Martina and barely out of the academy Matt Targett. Someone serviceable who isn't a total liability will suffice. We've already got our starting full backs. We're not going to build a squad of 22 starters, just to cover all bases.

Sheffield United got Jayden Bogle (who would be a very decent back up option for us) from Derby for around £3m last year. Deals are out there if you're willing to look.

What a piss take. We lose one of the most promising players in our youth set up because the manager seemingly couldn't get along with him. And I see the club are already briefing against a 19 year old kid through their mouthpiece Blackmore. How brave. Still, Swiss champions - he'll be playing European football next season while we dream of a top 18 finish, so I guess it's worked out okay.

So far so good, but we can't sit in and try and hang on - Italy look too dangerous. Nice moment for the big lad, Shaw.

Five at the back and two holding midfielders. Glad we're going for it...

Think Italy will just shade it. They couldn't have hand picked a more ideal team tactically to line up against than England. Slow and sideways careful ball retention in the defensive third by not very technically gifted defenders and midfielders is perfect for an energetic, high pressing team like Italy to exploit. Expect a lot of turnovers in dangerous positions. For a team that plays with two holding midfielders, England are weirdly susceptible to fast counters. I'd break up the Rice/Phillips axis with Henderson, who is better on the ball under pressure. Not by a lot, granted, but Italy will definitely target that pair and in particular Rice's frequently clumsy first touch. And England's attacking play is too predictable and deliberate to likely move Chiellini and Bonnuci much out of their armchairs. Get wide, wait for the overlap, cross towards one striker. Rinse and repeat. Meat and drink for quality centre backs to repel. Or even Scotland's. Hoping Italy don't score first and early, because that'd probably be the game. (apologies for the off topic post)

Fun fact: he's worth a quarter of a billion dollars after successfully investing his football money in US property. He could actually buy us.

#whateverhappenedtoLEMbitopik? #phLEgM

Fucked hell, shameless dive and a rebounded penalty - rough on the Danes. Watch us screw this up trying to defend the lead.

Michael Olise to Palace. That's a shitter - thought we were meant to be very interested.

Abraham would be £40m+ and £100k+ a week. Be realistic. We're shopping in Londis not Harrods. The only reason we haven't yet been priced out of a deal for a lower Championship striker is because his contract is running out.

No, I've been singing Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You. Because I thought Matt Bianco was Glenn Medeiros.

Bizarre that anyone could've looked at his hopeless refereeing career and conclude that he's an "expert" in his field. Then again, someone put Mike Riley in charge of developing top tier referees; failing upwards is part of refereeing culture.

For a team that have scored 10 in their last two games, Spain look very blunt and pedestrian. Italy or Belgium the finalists from this side of the draw, I reckon.

Smart thinking to renegotiate the price - Angers have just been relegated for financial violations. Wonder if they've got anyone we'd fancy at a knock down price?

Too short to defend the back post.

From memory (increasingly unreliable with the years) we tried to sign him one or two windows before he joined that "Champions League club", and he wanted to come. He talked about it in an interview while he was still at Genk.