Hightown Phil

Yeah he has, for years now. We benefit from players wanting to come here and here only so I don’t see why Real Madrid wouldn’t.

Entirely possible we’ve done this and he’s just gone to Real Madrid instead because that’s what he wants to do.

He’s been fairly open about wanting to be at Real for quite a long time. Not totally sure what advantage you think is working around that one?

Just me talking about his hypothetical long term cost really.

Madly the last two summers they haven’t paid a fee for anyone and sold over £150m worth of players.

Agree. I think ultimately we’re interested but he’ll go to Real and there’s not a lot we can do about that.

If you sold him for £150m, then on a base level you’ve spent £16m a season or so to have one of the best players on the planet for 3 years. Isn’t extortionate and it’s probably roughly what Thiago will work out at for the same period.

Reckon they would probably do it but if he says 2 and you say 1, what’s his move though? Like it’s easy saying that he wants 2 years but there isn’t a queue of teams in for him, never mind in a way that means he can dictate everything.

Solskjaer took over in December, managed them in the CL in the spring and then failed to qualify for it with a team who’d finished second the season before.

If we have 45% possession we’re less likely to score than if we have 55% so not really. I think Burnley were able to transition fairly easily at times in the first half because we turned it over a bit too easily and Norwich were a bit similar. But they didn’t punish us cos they’re both a bit crap, which Chelsea aren’t. Personally, I’d rather we were better at keeping the ball against a really good attacking side, and reckon Firmino would do that better because if they have the opportunity to counter like Burnley and Norwich did, I’d expect us to get beat. Also wouldn’t shock me if we were to play both of them and Firmino cuts off everything Jorginho does all game.

He is 36, can’t see anyone giving him more than a max of 2 years and 1 is the most likely.

Take him for a year and then have a go at Haaland. Would make sense. Cheaper than Kane too.

Can’t put it in the net if Chelsea have it.

Don’t think we hold on to the ball anywhere near as well with Jota there.

Can’t imagine their contracts with those two would involve promoting us to the same extent as us in a tourist heavy area in their city? I wouldn’t be very happy if I were them and we got equal footing anyway.

Aye. Another new deal. Makes you think.

Yep. What’s van Dijk going to do, hand a transfer request in?

Fabinho too you’d guess. Reckon it’ll be Alisson, Trent, Matip, van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Henderson, Keita, Salah, Firmino, Mane.

Yep.

You don’t need to.

Would be like reading my autobiography by the looks of things.

There was no point I’d have expected Eriksen to adapt to being one of Spurs’ two holding midfielders in the same way I wouldn’t expect Minamino to or ever have claimed to. That Spurs side played a 4-2-3-1 with two holding midfielders, two wide men, and someone in a freeish role. The man in the free role I wouldn’t expect to have played in the two cos it was usually Alli or Eriksen. In the same way Erik Dier wouldn’t play off Harry Kane. We were talking about Fabinho and Henderson and where they play and what they offer and what it would be like if they weren’t there and what would happen if they weren’t. No idea what you think that has to do with Kai Havertz or Christian Eriksen or a formation change. Unless you think Kai Havertz could do what Jorginho or Kante do, which I presume you don’t because I assume you’ve watched both Chelsea and Kai Havertz. Havertz could play various positions; as a ten, as a right winger, as a left winger, as a forward. Very adaptable in that respect and similar to what I thought Minamino was but hasn’t turned out to be. I wouldn’t have thought either could play in a midfield two between wing backs, which was the discussion as far as I was concerned so wouldn’t bother to acknowledge them as being an option for that role, so I’ve no real idea what exactly your point is here. If they’re missing and they change formation, they aren’t really fixing their core problem which is no real holding option after Kante or Jorginho. It would be a midfield 3 of offensive midfielders. To summarise, Chelsea play a 3-4-2-1. They don’t have an abundance of options for the 2 in the middle at the minute and they’d miss Jorginho and Kante at least as much as we’d miss Henderson and Fabinho and potentially more.

Bit too try hard for me. Think Chapman is excellent for what it’s worth.

Same person I reckon. I think it took me 13 days to not instinctively turn the BBC Olympics coverage on to prevent myself getting more annoyed than anyone should be at 5 in the morning.

Dan f***ing Walker.