The walters step over

Lucas. You brain dead c*nt!!

It's just braindead football. Johnsons fecking about trying to do Cruyff turns, Mignolet just is not good enough and now seems to have decided not to come for crosses because he's scared sh*tless about making another mistake and now Suarez and Sterling are going to be isolated up front.

Mignolet is doing my f*cking head in! The number of times he plays slow, lazy passes to a defender when there's an opposition forward close enough to press and put the defender under pressure is shocking. Edit - just as I say that. Goalkeeper a priority in the summer please.

Surprisingly, yes. I think he's been good this year, it's like he saw all the praise Carra and Neville were getting and thought "f*ck it, I need to step up my game and stop trying to be nice to everyone". I know he can be bland sometimes but you can tell he's getting excited about us being this close to...doing quite well this year.

Hoddle was marvelling at Mourinhos genius - apparently acting the c*nt is "deflection tactics" by Mourinho. Redknapp jumped in and said Mourinho was embarrassing himself and the club. Pointed out some of the decisions that have gone for Celsea this season and that Ramires should've been sent off today.

Aren't we going to be in pot 3 for the CL draw? We're going to be lucky to swerve a group like the ones City have had to come through so we're going to need as many quality players as we can possibly bring in. We are never going to be more attractive to players than we will be this summer and we have to take advantage of that as much as possible. I'd be really disappointed if we weren't looking to bring in the top level players in favour of taking gambles on prospects - it worked brilliantly with Coutinho and sturridge but to balance those two we have Aspas, Borini, Assaidi and the small Spanish lad whose name escapes me - our transfer record on that level of player isn't actually that impressive. Imo, we need quite a few bringing in. It's a bit optimistic to think that sterling, Coutinho and Flanagan are just going to carry on an upward curve next year - they're bound to go through a lull at some point next year and we need proven quality to take their places before we even think of other positions. Personally, I would also be looking for a keeper and I'd love us to see if either Valdes or Casillas were available.

They never will. Just like when he continually bangs on about not having a striker no journalist has never said to him "actually Jose, you began the season with one of the best strikers in the league in your squad and you sent him on loan". If Benitez, Mancini or Wenger had done a similar thing the press would've hammered them with it in every single press conference but Mourinho's good for a quote and as journalists never seem to tire of saying "makes our jobs easier" so he gets the easy ride. Think Mourinho made a big mistake yesterday though, throwing most of his players under a bus for their attitudes in some games may backfire on him big time.

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For a big tattooed f*cker, Skrtel gets dominated far too many times in the air, and on both their set pieces he just switched off completely. Can't see Brendan changing things but I'd be much happier - or at least, less nervous - if Sakho took his place for the run in.

Arsenal have got to have some sort of reaction, surely? They can't just let another team walk all over them this season.

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Yes. Luckily though, the only way that could realistically happen this year is if we finish 4th and Utd somehow fluke the CL...

I wonder if we'd never signed Carroll and Downing for such ridiculous fees if we'd be a bit quicker at this whole transfer lark.

The billionaire owners ARE an issue though, not in this case it seems, but it can't be denied the effect on the game Abramovich has had. The prices for top line players get pushed way beyond a club like ours, as a result though every players price gets adjusted upwards. We then say "right, we'll get the superstars just before they become superstars" but every other non billionaire club in Europe has the same idea which means that every player that has a half decent season gets unreasonably priced. We then say "o.k. now we'll go for teenagers and grow our own superstars" but Chelsea and City spend millions per year on kids because they also want to grow their own. Basically, until we get CL (and maybe not even then) we are left with the players that for some reason other clubs aren't interested in (Suarez), gambling on players that have failed elsewhere regaining their form here (Coutinho, Sturridge) and the "He looks alright and maybe he can improve faster in our squad" 5m-10m gambles like Aspas or Assaidi. The game has changed forever since billionaires got involved and tbh, I have no idea what the answer is.

The more likely scenario. Basle would've contacted everyone they could think of to try and tempt them into making a bid, every club would do the same in their position and Chelsea bit - wouldn't surprise me if part of the reason was just to make sure we didn't improve this season because he ain't going to play much for them this year. Half a dozen last ten minute games, a couple of starts to give Hazard a rest before CL games and then sent out on loan next year ready to be sold for a loss at some point in the future. The thing that is starting to p*ss me off however is the fact that we are losing out on players in the same way again and again. Selling club say the price is "X" - we offer 2 or 3 million less, player joins other club, Ayre makes statements to the press about our ambitions for the future.

I don't understand this thinking at all, why 3 years, why not 4, or 7? Forget our history, forget what has gone before. The reality is that BR is being asked to challenge (and beat) the two richest clubs in the history of the British game. Add to that Man U (who according to Rick Parry have been earning £1m more per home game than us for the last 20 years) and Arsenal who are now able to do likewise and both of these have also the advantage of CL money every single year. In Abrahmovichs' first year Chelsea spent what?£100m+ on players, with the added bonus of not having to worry about wage bill? And since then have been able to add anywhere from £50m to £100m every single year since. City have been the same since their takeover. And people genuinely wonder why we haven't won the league? It's all well and good saying "FSG have to get us to the next level" but "the next level" is going to take City/Chelsea type spending - they are not going to do that and it's fine having a gob on on a forum and saying "well they should f*ck off and sell us to someone who can" but it's just as likely that any potential buyers could turn out to be the new Hicks as they could be the next Sheikh. All we can ask for is for us to be better than the year before and there can't be anyone that seriously thinks we aren't a hell of a lot better now than when Br took over.

Balls. He's been great today, and the last few weeks. Bad miss, but nothing to do with character or ability.

The Problem for Suarez is that there's ironically only a few clubs that he could realistically go to. Italian clubs can't afford his fee, we won't sell to an English club so who does that leave? Real,Barca,Bayern,PSG and Monaco - presuming Luis doesn't fancy Russia. You can pretty much guarantee that his agents been hawking him around for the last three months but if he's been told there isn't room in their teams for him then it makes sense for him to get a nice pay rise and see where the land lies in 18 months or so.

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