Chelmofox

On the way home yesterday, it was interesting to listen to Conte talk about the situation at spurs. Naturally, he is pitching for as much cash as possible, but his point was about strength and depth vs the top tier. Is he going to get what he wants? We also know that Conte is not great when it comes to long term planning. He will want short term, high cost, impact signings, and give as few shi*s as possible if its sustainable or not. A lot is spoken about our summer signings, but i would only put 1 of those in the short term bucket (Vestergaard - which obvs hasn't worked out). I'm not counting Bertrand as i believe he was a free transfer. The rest are more long term options. Daka has had short term impact yet Soumare has struggled but there is class in there. In reality, both of these need time to reach their potential, and to think how good Daka could become is scary. But back to my point, when you consider the spending compared to Man U (VDB and Sancho alone!), Arsenal and Man City, you are almost dealing with different sports. With us, you have a team where if you can play your first options, we are class. But, this year has exposed the lack of strength and depth. It says a lot when you are desperate for Amarty to come back from AFCON, just so you can have 'someone' in CD. The problem we have for next year is if some of that 'class' wants to move on. We've seen what the big 4 are willing to pay for average talent and it seems to get more and more vulgar every year. So it boils down to what people want. Do you want to carry on with the same system that appears to be sustainable, but have options where you have to give signings and the u23's time, yet still depend on 'good' squad players to fill in the gaps when the class is injured? Or do you want to blow budgets on massive signings and not care what the repercussions are?

Well, i enjoyed today for 50 minutes or so. Nothing beats listening to my 10 year old singing 'and after allllll, your my Dewsbury hall' and having the elderly chap in front turn round looking completely confused!' We bossed most of the first half, they kept losing the ball and we were pressing lots. However, it felt like we were stuttering and lacking the confidence to just have a go. We should have been 1 up at half time. Funny how against Spurs we took pretty much the first chance that came our way. We had something like 11 shots in the first half. Should have made it count. After the goal, not so much fun. Brighton are a decent team and were able to change things around. Missed Danny John-Jules Welbeck's goal at the time but it had been coming. A few corking saves by Schmeichel. Flat, leggy, wrong shape etc. Shout out to Amartey from me. I thought he was not only great but kept that danish lump far away from the line up (speaking of Vesty, whos idea was it to have him a as the 'feature' of today's programme ). JJ getting through 90 mins a plus and I loved his interview where he hold his hand up for the equaliser. Midfield pretty meh from me today. The Defence not the biggest problem. I'm pro Brendan but his tactics lost 2 points today. Saying that, part of me thinks this Brighton team could draw 1-1 with the 82 Brazil team. No excuses from here though. A mini break, and Iheanacho / Ndidi back to strengthen things up, and with these it's not like he doesn't have options. People think Brendan is looking at the next gig, but those boos would have hurt. Odd they got no mention on Match of the Day!

I'm still willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Watched in him warm up and he was class (where as Vesty still looked like dog turd), but obviously the game is a different matter. Doesn't look like he's an impact sub, so needs more starts and to get that confidence up. Ideally he would have started the Watford FA cup match, and with the forest and randers games coming up he will get that chance. Very young. Next year is the time for him, this year is the development year.

Are you seriously throwing weight to an article where they refer to him as ‘the scot’? It’s the mail ffs.

Season still ok for you?

Oddly, the horrible Watford Norwich game has made me get over the spurs match. I’m now rejuvenated fired up for Sunday. Or drunk. Not sure..

This. I’m over Spurs now. My son used to think Kane was amazing but now just thinks he’s a c*** (he may have put it differently, but we both know what he really meant). We go 1 down early but win 2-1. Daka and Madders again. We’ll be there with my boy making more noise than most of those around us!

Rogers can't be blamed for Ricardo and Fofana. My take on Castagne is that they've used the opportunity to sort a few things out at the same time (didn't someone say there was shoulder surgery too?). Vardy and Evans i'm putting down to age (and probably need to change how they approach things accordingly), and i'd rather Bertrand was as far away from the team as possible.

Really happy for him if true. I think he has acquitted himself excellent last few games hes been in. As for being ready, Southgate likes to build for the future too so i only see plus sides for him personally if this happens.

Amarey!!! Bye bye Vesty.

Wanting to win and doing the right thing are 2 very different things. To some degree, I admire Tielemans for wanting that but what he ended up doing looked more desperate than anything else. It wasn't like they were executing a game plan to win, and in doing so the shape was all over the place, and our confidence had been shot by the equaliser anyway. This isn't Rodgers bottling, its management.

In interviews i have seen of him he comes across as a very smart, family orientated person. He has 2 kids that he will want to ensure have the best education possible, and he will want to maximise his personal opportunities. I think he will have to go aboard to do that, and whatever he picks will also include his families needs. The part that niggles me is will he risk this all before the next World Cup? He is almost undroppable for Leicester, and a Yuri playing well for us gets into the Belgian squad for the next world cup (i presume anyway!). However, stepping up to top tier in Spain or Italy he moves into a realm where there will be more competition for his place and he risks not be getting the games he needs. He knows full well these moves don't always work out. But then im probably reading too much into it!

Ah ok. So handball is only deemed intentional if you make your body bigger? I thought it was just hands being in an unnatural position. Where he hands are are actually allowing him to control the ball and stop it bounding in the wrong direction.

I don't fully understand when VAR gets used or not at times like this. Remember in the Man U vs Aston Villa game Danny Ings had a goal disallowed by VAR and they seemed to look every incident leading up to the goal. Didn't someone say in this instance it wasn't looked at because the handball player wasn't the goal scorer? I have no idea! In that shot, hand in a completely unnatural position so not sure how it got through.

Appreciate is was a makeshift crappy Watford side, but he was pretty decent in that FA cup game. I think he is at his best when he can boss the game. He's not a grafter and yesterday it was a scrappy game in midfield. Not in his best form for sure but im finding all the 'just go' posts strange.

Pretty shi**y dive beforehand as well. Don't think there would have been much to complain about if he did get red because of both. Dirty POS all round. Hard to take all that in. Thought the ref had a bit of a shocker and i don't get the added time at the end at all (edit - to be clear i mean the 2 additional on top of 95). Seen plenty of games where the whistle blown straight away at kick off. But we should have managed that time away. They completely switched off at the end. Youri had a stinker, but then i thought he was great against Watford. I think if the game doesn't suit him he switches off. Thought KDH was great, and wonderful to see JJ and thought he was ok until the end. Had 11 months out. He gets a pass in my opinion. Hmm Vesty. Been trying to give him benefit of the doubt but i just can't anymore. He can have 5 yards on someone and you know he's going to get beat.

KDH was drivel?

The nervous energy it creates makes pushing forward so pleasurable.

My son tested positive yesterday and we have tickets for the Brighton game too. Like you, don't hold out much hope about not testing positive sometime this week. However, i believe the new isolation rule is for everyone. The only special rule for the vaxd is if you come into close contact with someone positive (which you have). In this circumstance, as long as you have a negative LFT each day you don't have to isolate. I'm going to be hopeful that me and the wife somehow avoid it this week

As from tomorrow the isolation rules change. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/self-isolation-for-those-with-covid-19-can-end-after-five-full-days-following-two-negative-lfd-tests So as long as the child has a negative test result by Thursday and then Friday you should be good to go. That's assuming of course the adults then doesnt test positive.

A complete pain. Was one of the boys Christmas presents and the rescheduled game is very likely going to be on a school night. Booked for the Watford game now. Looking forward to that being cancelled too.

Jeeze. We’ve just put the email confirmation in a Christmas card. We are such bad parents, and it’s likely to have no fans anyway 😂

Thanks! Think we will do it. Now i just hope that a Swan and Rushes fry up is still £2.50!

I would love some help please My 10 year old son has become a HUGE Leicester fan (partly influenced by me!). We live about 3 hours drive away so have never gone to the KP. We've been to the London Stadium a few times (saw LC 4-1 defeat there early in the season) so he's savvy about how people behave at matches. I want to see if I can get tickets for 3 of us to the Norwich game on NYD. Happy for all of us to become members if it means we get more opportunities in the future as well. Tickets look sparse but can see plenty in M1 where i could get the 3 of us to sit together. However, I thought M1 was the away section? Would this be a particularly bad experience for us or has the whole area been released to home fans?