Chelmofox

The other side was always Man City. In the meantime, hes earnt good money and won trophies.

I think we all know the types who get angry on a fan forum.

I've brought this up a few times. I never minded watching us dominate teams, and the chess element of the game actually intrigued me. We did spend a lot of that 1st half of his season dominating but waiting to absolutely muller a team - but it never happened. 2nd half of the season a number of teams (especially lower in the table) worked out how to play us, and Enzo rightly or wrongly stuck to his system. The frailties we saw then are still prevalent today. Nullify the wingers, press Vestergaard and when he was playing, press Winks. You then get your opportunity when when of those loses the ball and the inverting full back is high up the pitch. When anyone brings up that 'Enzo got this lot playing brilliantly' I always quickly point out the his 2nd half season was poor, with much, much better players than Marti currently has. Maybe he should have adapted, but i think he was right to stick with it. The Southampton game has become one of those folklore moments, largely because of his post match interview where he said it wasnt the perfect game. As always, too much gets read into this. We still had a job to do and im sure in his eyes the players needed to focus moving forward on his patterns of play still. That game, Southampton stupidly came and played their plan A against us and 2 teams were not going to have 60%+ possession. If they had followed the model that Plymouth / Millwall had done then the result would have been very different. I've not watched much of Chelsea, but i have a good mate whos a fan and he's never been pi55ed at Enzo. Really appreciate how he got their sh1t in order.

If you make something up, and say it often enough, it might one day become true.

Interesting that Betfair have opened a new market especially for us.

Its no surprise this has boiled over once all the rumours to Man City started. I think Man City has always been the goal for him, and so you can imagine already fragile relationships have soured. Be interesting to see if Chelsea stick to their guns and he resigns. He seems the sort that would do, especially if there have been talks with City. So do we see: Enzo resign (and has contract agreed to replace Pep next season) Lampard to Chelsea Rooney to Coventry

Bet Brendan is kicking himself for taking that Saudi job.

For f4cks sake will you all grow a pair of balls. Everyone is dog shit in this league. Everyone is there for the taking, including us. Lets not pretend this bunch of plonkers are anything special. O'Hare might get something against us but then its also likely he's going to be out on the lash all night. Cannon is utter garbage and only scored a shit goal against us because everyone forgot how to kick a ball in the first minute (Winks kicking mid air - lol). These were proper w4nk in the 2nd half against us and nearly threw the game away. If we turn up, we get something. Most likely both teams dont turn up and its a sh1te game thats there for anyone. But predicting a clobbering - come on! Happy new year

We blew Champions League football whilst paying players the sorts of wages as if they Champions League regulars.

Source?

Not sure i see parallels with Lookman. Whilst he was ok for us, Barnes was still the golden boy and we didn't get relegated because we didn't score enough goals. Im not convinced anyone could see the trajectory Lookman was on whilst he was here, and he likely wouldn't have kicked on that way in a toxic relegated threatened side. I always got the impression that Brendan didn't really rate him and although he seemed like a very shy character, never gave the impression he gave 2 f4ck5 about being here. James is different. He's very young and is the only (current) player we have that can play the role the way he does. He's scoring regularly and seems to be genuinely like the club. We need James in our team. I've also been told by someone (friend of a friend sort) that its a case of just getting the paperwork sorted and James will sign. BUT, i don't think i fully believe anything is going to happen. If you are the player, you surely have to think there is no advantage signing anything right now, regardless how you feel about the club and your performances. No matter what (barring a bizarre recall that i don't see happening), he will be here until the end of the year. So as long as he does his bit (improves, performs well, scores goals etc), then he is in a better negotiating position for his career in the summer. And although tough, Wales could find themselves at the World Cup in the summer, opening up more opportunities for him. Be interesting to see if there is a plan, or that was most likely Marti deflecting. The plan can also be to just wait until the Summer!

Love the bullet points - good work sir.

You mean in real life, or on a web forum?

I presume the Boxing Day match was the only time Okoli and Nelson had played together? The team had clearly worked on Okoli for sure. Thing is though a better team will press the crap out of him and he will make a mistake again at some point.

I think we must buy him. I actually don't think he had a brilliant game for us yesterday, although he took his goal superbly. He just offers something the others dont, and i think he has the potential to get better and better. Has a brilliant attitude as well. If we can dump Faes and Wink, then hopefully that provides the funds to buy him and that opens up another loan spot.

Who was never going to say anything tangible in an interview.

Not from me mate. Even my boy was saying he was the best player on the pitch yesterday. Great defending (some super blocks towards the end), great pace getting up the pitch and can head the ball like superman. Looked like a £15million defender. Played like a leader as well, and not someone who has just been given their chance. Has to be number one CB choice from here on. Okoli can play with him as long as he keeps his game simple and doesn't play silly passes. Fingers crossed we can dump Faes in the Jan window and we can get another CB in, or maybe Souttar still has a future for us. Either way, i want Vestergaard to be backup as I can't stand the way he plays out the back. Its a joy to watch Nelson burst up the pitch when you know what the alternative is. Also, the lad is likable! Faes and Vestergaard have shat on this club several times.

He came here to prove his fitness, not as player development (like Alves / Sammy). If he had been flying, you can guarantee there would be murmings to get him back to Burnley asap. It was also going to be a risk one way or the other, but the player has proven his body, right now at least, isn't up to it. Based on this, its pointless the loan continuing as he likely needs longer rehabilitation or to change how he approaches his game based on his injuries. We can't be doing either for the player right now. If there is a positive to take, its that (for about 60 mins a game at least!) Bobby has proven to be effective in this role. Hes probably had better games that Ramsey would have had. Bobby is not the future for us, but neither is Ramsey. Hopefully we havent backed ourselves into a corner and cant send him back, but think the best place is for the player to be back at Burnley and for us to prioritise loans for players who can actually help us.

There was no break in play. He should manage this on his own.

Someone shot the drummer?

Best player on the pitch today.

Going with the boy. Really want a good game. Something to cheer about - some good goals. Fear im just gonna watch Vestergaard passing it a lot.

I'm not 100% sure about that. I remember it was Inter messing around with the deal and they tried to change the structure (didnt they want to extend his contract slightly so that we would pay a small fee for him?) My take on it has always been that we didnt directly say no to Enzo because they were scared of pissing him off, but it was a player we likely never wanted.

Presume the mighty Vestergaard is back for this.

You've got to have a Pukka Pie in you before you stop one of our pitch invasions. 'If you don't feed the Stewards, then we're on the pitch'.