funkyrobot

Yeh agree and Wilf looks off the pace.

Poor ref this lad. Hates any contact. Incredibly harsh booking on Winks. Doesn’t allow the game to flow at all.

Not sure about ‘unconscious bias.’ For his fee and for his wage, Daka simply hasn’t scored anywhere enough goals at the top level in this country (and now in the division below) for an out and out striker who isn’t involved much in general play. The same can be said for his assist record.

I picked the outlier as he was a more recent signing than the others except for Borca who had a release clause, highlighting a shift in their spend patterns. There are also hidden add-on fees due for Enciso and Buananotte will eventually cost double his £5.3m fee. I’m not disputing Brighton’s clever use of ‘moneyball’, I’m just suggesting that there’ll be a squeeze at both ends of the market they are moving in and pointing out that they have won nothing other than accountancy plaudits.

Brighton are the most hyped team I think I’ve ever seen. The visuals aren’t matching the talk at least based on what we are all seeing at the moment. They’ve declined as a force this season. Their squad isn’t as good as last year. £25m for Baleba is a massive fee for an untested 20 year old btw, already shows their recruitment model is shifting.

I’m not disputing the quality of Brighton’s youngsters but we aren’t going to see another Caicedo etc. The bigger clubs are reducing what they spend. The bank of Chelsea has closed, players are increasingly working down contracts. Enciso has only got 2 years left on his contract so that’s going to limit his fee, never mind his injuries and the fact his Brighton stats don’t match your hype.

All premier league players are worth millions. None of who you’ve listed are worth anywhere near the price that was paid for Cucurella or Caicedo. That’s a fact. Brighton’s model has been sustained by buying cheap and selling very high. They’ll increasingly find it difficult to buy cheap (as everyone knows what they are up to now) and the market for selling players below the very top level for astronomical fees has disappeared. Cucurella went for £65m. That won’t happen again.

Another clickbaity tweet from Maguire. Comparing two clubs with massively differing footballing achievements over that period. Brighton have clearly won the accountants cup but what else have they actually won? They’re also dining out on sales that won’t happen again - £65m for Cucurella and £100m for Caicedo aren’t going to happen in the future. The bank of Chelsea is shut and the players aren’t at Brighton that will command that kind of fee. Their best player Fati is an expensive Barcelona loanee.

Top obviously likes Rudkin, I just wish he’d protect his best mate by taking the responsibility of Leicester away from him. Let Jon stick to Leuven and the horses, even keep his wage the same if you like him Top but just take him out of the LCFC equation and then get a proper director of football in (who is not a mate) and then target him/her to deliver according to the expectations of the club and at least close to the financial regulations of the leagues and if they don’t achieve it then move them on!

The EFL has a responsibility to ensure a clubs can be competitive even during an embargo, otherwise we’ll only have 16 players next season including 3 keepers! We have to be able to register up to 24 players. We can re-sign players whose contract is ending, take on other free agents and loan players.

With an embargo we’ll still be able to loan players and take free agents to ensure we have a 1st team squad of 24. We could sign Sensi for example as he would be a free agent. We can also re-sign players whose contracts are running out as long as the squad number of established players doesn’t rise above 24. The U21’s and specifically ballers like Alves, Braybrooke and Booth are too young to be classed as established players so aren’t part of that 24. The only one from the development squad that could be is Raikhy as he’s older than 21 but though he has played in competitive games for clubs at Championship level (LCFC) or higher (Villa) I don’t think he’s started the 5 games that would lock him in as an established player and I doubt we’ll see him start any more games this season.

Not sure it would be wise to get rid of the multi billionaire bank rolling the club unless there’s another multi billionaire prepared to bank roll it and absorb all of the losses the football club makes. The team that reports to billionaire Top and are responsible for the day to day running of the club are the ones that will be under scrutiny. Rudkin probably is the one most at risk if the club is hit hard by the Premier League and the EFL penalties.

The decline has already started. Brighton are still a great side but their squad has already reduced in quality, their results and league position has dipped from last year and they haven’t got a £100m player or even a £50m player they can shift this season.

It’s says a lot about the state of our football that account analysts like Kieran Maguire are the new experts that are becoming more influential and famous than ex professional footballers actually talking about the game. I would say he has a tendency to be a bit dramatic and ‘clickbaity’ with his conclusions. It’s unreasonable to compare our situation to Leeds, whose owners didn’t have the finances to cope with the losses and went into administration. Our issue is our billionaire owner can afford our losses but is penalised by an outdated, unfit for purpose and very soon to be changed PSR clampdown that appears to be in place to assist and protect the big 6 clubs.

They won’t continually be able to do that though eh? That model has a life span as Leicester and Southampton have shown. They won’t be able to pick up so many bargains as clubs are more aware of their what they do, alongside that, the PSR rules have hit all clubs and the days of selling players like Caicedo for £100m are already unlikely to be replicated. They’ll either drop back down the league or have to spend more on wages and more on transfer fees.

Iheanacho will be gone, Daka likely sold (if anyone will have him) and Vardy may or may not sign a new contract. Cannon will be a key player next season irrespective of what division we are in,

Daka’s runs weren’t good today, his teammates all had excellent games around him and yet despite the chaos they were causing in the Norwich defence, he couldn’t find any position where he looked dangerous.Vardy showed him how to lead the line and how to press effectively despite only playing the last quarter of the game. Vardy got criticised rightly on Friday for missing lots of chances, Daka doesn’t get in a position to even have as many chances and when he does he tends to miss.

The worse thing about Dan James is his trademark and unique rag doll diving when he’s tackled or even when he tackles. He literally goes limp so it looks as if he’s been hit by a car. Such a cheat.

For me Doyle was the key change. His positive passing down the line and his attacking support gave KDH and Mavididi the help that Justin has been unable to offer on his wrong side. His long cross field switches were fast and accurate and gave Fatawu extra time and space to rip Norwich’s defence apart.

Two definite changes need to be Doyle at LB and Ricardo at inverted RB. Choudhury should be dropped for YET AGAIN not closing down his man at the edge of the box resulting in a goal (Obviously Ricardo offers more potential going forward anyway.) As for Justin he was way too negative, particularly with his passing which went mainly backwards slowly and were often miss hit. He showed some guts to come closest to the unhappy fans at the end of the match to applaud but he didn’t demonstrate that courage during the game. I’ve seen a lot of calls for Coady over Faes but I’m not convinced he’s going to fix the problem. From what we’ve seen he’s got less pace than Faes and isn’t an improvement with the ball at his feet. Coady excelled at Wolves as the specialist centrally placed defender in a permanent back 3. Playing in Enzo’s set up, we only work a 3 when we are on the ball and that seems to be the weakest part of his game. As well as that, because of the skillset of Vesty, Coady has to play on the right, not the central position he was expected to play when he signed. For Wolves he had central defender teammates permanently either side of him so could drop deeper, not exposing his pace or his ball skills. I’d bench Fatawu who has given up taking on his man in the last two games. Without his dribbling, he hasn’t offered enough and I would start either Yunus or Albrighton and maybe bring on Fatawu later as an impact sub, when he might have more confidence to take on a tired defence.

Nullify our wingers and we are basically fcuked. It’s that easy to play against us, particularly when choudhury is the inverted fullback on the right and with Justin playing on the left with absolutely no bottle.

He was awful today, needed to be swapped out for Yunus or Sharky. Got totally bullied. Gave up taking his man on, gave it away continually. He’s young and clearly has potential but being left on the pitch when he was having a shocker won’t do anything for his confidence.

Just doesn’t close down his man around the edge of the box. It’s such a simple task. He’ll absolutely dive in when further upfield but around his own box it’s passive blocking and it’s cost us multiple goals.

That would be great. Chelsea would forfeit the match for fielding an ineligible player!

Anyone know of any away friendly pubs near Stamford Bridge that let kids in?