OTF

Just home from seeing an Irish comedian (David o'doherty) ready for an entertaining match. He made a throw-away Geordie comment, not that that has anything to do win this thread.

Perch did blatantly hide when he was playing fullback, pushed miles up the pitch to shed himself of defensive responsibility. He's a different much more focused and disciplined player now - he sticks to the job that he is sent out there to do. I think part of that is a result of having to win his way back into the team. For Obertan it's all in the head. Marveaux looks very attack minded and I think will be best suited as an impact sub because of that. His injury record unfortunately spams for itself.

This season's away shirts are vastly superior to the home one, hope that holds true for next season as well.

If we had kept Enrique until the end of his contract I'd say there would have been a fair chance that he would have re-signed after the season we've had. That said, that is a completely different reality and Enrique isn't scoring any of the Ryan Taylor goals... 'twas only 6m we got for him...

I forsee a spike in our shirt sales this season.

That advert is pretty condemning evidence...

Spikes are a bit minging without them it would be a sizeable improvement on this seasons. I've always preferred a predominantly black strip - the 2004ish era with the blue northern rock was better than the one that followed with the golden sponsor. This is similar to that one.

The findings from Keegangate. In terms of the impact on the financial strategy my point was that it affects the perception of their intentions. If they were up front I would find it much more acceptable.

Is that per impressive thigh?

We'll make some necessary signings - a central defender and a left back. At the same time we will sell some players IF offers come in that are deemed acceptable. The potential sale of those players will result in their replacements being sought but not at the expense of getting a good deal - that is to say that there's every chance they won't be replaced in the summer but will eventually be replaced down the track. By that stage the cycle will continue. This could continue to provide decent results pending continual astute purchases.

Sorry to bring this back to the original off topic discussion but with our current operational model we are suited to utilise all revenue from player sales on player purchases. At the end of the day this is a football club, it would be nice to think that the board's objective is to get the best possible results on the pitch through self-sustaining measures. In our current situation one fact that can't be forgotten is that Mike Ashley has every right to pay himself back with any profits. This, along with the documented deception from the board will hang over the sale of any players for the foreseeable future. The precise location of every penny of Carroll's fee could no doubt be explained away many times but the reality is that the initial statements by the club about that sale were misleading in the least and that, rather than the sale itself, is what brought the most ire. Retrospectively the sale has been absolutely brilliant for us, not only has it played a part in our signing of Ba and Cisse but it has also provided countless instances of comedy through both Liverpool and Chelsea - two teams that find themselves lower than us on the table (let's forget for the moment that one is in the Champion's League final and the other is in the FA Cup final).

Wages certainly do need to be considered, but you also need to take into account our current position in terms of wages. Obviously we shouldn't be spending simply to match other teams, but if we are to progress it is natural that our wages must take a similar path. To facilitate this the revenue will need to increase at least in line with the wage increases. Over the past season given the success on the pitch my complete lay-person guestimation is that our revenue will have increased markedly over last season. Ticket sales have been up, and our prize money for our league position will be 4 or 5 million more than last season at the least. Our shirt sponsorship deal has been vastly improved and hopefully has some tasty incentives built in for finishing higher on the table. So whilst these alternate revenuee streams continue to increase we can afford to increase wages to both keep players and to attract players of a higher standard. I don't feel that the funds from transfers in and out should be used for wages as they are not a reliable or steady stream. We cannot rely on having players that appeal to other teams, but we can put in place frameworks that make it more likely by bringing in younger players who have not reached the peak of their ability or value. The flipside of this is that if you successful nurture a talent to make them more appealing to other teams you neeed to start the process again yourself. On this front I think it should be a self-funded inititative in that any funds garnered through the sale of players is used to reinvest in new players. Wages should alwasy be constrained by revenue but money from transfers should be excluded. I'd welcome further discussion on this because (quite clearly ) I'm not particularly knowledgeable on this front. I'd welcome people to show me why the above is not feasible.

One player wasn't replaced with 3.

Swansea 2 Wolves 0 Wigan 0 Newcastle Utd 2 West Brom 1 Aston Villa 1 Everton 2 Fulham 1 Sunderland 0 Bolton 1 Stoke 1 Arsenal 2 Norwich 1 Liverpool 1 Chelsea 2 QPR 1 Tottenham 1 Blackburn 1 Manchester City 3 Manchester Utd 1 Liverpool 1 Fulham 0 Stoke 0 Everton 1 Chelsea 1 Newcastle Utd 1 Bolton 2 Tottenham 2 Arsenal 3 Norwich 2

Swansea vs Wolves Wigan vs Newcastle Utd West Brom vs Aston Villa Everton vs Fulham Sunderland vs Bolton Stoke vs Arsenal Norwich vs Liverpool Chelsea vs QPR Tottenham vs Blackburn Manchester City vs Manchester Utd Liverpool vs Fulham Stoke vs Everton Chelsea vs Newcastle Utd Bolton vs Tottenham Arsenal vs Norwich

Horrible from Ramos. Madrid bottled it there. Bayern deserves to go through on balance of play. Must be very short priced favourites now.

They'd possibly be better served by playing the players who they will need to play in the final together before the match to give them some time to gel. Of course doing that you expose two risks - (i) picking up an injury, and (ii) confirming that they are indeed quite poor players. They still of course have the FA Cup match as another distraction. 03/05/2012 - Newcastle vs Chelsea 05/05/2012 - FA Cup Final Chelsea vs Liverpool Surely they'll be resting many of their more influential players in our game so that they're fit and fresh for the FA Cup Final?

Me too - in a CT started match thread.

Chelsea will need to score to go through IMO, and even still there's every chance that Barca will score 3 or more. They'll be smarting from their loss in the el classico, at the camp nou no less.

If Chelsea win the Champions League and don't finish in the top four then they will gain qualification to the Champions League (qualifiers) at the expense of the fourth finishing team who will instead qualify for the Europa.

Parker definitely gives his all, something that makes him commendable. At the same time it shouldn't be used to cover over his weaknesses. Cabaye plays with as much effort and conviction (and a little more mongrel) AND is capable of laying on the perfect ball and curling in a spectacular goal. On the fullback front Walker is quick, Assou-Akoto's hair is ridiculous and I don't think he's particularly great. Santon is really improving with more game time, I've warmed to him now and for that reason wouldn't swap if given the chance.

Let it go.

People have moved on from the 'old regime' and any comparisons are pointless and a waste of time. That's before you even consider the change in the footballing climate that have recently come about. As the saying goes you can't move forward if you keep looking back. I enjoy reading your posts when you talk in real terms about what you want for the club now; the direction you think they should go in. It's reassuring to hear that you're out there enjoying games and planning trips abroad to continental Europe next season. Of that I'm incredibly jealous but it does serve to reconfirm that you're much more than a caricature. This can sometimes be lost in the muck.

6th next season would be a great result. I would agree for the most part with what you've said - our overachievement in the league has been aided by Liverpool's embarrassing season, Chelsea's stop start performances and Tottenham's spectacular collapse. We've really benefitted from the fantastic goal scorers we've now got - not just up front but the likes of Cabaye and Ben Arfa providing some scoring punch from midfield is something we've lacked since Speed (Nolan played in a second strikers position for the most part). Goals win games.

Just a pre-emptive strike at any argument that may surface next season if we're in a lower position on the table. It would be easy to blame it on Europe, but realistically we've overachieved this season. It's fantastic, don't get me wrong.