bobzy

But if you're not in Europe at all and are a smaller club with, say, £120m turnover then it makes the league slightly more competitive in terms of being able to spend a bit more. It won't bridge the gap to the large sides, but it helps a bit.

Because teams in Europe get more revenue so spending a lower ratio "evens the field" a little bit more

I think you're missing what OP is saying. It isn't "£400m on transfers", it's "£400m on everything including transfers (amortised) and wages and staff costs and buying toilet roll and..."

Not sure about this - everything seems to say we're going from current rules to the new capped one in 2025/26. The UEFA style one was "a proposal", but I can't see anything confirming it. Edit: Unless it's both, I guess.

Seems to be exactly what people wanted in terms of which clubs it impacts the most (and what it allows the rest to do).

And, despite this, Sheffield United need “only” 2 points to have a better points total than we did when we went down.

I did it against Coventry

When we beat them in November, we went ahead of them by 2 points. They have 2 games in hand on us now and are 7 points behind. Its been incredibly similar, no?

It's not that terrible. Strangely, as well, he's played a comparatively large amount of games against the better sides: Wins with Olsen in goal: Spurs, Hibs (twice), Legia, Burnley Draws with Olsen in goal: Brentford, Chelsea Losses with Olsen in goal: Man City, Stevenage, Liverpool, Man Utd, Newcastle, Everton He's not a great keeper, he won't be here after this season but he's not a completely hopeless guy in goal at all. The drop off from Martinez to Olsen is big, but he's still good enough for us to beat, say, Brighton. If we can't do that it'll be because the rest of the starting eleven haven't turned up rather than just Olsen.

Fantastic character here - absolutely the right mindset and speaks so well for a footballer, let alone one who (presumably) has English as his second language.

Viljami Sinisalo said his season at Exeter City has been "the best year" of his life. The Finland goalkeeper, 22, has spent the season on loan at St James Park from Aston Villa and played 50 games. He started all but one of Exeter's League One matches and helped the club reach the last 16 of the Carabao Cup, knocking out Premier League side Luton Town on the way. He was named both the players' and supporters' player of the year as he won six awards at the Grecians' end-of-season awards night. "It's been the best year of my life, the best footballing season of my life," he told BBC Radio Devon. "It's been brilliant. I owe so much to the football club and everyone around here. "All I can say is thank you and I love this football club and hopefully one day, I don't know when, I can return here." (Link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c6py9m6lqyqo)

There’s two things that could happen this season which I feel should (but won’t) dictate who gets MOTS. We get top 4. Luton survive. Given the points deduction that Forest have taken, it feels like Luton surviving would be a lesser achievement (and I don’t think it happens) but no-one had them surviving really. Similarly, no-one had us finishing top 4 (bar Troy Townsend). I also think O’Neil and Iraola have had very good seasons but not MOTS level.

I know they didn’t have those things, but their entertainment (whatever it was) was focussed on <something>. When kids (or we, whoever) watch a cartoon or programme, their (our) mind is focussed on that thing that they’re watching. So whilst it’s a different “thing”, the behaviour is the same. With the “quick flick” dopamine hit stuff, that behaviour is not the same. There’s a lack of focus, it’s a shift to the next thing because you can and “need to”. That isn’t the same as parents not having TV but then kids having TV, it’s an entire change in how the mind is settling on something. It may not be a problem but given what I see in myself and other adults a lack of focus is becoming a real issue. To the point now where I’m working, but replying on a forum because I can and it’s there. This sort of thing is just going to be exacerbated if kids are picking it up. It may be inevitable, it might not even be an issue, but I think it’s a very different beast from “we had cartoons and we turned out fine” - and that’s ignoring things such as the (potentially scary) rabbit holes that algorithms will send kids down.

I don’t think that’s quite right - or, rather, not the same thing. There are so many “quick flick” things out there that kids are getting addicted in the same manner that my (late 30s) generation seem to be with phones now. Just habitual scrolling through stuff rather than an intent to look for a particular thing. My parents might have had a “screen time” worry, but I reckon this is an actual behaviour shift and is a different beast.

YouTube is horrific to be honest. Our girls watch YouTube Kids occasionally but it’s only ever to watch the drawing/colouring or baking things and after one has finished, it’s goes off. Their main watching is Disney+ (Bluey and Doc McStuffins are the current favourites) although my eldest (6) prefers to do something rather than watch - could be drawing/writing, could be playing on her tablet. The mood after a lot of “screen time” is ridiculous, though. Definitely something I’m more careful with now.

I must admit, I don't understand how Ben White isn't fouling the keeper on every single corner.

I don't know... they could be, but maybe not. They still feel like a team of individuals. Whilst dominating the game last night, they still didn't want to work brilliant chances - it was so many shots from outside the area (and, naturally, when we backed off against Gallagher he scored). Madueke, Palmer and Gallagher were all looking for worldies rather than passing the ball around more and probing into our box. It wouldn't surprise me if they had about 40 shots last night with 5 on target. If they can kick that and become more of a collective, then there's a decent future there. The players I mentioned are all good, young players and could theoretically be Chelsea's attack for 10 years or so.

Pop some money on Blues staying up. They do, you win. They don't, it was only £10 anyway.

Most likely. In any case, we don't see Olsen after this season. Hopefully he helps us win the UECL and gets a nice little send off.

To be honest, Martinez probably comes for it and is so vocal that the back line leaves it alone and he clears. Olsen doesn't have that confidence - he even pauses his run here as he sees Carlos is closer, which in turn then makes Carlos wonder what he should do (he's probably going to head that back then sees Olsen quite far out and panics). It looked like a back line that hasn't played together often but, bar that incident, I don't think they did anything particularly "wrong".

I don’t think it massively mattered who was in goal. Martinez wouldn’t have saved either of Chelsea’s effort, although there’s a possible argument that we may have had more attacking success from the build ups we do - but that’s so marginal given we didn’t do it much in the first half either.

Norwich still need to not lose, though, and Blues need to win.

Arsenal (H), Chelsea (A), Liverpool (A) - they could easily get 0 points from their next 3 games.

It really wasn't. He smashed Carlos in the back with zero intent on playing the ball. It's a foul absolutely anywhere on the pitch - the only real difference is that Carlos didn't fall over whereas every other player would've done.

They've been the better side against us on 3 occasions this season and the other (our win at Stamford Bridge) was a close game from what I remember. They just can't finish. Even tonight, they should've scored more (it did also help that they kept shooting from 25 yards, even if Gallagher scored from that range).