Do Chelsea actually have only five good players? And definitely not a good manager. These are tricky times for Chelsea fans.
We also have loads of mails on Trent but let’s leave that there now. Send your mails on any other subject to theeditor@football365.com
Get the whole Chelsea shower out
Can you imagine any Chelsea team from the last 25 years that would have drawn 2-2 against Qarabag? No.
Maresca is useless, and more than half that squad is too. Maresca has shown zero signs of improving as a manager since Leicester. The fans hated him there even though he got them promoted. Says a lot.
People keep saying that squad is filled with extremely talented players and when it all clicks they’ll win titles. Who are these talented players? Cucurella, Caicedo, Palmer, Pedro and Estevao sure. I don’t see another player in that entire squad that is any better than average (I refuse to get on the Fernandez wagon, it’s all sideways passing and shouting).
Under the current ownership and manager Chelsea will do no better than finishing 4th, and that’s only in seasons that other big teams s**t the bed enough for them to reach Champions league places.
That would be fine, and I’d have no problem with Chelsea not winning things or being great for a while, football is often cyclical. But I can’t accept a club with a Champions League winning squad being taken apart, billions spent, to just be worse. A lot worse.
Will (Boehly, Eghbali, Wyss, Winstanley, Lawrence. Maresca. A complete shower.)
Are Arsenal on for the Quad yet?
Miles ahead in The Prem
Equal top in CL
Quarters of the Silly drink
Surely we need to be talking quads no?
Oh.. It’s too early?
But Liverpool were ‘on for the quad’ before a game had been played just because they signed Isak..
Won’t someone think of the children in this insane world – Glad I am too old to take any of this seriously.
Al – KneeJerk – LFC
Maybe wait five games to hand Arsenal the title
Arsenal look excellent, no doubt. But a cursory glance at the next few fixtures should temper the temptation to hand them the title. Arsenal’s next five games are all against top 12 teams. In contrast, Liverpool play three of the bottom four. Arsenal’s next three opponents have conceded just four set-piece goals this season in 30 games – a problem for a team so reliant on such goals.
Let’s see where we are after 15 games, not ten.
Shappo
The Wirtz is yet to come
Nice pun. I’m now looking forward to the Wirtz and all exposé next time he has a shite game.
Finlay x
Liverpool now off life support
– It’s quite mad how a side that as recently as 3 weeks ago looked like it would concede for fun every time the opposition attacked, looked absolutely watertight vs Real Madrid, basically shutting out two of the world’s greatest attackers. They looked like an incredibly well drilled defensive side last night, which is not something they’ve displayed since probably early 2025.
– Make your own mind up why that is. The return to something very close to last season’s highly successful first choice starting XI? Or just a case of players finally pulling their fingers out after making a cock of themselves for most of September and October? You decide.
– The midfield 3, as a unit, is arguably the best in Europe. Individually they are probably not the best in their positions in Europe, but as a blend, there are few stronger. They just all compliment each other perfectly – the legs and the energy of Gravenberch, the guile and clever shithousery of MacAllister, and the relentless pressing and running of Szoboszlai. Keep them fit and get them on the pitch as often as they can and Liverpool will not go far wrong.
– Trent made his bed, and he has to lie in it. No one forced him to refuse a new contract, no one forced him to leave the club, he chose all of that for himself in the misguided belief that joining Real Madrid would give him the opportunity to be a Ballon d’Or shot. As it is, he’s firmly 2nd choice at RB for them, maybe even 3rd, given Alonso clearly prefers to play Valverde out of position there. I’d wager there was as much laughter as there were boos for him. Way to go to torch your own career and chuck your England chances down the shitter at the same time. It’s almost impressive, in a weird way.
– So are Liverpool “back”? Well, not quite. Let’s see what happens at City on Sunday. But I think it’s fair to say they’re off life support, sitting up in bed and taking on solids again.
Andy H, Swansea
Cheering for laundry, is it?
The reaction of the Liverpool fans reminds me of Jerry Seinfeld’s joke about ‘cheering for laundry’. A year ago this guy was their hero, but now he wears a different shirt, so they boo him.
Ray, Victoria, Canada
Why Trent was booed by Liverpool fans
They were to put off a rather good footballer who plays for the opposition.
And it seemed to work, he was awful for 15 minutes.
Rob, Hove
The inevitable Trent boos defence, This Means More etc
I’ve never been that bothered about Trent leaving. His life, his call. But I do understand the boos. What I find hilarious is the holier than thou reaction from rival fans condemning it.
“How dare you boo? You’re terrible people. Liverpool fans are the worst.”
Every one of those fans knows full well they would be doing exactly the same in the same situation. We are all petty, we are all biased, and we all hate it when a player we want to keep leaves for nothing.
If Saka ran down his deal and left for Barcelona, what would Arsenal fans do? “Good luck old chap, all the best”? If Haaland did the same at City? Or Palmer at Chelsea? We all know how those fans would react.
And if you think I’m wrong, then name me one example of a player in his prime, who the club wanted to keep, who left on a free to a direct rival competing for the same trophies, and was warmly welcomed back by the fans. Because I can’t think of a single one.
Mike, LFC, Dubai
…RHT/TS x telling us Liverpool fans how we should feel about Trent moving to Madrid is a bit rich when Arsenal fans always moan about being told off by the celebration police. I do thank you for your words but also give it a rest.
In the same way that I can’t tell Arsenal fans that RVP was a bona fide club legend who deserved a nice sending off for scoring all those goals you can’t tell Liverpool fans who our legends are. There’s reasons people like McManaman and Owen don’t get the same sort of love as Fowler and Gerrard around the North West. Trent will always be part of the former group.
Trent chose to be silent when his mind was made up to go – how can I possibly know this? Well the fact his Spanish tutor who was teaching him the language from January saying in the media this week what a natural he was is a tell tale sign. His agent instructed Madrid to make a pithy bid in January so that Trent would have a cover story when he left for free, saying the club could’ve sold him for something but chose not to.
We had a weird run in January – drew with a terrible Man Utd team (Trent at fault for both goals), knocked out of the Carabao by Spurs, drew with Forest (tbf not the worst result)…Trent’s performances were not befitting a man earning hundreds of thousands of pounds because his focus was elsewhere maybe? And maybe he briefly threw the entire team out of whack wondering if he would leave midway through a season where they were looking so strong in that moment and like they might win 2 or even 3 major trophies. To be clear as well he’s moved to a Madrid that is looking like it needs a lot of work if it’s going to compete and he can’t even make the starting XI.
They got spanked by Arsenal last season in the knockouts and who would back them to come good this season? There’s already media leaks that the players don’t like Alonso and that spells trouble. There’s also a good reason PSG won the Champions League immediately after Mbappe left and not before. You can’t win the big games with only 10 men working hard in modern football.
Trent has every right to be rich beyond his wildest dreams and that’s what he chose over being revered in his home. The club took him from the age of 7 to every trophy a footballer can win in this country. I know it’s probably great to be a footballer anywhere but being a scouser winning the league for the first time in 30 years does just hit a bit different frankly. It would be the same if Mainoo was pivotal to Man Utd winning the league next season; the fans love him more than a Sesko or Fernandes because he’s from there.
So what was Trent supposed to do? It was actually relatively simple. Sign a contract with a low release clause for Madrid – maybe £30-40m. Play his heart out all season and then tell everyone he has decided he wants the chance to experience a new way of life and he feels he’s brought all the joy he can to the people of Liverpool. He probably could’ve set his stall out and said it all the summer before but instead he chose to be the centre of the story and to destabilise the club because all anyone got asked was what was going on with him for six months. He did it because his future paymasters at Madrid wanted him to and he gladly obliged. People that put their future at Madrid ahead of their past and present never deserve to be remembered as legends.
Minty, LFC
…My go-to reaction for rival fan’s reactions to Anfield’s booing Alexander-Arnold has been to assume that they are wilfully pretending not to understand in order to use it as a stick to beat over Kopite heads. I assumed that everyone would be the same losing a cherished local player. But perhaps not?
Firstly, let’s look at local identity. There are currently seven London Clubs in the Premier League, three of whom are traditionally ‘big’ clubs, aspiring to the title or top 4 – therefore rivals to Liverpool. Two of the other big clubs are from Manchester.
Now London has a population in excess of 9 million. Liverpool’s is closer to 1.5 million. Dwarfed. In a city as big as London, what does it even mean to be a local lad? Most scousers will be familiar with the areas our local players grew up in; they’re within a mile or two of the stadium or city centre. A local lad playing for, say, Arsenal, could be from 30 miles away and an area that most gunners have never set foot in and have grown up supporting any one of dozens of clubs.
Then there’s wider socio-political differences. Liverpool has a huge Irish Catholic population in a traditionally Protestant country. For various, easily researchable reasons, many Liverpool locals are anti-monarchy and anti-tory in a country that is full of tory loving flag-shaggers (or reform loving now). The politics and beliefs of a city like Liverpool are not aligned with that of the majority, which leads to the whole Scouse not English thing.
Imagine the frustration at royals leeching of you, being forced into tory rule for decades and forced to lose your EU citizenship – because Trevor from Essex loves flags and the Daily Mail. So, it’s fun to be able to boo the national anthem with your brothers in arms at the match, while the rest of the nation collectively pretends to be outraged and hangs bunting for coronations. It channels into that whole us vs them mentality that gets mentioned so much in football.
Then economy; London’s GDP is £618billion. Manchester’s is £101billion. Liverpool’s is £18billion. While parts of Liverpool are wonderful to live in, the fact is that investment in the three cities is reflective of their economies. If you live in London or Manchester, chances are you will earn more money, have access to better infrastructure, live longer. Broadly speaking, it tracks that people in less economically successful cities don’t have access to the same luxuries as those in richer places. Is a hedge fund manager or stock broker at the Emirates going to have the same relationship with their club as a service worker from Bootle? The level of financial commitment alone alters things dramatically.
Alexander-Arnold is a local lad, grown up with this identity and claiming to want to be captain, but then leaving for nothing (I choose to disregard the nominal fee as he was going regardless). It’s turning your back on more than the club, it’s turning your back on the whole identity. He can choose to do that – but of course the fans can choose to be unhappy with it.
Everyone knows that when you speak to people in London, the first thing they ask you is what you do for work. In Liverpool, they ask if you are a red or a blue. Maybe that’s telling. Maybe, and I kind of hate that I’m saying this, but maybe this actually does mean more?
So; Arsenal, City and Chelsea fans and all the rest are either pretending not to understand the feelings invoked by their support of their club and community – or they actually don’t. Which would be sad for them.
Anyone would go to Real Madrid you say? Nah. Not me. This means more.
Seamus
…You put two missives in yesterday’s Mailbox criticising Liverpool fans for giving TAA a bit of grief and I can accept that. I wasn’t in Madrid (I live in Canada, so getting there is a bit of a pain in the proverbials)
But what is the obsession with ‘This Means More’? It’s a marketing term, invented by a marketing person.. In the same manner as ‘Theatre Of Dreams’ or ‘The London Stadium’.
Get over it.
No Liverpool fan I know ever mentions it, and it doesn’t appear on the club website as far as I could be bothered to check (I just got in from work, fixing Canadians & tourists).
But it adds to the narrative that Liverpool fans think we are entitled. That I can’t see it on the website may be an indicator that someone thought it was a piss poor idea?
A, LFC, Montreal
…While the defacing of the TAA mural was both stupid and childish, so too are the disingenuous and ad-hominem attacks on Liverpool fans for giving TAA a bit of stick and the humorous singing of Steven Gerrard’s name. TAA played a cat and mouse game of ‘staying, not staying’ for most of last season with the fans who he knew desperately wanted him to stay. Clearly having learned Spanish for a long time, given his excellent Spanish when being unveiled, it was obvious he made his decision well before sending out misleading signals to the fans. That is the reason for the criticism he is receiving.
I would think, though, there should be far opprobrium for the likes of Gianni Infantino. Ironically, holding a conference on player welfare, when a major cause would be the additional competitions he is adding to the calendar, disallowing the attendance of the largest player union, Fifpro, and now the creation of a Fifa peace prize, likely to be bestowed on Trump or one of the many oligarchs, dictators or otherwise unsavoury characters Infantino cozies up with.
This man is a bottomless pit of hypocrisy, corruption, shameless self-interest, cynicism, vanity and greed. (I am sure I have missed a few areas.)
Paul (I am sure I have missed a few areas of unsavouriness) McDevitt
All hail Super John McGinn
You mentioned a slow news day, lack of mails and fairly dull Super League circle jerk night, plus interlull on the horizon. So a mail here to flag up that Super John McGinn has just signed a new deal at Villa.
If you want a symbol of someone fighting to achieve something, this is he. Brought in to replace Grealish – a daunting job to start with – he then had to find a new reason to be at the club after Daniel Levy managed to make a bankrupt club offer they could refuse, and Grealish stayed. That he did, scoring one of the best goals I’ve ever seen at the Holte End, constructing with Grealish and Tammy 10 wins on the bounce to get us into the play offs, before forcing Albion onto their own sword during the semis – probably in the top 10 of our greatest experiences.
After Deano left, had the unenviable experience of being thrown under the bus by Stevie the Idiot as part of his stupid war with Mings. Came through that with charm, Mings and fans fully on board. Expected to be first out the door when the sophisticated Emery would likely prefer paella to meatball, he retained the armband and – as seems to be a common theme with a lot of players under Emery – kept finding new leases of life whenever his place in the side looked threatened. As with Digne, we just can’t replace him.
The last remaining player from Tony Xia’s era (shudder). He’s seen things you people wouldn’t believe. He was on the pitch during Cabbagegate. He nearly killed Scottish Cafu in the celebrations after his Blues goal. He scored at Wembley to get us promoted. He was man of the match in the Champions League vs PSG. He told Sean Dyche to f*k off for being dressed like a paedophile.
He cost £2.75m.
He’s better than Zidane.
Neil Raines
How to fix Tottenham
As has been widely documented, Spurs home form in the league has been bobbins for some time.
Since the start of the 2024/5 season, they’ve ticked along at barely a point a game at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium. Thankfully, their barely-passable away form (or the ineptitude of others, depending on how you look at it) saved them from a bizarre trophy / relegation double last season.
And while Spurs’ away form this year has rivalled anyone, their troubles at home have continued, holding them back from an unlikely title tilt in one of the most open seasons in years. I jest of course. The Gooners are going to romp it this year, which will make me mostly sad, but also a little nostalgic for the late-80s / early-90s when Freddos were 5p, mobile phones were the size of small family hatchback, and “1-0 to the Arsenal” was an absolute banker on a Saturday afternoon.
I digress, but the obvious point stands about Spurs’ home league form being – seemingly irreparably – garbage.
Conversely the Lillywhites’ home form in European competition is absolutely stellar; unbeaten in 22 European matches, dating back over a period of more than five years. While the list of victims isn’t exactly a “who’s who” of European heavyweights, Spurs have hosted Milan, Roma and Villareal during that run – the overall record comprises half a dozen Champions’ league games and only three Conference league games. Enough to suggest statistical significance and not necessarily a quirk of playing your Qarabags and Bodo/Glimts every time (although those clubs do feature in the list).
So, what to do with this information? Easy. Build a roof over the pitch and play every match under floodlights like it’s a midweek evening. Then blast out the Champions’ league theme around the ground as the players march out onto the pitch before every game. Even a Sunday lunchtime at home to Wolves. Especially a Sunday lunchtime at home to Wolves. And then watch Spurs’ European home form blow away everyone in the Premier League.
Psychology, innit?
And just hope they don’t notice that they’re playing Bournemouth, Nottingham Forest, Crystal Palace or Brighton rather than someone more exotic.
Chris Bridgeman, Kingston upon Thames
READ: Congratulations Micky van de Ven on your £85m move to Real Madrid