General Premier League Thread 2023-24 Mod Note in op 27/6/23 And 21/05/24

I see it reported that Nkunku is out until December. Bad blow for Chelsea. Another £50m will be spent soon!

I think extending the time added on does help eliminate slow(ing) play.

You see Pep and Varane's response, the players do not want to be on the pitch for another 10/15 minutes. They're tired, they want to recover, same for managers.

Forcing them to effectively work longer is a huge disincentive and will result is less time wasting/ slowing the action.

If you had to work 5 minutes later for every time you opened boards, you might stop opening boards so often 😄

Players / managers complaining is a bit rich now. They are the biggest problem with timewasting. Pep/Varane might not be blatantly at it themselves but I'm sure they have done something of the sort throughout their careers. It's festered into something too big now. Varane is lumping in timewasting alongside players having to play extra games completely and I think that he is not correct to do that. One is a valid concern, and one is just a very rich boy complaining about an extra 10 mins work. They are not really the same.

It's plain to see the teams / players / managers who employed it the most last year. When teams / individuals like Newcastle / Pope / Pickford / Emery / Arteta conceded late goals / equalizers in added time, they had nobody to blame but themselves. It was great to see. Referees have to start booking and then booking again, not this warning - warning - booking - warning crap.

I read that the average added time on a PL game last season was 8 mins. No harm if it is 15 mins this year. it will teach the timewasters.

The Premier League are going to also investigate Chelsea into their financial dealings instead.

The article mentions using 6 different offshore companies to hide transfer payments (in their millions of £s) for players. The previously mentioned payments to fathers of youth players are also set to be investigated.

These of course breach FFP rules, which Chelsea have admitted to falsifying accounts for just recently.

He's walked away because they've sold their midfield and haven't bought anyone.

They've the worst squad by a distance.

Adama, Costa and Moutinho all walked for nothing, Neves, Collins and Jimenez were all cashed in on.

Matt Doherty was signed on a free. Full back being probably the only position they weren't at bare bones for.

They had a thin goal-shy squad as it was and they've weakened it way further.

Lopategli going from Wolves... It's a loss boy just to Wolves but to the league, at least temporarily.

Did a good job there last year, reestablished himself somewhat, the job he's done will get him another big gig in sure.