Well, today’s the final act of Premier League season 2024-25. Everyone gets to play today at 4 PM BST and though there’s nothing left for us, it’s going to be an exciting day for some others.
First half of the table is quite interesting. Liverpool has won the league, we have qualified for Champions League and irrespective of what happens today, we will finish second (again). As there are 5 teams eligible to play in Champions League next season, the other 3 spots are to be contested on the last day. Man City plays Fulham away, Newcastle will host Everton at home, Chelsea and Forest fight each other while Aston Villa visits Old Trafford to play one of the worst Man Utd teams in history.
Looks saucy and could turn out to be better if Everton does the unthinkable.
There’s not much to talk about for the second half of the table. The bottom 3 teams were so poor that the relegation battle ended months ago, and only if one of them could have been a bit better, we could have seen a miracle of Spurs playing in Champions League while getting relegated, all at the same time.
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Arsenal game against Southampton has little to no consequence. If we lose, we shrug it off, and will forget about it before the next season begins. If we win, we finish the season at 74 points, and that would change fuck all. So, what should we do today? I don’t know but please do not play Havertz. If he scores, we know Mikel will not buy a CF and we will finish second again next season.
There has been some chatter about Arsenal looking for Sesko. Frankly, I have not seen much of him, but I do have seen Gyokeres play a couple of times and I would rather pick the later. He has put down his papers at Sporting, and has some unbelievable stats this season with 39 goals and 7 assists in 33 games. He is 26, young enough to be considered on the positive side of age and old enough for the experience. Also, it’s not a one season wonder because he scored 29 goals and 10 assists in 2023-24 and had 6 goals in 8 games in Champions League.
There has also been some rumours regarding Mikel wanting to sell Martinelli. It’s not going to happen, Mikel wants him and plays him every time because he has the ability to engage couple of defenders, pulling them away from the box which allows the likes of Saka, Merino, Odegaard to play the game on the right. I hate it and would rather want some freedom for Martinelli but we have seen how rigid his game is, and it’s not because he likes it. Martinelli is not going anywhere, and considering that we will sell him at 40m, spend 80m to get a cheap copy of him, it’s the right decision. If you want to bring a LW, Trossard should be replaced. He has lost that knack of scoring lately and is just growing older.
Zubimendi is done deal. Arsenal is also looking to give Thomas Partey a contract. Look, it’s not a bad decision at all. Jorginho will leave, and Declan Rice is going to play the advance role like he did this season. We will again be playing 2 games a week for a better part of the season and with Thomas, you don’t have to worry about anything. He is adjusted to the system, probably one of the best DMs in premier league and to get a fraction of what he offers, we will have to shell money. I don’t want to see another 30m on a understudy (Sambi, Tavares?) which restricts us to reinforce other area of the pitch. A CF is must, an LW is needed, an Odegaard upgrade is needed and with Tierney, Zinchenko, Kiwior(?) leaving, we would need a LB because Calafiori is injury prone and MLS is too young to be starting twice a weak.
Right, that’s me done. I am going to wear my ‘hate watch’ hat and celebrate one of the Man City or Newcastle losing out the Champions League spot.
Who would you prefer?
Hoopah,
Merino did help us but I won’t mind if we sell him for 10m to fund Gyokeres. Another 20m from Havertz and we should make it 😉
Merinp is a far more valuable asset than Havertz, especially in light of their vastly different wages and the fact that Merino is more of a viable option in front of goal on set pieces and the like
things just got more difficult for us, if we actually want to get things right THIS TIME…Isak is probably untouchable and Cheslea will be in full-blown spending mode, which means we could get fucked over by them both as a buyer and seller
btw Eddie was number 3 on the list of worst off-season pickups…haha to all the twats on LG who fought tooth and nail with me about this underwhelming half-poaching fuck
Pleased for Tierney – he was always an honest player who never hid. Between his injury issues and Arteta’s inability to not want a player without crushing their value he deserved better but best of luck to him.
Merino*
The way that Arteta has been speaking about our transfer needs should fill me with the utmost confidence about our summer plans, but that little weaselly fuck loves to mince words…when he’s talking about our recruitment he states that we need to the “best” to win, which seems to imply that we’re looking for replacement starters in a couple obvious areas of the pitch, but then he quickly follows that up with some carefully constructed nonsense about our need for depth due to our propensity for injuries this past season…by doing so he not only plays into the narrative being spewed by AKBers, regarding the delusional notion that everything would have been ours for the taking if only we had been healthy, he likewise could be suggesting that we’re simply looking for quality depth pieces and not bona fide starters…after all, he could quite easily view his previous missteps/purchases as the “best” possible options
furthermore, I don’t want to hear about us going after any of the half-measure buys we were supposedly pondering in January, as that won’t suffice!!!
Just saw the Villa v United highlights and the refs fucked up so bad Villa won’t qualify Champions League.
Who got the benefit? Newcastle!
Not much of a reflection from me, as it’s all been said by you all mostly.
I’m not going to speculate on signings, as, had we bought Olise and Eze last summer, our season would have probably seen us picking up the PL and maybe CL trophy. As it were, we bought also rans who offered very little in the final analysis with the lumbering Rice at 8 and our resident giraffe at 9.
I read an interesting report in the Mirror of all papers this morning where we were paid £157m I think for coming 2nd and other bonuses by the FA last season, so, if we are picking up the same with add ons to the £53m 2nd place payout +++ :https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-league-prize-money-table-35281463 – I see very little incentive for KSE to remove our specialist in failure from his fiefdom where we can expect more of the same next season.
VG isn’t committing to MA or any other club in the press, where it looks like Cunha is Manure bound, so probably a bullet dodged by us and Wirtz and Frimpong joining Pool as a major statement of intent by Slot and co.
The Chavs will spend now, as will City who appear to be winning their legal battles or at least not suffering from them. It’s very likely Newcastle is going to keep Isak, and also invest for next season, as will the very hard done by Villa and Forest who will all maintain fierce competition from 2nd to 8th places with possibly the addition of Manure next season.
Do any of you see MA ripping up his controlled/contrived tactics for next season? I don’t, as it would be an admittance of past failures on MA’s part.
That said it is going to be a matter of who we lose, as MA cannot do anything to stop those who no longer can stand playing his “playing to not lose” tactical masterclass that gave us 14 draws and gifting Slot 28 points in the process.
Those who have demanded their playing time and positional play in joining Arteta’s ‘Pets’ AFC’ along with Rice and Havertz will not get us over the line next season. Just more of the same wash rinse repeat with MA’s PR machine offering all many of excuses to go with Arteta’s unrealistic verbiage, such as PSG’s bench said Arsenal were the better team, and ‘right place right/wrong time’ absolute bollocks as dispelled easily by Slot making Arteta being king of his amateur hour management he is the master of.
I don’t see much to add to the above and will continue to exile myself as you guys keep it real except Pricksy’s AKB twaddle I read vicariously through TRVL, Marc and other’s put downs when I pop into LIR a couple of times a week.
Wishing you all a great summer away from Arteta’s depressing and very deluded diatribes, where we have 2 months to enjoy holiday’s, and time with loved ones making hay while the sun shines.
At least from our beloved club we have CL winners from our women’s football, so my heartfelt congrats go out to the women’s squad and excellent management team, which thankfully Arteta had nothing to do with, which is why our ladies are CL champions.
Well done to them on a brilliant dogged performance against the highly fancied Barca successful squad.
City, Chelsea and Newcastle makes it to CL. Spurs qualified after winning Europa. That’s 6 teams from England. Nice
Hi Ambarish
Firstly, a massive thank you for all you’ve done this season while managing your busy life. LiR means a lot to all of us
As for the above comment, I’m not so sure. I don’t want to see any of those teams in Europe, making money and potentially getting further away from us in terms of success. I’ve never enjoyed other English teams doing well in Europe and I’m pretty sure I never will. Fuck them.
Hi Everyone
Made some changes to the site for better readability and removed some of the clutters. If you face any issue, do let me know.
Have you lads seen what has happened in Liverpool? Jesus Christ the world is going mad. God help those people.
Just saw it Almunia. What a devastating thing, to ram into a crowd who is out there celebration and injuring 50+ people, some of them were kids.
Ambarish—what a tragic set of events…a similar situation has occurred twice in my neck of the woods since 2018, once about 2 miles from my home and another about a 2 hour drive away…both were deemed “terrorist” acts, although I have little doubt that mental illness was a determining factor in one of the cases
it appears that yesterday’s incident wasn’t racially or politically motivated, but it might be a little premature to make that full determination…interestingly enough the international news division of the BBC were quick to state that the man in question was white so that certain individuals didn’t jump to the wrong conclusions:
“police were unusually quick to give a description of the man they arrested to head off speculation of an Islamist motive”
over here everyone is so triggered by anything related to race that they never even mention someone’s skin colour when providing a description of a suspect, even when they’re asking for the public’s help…I get the seemingly well-intentioned nature of this omission, but how fucking nonsensical is that…regardless, i hope the individual involved gets everything he deserves and more…frankly I’m shocked he survived the scene of the crime…my thoughts go out to anyone affected by the actions of this piece of shit
Sorry, I meant to direct the above post to Almuniasaynomore…my bad
I will say this, I’ll be fucking elated if we sign Sesko AND one of the following 3 forwards, Leao, Nico or Rodrygo…seems like a bit of a pipe dream gig though
TRVL
It happens in my side of the world too. To not hurt some sentiments, the equivalent of BBCs change the wordings in a way that is correct but do not give the full picture. Most of us are not dumb enough to target a race, gender, ethnicity etc because of moronic acts of some.
Media houses should grow a pair and report things as is… Without deciding themselves what is wrong and right.
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New format is very user friendly Ambarish. Many thanks mate.
TRVL,
I was struck by that too,very unusual but the reality is that it may well have prevented a violent, if ignorant,response. This is the world we live in now unfortunately and there are those looking to use every tragedy to sow division.
Ambarish,
The new look is excellent, well done. 2 questions? Is it possible to put the time on each comment? Is it possible to put the number of comments on each post on the menu/home page?
Tony,
How are you and yours? I was wondering where you were at. Apathy struck me there for a while, maybe it was something stronger, disillusionment perhaps. If you’re experiencing something similar you have my sympathies. He cannot last forever and history will not be kind to Arteta. Night is always darkest before the morn.
Zubimendi looks to be arriving soon to sure up our defensive play. Meanwhile none of the players whose contracts expire in two years time have put pen to paper to extend their current contracts. With additional criticism being aimed at the style of play and the under achievement of El B’s squad we should be in for an interesting two months.
so let me get this straight, acquiring Rice for 100+M, who at the time was considered the 2nd best DM in the world behind only Rodri, has required us to potentially lose Partey, with nothing in return, purchase Merino, who’s not a 6, and now spend another 60+M on Zubi, who likewise supplies little to no offence…sounds about right for a manager who’s proven time and time again that he’s infinitely more scared about losing than hellbent on winning…maybe we can try to bore our opponents to death again…what’s next, deploying two Keepers? he had better get the rest of this window right or we’re well on our way to becoming the Atleti of the North, which might explain the whole Berta hiring
TRVL,
We’ve been down this road so many times. I wrote a skit about this on le grove 4 years ago and look at us now,every bit as bad. I see West Ham have released Ings and Flappyianski. 2 problems solved in 1! Arteta would probably triple their wages to Foster a belief in ‘the project’.
Palace are ripe for the picking,whoever gets Eze is blessed. Failure to target him and kharva (that’s as close as I get) should have been the signal for mass protest. When did our fanbase stop enjoying actual football? GG’s teams had a bad rep but it was thoroughly undeserved and they were seriously successful. Newcastle badly need another central defender so they’re targeting Guehi. What’s that about? Should they not buy a left winger who can double up as a left back or a left sided cd in emergencies? Eddie Howe…feckin clueless.
Looks like Kelleher might be off to Brentford. They look to be selling Flekken to Leverkeusen. He’s not a good keeper,no surprise Ten Haag is buying him so…
I’m telling you lads the Dominic Calvert Lewin fear is real!! Seriously Sesko and Gyokeres are red herrings to keep the cult sated and when we fail,having tried ‘everything’, they’re going to wheel DCL out,dress,handbag,the lot. Then the spin will begin!