“intercepted” is an interesting alternative for “stolen.”

If “You Don’t Know My Name” is rooted in the slightest form of truth, whoever got Alicia Keys to call him first pretending like he didn’t see her (he did, be fucking serious) played a masterclass.

The most important thing in this piece... Chelsea's head coach is a puppet on a string. Rosenior was selected for his ability to conform more than his ability to coach. Much less the question of who he's being asked to conform for. www.standard.co.uk/sport/footba...

The Premier League has got to the stage where there is no expectation whatsoever that a £50m+ signing should automatically start for a club, let alone demonstrably improve the first XI. These players - Semenyo, Madueke, Eze etc - are marginal gains and are recruited to raise the floor of the squad.

I had an idea, to be fair. offtarget.substack.com/p/keep-that-...

📝 08.01.26 | #TalkingTacticsDaily 🇪🇸 Real Madrid 2-1 Atletico Madrid 🥊 Diego Simeone vs. Vini Jr 🥱 Arsenal 0-0 Liverpool 🌍 #AFCON2025 Quarter-Finals youtu.be/5la5w9rLQyA

I've never seen a coach sub off both centre-backs at the same time. Xabi Alonso's inventing new strategies in real time.

📝 08.01.26 | #TalkingTacticsDaily 🥶 Man City Draw Three Straight 🧱 Fulham 2-1 Chelsea 🧠 Man United's Post-Amorim Plan youtu.be/riWR4UOSRms

Less about Venezuelan oil to the United States, more about where the revenue generated from Venezuelan oil is distributed once sold. Any political project that doesn’t have capital and profit generation for multinational corporations at its centre is targeted for destruction by Western power.

I found this hella interesting. I must be a nerd now. tonsky.me/blog/tahoe-i...

🚨 🔔 🆕 #TalkingTactics 4️⃣3️⃣8️⃣ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐛𝐚𝐦𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐱 Apple ▶️ podcasts.apple.com/podcast/438-... Spotify ▶️ open.spotify.com/episode/2Aob...

Diallo, Diaz, or Lookman. Take your pick.

Worst player on the pitch has blonde hair. God is telling you something, African.

The drums are going off in Marrakech. I'm feeling the vibe.

The more you watch them at this tournament, Mbeumo and Diallo going to AFCON didn't help Amorim at all.

Wan-Bissaka won’t want to see that replay.

My FIFA presidency will end added time, except in the case of a tournament final. All other knock-out matches will be immediately decided through penalties if drawn after 90 minutes.

The “Lumumba” fan has cleverly found a way to get a good, unobstructed view.

Mobutu Sese Seko was a despot and neocolonial stooge. “Zaire” and its flag were a dope combination. I hold these two things at the same time.

I’m fully sympathetic to what Strasbourg fans are going through. They’re a footballing colony.

Clearlake’s previous “yes” man grew a spine which drove him to madness, now they’re trying another—an even less accomplished coach. Success (in the way it’s presently needed) would be fully accidental. Bumbling around, hoping to get lucky, is the current plan. www.chelseafc.com/en/news/arti...

Quotes to live by: “The American capitalist system does not lie some of the time, it lies all of the time. When it tells the truth, it's the result of a double lie.” ~ Kwame Ture

📝 05.01.26 | #TalkingTacticsDaily 👹 Man United Sack Ruben Amorim 🇪🇬 Egypt 3-1 Benin 🇳🇬 Nigeria 4-0 Mozambique youtu.be/BYnDyy3dFnc

How will the talking heads blame Lamar for the kicker missing a 44-yard field goal?

📝 04.01.26 | #TalkingTacticsDaily Man City 1-1 Chelsea Real Madrid Win Morocco & Cameroon Progress www.youtube.com/watch?v=wj2j...

📝 03.01.26 | #TalkingTacticsDaily Arsenal & Barcelona Survive Senegal & Mali Advance at AFCON www.youtu.be/Cft0o8P3eh8

Beating Tunisia with 10 men, on penalties, in north Africa. Mali did a thing.

My new AFCON streamer hasn't activated their Windows 🤣

Anything to avoid this game going extra time, honestly.

The director of Mali/Tunisia is being ridiculous with all these crowd shots.

I love it when the ball hits the camera.

Call it what it is, American imperialism. Invading the sovereignty of another nation to rob from it resources the United States wants. I hope the Venezuelan people fight against whichever American stooge is placed in charge to operate the extraction.

📝02.01.26 | #TalkingTacticsDaily Chelsea, Enzo Maresca, and the Price of Ambition youtu.be/FehplPyBIKU

I am loving Disasi and Sterling outlived Maresca after his “my father is a fisherman” comment.

Could it all have been avoided if Thomas Tuchel wanted to work with Cristiano Ronaldo and play 443?

If he has a choice, Rosenoir should stay in France until the summer. Chelsea aren’t Manchester United, I can’t imagine him getting longer than six months to prove he’s worthy of continuing into next season with this group of players You’d want, and could possibly get, more time.

What are the chances Clearlake find a better coach to work with this group of players, who also has the capacity to work well upwards longer than 18 months? They fell out with Tuchel. They got it wrong with Potter. They fell out with Pochettino. They fell out with Maresca. On to coach #Five now.

Boy, oh boy. www.chelseafc.com/en/news/arti...

Chelsea fans should find the energy they found against the Super League and use it to remove the leadership of their club? I’m sure someone more organised could lay out the steps…

The "here we go" man says Maresca is done, mutual consent.

I conclude the only coach of the Clearlake three I've seen improve players during their tenure is Maresca. I complain about his in-game management, it costs points, but I don't consider him a problem worthy of immediate removal. What needs immediate remedy is player acquisition and squad building.

Maresca leaving Chelsea in his own time opens "Guardiola is leaving Man City at season's end" a bit further.

Maresca resigning seems perfectly Chelsea.

That goal Mozambique scored on themselves will be on AFCON lowlights forever.

hmm.

I just felt nostalgia for the two-person start/restart of football games.

Uganda’s elimination from AFCON means I get to pick my team to root for during the knock-out rounds. I’m picking Burkina Faso, but their road is difficult.

I’m sick of this shit. Brighton, France passport defender, Man City academy graduates, that is the extent of their scouting.

Safe to say El Kaabi is the best bicycle kick artist in football history.

Surely he intuitively understands football must be popular without and is older than the entity meant to globally organise it. www.nytimes.com/athletic/692...