Palestra was also crowned Serie A’s fastest player for 2025/26, taking home the Frecciarossa Speed Award.

📊 27.96 km/h average sprint speed — the highest in the league
🥈 Ahead of Napoli’s Hojlund (27.92 km/h)
🥉 And Fiorentina’s Dodô (27.77 km/h)

It’s his average speed throughout the season. The engine never drops off.

Caicedo is moving absolutely crazy this World Cup. He went from anchoring the midfield to dictating everything, breaking passing records, and now he’s randomly on corner and free-kick duty for Ecuador? He’s literally doing everything except playing in goal.

(Via Rahman Osman)

Arsenal are serious about defending that PL title 🤯😳

🚨⚪️ Marc Cucurella on playing with Vini Jr: “I do NOT care if he doesn't track back, or doesn't help defensively”.

“Let him stay fresh ALL GAME so he can score goals, I will do ALL THE DIRTY WORK for him”.

😳😳😳

How many midfielders have come up against Caicedo and bossed the midfield?

The Caicedo test is EXTREMELY difficult to pass

Let's see how Chelsea keeps up with these superteams in the market.

In Alonso we trust ☝🏻

Declan Rice — £105m

Enzo Fernandez — £110m

Caicedo — £116m

Florian Wirtz — £116m

Elliot Anderson — £116m

How many have been able to live up to their price tag?

FireSide

#Palestra

I'll be blunt and direct. And say what most people think or have seen but dont say it out of fear of being called names or be seen as stupid.

This market is controlled and managed by PR Guys and bought off Influencers that push certain narratives to suit certain purposes.

They say this guy is an Alonso choice but I will only believe that when I hear Alonso himself say that.

The only reason why I have kept off discussing this guy is because I want to trust its the managers choice. And Alonso would be smart enough to know what he would want to do with him. And that is worth trusting.

Even though to me he looks more like our SD's PR covered gimmick buy.

To be honest, the only thing I like about him is his dribbling technique and lunged runs. More like lite version of Lewis Hall.

Everything else stinks.

I would only trust the SD's when Alonso confirms he sanctioned his acquisition.

Otherwise this one I am sitting out until the day the kid himself proves me otherwise.

Fear PR Gimmicks and trust only your eyes and judgement. So far 99.9% of the signings I warned against proved me right.

And this one scares me too.

Imagine adding Palestra, Lacroix and Xhaka in one window.

That's improving the pace, height, power, personality and physicality of the squad.

We mean business this summer.

[Via Vince]

Your Thoughts]

Granit Xhaka for £30m; should we buy or walk away?

It's complicated. Sporting-wise, we need him, but financially, it doesn't make sense because it's money we can't recover, and he may not be useful to us after two seasons.

However, in my opinion, if Sunderland insists on £30m or no deal, we should buy him. We will eventually get that money back indirectly.

He's been with Alonso, so he's plug and play and will help players around him in midfield. That alone will soften any possibilities of a slow start. In the Premier League, it could be the difference between making 18/21 points and 14/21 in the first 7 games, and money is disbursed based on League positions. So, we could earn around £5-10 million.

Also, having a stable midfield could save us 7-10 points over the season; that could be the difference between qualifying for the Europa League and Champions League. Just like last season, if we had bought a top CB, we could have made the UCL considering the amount of points we dropped from defensive errors.

My point is, if it comes down to a £10 million difference in valuation, instead of walking away, we should do the deal because we will eventually get that value for money. He's not a risk; he's tested and trusted.

[Via Vince]

Your Thoughts?

Pep Chavarría vs Marc Cucurella last season. 👀

Any lineup that includes or involves 3 at the back, i wash my hands from it and leave it to you guys

Captain Caicedo. ©️

🚨Enzo Maresca Statement

Spot on from Vince here

It will be interesting to see what reception Enzo Maresca receives from Chelsea fans in games against City next season. Down to play each other on Dec 12 (a) and Apr 24 (h) as things stand.

If after winning the CWC beating PSG 3-0 you give me Garnacho, Gittens, Delap, Bouananotte and Mamadou Sarr i won’t even wait till December to leave that disgusting club, I would’ve resigned that exact moment, Maresca did well by even staying longer.

🚨 Maresca: “City is an incredibly well-run football club. Everything they do is innovative, planned and purposeful”.

FireSide

#WarIsWar

From next season onwards, (until the Shitty Maresca is sacked), Chelsea vs Man City is going to be an absolute war.

It'll be toxic and boiling.

#WarIsWar

Someone said that Maresca's resignation was a blessing, as Chelsea had a poor run and accepted to tweak their model. It also led to hiring Xabi Alonso.

Well, it's too early to say, but if Alonso proves to be the better manager and brings Chelsea back to the level we deserve, then we can look back and say that it's actually a blessing, and missing the UCL will feel like a necessary sacrifice.

I really hope that's the case.

If they don’t back Alonso properly, he will also leave mid season and you’d be calling every manager/player snakes, keep lying to yourselves you’d learn soon, their careers comes first before anything. If they see the club is not ambitious they will leave to join a better run club.