Before we criticise Chelsea, the club, I reckon we need to be absolutely certain that our own owners are squeaky clean. I can't claim to know enough about Fosun, but I do know that they are subject to the whims of the Chinese government, who are not that much more libertarian than the Kremlin.

If there was a way we could get owners with less suspect credentials whilst not negatively affecting our club I would jump at the chance.

I do also have some sympathy for the man on the street Chelsea supporter who has done nothing wrong, and can't be blamed for the actions of Ken Bates when he chose to sell to Abramovich.

For me the real footballing villains are the FA and the Premier League who are more than happy to jump into bed with any crook, be they Russian or Saudi.

It amazes me the amount of dirt that has miraculously been dug about Abramovich in the last week or so, dirt that clearly lay just below the surface and could so easily have been seen when he bought the club and passed the authority's scrutiny.

Here endeth the lesson

I mooted the idea that we should be looking for new owners only last week.
Now is an ideal time to do so with where we are in the league and it appears that there are many Americans who are interested in buying into the Premier league.
I know we are at the whim of Fosun (and the Chinese Government) but an offer was made perhaps they would be interested, as they are an investment company.
One can only hope.

I don't think we will have to wait too long.

Am I missing something? If Chelsea can't sell tickets why don't they just let the fans in for free? Or is that just too simple?

Dunno. The whole thing is a bit ridiculous to me.

Have no fear Boston.

If I win one of the big lotteries over her, I'll be on the next plane back to buy out Fosun.

Agree with most of the points made by oldgold and wulfrun. Ridiculous to suggest Middlesbrough fans should suffer just because Chelsea fans can’t go to their cup tie. And to use sporting integrity as the basis for that argument is ironic in the extreme.

Don’t like the fact that fans suffer because of owners misdemeanours though. With Chelsea and for different reasons Derby, I am all for throwing the kitchen sink at the owners but what have the fans done wrong.

And there is a nervousness about Fosun both in terms of where they come from, and whether they decide football ain’t such a good investment after all. If China took over Taiwan like Russia felt like they had the right to take Ukraine then there is a bit of there but for the grace of god go I

I see Chelsea have backed down in their request, even their own supporters trust said it wasn't a good idea. Steve Gibson had some pretty strong words to say about it too, I doubt there will be a very cordial atmosphere in the board room this weekend.

"Where is the intellect of Bruce Buck, the chairman of Chelsea, who has been an apologist for his owner, where the trophies won over 19 years have come from the corrupt money provided by Abramovich?"

As for Fosun, I think there is some distance between a business built by two entrepeneurs in to a global conglomerate and an individual who made his money in a corrupt post Soviet carve up of national assets.

Im not saying that there isn't anything shady in Guo Guangchang's closet but it hasnt been exposed as yet as far as I know. Fosun appear to be a well run, and very well diversfied international company who operate in wide variety of very legitimate market areas in just about every market.

The bogsh!tes on course for their second stuffing of the week tonight v Fulham.

comment by Wolfgang (U8869)
posted 2 hours, 1 minute ago
The bogsh!tes on course for their second stuffing of the week tonight v Fulham.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

They're 1-0 up.

Albion won

I agree that Fosun are a well run and successful global company. But they need the blessing of the Chinese government to operate, and they would be likely to be a target of sanctions if China were to fall out of favour with the powers that be in the west

Had a listen to the first half of this podcast yesterday, Dave Edwards and two other ex colleagues of his interviewing Conor Coady. Well worth a listen, the lad can rattle.

https://inthestiffs.buzzsprout.com/1902963/10248238-in-the-stiffs-conor-coady

Like you, just listened to th first half of that podcast. Entertaining stuff and interesting. Will listen to the rest later

Talks evidently taking place with Moutinho about a one year contract extension

comment by Spangles (U17289)
posted 10 minutes ago
Talks evidently taking place with Moutinho about a one year contract extension
----------------------------------------------------------------------
I think he'll sign for another year but pretty certain Saiss will not due to his unrealistic demands.

Very good news if he does sign an extension. Just hope Sais does too.

Highlights from the U23's 4-0 drubbing of the Baggies. Watch out for a stunning effort by Lembisika, a player I've been raving about for a while now.

https://tv.wolves.co.uk/player?feedId=81e4f698-9dbf-4e6f-b6a1-18963bf6539b&sectionId=c75e43be-715a-427d-9691-e291e47ba02f&entryId=0_t3656mvo

Be good to keep both but even if we do we need to be planning for life without them rather than having them as our first choices again.

Good win for the youth, playing a stronger side lately and Lembikisa is highly regarded, it may be loan time for him next season i guess.

Be helpful to our European chances if Spurs didn’t win tonight away at Brighton. Spurs have been a model of inconsistency lately with defeats to Wolves, Burnley and Man Utd plus going out of the cup to Middlesbrough. But they easily beat Leeds and Everton and win away at Man City. Brighton we’re having a decent season but have now lost their last five games and have only won 3 out of 14 home games this season.

Suspect Spurs will get the 3 points

Didnt realise Spurs were playing tonight actually. Arsenal have got Liverpool too, if they lose their games in hand it's just barely possible that we could catch them.

Im in a positive mood today.

So, if we catch Arsenal, with Spurs, West Ham and Man Utd struggling, and with Chelsea about to be relegated, we should finish 3rd.

I'm not feeling positive, just delusional.

West Ham and Spurs are the realistic targets but I’m not sure Arsenal will continue the good run they’ve been having and who knows what’s going to happen with Chelsea. So we just now need catastrophes to beset City and Liverpool

Given the fact that Arsenal have games in hand, I don't think a top four finish is realistic. If West Ham win the Europa League (which I doubt as they have to overcome Seville), they go into the Champions League. If a club outside the top 7 wins the FA Cup they automatically go into the Europa League, which leaves the 5th placed side joining them. We will have to finish 6th to qualify for the Conference league should those scenarios happen.

With the emergence of Cundle and Toti featuring for the first team, I'd like to keep our youngsters that are coming through the Academy, rather than keep sending them out on loan. The U23's won comfortably against Albion with a strong side. If they keep players, then next season could see us get promoted. Having a winning habit will do wonders for their confidence and they will be available should we get a few injuries, or even play in a few cup matches.

We have numerous players out on loan this season, but I don't see any of them featuring for us in the future, apart from maybe one or two from Grasshoppers.

I also don't expect large transfers coming in during the summer, unless we lose Neves, which may be on the cards if we don't qualify for Europe.

I beleive Fosun will concentrate on bringing on our younger players.

There's been a fair bit of catastrophising where Chelsea is concerned. Cant really see them not completing the season. The real pressure will come when the new owners have to try to match what Abramovich has done in terms of financing. Bound to drop back a few steps from where they are now.

Actually what we need is for Wolves to keep playing the type of football that we all know they're capable of instead of fluctuating between brilliant and dire from game to game. If they could do that then regardless of what anyone else does we will finish where we deserve to be, wherever that is.