Dr. Gonzo

Is that Bain as in Bain Capital? If so, oooof you definitely don't want that bid.

If they were trying to surrender, it's definitely a war crime. I'm not going to defend war crimes, but if you put yourselves in the shoes of Ukrainian soldiers right now it's pretty easy to see why Russians will be on the receiving end of war crimes here. Russia's invaded them and commit shitloads of war crimes in the last week. They'll have seen the videos that go around on social media of the tanks that were running over civilians, the soldiers shooting at civilians, the bombing campaigns targeting civilian infrastructure and bomb shelters... and they're not going to know whether or not the Russians right in front of them are the same soldiers or not. Some of them are going to be wanting serious revenge. And because war crimes are seldom punished, they're probably going to feel like their crimes are justified in the face of this attack on them and the war crimes they faced in the opening moves of the war. I don't think it's justifiable, because it's still a war crime. Tank crews trying to escape their destroyed vehicles are likely about to surrender - so I think there's a good argument that shooting troops as they escape the vehicles is a definite war crime. But I also think Russia's invasion has done a lot to dehumanise Russians, especially with regard to how they're viewed by Ukrainians... and especially their soldiers. And as a result, I suspect Russian soldiers find themselves on the receiving end of a lot of war crimes as a result of a war they started that had a whole host of war crimes commited by them in the last month. The longer the war goes on, the less likely it is any Russians will be able to surrender before being gunned down imo.

That sounds fucking awful. Glad to hear you're feeling a bit better. Shit about the wound, though... but its probably infinitely better than having sepsis.

The Boehly bid I think would be the best for Chelsea. Martin Broughton was our chairman for a brief moment in history - appointed by Gillett and Hicks to oversee the sale to FSG. He made no secret that he was an absolutely massive Chelsea fan, but also said he would be looking for a new owner for Liverpool that would be the kind of owner he'd want at his club. We ended up with FSG, who while I think they're a bunch of cunts for: trying to trademark the word "Liverpool" and the Liver bird (because that's stupid, how can they claim to own the name of a city or icons of the city)... there's no doubt that the way they've run us is miles ahead of where we were under Gillett & Hicks and David Moores. He's a successful businessman, loves Chelsea, identified good prospective owners for us and got that sale through... I think if Chelsea can have him onboard with ambitious owners, they'll have someone at the top of the club that's got experience as a chairman of a football club who loves the club... and at very least knows what good football ownership should look like (theoretically). Also thank fuck the Saudi Media Group has been ruled out.

Surprised you didn't use this gif:

So’s Woody Johnson tbf

Fucking hell that’s depressing

I'm not sure that'll rule him out if Abramovich still gets a say tbh. It's not like Ricketts making offensive statements is as bad as what Abramovich has done in funding the oppression and displacement of Palestinians.

As the banner famously says: Football without Origi is nothing. I also hope we get at least one more mental moment from Origi. The man's a fucking hero and he definitely deserves a good final sendoff from the fans.

Woody Johnson owns the NFL's Jets and in the entire time I've lived in America the Jets have been consistently one of the worst sides in the NFL. Just completely a completely unambitious side, it seems they really only function as a side to pick a defense that's playing against them in the US version of fantasy football. I think a lot of potential American owners just see the money in the league without really understanding that you've got to be competitive to get the big prize money and that being a typical unambitious US sports side owner that can just collect TV money even when their side is shit doesn't really work out. Look at Gillett and Hicks with us. Or United, they spend a lot - but that was like what the Ricketts are intending on doing... a leveraged buyout so they don't put a penny in and they'll pay off their loans with money made from Chelsea. I know none of the potential buyers are really ideal, because let's face it... you can't spend a few billion on something and be a decent person, you're probably a blood sucking parasite that'd sell your own mother for the right price when you've got that kind of money. But I'd be hoping for anyone other than RIcketts or Johnson from that list @Ciceroposted.

What'd be worse, Ricketts or Woody Johnson?

It wasn't the 737-Supermax which was grounded recently (and even more recently I've gone on 4 separate flights with that plane and every time I see it's a supermax I have to clench very hard to avoid shitting myself before takeoff). It was the 737-800, which I've been on... hundreds of times... I imagine for it to head straight down like that at that speed, something either had to be horribly wrong or the pilot decided to kill himself and several other people. I've seen some drone footage of the crash site and... there's barely anything at the site of impact, it looks like a lot of shit had disintegrated. I hope there's a black box so the mystery of why the plane went down can be solved. But it's just horrifying and I feel so bad for everyone on the plane.

https://www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-says-russia-sending-mariupol-locals-remote-parts-of-russia-2022-3?utm_source=reddit.com Russia's doing Nazi-style mass deportations from Mariupol. Horrible news, but a bit funny considering the "de-Naziification" claim

The video was maybe one of the most mental I've ever seen for a plane crash. Goes down like a brick being dropped. I feel bad for the people on their plane. That's got to be a terrifying way to go.

Oh that’s reassuring actually

If he’s out for 6-8 weeks I don’t think we’ll be winning the league

After winning? It's not really campaigning on anti-corruption doing thatif you're already elected... that's just being a corrupt arsehole

Johnson & the tories: "It's not cool for us to take Russian money anymore, so our new best friends are Saudis"

I don't think funds like earlier when Moshiri came in as Everton's owner will be available immediately in the summer, but I really don't know how fucked Everton's finances are under FFP @RandoEFC might know better. I assume it'd be a sell-to-buy type situation though, although the Digne sale has probably freed up a bit of money.

I don't think Russians shouldn't be proud of being Russian - I think it's fine if they're proud of being Russian tbh, I actually feel quite bad for these athletes made to play under a "neutral" flag (although with ROC we know it's the Russian Olympic Committee... so still Russia, so it seems a bit pointless to me). They live in an autocracy, they're not like the billionaire oligarchs that can actually have a say in how the country is governed tbh. Sure Russia might like to use them as a propaganda prop but at the end of the day these are just athletes who want to represent their country - like athletes all around the world do. I can see what you're saying on the last bit, but imagine if that standard was applied to the UK and US because of Iraq. And unlike Russia, our elections aren't a complete sham where someone wins with a "definitely not suspicious" 90+% of the vote... we voted for the dickheads who lied to the world and invaded a country... we're arguably more culpable as citizens of western countries for the foreign policy decisions made by our leaders. I don't even think it's right that so many Muslim nations refuse to play Israel, even if their governments don't recognise that Israel as a country exists. I disagree with the idea that football (or any sport tbh) isn't political - clubs represent communities and often the politics of those communities are represented in their club... but on a national level international tournaments promote a different kind of political message: unity and world peace, even between countries where the governments absolutely hate each other athletes can take to the pitch and compete. With the olympics I can sort of understand it, because of that state sponsored doping scandal and Russia the state being directly behind cheating in the olympics... but even then, I am not so sure banning Russians from competing under the Russian flag makes too much sense. If anything that state sponsored doping program should have led to greater reforms/innovations in doping tests & if an athlete tests positive, they probably shouldn't be given the opportunity to compete (like that ROC figure skater that was allowed to compete).

I've never understood the point in this - I think them doing this in the Olympics is just really weird actually. Why should athletes have to shun their national identity for competing just because they're from a country with a shit government? I can understand blocking people from playing who come out in support of Ukraine or say they support the war, but the whole "neutral flag" thing to me is just weird and tbh a bit stupid. But again, I think there's a far cry between a Russian athlete and a Russian oligarch that's got his fingers all over the history of Putin's time as leader of Russia since the very beginning.

Why wouldn't they?

I'm sure having a manager with a winning mentality helped them quite a bit. With England it's a bit different, especially in that era when the players formed cliques based on what clubs they played for - it's hard to have a good winning mentality at your team when you've got your clique in the team and don't really get on with the rest of them. And yeah, that's a failure of the managers of that era as well & something Southgate's done well at - fostering a team that has the mentality to fight for each other & plays with a style/identity - even though he's not half the tactician Sven, Capello, or even Hodgson were. With United, it just feels like they play well when they're up for it but they're also capable of getting outplayed by better sides or hiding in a shell when the going gets tough. I don't even think you have to be a great manager to spot that issue and even far less talented sides can manage to look like they give more of a fuck than some of these players do. The regression at United's been staggering and yeah, none of the managers appointed really come close to the level of Ferguson - not even "the Special One" - but that's not just down to the managers and their decisions. Atletico are proof that if you have good players and a manager that keeps them mentally strong, you don't even have to play good football to have a good manager. They're the Spanish champions and we really shouldn't be surprised that they've knocked this United side out, but everyone knows how they play in Europe... yet they've been in the quarter finals a ridiculous amount of times and he's won La Liga in the Messi era a few times while playing his brand of dogshit football. It's not just the manager's tactics that matter, it's instilling the right attitude. And yeah, some United managers have failed at that... but also many United players have let the club down with their attitudes.

I think the West generally & Russia and China respectively come out with these statements because they’re trying to sway public opinion so it’s “don’t trust the US/China/Russia” But typically that’s effective when you couple it with a “because” - something you can point to to justify it. The US claims of a biolab that created Covid came with no real evidence or anything to point to. Similarly China and Russia here with this Ukraine claim haven’t been coupled with anything to point to it being true. And with Chinese foreign policy, public statements are typically a tit for tat where they meet the praise others give them with praise of their own, and they meet insults others give them often by recycling the insult they faced. Also I think if the US were making secret biolabs abroad they’d do it in the Middle East or Africa

I think it’s got a bad history of corruption, but I don’t really know. I think Zelensky ran on an anti-corruption campaign and politicians usually only really do that in places where corruption is a serious issue. Having said that, countries with politicians that run on those sorts of campaigns often remain corrupt as ever. Not saying that’s the case here though, cos I dunno how corrupt they really are/were. Just that typically it’s countries that have bad corruption issues that have people run on anti-corruption platforms.