Dr. Gonzo

Looks like another STUXNET cyber attack on the Natanz nuclear site in Iran. Hmmm.... wonder who was behind it, lol

I played the shit out of this game as a kid

Do you think this means the club will try to cut costs by getting in a manager/staff that’ll accept less money? Do you still have Dr. Zaf? If so, can we have him back?

Yeah, I thought it was a pretty astute signing until I saw him look like total dogshite every time he played for Leicester. Credit to him, and probably a lesson in why clubs should be patient with players at times, because he's truly turned it around and looks nothing like the hopeless fucker he looked for a few seasons.

I think what I want us to do in the summer, other than sign someone who can fill in if we ever have horrific injury problems at the back (and I'm sure we will - because Matip's got a year left and I can't see anyone signing him with his injury history... and Gomez is due for at least one big injury a year... given his own injury history... and unfortunately, I think Virgil's much more likely to have future injury problems now that he's got a wonky knee), where we can still play a high line and don't have to worry about playing championship quality at the back like Phillips, Kabak, etc... ... I think we need 2 CMs. Fabinho's class, Thiago had a really ugly start to his LFC career but he's looking alright alongside Fabinho, Gini's head is elsewhere... so I'm 99.9999999% sure he's on his way out, Milner is old, Henderson's class but injury prone, Keita and the Ox are sicknotes. Curtis Jones' development is probably one of the only real plus sides for us this season, though. But with Gini on his way out (at least, seeming very likely like he's on his way out) and me thinking we can't rely on throwing in Keita and the Ox and expecting our midfield to not fall apart... I do think we probably need to look at bringing in at least one very class CM and giving Jones more appearances... or we keep developing Jones the way we have done & we sign 2 new CMs. It's a bit shit because I think Klopp was hoping Thiago would be that new dimension that our midfield needed, but he's needed time to get used to our football at a time where so many of our players have simply forgotten how to play football, while other players have made serious regression this season. Which is also a bit shit for us because I'm finding Firmino & Mane's form this season to be seriously concerning (although I think this proves me right in previous debates on who's better: Mane or Salah... which I always thought was a silly fucking debate because I think Salah's clearly our best attacker - and it's nice to feel right; although feeling right while also feeling shit at how bad we've become is shit). And I do think we need to be able to call on better players when they're in this dogshit sort of form than Origi & Shaqiri. But I don't think we've got the money for retooling the squad in a way that I think we probably need to in order to properly be ready for next season. So we're a bit fucked in that regard

Got the perfect sticker for my guitar case today

Oh, they definitely haven’t. Neither economically, nor in terms of how the world perceive them - because anti-Chinese sentiment has risen a lot after covid. A lot of political leaders in many countries around the world have pretty successfully managed to blame China being the source of the virus on their own slow response to the virus. It’s pretty dangerous because fomenting racism can lead to bad things. But it’s effective at deflecting.

Their economy is recovering from the covid slowdown, but it was impacted pretty significantly from covid.

Mate if we debate and I don’t agree with you, I’m not criticising you I’m just debating. Shite would be so boring if we agreed on everything

Trust us, none of us want you to kill yourself or feel like you want to kill yourself. But we’re also not equipped at all to help anyone through serious mental health issues like that at all. You need to see a professional pal

Autism can’t be cured but I know with 100% certainty you’re not the only person on the spectrum on here. And plenty of autistic people live normal, healthy and happy lives. Being autistic doesn’t mean you can’t work through mental health issues.

Ok I’ll say one last thing. I think it’s offensive equating racism to mental health. Mental health issues can be worked through and cured. Whereas you are born with your race, it’s not something to “cure” and it’s offensive to people who aren’t white to insinuate that their race needs to be cured.

Yeah, I tried... but I’m also giving up. Absolutely ridiculous discussion here. I’m not angry, just disappointed

He posted an eye roll reaction gif because a thread that was started under the guise of being a mental health thread (which we have already) looked like it was being started so it could be a pity party thread (which, by the way that sort of state of mind is not going to help with your mental state or anyone else’s). It’s not rocket science. that second paragraph is so fucking stupid I don’t know how to address it other than saying: Seriously, just admit you are all wrong and walk away. You're literally twisting arguments now to have your way.

He didn’t mock your mental health though, you’re just grasping at straws because you don’t want to admit you’re wrong for some reason.

How were you not being a dick? You made a thread called “we need to talk” and when people genuinely tried to talk with you... you closed them out - requested the thread closed, then came on here to accuse the staff of being your enemies! That’s a dick move, imo. How am I your enemy? I was working when all of this happened and logged on to see it after the fact. How is the mod that locked your thread, per your request an enemy? That doesn’t seem very enemy-y. You’ve even been able to use this thread as a platform to get your say in. If we were enemies we’d just ban you and never have to deal with this shite again. And yes, I do consider @Tommy a friend even though I’ve never met him in real life. And as I’ve said many times here on the forum, I genuinely think he’s one of the nicest people I’ve met on the internet. But I wouldn’t be his friend if he was racist. Fortunately, he isn’t a racist so I don’t have to worry about that. Similarly if he mocked people for struggling through depression or anything like that, I wouldn’t be friends with him. And similarly, we don’t have to worry about that in this instance because he did not do that. I don’t know what to tell you, tbh. Tommy’s a nice guy that I feel could get on with ANYBODY. It absolutely blows my mind you seem to have a massive vendetta against him.

I don’t understand your position. You’ve taken me saying mental health is NOT an excuse for behaving like a dick. Then taken offense to that saying I’m saying mental health is just an excuse... ... and then saying some behaviors are excused because they’re a symptom of mental health. So what, now you expect us to walk on eggshells when we post on here because you might be having a bad day?

Behavior can be impacted by mental health, but saying “oh I’m going through a rough time” doesn’t excuse shitty behavior. The last analogy doesn’t really work out because in the real world it’s more like using a racial slur... then blaming mental health issues. Again, to my knowledge none of us are mental health professionals. We’re just people on a football forum. As someone separated from my entire family, most of my closest friends... and as a human being living through a pandemic and me not wanting to accidentally kill anyone... I truly do understand and empathise with feeling lonely. As someone who’s struggled with anxiety, addiction and a whole lot of other internal demons I also can relate to feeling depressed from time to time. It is hard to open up, I get that. And that whole sentiment of “we need to talk” is clearly a fairly popular one, as we’ve got a pretty long lasting thread where people have “talked about it” ... ... but if you react badly to being asked to look introspectively, I guess I really just don’t understand what the hell you were expecting to happen. For instance @Cicero’s initial response is a good question to get you to look at it from the other perspective and you just brushed that off as though it was a complete waste of your time to, well, talk about it. And I get it’s hard to keep opening up. But you have to realise it comes off as a bit disingenuous (at best) to sort of dismiss a decent follow up question about mental health. TL;DR - here’s how that thread comes off as: You: We need to talk Other posters: Alright let’s talk You: No, we don’t need to talk like this @Tommy: lol and here’s how this thread comes off as now: You: you are my enemies, grow up! Staff: don’t use mental health as an excuse for shit behavior You: I don’t Staff: It looks like you did You: well my mental health excuses my behavior!

Tbf you made a thread about how it’s very important we talk about mental health and how we need to treat each other better... ... when we have a mental health thread on here. So that’s probably the best place to discuss that without having a thread with a clickbaity title & have the issue more seriously discussed. I don’t think anyone on here has mocked anyone else on here for having mental health issues. Mocking people’s behavior is a different thing entirely, imo. And, to reiterate... none of us in the staff think any of you are our enemies - it’s bizarrely hilarious I’ve even had to type that. I truly sympathise with anyone suffering from mental health issues. Particularly when the issues have become debilitating - which I think a lot of people, myself included, have felt from time to time. Even if I haven’t opened up about them on here really. I’m sure all of us have had to deal with at least one big issue in their life where they’ve felt their mental health get seriously impacted for the worse. And honestly, it’s statistically unlikely that anyone just has to deal with “just the one” mental health issue. It’s good to open up, and people tried to ask you questions to elaborate more... you know, to talk and to help... and (to me at least) it looks you didn’t hear really what you were looking for and got a bit pissed off about that. Then @Tommy posted a reaction gif and low and behold another thread locked. As far as I know, none of us are mental health professionals (but I could be wrong), so if you’ve got serious on the verge of being on a breakdown issues right now... I don’t know how much our good natured but also not the most serious bunch will actually help you at the end of the day. Especially if you’re not willing to open up to the point where when asked by other members of the community to ask difficult introspective questions that make you take a look at your own actions. Because that’s where all of the change is made - in your mind while looking at the issues from different angles. It’s good your comfortable enough to open up. That’s always the first step in wanting to address whatever mental issue you might be facing. But the next step is being ready to be able to look at things from other perspectives, even ones you might not agree with or want to agree with. Especially in the situation you described in that thread. That’s just my opinion though, and how I interpreted what happened there.

People that get really rich often grow out of touch, regardless of their backgrounds. A lot of people from more humble beginnings "forget where they came from" once they've got a lot of money - Ferdinand's had a lot of money for a very long time. And he's got his own interest in Mike Ashley, as CEO of SportsDirect, not coming across as a horrible person who's businesses shouldn't be avoided like the plague because he's got an exclusive deal to sell his shite at SportsDirect. So not only is he out of touch, he's got a vested interest in doing a bit of PR for Ashley here.

When Mossadegh nationalised Iranian oil and the US & UK took out the democratically elected leader is the start of where things went wrong. The Shah was an idiot politically, he alienated the left and the right - the upper middle class and wealthy loved him - but basically nobody else. He also tied himself very closely to Nixon and when Nixon’s administration ended in disgrace... he didn’t keep good graces with his new, more left wing puppet masters. Carter grew increasingly irritated with the Shah, and was actually... not on that bad of terms with Khomeini https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Carter's_engagement_with_Ruhollah_Khomeini?wprov=sfti1 Western media initially portrayed Khomeini in a pretty positive light too, painting him as a wise old eastern mystic. But it all stems from the installation of a shitty dictator puppet in the 50s imo.

Iran’s signed an economic deal with China to last for the next 25 years. A huge victory for Iran’s hardliners and a bitter defeat to reformists in Iran that had hoped for easing of ties with the west and the belief better relations with the west, and western influence, would to gradual societal reforms. But its big news for ordinary Iranians in Iran. It should bring about a bit more stability to an economy that’s really been squeezed by US sanctions and it opens Iran and Iranian goods open more to the world economy. I think it was inevitable after the JCPOA completely broke down after Trump pulled out, and then the Biden administration went back on its statement that the US primary goal with Iran was a swift return to the JCPOA. I’ve got mixed feelings on it because, I am glad for my family members in Iran that their lives will get a bit more stable. But I don’t think this does much for my hopes of ever getting to go to an Iran that isn’t under authoritarian rule, much less under an authoritarian theocracy.

I agree with you, but nothing will happen most likely because politicians are seldom held to the same standard as ordinary people. Usually the way politicians feel the sting of accountability is getting voted out for doing a shit job. That’s probably a part of the reason why partisan politics has pushed so many into believing support for a political party is just like support for a football club. So many people can overlook shite “their” politicians do “because the other side does it too” - without realising that it doesn’t matter what political party you’re in, at the end of the day we’re all British and politicians fucking Britain up is bad for the team we are all on. Tbf though, as an expat in a country that handled COVID much more terribly than the UK, I think there’s a lot wrong with Boris policy-wise, but I’ve been in constant contact with friends and family and he’s handled the pandemic better than many politicians that handled it elsewhere in the world. And places that aren’t facing the same kind of looming economic issues as the UK as well. But that’s more a damning indictment of leadership around the world than it is any praise of BoJo and his government

Same injury made Harry Kewell a constant sick note 15 years ago (probably longer than that but I don’t want to feel too old). Bad news for a player that’s so important for us.