Dr. Gonzo

Doesn’t he also have someone at BBC Sport shilling for him?

Ed Woodward’s hired Neil Ashton, from the sun, to improve his PR. Disgusting person

A lot of people are traveling to and from China right around now because they've got their New Year coming up on Saturday - I can understand why a place with a large Chinese student population would be a bit paranoid about the disease spreading. They probably have family coming to visit, or have just come back. With the symptoms being basically the exact same as the common cold... I'd certainly be worried if I was coming into contact with someone who'd just been to China.

Tbh, I don't know how you close down cities as big as Wuhan (11m people, I think) or Haungang (6m), or Ezhou (which is still pretty large at around 1m). There's reports that people have managed to sneak out of Wuhan despite the quarantine and I'm not surprised about that considering how big of a city it is. Meanwhile, people in Wuhan (and the other cities) are still going to need food and supplies - so there will probably be distribution points where there will be massive groups of people. Infected people will be a part of those massive groups - and the groups are going to make it more likely for the disease to spread. I worry that the quarantining may actually make things worse - like Ebola quarantines did. But that could just be me being a pessimist.

I don't think he was really helped by being overplayed by his national team in the summer while he was still recovering from injury. Saw a highlight real of him on the Liverpool subreddit which showed he was clearly injured and struggling on the pitch - and taking some pretty nasty challenges - but they'd keep playing him for long periods of those matches. An actual summer off would be good for him and while we've had our midfield depth tested with injuries to him, Ox, Fabinho, and Milner this season - we've been getting players back so hopefully we'll be in a position where we can keep him out until he's fully fit. He's a good player when fit and in form. Having said that, I think his inability to stay fit - coupled with AOC's own fitness issues makes it pretty understandable why the club is rumoured to be looking at bringing in a new central midfielder. Those two having constant injury woes + Lallana (a player who has also had a rough time with injury) likely leaving at the end of the season mean we should probably be looking at strengthening our depth in the position.

China's shut down Huangang, as well as Wuhan, to stop the spread of the virus.

Think United need a mid winter break to a house fire tbh

There’s also this: New head of trade body urges caution over divergence from EU rules Britain’s aerospace and defence companies fired a warning shot at Boris Johnson’s government on Wednesday after chancellor Sajid Javid’s defiant comments that there would be no regulatory alignment with the EU after Brexit. In a speech to the sector’s biggest annual gathering in London, Tony Wood, incoming president of the industry trade body, ADS, said staying aligned with European aviation regulations was “in our national interest”. Mr Wood went on to warn that any changes to the current status — where the UK remains a member of the European Union Aviation Safety regime (EASA) — “need to be considered and carefully introduced.” “If the UK government has a different ambition, it needs to work with us to make sure we can deliver,” Mr Wood added. People close to the new ADS boss called for the government to set out its position in consultation with industry. They said his remarks reflected deep frustration in the aerospace and defence industries over the government’s failure to accept the implications of divergence from the EU. Companies and trade bodies across several sectors reacted with dismay to comments by Mr Javid in an interview with the FT last week in which he insisted Britain would not be a ruletaker from Brussels. He added that after 3½ years of Brexit paralysis businesses in the UK have had plenty of time to prepare for the effects of leaving the bloc. Two senior aerospace executives said it was unclear whether this was clear policy or whether Mr Javid was merely taking a hardline position ahead of what are likely to be tough trade negotiations with the EU. Either way, it was impossible for businesses to prepare for a new regime if they did not know what the government proposed in its place, said Paul Everitt, ADS chief executive. The UK aerospace industry, which has a highly-regulated global supply chain, relies on membership of EASA to maintain common safety and certification standards that are also acceptable to the US safety agency, the Federal Aviation Administration. The industry has estimated that it would take a decade and cost between £30m and £40m a year to create a UK safety authority with all the expertise of EASA, against a current contribution to the European agency of £1m to £4m annually. While aircraft components are exempt from tariffs under World Trade Organisation rules, the aerospace industry has long argued that divergence from European regulations would add cost and complexity to UK manufacturing and jeopardise export success. In 2018, UK exported some £34bn in aerospace products. In October, Mr Everitt wrote to British government ministers raising the industry’s concerns about divergence after it emerged that Mr Johnson planned to ditch close regulatory ties with the EU. Tom Enders, the former chief executive of Airbus — the Franco-German aerospace group which has significant operations in the UK — warned repeatedly that the company could begin to shift investment out of Britain if competitiveness was harmed by Brexit. In his speech on Wednesday night, Mr Wood also called on government to double the funding of the Aerospace Technology Institute from the current £150m a year to £300m a year to 2036 in a bid to preserve the UK’s future technological expertise. This funding would be matched by industry, Mr Everitt said. https://www.ft.com/content/a89dfdea-3d07-11ea-a01a-bae547046735

Glad I got out of going to China last week

Jaguar Land Rover to cut 500 jobs from their Merseyside plant. Here's a quote from their statement regarding it: "Until the government ensures that there is long-term frictionless trade and no tariffs with the European Union along with meaningful investment in the infrastructure to ensure the success of electric vehicles, the UK's car industry will continue to experience severe challenges."

Does it belong in the Middle East thread the news that Mr. Bone Saw, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, had Jeff Bezos's phone hacked?

Lovren is back in training - Shaqiri, Milner & Keita still out

So apparently Bayern Munich are declining the option to sign Coutinho at the end of his loan deal. Sort of feel bad for him, but at the same time sort of think lol - a great player, but he's found himself in a situation where nobody really wants him and he went out of his way to engineer it.

Definitely seems like we kept him around only until we heard from Klopp that he was ready to end his sabbatical from football - so yeah, all for the best.

It was an Iraqi base, but with mostly US troops & some Danish and Norweigian forces as well. But neither Denmark nor Norway reported any casualties. I think any country would have a hard time covering up that many of casualties, especially considering the media was at the sites where the missiles hit less than 24 hours after. Especially if it's true what's been reported that Iran and the US were using their Swiss embassies to establish a back channel & they gave early notice of the strikes.

Still drives me mental he was given time after that 6-1 loss to Stoke. I am so glad we have Klopp now, those were some bad fucking days

I can’t remember much about those days other than hating the shit out of Brendan Rodgers

It’s mental Alisson is in the running for another golden glove despite missing quite a few matches compared to other keepers in the running.

Looks like bullshit to me. There are still plenty of people in the US that want to go to war with Iran, so it’s probably a fake document to stir up some “let’s go to war” sentiment. US soldiers call home from time to time, I think there’d be more outcry in the US if 100+ families suddenly stopped hearing from their son/brother/husband stationed at the base that was all over the news. And the US press has been to the bases. It’d take a massive coordinated cover up for that to be real.

And that's why you can expect fans of European sides to bitch about the competition being held in the middle of our season. Especially fans of sides that play in the most watched league in the world, many of whom don't give a shit about ACON and won't be watching anything in that tournament.

You're right on both counts. Usmanov is dodgy (and so is Moshiri by proxy of having close business ties with someone so dodgy - regardless of how well his wife is regarded in the UK Persian community - dodgy is dodgy). And yeah, his investment is pretty clearly you trying to work around FFP in the same way that City do, just on a smaller scale.

Football does though tbh

So is Instagram... and Instagram is probably the most used social media platform in Iran. Satellite TVs are also illegal in Iran, but if you go to Iran and look around at apartments you'll see loads of people have satellites to get satellite TV. Shitloads of people are using VPNs to get around internet restrictions.