Dr. Gonzo

Apparently AC Milan are in for Mustafi

I can't get the Virgil Van Djik song out of my head

Those people are insane. People who support MEK (who fucking fought with the people gassing Iran in recent history) and want the Shah son put in are the dumbest of the Iranians abroad. I definitely don’t want a war in Iran, I have lots of family there.

Pompeo and Bolton have wanted to go to war with Iran in decades and the US is escalating

That unfortunately sounds a lot like when things weren't good with Brendan Rodgers. For your sake, I hope that's not the case. Especially because of how hard it would be to replace Hazard if he does go. You're in for some rough stuff if you can't find some more productivity in the final third. Especially if Hazard leaves. With the transfer ban in place, holding on to Hazard and letting him leave on a free might be better value to Chelsea than letting him go. If they can't immediately replace him, they stand to lose out on CL qualification. And that's worth about as much, if not more than what Hazard would be worth, because being in the CL means getting better players being more likely to join you. Especially if other English clubs are involved... a fat wad of cash is nice, but now all of the top 6 can offer pretty spectacular wages. There's probably never any "best" time for a transfer ban... so this probably goes without saying, but this was really an awful time for Chelsea to be hit with a transfer ban.

Unbelievable if they didn't think they'd get caught. Absolutely ridiculous too as they've been known to be pretty aggressive about protecting their own intellectual property.

So considering how I think many Chelsea fans found this season to be quite a downer... how are you feeling about it now, like right now in the present? CL qualification and I think you've got a good chance of making the Europa League final... and really the only way that Thursday night football bollocks is worth it is if you win that fucking competition. So you've got a chance at that. And as I said in that other thread, considering all of the optimism and hope around Spurs (granted, they're in a CL semi-final) and with how they've kind of fallen off significantly in their league campaign... while Sarri's taken a lot of flak this season and is now in a position where Chelsea have a decent chance of actually finishing above Spurs and ending the season in 3rd place... does that perspective change any opinions on how you've done at all this season? Granted, I think you should still be pretty worried about Spurs - their immediate future looks brighter than yours. I do think their CL campaign as affected how they approach the league and how much they care about the league with their lack of depth... and I think now that the new stadium is open, they're likely to actually get reinforcements this summer. Meanwhile your immediate future is still pretty uncertain because you don't even know if the transfer ban will be in place in the summer or not. And I think if there is a transfer ban... regardless of whether this season was better than it may have felt over the course of the season, next season will be tougher will all top 6 rivals strengthening. And if Chelsea can't strengthen, I imagine that'll make more clubs in the top 6 (and around the top 6) smelling blood and wanting to bring in players that maybe Chelsea would have liked to have strengthen their squad out. But I think all things considered, CL qualification and the EL would be make it a pretty good season overall. Also I hope you don't sell Zouma to Everton.

Your academy is pretty decent

That’s the ideal final for neutrals as well because it’s 2 clubs that are European royalty. I can also mentally handle losing the European Cup to Ajax better than I could handle losing it to Spurs. Also I’ve just seen this: what a night for those kids

I think it was a mistake for HBO to only give it 6 episodes (was that a decision by the GOT production team though, either way... bad decision). The story was so good precisely because of the way it told complex plots in a really gripping way because of how well it was written. Now, unfortunately, after the last two episodes I think things will be a bit rushed. Which is a disappointing way to end it. I still liked episode 3 & I'm sure I'll like the final conclusion. But I guess I'll always wonder if the show was given the send off it deserves, because I think it deserved more time - rather than less - to properly conclude.

What a ridiculous season. An absolute emotional roller coaster. This club cannot be good for my health. But what a fucking match

Nah being in pot 3 was shit, our group was tough as fuck.

His suggestion is stupid, but he’s someone that’s called into TalkSport so of course he’s stupid. I know we’ve got great players and a great manager, but at this point I just feel fully fucking defeated. We had great players under Rafa and had just one title contending season, where we were robbed by this bullshit: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/football/2008/sep/21/liverpool.stokecity (tried to find a video because I know I used to YouTube but I don’t know where it is now) - but with the video it really highlights how much the referee fucked us. But after that season we fucking imploded. Then we had Rodgers and for a while had 3 great players and 2 promising players growing with the game and we had a title challenge. But we also had one of the worst defenses in Europe and never did a fucking thing to address it tactically and just hoped we could overpower teams to the title, we didn’t. Now we’ve got 94 fucking points. I never thought we’d have this many points. And it just seems like in those rare seasons we actually compete in a title race some other club of cunts just has to go on and also have an incredible season. It’s never like the years where a title winner gets crowned a few weeks (or months in City’s case last year), so I’m actually unimaginably bitter as fuck about that. Like I cannot put it into words how fucking irritating it is and how much I’m pissed off about it. This season has me just about convinced that we won’t ever win the league while I’m alive, and I’m absolutely fucking gutted. The only way this season isn’t spoiled for us is if one or two miracles happen. No way I’m looking back on it fondly if by the end of the season things are as they are now.

It’s a stupid suggestion but what do you mean by “don’t spoil such a quality season”?

Yeah my fiancé was shocked that Brits can also be fat fucking slobs like in the US

I haven’t kept up with boxing in a while. So about actual serious boxing, I can’t really say a whole lot that’s recent or relevant today. But today I got an email from my dad saying he’d found something on YouTube that I need to see. And I don’t know how the fuck he found it, but it’s fantastic. I suggest checking out Barstool Sports’ Rough n Rowdy boxing. It’s 3 rounds, 1 minute each, with amateur boxers. Some of them are hilariously bad. It’s also got really funny commentary. Some of the boxers are reoccurring characters like in pro-wrestling. It’s pretty great. I don’t know how the fuck my dad’s found it. Like I question whatever the fuck he was watching that suggested he watch this. But I am so glad he did

Probably would have featured more Tormund plowing Brianne action if that was the case

Yeah, that's the thing about those all inclusive places. They're great, but yeah... there's something about "typical" holiday destinations like Majorca and those all inclusive resorts, they see so many tourists that they bring in all the chavs out on holiday. I remember having the same "oh god, it's embarrassing being British" feeling when I was there too. Fuck 'em though, you're on holiday. Enjoy yourself mate, it's time off with your family over the next couple of weeks in an all inclusive resort. Have a good time! Do your best to ignore embarrassing dickheads, they're not actually a reflection of you (even though it made me think "aw fuck, I hope people don't think I'm like them just because I'm also English") so really they shouldn't embarrass us.

Your missus is right, sounds just like my trip to Majorca as well

Lol what

I'm not sure I understand the question - any particular reason they're technically legal? No idea why I'm afraid, my assumption would be because it's America and big companies have lobbied lawmakers to allow for mandatory binding arbitration, because (I assume) arbitration is cheaper than going to court and the fact they get a say in who presides over certain cases probably means more favourable decisions to companies? I found this link though and it explains the clauses better than I can: https://www.thebalancesmb.com/mandatory-arbitration-clauses-in-business-agreements-397425

It looks fucking abysmal. But also remember there was a Mario film that was live action. That also looked abysmal. And I was a kid who liked Mario at the time. So perhaps this is an homage to that terrible film, by taking Mario's rival and making a similarly shite looking film. Meanwhile Detective Pikachu looks fantastic

I don't know much about arbitration agreements other than what I saw from John Oliver a while back. But yeah, they're technically legal. They're actually fairly common in more than just employment agreements, tbh. I've only noticed them after I saw that John Oliver segment though. I just checked my employment contract though and it doesn't have one. Hooray.