Dr. Gonzo

I don't know what's up with those weird gaps, but here's the source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/malta-car-bomb-kills-panama-papers-journalist?CMP=share_btn_tw There are a number of people of power who would be upset with the information in the Panama Papers being public knowledge. So it's anyone's guess who's responsible for this... But very sad news for Ms. Galizia and her family.

Yes - the most powerful tool for finding information is now also the most powerful tool for misinformation and spreading bullshit. Weaponised propaganda is a huge issue that needs to be addressed.

Yep - whoopsies

It's hard for me to not feel like our seasons pretty much over. Our defense is dogshit, we're struggling for goals and we are without Mane for 6 weeks, and Klopp is being stubborn as fuck. None of this bodes well for us. Also fuck international football, I fucking hate it. I can't imagine anything other than Man Utd fucking destroying us in the form we're in. Not looking forward to this weekend.

Hmmm.... sounds familiar... almost as if there's some kind of pattern here. I'm not sure that NATO can wait for leadership to return to the United States before this kind of shite is dealth with.

I've been playing Cuphead - it's great. I thought it was totally shite in comparison to the original trilogy. I'm surprised EA isn't trying to force out more shite DLC for it though.

Yeah, I still thought it was entertaining. But I think Catch-22 is a masterpiece & Closing Time isn't really close to it. Plus people have different opinions and you might not agree with me, so I don't want to deprive you of a good read based off an opinion you might not agree with.

It's not even close to anywhere near as good, sadly.

I hope so. A hard Brexit is the worst case scenario. However Brexit has also highlighted the incompetence of our government. So I've come to expect the worst from our negotiations with the EU.

https://www.fwi.co.uk/news/government-withholds-brexit-food-price-report.htm So the government is withholding a report regarding the impact on Brexit will have on food prices. That's something that will impact virtually everyone in the UK - and people should be aware. A hard Brexit (which I hope we don't face) could have the following impacts though: lack of customs facilities, leading to delays at the border (important for fresh produce) - for both imports and exports, which would lead to shortages at the shelf loss of migrant labour vital for UK agriculture, food processing, and retail loss of access to the EU markets (this is complex: on the one hand, this can mean oversupply in some sectors and theoretically lower prices, yet is also likely to mean sector shrinkage in those sectors - possibly very quickly), which can come from tariffs or lack of regulatory compliance Loss of access to EU trade deals and resultant higher import tariffs from reverting to WTO rules. There are also difficulties in dividing up existing Tariff Rate Quotas, meaning that matching the current EU tariff schedule very challenging. To an extent, this is in the UK's hands because we can unilaterally impose zero or close to zero tariffs (but to do so, we would devastate our own agriculture and food processing sectors, so that might not be the greatest idea) Substantial threat to the food processing sector due to Rules of Origin and the EU's system of tariff escalation, which could see rapid sector shrinkage. A lot of food processed here gets exported to the EU, if that suddenly stops then there will be bankruptcies Loss of EU subsidies and the difficulties which may come from attempting to pass replacements at the WTO Further currency losses can drive the cost of imports up Cost of customs checks for businesses I don't think it's responsible of the government to suppress the factual reality. Reality can't be held off forever and the public should know the contents of these reports that will make an impact on their day to day lives.

I think Danny Ward should be given a chance the next time Migs is "rested" - he's got a good reputation from every club we've loaned him too and Karius is worse than Migs tbh. I think it's strange Edwards & Klopp had no alternatives at CB.

It's such a shame his relationship with Klopp couldn't be repaired. He's better than Lovren, and we clearly need a better CB next to Matip.

The old "win while simultaneously trying to kill Gonzo by giving him a heart attack strategy". At least we're not a bunch of boring cunts though.

It's a bit retarded to call anyone "world champions" when around 100 years ago they were the only ones playing the sport. Football's a weird one too - the winners of the Superbowl are "World Champions" and yeah, they'd probably beat the fuck out of their Canadian counterparts in a final... but it's the NATIONAL football league. If anything they are national champions.

We don't protec We attac But most importantly We didn't sign a centrebac Too lazy to google images to complete the meme. But a pretty good summation of our team.

Bargain in this market - although it's a pretty big fee considering everyone knew he wasn't going to get a second chance here and just rot in the U23s.

But hockey is probably the most cyclical of American sports. Nuggets & Rams are both super shite. Idk about their MLS sides, I can't listen to American commentators without feeling deeply disturbed so I can't watch it. I suggest reading the Usmanov letter though.

I think Arsenal supporters need to be united on an anti-Kroenke front. "Kroenke out" needs to be the rallying cry, Wenger Out needs to be shelved for another day. Because while I agree that Wenger looks like he's totally lost the plot... I don't think the problems at Arsenal are entirely with the manager (though he's certainly not helping). Kroenke lacks ambition. Look at his track record of ownership with American sides: LA Rams are totally shite. And he fucked off out of their home to move them to LA to tap into that LA viewer market (LA is mostly a Raiders city though) - pretty similar with Arsenal tbh. Not really arsed about how they perform, as long as fans turn up and spend lots of money in the stadium Denver Nuggets - have been shite for years Colorado Avalanche - worst team in the NHL Western Central Division. And worst team in the NHL last year Colorado Rapids - I actually have no idea how good they are for an MLS side. According to wiki they're alright... but in 2015 they were the worst MLS side. He does not give a shit about his team's success. American sports don't have to worry about relegation and there's certain things like draft order that gives sides some parity if they've been shite. It makes American sports more cyclical. But that's now how football works in England - and a few fuckups and you go the way of Leeds (although I think that was overambition rather than lack of ambition that killed them), Nottingham Forest (Brian Clough basically lost the fucking plot and the club never quite recovered), and Newcastle (who never hit the highs of the other two clubs... BUT I'm still astounded by their massive fall from grace - and Mike Ashley certainly gives 0 fucks about success, just cashing in off the club). Usmanov's letter to the Arsenal board in 2012 highlights how shite of an owner Kroenke is. So while I think Wenger is certainly a problem for Arsenal fans, I think Kroenke is similar to Gillett and Hicks (although on the plus side, you lot are not in the financial troubles we were in at the time). Kroenke and his son make up 2 of the board of directors - there needs to be a united front opposing the way they've run the club. People like Usmanov and other board members and shareholders who might care about the history AND future of the club should be leaking as much info as possible that can get the supporters to act. For instance, someone at the club was telling us where G&H were going to get loans for the club - and then there would be a united effort of Liverpool fans to write to banks and give compelling reasons (aka threatening boycotts and stating why the club's fans would boycott) for the loan not to be given. But it will be tough because Arsenal are in good financial shape. And he owns 66.6% (hail satan?) of the shares.

John Henry? He definitely is not the man in Liverpool for transfers in Liverpool. Our new CEO, Peter Moore, has even said he plays a very minimal role in transfers as well. The board of directors contains John Henry (FSG's Principle Owner & our club's as well), Tom Warner (our Chairman), and a few other people like King Kenny. But the real director who's most involved is Mike Gordon. Michael Edwards, our sporting director, is the main man with regards to transfers. Ayre used to handle a lot of the negotiating with agents and shite like that- but that's no longer a part of our CEO's role. Mike Gordon is FSG's point person for Liverpool though. But I'm not sure how much of a role he has in transfers rather than sanctioning how much Klopp and Edwards have to spend. As far as I know, they're the two people with the most influence on who we look to bring in and how we look to bring them in. It's why I can't blame FSG if we don't sign VVD. We certainly had the financial backing to sign him. It's entirely on Edwards and Klopp for arranging direct communications with the player rather than his agent. I'll tell you what though, we're looking a lot more competent this summer with Edwards as our sporting director than we ever looked with that shite French one we had with King Kenny, or for the 4 years of having a transfer committee made up of Edwards (as head of analysis then), a position called "head of recruitment" - which I think was Mike Gordon (which is maybe what you were referencing as being the massive influence on the transfer committee), Brendan Rodgers, and Ian Ayre (as the head of the transfer committee). When Klopp came in, FSG wanted to move back to a sporting director heading our recruitment efforts rather than a transfer committee where the largest voices were people who were businessmen and not football people. Michael Edwards still has to answer to the businessmen involved - our CEO, and our Board - but there's less direct involvement from people like Gordon & Moore on the football aspects of bringing people in. It's more the financial side. Which is the way it absolutely should be if the manager is not going to be the main man bringing players in. Decent write-up on Edwards: https://www.thisisanfield.com/2016/11/michael-edwards-lowdown-liverpool-fcs-new-sporting-director/ - he was a big part of bringing in the more successful players from the transfer committee era. He's clearly got an eye for talent. It's the shite like tapping a player up on accident when there are loopholes around that, which basically every club uses, that made me question him. But overall, I think it's an improvement on the transfer committee considering we've signed in 2 of our top targets this summer (Salah and Keita), even if we've got to wait a year to get one of them. In Other News: We've agreed a fee with Arsenal that is absolutely outrageous (and more than Salah or Mane cost lol) for the Ox... who I think is a good player. But imo we're really just signing him for depth, unless Klopp can work some of that magic he worked on Lallana and push him on as a player.

On paper I don't think gets into our starting XI, but the season is long and he will get plenty of chances to earn a spot. Gini and Can aren't untouchable, Lallana is injured, and Coutinho will probably fake injuries over the season. And while playing out wide for us, he'd be part of our front 3 - which is probably more enjoyable to him than being a wingback which I think he hates. Then again, the last English CM that came here was left back all last year haha. But us having fullback depth and not having a back 3 would likely mean he doesn't play as a wingback. At very least it's better depth than we had last year and that's good.

I think our recruitment under them has been the biggest issue. And if we don't get a CB it's a massive failing on their part. But he club has also been given some serious backing this summer, if we fail to bring people in I blame the people who's job it is to sign players, rather than the people who are trying to pay shitloads for us to bring players in.

Not so much aimed at you tbh. I've got a few friends who fucking hate FSG for anything that ever goes wrong with the club and they don't really give a shit when shit goes well. I think 7 years on from where we were, we've made decent progress. We've had some setbacks with bad signings, management mistakes (at the first team level and in the executive decision making level for us). All things considered, they've taken us from the Hodgson days, made a few pretty massive errors with transfers during King Kenny's 2nd stint - as well as keeping him for more than the season where he steadied the ship post Hodge-podge, kept faith with Brendan a bit too long once it was clear he was out of ideas post-Suarez. And the whole thing with VvD this summer and continually missing out on targets last summer with our low-balling bids are frustrating for sure. But all things considered, we could be having much more major ownership issues. Arsenal, for instance, look to have a real divide between board members who want to see the club ambitious and those who are okay with just getting steady money. Monaco are minted and their new model for their club is to routinely sell off their very best players at huge profits - which is obviously not ideal if you want to win things. We don't have the best financial backing in our league. But those teams in our league that do are: 1.) Man Citeh - oil baron plaything, 2.) Chelsea - oil baron plaything, 3.) Man Utd - the literal embodiment of everything terrible and evil about humanity. I think while FSG are not the richest of owners, they've still given us decent financial backing (compare our net spend to clubs with more similar financial footing than us for the past few years, as opposed to Citeh/Chelsea/the other manc club - it's not like they've been incredibly stingy). But they haven't always had the best decision making - which is understandable considering they've had success with baseball and tried to port that knowledge over even though it is a fundamentally different sport. Shit like the failed Carroll/Downing experiment with a statistically good crosser of the ball and a statistically good header of the ball make sense when you consider what worked for the Boston Red Sox - but when you look at how those signings fundamentally changed how our squad was set up to play, and when you realise stats aren't as important in football (although the data is still useful in some senses) as they are in baseball... it shows they had learning to do. I've had doubts with FSG's ambition in the past as well. But between standing up for not selling Suarez to Arsenal (and then a season later, selling for much more money - more than double if I remember right), bringing in Klopp (rather than persisting with Rodgers), insisting we hang onto Coutinho (who if we do sell this window, we will be getting an insane price for - even though it's not really in our best interests too if we can't land Lemar), and the serious amounts of money we've been looking to drop on individual players this season (the amounts for VVD, Keita, and Lemar are all insane - Salah and Mane look like absolute bargains with the state of this market right now)... I find it hard to argue that FSG haven't demonstrated a significant commitment to improving Liverpool. The moneymen are there to sign the checks. If things aren't working out then, it's on our recruitment team and coaching staff moreso than a board that's giving financial backing. And to be honest, other than the VVD fuckup this summer and Karius... I don't think we got a lot wrong in recruitment last season. This season, I think it was unwise to really be focused on certain players for key areas that need strengthening - it's always a decent idea to have backups... you have to admit, our persistence in trying to land our number one targets shows ambition. Especially for a club that for decades has had problems landing our top targets. But a real major point of my initial post was basically: wow, remember how shit Hodgson & G&H were? Because holy shit it was bad.

One for the FSG Out Crowd: Never forget the dire fucking straights we were in 7 years to the day.