Dr. Gonzo

That's shit for him and shit for us. I hope he comes back just as good as he was in the past season prior to the injury - was very impressed with how he performed considering a lot of the indifference to him leaving Arsenal. He's a good player, adds a lot of pace, drive and energy to the midfield.

Farage & Reese-Mogg want to roll back all sorts of regulations and rights and turn the UK into a tax haven with cheap labour, rather than any genuine love for Britain or our former empire. They’re exploiting the people who are though.

If the alternative is a soft Brexit, then we end like Norway. Beholden to EU law without having a say in policy. I don’t see the point in leaving for that. That’s just symbolicly saying we support sovereignty while losing actual power. If we have a hard Brexit, we run the risk of all sorts of trade issues, a return to WTO rules (which doesn’t seem like preserving democratic sovereignty to me), and probably a pretty dire economic situation. If Britain’s interests weren’t being fought for by MEP Nigel Farage not ever taking his job seriously, they certainly aren’t being fought for with this absolute shitshow of a government fumbling about to craft a deal to take to the EU (and with these new amendments, for the EU to tell us to fuck off). It’s shambolic, before the referendum they knew if the UK voted leave we’d have 2 years. And instead of having a fucking plan and getting to fucking work we’ve had no fucking progress towards probably Britain’s biggest political moment since we joined the fucking EU. David Cameron is such a fucking cunt for getting us into this fucking mess.

Get what you're saying re: the Everton stuff better now & agree with it. And actually agree with all of your post.

They did ask the fans if Fat Sam should get sacked though... That's more Brexit than giving you a choice of Fat Sam or another manager - because the "new manager" option was (technically) an unknown, even though it was likely to be Silva... technically we didn't know.

I think part of the campaigning problem was Brexiters had very carefully crafted emotional messages, either scapegoating immigrants - which we know plays well to certain crowds, or telling outright lies - like the EU killing the British fishing industry & all of that money that will flow into NHS. But these messages, even though they're emotional scapegoating or just blatantly lying... they work with people. Much of what remainers were campaigning on was "we have a net benefit to being in the UK and voting on something we don't really know will cause instability which can lead to x, y, and z." A lot of people that wanted us to remain were wanting the UK to remain in the EU for economic stability. Economic stability vs. compelling lies and emotional arguments is a tough battle to win. Especially when for a lot of people, there isn't a whole lot of "economic stability" - a lot of people have experienced either a rough start to their careers or have had some shit experiences with economic downturns in the last few decades. However that's a bit missing point of how Brexit would impact the biggest contributor to the UK's GDP... or failing to really understand how leaving the EU can impact British trade - and the ripple effects in our economy of fucking with these things. It's not a winning argument for most people, in all honesty. You can say "well it's really very complicated and we don't know how it will work out, but it will have major impacts to major parts of the British economy and we shouldn't be voting on a Brexit without a clear and concrete plan for Brexit because of x, y and z" when the counterpoint is a mix of "LOOK HOW MUCH MONEY THE NHS WILL HAVE," "THIS WILL RESTORE FAILING INDUSTRIES," and "FUCK OFF YOU FUCKING POLES AND FILTHY MUSLIMS." And the fact the referendum was to trigger Article 50 with no real fucking plan for Brexit just shows how fucking stupid our political leadership and voters are. At a minimum, the referendum should have been "are we going to plan for Brexit or not" rather than just trigger Article 50 and think we can just fucking bumble our way through negotiations with the EU when they've got all of the fucking leverage.

I was bit by a swan as a kid too. Swans are fucking cunts.

It’s a bit mean to ATV Ironing or whatever the fuck they’re called, tbh. “Hey la’ we’re going to train here. Also mind if we dent your confidence for the rest of your life, ya sad farming bastard?”

Lol who the fuck are you playing?

Do it, kafta is fucking delicious.

Tbf to FSG, by their own admission they knew next to nothing about football... let alone running a football club. In those first 5 years they made a lot of mistakes in terms of developing us in a football sense, but Ayre did a lot for us on the getting sponsors to throw cash at us front - and over those first 5 years they've learned a lot and we're now in a position where we can drop insane amounts of money on players like VvD, Keita, Fabinho, Salah, etc., to build on the good work Klopp has done in a pretty meaningful way for us on the pitch. But I do agree, we should be suspicious of any owner after G&H... and Moore, who was desperate to sell and ultimately put us in the hands of 2 dickheads who'd have us staring administration in the face with Roy Hodgson as our manager, who'd then tell the fans that draws against dogshite sides were "good results". But on the whole, I think FSG have been pretty ideal owners other than the fact they don't have the deep pockets of the oil clubs. But I also think that helps us be a real football club, rather than some plastic club that's really just an oil barons plaything.

We sold Jordan Ibe for the same price... so I'm really not too fussed about this transfer. Pretty low risk for us, if his attitude is as big of a problem as some Stoke fans believe I think he'll find himself getting the Sakho treatment. Told to train with the reserves and if that doesn't shape him up, he'll be told to train alone. And if that doesn't shape him up and he goes full Sakho, he'll be told "just stay at home will ya lad" like Sakho and be frozen out for a few months before we can get some other club who'll put up with that kind of shite to agree to take him away. Or he'll have no attitude issues and be a quality depth signing. Also from the stuff I've seen from Stoke fans on reddit they've been giving him the same criticism they gave Arnautovic… who ended the season as one of the better players at West Ham... might not be the best judges of a players quality in all honesty.

Think it's pretty much nailed on & I'm going to stick with my thoughts from the Shaqiri thread. Trust your gut and all that. I thought it was a bit weird of a link, but he's got pace, he's got good passing range, he gets in dangerous positions for crosses and shots, and he's coming in to be a backup winger. He's a better backup winger than Lallana, Origi, or Solanke - none of whom are wingers (and Lallana's the only one of those I actually rate lol). We need depth. I'm not going to complain about a depth signing made at a price which (in this market at least) is a snip compared to what he'd probably have costed if Stoke hadn't been relegated.

Maddock and Pearce are the 2 I trust the most. Reddy's pretty close with Klopp though, so she's had some decent info from time to time. *edit* and on that note, here's Maddock: https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/danny-ward-given-chance-stake-12907215.amp?1=&__twitter_impression=true

Just the article from the Echo that I posted... but it's not by Pearce, so it's less reliable. But the Echo is usually more clued in on what's going on behind the scenes with us than virtually every source unless it's from a journalist like Maddock or Reddy.

I think it's telling he's willing to give Ward a chance. I don't think he'd do it unless he'd lost all faith in Karius and Mignolet, I don't think he rates Ward all that much. But he knows his pal David Wagner rates him, so maybe that's why he's thinking "fuck it, I'll give him a shot."

Looks like we've got 2 sagas this summer. Fekir & Allison (or another goalkeeper). I actually feel a bit for Karius because the rest of his LFC career is going to be under a microscope and every mistake he makes is going to get him slaughtered... but at the same time, we can't be relying on a keeper.

Yeah, I don't think you can be a top keeper if you've got such fragile confidence. I think it'd be hard for any young keeper to recover from those mistakes in the CL, he's clearly not moved on from it and it's impacting his game currently. I can't imagine him coming back from it to be honest.

I was going to post that: https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/liverpool-boss-jurgen-klopp-set-14900193.amp?__twitter_impression=true I think Klopp's sort of doing what he did with VvD - he's got his target, if he can't get him he's willing to wait rather than spend a shitload on someone who he's not totally convinced on. But at the same time, I'm not really all that excited by Ward being the keeper we start the season with; he had a good playoff run with Huddersfield… but before that wasn't considered all that special. I think he got some good reviews in Scotland though, but who knows what that means. But yeah, if we're not signing a new keeper then Ward is basically the only other option. I'd rather go with Karius than Mignolet and I don't want to go with Karius. Ward it is?

James Pearce is the most best LFC journo at the Echo in terms of reliability. He’s saying Klopp’s giving Sturridge and Origi a final shot if they perform in preseason https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/jurgen-klopp-reveals-how-decide-14894423.amp?__twitter_impression=true

Well that’s settled it, I’m getting a California Burrito from Roberto’s at lunch - cheers mate I agree with everything you said about immersing yourself to learn a language. Not sure I’ll be able to do that in San Diego with Mandarin... but using that app is probably a good shout.

How hard is it? Although you’re like really fucking smart and know a lot of languages already so how hard learning a new language is to you is pretty relative haha. Chinese rich people keep buying properties here and renting them out. They make all cash offers at asking price, no brained for the sellers really. It’s actually completely fucked up the housing market. But clearly they’re doing well.

It seems like they’re going to take over the world. Which is shit because I really don’t want to learn Mandarin and when I went to Beijing for work I wanted to kill myself.