Dr. Gonzo

RIP

I don't think any of them are good... but I still think Tierney is the worst of a bad bunch.

Tierney’s probably the worst ref in football, I think even demoting him to a lower league doesn’t really address how bad he is.

Lmao

I could not have imagined he could ever be so bad

Looks like United should be letting Rashford drink more tbh

On the one hand, I think Poch is not the right man for Chelsea at all. On the other hand, I think Chelsea keep setting managers up for failure by giving them so little time to shape a team. It's made difficult though when that manager's overseeing a lot of players coming in for a lot of money and those players brought in don't perform. But a lot of these players just look nowhere near worth the money that was spent for them. The Ukrainian lad is bang average (at best) and his fee was totally insane. Enzo looks a far cry from the player that was at the heart of a world cup winning side. There's so many expensive players that aren't up to much at Chelsea and it just makes me wonder why Chelsea are so quick to sell their academy graduates. I have a hard time believing that these expensive players on long contracts give too many fucks about how Chelsea perform, but kids that have been with Chelsea for a long time and come through the ranks I can see them giving way more of a shit, regardless of however management changes or anything. I think it's weird Chelsea got a new owner and didn't really change too much in their way of short term vs. long term thinking - it's basically the same strategy that Abramovich would like to use, but done as moronically as possibly.

Yeah tbf whenever I watch Chelsea this season, unless you’re playing us, you’ve looked absolutely miserable. And yesterday I thought it would be a more even game because it seems like lately in this fixture form hasn’t mattered and it’s usually an even draw. I’m sure that skews how I feel about Palmer because I hear a bit of hype about him and then I see him put in stinkers in a side putting in awful performances. Kind of crazy to see how different we both look on the pitch. Two different approaches to spending shitloads of money and youth development… and typically we’ve looked close on the pitch but yesterday it was men against boys it seemed.

He and Cole Palmer were genuinely terrible. Palmer’s honestly a mystery to me - he’s so highly rated but whenever I watch him he looks bang average at best.

Fox News has a lot to answer for: https://www.vice.com/en/article/7kxjwg/justin-mohn-youtube-video-severed-head

I can’t tell if we were very good or if Chelsea are just absolute dogshit tbh, either way I’ll take it

Maybe Klopp saying he’s going to fuck off has pleased Tierney enough to like us now

Iran beats Syria after a 1-1 draw on penalties. Taremi scored but also got a red card. I don't think Iran's got a chance against Japan without Taremi. Would be pretty happy with Japan getting knocked out though, for selfish reasons, because then we get Endo back at Liverpool. But also would be pretty happy with Japan knocking out the team and there being one less propaganda source for the IR.

If it's true we're bringing in West Ham's DOF, who was at Leverkusen before West Ham and he brought in Alonso... then I am pretty confident that the plan is to land Alonso, even if that's totally misguided.

He's an old school no nonsense style defender. He's been good when us when called to play in emergencies, pretty sure he was good with Bournemouth. He was shit with Rodgers' Celtic, but I assume that it's got something to do with Rodgers' tactics. I feel like as long as you're not playing a sky-high backline, he'll probably be a good addition for you.

Israel really doesn't help itself - does it? https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/30/israel-forces-disguised-women-medics-storm-hospital-jenin-west-bank Disguising as doctors to kill wounded combatants being treated in a hospital is a combo war crime. I think the worst part of it is dressing as doctors, because that's just going to risk the lives of Palestinian doctors in the future now that terrorists aren't going to be sure who's actually a doctor and who's an Israeli soldier. The next worst thing about it is... they very easily could have arrested these people. Instead they executed them in hospital beds. On the one hand, this is better than things like the indiscriminate bombing of places. Or targeting a hospital to kill 3 known terrorists while risking the lives of hundreds of innocents. On the other hand, this will make life very tough for Palestinian doctors in the West Bank - and I have a feeling that life is tough already for anybody on the West Bank.

None of that is really accurate though other than ISIS K growing and them being the same sort of scum as the Taliban. Most of Iran's military tech is domestically produced, other than their planes and some of their AA, where they are using modern day Russian tech & very old pre-revolution US tech. The IRGC has essential free reign over Iran's economy. So while normal people are suffering under the economic conditions, the military isn't either. The IRGC just launched 4 satellites into space recently. That's not indicative of a military that thinks it doesn't have the resources to fight a defensive war - and if Iran's actual military is fighting western forces, it would be a defensive war. The only way sepah gets involved in foreign wars is if it's fighting ISIS (and similar groups) in bordering countries - which is self-defense when you consider what ISIS (and similar groups) think about Persians and Shias. Iran put more of its troops on the line fighting ISIS than any other country, ISIS-K is just another ISIS subgroup in another bordering country for them to deal with. Iran isn't Iraq for a number of reasons, but the biggest reason why ISIS is unlikely to spread the same way it did in Iraq is because there isn't the same power vacuum in Iraq as there was after the US went into Iraq with no plan whatsoever. ISIS and its subgroups are a security threat to Iran, the same was Hamas and Hezbollah are a security threat to Israel. But they're not an existential threat. Much like the Houthis aren't a threat to the Saudis, despite having made the Saudi puppet government of Yemen history.

That's a shame, because he's probably one of the best in the business. But now that he's got his own consultancy firm, I'm not surprised at all tbh. Why work for one club when you can work for many and at the same time be your own boss? I'm pretty sure he'd already turned down Real Madrid last year because of his new business.

Hmm... I don't know about that. Ask Israel, Syria, Yemen, or Lebanon if they have no bite. Their foreign policy is based on challenging US hegemony and causing as much instability as possible to further their influence - for them the Cold War never ended. Hell, even ask Ukraine if Iran has no bite. Turns out Iran's cheaply made drones are easy to mass produce and difficult to defend against. They've also got a massive missile arsenal. It's a government that's spent far more on it's military than it's spent on trying to actually make the country a good place to actually live in. It's a military that's more combat tested than most in the region because of decades of combat experience fighting ISIS and other salafist terror groups in Syria and Iraq, with a massive network of proxy forces that have been brainwashed into thinking it's a good idea to serve as cannon fodder. They're not struggling against ISIS-K either, despite the recent attack on those mourners for Soleimani the kotlet. I find it bizarre too, given your support of Israel, to sort of dismiss the threat Iran has very clearly posed to Israel. Hamas are an Iran and Qatar proxy - have you already forgotten October 7th? Hezbollah are Iran's largest proxy and are probably the greatest threat to Israel's security if activated considering how many advanced missiles have been supplied to them by Iran since their last war with Israel (which did end in a stalemate, despite Hezbollah suffering worse losses. Meanwhile Iran's proxy in Yemen, the Houthis, are interfering with global shipping and raising the cost of goods for all of us around the world by interfering with the route from Asia to Europe, in the name of resistance against the US, UK, and Israel. The war in Ukraine meant that the EU and UK really turned a blind eye to the anti-government movement in Iran. Keeping the oil flowing and not doing anything to fuck with the global price of oil was deemed too valuable to consider taking any sort of stand with regard to human rights. And that's even despite Iran supplying these drones that have turned out to be very effective in modern combat despite being cheap and technologically basic drones, to Russia, for Russia to deploy with great success in Ukraine. And now Russia's asked their closest partner in the Middle East to create as much instability as possible, knowing that 1.) proxy groups give Iran that level of plausible deniability, 2.) Iran's a tough country to invade because of it's terrain, 3.) US appetite for a war in the Middle East is incredibly low and no US president wants to start a war in an election year. So this is really just the international community reaping what it sows when it's picking and choosing what human rights issues they actually care about while really focusing on economic issues instead. If you let brutal autocrats take an inch, they'll think they're entitled to a mile and they'll keep escalating to get what they want.

Bit of a weird political term then

If I were running Man Utd, likely properly running it and not just being a Liverpool fan and running them into the ground just for the lolz, I'd be much more keen on getting rid of ETH and the players he's brought in, then I would be getting rid of Rashford or the players that were there before ETH and now seem to take serious issue with him. Solskjaer was a better manager for United than Ten Hag - I stand by that statement. And if Solskjaer wasn't good enough for United (which he's not), then I don't think ETH's tenure is indicative of someone who should be staying at a football club or being given free reign to spend tons of money on players that don't actually help United at all. How many players have fallen out with ETH now? How much money has he spent on players that simply do not improve United in the slightest? Idk if United have a director of football or not, but they do need to address a lot of things above the manager as well. Do they have a Director of Football? I genuinely don't know - but if they do, sack him and replace him with someone that's got a track record at a club that's got high expectations in the league they're from but also has a track record of making signings that indicate a good eye for signing good talent at a great price. Then, I think they need to sack off all the scouts. Man Utd's scouting in recent seasons has been a bit bizarre tbh. A lot of "obvious" signings - "we need a CB and Madrid want to sell Varane," "we need a DM and Madrid want to sell Casemiro"; these aren't bad signings, in fact Casemiro was a big hit last year. But the issue is value - Varane cost a lot for a defender with his injury record. Casemiro cost a lot for a DM that moved to a more physical league at his age - and now he looks like he's already losing his legs. Signing Sancho without really having a plan to integrate him now looks like a waste of time for pretty much everybody except Dortmund. Signing Ronaldo because they didn't want their former legend joining Man City, even though it fucked up Solskjaer's plans for that season was just stupid... and undermined the manager and his plans for the season. Sometimes the obvious signings are just what is needed - they're high quality and high profile players for a reason. But they're expensive. And to me it seems like United have done a lot of signing for the sake of making signings. I just feel like there's not enough voices behind the scenes at Man Utd that are thinking about things like getting good value for incoming signings. And there's so little cohesion between making a signing and being sure the manager can integrate them. So I think once they address the DOF/recruitment issue... then that's a good time to axe ETH and bring in a manager with a long term vision for the club worth investing in. And after a new manager's had a few months with the squad, I'd then revisit whether players like Rashford need to be sent away because their attitudes are too toxic. But I don't think ETH is worse United's time or money any more and if they rid themselves of him... I think they'll likely find themselves with a much better manager. Having said that, I'm fine with United keeping him for a very long time. I could be very wrong, and stranger things have happened than me being very wrong about something in football, but I just think he's a very overrated manager.

Can't even get fat as well as the real Ronaldo could.

Has anyone told Talha Ahmad that Israel, and the Middle East generally, is actually in the northern hemisphere?

I think Klopp's ruled out managing in Spain or Italy because he doesn't feel confident in his ability to learn the language and communicate with his players in Italian/Spanish. I imagine Klopp's hoping to wait out for the Germany job. But if he's wanting to have more breaks and spend more time with his family, international management seems like the right path for him. England should try to land him as the England manager though.

At least Klopp is leaving us with some good academy graduates coming through. Quansah & Bradley look like they’ve got bright futures ahead of them.