hypochondriac

We don't know what Edozie is like now after a year of development. The others should be good enough for a decent championship squad.

Didn't want to play for us I think January is pretty harsh. Maybe the club would have preferred he stay where he is for his development? Maybe he didn't feel ready to play in a rubbish team in the prem yet?

I don't understand the logic of that. We had them in the squad last time and we were challenging for promotion because they are decent championship players. Once we get into the prem then of course they aren't good enough but that's a different matter. In my opinion your valuations are absolutely ridiculous. There is a 0% chance that we get 10 million for THB and it's very unlikely that we let Downes go for 8. At the absolute worst THB will go for 20 but likely higher given he's played for England with us and we aren't going to make a loss on what we paid for him. We strengthened well last time we were in the Championship and with money coming in and looking financially healthy compared to other championship clubs, we should be able to do the same again.

Agreed. I also hope we keep Archer as an option up front with a new target man striker. Something like Bazunu Bree/New RB Wood Edwards Wellington Smallbone/New CM Charles Armstrong Fernandes (optimistic) Edozie Archer/ New Striker Would mean that only a handful of players remained from this season. Selling Dibling, Ramsdale, THB, Sulemana, Onuachu and Downes if that is what we end up doing should allow us to get in some top quality replacements for the Championship. Conservatively that should net us at least £100 million.

And how is the impact of that worse than not using it?

Looked him up. Was it bill browder? Red notice is well worth a read.

I can't remember his name but the American that Putin hates and who wrote a great book on the subject has been urging leaders to do this for ages and can't explain why it hasn't been done already.

It wouldn't change the ludicrously high amount of Islamist terror attacks in Germany this year. Anything to say about that? Care to offer a reason?

@sadoldgit

@sadoldgit

100% it is a mindset thing. I do remember being quite frustrated last season though when we drew games we should have won. It's why I worry if we do consider giving Juric some of next season- he doesn't have the correct mentality for the Championship in my opinion.

To be fair to him, it must be a very difficult line to tread. We still need a link to the Americans and not to piss off Trump whilst obviously taking actions that has the potential to upset him. I thought he handled it rather well under the circumstances and as you say a good week for him. If he can sort out some of the domestic issues that he has failed on so far then maybe he can turn things around. He still has the issue of less tax coming in though which will almost certainly mean further tax rises which isn't going to go down well at all.

There are similarities between being a road sweeper and managing a football club. On the one hand you have to choose the right shitty bit of pavement to sweep and on the other you have to choose the right players.

Mods can we lock this thread until we get this hot take tomorrow? Hardly seems worth continuing until then.

“Ukraine should be first to commit to a ceasefire and defy the Russians to follow”. Mandelson also calls on European governments, led by the UK and France, to make a major commitment of their forces to Ukraine’s land, airspace and sea, as a deterrent to Putin making future incursions, with - he hopes - the US providing the “ultimate” backstop if all were to go to hell (the backstop being American intelligence, air cover and access to its long range missile tech, I understand). The close ally of Keir Starmer also urges President Zelenskyy to sign the Trump “commercial” deal assigning mineral and energy rights to the US, to give “the US a stake in Ukraine’s future”.

Interesting that Mandelson is now calling for Ukraine to announce a ceasefire.

Agreed. On top of anything else, our interests do not always align with the other countries of Europe as shown by German reluctance to get involved against Russia and the likes of Hungary not agreeing to any of this.

Having the capability means we wouldn't be reliant on America and it acts as a deterrant.

Maybe in the long term but if Trump pulled all support tomorrow how do you propose that 'Europe' replaces star link communications or the required missiles and intelligence at the rate required to prevent Russia from making gains in the short to medium term, particularly if Russia goes all in once that support stops which would seem like the logical thing to do. I still am not convinced that Trump is going to pull all support anyway and there's a case to be made that he would be happy if other countries proppse to buy American weapons but if he does, what's your predicted timeline for 'winning'?

You don't really know what you're talking about. European troop numbers and machinery is currently pitiful and we wouldn't be anywhere near ready to defend anything substantial for years. It's possible that Zelensky could start proper conscription and try to survive without US assistance but it's pretty unlikely. If Trump did pull all support soon then it's very likely that Ukraine will be overrun pretty quickly and the next sad truth is that Europe have very little to stop Russia.

China won't be providing transgender clinics in Pakistan or modern art seminars in Afghanistan so I am sure they can do without that kind of support.

I thought he came accross much better there to be fair. Maybe it is the case that with English being a second language it's difficult to articulate his meaning as well as he would like.

I expected a slightly stronger take from you on this.

Extremely pro Ukraine twitter account agrees that no one came out of that exchange well

I don't think they are that cunning to be honest but would be fascinating if true.