van Hanegem

Imo they are... Suppose I'm wrong and they are just as good as Promes, it still is not good enough for Saints right?

I wouldn't know as I don't know much about Sisto but when it comes to gambling I'll agree with you. Hopefully the scouts know better than just taking a gamble!

I didn't see any games from Celta de Vigo or Denmark in the last two years so I don't know if Sisto would be a great signing for Saints. But 'a slightly better Redmond' is indeed not good enough...

I mean that Promes is not the right player for us. Scoring goals in Russia (or Portugal like Bas Dost) is one thing, creating chances and scoring goals in the PL is a totally different thing. I've seen Promes play for the Dutch national team regularly and believe me, he was totally useless for 95% of the time. Of course it's different to play for the national team but it's clear he can't adept to a different level. Jeremain Lens and Eljero Elia are way better than Promes and you know how their career ended in the PL.

Nope, Saints paid 7 or 8 million for Pelle. Clasie is Feyenoord's most expensive player ever though it's not exactly known for how much money Dirk Kuyt went to Liverpool.

Saints already paid the full price for Clasie (15 million euros or 13,1 million pounds) as "add-ons" were already met before he left for Bruges. Feyenoord coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst knows Clasie wants to return to Feyenoord and has said he could be an option (Vilhena and El Ahmadi will probably leave) but Feyenoord will never pay more than 5 or 6 million euros for Clasie so I guess a return is out of the question. It's weird to see that there are still fans here who like to see Bas Dost, Quincy Promes or Hakim Ziyech to play for Saints. It wouldn't even surprise me anymore when they say Justin Kluivert from Ajax might be the winger we need...

Still, the PL is the only competition in Europe with a top 6. But with all the money and top players coming in there should be more to enjoy.

True, the EU is protectionist and they even have a European Globalisation Adjustment Fund to help redundant workers! Yet it's clear that many production facilities have moved from Western to Eastern Europe just to maximise their profit, leaving the less educated and low-paid behind without a job. Thanks to the Freedom of Movement those unfortunates now have to compete with Eastern Europeans who'll work for much less than the usual pay and still earn many times more than they would in their own country. As a result the avarage hourly wages for the low income jobs are falling so to pay the rent they now have to find two or three jobs, just like the unfortunates in the USA do for decades now. I don't blame the Eastern Europeans, if I was Bulgarian I would also leave my country in order to earn nine times more and profit from social security and healthcare paid by others. Apparently Brexit voters didn't care about what David Cameron already mentioned about EU migrants? https://www.euractiv.com/section/justice-home-affairs/news/cameron-wants-restrictions-put-on-eu-freedom-of-movement/

I don't know if many Western Europeans blame the EU for the loss of jobs or the reduction of wages for the less educated. They should do so or at least blame their own politicians who agree with the globalization which the EU is supporting. I guess those who lost their jobs because their employer moved to Eastern Europe know who to blame as the Le Pen's of this world will tell them. I know of Polish workers who understand why companies from France etc. move to Poland and they rightfully fear that those same companies move elsewhere as soon as it's cheaper to hire workers. "Redistribution of wealth and income which will bring prosperity in all of Europe" as they say in Brussels, one might wonder who will profit most.

Sure, in Eastern Europe they are not really concerned with westerners coming in and taking over jobs because they are much cheaper.

They already address it as the EC wants billions more (even after the UK has left), partly in order to improve border control. A waste of money of course as they will never be able to protect all borders. Though (illegal) immigration is a big issue in many European countries, I don't believe it will be a problem for the EU because politicians like Merkel & Macron simply won't allow it. The Visigrad countries will be a nuisance to them but those countries still want EU money so no problem there. Even Italy with a new government (Lega and the 5 star movement are both anti EU, anti euro and anti immigration) will stay in the EU. I guess we'll have to wait for the next big financial crisis when taxmoney will be needed again to save the banks while the labour market is falling apart. When there's less money available to help southern Europe, maybe then some countries will leave the EU.

According to the Dutch paper De Telegraaf Ajax is aiming for Tadic as a replacement for Ziyech who wants to leave. Tadic is not unwillingly to return to the Netherlands as long as the pay suits him (of course...). To match his salary at Saints, Ajax will have to pay him far more than their next best payed player but as they are panicking (no prices in 4 years) it is said they are willing to forget about their usual salary cap. The only thing that has to happen is Saints to relegate...

Nearly all of the Dutch muslims who went to Syria to fight for ISIS or another 'rebel' group turned over to the salafist movement within islam before they left. I reckon this will be the same in other European countries like the UK. Salafism has gained influence in Europe because of the funding by people or organizations from islamic states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the Emirates who deliver the money for new mosques or already existing mosques who have financial problems. The same lot who gave millions to ISIS and so on and to fundamentalists in Indonesia for example. Journalists found out that about 10% of the mosques in the Netherlands are funded this way and as "he who pays the piper calls the tune" there are administrators and imams coming in with their usual drivel about Jews, the right to kill apostates or that female genital mutilation is a good thing as they won't enjoy sex anymore. Moderate muslims who do not agree with this are afraid to speak themselves out against these developments within their mosque as they don't want to be rejected by their community. The Dutch government knew this was happening years ago as officials from Saudi Arabia etc. keep them informed about the flow of the funds from their countries towards the Netherlands. They denied the existence of this information when the Dutch parliament asked questions about the rise of salafism and now it turns out they did this because otherwise they wouldn't get the information anymore. Now they're saying it's difficult to stop the funding because we have freedom of religion. I guess the 'import of hate' will go on for years to come. Will it be different in the UK?

Maybe they needed extra time in order to leave some traces from chemical weapons as used by the rebels (if that's possible at all). You're guess is as good as mine. Let's just hope the OPCW doesn't proof it wasn't Assad as this would undermine the postion of the West at the negotiation table.

So when it eventually turns out that Assad didn't do it this time, we just say 'he had it coming for all those other times' or something like that... Well, I guess you're right that we'll never know for sure wether it was Assad or 'the rebels' but even when the researchers can give 100% percent proof it was Assad, what did we gain by sending those missiles? Will they stop Assads's evil ways? Don't think so. What are we going to do next time when Assad uses chemical weapons again? More missiles without UN resolution on more buildings Assad doesn't care about? Or do you prefer to shoot without an advanced warning with the risk of killing Russians?

After the economic disaster called Brexit and after Putin has screwed all of your laptops, at least you'll still have that wonderful sense of British humour!

They could start out by establishing the same goals. It's ridiculous that one country says that the West have to negotiate with Assad while another publicly states that Assad must be judged for his crimes by the International Court of Justice in The Hague. After figuring out what they want with Assad the West has to determine what they want for Syria in order to prevent the complete chaos we now see in Libya after Obama and Clinton totally f*cked up this country. As the West doesn't want to put 'boots on the ground' in Syria they'll have to get Turkey, Iran, Russia, Iraq etc. to the negotiating table in order to get some grip on the situation. Hell of a job of course but at least they should give it a try. Imo the West should have set the example that the other countries can emulate. That's why shooting those missiles was a stupid mistake (especially when the researchers of the OPCW were on their way to Syria...), how can you condemn Turkey for it's actions in Syria when you're bombing Syria yourself without UN mandate? As I'm rather cynical about the chances of diplomacy (the West doesn't have much leverage as they have to blame themselves for contributing to the chaos in the Middle East) I don't expect much from these negotiations but there's no way around this.

My point is that the West has no strategy on dealing with the situation in Syria at all. Even those missiles as a reaction to the use of chemical weapons are silly, it's just symbolic nonsense. As there was no approval of the UN it might even backfire on them in due course. You could say that the missile attack is just a sanction on crossing a red line but that would be a purely academic exercise in the hellhole that Syria is.

There is no real solution for the mess in Syria (or Iraq or Libya for that matter) as there are no 'good guys' you can trust to do any better for the Syrian citizens. For example: Assad is not the only one using chemical weapons as the UN has stated. Take out Assad and you'll get some other bastard (or bastards) to f*ck things up. Also, it appears 'the west' doesn't have any idea what to do with the situation in Syria (or the Middle East), let alone some kind of strategy. Firing some missiles and giving the Russians an advance warning where those missiles will land, Putin must be laughing his ass off about the incompetence of his western counterparts. With no idea or strategy it's better to stay out of Syria right now until things have settled. As Iraq and Libya have already shown it's better to have some dictator ruling with an iron fist. Albeit a monster like Assad, there's no alternative at this moment.

Every European country will lose in some way but surely you can imagine the economy of the UK will be most affected by a "hard" Brexit. When the British government accepts the demands of the EU and freedom of travel and European laws will continue to apply (aka a "soft" Brexit) then what's the point of leaving the EU? On the other hand: when Merkel & Macron cum suis succeed in ensuring a federal Europe and the EU get to rule on all financial matters the UK might consider themselves lucky afterwards Brexit.

Never mind the conspiracy loonies or the fools who believe anything their government is telling them. I trust neither Lavrov nor your BoJo telling the truth so it would be helpful when the OPCW would confirm if there are traces of BZ in the samples and wether it's true that BZ has never been used by the Russians. In Dutch media the only reaction of the Swiss lab is "that they can't react on Lavrov's comments because it's up to the OPCW to do this". Though they did say they have every confidence in the British lab who said it was novichok, I wouldn't call this a flat-out rejection of Lavrov's charge. Do you have a link to the comment you're referring to?

I wonder what the reaction of the OPCW will be... https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russia-trace-of-western-made-nerve-agent-seen-in-uk-samples/2018/04/14/c76a8b30-3ff7-11e8-955b-7d2e19b79966_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.536d93b328d2

There's 35 billion of commerce at stake for the Dutch when Brexit happens, there's not much laughter around here in Holland...

Don't worry Tim, I do not trust anything Russian authorities are telling in general and I've also seen the images of the rocket being transported to Ukraine and heared the soundbites of the Russian officer who was responsible for the delivery. Thing is, we get to hear almost everyday for a year now how dangerous Putin and his cronies are, as if he's longing to invade Europe. As if Putin has anything to gain from that... Do you remember the story about the NSA tapping into the mobile of Merkel (amongst many other Heads of States)? Nothing came out of this as German investigators didn't find any "real proof". What do you think the reaction would be when it was the Russians who were monitoring the communications of European leaders? Would they wait for hard evidence?

Yep, the final report is due later this year and there are indications that (former) Russian military were involved in delivering the BUK missile. I didn't expect Russia to extradite those people before but now we've given them a reason too. It's really stupid. Of course we can send some more diplomats back home but it will get us nowhere. Hopefully they won't so foolish increase the boycot of Russian products as this is already damaging the export to Russia.