hypochondriac

Like I said let's see in a couple of years. There won't be perpetual war for eternity. My bet is that my scenario will be a lot closer to what happens than what you've described.

No you said that there should be no bombing and we should try to get ISIS round the table to talk as if you could negotiate with a medieval death cult. There was no negotiation, they were largely just destroyed. By force. This situation is very different of course because ISIS is not a country.

I think you're missing my point. They know the fans are desperate for him, he was superb for us last year, we clearly have a strong preference to sign him this season. Yes there will be a limit and yes they can't just say we can have him for an insane amount but imo we will pay more for him than an alternative and they have more negotiating power in this scenario than if the situation had been different.

Does it look like that? Weren't we linked with steele this week?

Yes but it doesn't take columbo to figure out that we want him quite a lot.

That's the point though. We don't know. They know how much we want him.

Sugar do do do do do do Oh sugawara do do do do do do You are my nippon boy And you've got me watching you

My point was we are desperate to sign Downes. West ham don't need to sell. Obviously we will move on if they ask for something ridiculous, but they hold the power with this.

Not really. He'd be a good option for them I'm sure. Apparently Ipswich interested also.

Also he's not exactly a youngster and hasn't pulled up trees. I suppose you could say a similar record to Lambert but those types of players don't come around often.

Hammers have us over a barrel if they still want him because they know we are desperate for Downes. I'd probably take a swap if that was the only thing on offer given how vital he is to us.

It's a balancing act. The least worst scenario is that Russia has somethibg to be able to sell to their people that the special operation to denazify an area was worth something. That would probably be the area like Crimea which they've had for a while anyway. Following that you'd do everything that can be done to secure the remainder of Ukraine (maybe that would be a good time to station NATO troops at a fortified border) with one eye on Russia lest they contemplate trying anything further. That is far more likely imo then a neverending war of attrition or Russian defeat. The only way it could end with some dramatic Russian collapse is if someone managed to assassinate Putin.

Exactly. No one sane wants Russia to get anything, it's just the most likely scenario.

Miovski but failing that Adebayo.

Which looks like exactly what we've done if we are signing the jap.

Let's see what happens. I bet you that a negotiated settlement is way more likely than your perpetual war scenario.

Let's be honest we've probably already told him he can leave.

Not sure we will get anything like that. I reckon West ham will push for a straight swap. I'd probably take Downes and 5 million which means sugawara would be 10 million of our budget. Not bad going.

Would be a nice bonus if he does prove himself useful. Like you say we can't really rely on him at all but he'd be a good squad option with the thinking that he could play his way into the squad.

Even better from a ffp point of view if we do manage to include him in a swap deal for Downes. If we do keep manning and Bree then we will particularly weak backups in those positions. Maybe we need a decent utility man who can do a job on either side.

That's a fantastic signing if true. Looks to be the absolute best we could hope for to replace kwp.

Wouldn't Stewart be the physical presence? It's a risk relying on him obviously. Maybe we can bring one striker in and then maybe get a promising one on loan. Maybe someone who can play AM and striker if required.

Agreed. That is almost certainly how it will end. Happy to revisit this thread in a year or two to see what the outcome was.

Who was mooting negotiation with ISIS? I remember soggy suggesting it on here and how ludicrous it was at the time because he was roundly mocked.

It's a rehash of the random twitter account from the other day.