Jimmy_D

Can’t think of any CL semifinals I can remember more one-sided than that was.

City a ridiculous team this season.

Just now, Turkish said:

We could be the team that deny Man City the quadruple 

I’d be amazed if that doesn’t end up being the case at this point. Looks like it’ll only be a win against massive odds that prevents the treble.

Looks like the final will between two teams that we beat the last time we faced them in cup competitions  

5 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

Ukrainian air defence claim to have shot down all the missiles launched at Kyiv overnight, including 6 Kinzhal hypersonic ballistic missiles and 9 Kalibr cruise missiles.

I’m guessing they had figured out the location of a Patriot system and wanted the PR victory of one being destroyed to be sending that much all at once. They got the opposite of that.

I’d imagine there are some pretty nervous people that claimed those ‘impossible to intercept’ capabilities in Russia for the Kinzhal when it was developed.

2 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

Unfortunately a lot of hot scrap metal has to fall from the sky with every interception. ( As has been said on Social Media, the Russians have a 100% success rate of intercepting Patriot missiles with the Kinzhals ).

On a side note, France is now reported to be sending SCALP missiles, their version of Storm Shadow, as part of their latest delivery, along with more AMX-10 light tanks and other goodies.

1 hour ago, Whitey Grandad said:

Are those the version that can be land or sea launched?

As far as I can tell, the sea launched version is the non-export version that France developed and it also has a range in excess of 500km.

That range would make it restricted from being exported, so it’s unlikely to be that version, especially as Ukraine don’t have a way to sea launch at the moment anyway, so there’s no benefit to sending a retro-restricted version of that missile.

The restriction is non-binding, so the extremely small possibility that France have ignored that and are sending the  500km+ range versions will be giving Russia a headache, but it looks likely France are essentially sending identical missiles to the ones the UK have sent.

Seems it actually was Storm Shadow, assuming these pictures are accurate.

Also looks like Russian air defence operators are seeing shadows everywhere, reports of two Russian helicopters and two Russian jets hit by friendly fire so far today.

11 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

are we now selling them?

If so, great. Interested to know how Ukraine will plan precise missions.  We will probably never know. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Shadow#Operators

We’re certainly not deciding targets for all of those.

Planning precise missions won’t be any more complicated than planning GPS coordinates to route the missile around known high concentrations of AA defences.

5 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

quite....literally.  the mission set-up process is highly classified.  

We’re literally sending the export version of the missile.

You think we’d be controlling every missile we ever sell?

2 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Ukraine simply has no means to plan the target missions.  Absolutely none. Zero.

Hence why we will be doing it, clearly as they are our missiles

Just how complicated do you think targeting these things is?

There’s absolutely no benefit to either us or to Ukraine for us to be deciding where these things are targeted, or for us not to be providing the capability to target them.

Just now, AlexLaw76 said:

The only directing will be whether to release them or not.  

Technical assistance = doing everything bar pressing fire.

Wait, you think the UK are going to be picking targets themselves here?

1 minute ago, AlexLaw76 said:

That is great, but it will likely be the UK planning the missions.  You don't just load these babies to A/C and press fire.

There is little chance these things are 'set up' in Ukraine, as the capability is highly classified.

There’s no doubt the UK will be providing technical assistance for them, they announced they already had, to get them working with Soviet jets, but it’ll still be Ukraine’s command chain that’s directing any use for them.

44 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Interesting to know how is planning the missions for these missiles..well, kind of obvious, but I wonder if it will ever be discussed in public

It’ll depend on exactly how many we’ve sent, we had an initial stockpile of about 900 - 1000, and have expended about 90 - 100 over the years.

If we’ve sent only very low numbers, at least initially, then any decisions on use will have to go right to the top, whereas if we’ve sent more then decisions can be taken lower down the chain, but even then it won’t be too far down that it goes. Ukraine will already have a list of priorities depending on what they’re planning to do.

I’d imagine that among their initial targets will be S300 and S400 control vehicles to suppress Russian anti-air,  so that the planes carrying these can get closer to the front line and hit further back.

Before that though, Russia will have to react to knowing Ukraine has these. That’ll alone will be an advantage for Ukraine. It’ll likely also open up the political possibility for other countries to supply similar range missiles, perhaps without being announced.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65558070

That's significant. Storm Shadow is a highly capable missile. Range of at least 300km, roughly equivalent payload to 5 HIMARS, and with stealth capabilities that make it extremely difficult to intercept. They have several different guidance systems that make them extremely accurate, and almost immune to EW jamming.

That puts into range Kerch Bridge, Sevastapol port, forward air bases, rail hubs, and every large ammo dump that Russia had pulled back beyond HIMARS range. They'll be forced to either stretch their already failing logistics out to unfeasible distances, or risk losing any big target in range. Being launched from a jet makes that even more difficult to calculate. Any further cruise missile launches from the Black Sea against civilians will also be extremely risky for Russia.

Reports that small scale combined arms counterattacks around Bakhmut in the last 24 hours have liberated kilometres of territory that Russia had spent months capturing, and forced an entire Russian brigade to be disbanded.

Early indications, it seems Russia were spending far more resources than they could sustain in an attempt to dislodge Ukraine before 9th May, and are now tapped out, at least for the moment.

Considering the amount diverted from other areas of the front by Russia to Bakhmut, and Ukraine were still able to do this, it seems to bode well for the counterattack. I’m not sure we’ll see a huge breakthrough suddenly overnight, although I’m sure Ukraine would do so if the opportunity presents itself, but my gut feeling is that they’ll just use the intelligence at their disposal, knowing that Russia don’t have the resources to fully defend the whole front, and just keep hitting where they’re weak until Russia have no choice but to withdraw further and further back.

4 hours ago, badgerx16 said:

It seems that the only tank at the Victory Day parade was a T-34.

Seems that tank was taken from a museum, and originally manufactured in Ukraine.

Flyby section also completely cancelled.

Considering Russia’s usual habit of trying to appear as strong as possible in propaganda, seems unlikely they’d be willing to let people in Russia be able to see front and centre a position of weakness like that unless they had no choice.

AMN had controlled the ball, looked more of a foul by the Forest player lunging in to me.

27 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

Lock the thread please, the big boys have said it is over.

Yet, probably have to wear a hazmat suit to get into the doctors surgery...

They’ve said it’s a less severe problem than ‘Global Health Emergency,’ but it’s not like it’s suddenly gone away completely. It’s still causing around 3500 deaths a day worldwide.

There will likely always need to be some measures against what can still be a deadly disease for some, similar to measures taken against severe flu or MRSA or any number of other diseases that are carried out every day in hospitals.

Unless it’s a feint, or a negotiating tactic to get more ammunition delivered, looks like they’re intending to leave it in the hands of the Russian Army, albeit that’d likely be more or less the same as giving up on taking it. I guess Ukraine finally managed to tip the scales on it costing Wagner too much to take Bakhmut, especially with Ukraine’s expected counteroffensive likely putting a short time limit on that being viable.

Ammunation shortages aren’t just limited to Wagner, Russia have been holding back ammunition everywhere, likely to stockpile it for that counteroffensive. Or they’ve been trying to, they’ve been nice targets for HIMARS at least.

On top of that, Ukraine have been absolutely hammering Russian artillerly, fuel, and logistics the last few days. Looks like Ukraine are doing this similar to Kherson, where Russia know it’s coming and their morale will already be shaky when the fighting starts, albeit not focused on one city this time, adding the unknown factor for Russian troops whether it’s them that will end up facing it.

4 hours ago, Weston Super Saint said:

The question is, is Russia really, really good at defending the Kremlin or really, really bad?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-65471904

The video (conveniently shot just opposite the Kremlin the day before the victory parade celebrations showind the stands set up like the Russian flag), shows the alleged drone being 'downed' right over the top of the Kremlin.

Are their defences so shockingly bad that the 'electronic radar assets' that were used to disable the 'drone' weren't actually effectively until it reached it's target, or, are they so spectacularly good that they managed to time the destruction to perfection, so the person shooting the video also got the Kremlin in the shot when the 'drone' exploded?

My guess is that they want an excuse to cancel the victory day parade for some reason.

5 minutes ago, Lord Duckhunter said:

I know some of the Hamworthy lads, decent blokes. Tommy in nets was at Yeovil & then Saints before being released last year. They’ll be gutted, but can’t be as bad as last season. They lost on pens in the vase semi final, devastating for them as the final is at Wembley. 

It’s still been a really good season for Hamworthy, obviously they’ll be gutted, but they got within a match of making it back to back promotions. They’ve certainly done better than they’d have expected at the start of the season.

2-0 FT

Sholing promoted! They’ve done well to come back and win the playoffs after leading the league for so long and falling just short in the end.

Certainly gives me a team to use for the Dafuge challenge in Football Manager next season.

Impressive crowd there by the sound of it, over 1200.

And 1-0 to Sholing!

https://radiosportslive.co.uk/hamworthy-feed/
 

Hamworthy have commentary from the playoff final.

Team sheets here to know who they’re talking about.

1 hour ago, Chris cooper said:

Neverton will be ruined if they go down they are in a monumental mess .. points deductions fines and transfer embargo’s await for them.

I’m praying Leicester beat them tomorrow.. they only comfort I have left this season is that they come with us.

84 semi and the koeman affair along with various spats with them at the dell and goodison .. they can free fall to the conference south and burn 🔥.horrible club and fanbase .

 

Everton have been a basket case circling the drain ever since Usmanov got sanctioned and took all the real money behind Everton with him.

They’re more likely to replace ‘Doing a Pompey’ as a phrase than be a threat in the Championship.

7 minutes ago, Sunglasses Ron said:

We are so fucking shit….

 

…. yet I still look at the table and think what if we beat Forest away and Fulham at home on the bounce.

What the fuck is wrong with me!

Extremely unlikely but not impossible.

People often make the same mistake with chance that if something likely happens, it was always certain to happen.

Knowing something unlikely can still happen doesn’t mean thinking it’s likely to happen, or that you’re not prepared for it not happening.