Jimmy_D

Leicester are right up against the edge with FFP at the moment, and Rodgers is on a huge contract. They may not even be able to sack him at the moment.

Well the post-match interview will be interesting after that.

Leicester starting to have the whiff of a relegation battle around them. Obviously early in the season still, but aside from the results, the way they’re playing, the attitude of the fans, and the way that even when luck has gone their way, it hasn’t helped, all pointing that way right now.

At the end of the day VAR itself is completely neutral. All it does is give the referee more time and more accurate information to make decisions. The fact they’re still getting it so wrong just goes to highlight how incompetent (or biased) the referees are. Also Peter Walton on BT Sport must be the most pointless job on TV. I don’t think I’ve seen him contradict a decision once. (And remember him changing to back up a decision turned over by VAR once after backing up the ref)

Obviously there have been some pretty hefty mismatches contributing to that, but it’s still a mightily impressive record.

Not that there was much doubt we’d be there, a 2-0 win over Austria has just sealed our place in the World Cup finals This team will be even more legendary if they can go on to win them back to back…

The only way a buy back clause gets activated is if they’ve been brilliant for us, in which case we’ve been paid 30 odd million for a player to be brilliant for us for a couple of seasons. Also, unlike a loan, the player has to actually want to go back for it to be activated. Considering the alternative is not having these players at all, and even having 4 or 5 years left on a contract hasn’t been enough to stop players leaving us before anyway, I don’t see any downsides for a club in our current position.

99 times out of 100, Adams doesn’t miss that chance.

We’ll have a decent chance of getting something out of all of those except for the Man City game, if we keep playing as well as we have. Arsenal playing extremely well but St Mary’s is a bit of a bogey ground for them. Man City obviously we’ll need everything to go right for us to get anything.

Judging by the players we were linked to, we were certainly trying for a few different attacking players (and signed a couple of them). When it comes to out and out strikers good enough for the Prem, there aren’t too many baskets to put eggs in.

Maybe a little jaded after the two big home games, but still deserved something from that game. Just didn’t fall our way on the day. Guh. on to the next one.

Shows how much of a psychological effect they’ve had on Russian morale that they’re so desperate to claim they’ve all been destroyed. Or possibly how bad Russian military intelligence has been, if they truly believe they’ve destroyed that many due to the decoys. (Or both) I’d imagine they’re trying to keep their own troops in the dark about continued HIMARS hits, but that must be pretty difficult when ammo dumps keep going up in a big bright fireball visible for miles every night.

Not to mention that part of our trouble with scoring has been playing more defensively to compensate for a relatively weak defence. With that improved we can afford to be a bit more adventurous in attack. Adams in particular already seems to be benefiting from that.

Mara and Edozie are both attackers that we’ve signed. Signing a slightly higher profile player is no guarantee of success either. January will give us options too.

Sport Republic have quietly had an excellent first summer window too. This must be our highest net spend ever? All while going under the radar with the media, Saints predicted for relegation, and all signs pointing to that money being used for excellent value players. Even more so looking at some of the prices there have been this window. Joe Shields obviously looks to have been a big part of that, but it’s extremely encouraging for him to have been backed this well too.

Dammit, this could only happen to Sai…. Oh. Never mind. I wonder if he would have passed a medical at Leeds?

Be even funnier if Dan James going out was finalised before Leeds got shafted.

Like I said, diplomacy and politics will be more important than the exact letter of the law. That said, if Russia never legally had a claim on the USSR’s position, it might open up some interesting conversations on whether they ever had a claim to some of the benefits the USSR had, for example the permanent position on the security council and their veto, if there was the political will for it. After all, what’s to say that Ukraine wouldn’t have had a claim on those benefits? If nothing else making Russia have to defend their position will have some effect.

Speculation I’ve seen is that at that time, Khazakstan would have in effect been the USSR, as Russia left before Khazakstan did. Russia technically was just a former member with no claim to the USSR’s position.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62750584 His company reporting it was ‘after a severe illness’ apparently. Sounds like they’re making the Russian line as implausible as possible without outright claiming he’s been assassinated. I’d think even going as far as that isn’t without risk in Russia at the moment.

Sounds like Dieng to Leeds is all but done, might bring PSV back to the table with us for Gakpo if they need the money.

So, while the USSR was a member of the UN, Ukraine has requested the records for when Russia started being part of the UN. Looks like Russia never joined, and there’s no legal mechanism that allowed them to take on the USSR’s membership. Apparently no one else has ever thought to ask. Of course in an organisation like the UN the exact letter of the law takes a back seat to diplomacy, and Russia aren’t completely without allies in the UN, but given their current status in the eyes of the World, it’s certainly an interesting question to ask.

We have got Caleta-Car Defends just like a jaguar … There’s a start for you

Today’s the last day of the transfer window, it’s certainly not early on. It’s not exactly falling apart either, we’ve got two more very promising players from City’s academy and Maitland-Niles coming in, and even if we don’t get anyone else today, it still looks like being one of our best transfer windows in years.

Sounds like Leeds offered a bit more money to make them turn away our bid, and then Gakpo turned down Leeds? Sounds unlikely the player will force the move to us, unlikely we’ll increase our offer, and unlikely that they’ll accept less money, but I guess the day’s not over just yet.