Lighthouse

China is currently dealing with a massive Covid outbreak which will give their economy a bit of a knock in itself. I’m not sure they’re going to pick Putin as their hill to die on.

By contrast I have a family member who worked at a place called KAUST up until three years ago. Basically, it's a large, multinational university complex just North of Jeddah. I went to visit once and it's a seriously impressive place, basically a small town they've built around a large, scientific research facility. The leaders (It's named after King Abdullah) have chucked some serious money into catching up with the 21st century, attracting expertise from around the world and educating their own best and brightest. Added to this they're hosting major golf tournaments and now a Formula 1 and Formula E race, as well as the whole Newcastle saga. They've very recently allowed women to drive cars and even appointed a women's council (although it is rather hilariously just a group of old men). For all the legitimate criticism of Saudi, it is a place taking baby steps in the right direction. They've realised they can't go on forever digging holes and hoping to find brown goo (as Monty Burns would say). They're working hard to develop and retain their own talent and expertise, in much the same way as The UAE has branched out into travel, tourism, banking, research etc. Russia can't seem to see any of this. These are the places which will gradually begin to overhaul Russia in terms of global appeal and social direction. Europe and North America are already long gone.

Putin is so obsessed with being seen as a global superpower that he can’t accept the world has changed. A declining, ageing population, a stagnant economy which is largely dependant on primary industries, increasingly isolated from the biggest trading partners and the only friend they’ve got is another self-serving dictatorship who’re going to buttf*ck them for whatever natural resources they need. Aside from having a big pile of nukes (in who knows what condition) they aren’t a superpower by any real metric.

We did try, what makes you think we didn’t? After two defeats Ralph had apparently, "been figured out," so he decided to try a slightly different approach. In the second half we reverted to our so called best team, Broja came in and nothing happened. As I said to someone else, do you expect to be undefeated against United and City and to win at Spurs and West Ham? Everyone expects to beat Watford and yet here they are with wins against Everton, Man United, Norwich and they beat Villa home and away.

That's just football though, it's the same for everyone. We wouldn't expect to be unbeaten in 9 games against Man City, United, Spurs and West Ham this season but we are. These blips and results happen to pretty much every club, every season. Even when we got promoted from the Championship we took 1 point from 6 games, against Bristol City, Blackpool and Leicester.

WTF!? We're top half and in the cup QF. Despite yet another summer where we had to sell before we could buy, including our top scorer for the last three years and best CB (of an awful bunch). Whilst teams around us in the table have spent £30m plus on at least one player, we're still shopping around in the £15m bargain bin with the likes of Norwich and Burnley. We've managed to take a step forward from last season despite replacing some of our best players with a couple of kids from Chelsea, a Championship striker and a LB from France. Everton are asked to go one season where they can't splurge £100m on new players and boom - immediate relegation fight. Leeds lose two of their better players to injury and they're down there too. Honestly, where do you guys want/expect to be under these kind of operating constraints?

Unfortunate though that may be, and I hope they are eligible for vaccines on the NHS, it doesn’t quite stack up people being homeless and alone in a foreign country, because they’ve fled a war zone. I’m not sure why that needs explaining.

I love your posts, I don’t think even you have any idea what point you’re trying to make.

TBH there’re still quite a few I wouldn’t be at all fussed to see the back of. Any of our ‘keepers, Stephens, Valery, Moi, Walcott, Long and Djenepo.

I’d say he had his Vestergaard moment of being decent for 7 or 8 games and now has reverted to being the player he was for two years before that. Looked like a passenger in the last three games.

Two yellows in three minutes by the looks of it.

Liverpool, MK Dons, Millwall…

Redmond and Armstrong for Smallbone and Moi IMO.

Newcastle fans singing, "Mike Ashley, he’s coming for you!" At Chelsea. 😆

Anyone would think we were a mid-table team who have periods of good form and periods of bad form.

What in the name of f**king f**Kerry was that!?

Free kick there just because it’s the keeper.

Like the back four. One striker is an interesting move.

Anybody going to take in a refugee?

I'd have Perraud and Redmond in for Moi and Liv but persevere with Broja for now.

If Ukraine did pull off the unthinkable and drive them out, we should offer Russia a fast track NATO membership. For their own protection.

And then there were five. I think it’ll come down to Burnley or Leeds, probably the latter. They need three goals just to get a point these days.

The Man With The Golden Wig

Ten hour round trip, early kick off, 6am start, not much to play for, for a championship game that’s one tele. Don’t think it’s that bad.

In terms of what the Ukrainians and Russians deserve and what’s fair, you’re absolutely right, I can’t argue. As a strategy for the greater good however, I think we’re better off staying out as much as possible, whilst supporting the resistance in Ukraine. As far as Russia are concerned, the less this war is about NATO the more infighting will begin to fester, as we’re starting to see. We don’t want to give in to temptation and become the distraction Putin craves. if Putin starts firing nerve agents at Russian speakers in Mariupol or Kharkiv, there’s an outside chance it might just be the end of him.