Lighthouse

😂 The Chinese military police were welding people's doors shut.

Lock downs got us from 40,000 in hospital and 2,000 corpses a day to just under 2,000 in hospital and deaths in single figures. Vaccines will keep it that way. Without lock down, deaths wouldn't have been low enough to start opening up again. Without vaccines, infections would start to climb again as we begin to open up. We needed both. Boris, like him or loath him, didn't say anything misleading or untrue.

Both statements quite unequivocally not true. I really can't add anything more than that. Of course they do, I've never tried to claim otherwise. Airbags in cars work but if you're doing 65, you're probably best off using your brakes as much as possible before you hit the wall. What we're seeing now is the result of a fairly tough lockdown AND vaccines combined. Don't forget we'd reached our target of giving the most vulnerable a first dose by February 15th but even with the help of a month's lockdown we were still seeing 500 dead bodies a day. We needed both. Now we're on top of the situation we're easing the lockdown. I really don't see what there is to be upset about. You can share all the links you like about the Indian, South Africa, ancient Mayan variant or whatever you want. Unless they actually start to change government policy they're just clickbait.

You’ve got to pick one of those and stick with it, you can’t have both. A softer lockdown would have taken longer to bring infections down. A shorter lockdown would have needed Chinese style soldiers patrolling the streets not letting people out.

I was going to suggest PVA too but a quick Google suggests Galatasaray are prepared to offer him a 3 year deal and I wouldn't be offering a 31 year old that length of contract personally. IF we could get someone like Lemina off the wage bill, together with Bertrand, then perhaps we could offer him a reasonable 2 year deal and get Williams.

I’m not sure what you’re trying to argue. The three month lockdown can’t not have played a massive part in bringing down the number of infections. We know that, we saw it last spring with the first wave. We could have not locked down and the pandemic would have continued to grow exponentially for another couple of months, then eventually plateaued as a certain vaccination threshold was reached but that would have been disastrous. Hospitals were reaching capacity anyway with 40,000 Covid patients and some reporting low oxygen reserves. Call me a sheep all you like, they have quite active, outdoors lifestyles, enjoying the countryside and breathing fresh air. I’ll take that over lying in a hospital bed gasping for air because they’ve run out of oxygen, like parts of India are now facing.

£35m would barely stretch to adequate replacements for those two, let alone any remodeling.

Just for reference, this thread was started with Fulham 11 points behind us in February. 2.5 months and 10 games later, they've come roaring up to 9 points behind us.

KWP, Romeu, JWP and Armstrong. They're the only four players I genuinely give a sh*t whether they're here or not next season.

Do you think Ralph might get the chop?

We were in a very similar position last March, after a naff defeat at home to Newcastle, when the season was called off. Our mentally feeble players, who I think had lost all but four games in front of their own fans, suddenly found a new breath of confidence, playing in empty stadiums with absolutely nothing at steak. That confidence spilled over into this season until eventually wearing off in November and we’ve reverted to our post Koeman default. Christ knows how they’ll react when we get fans back in St Mary’s.

I didn't watch any of it but I'd have thought the prosecution would have to prove some sort of motive for it to be murder 2. I was also expecting a manslaughter verdict, it'll be interesting to see what his lawyers make of it all.

More good news, it was reported that uptake among the BAME community has apparently tripled. I wonder if this is in part down to the terrible situation in India and the news starting to filter through to Asian communities in the UK.

Vaccinated people. There’re still around 2,000 nationally in hospital who, one would assume and hope, are mostly unvaccinated.

A jury of peers have clearly decided, beyond reasonable doubt, that he’s guilty, which is the best you can ask for. So on that count, yes, justice has been served. Having said that I’ve still seen no evidence that it was racially motivated.

Yes, I’ve spent all evening knocking one out over the new draconian lockdown procedures coming into force on the 17th May. I simply can’t wait to have some of my freedoms taken away.

Need to re-brand a few teams to give them that proper global franchise feel. London Gunners vs. Turin Ibex* Manchester Blue Socks vs. Madrid Ocelots Merseyside Pirates vs. Milan 56'ers Don't forget the one with dubious racial undertones, like North London Yiddish, or such like. *The home team will now be listed second for some reason and fixtures will be described as "Ocelots at Pirates."

Not sure quite how sincere those Leeds T-shirts really are. Seems a bit like empty virtue signalling to me, like saying I’m a better person than Brad Pitt because I’d never ditch my wife for Angelina Jolie.

Just the 27 goals conceded in the last 6 games then.

No me neither, the problem is you’ve now got to spend half a billion just to be mid-table. You’ve got the ‘big six’ chucking money at their squads, then add Leicester, West Ham and Everton and you can easily spend the national debt of a small African country finishing ninth. Villa, Wolves and Leeds have had no small amount of investment either. Even Newcastle, for all their gripes about selling up and investment, managed to find £40m for Joelinton.

Correct. So many fans have been delighted to see their club signing fifty.... sixty... eighty million pound superstars, building £800m stadiums and winning trophies, as if it was all some sort of charitable cause. As if some random Chinese guy actually cares about the three Cup Winners Cups you won in the seventies or a human rights abusing Arab prince is genuinely moved by people standing with their scarves aloft singing some historic club anthem. All the phone ins with fans saying, "we need investment if we’re serious about winning the league," when what they really mean is they want a rich man to buy them nice things. Genuine investment means maximising your revenue stream and gaining a significant return in the long term and that’s what we’re seeing here on a truly grotesque scale

You can tell he clearly isn’t happy but he stopped short of actually criticising the proposals, saying he doesn’t want to lose the fight for the CL places and he understands why the fans are upset. Basically said as much as he could without being fired for criticising the owners.

Nev tearing a strip off them again on MNF. Klopp fairly non-comital and cautious with his words, which is understandable given that he’s employed by the perpetrators.

Apart from a truly gargantuan pile of cash?

They can do this but it will be of no consequence to any of the clubs involved. There will be still be plenty of fans willing to buy tickets to Anfield and any drop off will be inconsequential compared to the figures being talked about.