Lionator

You normally know these things right?

Maybe the penny has finally dropped for Top we can hope

Agreed, he can let the east go and he is signalling that’s fine, they will still have their country which is what was at risk. The sticking point is going to be security guarantees. Ukraine isn't getting NATO with Trump coming in, but they need something. However Putin will just keep pushing for complete capitulation sadly. If the frontline steadies then he may negotiate but who knows what they’ll eventually agree to. Thankfully Russia will also be finished for the foreseeable.

Ukraine are 100% finished by the way. They’ve run out of men and Zelensky (rightly thinking about the bigger picture) won’t mobilise the under 25’s. The war is done, it’s just about the when in terms of the deal.

What’s your tactical analysis of him? A step up from Cooper?

I thought maybe they had a plan and had someone lined up but alas I was way too optimistic with these numpties.

The British public supports Ukraine, however they very much would not support Britain directly fighting Russia unless absolutely necessary given the potential consequences that @leicsmac points out.

I don’t think there are many genuine situations that could lead to the overthrow of government in this country, BUT sending British troops to an Ukraine that is still at war may just be one.

It’s… Rebekah Vardy

Knowing Cooper, he probably started blaming referees for being sacked

How we gonna press with a geriatric up front?

And they’ve massively kicked on this season without him!

It’s not about what he’s done, it’s about the fact it was only going to get worse

I’d personally rather have somebody ambitious like that though. Stepping stone isn’t always a bad thing when manager shelf lives are so short anyway.

These Aussie pitches are making me think Woakes could do a job after all next winter. If Jaiswal can cash in this series, and Bumrah keeps fit, then the Aussies are going to find it hard to win the series imo.

He was probably our best player watching it on tv. He adds a ball carrying ability in midfield that we don’t have otherwise. Will be key against teams where we get more possession.

Yep it’ll be ‘Klopp set his legacy up for this’ not recognising that Slot has been a lot more pragmatic.

would be very funny that Slot does it in his first season, when Klopp did it once in nine years, and even then they lifted it in an empty stadium.

Martin is a far superior manager to Cooper. He actually has a philosophy/game plan. He just doesn’t have the players and ability to pull it off. Cooper is just hopeless.

Whether he has a point or not is another matter. These aren’t clear cut robbery type decisions, match after match he’s blaming refs to cover his own shortcomings as a manager. Adequate managers don’t blame referees when they lose anymore, it’s not 2004.

Does he realise how utterly ridiculous he sounds blaming referees week after week? What is he hoping to achieve from it?

Bumrah is an utter joke man, what a player.

Again the unmitigated support of Netanyahu basically killed all credibility the west had with Putin and the global south.

US veto’ing a UN Security Council resolution for a ceasefire. Gross.

World Cup Qualifying Update for anybody interested. In Asia, unsurprisingly it looks like Iran, South Korea and Japan are going to win their groups and qualify directly. More surprisingly the second placed teams may see some new faces. In Group A it looks like a straight fight between Uzbekistan and UAE, in Group B, Iraq and Jordan and Group C, 1 point separates Australia, Saudi, China, Bahrain and Indonesia. Indonesia beat Saudi 2-0 yesterday. In South America, no real shocks, it looks like the usual suspects will all qualify. Bolivia and Venezuela will probably fight it out for the play off spot. In OFC, New Zealand are clearly directly qualifying unless something mental happens. As for Europe. The pots have been decided. England will be in a group of 5 teams and will draw any of the white teams from the other pots. So a good draw might be Wales, Montenegro, Lithuania, San Marino and a bad draw Poland, Czechia, Kazakhstan and Moldova.