st albans fox

And they’ve seen what’s actually happened to Will and that a bad injury for a teenager can potentially ruin a promising career. Take the money when it’s offered because you never know what’s around the corner Man City’s teenagers get far more access to first team football via the club and loans than ours seem to. if he’s really as good as he appears to be then they won’t fear a loan at 16/17 or even pushing him into their squad. And he’ll be playing with the cream of youth football talent.

If that’s true then he will settle for 3%. Maybe 3.5 at a push. Still a stretch for a lot of countries although with an expanded euro arms sector there is room for plenty of smoke and mirrors on deals.

If he’s agreed to go to man c then surely they tell him that there’s no reason for him to push to make any first team appearances. That if RVN asks him about some time on the pitch then he just says that he’s very grateful for the opportunity but he doesn’t feel ready for it. that’s what I’d be telling his parents if I was Man City’s head of academy. (Off the record of course).

Au contraire - as long as you’re in trump’s admin ! (And the bluntness is primary rather than any attempt or at truth )

I have no idea the kid who went from arsenal to Man U was apparently 40k per week ! I reckon some of these top talents at 16 are able to get 20k/week quite easily.

Go back to that england u21 side 2019 where he was sent off v France and was in a midfield with madders and foden (with mount on the bench) it’s clear which player hasn’t kicked on and there must be reasons why (not just ability cos the kid had plenty of that)

That the issue - there’s only one of them ………………

It’s not at 15 it will be in the summer when he’s 16 arsenal lost one of their best 16 y o talents last summer to Man U who were prepared to pay him a lot more than arsenal. its not always the big clubs taking from the small ones. And who are we to judge families who may be struggling to put a meal on the table when their 16 y o kid is offered ridiculous money. (This comment not in reply to you)

Are we obliged to do that or can we just say ‘tough sh1t’ ?

Monga looks pretty solid but I’d trust the coaches to make a call in the kids best interest. wouldn’t surprise me to see him get twenty mins late on in a few dead rubbers late April/ may

Because Hertford isn’t a pro club, I presume we don’t need to pay any compensation given his age???

He’s 15 surely he can’t leave before the summer

I’m referencing a war with Russia as an expansionist entity rather than an existential war on Russian territory. I think only the latter becomes nuclear.

Psr actually encourages clubs to go out and get the best young kids at 16/17. It’s a business plan. Those who are good enough can be sold on at 100% profit (see Man City and Chelsea over recent years) and those who are exceptional will get to the first team squad. Those who aren’t good enough will just be ‘chucked away’ and find their way to the lower leagues. we presumably do the same to championship and league 1 academies ?? It’s the food chain but PSR has made it worse cos the big six have realised how much money can be made from it.

I’d agree, but at the moment, I don’t believe europe has the supplies to take it on now. (And would any country in Europe take on a war with Russia - there is no political will to do so from what I’ve seen).

My ‘don’t know’ revolved around whether the alternative was a full on switch to support putin. Trumps bully boy blackmail tactics are pretty obvious. What isn’t is how far he actually goes to ensure he gets them. we’ve seen him row back a bit on a couple things already - and then swing back again on others. He’s extremely unpredictable which also helps his negs tactics in a diplomatic world which isn’t used to that approach from the no 1 world power.

Well we don’t know for sure it’s all about the deal and it’s clear that trump will do pretty much anything to ensure he gets his way when he’s ‘holding the cards’ The minerals deal has been agreed for a couple of weeks apparently - the security guarantees are the issue. we will see just how far putin is being asked to move when serious negs begin over a ceasefire and subsequent peace deal. I would think it won’t be very far! But that’s also where time comes into the equation and if Europe is willing to spend what’s necessary to be a viable guarantor then maybe that’s why trump won’t commit to becoming a backstop at this stage. If he did then he’s playing a card he doesn’t want to - especially at this stage.

Dunno - doubt it’s quite as stark as latter but they wouldn’t say it isn’t in order to blackmail them into signing it with time absolutely but ukraine doesn’t have that. Whilst they will say in public that they have sufficient stocks to carry six months, I’ve seen various reports yesterday that say this will have an effect within a week in some areas of the conflict. I’d say that the response of Kyiv within 24 hours of trump announcing the pause says everything

We don’t have the collective military strength to support ukraine - and despite the public message of taking the strain , I think the Europeans are clearly not willing to force trump to dump NATO you can’t just turn on a tap to produce masses of arms and defence systems.

Zelenskyy posted earlier that he’s ready to sign it asap - it’s said that he would have done so on Friday if he hadn’t been shown the door in Washington. I think it’s a formality unless he tries to link it to security guarantees again.

Rumours that trump wants the minerals deal signed before 2am gmt so he can announce it in his address to congress this evening

And a ten euro fine from Switzerland…..

Trudeau states that reciprocal tarrifs will apply trump tweets that in that case, the tarrifs into the us will increase by the reciprocal tarrif can’t wait for it to be our turn ! what do we actually export to the states that they don’t really need cos they could make there ??

Didn’t starmer/macron speak about a 20k force of peace keepers ??

We’ll it certainly asks the question that why would he be discussing a peace keeping force when he’s already started that the minerals deal offers all the security that ukraine needs with US workers there (history shows enough occasions when both US civilians and troops have been killed without any effective response from the US govt) and also that putin should be trusted to keep his word. if that’s true then what difference who is there to observe the peace ??