October 2020 – Page 25

This story may be updated.

A maternity hospital in Syria’s northwestern, rebel-held province of Idlib was bombed on Friday, the U.K.-based charity Save the Children said. The number of casualties is unclear at this point.

According to human rights organization Amnesty International, it “appears to be part of a despicable pattern of unlawful attacks deliberately targeting medical facilities.”

Save the Children posted the news of the strike on the hospital, which it supports, on Twitter, and included video footage of the aftermath:

According to reporting by Reuters, the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the hit on the medical facility, as well as “a civil defense building.”

“The bomb hit the entrance of the hospital, which sees 1,300 women monthly and carries out over 300 deliveries a month,” Save the Children spokesperson Emma Pomfret said to CNN from London. Another spokesperson for the charity, Caroline Anning, told the Independent there were at least two casualties.

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On the same day he filed a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint against former Democratic National Committee (DNC) chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, congressional candidate Tim Canova questioned whether the incumbent congresswoman indeed plans to debate him as promised before the August 30 Democratic primary.

Six-term U.S. Rep. Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) said last week she would debate her progressive challenger, a law professor who is backed by Sen. Bernie Sanders and—as of Monday—the Democratic Progressive Caucus of Florida.

“Unfortunately, in the eyes of so many, your decision to continue dodging debates reflects contempt for fair and open elections and for democracy itself.”
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In an unprecedented gesture hailed by environmentalists, Washington’s Whatcom County enacted an emergency 60-day moratorium on fossil fuel exports late Wednesday.

“Tonight, our county council sent a powerful message that Whatcom County won’t be a waystation for pipelines and deadly coal and oil trains.”
—Matt Krogh, StandEnvironmentalists and industrialists were both shocked by the move from the coastal county once known as “Wide Open Whatcom” for its welcoming of oil refineries and a massive aluminum smelter.

“The moratorium applies to ‘all forms of crude oil whether stabilized or not, raw bitumen, diluted bitumen and syncrude; coal; methane, propane, butane and other ‘natural gas’ in liquid or gaseous form,'” reports seattlepi.com.

“I woke up this morning and was happy to see I wasn’t just dreaming last night,” wrote Carl Weimer, a Whatcom County councilmember and executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, on Facebook.

The stretch of coastline north of Bellingham has become “ground zero” for fossil fuel exports in the U.S. Northwest, Weimer told The Stranger.

Weimer “rattle[d] off a list of recent issues,” the magazine writes:

“Now that Congress has lifted its 40 year ban on crude oil exports,” The Stranger observes, “Whatcom County residents are anticipating even more fossil fuel shipments moving through their backyards. Which is why, last night, Whatcom County’s seven-person council took the unusual and surprising step of banning all unrefined fossil fuel export permits for 60 days.”

Conservation group Stand, formerly ForestEthics, wrote in a statement that the move “temporarily prevents permitting for new projects that would allow the shipment or export of crude oil, coal, or liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Cherry Point. The emergency moratorium was put into place while the county finalizes a Comprehensive Plan update that will inform future zoning regulation changes that could prevent permits for new projects facilitating the export of crude oil, coal, or fracked gases.”

“I woke up this morning and was happy to see I wasn’t just dreaming last night.”
—Carl Weimer, Pipeline Safety Trust”The oil and gas industry have targeted Cherry Point and Whatcom County as a sacrifice zone in their plans to export unrefined extreme oil, dirty coal and gas overseas,” said Matt Krogh, Stand’s extreme oil campaign director and local resident.

“Tonight, our county council sent a powerful message that Whatcom County won’t be a waystation for pipelines and deadly coal and oil trains,” Krogh added. “We choose public safety, we choose a just and swift transition to clean energy. We also choose climate stability—coal and oil industry plans for Cherry Point would have caused twice the amount of carbon pollution that the entire state of Washington currently emits.”

The Stranger writes: “It’s still an open question whether the Whatcom County Council’s decision will hold up in court. In the meantime, Weimer says that the Council’s next step is to hold a public hearing—and perhaps expand the moratorium for four more months, until the Planning Commission issues its decision on the 20-year plan.”

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Iceland, which became a gold standard for corporate accountability in the wake of its 2008-2011 financial crisis, has found nine bankers guilty for market manipulation in one of the biggest cases of its kind in the country’s history.

The verdict from Iceland’s Supreme Court, issued Thursday, overturns a June 2015 decision by the Reykjavik District Court, which found seven of the nine defendants guilty and acquitted two.

No punishment has been handed down yet, although sentencing is set to come. The defendants worked at the major international firm Kaupthing Bank until it was taken over by the Icelandic government during the crash. The bank’s former director Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, who had been sentenced to five and a half years in 2013 in a separate Kaupthing case, had his punishment extended by six months in response to the verdict.

The acquittals were overturned for former Kaupthing credit representative Björk Þórarinsdóttir and former Kaupthing Luxembourg CEO Magnús Guðmundsson, although no penalties have been meted out for them.

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Republicans are fearful about the damage former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon and his allies will inflict on GOP incumbents seeking reelection in the 2018 midterms.

Bannon has been meeting with insurgent conservative candidates and is committed to making Breitbart News, which he returned to run after leaving the White House in August, a major player in the Republican primaries against candidates he views as insufficiently loyal to President Trump.

Bannon is also in discussions with the pro-Trump outside group Great America PAC – which has raised and spent tens of millions of dollars in the last two years — about acting as his political arm in targeting Republicans seeking reelection in both the House and the Senate.

Mainstream Republicans are fretting over the havoc those forces could unleash as they seek to protect their majorities.

They’re worried that money raised by Great America, coupled with potentially significant investments in primary races from the Mercer family, which owns a portion of Breitbart, could sink one or two incumbents in primaries and hobble others enough that they lose winnable general election races to Democrats.

“The most important thing Republicans can do next year is expand our Senate majority by defeating vulnerable Democrats,” said Chris Pack, a spokesman for the Senate Leadership Fund, which is aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote GOP senator to try to reverse requirement that Pentagon remove Confederate names from bases No, ‘blue states’ do not bail out ‘red states’ MORE (R-Ky.) and aims to reelect incumbent Republicans.

“If we have to divert resources to defeat substandard candidates in GOP primaries, that will obviously make it harder for us to accomplish that goal.”

Breitbart has been running daily stories pumping former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in Alabama, who is leading incumbent Sen. Luther StrangeLuther Johnson StrangeThe biggest political upsets of the decade State ‘certificate of need’ laws need to go GOP frets over nightmare scenario for Senate primaries MORE in the GOP primary runoff there to serve the rest of Attorney General Jeff SessionsJefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsMcCabe, Rosenstein spar over Russia probe Rosenstein takes fire from Republicans in heated testimony Rosenstein defends Mueller appointment, role on surveillance warrants MORE’s Senate term.

Bannon has spoken in-person with Las Vegas businessman Danny Tarkanian, who is challenging Sen. Dean HellerDean Arthur HellerOn The Trail: Democrats plan to hammer Trump on Social Security, Medicare Lobbying World Democrats spend big to put Senate in play MORE (R) in Nevada. He has also met with former state Sen. Chris McDaniel, the Tea Party favorite in Mississippi, who is expected to jump into the race against Sen. Roger WickerRoger Frederick WickerPrivate lawsuits are a necessary expedient in privacy legislation Bottom line GOP faces internal conflicts on fifth coronavirus bill MORE (R).

In Arizona, the patriarch of the Mercer family, billionaire GOP donor Robert Mercer, has poured $300,000 into a group supporting former state Sen. Kelli Ward (R) against Sen. Jeff FlakeJeffrey (Jeff) Lane FlakeGOP lawmakers stick to Trump amid new criticism Kelly holds double-digit lead over McSally in Arizona: poll Trump asserts his power over Republicans MORE (R). Several operatives from Great America PAC have also peeled off to join Ward’s campaign.

Bannon has had several conversations about primaries strategy with GOP operatives at Great America PAC, which counts Trump supporters like former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani (R) as chairmen.

Andrew Surabian, Bannon’s political adviser, left the White House recently to join the group.

A source familiar with Great America’s plans says the conversations with Bannon are only in the preliminary stage but that they’re almost certain to involve the primaries in Alabama, Arizona and Nevada, where incumbent Sens. Strange, Flake and Heller are fighting for their political lives.

Great America is also scouting an opportunity in Tennessee, where Sen. Bob CorkerRobert (Bob) Phillips CorkerGOP lawmakers stick to Trump amid new criticism Trump asserts his power over Republicans Romney is only GOP senator not on new White House coronavirus task force MORE (R-Tenn.) has criticized Trump and has not committed to seeking reelection. There is hope among some Bannon allies that Rep. Marsha BlackburnMarsha BlackburnGOP senators introduce resolution opposing calls to defund the police GOP senators dodge on treatment of White House protesters Five things to know about Trump’s legal power under the Insurrection Act MORE (R) will run for Corker’s seat, either as a primary challenger or if he steps aside.

“If [GOP incumbents] think they can get away with cheap shots at Trump to score points with the media or with other lawmakers, they’ll quickly learn that there are consequences,” said one operative with knowledge of the group’s deliberations. “That’s the easiest way to get on our radar.”

Strategists with ties to the group concede that Bannon and Great America’s goals will not always align.

Bannon is eager to meet with virtually any challenger looking to take on an incumbent, while some at Great America are hesitant even to get involved in the Nevada race over fears that whichever candidate wins the primary will emerge too damaged for a general election race to defend what’s the most vulnerable Republican-held Senate seat on the ballot.

But for the most part, Bannon and Great America are on the same page and committed to defeating incumbents they believe don’t have Trump’s back — both in the House and in the Senate.

“You have to have people who support the president’s agenda,” said one operative aligned with Great America. “I’ve been trying to elect Republicans my whole life and I won’t just wholesale look to knock them out, but some of these members have just decided that they’re not going to back Trump.”

Some Republicans are frustrated by what they view as Bannon’s indiscriminate approach. Some, like Flake, have been openly hostile to Trump. But supporters of other senators, like Wicker in Mississippi, believe their only crime is running as an incumbent.

“That’s the problem with Bannon’s logic,” said Austin Barbour, a Mississippi-based strategist who managed Wicker’s first Senate campaign in 2008. “They don’t care if you vote with Trump 99.9 percent of the time or 58.9 percent of the time. If they don’t think you’re really with him, they want to beat you.”

Republicans interviewed by The Hill aren’t panicking yet about the primary challengers triumphing over the incumbents. Ward in Arizona, Tarkanian in Nevada and McDaniel in Mississippi have all run before and lost.

Some Republicans noted that Bannon doesn’t always deliver on his threats and that the Mercers have so far only opened their wallets for Ward. They’re more concerned about the chaos these groups could sow in the party.

“They don’t view their success in terms of wins or losses,” said one former hill aide with close ties to GOP leadership. “They’re happy just creating problems for people. It’s a game to them and it’s a disservice to the party. The goal should be to influence policy and not just create confusion and internal strife among Republicans. If I were [Senate Minority Leader] Chuck SchumerChuck SchumerOvernight Health Care: US showing signs of retreat in battle against COVID-19 | Regeneron begins clinical trials of potential coronavirus antibody treatment | CMS warns nursing homes against seizing residents’ stimulus checks Schumer requests briefing with White House coronavirus task force as cases rise Schumer on Trump’s tweet about 75-year-old protester: He ‘should go back to hiding in the bunker’ MORE, I’d be the first to write a check to that super PAC. Republicans should be very concerned.”

But others see the challengers represent a true primary threat to the incumbents. They say they will need money to beat back the challengers and precise political maneuvering to outlast them.

“Certainly they will make it more difficult for Republicans to win in November and hold the majority in 2018,” Barbour said. “That’s politics and Bannon and his groups are free to do that, but at some point you’d hope the Republican National Committee or the White House would step in and say we can’t stand for this anymore.”

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Leeds United would have to pay around €40m to sign Rodrigo De Paul, according to a transfer expert.

Marcelo Bielsa’s side have been heavily linked with the Udinese midfielder this summer. The player has even hinted on social media that he wants to make the move to Elland Road.

De Paul has been a key player for the Italian side over the past four seasons. Since signing from Valencia in 2016, he has made 146 appearances in all competitions. In that time he has scored 25 goals across all of his domestic outings.

Cheeky backs Leeds to beat Man City, Liverpool to drop points

It looked like Leeds United had looked past De Paul, after agreeing on a deal with Bayern Munich for Michaël Cuisance.

The Frenchman was set to join Leeds for around £20m, though the deal has fallen through thanks to a failed medical.

This means that Leeds may look back into signing De Paul, who has always appeared to be their first choice.

Talks between Leeds and Udinese originally broke down because the clubs were far apart in their valuation of the player.

In a video on the Oddschecker YouTube channel, Italian football expert Fabrizio Romano gave an update on the De Paul transfer situation:

“[The] situation [with] De Paul is that [Leeds offered around] €25 million, Udinese [were] always [asking] for €40 million, not just this summer.

“[It was the] same [asking price] last January [and the] same last summer. They always said, ‘if we sell De Paul [it will be for] €40 million.’

“I remember Inter [Milan] were negotiating for him, also AC Milan, and [Udinese] always asked for €40 million, so, in this moment, it is impossible to sign him for €25 million. We will see if Leeds will try again.”

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Premier League side Leicester City have signed Wesley Fofana from St Etienne on a five-year deal.

The 19-year-old defender joins for an initial £32million ahead of Monday’s transfer deadline.

It ends the Foxes’ interest in Burnley centre-back James Tarkowski after they had a bid worth more than £30million rejected last month.

BIG WEEKEND: Man United v Spurs, Bielsa v Pep, Villa, DCL

Fofana said: “I’m very happy to be here. I’ve watched Leicester closely since they won the title and they’re a top club in the Premier League.

“I know I will learn a lot from the players and the manager here, which is one of the main reasons I came. I can’t wait to get started.”

Last month the centre-back urged St Etienne to let him leave for the King Power Stadium after an opening bid was rejected.

“I’ve received a lot of offers,” he told L’Equipe. “It’s normal to have them checked with my agents. They didn’t agree to me talking. But what just happened broke something in me.

“My decision is made: I accept an offer. Yes (to Leicester). I’ve always dreamed of playing in England.”

Fofana made his debut for St Etienne in May 2019 and has made 26 appearances in all competitions for Les Verts.

He has also been named in France’s Under-21s squad for this month’s Euro 2021 qualifiers against Liechtenstein and Slovakia.

He made 14 appearances in the French top tier last term and was part of the side which reached the final of the Coupe de France, where they lost 1-0 to PSG.

He has played four times in Ligue 1 this season, helping his team keep three clean sheets and sit fourth.

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Everton have agreed on a deal to sign Norwich City’s Ben Godfrey for around £25m, according to reports.

The 22-year-old first made his name in 2017/18, during a fruitful loan spell at Shrewsbury Town. He made 51 appearances for them that season, as they lost in the League One play-off final to Rotherham United.

It looked like he would head out on loan again in 2018/19, but he eventually fought his way into the Norwich starting XI under Daniel Farke.

Big Weekend: Man United v Spurs, Bielsa v Pep, Villa, DCL

He soon became a key player in Farke’s side that won promotion to the Premier League. The defender played 36 games in all competitions as Norwich steamrolled their competition en route to ending the season as champions.

The youngster impressed again last season. He was one of Norwich’s strongest players as they were relegated back to the Championship.

He featured in 30 Premier League games and he gained a lot of admirers for his performances.

Norwich have already lost Jamal Lewis, and now Godfrey appears set to be the latest to depart the club this summer.

Paul Joyce, a journalist for the Times, has reported that Everton have now agreed a £25m plus add-ons fee for the Norwich starlet.

Carlo Ancelotti’s side have already been busy this summer. They have brought in three top talents to bolster their midfield armoury.

The Toffees pulled off a major coup to sign James Rodriquez on a free transfer from Real Madrid. The Columbia international joins on a two-year deal from the Spanish giants.

They have also brought in Napoli midfielder, Allan, for a fee believed to be around £23m. Their other midfield signing is Abdoulaye Doucoure from Watford for a fee of around £20m.

Wonderkid Niels Nkounkou has also come in from Marseille on a free transfer.

If the deal for Godrey goes through, he will immediately challenge for a starting place in Everton’s back four.

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Keep your mails coming to [email protected]…

It could be worse

To all fellow United fans writing in about how depressing the current team is (I can’t believe I’m going to use a patented Scouse phrase) Calm Down, La! Paul MUFC Salford (I never envisaged it getting this bad) you are evidently a young man. To give you and others who are currently showing worrying levels of depression let me try and give you some perspective from an old geezer.

I was there along with many others of my generation on that fateful day April 27th 1974 when the King of Old Trafford, Denis Law, backheeled us into oblivion because Docherty had decided he was surplus to requirements and sent him to City, We refer to the Blues as The Bitters. You have no idea of the amount of scorn we were put through by them at the time. The stick we got at college.

You never saw the dynamic forward duo of Wyn Davies and Ted MacDougall; the years of Frank O’ Farrell or Dave Sexton whose football was so turgid it made LVG’s reign playing Brazil 1970 football in comparison. You didn’t live through the years of absolute domination by Liverpool when we just hoped season upon season we could just give them a bloody nose now and again which, I am pleased to say, we managed on quite a few occasions. (Check Arthur Albiston’s goal and Souness’s furiously impotent reaction.Still brings a delicious thrill down my spine). Of course we might be seeing the same thing again so I’ll grant you that, Paul. And through it all United fans sang “Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life” through these MISERABLE periods…also..”All We Are Saying Is Give Us A Goal”

The point is, Paul, every single player that you named is a hellofasight better than some of the crap players we’ve had in the past. Now the current overlords (Glazers; Woodward etc) are on a totally different scale to previous ones but going back to Louis Edwards (if anyone reading this is above 75 then they may be able to go back further) United’s owners have always been greedy bastards taking money out of the club and not prepared to spend. One that sticks in my mind is that Sir Matt wanted to buy Wales centre half, Mike England, the VVD of his day and United’s hierarchy didn’t cough up the cash to ensure the Busby legacy didn’t end up more trophy laden than it did. Fergie broke the mould for a while…well a 25 years while because he pulled the club out of a mire which we are most assuredly not in now.

So enjoy the football that is being served up by this current good team…I didn’t say great whilst playing other mainly good teams and try and think long rather than short term. As Arnold said…might have been MacArthur…We’ll be back!.
Cheers, Gary (ex Pat United Fan in Pennsylvania) B

Not all doom and gloom

Despite my mail wondering what United were playing at earlier this week I do see some causes for optimism. And most of it is centred around the progress made with the academy, which was lagging far, far behind City, Chelsea, and Arsenal in the recent past.
Firstly Greenwood is outstanding, considering I’m excited about his future. Garner looked wonderful for Watford last week, I’m looking forward to seeing if he can replicate that form over the rest of the season. Henderson has come back into the fold and exactly the right time, I’m optimistic that he can push De Gea to recover from his slump and/or establish himself as an excellent option in goal. Hannibal is a phenomenal talent and Mengi looks a good prospect, I’m excited about seeing them establish themselves in the Under 23s this year and hoping to see them get the odd run out in the first team. As Tuanzebe is still at the club I can only assume he’s going to be getting some more minutes this year, I’m hoping to see him push his claim to partner Maguire. Jurado, Fernandez, and Garnacho have arrived from the top three in Spain with burgeoning reputations, I’m excited about their progress and it’s good to see the club make these signings knowing that there’s a good chance they’ll be sold for profit even if they don’t quite make the grade (a la Solanke, Ake, and Shelvey).
I’m optimistic about the van der Beek signing. I’m optimistic about Rashford producing better numbers year on year. I’m optimistic about Bruno producing over a full season. I’m optimistic about Martial becoming a more rounded player. I’m optimistic that this window might finally convince the club to bring in a Director of Football. Finally, I’m optimistic about the club taking the women’s team seriously, and looking forward to seeing two world class players in Heath and Press turn out for the club.
It’s not ALL doom and gloom.
ThaiWolf, HK

…Hey Jimmy, thanks for your heartfelt email. There are still some hopeful utd fans, I’m one of them.

I was optimistic at the end of last season and was also published in a mail where I stated I was somewhat glad the wheels came off in a few games as it showed we didn’t have the squad depth to compete in multiple competitions and proved we needed to recruit.

Naturally, utd always splash lots of money so the 3, 4 or 5 signings sure to happen gave us lots of hope.

Now with just the one signing in the midst of all our nearest competitors making waves in the transfer market, I still have hope. But my hope of getting closer to the top 2 and maybe win a cup is replaced with hope we’ll stay in the top 4 and that Ole will figure out how to get the best out of the current players.

It will probably be a very up and down season again and I’m naively hoping for more ups than downs 1but if you don’t have any hope for your team then you may as well go and support Bayern Munich.
Jon, Cape Town
(P.S. I think covid screwed up this season more than last. Last season a lot was played out already, the finish was just condensed. This season players are starting with no pre-season and not much holiday. It will likely be 12 to 15 games before we start to get an idea of how things are shaping up – yes, I’m giving myself 12 to 15 games to remain hopeful whatever happens before then).

Glazers have invested

Mike’s email articulated a common theme amongst Man Utd fans, i.e. that the Glazers have underinvested in the team. Whilst he’s correct that these parasitic owners have stripped huge amounts of money from the club by paying themselves and servicing their leveraged buyout (this model of club purchase shouldn’t be allowed), he’s somehow failed to notice the eyewatering sums of money that have been made available to fund player transfers and wages. I could start quoting figures from Transfer League and making comparisons but we’ve all seen those mails before so let’s just agree that Man Utd have spent a shit tonne of money, so they’re not being underfunded and are simply making poor decisions in the transfer market. And it’s not that they’re necessarily buying poor players, but the wrong players for the systems that the managers employ as well as vanity signings, big names for maximum exposure. Again, this isn’t any ground-breaking insight from me and has been mooted on these pages before. It just baffles me when Man Utd fans still carp on about underinvestment and that’s before we get into the astronomical wages they offer to mediocre players let alone their highest earners (9 members of their squad are on 6 figure weekly salaries).
James Outram, Wirral

United and City

I wanted to send a mail on City but couldn’t without first mentioning United. I know a lot of United fans have rightfully been annoyed at the lack of transfer activity and they’re right, but it’s also annoying from the business sense, which Woodward and co. are supposed to excel at. It seems a strange choice to hire a manager based on his three year plan, see the first year of that bring about improvements (in league position and squad) and then to abandon that in year two. Ole is not Klopp, but he has done enough to justify an outlay this summer. It also weirdly puts Lampard and Ole in different directions to last season, where they were both given similar leeway for different reasons. The investment in Chelsea means Lampard has no excuses for finishing 30 something points off Liverpool. It also means his frailties as a manager (mainly really irritating defensive issues) all point the spotlight at him. While I’m not suggesting that Ole has a squad like at Cardiff, it is accepted that the current squad is a mile off Liverpool, therefore decreasing the pressure on him. He and the club set out on this plan, and the club has so far not lived up to their end. What makes the club look a lot worse than Ole was how they went about it; public chasing of players and then not getting any. If the aim from manager and club was to get the best out of what they had, that has to be said at the start of the season. Even the players want new faces in because they expected new faces to come in. It’s all very stupid.

Anyway, on to City. I really, really don’t like Rodri as a CDM. He doesn’t position himself well enough to protect against counters, he doesn’t read the game unfolding when it does happen and when he does, he lacks the energy and speed to get out to stop it. Fernandinho is still twice the player in that regard. I don’t see it as coincidence that City faltered last year with Fernandinho playing as a CB and that they conceded four goals after he went off on Sunday. Rodri is great at five yard passes, great at stale possession, but it’s killing city when they need to speed up play to break teams down because that is a shit skill to have. Also the lack of David Silva and the turn to 4231 as a formation doesn’t get the best out of them with those centre-mids because it leaves City attacking with four attacking players, and them only. Whereas before they attacked mainly with five and then sometimes a fullback making it six. In theory they should be better defensively from this, but as pointed out, Rodri is a sausage and Guardiola seems really awful at buying defenders.
James, Galway

Liverpool’s exit

Fairly dreadful viewing I felt.

Grujic is a tidy midfielder but he doesn’t really have the creative spark or the industry or the tight touch of our other midfielders. With him as the fulcrum today we didn’t look great although it’s harder to come and have a great game when you’ve got a lot of young players and many short of match practice around you.

Curtis Jones seemed like he struggled to get involved in the first half under the pressure of the press so in the second half moved deeper a lot to bring the ball forward unopposed. I still felt he didn’t quite look right and think he probably found it harder without the clever movement of Firmino and Mané in front of him.

I think playing Salah wasn’t a great idea. People kept trying to find him with passes and he wasn’t often in great positions or was very well marked. I’d personally have rather seen Harvey Elliot playing. It’s also easier to criticise in retrospect because if you’re going to lose the game then don’t risk your best players whilst doing so.

Origi and Elneny took awful penalties. Everyone knows you always miss when you shoot at torso height slight off centre.
Minty, LFC

It’s a Scouse thing

Ferg, cork, piss off mate. I get that we have fans all over the world but do not try and justify the relationship between Everton and Liverpool fans in our city. One thing that will never be understood by out of town fans of the reds or blues is how it is. We hate each other we rip each other we bloody drink with each other. But we bloody love each other. We have a person who supports the other side telling us r ma is this r club is that but then we have a jäger bomb together. I appreciate that both clubs have fans all over the world that is why we are huge but u will never get the Everton Liverpool thing unless u are a scouser end of discussion.
Ryan, Liverpool

16 thoughts on Spurs

16 Spurs thoughts, definitely not conclusions:

1) How we won 7-2 I don’t know. Man for a man, Maccabi seemed technically better than us, more confident with the ball at their feet and constantly found space between the lines that allowed them to…
2) Take a record amount of 472 long range shots. Makes sense, considering Joe ‘I shout louder than anyone’ Hart is in goal and is terrible. He somehow pulled off a couple of decent saves but is definitely not better than Gazzaniga
3) I listened to the first half with no sound which is sometimes nice to do as you can’t consciously or sub-consciously be influenced by the commentary. What I can tell you is that Harry ‘98% pass completion rate’ Winks was shit. Even his usual strategy of making 5 yard sideways passes wasn’t very effective. Constantly hitting it behind a teammate or just to another player who isn’t even a teammate, who knows why
4) This is the classic Tottenham I mentioned the other week when I emailed after the Saints game. We will be terrible at the back which is absolutely, bar the peak Kyle/Toby/Jan/Danny years, the Spurs way. Tasty going forward though
5) The first 2 penalties should not be penalties. Ever. Even with the current rules, they aren’t penalties
6) Dele’s skill for the penalty, that was definitely a penalty, was just lovely. However, he showed exactly why he rarely makes a squad nowadays. Slows play up 99 times out of 100 and his rare moments of brilliance are just that, rare
7) I know there’s a lot of rotation atm what with us playing 7 games a week but I’m very excited to see Tanguy, Pierre and Gio get a run together. It’s a much better combination of different skills and attributes and is the sort of trio that could run a game. The Winks/Pierre axis is not for anyone with a footballing thirst for creativity
8) Awful passing all round. Sanchez on the Maccabi equaliser is channeling his inner Dier
9) Frustrating decision making. A lot of backward/safe passes when the forward pass is on and not even difficult
10) Davies is average, at best, but I have a feeling he’s going to be part of a 3 man defence
11) With Dier and 1 other
12) Mourinho looked pissed that Dele scored the penalty
13) Sergio is a player. He better start Sunday
14) Gio is a player. He better start Sunday
15) Sonny is a player. Hope he miraculously starts Sunday
16) Harry Kane looked ok didn’t he? Will probably start Sunday
Glen, Stratford Spur

Taking a stand

This is the second letter I’m sending this evening (from USA). Some things in football are making me very proud of the game I/we love and it’s nothing to do with which team I or anybody else supports. I am so proud of Marcus Rashford and what he is achieving with feeding kids. I’m a United supporter but I’m equally proud of Raheem Sterling for maturing into a spokesman for resisting issues that plague society. So many African footballers…in some cases practically rebuilding infrastructure in their countries.Many many other examples.

But the one thing that compelled me to put finger to keyboard tonight is a team in the USA that was only founded this year, the San Diego Loyals, and in their very first year have given up their chance to go to the playoffs (Guys, it’s the US). Why on earth would you yield such a prestigious position? (Again it’s the US and it means multi kudos over here).

The reason is they have a player who is the first professional footballer who has come out as openly gay (I’m not going to name him; you can look him up if you like and for the record I’m a 67 year old straight with 6 grandkids). He was hit with a homophobic slur immediately prior to half time, 2 weeks after a black Loyals player was hit with a racial slur.
The Loyals came out for the second half, took a knee, walked off and forfeited the game.
The manager, one Landon Donovan, whom Everton fans may remember with some affection.

Kudos Mr. Donovan. You were a greater player than a lot of people gave you credit for but you are a much greater man. .
Gary (ex Pat Utd Fan in Pennsylvania) B

Death, taxes and City

In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes and Manchester City getting drawn in soft as f*** Champions League group every season.
William, Leicester

…Another long drawn out Champions League draw has come to pass, an event that should take half an hour tops but seemingly goes on for hours is now concluded and ooooft! We sure do have some tasty draws.

Last year when Chelsea were drawn against Ajax, Valencia and Lille I titled it the “Group of Moderate Peril”, this year we play Rennes, Krasnodar and Sevilla, all teams Chelsea have never played before which will be quite a refreshing change, we certainly could’ve had a much harder group but realistically with our attacking talent we should get out of this group, no excuses, Group of Moderate Peril 2.0 it is though.

In other group news, Manchester City got another so called “easy group” and Manchester United are rivalling Group B for the so called Group of Death.

Group B: Real Madrid, Shakhtar, Inter and Monchengladbach

Group H: PSG, United, Leipzig and Basaksehir

Cannot wait for it all to kick off, especially after UEFA confirmed fans will return, capped at a safe 30%, oh football we do love you!

Mikey, CFC

…I saw Porto come out as a team from pot 1 and I knew what was gonna happen. Every year. Every single year, they (Citeh) get a group that they can just walk through. Well at least the last couple of years anyway (easier to add a disclaimer than to check google). Low and behold, Olympiacos are the next team to be drawn for that group and I stopped paying attention because their were three newcomers to competition and I just assumed city would get one of them too just for good measure. They can literally play their 2nd team and finish top. At least the blue side of Manchester will be happy with the draw….

On the flip side, unless the Red Devil’s dramatically increase their game, it will be nip and tuck if they are to progress. I am not so sure they will find PSG an easy proposition. That comeback win in Paris seems an age away now. Leipzig are no slouches as Spurs and Liverpool found out last season. And then a trip to turkey to top it off. No fans means it won’t be as hostile as it could have been but still, far from a foregone conclusion. Like the Bayern group, this one is a little tasty and the top seed looks they are the only ones guaranteed to progress.

Chelsea’s group seems relatively straightforward. You’d expect them to qualify along with Sevilla. The freezing weather will be a bigger issue than the Krasnodar team and having just signed the Rennes keeper, Chelsea have recruited the perfect spy in Mendy. Like City, it really could have been a lot worse and expect there will be some content smiles down the King’s Road after seeing that.

Liverpool’s group is an unknown. Ajax have lost quite a few players per the last few months (Van De Beek, Ziyech, Dest), so they could continue to be quite brilliant or they could be woefully short. I guess we won’t know until they kick a ball in anger when the group stages begin. Atalanta have made a strong start in Serie A and caused problems for a few teams last season making it to the quarter finals. So a couple of potential banana skins in there. With the greatest respect, I don’t see Midtjylland causing problems for anyone with designs on winning the tournament.

I would have thought at least 3 from 4 to qualify for the knockout stages but I wouldn’t count United out yet. They were quite brilliant towards the end of last season. There’s also Bayern’s attack VS Someone’s defence and Messi and Ronaldo renew their rivalry for a Brucey bonus. All very exciting, just hoping their isn’t another COVID break.
Rich

VAR is founded on a lie

VAR is tedious.

Complaints about VAR are tedious.

But complaints about the complaints about VAR?

Well hopefully that’s marginally less tedious, because that’s what I want to do here (at some length, sorry).

One of the things which is so depressing about the whole VAR affair is how – rather like a certain virus – there is no end in sight. We are told up front that there’s light at the end of the tunnel, only for that light to remain the same distance away as the months roll by, and we start to feel like we’re living the same tiresome debates over and over again.

Why is this happening? Well in my view it’s because all the conversation about VAR focuses on completely the wrong issue.

Typically the narrative you hear is something along these lines:

“It’s not VAR that’s the problem its the official / the application of VAR / the rules. Once these are fixed, then it will be fine”.

This is precisely wrong. The problem lies with the very concept of VAR itself. Let me explain.

VAR is completely based on a single false assumption, which is:

– The laws of the game must be applied consistently.

It’s an understandable error to make. This sounds completely right and sensible. Of course we should be following the laws of the game. That’s what they’re there for. Anything else would be grossly unfair!

Not so.

The truth, which has never been encoded or discussed, but which has been present in football since the start, is this:

– Referees apply football laws inconsistently on the basis of context, in order to achieve “just” results

In other words we all know (fans, players, and referees) that sometimes the letter of the law doesn’t perfectly correspond with justice in the game, and as such we “bend the rules” in order to come to a decision which more truly reflects a fair outcome.

There are loads of examples of this, but to list a few:

– Often innocuous incidents that would have been a foul outside the box aren’t given as fouls inside the box, because it’s recognised that a penalty would be too harsh a punishment. When they are given, we call them “soft penalties”.

– The same thing apples to handballs; if any of the recent handball incidents had happened outside the box, nobody would have complained because the punishment (a free kick) would be deemed proportionate whilst a penalty is not

– Identical fouls sometimes pick up bookings and sometimes don’t due to various contextual factors (position on the pitch, time in the game, attitude of the player, whether they are already on a yellow, etc. etc.)

– Typically players and fans don’t get too upset about goals being scored which are fractionally offside; because they know that the players were all playing within the spirit of the rules, which are there to prevent goal hanging, not to punish minuscule infringements. Such goals “deserve” to count, so we like to see them given, or as it used to be said “give the benefit of the doubt to the attacker”.

In practice, most football rules have always been more like “guidelines” which referees are allowed to apply somewhat selectively, based on context, in order to get the best outcome. They are not binary, the way VAR sees them. By VAR logic, there is no such thing as a “soft penalty” – there are penalties, and non penalties – but we all know the truth. Sometimes you just do what feels right, not what *is* right.

The reason people hate VAR so much is because it infringes on this sense of justice, resulting paradoxically in:

More correct decisions
AND
More unjust outcomes

People find this very hard to articulate because it’s highly counter-intuitive, but it’s what lies at the heart of the VAR debate, and is why people find it so difficult to fix it. People simply cannot believe that football was broadly more just when decisions were broadly more “incorrect”. (Naturally there were occasional terrible decisions, like a goal being given when a player was 5 yards offside, but these were pretty bloody rare).

In many ways VAR is a cautionary tale of what happens when you try to treat a chaotic organic system like a predictable machine. It’s like the football equivalent of Soviet social planning – and just like with Soviet central planning, when it all goes tits up the authorities conclude that the problem was that they weren’t controlling it tightly enough – and things get even worse!

The only solution, I’m sorry to say, is to pull the plug. I’d like to think we can keep it for certain outrageous refereeing mistakes, where there has truly been a miscarriage of justice – but this should be a once every couple of months kind of situation.

Sadly such a decision would require an extreme amount of humility, and a willingness to be seen as “anti-progress”, so I really can’t see it.
Alex

Big Weekend has branched out to the big screen to preview Batman v Superman. Please do give it a watch, a like and a share after subscribing, you little scoundrels.

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Vice President Pence was slated to attend a fundraiser in Wisconsin on Thursday evening after visiting with Gov. Scott Walker (R) to discuss tax reform.

Pence arrived at a hotel in downtown Milwaukee for the fundraiser, according to White House pool reports.

The event benefits the Trump Victory fund, a joint committee benefiting President Trump’s reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee, The Associated Press reported.

It cost $2,700 per person to attend the event and couples had the option of dining with the vice president for $35,000, the AP reported, citing an invitation it obtained.

The vice president joined Walker and several local leaders earlier on Thursday for a talk on tax reform, one day after President Trump and GOP lawmakers unveiled a major tax-reform plan.

Pence met with “local business leaders, community officials, and Wisconsin families to discuss the need for tax reform in the United States,” the White House said in a statement.

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Month: October 2020

Possible War Crime: Syrian Maternity Hospital Bombed

Is Debbie Wasserman Schultz 'Dodging Debates' With Progressive Challenger?

Washington County Shocks Big Oil With Ban on Fossil Fuel Exports

Iceland, Where Bad Bankers Go to Jail, Finds Nine Guilty in Historic Case

GOP braces for Bannon primary attacks

Transfer expert updates the Leeds United-De Paul situation

Leicester sign Fofana for £32m to end Tarkowski interest

Everton ‘set to sign’ £25m-rated England youngster

The Glazers are parasites… but they’ve spent enough on Man Utd

It could be worse

Not all doom and gloom

Glazers have invested

United and City

Liverpool’s exit

It’s a Scouse thing

16 thoughts on Spurs

Taking a stand

Death, taxes and City

VAR is founded on a lie

Pence attends fundraiser in Wisconsin