East Londoner

Not just that, at least three of our players literally stopped

I was at that Preston game and it was pretty alarming how easily he lost control of the game and basically ended up guessing every decision. But it wasn’t noticed as much because we were away and because it didn’t result in us losing the game Last night he also lost control of the game and ended up guessing every decision although how you can’t see a handball directly in front of you I’m not too sure. I would say though i don’t think it’s particularly against us, he just doesn’t seem to be mentally strong enough to be a referee at this level as his head had completely gone just like it had in the Preston game

Interesting part of that i hadn’t seen mentioned here is there’s £11 million of transfer fees still due which outweighs transfer fees owed. So whilst it looks bad it could’ve been worse

Although isn’t there a special dispensation for losses during the covid period?

Aren’t they a little constrained due to the early start of next season courtesy of the Qatar World Cup?

Now there’s a potentially interesting cider with

The whole thing was pretty poorly handled from where i was sat. There was stewards who just stood there like nothing had happened and when the ref took the players to the side an announcement wouldn’t have gone astray either. It’s all very well putting out statements afterwards but if they’d been proactive it could’ve resolved the situation a lot quicker

Having researched that particular doctor the cynic in me is beginning to wonder if Boris is using this variant as a distraction and so is happy to allow the scaremongering to continue But obviously people are weary after the original version and the delta one and so believe what they’re being told. Personally i don’t believe a word he says and time will tell but it’s worth noting scientists admit all these worst case scenarios are based on assumptions due to the lack of worthwhile data

Boris has lost all credibility though with his liking of telling the truth. With honesty and integrity being paramount in a pandemic there’s lots who are demanding proof

All new rules for 2022 so potentially teams that haven’t been in the title race such as Ferrari and McLaren could have a much better developed car than Red Bull for example. It’s been said that Mercedes prioritised next years car over this years So potentially we could see a all new champion in 2022

There’s definitely a link to the statement the FIA put out last night, that what happened tarnished the image of the sport and they have work to do to rectify that Realistically that’s all Mercedes could’ve expected from any appeal, it’s a shame for Max too as while he deserved the title at least until he wins another there will be an element of being gifted the title from a large part of the fan base and not only fans of Lewis

The ironic thing is he seems to be a decent manager, he had Lincoln challenging last season before losing the play off final and has had health issues this season So all this he’s Ashton's mate stuff that comes up every time there’s a vacancy does him a disservice and so maybe he’s happy to distance himself so people can see he’s actually capable of doing the job rather than who he used to work with

That would still be fairly controversial too given the extra win was the non race at spa. But they’ve probably already got to the point where they can’t really take it off Verstappen even if they wanted to I’m not convinced removing Masi is the solution either, he got the job unexpectedly when Charlie Whiting died and desperately needs some experienced help. If they remove him then whoever takes over is going to have the same problem

Apparently Mercedes F1 and Formula E teams have boycotted the prize giving photos in Paris so they’re still mad about it If they withdraw their protests that shouldn’t let the FIA off the hook but i fear it might, it already seems to be in the too difficult to resolve pile as most commentators seem to have moved onto Max being champion being good for the sport but completely leaving out how it came about

Horner is too snide for that to happen, he wasn’t exactly gracious in victory yesterday even knowing it had been handed on a plate. F1 now has a serious problem, it’s alienated it’s core support and if it backtracks it’ll alienate its new support. So the least worst option i guess is to keep Max as champion. But the very least they need to do is acknowledge how unsatisfactory it is and the role they’ve played in it

Unfortunately whoever ‘wins’ the title it’s now tainted as it was either won using rules made up on the spot or in the courtroom. I think Lewis has already realised that Suddenly the last race finishing under the safety car doesn’t seem so bad after all. As this is the last thing the sport needed and was entirely avoidable Red Bull would’ve been screaming from the rooftops had roles been reversed and Horner as usual has shown a healthy amount of hypocrisy The worry now is the damage it’s done to the sport as a whole, as we now have two camps the core support who want sporting integrity and the newer support who want entertainment

You raise an interesting point, i assume millions have been bet on the outcome of this race and of the championship. With the result being manipulated and manufactured in the way it has i wonder if there’s going to be any comeback from the betting companies or whether they’ll try and void it

It also needs answering why Sainz wasn’t allowed to challenge Max in the safety car restart. Sporting integrity seems to have left the building today

I’m too young for that one sadly, 91 was my first season

No that was Senna at Donnington 93

I dare say had Red Bull lost out in similar circumstances they’d have done the same as is their right

They probably haven’t undone the good work in garnering interest as a lot of that interest was in Max, but what they’ve risked doing particularly with this wwe style entertainment over sport is risk alienating its core support

The same Horner who wanted the rules applied like it was any other race and had they been there wouldn’t be any controversy Its not that he won but the way he won and had it been the other way round it would’ve been just as unfair. It was meant to be an F1 title decider rather than a WWE entertainment show and that leaves a bitter after taste

Whoever loses the decision will appeal anyway so won’t be decided for certain tonight

This is the best description I’ve found of what happened