Baba Yaga

Was hoping that being 2nd in the hedgehog football league had a different meaning to this https://www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk/hedgehog-friendly-football-league/

My question would be are Massengo's passing numbers unusually low or is it quite common that one cm gets numbers like that for some games? Appreciate he didn't play 90 mins and was playing deep quite a lot but imagine things would look a lot different with James in the team or even King.

Last season if you took just the 1st half of games City would have ended up in the play offs, and if you took just the 2nd half they would have been in the relegation zone. Don't think there was another Championship club with such a contrast. Makes sense over a season lots of teams would have a spell in control especially in 2nd half of games (although I can recall a few in the 1st half too).

That reminds me I thought the Ukrainian ref didn't have a great game. A few weeks ago they were struggling to fill 2 floors with things related to women's football, yesterdays game will definitely help make them make it a bit more exciting.

It was decent enough, bunch of copycats but that's better than trying to be different and making things worse. Could do without clips like watching the Huddersfield manager meet with the local community, just the highlights/a little chat please.

I watched the final yesterday and thought it was a good watch, wasn't too arsed who won but much prefer a close game which could go either way to seeing one team go out of sight. Some iconic moments like the finish for the first goal (who else thought she was going to miss ?) and the celebrations for the winner and at full time. Good to see the non media trained or robotic interviews from the players at the end. On another note I went to the national football museum a few weeks ago and was surprised that out of 4 floors there were 2 dedicated to the women's game (because let's face it in terms of history it isn't 50-50). I think if anyone ever goes in the future to expect yesterdays game to now be front and centre in there.

Can someone message me a code if possible?

You said yourself that it's a more controlled society and that you were embracing it. It doesn't have to be a dictatorship if you close your eyes to the realities I guess such as only a few at the top being able to own cars. As for taking a leap of faith on the words of the Chinese communist party well that sounds like a wonderful idea after covid when we have to implement policies on a tighter timescale, no way we could live to regret that one as they are an emerging rival superpower to the West. Plus I believe Biden has had to water down his climate policies too (or he can bypass the democratic process and get around it which sounds about right ?) https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jul/19/joe-biden-climate-emergency?ref=upstract.com&curator=upstract.com

Yes it will be the poor hit hardest. Just talking this country you already have inflation and higher taxes hurting living standards at the highest rates in years, also big hike in energy prices soon due this autumn as well as Bank of England talking about upping interest rates more. If you push too hard on climate policy in the short term then I don't think those at the bottom will appreciate the damage to their situation. The reason why people are threatened by her (if you can call it that) is that she is a marketing gimmick posing as a climate specialist, the only teenager who dresses much younger to appeal to her audience. Sounds like a dystopian dictatorship with robots that you are embracing, can't see everyone being quite so enthusiastic to be honest. And I don't see it saving the future when most of the world will still be burning fossil fuels anyway.

Ok so it's not really paranoia at all then, control of some fairly major aspects of life will be a big feature of our 'sustainable' future. Some sacrifices will be fairly easy to make to be fair but also when half the world don't care at this point in their development then let's not kid ourselves that the brighter future/the sacrifices for reducing global temperature will be seen in any of our lifetimes.

It's hardly paranoia to see that your ability to travel, the ease at which you can heat your home in winter, the food you are able to eat etc are going to be much more strictly controlled in the future if we follow the net zero as soon as possible strategy.

Not really sure if I like the grey/orange or not (reminds me of that Chelsea 90s shirt) but even so I approve of the club trying out new colours for a change and something unusual for a few times in the season.

She was the head of their human rights body so not really a random politician, she was the source for a lot of the claims about the thing that LeTissier got in trouble for and now she's been sacked and we are no longer hearing such extreme stories like the ones described in the articles below. None of this registered with those who were quick to judge him in the first place as minds were already made up and still are by the looks of it. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/25/evidence-ukraine-women-raped-before-being-killed-say-doctors-russia-war https://bdnews24.com/people/2022/04/30/on-the-trail-of-russian-war-crimes

Fair enough I could have provided better links, still think LeTissier was prejudged on this issue by those who were upset by his previous comments... https://m.dw.com/en/why-ukraines-human-rights-chief-lyudmila-denisova-was-dismissed/a-62017920 https://www.newsweek.com/lyudmila-denisova-ukraine-commissioner-human-rights-removed-russian-sexual-assault-claims-1711680

I remember a lot of people on here complaining about his comments on Ukraine, yet none of the same people said a word when this woman was sacked by Ukraine's parliament for exaggerating war crimes... ? https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/w/ukrainian-former-human-rights-chief-admits-promoting-fake-news-to-convince-west-to-send-more-arms

Looking at stats they had the 10th best PL defence (less goals let in than Man U) but have already lost Pope, Tarkowski and Mee and possibly more to come. Hard to see them taking the league by storm with an untested manager, owners out for themselves and their greatest strength on the pitch taken away. Still it's only the championship and they have parachute cash so I expect they should still be competitive enough for the play offs.

This is my guess, see if I can get at least a couple right... Blackburn v Bristol City Coventry v Middlesbrough Huddersfield v Birmingham Hull v Wigan Luton v Cardiff Millwall v Watford Norwich v QPR Preston v Rotherham Reading v Sheffield Utd Stoke v Blackpool Sunderland v Burnley Swansea v West Brom

In this case clearly the advantage isn't going to carry on in the growth numbers as other countries go back to being closer to 100% open they are going to have their spurts too. These are the figures I have found for 2019-21, clearly our 2021 numbers were misleadingly positive because we opened back up quicker, the European countries France, Germany and Italy are still doing worse than us over the course of 2022 apparently and then in 2023 things will reverse as they reopened a lot more in the first half of 2022. If you can prove over a long period that the european economies are outperforming ours I would be happy to see the info but posting 2023 growth numbers by itself is not very useful analysis. https://www.icaew.com/insights/viewpoints-on-the-news/2022/Apr-2022/Chart-of-the-week-G7-economic-growth

I think that over time local people would be more comfortable missing games and some would lose some attachment to their clubs eventually effecting revenue, but obviously there will be others (like those who live long distances) who will feel greater attachment to the club having an opportunity to pay to stream games. Matchday income on stuff like food would go down, not sure if that would make a big difference or not. I don't have particularly strong feelings on the blackout either way but if lifted I think over the long term that revenue would be more likely to go down than up.

As many european economies only gradually reopened throughout the early months in 2022 where as the UK was open much quicker it stands to reason that their growth figures would be better than the UK's in 2023 because of that. The time frame chosen is obviously going to make the UK look worse, if you can back up your point over a different time frame then I would give it more value. According to RAC these were the fuel prices a couple of weeks ago and UK is not the worst so you are again being selective with the data you are revealing/not revealing... https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/travel/advice/european-fuel-prices-petrol-and-diesel-prices-in-europe/

I agree there are other big reasons like OPEC countries currently limiting supply but this is still partly a consequence of military action/sanctions which are supported wholeheartedly by those having a whinge here, and the government really should keep revenues high because of all the previous borrowing they have done. I don't like paying these prices either but would still argue that the UK's current financial situation is a greater factor to this than any profiteering, the cost of living crisis is clearly going to get worse and I think people moaning about expensive diesel today are going to look very soft as this situation escalates. I have just looked at the graph and have read the headlines the other day, however the missing information I think is that we locked down less than a lot of the other countries and that was one of the reasons that we had a better growth in 2021 than most in the G20 and this correction was due as other countries opened up later. I think it's quite misleading just giving out that data by itself although I am happy to be corrected if we are performing much worse overall over a longer time frame.

Point I am making is the first to support weapons being sent and things like sanctions on oil (and label anyone who questions them as a putin supporter) are also the first to complain when they have to pay for increased fuel if this thread is anything to go by. I believe the 11.8bn that you only choose to mention was pretty miniscule compared to the £400bn+ that was borrowed in total for covid, if you continuously ask for more money printing then don't be surprised when you get squeezed down the road.

Higher tax revenue helps us to replace all the weapons that we are currently giving away. ?

First thoughts are ??? No team can have nice kits every season but hopefully they will make a good away kit this season.

Wales weren't pretty today but from what I seen they got the first goal and defended well throughout, have never been a big fan of their goalkeeper Hennessey but he made some important saves today. Ukraine played better and were a little unlucky but Wales is not an easy place to go to and get a result at the moment. For me from an England point of view a game against Wales at the world Cup is a much more exciting occasion than a game against Ukraine. Whilst England should qualify fairly easily on paper I think being overconfident might be a real problem as will be playing 3 teams who will look to soak things up and frustrate, getting 2010 vibes from the world cup group but hopefully England stay professional and get the pts needed to finish 1st this time around.