Rayvin

Because of course he has. At least they have one more MP now. In the meantime, here is why our politics sucks.

Change UK are now "The Independent Group for Change" because 1 - they were sued; and 2 - they're inept. Rolls off the tongue. I mean it's not even a functional acronym. TIGC. WTF.

I don't see how the two are related but ok The BBC is hardly leftwing, I might add.

In an ideal world, teacher sits down with both kids and has your son explain how he feels and the other kid has his eyes opened a bit. But that shit doesn't happen so ultimately I'm reluctantly thinking that the standing up for himself thing is the way forward. I had to at school and as soon as I did, the bullying stopped. Easier targets, etc. He doesn't have to get physical, I think simply showing he's not afraid is enough.

Dunno what to tell you man but beyond clicking the occasional BBC link someone provides in here, no. Definitely don't listen to the radio. I get my news from the Guardian and i listen to music rather than radio channels.

I dont pay for one and haven't for about 8 years. They don't even come round to check anymore. And for my part, I only watch Netflix so I'm not even ripping them off.

Rafa is perhaps bound by an NDA in all of this tbf. Would explain the quiet. Having said that, I still feel that if all parties know the outcome, and that it has in effect become clear that he won't be staying, then they would have parted company by now in order to ensure against sabotage/non-toxicity in the working environment, etc.

Don't you think he would have said something by now if he'd decided he was leaving?

Does buying big name players ever really work out for anyone? Quite often I end up thinking that certain players are really good in particular systems that have been built up around them in their 'formative' playing years, and taking them out of those environments often sees a drop in their overall playing quality. I mean I think that particular point is why Man Utd can't buy their way to success again - they have a collection of individual superstar players who lack the supporting talents of their previous 'lesser lights' teammates.

Fair, hadn't thought of it that way. My perception of him is that he's a whining crybaby who blames everyone else. He could be the best manager in the world for all i care and i still wouldn't want him based on that personality. However, your point is interesting and i can see what you're saying.

Maybe. I'm not saying anything other than I think he's benfitted from insane levels of financial backing. Truthfully, maybe that lost him his edge.

I'm saying that I'm not convinced Mourinho is all that amazing, and would be interested to see what various mid-tier PL managers could do with the kinds of budgets he usually has available to him. He clearly -was- a very good manager, possibly the best at one point, but his star is now diminishing. As someone else mentioned, it's unlikely a genuinely top tier club will pick him up - and for me, he complains too much and creates a general lack of harmony wherever he goes. I'm not saying we couldn't win things with him + money - clearly we could. I'm just saying that I suspect better options exist who would spend money far less frivolously, and who would actually develop the club at all levels rather than just one.

Times change though and I'm not sure latter day Mourinho can cut it. Certainly there's no evidence he can cut it on a budget, and he'd just bitch on every week and fail to take responsibility for anything.

We would never get Mourinho under Ashley anyway.

Clearly a big chunk of it is going to be standing more or less where UKIP is. But the rest might be pulled into the Lib Dems..?

Agree with that, I'm not sure what Mourinho offers anymore. His counter attacking, stifling style is arguably done better by Rafa now anyway. And he spends to such high levels that i would argue it's hard to tell how much of his team's success is his, and how much of it is just down to the level of the players he has.

It is hard to see how they come back from this..

Comes to something when essentially our entire fanbase would prefer to lose the owner even if it meant losing the most loved manager in about a decade, compared to keeping both

This is so true

I mean i was thinking support for the free market, de-regulation, small government, etc.

Yeah but when you put it like that, he's a natural leader and focal point for the kinds of people who voted for Brexit as if they knew better than world renowned economists.

So my prediction is that things will go quiet again for a few days, and everyone will fall back to believing that it's all a scam by Ashley, until the next small amount of progress is revealed, at which point we all start talking about how much we should be prepared to spend on Mbappe.

Does this mean it's no longer a diabolical plot by Ashley to get rid of Benitez and boost season ticket renewals?

I mean, let's not pretend that we didn't have a lot of those images all over Fist's Belta Minge thread when they came out at the time Not that I paid any attention

Has he spent £25m just to talk to Ashley yet?