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Sure, but Varane is a Martinique international and Burrell is a Jamaican international, so 11 players who can/do represent 11 different countries internationally🙂
Yeah, pleased for them both, although I’ll be hoping that unbeaten run comes to an end next week when Ainsworth brings his side to my local/2nd team Bromley - the only other unbeaten side left in League 2. Andy Woodman continuing to do an incredible job there.
You can’t really see it in these shots but from the camera angle behind our goal I was fairly sure that it was actually Esquerdinha that wins the ball in the challenge with Campbell and pokes it through to Saito, so technically his assist!
Appreciate you taking the time to respond at length, and always happy to engage with alternative points of view in good faith (as long as that goes both ways). There is a lot I would like to respond to there and I will try at some point later - but it’s Sunday and for the next few hours I’m prioritizing time with the family!
Just further to my point above, outrage alone is useless and exhausting without channeling it into some sort of positive action, so I decided to make a donation to Ukraine's official fundraising platform (yes. I'm taking my chances re. the alleged govt. 'corruption'!)
Interesting that you say you dislike analysis which is ‘reductive, simplistic and flawed’, because what you provide in your post is pretty much a textbook example IMO!
It’s undeniably true that Ukraine, just like other post-Soviet fledgling democracies, continues to have big problems with corruption. But it has to be seen in the context of significant reforms since the 2014 Maidan Revolution – including by Zelensky’s administration – that have at the very least moved the country from an ‘extremely’ corrupt country to a ‘moderately’ corrupt one.
As one expert put it: “As Ukraine’s war against Russia proceeds, policymakers and the public should expect further corruption scandals. These must be addressed, and their perpetrators punished, but they must also be seen in the proper context. Occasional lurid headlines notwithstanding, Ukraine has made major progress in tackling grand corruption, reducing the power of oligarchs, and managing a vast increase in defense spending without scandals on a massive scale. That in itself is testament to how much has changed in Ukraine since a decade ago.” Link: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/03/06/ukraine-corruption-reforms-russia-war/
Moreover, you massively overstate the case for corruption against Zelensky. I agree that owning offshore companies raises questions about transparency, especially for an anti-corruption candidate, but in and of itself it is not illegal. You might argue that transferring shares before the presidency began constituted an effort to hide assets, but it is also common for business owners in Ukraine to protect assets from political instability. There is no proof that these offshore accounts were used for illegal activities like money laundering or bribery, or that Zelensky benefited financially from these accounts while in office. I agree it might make him look a bit hypocritical when presenting himself as the anti-corruption candidate, but his alleged transgressions pale into insignificance compared to what we are seeing with Trump using the presidency to enrich himself and his family members. Link: https://www.citizensforethics.org/reports-investigations/crew-reports/president- And that’s before we even talk about the criminal conviction for fraud, and how he tried to overturn the results of a democratic election.
The case you make for Trump being pro-peace (interesting that you use a 'hard-left' website to make the case, when sections of the hard-left have been parroting Kremlin talking points for years) is a very kind reading of his administration’s avowed America First strategy, which has nothing to do with a genuine desire for global peace (beyond bagging himself a Nobel Peace Prize) and everything to do with aggressive pursuit of American (and personal) financial self-interest. If he was really pro-peace he would be pushing for a two-state solution in Palestine rather than advocating ethnic cleansing in Gaza; he would be focusing on securing a lasting peace in Ukraine that recognised its status as a sovereign democratic nation rather than a future Russian colony/puppet state. And he certainly would have ruled out, when asked, the possibility of military action in potentially turning Greenland/Panama Canal into a US territory.
The outrage on this thread was a natural response to what everybody could see was clearly happening in front of their eyes – a sickening display of bullying by the ‘strong’ against the ‘weak’ which had the express intent of humiliating Zelensky in front of the world’s media - in the process handing another huge political win for Putin.
8 goals and 13 assists for Blackpool last season - one attacking return every 125 minutes. For context, Chair had one attacking return per 250 minutes last season.
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