CoronaVirus / Adolf Putin / The Apocalypse etc

[LeftfootlegendGooner]

Hope you guys are all doing well and staying safe. I must admit football has been the last thing on my mind ever since this all started

Had some bad news earlier this week when a really close friend of the family passed away from the virus. I've known him since I was 11 - used to referee my football matches when I was a lad, big Palace fan and a proper souwf London larger than life character. My dad's golf partner for the last 30 years or so. Huge "underlying health problems" as they like to inform us (seriously overweight, diabetic, triple bypass a couple of years back) but no less loved of course

He spent his last few days alone on a ventilator with his wife of 50 odd years unable to see him, nor indeed were his kids able to......until they got the dreaded call from the hospital. His funeral is this Friday and only the 3 of them are allowed to be there.

Much love to everyone out there suffering at the moment. Right now I couldn't a flying fuck who wins the league, if the season gets abandoned, played until Christmas....whatever. One day I'll feel the need for it again, but last thing on my mind at the moment

Look after your own!

Sorry to hear about that Steveo, condolences and thoughts with you.

[sk-gtfo]

Hope you guys are all doing well and staying safe. I must admit football has been the last thing on my mind ever since this all started

Had some bad news earlier this week when a really close friend of the family passed away from the virus. I've known him since I was 11 - used to referee my football matches when I was a lad, big Palace fan and a proper souwf London larger than life character. My dad's golf partner for the last 30 years or so. Huge "underlying health problems" as they like to inform us (seriously overweight, diabetic, triple bypass a couple of years back) but no less loved of course

He spent his last few days alone on a ventilator with his wife of 50 odd years unable to see him, nor indeed were his kids able to......until they got the dreaded call from the hospital. His funeral is this Friday and only the 3 of them are allowed to be there.

Much love to everyone out there suffering at the moment. Right now I couldn't a flying fuck who wins the league, if the season gets abandoned, played until Christmas....whatever. One day I'll feel the need for it again, but last thing on my mind at the moment

Look after your own!

Sorry to hear about that Steveo, condolences and thoughts with you.

Same, I think some people really wont 'get this' until it starts to affect them, their family or friends, sadly there is a good chance many of us will be affected at some stage, especially if we choose to ignore the issue and keep going out etc.

Will football ever be the same after this?, will air travel?, I think a lot of things might have to change, I think we are witnessing the end days of capitalism as we know it, but I don't want to get into that.

Nature just gave us a serious shot across the bow and if we don't heed this warning then we are doomed as a civilisation.

We really need to ask ourselves was this ever sustainable?, horde's of tourists pouring off cruise ships into Venice so much that you can't move, the sky full of millions of aircraft 24 hours a day, food being exported half-way across the globe so we can eat whatever we choose, all this while we tinkered around the edges of bothering to take climate change seriously and allowing the human population to grow by more than 4 billion since I was born (I'm under 40!).

F*ck me if we don't wake up now we never will....

[Ray C]

Hope you guys are all doing well and staying safe. I must admit football has been the last thing on my mind ever since this all started

Had some bad news earlier this week when a really close friend of the family passed away from the virus. I've known him since I was 11 - used to referee my football matches when I was a lad, big Palace fan and a proper souwf London larger than life character. My dad's golf partner for the last 30 years or so. Huge "underlying health problems" as they like to inform us (seriously overweight, diabetic, triple bypass a couple of years back) but no less loved of course

He spent his last few days alone on a ventilator with his wife of 50 odd years unable to see him, nor indeed were his kids able to......until they got the dreaded call from the hospital. His funeral is this Friday and only the 3 of them are allowed to be there.

Much love to everyone out there suffering at the moment. Right now I couldn't a flying fuck who wins the league, if the season gets abandoned, played until Christmas....whatever. One day I'll feel the need for it again, but last thing on my mind at the moment

Look after your own!

Sorry to hear about that Steveo, condolences and thoughts with you.

Same, I think some people really wont 'get this' until it starts to affect them, their family or friends, sadly there is a good chance many of us will be affected at some stage, especially if we choose to ignore the issue and keep going out etc.

Will football ever be the same after this?, will air travel?, I think a lot of things might have to change, I think we are witnessing the end days of capitalism as we know it, but I don't want to get into that.

Nature just gave us a serious shot across the bow and if we don't heed this warning then we are doomed as a civilisation.

We really need to ask ourselves was this ever sustainable?, horde's of tourists pouring off cruise ships into Venice so much that you can't move, the sky full of millions of aircraft 24 hours a day, food being exported half-way across the globe so we can eat whatever we choose, all this while we tinkered around the edges of bothering to take climate change seriously and allowing the human population to grow by more than 4 billion since I was born (I'm under 40!).

F*ck me if we don't wake up now we never will....

Sorry to hear that Steveo. My thoughts are with all who have loved ones who are affected by this virus.
Yes sk-gtfo your words are full of wisdom. Totally agree.
Stay safe all from Tassie (Way down south !)

[GoonerMuzz]

I think if one thing is learned from this situation it has to be that too much essential production is outsourced these days. Taking the whole medical PPE and testing kits as an example when the whole world requires these at the same time it is not a good idea to have to buy them from the same people/companies that everyone else is trying to do the same. I seriously wonder how much extra the entire world is paying for these items because of supply and demand issues and who is making an absolute killing off of the worlds suffering

Anyway I hope everyone is keeping safe and my condolences to anyone being directly affected by this!

[A11M11]

Seem to remember saying that this very situation was one of my major reasons for my stance on the now dormant E.U thread.
It has been obvious to all except the money launderers and card shufflers that we had sold our manufacturing industry to all and sundry .
Today the sh*t has hit the fan and we are depending on others to provide our needs and this goes much further than just sourcing ventilators .
Here in Norfolk fields are dormant , Cloches are empty because it's been cheaper to buy in than grow ourselves . As a country we are no longer self sufficient .

[Andrew]

Compare and contrast:

"Barcelona players will take a 70% pay cut during the coronavirus pandemic and make additional contributions to ensure non-sporting staff receive full wages": https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52092809

Meanwhile, at Seven Sisters, the classiest club in the world (that's sarcasm, by the way): "the club announced 550 non-playing staff will take a 20% pay cut."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52105337

What about the players, the biggest cost that they've got? The ones who will never fear that they'll be evicted from home or sacked from their job?

(I don't know what Arsenal are doing but I hope to God that it's more like what the Catalans have done.)

[nut flush gooner]

I think if one thing is learned from this situation it has to be that too much essential production is outsourced these days. Taking the whole medical PPE and testing kits as an example when the whole world requires these at the same time it is not a good idea to have to buy them from the same people/companies that everyone else is trying to do the same. I seriously wonder how much extra the entire world is paying for these items because of supply and demand issues and who is making an absolute killing off of the worlds suffering

Anyway I hope everyone is keeping safe and my condolences to anyone being directly affected by this!

It's also countries not working together to find a solution that is a big part of this, a perfect example is Donald Trump who tried to buy exclusive rights to a vaccine that is being produced by a German Pharma company. So he was prepared to pull up the drawbridge on the rest of the world for first dibs. With regards to ventilators, in normal times we wouldn't use UK suppliers because they wouldn't be the cheapest.

Let's not make this political, there are as many arguments for co-operation between countries to find a collective solution as the other way round. This is a global tragedy not a UK one.

[GoonerMuzz]

I think if one thing is learned from this situation it has to be that too much essential production is outsourced these days. Taking the whole medical PPE and testing kits as an example when the whole world requires these at the same time it is not a good idea to have to buy them from the same people/companies that everyone else is trying to do the same. I seriously wonder how much extra the entire world is paying for these items because of supply and demand issues and who is making an absolute killing off of the worlds suffering

Anyway I hope everyone is keeping safe and my condolences to anyone being directly affected by this!

It's also countries not working together to find a solution that is a big part of this, a perfect example is Donald Trump who tried to buy exclusive rights to a vaccine that is being produced by a German Pharma company. So he was prepared to pull up the drawbridge on the rest of the world for first dibs. With regards to ventilators, in normal times we wouldn't use UK suppliers because they wouldn't be the cheapest.

Let's not make this political, there are as many arguments for co-operation between countries to find a collective solution as the other way round. This is a global tragedy not a UK one.

Nutty much as I dont like Trump why wouldn't he put his own people first? That's what he or any other political leader should be aiming for

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to dislike politicians but doing their primary job is not one of them.

Globalism has been a weightstone round the UKs neck since the days of colonisation and continues to be so even though we have rightfully handed them all back, well almost all, I'm sick to the back teeth of it. I vote for my politicians to look after us not the world and his dog.

International cooperation is all well and good but generally it means the advanced countries paying for the others who cant or wont support themselves, it always feels like a one way street, we still give India £100M or so in international aid, they have a fucking space program, something our nation could only dream of

When we have flooding where does all the support come from for our aid, oh that's right, the British taxpayer and nowhere else. It's time as a nation we stopped being taken for mugs and started putting our own social welfare first, when we have no homeless, a working NHS and education system, no need for food banks etc and have attained social utopia then and only then should we worry about helping others.

Things got expensive in this country and other Western countries because all the emerging economies were able to effectively use slave labour at next to no cost to fund their economies whilst stealing Western technology rebadging it and selling it back at the same time systematically ignoring the rules and regulations on quality and safety enforced on our own manufacturers.

In my job daily I see poor quality Chinese and Malaysian built optical and sometimes medical equipment that would never officially pass EU testing come in marked with CE labels on them and if you report it it is brushed under the carpet or some bending of the regulations is used to justify it....... it's not really worth my job to keep raising it but I have done on numerous occasions and each and every time it is ignored by the distributor, I'll repeat optical and medical devices

You're right though let's ignore this because it's not the time to call any of this in to question and we need the foreign markets and cooperation to get us out the shit we're in, by the way a few days ago the Netherlands had to recall over 600000 medical face masks made in China because....... you guessed it they failed quality checks

[nut flush gooner]

I think if one thing is learned from this situation it has to be that too much essential production is outsourced these days. Taking the whole medical PPE and testing kits as an example when the whole world requires these at the same time it is not a good idea to have to buy them from the same people/companies that everyone else is trying to do the same. I seriously wonder how much extra the entire world is paying for these items because of supply and demand issues and who is making an absolute killing off of the worlds suffering

Anyway I hope everyone is keeping safe and my condolences to anyone being directly affected by this!

It's also countries not working together to find a solution that is a big part of this, a perfect example is Donald Trump who tried to buy exclusive rights to a vaccine that is being produced by a German Pharma company. So he was prepared to pull up the drawbridge on the rest of the world for first dibs. With regards to ventilators, in normal times we wouldn't use UK suppliers because they wouldn't be the cheapest.

Let's not make this political, there are as many arguments for co-operation between countries to find a collective solution as the other way round. This is a global tragedy not a UK one.

Nutty much as I dont like Trump why wouldn't he put his own people first? That's what he or any other political leader should be aiming for

There are plenty of legitimate reasons to dislike politicians but doing their primary job is not one of them.

Globalism has been a weightstone round the UKs neck since the days of colonisation and continues to be so even though we have rightfully handed them all back, well almost all, I'm sick to the back teeth of it. I vote for my politicians to look after us not the world and his dog.

International cooperation is all well and good but generally it means the advanced countries paying for the others who cant or wont support themselves, it always feels like a one way street, we still give India £100M or so in international aid, they have a fucking space program, something our nation could only dream of

When we have flooding where does all the support come from for our aid, oh that's right, the British taxpayer and nowhere else. It's time as a nation we stopped being taken for mugs and started putting our own social welfare first, when we have no homeless, a working NHS and education system, no need for food banks etc and have attained social utopia then and only then should we worry about helping others.

Things got expensive in this country and other Western countries because all the emerging economies were able to effectively use slave labour at next to no cost to fund their economies whilst stealing Western technology rebadging it and selling it back at the same time systematically ignoring the rules and regulations on quality and safety enforced on our own manufacturers.

In my job daily I see poor quality Chinese and Malaysian built optical and sometimes medical equipment that would never officially pass EU testing come in marked with CE labels on them and if you report it it is brushed under the carpet or some bending of the regulations is used to justify it....... it's not really worth my job to keep raising it but I have done on numerous occasions and each and every time it is ignored by the distributor, I'll repeat optical and medical devices

You're right though let's ignore this because it's not the time to call any of this in to question and we need the foreign markets and cooperation to get us out the shit we're in, by the way a few days ago the Netherlands had to recall over 600000 medical face masks made in China because....... you guessed it they failed quality checks

You see your first paragraph summarises why thousands more people will die than need to. Donald Trump doesn't have the quickest solution in his own country so he offers $2bn to a German Pharma company. Rather than make this a commercial exercise, why doesn't the first pharma company in the world to develop a successful vaccine share this information with every government at a scientific level and allow local companies to mass produce? Whilst I am a capitalist at heart and I know you are a socialist, saying what Trump has alleged to have done as ethical, moral call it what you want contradicts the rest of your post. You've basically admitted it's survival of the fittest.

By taking an America first approach Trump has also created a market in the sale of ventilators where states are now bidding up the prices against each other, don't take my word for it listen to what the Governor of New York says.

Trump also said Boris Johnson contacted him desperately trying to source some ventilators when the US is in the shit because COVID19 was "fake news" until 3 weeks ago. You couldn't make this up. Trump for the first time admitted yesterday that hundreds of thousands would die in the US, this is where an insular approach gets you.

The biggest economy in the world is on its knees. Yeah, we should take the same approach, shouldn't we.

The UK has a fantastic scientific community, we should be pooling our knowledge with every other country in the world to get a solution and a cure. We won't be any better off trying to solve things on our own. The aid we give to third world countries has nothing to do with our inability to get PPE equipment to the front line or having enough ventilators/beds that's the policy of the party people voted into power.

One of my mothers friends died of COVID19 a few weeks back, we couldn't even go to the funeral. I suspect there wont be a family in this country touched by this tragedy over the next year or so.

[GoonerMuzz]

Nutty I am as far from a socialist as it is possible to be but I am also nowhere near a capitalist either, I believe in the sanctity of each nation individually and thereby the responsibility of each nation to look after it's own first and foremost. Race, religion, colour, creed or any other defining characteristic does not come in to it.

Capitalism only works to make greedy people more greedy, on the other hand there is no defining socioeconomic model that currently works better, socialism has failed, communism has failed, facism has failed, fuedalism has failed, humans are in the main incapable of looking after each other in the way that libertarians want because at heart we're all essentially out for ourselves when the shit hits the fan.

Empty supermarket shelves and people ignoring the lockdown or abusing shopworkers, police or NHS staff, an increase in online and phone scams during a crisis, idiots continuing to head overseas on holidays and business trips during a pandemic and then crying foul when they cant get home and expecting others to put their own safety at risk to come and fetch them just reinforce how selfish humanity in general can be.

Still let's not worry about the inherent problems in the human condition because we're all in it together except where people see a means to make themselves richer or more powerful be it politicians, corporations, the media, or even the 'deep state' globalists which the extreme right are always banging on about.

This situation should have been mitigated by shutting down all but essential international, travel and imposing draconian measures to check and isolate people at airports and ports but we didnt because if would be too economically damaging, funnily enough the economic damage caused by multiple state lock downs is going to be far more damaging in the long run than most people yet realise.

However it's ok because we can buy what we need from the far east whilst our own economies are in the pan for a decade, you think austerity was bad before, you ain't seen nothing yet because when this is over 2010-2018 austerity will look like a walk in the park

The effect this will have on the 'developing' nations will be devastating because the West will be unable to support them in the way we have done and I expect war, famine and worse to sweep across many countries in years to come, those begging bowls will remain empty and those governments who should have been spending that money from the West wisely whilst but instead constantly criticising our interference are in for a rude awakening.

The whole world economy has taken a downturn that even the best economists as struggling to estimate at the moment and our lives have changed in ways we cant even begin to imagine, returning to a 'normal' way of life may be impossible for many people because of job losses, reduction of income or even financial ruin in investment markets but in your ideological world everything will be ok just because..........

[DB10GOONER]

Cheers guys - as some of you have rightly said, this is going to be something that touches a great many of our lives over the coming weeks and months. Sport is always a great sense of comfort and togetherness for people when the chips are down in most other circumstances. I know whatever has been going on in my life or those closest to me (divorce, ill health) having a big Gooner family around has at least taken the edge of those moments for a couple of hours at the weekend, but I don't think any of us have lived through anything like this. A couple of weeks ago my old man was worried that as an over 70 he wasn't going to be allowed to go to games, but when I spoke to him over the weekend he said he hadn't even thought about his season ticket or football resuming - I'm sure that goes for many others.

I think - and I sincerely hope - that time as ever will be a great healer, even if the time involved this time might be much longer than normal. People will need some sort of relief from how hard life has been for months, and football will undoubtedly at some point have a part to play in that.

Much love to all of you. If anyone wants to keep in touch, offload or grieve feel free to drop me a line. I'm one of the lucky ones - I've got a wife and two grown up (sort of!) kids that are all doing well. We've got each other. I just feel so sorry for those in complete isolation and who were already vulnerable

Truly awful times

Well said SteveO.

I'm sorry to hear about your close family friend passing away mate. It's terrible things like such a loss that put things into perspective.

My mom is 76 and a diabetic with weakened immune system after beating cancer and we are praying this thing doesn't get near her.

I hope you and your family stay safe and healthy buddy.

[NickF]

Compare and contrast:

"Barcelona players will take a 70% pay cut during the coronavirus pandemic and make additional contributions to ensure non-sporting staff receive full wages": https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52092809

Meanwhile, at Seven Sisters, the classiest club in the world (that's sarcasm, by the way): "the club announced 550 non-playing staff will take a 20% pay cut."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52105337

What about the players, the biggest cost that they've got? The ones who will never fear that they'll be evicted from home or sacked from their job?

(I don't know what Arsenal are doing but I hope to God that it's more like what the Catalans have done.)

This I find very troubling, the amount of money Barcelona must have, why do their players need to take a wage cut?

Same at th Spuds, they really can't afford to fully pay their non playing staff?

Are their finances really that fragile?

[SteveO 35]

Cheers guys - as some of you have rightly said, this is going to be something that touches a great many of our lives over the coming weeks and months. Sport is always a great sense of comfort and togetherness for people when the chips are down in most other circumstances. I know whatever has been going on in my life or those closest to me (divorce, ill health) having a big Gooner family around has at least taken the edge of those moments for a couple of hours at the weekend, but I don't think any of us have lived through anything like this. A couple of weeks ago my old man was worried that as an over 70 he wasn't going to be allowed to go to games, but when I spoke to him over the weekend he said he hadn't even thought about his season ticket or football resuming - I'm sure that goes for many others.

I think - and I sincerely hope - that time as ever will be a great healer, even if the time involved this time might be much longer than normal. People will need some sort of relief from how hard life has been for months, and football will undoubtedly at some point have a part to play in that.

Much love to all of you. If anyone wants to keep in touch, offload or grieve feel free to drop me a line. I'm one of the lucky ones - I've got a wife and two grown up (sort of!) kids that are all doing well. We've got each other. I just feel so sorry for those in complete isolation and who were already vulnerable

Truly awful times

Well said SteveO.

I'm sorry to hear about your close family friend passing away mate. It's terrible things like such a loss that put things into perspective.

My mom is 76 and a diabetic with weakened immune system after beating cancer and we are praying this thing doesn't get near her.

I hope you and your family stay safe and healthy buddy.

Cheers pal, and good luck to you and yours. Look after them all and stay safe

[Herd]

This crisis has brought home how corrupt and inept governments are , and how easily they are manipulated by those who really run the globe .
Here in Britain companies have acted swiftly to make the Government pick up the tab whilst Joe Bloggs gets fucked once again !
We are re assured that t could hit anyone and Im highly dubious of our future king and prime minister having the virus but at least it gives us the comedy gold of watching Gove on stage !
Far from us all being in it together only the rich will be able to afford ventilators ,the rest of us will die ,such a shame I'm not minted anymore or Id of fucked off to Singapore long ago where they have it a lot more under control !
The Government here has chosen a giveaway policy but nobody's actually received a cent and wont for months upon months because everything's shutdown.
Meantime the so called lock down is joke ,there's people working all over the place and they will continue to spread the virus ,I go out rarely and when I do hit the supermarket for booze fags and other life essentials , what fooking gets me is people wearing masks then picking up the unsanitised trolley or basket with their bare hands and reaching past you to grab items from the shelf all of which cold be contaminated ,worse they open the supermarkets for NHS and Vulnerable old people at the same time ,if that's not a surefire risk to the aged I don't know what is ,NHS staff aren't given enough protection ,masks gloves etc ,so they will be spreading the virus far and wide for many months yet .
As for communities there has and will always be good people out there and god bless em but here in leafy Hampstead there are Vultures circling .Everyday I see cars casing up the road I live on to see if people are at home ,or hoody youngsters doing it for the real villains and I know of a mates wife who got mugged for a bag of shopping so much for clapping on the balcony .
There are areas of London where people are simply ignoring the stay in and are out on the streets everyday in large groups and why oh why are we allowing worshippers to gather in their hundreds each day and especially Friday to prostrate themselves without social distancing .
Ive no idea how this will play out but its going to cause an almighty recession and the people will be fooked again !

[Block93]

Compare and contrast:

"Barcelona players will take a 70% pay cut during the coronavirus pandemic and make additional contributions to ensure non-sporting staff receive full wages": https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52092809

Meanwhile, at Seven Sisters, the classiest club in the world (that's sarcasm, by the way): "the club announced 550 non-playing staff will take a 20% pay cut."
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52105337

What about the players, the biggest cost that they've got? The ones who will never fear that they'll be evicted from home or sacked from their job?

(I don't know what Arsenal are doing but I hope to God that it's more like what the Catalans have done.)

This I find very troubling, the amount of money Barcelona must have, why do their players need to take a wage cut?

Same at th Spuds, they really can't afford to fully pay their non playing staff?

Are their finances really that fragile?

Apparently, if you reduce a player's wages without his consent, then he is entitled to avoid his contract and can go and join another club on a free transfer. If Levy seriously thinks any player would dare to use the crisis to his advantage in that way, then it shows how much he is living in another world. Imagine the grief that player would get for the rest of his career.

Levy is not going to be forgiven for his stance, that's for sure, and I bet he is bitterly regretting his actions now in taking advantage of government support which was clearly meant for those businesses that actually need it. The PFA are as bad as he is, with Gordon Taylor sitting on his underserved £2m salary suggesting players should not take a cut in wages.

The crisis is already showing just how unpleasant and selfish some people in football can be. No wonder they want the season to be played out, as Sky and BT are due a big refund if it isn't. I feel sorry for the players and staff in Leagues 1 and 2 - they are the ones at risk, not PL superstars earning £100k a week. The Arsenal board must have mixed feelings on this, given that if the season is declared null and void, and if Man City's CL ban is upheld, then we are back in the CL, based on finishing 5th last season. Emery would be the hero! He'd probably be due a bonus in his contract!!'