SinineUltra

I'm very grateful that my relatives were deported to Siberia, I'm grateful that they were substituted with unknown russians that were brought in to make Estonia a 'russian minded' country. I'm very grateful that there were no food, every day products like toilet paper in the shops during Soviet era, that food was handed out with STAMPS. I'm grateful that the only way to be successful at life was to join a party and after that magically things started to happen. And most of all - I'm thankful for all the deaths of ancestors who were killed defending a country's , albeit a small one's, independence. I am selfish, sorry. Estonia is not RUSSIA, we are a FORMER Soviet Union country who were 'peacefully' annexed just like Crimea is now. Russian minded people take over the reigns, opposition 'dies out' somehow, what a happy little life. I'd like to hear the positives - what did you read from the history books that I failed to notice in my everyday life?

As Fulham Broadway pointed out, they are as bad as each other. Though, it all depends of the perspective which is worse for you. It's impossible for me to describe or carry on the experience that Soviet Union brought to Estonia, 360 degree deadly circle where corruption is the only way to function or achieve something. There's no need to point fingers and say this side or that side is naive, ignorant and should not follow mainstream media because it is biased. Both Russian and European media are biased but don't forget that Russia is a direct participant in this conflict so their media must be even more concentrated in order to show their country as martyr as possible, drawing a halo on Putin's head. Try researching about media freedom and how centrally influenced media is in different countries. I'm sure every report outside of Russia will depict the latter as a very undemocratic country with media held on tight leash to CONTROL the majority, to insert a type of knowledge into their minds as they please. Ignorance is a bliss afterall. Why should Ukraine give up part of their official territory? They don't. If this goes through, who will be next? Moldova? Estonia? I for one would like to be connected to USA, NATO, EU to protect our hard fought freedom and independence from the mood swings of our great neighbour who is known to only accept authority and power and spits on official contracts between two sovereign countries. Look no further than Crimea. I understand that there are people with different outlooks but if life is so hard in a former Soviet Union country (aka having to learn the official language) then please, take the next train to Russia. Do you sincerely believe that Russia really wants to 'protect the russian minority' in Ukraine? They have the same motives as EU, NATO, USA - not to lose INFLUENCE over the region, to make Ukraine dependent of their economy, their businesses. I'm sure there are people who are sincere in their demonstrations and protests but many of the mob and their leaders are just muppets paid to cause trouble and to show outside world how much the people of Ukraine love mother Russia. We are talking about a country that made soldiers paint grass, leaves on the trees greener just for the sake of it. There is no logic behind this if you are wondering why would some random russian come to Ukraine to cause havoc. Propaganda, all it is. Don't get caught in the whirlstorm of shit. Also I'll put this question out here: why is neo nazism not equal with Soviet Union worshipers? Somehow the history books are making it out as Nazi Germany was the only real evil empire. You want to know why many hate Russia in Ukraine? Holodomor. Regarding having a better life in Ukraine when Russian friendly political power is in charge - Janukovitch has steered the country for a long time ( minus the inconvenient Orange revolution, where poisoning did the trick fortunately) and has made close to nothing to improve the welfare of his people. We are talking about a man who's 150k yearly salary affords him to take a shit in a gold toilet pot and own every supercar in the world. His son has made BILLIONS as a dentist after his daddy was appointed. PS. I'm not trying to counter your arguments or make you reconsider etc. I'm just trying to understand this conflict from everyone's point of view. I can understand people who want to be reunited with Russia, that doesn't mean I agree with it though.

I'm surprised you even recognized a flag other than England's being an extreme nationalist as you are. I'm flattered. Then again you might just have held the cursor on top of the icon. Glad to have sparked your day with a bit of knowledge outside of the great isles.

Ahh.. the good old profanities appear when one has nothing constructive to add.

There's nothing noble about wanting your club to fail. Not all of us are privileged enough to have the opportunity to visit the venues ourselves. That being said, we want the best for the club in means of players as long as it fits the bill even if the players aren't unproven youth and English. Don't get your little morals and prejudices mixed with the club's current potential and prosperity.

If anything, those names illustrate Badboy's point. Drogba only scored over 20 goals a season 2 times in his 8 year stay, same goes for Hasslebank. Zola didn't reach the 20 goal mark, averaging at around 13-14. I'm not saying they were bad strikers, I'm saying that Chelsea play in a way that doesn't necessarily complement our CF.

The team isn't complete, I think everyone agrees with this. We need a proper striker to divide the pressure put on Hazard, Oscar. When we get the last pieces of the puzzle completed then we will see full backs bombing forward, attacking players having more room to work their magic and so on. Good stuff will happen but it wont happen in a blink of an eye. Rome was not built in a day. Also agree what Barbara and Rmpr said about the different styles of Brazilian league and European leagues. I think Oscar has done well so far, if he keeps his head down and works hard, he will become even better, more complete player for us and the national side.

An article by Garry Kasparov. http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303824204579422971651210180

I said that a week ago when things still were developing in a rapid pace and the climax of this event had not been reached. Though, when we want to look for an analogue from the WWII, then Sudetenland was annexed exactly for similar reason as Crimea is now - to join a piece of land that in the past was owned by Germans and was ethnically populated by german majority. The West gave in on the demands. Appetite grows while eating.

An accurate media coverage when it comes to Maidan in Kiev or Crimea today. It's in russian but picture speaks more than 1000 words.

Suggest you to read up on the history of Crimea. Don't blindly believe what is spoon fed to you by Russian media - the direct participant in this crisis. A little over 50% of Crimea is russians, other ethnic minorities are ukrainians and tatars. Russians deported over 200 000 people back in the day from the same peninsula to make it more 'russian minded', 80% were tatars. Hope you can now grasp the complexity of this issue a little bit better now. Not every russian wants a military intervention, let alone being united with Russian Federation. What they want is more autonomy. Those rally groups and protestants are spearheaded by the same people in every hotspot, weather it be in Harkhov, Sevastopol, Odessa or Donetsk. Can you give me direct examples of russians being discriminated on the soil of sovereign country of Ukraine so it would be justified for the current actions? Don't quote RT please.

All in all I agree and really hope it will turn out to be a political farce. Though, if a war breaks out between Russia and Ukraine, I can't see NATO, USA, EU not interfering, because Ukraine was given a guarantee by NATO/USA back in the days taht if they give up the nuclear warheads from the Soviet era, their sovereignty will be protected. Things are complicated at the moment due to a contract that gave Russian Federation the right to lease the land on Chrime peninsula, though, if the armed forces try to overrun a Ukrainian military base or advance to the mainland, that can spark a chain reaction of events and interference from the outside world. Ukraine is a vast country and the west doesn't want it to be ruled by Russia.

Ukraine have declared mobilisation according to the media. Baltic states and Poland so far have demanded a meeting on the basis of NATO article 4. Things can potentially become out of hands if any of the sides does something stupid.

Really hope that the situation in Ukraine doesn't spark a war. If any of the sides makes a hasty conclusion or decision, it can quickly become a WW3.

Chin up, head high. A bad day in the office shouldn't be something to derail you if you REALLY want to make something of your life. Take it as a learning curve and don't get discouraged.

Maybe Estonia will play Lithuania in Baltic Cup in the summer, would give a rough estimate of the teams depending on the lineups. I can see us nicking a point or 4 against you in Euro2016 qualifiers, though!

Glad we dodged Bosnia taking into account our recent game against them. Not a good opponent for us. Will definitely try to attend home games against England, Switzerland!

I'd love to have youth from the academy represent us, but it will be a leap of faith. The gap is too big and many won't make the transition right away even if they had the potential that needs to be nourished. Where do we take the time? We don't, ship them out on loan or give them a time of their life on the substitute bench. Loanees wont get playing time with us but they will get playing time. There's the difference and that's the best we can do aslong as a youth player's CURRENT ability doesn't greatly overshadow a first team player's.

Question of opinion but I don't regard Mikel a bad player. He is a safe player who has become more of an utility option for us if we need to park the bus or approach with more defensive mentality. Can you name me a youth player that could step into his shoes despite no experience and most likely being inferior in his game? I get that Mikel has become more of an inside joke for some of you on this board but let's not let emotions cloud our judgement here.

There is no quality youth in our academy. Hopefully the PL B plan will go through and the gap between U21 and first team will be a less bumpy road. Until then we have to buy our talents. Before someone brings up Chalobah etc.. there is a reason Mourinho along with other managers simply look over them, they are not good enough to replace players we already have for the first eleven/depth. If they can't produce consistently in a league lower,Championship then how are they even going to cope back here where the competition for places is high and no mistakes are tolerated? Chelsea is doing the only right way there is at the moment. As long as the current youth systems/reserve squads stay, the youth academy will not produce quality players as were Terry. Potential is there but no real stepping stone or environment of regular competitive matches against real quality opposition week in week out. If you look at the Spanish league system, they have B teams playing a league lower against teams who want to win in order to stay up/gain promotion. That's something FA should strive for with the Premier League B teams in order to give our youth the right tools to improve. Loans are great to regain form etc but they will also mess up the development of the players - they will learn to play the wrong systems, wrong mentality, basically no Chelsea's footprint in their game. Plus sending youth abroad / rot in reserves will send a wrong message to them as if they were unwanted by the club. Playing in Chelsea B will give them incentive to strive to play for Chelsea A team.

Hope we are not overplaying Hazard and Willian.

That's the real reason. 'A team like WBA'? What's wrong with WBA? A solid team who gave us a fight infront of their own fans. 1-1, a point is a point and we must look forward. There are no easy teams nor points.

Not the most original book, but so far so good. Does anyone have recommendations for any other autobiography, doesn't have to be related to sports?

Complacency and arrogance is a short cut to failure. I'd rather we put maximum effort in this and not underestimate our opponents than slate the team for not performing against a 'small' team. You must respect your opposition.

To answer your pertinent(and honest) question would be to opt for the first choice - play half of the games and lift trophies. In Mata's case, though, every game under his belt will count for a call up for Spain's World Cup squad. Guess he took a gamble there.