CHOULO19

Conte is an excellent motivator but he's not exactly a great tactical manager. Still way too early to predict who will be the replacement. Maybe Prandelli.

He's had issues with the Juve management for almost two years now. If anything, it has more to do with the lack of attackers coming into the team. But his departure can definitely affect some players, especially Vidal, imo.

Most likely, yeah. But he's had disagreements with the Juve management for two years, now.

Vidal loves Conte. His departure makes this a possibility.

Welcome, lad! Glad it's finally official. Can't wait to see him a Chelsea shirt.

Oh, shit! That means Sociedad are getting Hazard instead!

Right..Yeah, of course...

Get a room, you two!

Yeah, I didn't say he was a moderator either (though definitely not a radical or extremist), but what I was alluding to is that there would probably be a higher chance of the two sides reaching agreements with someone like Arafat (especially in his last years) than someone like Abbas. Being moderate is not enough, you need someone who represents the people.

Yeah, but Arafat was almost the sole representative of the Palestinian people while Abbas barely represents himself. He's really not that like from what I know.

How about Bertrand? (PS: I seriously contemplated that on the 12/13 kit but eventually got Mikel instead )

But that's too mainstream! My previous Chelsea shirts have Kalou, Mikel and Lampard (was a gift) on them

Of course there are no guarantees, but that is the most likely, if not the ONLY way peace can be achieved. To begin with, the attack nor the siege is or even can stop the rockets. This has already been proved. So it's not like you're risking losing anything with ending them. Better living conditions does not mean spending a lot of money. In fact, your state spends A LOT on making their lives miserable. You can make their lives a million times betetr by addressing these issues: They live in grossly over-crowded neighborhoods in below poverty levels (Gaza is one of the highest population density in the world with about 5000 people per squared Km). The Israeli government controls everything in their in lives, from the amount of water, gas and fuel they can consume to when they can and can't have electrical power. But even that, they are not allowed to have peacefully with civilian houses being destroyed on regular basis and it's inhabitants made homeless (over 60,000 demolished houses IIRC) to be replaced by more illegal settlements: And if that is not enough they are constantly under methodical racist segregation and harassment. They have their number one source of income, olive trees, uprooted regularly by the IDF: They can be arrested whenever the army likes and for whatever reason or even without one. They can be detained indefinitely and without trail. When they are trialed, they are prosecuted using military law not the Israeli civilian laws. Forget trials and laws, in some mixed areas, Palestinians are even forced to take different roads! On the other hand, Israeli settlers get away with abusing and beating Palestinians on a regular basis. Every year, tens of Palestinians are assaulted, shot and even killed by Israeli settlers. They are treated worse than animals and no one does anything about it. And this is just the tip of the iceberg. The atrocities against Palestinians are countless. And they are only getting worse. Every year they are losing more land, losing more of what's left of their basic rights of living. You see, as much as I hate Zionism, I just have to respect the intelligence of how Zionists go about their business. Because you can't erase the people of a whole nation in a single war, and they know that. But over a hundred years you can slowly take their land, slowly decrease their numbers in the country, slowly take away their rights, slowly take away the support they get from the neighboring nations and the empathy they get from foreigners, very slowly dehumanize them with your propaganda until everyone, including yourself, don't believe they are equal humans anymores. And in another hundred years or two they would probably have succeeded in getting rid of all the Palestinians in the country and would most likely have set their target on further expanding their boundaries. From the Nile to the Euphrates, right? The people of Palestine have two choices and no third: To resist or to simply cease to exist. But, this is not a movie. Unfortunately, the resistance cannot be led by a perfect Platonic hero (or Kim Possible and genetically enhanced rats). It is, and has always been, led by people that far from perfect. But these incredibly corrupt people change and have changed many times, but what your government knows and tries to convince you otherwise, is that the resistance will continue long after Fateh and Hamas as long as there are Palestinians. Because the resistance is an idea and a choice of the people, not only that, it is their only choice. Again, there are no guarantees, but history shows that extremists rise as a result of extreme situations. In fact Hamas themselves are living proof of that. Go back and look into the past 66 years, especially the last 32 years, every single time Israel have launched a war to end a resistance, a stronger and more radical one has emerged from the ashes. Right now, you can talk about Hamas using civilians as shields all you want, but the fact is, the absolute majority of Gaza is behind Hamas and rooting for them. The power is not for Hamas, the power is always for the people. If Hamas does anything that is against the will of the people they will be rejected by the Palestinian society. A resistance has nothing if not the people. Human history teaches us that giving people freedom and a good life is the only way to possibly get rid of extremism. The instinct to live a happy life transcends any thoughts beliefs or ideologies. I cannot guarantee that will happen in Palestine, but I CAN guarantee that there will never be any hopes of peace with the continued violence. All you will get is even more extremism. I won't go into the one-state discussion further because, as I said, I do not believe it is possible in the foreseeable future. But I will say that the two-states only widens the gap and confirms the differences that are the origin of the conflict. It can never be a long-term solution.

Couldn't have said it better myself..

Right now? End the attack. End the siege on Gaza. Stop making new settlements. Offer much improved living conditions to the Palestinians to allow less extremists groups to take the front stage. Poor, oppressed people make wars and revolutions. Free people with a decent life want nothing to do with war and violence. You want to stop the Hamas rockets? Give the Palestinian people a chance to have a good life and they will get rid of Hamas or anyone who wants to take away the peace they have. To solve the entire conflict? Complete integration. One integrated state with people of all religions living side by side with equality. I do not believe the two-state solution can ever bring peace because there can be none while a Jewish only state exists with dreams of the 'promised land'. The situation has to return to what it was like before the 1940s where Muslims, Jews and Christians lived in land together as equals. That is to me the ONLY route to peace. Though I cannot see how that is ever realistically possible. Certainly not in my lifetime.

Well technically the fact that they've 'reported' both possible outcomes means that they've got it wrong even if that is what actually happens! In Arabic we have a proverb that translates roughly to: "The astrologers are wrong even if they are right." And this is exactly what those journos writing about transfers are: astrologers.

Oh look. The journo's putting two and two together and ending up with five!

That is very true, indeed. The vast majority of religious people can be manipulated very easily and that can be taken advantage of politically (obviously the prime example being USA and the UK paying Sheikhs to preach 'jihad' against the Soviet Union in Afganistan and Chechnya in the 80s). On the other hand, I've seen people do incredible acts of goodness because they believe that god will reward them for it. And I'm talking about incredible acts that I would honestly not do and that take you completely by surprise, done even for absolute strangers. I mean like someone poor giving all their food to an even poorer family or a family letting refugees sleep in their house while they sleep in a car...etc. I know this sounds weird coming from an atheist, but I often argue with other atheists that a place like the middle east needs religion to protect moral values. We just have not developed the cultural (can't find the right word here, beliefs? norms? traits? values? none of those really, but probably a mix of them all) to replace religion.

Regarding the religious debate on the previous pages, it's hard for people who don't know Arabic to know what I am talking about, but the text of the Qur'an is written in very old, very difficult Arabic. Someone like me reading it for the first time won't understand half of it. It is also incredibly unclear. The majority of the sentences can be interpreted in several manners (like most religious texts). So it goes without saying that the translations of the interpretation of any verse of the Qur'an can vary...A LOT! I'm sorry to say that 66 years of conflict can create quite a lot of extremists on both sides. Let me introduce you to the hottest hang-out in Sderot: Israel-Gaza conflict: ‘Sderot cinema’ image shows Israelis with popcorn and chairs 'cheering as missiles strike Palestinian targets' http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/israelgaza-conflict-sderot-cinema-image-shows-israelis-with-popcorn-and-chairs-cheering-as-missiles-strike-palestinian-targets-9602704.html Humanity is DEAD.

I love how people fall for this trick by Beasley every single time!

I'm paying, per vote, 5 nude pics....of Steve!

Not too sure about West Ham and big Sam. Would rather send him to a team that actually plays football.

Now I can't decide whether to get his or Azpi's name on our away shirt!

I suggested last season that we simply give the opposition a goal kick whenever we get a corner. At least this way we don't run the risk of conceding on the counter! And to think we were one of the best teams in Europe from corners and set-pieces the season before last. I think this is were we missed Mata (and Frank) most. Hopefully, Cesc can fill some of that gap.