It wasn't just one game though, Matt had been consistently poor in his positioning after a couple of two good games early in the season. Nantes improved once he got benched, no one can dispute that. It may be a moot point after all. The league may have to be suspended this year, with all the political troubles going on. This may end in a Sixth Republic.
Well some players are bound to be sold/leave but... Rüdiger Luiz Christensen Ampadu Cahill - leaving in January Zouma - on loan at Everton Miazga will never make it at Chelsea. Not as a starter or even rotational starter.
The urban proletariat do. This lot are from the periphery, the small towns and the rust belt that used to matter but don't any more. It's not nothing, but the overthrow of the state it ain't. https://www.theguardian.com/comment...deeply-fractured-gilets-jeunes-just-a-symptom
I doubt it. It's on the higher side for a good French protest, but I doubt France has the stomach for Le Pen at the moment.
While it seems the protests are split between hard-right populists and extreme left populist, it appears the plurality are Le Pen dead enders.
Not the place, but to give you an idea: https://www.revolvy.com/page/Rattachism Rattachism (French: Rattachisme) or Reunionism (Réunionisme) is a minor political ideology which calls for the French-speaking Belgium or Wallonia to secede from the state of Belgium and become part of France. Brussels, which is majority French-speaking but enclave in Flanders, may be included within this ideology as may the six Flemish municipalities with language facilities for French-speakers. [...] French politicians Jean-Pierre Chevènement, Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, Jacques Myard, Marine Le Pen, and Jean-Luc Mélenchon have all voiced support for Rattachism. --- To explain why this position is idiotic goes beyond the scope of this board. Just let me remind you both Belgium and France are members of NATO. What would happen if a member nation starts acting like Russia or China, trying to destabilize its neighbors to gain land? The alliance wouldn't survive. Which would be good news for a certain country to the East.
What I love about France, and Paris in particular, is that there are countless opportunities to see things built in the place of something historical that they tore down. Vive la révolution!
Not to mention the slight problem that Belgium is 60-40 Dutch-speaking. The Belgians semi-solved the problem in the late 60s/early 70s by creating two states within one country (four if you include the German-speakers micro-region and Brussels' autonomy-within-autonomy) because the animosity was too intense to contain within one country . Put Belgium into France and it'll kick off again, on steroids, and Northern Ireland is a real possibility. Which is why nobody in Belgium really wants it, but it's a free hit for demagogues. No surprise to see Melenchon and Le Pen both dabbling in it.
Don't bet on it. She's not as smart as, say, Ted Cruz (whose intellect means he's always calculating but never really planning) but she's smart enough for politics and has oodles of self-discipline, which is what makes her dangerous.
Your examples are completely off base. Neither France or Belgium would be "acting like Russia or China" in an above scenario. I agree it is a far-fetched idea but not without some historical, cultural and geographical sense. How any of that relates to a "certain country to the east" is neither here nor there. Better you stick to soccer rather than geopolitical analysis.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-39478066 So Marine Le Pen has been forced to look elsewhere for financing. In 2014, the National Front took Russian loans worth €11m (£9.4m). One of the loans, for €9m, came from a small bank, First Czech Russian Bank, with links to the Kremlin. The loan was brokered by Jean-Luc Schaffhauser, an energy consultant turned MEP, who has called himself "Mr Mission Impossible". [...] The negotiations over the loan coincided with Russia's annexation of Crimea. EU governments condemned the annexation. Marine Le Pen publicly took the opposite view, leading some to question whether the loans were a quid-pro-quo. --- There's an even better piece in the Financial Times, but it's behind a paywall. Who do you think is bankrolling the "grassroots" Nationalist movements in Western Europe?
Of course the standard answer to that is "how can you prove the Western Media is not lying about it?" At which point you're expected to present proof, like the actual receipts. Once you do, they're going to tell you, "how can you know all the proof was not concocted? How can you know the world you see is not a simulation?" And they got a point. We cannot prove reality exists. -- PS: Sorry FalseNine, I promise I'm done.
I hate to pile on but I agree and would add that both wings have their own corporate sponsors and national media spokes-networks (CNN/MSNBC on the left, Fox on the right). It's comical.