It is not that hard to understand the appeal of evangelical Christianity in Brazil. While I am not thrilled with their support for Bolsonaro, I am not particularly troubled by it. He has/had a mass appeal base, lots of ordinary Brazilians frustrated with the state of their country. Footballers aren’t going to be the deepest thinkers about social/political issues. I suspect Henderson is hurt by a backlash he just didn’t see coming, and scarcely thought to make the connection between playing in Saudi Arabia with his prior statements.
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I agree with both these statements. It is right that he gets criticism for when we find out his moral conviction is only skin deep.
But I also agree with @TheFlyingPig that there are so many connections in our daily lives- and not just from football clubs - to Middle Eastern money that we don’t make an even slight fuss over. The ME airlines may be a step removed from being fully tied to the ME regimes, but it’s a very small step.
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It is extremely difficult to remember five to seven letters, especially in a specific order.
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It’s fine to be immoral provided you’re not a hypocrite.
Have I got that right?
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Especially when they add a + sign to the end of it.
I’m not trying to derail the thread but,
“The additional “+” stands for all of the other identities not encompassed in the short acronym.”
Why not just use a + sign for all identities? 
I did read an article in a German magazine which said that they used the + as a style guide (LGBT+ I think) so that it remained inclusive without having to revise articles if they were talking about other minorities that don’t fit into a binary classification.
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That’s an idea! It saves having to type the whole alphabet.
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Not entirely. Both Firmino and Fabinho were slipping from their previous standards. Also they go to the club who offers them the highest salary. It’s always been the case. Going from Brazil → England isn’t too different to going to SA for them.
We had already moved on from Firmino. If Firmino was still playing like his peak version , Liverpool would have offered a long term contract instead of being happy to let him go.
Same goes for Fabinho. In a lot of people’s eyes , he’s considered a liability after his deterioration in the last two seasons. The club got the offer of 40m and quite simply were happy to accept it.
You can’t call them immoral because that’s what they always have been. Not the brightest bulbs in the room.
It’s different in the case of Hendo. He wanted a higher salary and Klopp was instrumental in getting that higher salary for him. He then set himself up as a statesman ostensibly to derive some personal benefit and then got attracted with the money.
It’s far worse.
Well I think his interview comment about not being shown love by the club is a far greater transgression in my eyes. He’s gotta be in serious denial if he doesn’t see his physical abilities declining and the midfield fiasco that caused last season. And he knew better replacements were coming in. How he can then demand “love” (which I’m assuming is playing time) is beyond me. Milner never moaned about any of that stuff.
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???
Firmino was offered a new contract so we were not happy to let him go. He didn’t want to extend.
I also don’t get where this “not the brightest bulbs in the room” comes from either. I don’t know them personally but it seems a bit out of place unless you know better.
In terms of this moral / immoral stuff related to human rights, I agree that it doesn’t seem a great move but I can’t judge harshly on morality terms since the UK / U.S. especially (but most Western countries as well) are close partners of Saudi Arabia.
And honestly while I don’t agree with Saudi Arabia’s human rights record, I don’t agree with the record of the U.S. either and I have done no such campaigning against either. Hence I’m not in a position to judge.
A point I made weeks ago.
The Flying Pig’s post does give some food for thought. Arguably, some players will see what happened to Henderson and might be less inclined to publicly support the LGBT community. They may privately support, but will now hold back from public support, in case later on down the line they decide to play in a country that does not align with their personal view, and they are castigated by their former fans for it.
We might be in danger of nudging players towards a point where they are less and less human, not saying anything about anything, or publicly taking a stand on something they care about. Instead they may decide the safer option is to just train, play football, and give banal soundbites when required in order to fulfil media duties.
I think that is generally speaking the case. Wear the rainbow jerseys when the club asks you to, etc. Henderson really is getting far more criticism than any other player I can think of for going to Saudi. Granted, it is disappointing to see, but the money means he is really set up for life (if he wasn’t before) at a time when his earnings would otherwise be fading. Hardly surprising he would go for it. That in turn raises the question of what benefit he might have been seeing for taking those public stances earlier.
In the end, I think the whole idea of professional athletes as role models is just nonsense. Henderson probably does support free expression etc., for the LGBT community. He, just like countless others in the West, is willing to hold his nose for 2-3 years to make loads of money. It would be deeply hypocritical of me to condemn him for that, because I have done the same, just not in the public eye…and unfortunately, not for as much money.
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Hmmmm.
Firmino had a better goals per minute return than Nunez.
Liverpool wanted him to stay.
More fiction in your post than Hendersons bumbling account of why he’s in Saudi
The last season was Nunez’s first season with Liverpool where he admittedly struggled and he did underpeform. If you look at the expected G/A tally , you would see his numbers are way higher than Firmino’s. This gives a better indication of how he’s performed even if the end product was lacking at times. His expected G+A is 0.93 as compared to Bobby’s 0.59. If you want to compare them by the stats , Bobby’s highest expected G+A per 90 is 0.63 for his liverpool career.
Yes , Nunez has underperformed but on potential , he’s still likely to rack up more goals + assists than Firmino.
Next time , please educate yourself on what’s fiction and what’s not.
with respect to their support for Bolsonaro
You mean like passing off “expected” goals and assists as facts?
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Now now lads play nice…but go ahead and bag on Henderson.
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ExA+G give an indication on potential. Nunez’s potential w.r.t that is higher than what Bobby provides.
Look up Suarez’s first season with Liverpool and then see how good he was when he started banging those goals in.
We’re talking about fact or fiction, not what might be.
For example, Bobby was offered a new deal, he refused it - Fact.
Contrary to what you claimed.