Some managers have integrity and resign

Lokomotiv Moscow's Manager Markus Gisdol "For me, football coaching is the best job in the world. But I cannot pursue my calling in a country whose leader is responsible for a war of aggression in the middle of Europe. That is not in line with my values, which is why I have resigned from my position as coach of Lokomotiv Moscow with immediate effect. I can't stand on the training ground in Moscow, train the players, demand professionalism and a few kilometers away orders are given that bring great suffering to an entire people. That is my personal decision and I am absolutely convinced of it.”

 

Excellent ! Great that there are football people with principles. There aren't too many but....well done sir !

 

That's a hell of a statement. It speaks to me. It's brave, it has conscience and value, it plucks every string in my soul that recognises humanity. I want to sit beside him and talk, while we drain the bottle of vodka of his choice, and we smoke the cigarettes that I roll using the tobacco of my choice. And we laugh. If we don't share a common language it wouldn't matter. Already been there.

I wish he'd never said it. But he has, so I hope his parents are already dead. I hope they had no siblings. I hope he has no aunties and uncles and cousins. I hope he is an only child. I hope he has no sisters and brothers and nephews and nieces. I hope he has no significant other. I hope he has no children and grandchildren. I hope he has no friends. I hope he owns the retribution, which, without doubt, he's ready for and able to take, because he's real and he can. I hope it isn't distributed amongst anyone close to him, because if there are such people, it will be, and he won't be able to take that. No one can.

 

It's great to hear that there are ANY people in ANY position with principles, I'd forgotten what it was like.

 

Are you stating this thinking he is Russian speaking against his own government?
He is German.

 

This sounds very poetic but who are you referring to in the second paragraph? It isn't obvious to me but maybe I missed the point..

 

Kind of kiboshes the second paragraph unless the Russians are going to hunt him down. It took me back to Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream- -and not make dreams your master;
If you can think- -and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on! '

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings- -nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And- -which is more- -you'll be a Man, my son!