CamSaint

Taylor was on the bench for the Bournemouth game, although not used.

I have seen Roger Waters and Dave Gilmour in concert several times over the last 15 years or so. Perhaps the most memorable was at The O2 in 2011 when RW was doing his 'Wall' tour. When Comfortably Numb started the spotlight focused on the guitarist standing on the wall and after a few seconds, everyone realise that it was actually DG! The performance was quite extraordinary as you might expect, but even more so as no-one had the faintest idea that it was going to happen. DG only played that song, but it turned out that Nick Mason was also in the audience that night and RW called him up on stage when the band took their bow. Despite their mutual animosity, apparently Waters & Gilmour had agreed to do each other a favour for some reason (I've no idea what). If anyone likes the early (pre Dark Side of The Moon) Floyd material, Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets are absolutely brilliant live - they include Guy Pratt & Gary Kemp.

No, his work permit had not come through yet so Rusk was still in charge. Rusk took the previous midweek cup game against Liverpool and the Fulham match. IJ's first match in charge was West Ham.

That was a brilliant night and a great atmosphere. Saints played some scintillating football.

Perhaps I should rephrase 'crown jewels' as 'assets of the highest potential sale value' for clarity.

This summer potentially could result in a massive reset. Firstly, we all know that the 'crown jewels' of Ramsdale, Fernandes, Dibling and THB are likely to be sold. Then Lumley, Lallana and KWP are out of contract, Les will return to Chelsea and possibly GronBaek will return to Rennes or go somewhere else. Perhaps the most interesting conundrum is that at the start of next season the following will only have 1 year left on their contracts: McCarthy, Bree, ABK, Stephens, Taylor, Aribo, Smallbone, SAA, Fraser, Ounachu & Stewart so what do we do with them? Do we try to offload them for as much as we can get in the summer (obviously we wouldn't get anything for Stewart), or do we offer contract extensions to some or do we let them all run their contracts down so we can make a fresh start in season 26-27, whatever division we're in? Who out of that lot would you want/try to keep for the Championship campaign?

Is Ballard injured or is there a chance he might be included in tomorrow's match day squad?

According to Juric: Ramsdale has 'done something in training yesterday' and will be assessed tomorrow. Sulemana has a hamstring injury & is not available. Gronbaek only started training with the team today so is unlikely to feature. Doesn't really bode well for Saturday with both Sulemana & Dibling out🤦‍♂️

From what has been posted on here, it is a loan until the end of the season with an option, not an obligation, to buy so not really a case (at the moment) of spending loads of money on an unknown. We will need to do a major restructure next season. We have no idea yet a) whether he's any good and we would want to keep him, b) if we do what fee we might be able to negotiate and c) whether he would be prepared to play in the championship.

How about Bright Osayi-Samuel who was mentioned on another thread the other day? Tenuous, I admit

Way back clubs used to play both on Christmas Day and Boxing Day and they were often the reverse fixtures so that both clubs had equal travel requirements. As an example, on Christmas Day in 1913 Arsenal travelled up to Bradford, winning 3-2 and then beat them again 2-0 at Highbury on Boxing Day. Generally morning kick-offs in those days where it was deemed socially acceptable for men to go to the football and pub on Christmas morning/lunchtime before returning home to consume the Christmas dinner their wives had been cooking for them. Christmas Day 1957 was the last with a full league programme. In 1958 there were only three First Division matches played on December 25, and in 1959 just one. The last English League match played on Christmas Day was Blackpool versus Blackburn in 1965. This info comes from https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/football-christmas-day-match-history-victorian-tradition which highlights just how different football was back in the day!

Interesting comments from RM on McCarthy in this morning's press conference: 'On Aaron Ramsdale and Alex McCarthy: "I think it will be massive, I some of the guys will be surprised that he is coming but I think it is big. I think it will give everyone a lift. There is one guy who won't be happy about it which is Alex [McCarthy] and Alex has been amazing for us, if he hadn't have come into the team and did what he did we wouldn't have been promoted. "Without Alex we are not in the Premier League. I will be forever grateful to Alex. he has been great this season, people will talk about the mistake at Newcastle but he was brilliant on Saturday. It will be a big call if we get Aaron on time for tomorrow's game, so I feel for Alex. While I am really happy Aaron is coming in and excited about the group we have, I really feel for Alex. It is a really tough part of football. Someone is always going to be upset and unhappy. I have no doubt Alex will be a brilliant teammate. "If Aaron comes in the building, he knows we have someone we really trust breathing down his neck."' Although that reinforces many people's view on whether we would have got promoted had Bazunu not been injured, it is pretty much the first time RM has ever publicly implied any criticism of Bazunu.

I have been led to believe that Bromley are the only team in the top 4 divisions to lie in a constituency that has a Conservative MP!

As it says in your link: "With the exception of Welsh clubs competing in the competitions listed under Rule V.6.2, loans from a club in membership of another National Association do not count towards the above quotas.", so loans from overseas are allowed in addition to 2 from PL clubs.

We've seen with both AA and Che that being prolific in the Championship doesn't necessarily translate into success in the Premier League. AA in particular struggled at the highest level but was great again when we dropped back to the Championship. Most on here are not very positive about his prospects for this season now we're back in the top flight. Maybe Szmodics could cut it in the PL, but we would be once again taking a big risk on a player unproven at this level when everyone seems (quite rightly) to be demanding a striker who can guarantee PL goals. At least by signing BBD we've got someone who already has (albeit a very short) PL track record.