Gloucester Saint

Beans, Beans, good for your heart The more you eat the more you fart The more you fart the more you eat The longer you spend on the toilet seat Right, off to watch the Hundred before I drag this thread down any further than it already is…

Oh I agree, I was just considering the links I’ve seen and knowing the club’s focus on re-sell. Some mobility to go with the height would help but not easy to find. Vestergaard was a case in point.

If they buy a CB from L1 it’ll be Ronnie Edwards, even if he sounds like one of the Kray’s associates. Piroe would make sense if Swansea will settle for around £13-14m with a year left on his deal, like Downes will know the manager’s methods. Hourihane not a bad shout and has a good record at this level.

Hard to blame Russell Martin. It’s some of the same dogshit who lost v Grimsby so the National League and lower is genuinely their level. Ease the manager’s problems about fitting them all on the training ground, freeze Djenepo, Mara, Lyanco and McCarthy out of first team facilities and offer non league clubs the opportunity to take them on loan. They will soon find other clubs sharpish even if in Alex’s case he has to write off some money.

Whoever the fuck gave Moussa a new contract last season when it was due to expire last summer shouldn’t be allowed in any workplace, football or otherwise. Lyanco was always a stupid signing, the Torino reviews were enough evidence. 6m Euros or whatever it was, 6m too much. As for Mara, 13m Euros - some serious alcohol consumption in that bit of ‘scouting’. Basically since Ronald left there has been no football expertise at SMS bar some flickers from Ralph. I think Wilcox has some but he’s been left the vomit of several amateur eras to clear up.

The plank who scouted him/signed a cheque for up to 13m Euros can go with him. Must have imbibed too much of the local Bordeaux wine to think there was a PL, scratch that, even Championship potential player in there.

Reminds of WGS at Saints after 2003. WGS allegedly wanted Malbranque and Saha - Lowe wanted Kenton and Leon Best for 50p, only buying Kevin Phillips at the last minute after realising how criminally light the first team was in experience and quality, the type WGS seemingly wanted to bring in. We all know what happened over the following 18 months….

Oh heck. I didn’t like the look of it when they were linked to SFC. But worse than I thought, Garlick selling to them after years of being careful and parsimonious was a bit odd. Well done to Pace on appointing Kompany which got you straight back. He’ll have to use some of those new borrowings for Tella as I can’t see him going for less than £15-18m, especially as Lavia about to be sold for nearly £50m, Salisu for £12-15m (depending on the outlet) to Monaco and possibly JWP to West Ham for £25-30m.

Have been links to Everton but ditto for Che, Che strikes me as more of a Dyche player and possibly slightly cheaper.

That British Gas article sums up how the late 1980s privatisation of utilities has failed on every level. Doubt if Starmer has either the cojones or funds to re-nationalise it, but it’s what needs to happen. Even half of Conservative voters when polled are saying it. https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/politics/nearly-half-tory-supporters-want-27856320

If Rishi is relying on McCarthy or Bazanu in front of them that’s toast for his five pledges.

I think as a player Saints were in the early 80s I read somewhere - might have been 1982/83. IIRC his first win as QPR player manager was 4-1 at the Dell Boxing Day 1988. Sad news, 69 no age. Didn’t realise he had a heart attack 11 years ago.

Confidence. He hadn’t been through a season at a dysfunctional club leaking like a colander (and that’s some statement about Saints given the state of Pompey over the last 15 years). He couldn’t go back there now to rebuild and I’m not sure one of the clubs aiming for the top 2 like Derby would risk him. Selles and Reading possibly but with their finances we’d be paying all the wages. Whereas Wrexham/Notts/Bradford/Salford might pay a little. Going to a L1 fighting the drop would be more damage to his confidence.

I suggested a loan to League 2 for a couple of seasons, maybe Wrexham to compete with Foster/learn from him or Notts Co. Get a few wins under his belt, develop some physicality and command his box with the big forwards at that level. He’s nowhere near Championship ready let alone for a club which are claiming to expecting to be top 2. Even for a lazy club like Saints, easy to get a better keeper in his 30s for Champ level. Could be a loan from the PL as well. If there isn’t a new keeper in for the Bournemouth friendly there’s been a balls up in the recruitment area again. Russell Martin needs to go public on it, it’s what did Ralph in over the striker (lack of). Put a rocket under the recruitment dept to get it sorted. Too many excuses for his age - Tim Flowers was playing top flight younger than that in a much tougher era for keepers. If he makes today’s or the Goztepe mistake in a Championship game he’ll get hammered by the fans. Last season everyone was shit so he got away with it.

Sounds like a good plan. National politics has become very toxic and my friends are looking to step out at the next GE, one of them hasn’t had any choice with their local association. It comes down to what inspires you to get engaged. Is it helping people solve problems, is it to enhance your or another locality, or is it an affinity with sets of ideas? You could gain exposure as a councillor on the first bit (although the surgeries and weekends require patience), and quite possibly the second as a cabinet member locally if your party wins power with a portfolio you enjoyed. The latter could be something that develops alongside your mainstream career as it grows. Friend of mine is still a councillor long-time in a safe ward, has a portfolio of a main job 3 days or so a week and another public-private community role which they love. Won’t make them rich but it’s tidy and it all ties into what they are passionate about without the parts clashing with each other. I’ve had a different, politics-independent civic engagement experience as a figurehead/ambassador by leading big projects and partnerships. Never took a penny piece out of it for myself, but wanted to enhance the quality of life in the area I lived in and did it on top of a paid job plus consultancy which was OK and good financially but wanted to move in a different direction by gaining different skills/experiences. Was brilliant and some experiences of a lifetime but 70 hour weeks combined, gave up going to SMS and playing golf as no time. It’s not politics per ze and I never wanted it to be, but I did work with all of that area’s main political actors. It might be another avenue for the future.

On a less positive note, does anyone really care about Nigel fucking Farage’s bank account? No more than I do Corbyn’s, Nick Griffin’s or Len McClusky’s frankly. It’s been wall to wall with all the usual outlets and then Farage grizzling on Radio 4. He’s worth more than most people will ever accumulate and he can just use a normal business bank account like most of us who are either self-employed or a mix of employed and self-employed.

Probably working pro bono initially as a volunteer in one of the MPs local constituency offices depending on where you live, and that might open doors once you get established within a party leading onto not just working for an MP but perhaps becoming a party agent. I used to have a former Tory party candidate agent work for me and he was quite well networked. The Houses of Parliament do have jobs come up sometimes but the pay is risible after your rail and LU ST is accounted for. On the left, the unions are still a way in. Failing that, it depends on where you live because all of the parties struggle to attract councillor candidates in some areas and wards. You’d probably need to be active in a local association for a couple of years, help out as a teller on election nights and establish a reliable reputation for getting leaflets out for candidates. A couple of my friends are councillors, one in Soton, and a couple of MPs. You’ll often have to fight a couple of elections in wards which are harder to win to gain experience but if your face fits you’ll get a crack at a good one. Someone like Royston Smith, now the Soton Itchen MP IIRC, probably worked his way through like that. When I was a student in the 1990s, clubs and societies were another way in, they frequently had current or ex Ministers visit (does this still happen?) and quite a few people from our year got networked into the system. The youth wings contingent on your age (can go up to 30 if a mature student, or used to) are another network opportunity although the people were not always the most pleasant. That may have changed over 25 years.

It’s been stacked full of Conservative stooges, it’s why this country is going down the toilet at a rate of knots.

Agree with you on both Bazanu and Mara. Re Bazanu, his confidence looks screwed. There’s potential there but a loan out to L1 or L2 to a side pushing for promotion would enable him to regroup a bit with a more sensible workload and come back with more experience under his belt. Re Mara, same solution but different outcome. Hopefully a loan overseas to a Ligue 1 side where he’ll get games, hopefully a Tella effect and go on to recoup some of the crazy fee paid to Bordeaux off the back of that to build demand. Che needs to move on for everyone’s sakes including his own. Hopefully the rumours about several bottom half PL sides wanting him are true, recoup £12m or so and he will probably do a good job for them. Between the two of them that’s fee and wages on Piroe paid for (unless Everton go for him rather than Che, but I think Che is a Sean Dyche player).

Club need to be onto agents to get an experienced keeper in to compete with McCarthy. Bazanu needs to go out on loan in League 2 (his confidence isn’t up to another stint in League 1 at the moment) for the next season, maybe two.

Add in the main striker needed as the first major signing last summer and it may have been 13th-16th, but that’s gone now. Important thing is that two very good recruitments have been made so far this summer (Charles on paper and Manning POTS at a competitor) in positions of priority. Hopefully a few more sales with a couple of big ticket ones to enable recruitment for a couple more CMs (contingent on JWP), at least one CB (contingent on extent of departures), experienced keeper if McCarthy goes (doubt it), and a striker (more if Che goes along with the big lump).

I agree. Jake Kanter, who has worked for Murdoch previously at The Times, was speaking about how insidious News UK is in amplifying this story across its many outlets (too many) and politicians within its grasp on Talk TV saying the BBC isn’t doing enough to deliver Murdoch’s agenda. Should have shut the doors after Milly Dowler disgrace. NOTW not enough of a price for me as The Sun was always just going to print seven days a week. Will be interesting to see what happens to his empire when he finally drops off his perch.

Done. Brentford gained a lot and brought prosperity via new stadium on their small parcel of land on Lionel Road. Good luck.

Supposedly available for a modest fee too by PL standards considering his age and experience. The rumours around attitude won’t be helping but the agents fill these lads’ heads and families with how brilliant they are and a CL player in waiting. Very few opportunities at that level but plenty believing they belong at that level without the levels of consistency and focus required even with the raw talent. Good basic attributes for a CB plus bonus recovery pace but his distribution has always been suspect.

Depends which part of the Tory party it is. Hunt and the Treasury - they want immigration as the economy and health/social care need it badly, and are not viable without it. Along with the cost of materials houses aren’t getting built at the rates needed either. The Braverman/ERG element don’t care about the economy or services - they are making their pitch to the most rabid of local associations to get the leadership in opposition after 2025. If immigration is the method and they sound like Enoch Powell, fine from their perspective. Jenrick is just saying anything to compete with his boss (Braverman).