Gloucester Saint

This post is a pity as your post and reposte on the Reform thread was so well framed and thought through. Trump just gave Putin exactly the domestic imaging and messaging he so badly wanted - US and USSR as equals as per 1980s and before. Huge tactical fuck up which will have long-lasting repercussions after Trump. He (Putin) was struggling to hold on domestically before that and his mate Donald just gave him a huge unwarranted boost. Which will hit you and I in the pocket as well. The idea that the US hasn’t gained economically from being leader of the free world is for the birds - or MAGA nuts. Yes, some NATO members need to spend more of defence but 5% isn’t feasible for most, 3% maybe. Europe needs a fresh defence strategy and to count the US out largely although I suspect air cover might be the compromise. As for the JD Vance comments, we’ve clearly got totally different values on what western democracy looks like, especially from an election denier like him. Meeting with a Neo Nazi politician but not with the official state leader of Germany tells you all you need to know about Vance and Musk. This from the man who called his President ‘America’s Hitler’. More like Chamberlain. The D-Day 80th anniversary and GI blood shed must have passed Vance by.

True, they’ve just not been so blatant about territorial gains. Puerto Rico (labelled an unincorporated territory of the US) being one example.

It was hilarious I have to say and unrealistic. As subtle as a loud fart in Winchester Cathedral.

More than 4400 at Plainmoor on Saturday though, that’s more than some clubs in League 1 attracted and most in League 2.

Ironic (not that the Americans do that stuff) that the Yanks spent half-a-century lecturing us British about empire and that’s exactly what they are doing now. Even brought down the Eden government over Suez.

It’d be like the Gazza Dentist Chair celebration in Euro 96 but in the Standing Order not Wembley.

The 🐘 is still in the room - trade with RoI dropped 6bn during 2024 due to Brexit trade friction and red tape https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/17/irish-figures-show-6bn-drop-in-trade-with-great-britain It went up between RoI and NI, the latter still operating under EU trade rules.

Much needed overtime for the plod.

Of itself it isn’t a bad signing for £3m, but when you’ve already signed Edwards for similar, renewed Bednarek and tied in buying THB, it made less sense altogether than as a single transaction. Which summed up the whole window - a trolley dash at Lidl item by item rather than thinking about what the meal needed and was going to look like at the Michelin Star restaurant, even on a budget.

‘Fuck’s sake Downing’. ‘Fuck off Downing, you’re fucking shit’. This must be an AI hoax, they never get on their players backs. Well, apart from Carl Tiler. Paul Downing now at Kidderminster.

Shearer went a huge rant about it post-match on the BBC about what the hell Guly was doing at the back post.

Quick though for a centre back and can actually play. A decent manager might turn him into a decent higher-end Champ CB. Not sure his concentration is PL level and has a touch of the Stephens in his ball-watching.

Hope you’re right on much of that Manji, if RM was in charge in summer recruitment with Rasmus doing the paperwork then he was even more out of his depth and deluded than we feared. Fancy buying BBD, Taylor, Archer and loaning Lesley for possession-obsessed football. It’ll require major investment from Dragan as far as FFP allows, Wolves under Nuno are the template. Pace, strength, then technical ability right through the spine of the team plus a new first choice keeper. Negotiate exit compromise packages with Bazanu, Stewart and Larios, latter two won’t be fit for professional football at any level again and insurance should cover some of it. Whether it’s Rohl or Cooper coming in, I don’t think another manager wedded religiously to a system or style is what is needed as we can have again at the moment as we had with Juric and Martin, although empathy and respect with the former for even taking this rabble on frankly. I didn’t care for the picture of Rasmus sitting next to Spores at the Burnley game with a face like a smacked arse. That didn’t look like someone willing to easily to give up his Mr Football/Frank Spencer role within SR. Dragan may have dissolve him out of SR and re-employ him for Goztepe’s DoF to resolve a potential power struggle.

Kicked off at the ice hockey, the coaches trying to play it down but of course the GOP rhetoric and hate has had an impact https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/ice-hockey/articles/c70k2pwkrj1o

That’s part of the debate that would need to happen. And I wasn’t a fan of Straw taking us into the Social Chapter, that was a factor behind Brexit over time. But there are well-resourced elements, not least a mass media and their non doms, who will argue against that, and the social clock would go back 50 years. We took a leap into the dark with an in/out referendum and had years of haggling because there was no consensus on what a post-EU UK looked like and what the relationship then looked like with the EU, that’s why I’d be sceptical about what Lowe is saying. The issues need cool rational heads but these issues tend the promote the most knee-jerk and wealthiest voices on either side.

Arguably an insult to Noddy too. I liked the vans parked outside the King Power against Jon Rudkin yesterday. Humorous but targeted. You can’t imagine most of our lot being able to spell the words let alone design the clown images.

#thatsthepurposeofaloanspell

Agreed too, our point is that it shouldn’t be an either/or, and in better times we’d have them competing.

It was more tongue in cheek taking the rise out of Blackmore like the Brian McMillan sledge v the Aussies in a Test match but point taken. https://www.sacricketmag.com/watch-big-macs-sledge-shook-warnie/

I get that LD, and context is important. But that can’t be a justification for rolling back hard won rights for British-born minorities as collateral damage. Rupert wasn’t into football then so won’t remember it, but I remember Danny Wallace getting pelted with bananas from the Archers cage by West Ham and Chelsea fans. Whether people vote for it or not, it’s never right and I don’t believe that a majority will. Besides, illegal immigration is too high, and the boat invasions make me sick, that we can agree on. But let’s pull overseas students out of it, and dependents of junior doctors, that was Braverman shit stirring, and focus on those core issues where there is majority consensus.

And a hypocrite I should have added https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2025/feb/13/reform-mp-rupert-lowe-hails-solar-energy-money-saver-while-party-vows-tax-sector

Simple put down for Lowe is his dismal record as Saints Chairman, but this is more fuel to play back nearer the GE. The fact that he wants to go back to the guesthouses with ‘No blacks’ in the window tells you what he is. But Saints fans already knew he was vile. Trump and the attacks on ethnic minorities and the disabled which they copy will be the nail in the tyres of their poll ratings, not to mention their economic ineptitude and non dom owners awash with Russian oligarch blood money.

Agree with you on Smallbone, plenty of players I’d be giving stick to ahead of him, but can’t agree that the fanbase is toxic. Look at the Leicester targeted protests against Jon Rudkin yesterday, should have done that vs Rasmus ages ago. West Ham protests 4 years ago, Everton when we won at Goodison under Nathan Jones. Ours are like church mice.

QPR couldn’t pay the wages or fee needed with FFP either.

The statues would be something else for Westwood to urinate on for a start. Their fans might argue for a double bubble - one for them and another for just him with the Police and stewards (wearing masks), plus the poor skates sat next to him issued with industrial nose pegs. Industrial Karcher pressure wash for the away end afterwards.