Gloucester Saint

This is better - he needs to build on this https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/starmer-germany-defence-deal-brexit-reset-b2633594.html

Best way is to defeat him again, if he’d died it would have created a groundswell for extremist populism.

Just to prove it isn’t us, Luton corner, Carlton Morris prods in. I thought it was odd that the lion flagged, see the replay, Morris is a whole yard onside.

No, Ken Clarke is a big fan of Reeves. Thatcher always went to Frank Field if she wanted advice on welfare issues, and Alan Milburn has been a go-to about the NHS for years all-round. Sir David Amess mentored new MPs from all parties as a HoC elder and made friends, Tony Benn and Enoch Powell were long-time friends and Benn was a prominent guest at Powell’s funeral. Alan Clark wrote in his diaries that he enjoyed nothing more at Westminster than mixing with Frank Dobson and letting their hair down with swearing and gossip. It’s like players from rival clubs - they are adversaries on the pitch and want badly to win, but the relationships can be different off it (and then sometimes not). But we assume that things are as they appear on the pitch/Parliament. I’m sure Saints and Pompey players have been friends and families mixed in some cases over the years.

Well we’ve got the last of those in the dugout. Oh sorry, thought you said…

I think it will make zero difference to the outcome but Trump will pick up on any grievances for fuel in a close contest. It just shouldn’t have happened with any kind of Labour involvement even if informal as it was given the highly volatile and toxic atmosphere. If he does elected, that is now awkward for the UK, NATO and it doesn’t help Ukraine at all. Putting my work hat on, where’s the accountability if they knock on the door with a Democrat of a hard core Trump supporter with a million guns he just bought from Walmart?

I was thinking more of different forms of restorative justice for lower/social level offences and more effective freezing of assets for white collar premeditated offences. But I suppose those are other options too….

If what FS says is correct about a no from Moyes/Potter - but it wouldn’t be a surprise in our context let’s face it from their perspective with Palace and other jobs probably around the corner. The biggest change is SR having a proper Head of Football with serious depth of industry hands-on experience. Then if Saints have a younger first team manager they might stand more of a chance with some support behind them. Jones didn’t help himself but he’d have handled the media aspects better with an older head to advise and steer, Martin has struggled post-Wilcox after winning the play offs. Still a risk that you end up with a Michael Beale type but either that or a more experienced figure with baggage many on here won’t like. Without a restructure at SR, chances are we go around in a Watford/Norwich loop, at best. The Blades have a chance of breaking that with Wilder there.

It’ll be someone who is a highly regarded coach within a bigger club set-up like Maresca was for Leicester, although he loves the same slow pass around the back style as Martin! Although at Chelsea he has the budget to actually do it at PL level. It’ll be their first management role in a major club first team - a younger Jason Wilcox. Jack Wilshere just left his role at Arsenal to be a first team coach to the new Danish manager at Norwich. He’s too junior currently but someone with that profile and playing record is probably an option they’ll look at.

The whataboutery doesn’t change the fact that Gavin is by far the worst keeper I’ve ever seen for Saints by miles. And I’m including Chris Woods, Alan Blayney, Keith Grainger, Phil Kite, Bart and others in that. Whoever thought he was worth £14m or whatever it was or that he’d ever make above L1 needs a session at Specsavers. Even the last sentence is generous. I watched Cheltenham v Bradford last night and the Robins’ number 2 keeper and Bradford’s first choice were far more solid than Gavin on the basics.

Labour say they’ve done nothing wrong, and legally they are 100% correct on the detail. And both Labour and Tories have had effectively work experiences for years as an accepted norm. But this isn’t the GOP of Reagan or Bush families eras, it’s the optics and context. The Trump campaign are desperate, I don’t think this will cut through much in the actual result but it may afterward if Trump does win (God forbid). And that has knockons for NATO, Ukraine etc. Just wasn’t worth it. They need to wise up politically and fast as an organisation. Starmer is up to it IMHO but Labour overall are quite green as an organisation and this is another example which causes me concern. This wouldn’t have happened in the Alastair Campbell/Blair era.

The confused face is not at you, it’s at the MP. Prime example of what deters me from the Labour Party, who I have things in common with in many ways,

Broadly agree and Starmer did his job at CPS, arguably too well. But prisons weren’t his remit. This is a succession of governments, New Labour as well with their ‘tough on crime and tough on causes of crime’. And the short prison sentences gained pace under Major going that far back. We’ve got to find different deterrents for lower-medium risk offences and focus on who is the biggest risk to the public.

If Starmer was pissed off about the DP World comments and Haigh, he’ll be seriously spewing at this. They had better hope Harris wins now hadn’t they? Stupidity and some of the political judgement at the moment in the Labour Party is little or no better than the shambles that preceded it. Quite frankly, I preferred Cameron, Clegg and Osborne to this lot so far. There, I said it. Not May, Boris, Truss or Sunak though. My fellow Lib Dem voters will probably hammer me for that, but there is the excuse of the coalition which we were a major part of!

Truss endorsed him as well, and not just at CPAC either. Not appropriate either from a Prime Minister. Although it is a bit like Russell Martin being praised by Ian Branfoot. IMHO, Brits getting caught up in that election for campaigning need certifying in a highly toxic, divided and emotive country with guns everywhere. Labour should have told them not to do it, personal capacity or not. If it’s a contested result, it’ll be seriously nasty there and I’m not sure it’ll much better with a clear result. It’ll make the afters of any Saints-Pompey contest look like a tea party with Earl Gray, bone China and Fondant Fancies.

Bit dopey from Labour activists even if in a personal capacity https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/cpdqw2yd00dt Hypocrisy from Trump and Vance though, they were happy for Truss and others to be front and centre at CPAC endorsing them. I’d rather our politicians and citizens stayed away from that toxic environment frankly until it’s over.

Imagine how many we’d concede now

Ok, fine, but there are some very seasoned people using the word such as the former Joint Chiefs of Staff. Still, if given a choice between Trump and Musk, I’d have to choose Trump. And that’s saying something.

Fuck me, Elon Musk into his cabinet the best reason to vote for him. Can’t stand Trump (fascist) but lives Musk (fascist).

The boardroom still has ample quantities of delusion-causing alcohol in it, I see. Although I thought Rasmus and Kraft would be Mikkeller drinkers. All image and brand, fuck all substance and depth.

I don’t know, the more Russell Martin and Rasmus Ankerson can be taken the piss out of, plus their doppelgängers and plastic Peps throughout the leagues, the better. Their football is every bit as dour and ugly as Branfoot’s.

That’s the reality and has been since the club was sold to Gao and then even worse, SR. 2017 represents the end point of Southampton FC history for me, Wembley was nice last year but although I expected the worst this season, it’s been far worse than that with no resemblance to any of the Saints teams and players discussed here. They don’t even have the fighting spirit of the 1990s squads, limited as they were. The club is just MK Dons with red and white stripes these days. No heart, no soul, just a set of ‘philosophies’. Eastleigh and Sholing might be the beneficiaries for lapsed Saints fans who still want a proper football experience.

And disrespects the EFL. Watford’s owners thought relegations didn’t really matter, they’d keep bouncing back first time - until they didn’t. Norwich too in a way, less cynically than Watford’s. I’m not sure SR are pursuing yo-yo, I think they’re just totally clueless with Phil Giles’s tea boy from Brentford in his skinny 👖 wild on the equivalent of a cocktail of E-numbers with somebody else’s money. And plenty of vape 💨 breaks of course.

My parents were at the home and away games, mum was in the early stages of carrying me in fact. I remember them saying years later that Van Der Elst’s winner was iffy. Anderlecht had some form for match fixing in that era https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/dec/11/nottingham-forest-anderlecht-match-fixing-scandal-1984 Not suggesting Glockner took a bung but Anderlecht’s President was capable of match fixing. Glockner refereed the 1970 WC Final tangentially. My folks stopped in Bruges on the way to Brussels and the locals were begging for Saints to beat Anderlecht. They are hated in Belgium then and now.

Nearest thing Saints will get to a clean sheet this season is Ramsdale wiping his cock on the hotel curtains.