revolution saint

Ha, was just coming onto this thread to comment on Slow Horses and you've beaten me to it. I finished the third season last night. It's the best thing on TV for me, absolutely brilliant. Writing and acting is top notch right the way through and Gary Oldman is superb.

Sunak had a lucky escape if you ask me. RM would have controlled 90% of a conversation that didn’t go anywhere or produce anything meaningful. And before anyone gets too upset, it’s a joke and I don’t really mean it.

I like him, comes across well and I like the football and results we're currently getting. At the moment things seem to be clicking so that's all good. I gave him a bit of stick when we were in our losing streak because he deserved it and we were gash defensively. You can bang on all you like about needing time but no other club was shipping goals like we were and most of them had considerably less resources and this brings me to the most important point: He's currently achieving exactly what he should be and he's certainly not over achieving. Most relegated clubs (particularly ones that have been in the premier league for more than a couple of seasons) will go back up and bloody well should be at or near the top of the table. You can call me entitled but the squad we have in both quality and quantity is far far better than any of the clubs except Leicester and Leeds. So yeah, I'm loving this right now but lets not kid ourselves he's the new messiah and reinvented football. Given the resources he has, he's just about delivering.

Middle of a busy period isn’t the time to make an unenforced formation change. Especially when 4 at the back was working fine. My guess is he’s realised Manning ain’t good enough at left back

Think Mason Mount would be a superb player for us. Get him in. Also think we should be going for Fonte and Yoshida. Robbie Keane too - we're the only team he hasn't played for and apparently it was his boyhood dream to play for us so that one kind of makes sense. Knows where the back of the goal is, got a goal for an eye and a bit of a marquee signing. No brainer.

That was one for the can we win ugly brigade and needed to be. I thought QPR were tough, committed, closed us down quickly and really pushed us. Excellent away win. Fair play to Charles too - deserved to go but went because he was covering for others mistakes. I wouldn't be fining him for getting sent off. If you want to get promoted then you need performances like this when you can't play your usual game. Great result.

Might be more likely we try to tie a deal up with Trabzonspor for a permanent in January and use the cash on someone else. I'd be surprised if he came back here although I don't think he's ever been given much of a chance.

I haven't really looked at the proposals in detail but this is a rival to the UEFA european competitions rather than the domestic leagues? If that's the case then I find it hard to get worked up either way. Current European competitions are a joke since UEFA caved in and made them more like leagues with group games etc and this would be more of the same. Only thing that would be different is that someone other than UEFA would be getting the cash and presumably the richer clubs would be getting even richer. I was hoping that the big six or 7 would fuck off to a proper European League and the rest of us would enjoy their absence far more than their presence.

Have to be honest, if I were Che then I'd be starting to get worried. Can't get a starting place in a championship team and when he does, he doesn't do very well and rarely scores. Chances are if a prem team comes in for him then it's one that stands a pretty good chance of being relegated and he almost certainly won't be going as a starter. If I were Saints then I'd have withdrawn the new contract offer as well.

Completely agree about Royal Mail, shocking service when it comes to letters. Will be interesting to watch the new Toby Jones series "Mr Bates vs the Post Office"

Unlike Ings. I'm joking though and wouldn't be averse to him coming back particularly if it's a loan and replaces Adams.

Looks like the Plymouth manager, Schumacher, could be off to Stoke. We could be playing Swansea and Plymouth with both looking for a new manager over Christmas.

I'm optimistic about this one. Blackburn are a bit leaky and they won't have had a lot of time to recover from midweek or prepare and practise a gameplan against us. We'll be bang up for it and out to show we can score some goals. Downes, Edozie and Alcaraz to start and an enjoyable 3-1 win.

Yep, I agree. That was one of his best games. He wasn’t that good but least he wasn’t as bad as he can be.

I'm not sure we need that second co-commentator anyway. Most of the time they don't offer that much of an insight.

Tell that to Anne Frank

Haven't seen it but if Starmer didn't mention something about a 2nd division government then he's missed an open goal.

I quite like Mara but he doesn't make it easy for people to make a defence of him. He loses the ball far too often and mostly because he's trying some fancy flick that isn't needed, and he's got a style that makes it easy for people to think he's either lazy or doesn't give a shit. Personally I doubt that's the case but it does look like it a lot of the time. I think he's got talent and has the attributes to succeed but he does need to start delivering and hopefully with a bit of confidence he'll start looking a dangerous player for us. With Ross Stewart out and Che not exactly setting the world on fire he should get some opportunities, if he hasn't taken them by the time Stewart is back then it's probably time to stop persevering with him.

Pretty much echo everything most have said. Best performance of the season and kept it up for virtually all of the game. Movement and passing were superb, finishing could have been better. Wonder whether these three game weeks suit us much more as the opposition has far less time to prepare a game plan to stifle us. I guess the fatigue factor also plays into our hands because we looked much stronger than Cardiff too.

What’s the lineup?

Bit worried about this one, Cardiff look tough to break down and good at set pieces so to counter this I've bet on a Cardiff win. I haven't won a bet all season so that should do the trick.

One good thing is that it’s nearly Christmas so fairytale of NewYork can’t really be played any more than it would be normally. I bloody hate that song. Feel bad cos Shane M had just died so RIP and all that.

I thought last night was OK. Bit boring 1st half and Baz saved us a couple of times, second half was much more comfortable and I'm not going to criticise a win - they did what they needed to. Very bizarre interview with RM though. Whatever wound up RM was probably nothing to do with that interview - he was off hand right from the start so I'm guessing something had pissed him off.

I think this will be an exciting game with lots of goals - similar to the Norwich game. I'm going for 3-2 with a late winner from Ross Stewart.

Yes, pretty much agree with all this. I really like Smallbone. His tackling does let him down but he's probably our best passer of the ball. Particularly like the way he can do quick incisive one touch passing. I think he's best suited to a more advanced midfield role where he doesn't have to worry so much about the defensive side of the game and, once Ross Stewart is fit, then I think he'll be fighting it out with Alcaraz for that position.