saint1977

I hope he doesn’t leave but realistically if City, Utd, Chelsea or Liverpool offer £70m say then he’s off and wouldn’t begrudge him either. If it’s Newcastle and if they offer £10m more than the pack above and £200k p/w in ages it’ll also possibly happen although I think at 27 JWP would prefer a club that can compete immediately. Spurs haven’t got the funds and Gunners would have to sell to buy at the level plus some way off truly competing but a bit more geographically feasible for the player.

It is the Mail, the other right wing papers haven’t seen any mileage in it. With the change of editor, a lot more dyed in the wool party activists infiltrating pretending to be journalists and you can see it in the last few weeks, making Conservative Home look like the New Statesman. Once upon a time it was the most critical of all papers about Boris when May was PM, now if it goes brow noses any further it will find Boris’s intestines. Will make zero difference to the results as most of the Mail’s mostly over-65 readers aren’t voting for anyone else and they’ve alienated the rest of society with the Rayner stuff, which is why the public other than the usual single brain cell brigade aren’t taking much notice either as the weekend’s story went down like a cup of cold sick. They can blame it on the MOS but it’s same rotten culture that’s blown in post-Geordie Greig. I don’t have any time for Angela Rayner but some of the reporting showed how shallow the current Tory ‘party of working class’ is. She is working class and the content directly attacked that from an Etonian perspective. Or in the Mail’s case, where they wish they’d gone to school, but Daddy could only afford the local grammar.

Probably influenced by the Forest v Leicester FA Cup game recently where the idiot ran onto the pitch. Chelsea v Fulham though - the Tarquin derby. West Ham v Spurs is far spicier. Leeds v Man U is the biggest omission - the songs and behaviour were as hostile as ever at Elland this year.

And Carillion collapse. This blog articulates the dogma well - Labour got obsessed with PFI which was just as bad. Moronic for this government to keep making the same mistakes and expect a different result. East Coast Mainline Rail too - makes healthy surplus as public entity, thumping loss as private. But as Badger says below, if the aim for their donors to cream off from the taxpayer (see Covid PPE on a grand scale) then job done https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/what-carillions-collapse-tells-us-about-public-sector-outsourcing/

Let’s see if anyone on the Brexit side takes up the challenge you’ve set. Other than GM posting late night gibberish cut and pasted from the Heritage Foundation or some other loony source.

Prefer Henderson but read somewhere wages in the region of £125k p/w which allied to even a medium-sized fee is unlikely. Johnstone more likely but his agent hyperactive recently in linking him with Spurs. Lloris has another 2-3 years potentially at the top so would going there as reserve.

I don’t like Angela Rayner at all but that’s sick and the journalist that authored that needs sacking. Just because it’s been suggested to him through the fog of a skinful of booze in the HoC bar by a couple of pervert MPs doesn’t mean it should ever be in print. Cowards won’t even stand by their story now https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-61208037

Mind you, at least Carlisle will still be EFL 92 members next year unlike our fellow PL founder members Oldham. First ex PL club to fall out of the league structure. Remember us losing 4-3 up there final day in 1993 for them to stay up despite MLT hat trick and pitch invasion again in their peak. Very different invasion today.

He also ignores the hybrid working arrangements that many private and independent employers have put in place to attract and retain talent eg Deloitte, HSBC, IBM, Slack, Top Uk Universities etc in his desperation to carry on the culture war this lame duck government has waged. Then I don’t suppose he understands productivity when he’s has had nanny, and various other minions running around after him all of his pampered life. Although he at least has that in common with most of the cabinet including the PM.

Owner needs to make his mark in the summer. Clear out fringe first team players, sell maybe a couple of current first team eg Stu, Jan, maybe others with contracts drawing to a close eg Oriol and Ely and that with £30m investment - and if we can’t do that net then Semmens picked the wrong horse - and buy a new spine. Literally and metaphorically.

Commentator - ‘Ralph Hassenhuttl must be very disappointed in his players reaction to going 1-0 down’. Well, we aren’t surprised so why should the manager be? Cash in Redmond, Bednarek, Ely with new investment from Dragan - new spine of CB, MC and Striker and all should be near or over our record signing fee levels. Let’s stop acting like a Championship club in administration. New GK if can’t agree terms with FF. Might need to cash in on an asset - Stu or JWP or Salisu - but got to do it.

Everton keep on pulling injury time points out of the bag at home, still useless away. Burnley by contrast have only won 4 games all season in the league. They have to win tonight or I can’t see any prospect of overhauling Everton. They do look better than Everton on the road so could drop one home game later on but tonight is about keeping Lampard and co under pressure. In the mid-late 90s, these are the sort of games at home Saints always won to stay afloat at this time of year - mid-table opposition, a couple of early lively tackles, first half goal and Dell crowd revved up. Cornet has looked a decent buy but very costly missed pen at West Ham and Prutton-esque miss at Norwich. I agree with CB Fry though that in sacking Dyche I was expecting someone else in the next day after his sacking at this tail end of the campaign. There was a bit of reaction at West Ham from the Norwich defeat which doomed Dyche but amazed Saints aren’t facing a new appointment tonight!

Not really sure who their demographic is these days. Broadsheets have traditionally been graduate or equivalent professional experience territory, but the Mail used to be what was called mid market which had some professionals and skilled trades in it. Since Geordie Greig left, they seem to be trying to pitch in on the Sun’s ‘left without any qualifications or skills’ audience. Very odd, the pensioners who have always read it will probably agree with them on not only civil servants but a lot of multinational and national large private sector firms who they consider ‘woke’. Even a lot of SMEs have some staff on a hybrid model to compete on the recruitment market, it’s an employees market out there. Whereas the Mail always look through the perspective of the 1980s when technology was rudimentary. A total of their journalists are from that era and probably quietly seething at their Victorian era owners and editorial board from the ark in terms of lack of flexibility but too cowardly to take that into print. As a non public sector senior manager, I’m on a 3-in 2 WFH pattern and the latter two days are my most productive.

And cunts of newspapers shamelessly brown nosing the trio this morning. Namely the Sun and Mail especially. Yes, there is war on, UK not directly involved. Shouldn’t be called journalists, they are activists and campaigners, make the Mail put the Conservative logo across the top. First bit of shouting from Downing St and social media activity from Tory Party machine and they shit their pants. So what if PM was there for 9 minutes, rest of us risked prosecution at that stage and thousands dying whilst nurses and doctors worked around the clock to save people. If these two go, Lord knows who we will end up with as the Tories limp on towards the 2023 GE and the lack of alternatives with two brain cells might save them. Looking at the unnecessary gridlock in Kent as well, this government and the electorate have a shedload to be ashamed of. What is the actual point of the modern Tory party? Ambitious, upwardly mobile party of my youth? Nope. Pro-business? That’s totally out of the window with Brexit. Free market? Ditto. Just seems to be a nationalist, populist rump, a soft focus BNP. Centre Left economics with mixed up and chaotic social conservatism, the latest thing being the attack on C4 which gets no taxpayers funding. With the laws they’ve introduced, they can’t even claim to be libertarian.

Overall you make a fair point and grateful for what RH has done over the three years, along with Semmens. Relegation would have left a worse position than 2006-9 with Les’s two year crazy spell of wastefulness without Koeman, Poch or Nigel to keep him in check. With new ownership, whilst not a panacea and we will see what the impact is, the narrative around the violent positive/negative swings of form is going to be harder to justify. He also got lucky that Tuchel took his foot off our throat for the last 30 minutes on Saturday because that could have been 12+ conceded combined with the woodwork and Werner sitters and that would have been the sack and humiliation. Unlike the 9-0s there was no early sending off or injury crisis to mitigate - Tuchel pulls his pants down tactically and Ralph did not or could not pragmatically adapt. I do think a better back room staff will help him adapt when other teams work out our latest system and pattern of play. With respect to the current staff, I don’t see anyone who could read the game well enough at the top level.

I feel this has a problem throughout much of his time with the club. Certainly, a better coaching staff with some teeth as well as expertise would have reduced the damage on Saturday, changed the shape and flooded the midfield after 10 minutes - not as if there weren’t quite a few obvious let offs even before the first goal! I can understand during the Gao days minimising non playing budgets but surely this has to be a priority with the takeover if the new owners think Ralph is the manager they want? During games other teams seem a lot more proactive eg last season strong first half and awful seconds. Thought that had got better this season with that but other coaching teams have sussed us again and RH seems to be drowning a bit. It might also help with the major summer rebuild of the squad required as whilst Crocker and Ralph haven’t done too bad recently on recruitment, with the scale of what needs doing some new voices and networks on targets might help us get the 3-4 starters and 2-3 development players in the squad we need.

Yesterday really underlined the scale of the rebuild needed with the squad. Although not as many players actually out of contract as Palace had - Forster and Long will make a dent - plenty eg Redmond, Romeu, Moussa and Ely with only one year left. Salisu down to two. Will City or Liverpool come in for JWP? Have to be aiming for what they did last summer. Freshen up with better value, more energy and players with decent pedigree and potential to go on to CL clubs. Likely outs - Bednarek (City game bottled off) for £15-20m, Ely £15m, Redmond £12-15m, hope not Romeu but possible. AA could be out on loan. Broja going back to Chelsea. Compromise agreement with Theo on last 12 months and do his coaching badges? Moussa loan fee-perm somewhere £5-9m. Forster definitely out on free and Shane ought to be. Diallo hasn’t had much of a look in this year and doesn’t fit manager’s system, could get the £12m back. Tella ditto, might get £5m from the Champ? Positions needed accordingly 1x Gk 1x CB 2xCMs 2x10s At least 1x CF Heck, hope Crocker wasn’t planning a holiday…

I know it’s not the worst score line today - Leicester was - but at lest there you had the combination of a senior player sent off very early, torrential rain and Leicester battering sides right left and centre. Been a supporter 40 years and seen some stinkers at the Dell/SMS but even in 04/05 we only lost 4 home league games. Bear in mind the woodwork strikes Chelsea had and eased off last half an hour and it could have been 12 goals if they kept going like Leicester did. I’m trying to think of a worse home display in terms of organisation, work rate and organisation. Chelsea did score a few in the FA Cup in one of Adkins’s last games but we did lead and I don’t remember it being as gutless and chaotic as today. Let’s hope whoever is the manager in the summer can galvanise some sort of pride in home displays. Barring a spell earlier this season we’ve been terrible at home since Koeman left. Can’t think SMS ST renewals will amount to much without a clear sign of intent to invest in a major squad overhaul.

The squad needs a huge rocket up the backside either way. When a more talented side works harder than you, it can only go one way. Saints fans will forgive more than most - and boy have we had to since Koeman left - but lack of work ethic is one thing we won’t forgive. Atmosphere could turn toxic if there isn’t a major reaction in the remaining home games plus a clear plan to rebuild the squad and add some character/resilience.

Ralph cannot be allowed to survive this. Need to find an interim to tighten up, get another 6-7 points on the board needed and start the search for a new manager for the new owners by the summer. Just Tyro League basics to tighten up and drop deep but the same tactics and press F5.

Depends on the player and the position. Fraser has been able to see his contract out in his 30s because no one else would pay him whatever crazy sum his extension put him on, allied to the fact Gunn and then McCarthy were unable to secure the number 1 consistently. Ditto Bertrand, 30s again, one of the top earners and no other LBs at the time. Redmond at just turned 28 would waste a valuable year if he can’t see a way regularly back into a starting berth, and it’s a position that is less specialist. Free agent at 29 but barely played in 2 years - would be a recipe for the Champ. Whereas I think he could get a PL move this summer. Theo definitely won’t be going anywhere though! Ely will be the interesting one - no talk of his being offered an extension despite a much improved campaign, plus he has seemingly plenty of clubs interested with a year to go. There will be interest in JWP and especially Salisu, and that’s where we will find out what impact the debt has or whether the new owners have a plan as part of the much lower purchase price to service those and offset any early repayment penalties.

Nathan just turned 28 last month, no talk of a new deal so I reckon he will be on his way with good wishes and I think we will get buyers. Djenepo - harder to predict like the player himself. Still only 24 so we’ll probably get a loan fee of £5-8m that is effectively a transfer fee. Upper level Turkish clubs such as Fenerbache linked. Ely will be interesting - done well this year but rumoured to be on £60k pw already and can’t see Saints wanting to go beyond that with an extension. Could be a cash in for £12-15m, lots of seeming interest in the player. Tella looks good when he features but to what extent has he impacted on games with goals and assists, less than Ely, Nathan and even Theo. Signed a new deal and 23, so needs to either kick on in pre season to force a regular XI spot or could be making an impact in the Champ like Obafemi now finally is. Could be another sale to a promotion chasing team. Hope not but there is a lot of summer re-shaping to do and some additional funds needs to come in from trading. AA is a difficult one - do the club think he can ever cut the PL? If not, probably better to offer on a loan-perm, could get quite a bit of the money back. He could be a useful impact sub off the bench I think but assuming Broja doesn’t join permanently and Long goes (surely?) that only leaves Che.

Theo yes, stuck with him for final year. Poor decision whoever that was to offer 2 years. Nathan is a few years younger and could easily do a job for a promoted side in their first couple of seasons eg Bournemouth (no need to move house) or Fulham. Inconsistent, but can be a match winner and puts in a shift defensively. All as long as Saints aren’t greedy on the fee eg £12-15m. He’s only 27/28 so another season of not featuring pretty much finishes him as a PL player anyway and I can’t see him being the type of player being happy to kick his heels for 2 years.

Decent point to stop run of defeats at a side in some form, JWP another master class free kick. Forward line needs a major summer overhaul. Brentford will get the headlines today, stunning drubbing given to Chelsea on their own patch by their neighbours. Talking of derbies, Obafemi popular in Swansea after 2 goals sparked another 4 goal away win at Cardiff. Brighton entertainment again, goalless home to Norwich and missed pen.

Yes, Whitelock’s is one of the best in Leeds. Smiths pubs I wouldn’t choose in Leeds with the extent of other choice there but are a budget option. Beer generally kept OK and bottled beers eg Taddy Porter, Stingo and Nut Brown Ales very decent but it’s the daft rules enforced by Jonathan Smith that are notorious https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/samuel-smiths-pub-swearing-ban-humphrey-smith-fox-goose-droitwich-a9152461.htm Joe Lycett trolled him hilariously in Smiths home of Tadcaster https://yorkmix.com/joe-lycett-takes-on-sam-smiths-by-setting-up-his-own-pub-in-tadcaster/ The beer to look out for in Leeds - if you see it you have to try it - is Elland 1872 Porter. Up there with Sarah Hughes Ruby Mild as Britain’s best dark beer. If it appears at any beer festival it’s gone in 30 minutes or less https://www.ellandbrewery.co.uk/cask/1872-porter/