saint1977

It’s been rotten for a long time - can’t remember when it wasn’t. They’ve already done four season in L2 before as well. Speaking of 4, Ipswich go 4-0 up.

I can’t stand Mike Dean but even I have to defend him here. He’s celebrating waving play on and getting a call right. Mike Reed got hammered 20 odd years ago for doing the same thing at Anfield and he was a far better ref. Dean makes plenty of bloopers and seems arrogant for someone so inept but even he’s allowed to celebrate an occasion doing his job well. As others have said, he is an example of a broken system, standards of officiating at the Euros let alone cricket and rugby where it is so much more transparent are light years away from the PGMOL shitshow. Sacking Riley would be a start, Durkin, Webb or Halsey please who knew what they were doing.

It is going to happen though regardless if the club isn’t sold. Gao I suspect wants too much money if it is still in the PL but gets wiped out with relegation. It’s then Russian roulette as to whether there is a decent buyer and MSD will have a major say with the administrator. Gao could bail out for say £20m and the new buyer has the loan in their business plan. Gao loses either a lot of money/assets or all of it basically.

Standard practice until they 100 per cent rule out that the motivation isn’t terrorism if that makes sense. I didn’t meet him but heard from people who did that even if his politics weren’t yours that he was one of the most generous and kind MPs. The devastation and emotion expressed on all sides from neighbouring Essex MPs to people on the Labour left is testament. Worryingly, that’s 4 attacks and three fatalities since 2000 affecting all three main parties, 3 of them since 2010. Even worse, ITN reported earlier that there has been several people jailed for plotting attacks on MPs in recent years but the MPs and media were asked not to speak publicly so as not to encourage more repeats of today and Jo Cox. Rhetoric has to calm down in general and once we know more about who the arrested suspect is, we will see if social media played a role in radicalising. The only thing I can think of is being a former member of Friends of Israel membership that may have inspired a loon, if that was the case plenty of MPs in both main parties will be worried. No excuses at all, whatever the killer was thinking. As Verbal said, a very depressing day for this country even by recent standards. Thoughts with Sir David’s family and friends.

My old man was there and put a few quid on David Peach for the first goal at 16/1. Good price for the club’s penalty taker and a very nice bonus by 1979 financial standards. Lost a good game 3-2 to the European Champions but he still enjoyed the day.

SFC already is really - staying up this season would just postpone the inevitable.

There would not be much prospect of paying MSD off though in the Champ or even in the PL, player sales would buy maybe a season’s space but Gao couldn’t afford to run Netley Central let alone a EFL club. Club might at best bob around in mid table for a couple of seasons but with a vacant owner and no direction the Champ is as unforgiving as the PL, as you probably remember from last time. The can is kicked down the road season by season either way until either the club is insolvent - which won’t take long - or Gao sells at a big loss but still recovers a bit of money. Even with break clauses in contracts if the likes of Stuart Armstrong didn’t have buyers who could afford the wages we’d lose money on those. Better to pull the plaster off as is happening at Derby, they have potential buyers that their administrator describes as serious and SFC would be quite attractive at a more sensible price as well. MSD have lent a much bigger sum than Derby so relegation gives them the keys really. Worrying if SMS has been used as part of the collateral but we will see. On the plus side Derby owe large football creditor debts and £20m to HMRC which at least SFC doesn’t have yet although that may happen if RH is sacked with a defeat at the weekend.

Last one which was a first team player with a contract up that summer was Charlie Austin in Jan 2016. Happy to be corrected if wrong.

That’s almost the team I’d play except KWP and Livra with S Armstrong on the bench as not had much football this season. Perraud was a Leeds summer target, should be good enough to play here. Moussa has his limitations but he will try and progress forward whilst working hard for Perraud. Broja ahead of Adams fit or not, opportunity to see how he and AA combine as AA and CA not working. You just know Redmond will be shoehorned in somehow though by Ralph. If Ralph doesn’t win this, Eddie Howe facing his old club at SMS next I reckon so let’s see if the players respond and want RH as manager.

If you’re a manager of people, you’ll have gone through the same cycle last autumn of preparing a team to part-return, doing COVID age tests with your team members to risk assess and trying to work out how many desks you can actually fit in plus core equipment if needing to socially distance later in the autumn/winter/early spring. Restrictions had restarted by this time last year so it was all in vain. HR policies are useless because the buildings can only hold 30% of the workforce at up to 2m distance which understandably OH professionals want to prepare for. This without the actual day to day technical content and core expertise your jobs require to deliver in order to keep the organisation on track for customers and users so it is on the right side of P and L. None of which people like IDS who have never spent anytime in the real world or managed people would have a clue about. The nanny just sorted out the kids so no issues with rebooting arrangements with childminders and daycare if they still exist in your areas. The tabloids are really brown nosing this morning, I think they have had some bollockings about not toeing the government line. DT has a lead on Boris and the ECJ and more guff from Truss about equality of opportunity - nothing like priorities in a national crisis - Mail following IDS’s lead like a love struck puppy and the Express is pure Conservative Home ignoring the fact the government hasn’t a clue on how energy markets work.

At least there’s confidence they will get a decent buyer either way. Not using a period of exclusivity either but rather deposits which is sensible. £150m in debt, the football creditors including Keogh (quite the story) and Cocu must be paid in full. Morris already knows he will lose a huge chunk of his loanings. Admin saying more smaller loans to get through season and buyers will need to factor in. The loan to MSD is much smaller than SFCs - £15-20m as opposed to £80m IIRC - so Gao really is backed into a corner there if and when relegation happens and situation out of his hands. Should have sold in the summer. On the debit side for Derby I read somewhere that they owe HMRC money. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58838581

Good post. CL is an issue if they do spend like City and flout FFP. Spurs have huge stadium debts and likely to lose out on top 4, Arsenal still a long way off paying for Emirates although Wenger got them through the worst bits for all the flak he took. So if we say City and Newcastle regular CL, it leaves Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs and Arsenal fighting it out. Leicester’s owners have been great for them and probably invested enough in the place to not pull the plug and keep them in EL contention. Villa and Everton are in the next group but priced out of the top table, do the owners consider £400m spending enough for 10th. Tap already turned off at Wolves, they could be in SFC’s position in 2 years. Basically PL will become a league of two halves. Gao wanting sustainability doesn’t bother me but sometimes you need an owner to help with underwriting the pandemic losses and occasionally when the manager needs a CB so we can compete 11-17th. That and the murky circumstances around him buying SFC are why I want a clean slate and him gone. Someone with some interest and investment in more senses than just financial.

Correct. At that point, Gao is going to have to take £25-50m if he is lucky, the new owner takes on the loan in their business plan. If Gao tries to hang on, MSD ends up with the keys which is why Derby will be fascinating to watch as it’s probably SFC 12-18 months down the line. There’s no Mel Morris to keep pumping funds in, however recklessly it was done.

Yep, and despite all of the guff on here about ‘Gao isn’t allowed to sell at a loss etc by the PRC authorities’ the fact is MSD has them both by the plumsack. He should have sold in the summer, he won’t get anywhere what he allegedly paid. See Derby now, see SFC in 12-18 months, there isn’t a Mel Morris spending money however appallingly it was spent at Derby. Derby have more debt because Morris ran it up at a rate of knots but SFC only has TV money plus shaky commercial income and falling gates because the home performances have been so abject. SFC is stuck in limbo, relegation gets rid of Gao but the Derby situation is worth watching to see how MSD behaves and what they do. That is worrying but they say they want to expand in the market so if they turn Derby around with a decent buyer it would help them achieve that rather than acting like an asset stripping low rent hedge fund.

English referees get stick but at least they don’t have to face this in the Champ or League One https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58820881

Yuck - football really is revolting these days. Saudis sports washing through football today mask a truly vile regime, Gao seemingly trying to use SFC as a branch of cash converters and not without issues/smoke on FAPP either. Shinawatra followed at City by Abu Dhabi. Then there’s Chelsea and of course the skates run of Gadyamak, the Arab who didn’t actually exist seemingly, Chainrai and CSI. Cricket has its faults but at least it has only had Allan Stanford by comparison.

1983/4 first season. Hence Shilton Clyne Dennis (brilliant player but would be off by 30 minutes today) Svensson M Wright Williams Case MLT D Wallace Moran Lambert (would link brilliantly with Steve Moran) Subs: Niemi, VVD, Mills, Mane, Bridge, R Wallace, Richards, Monkou, Statham, Pahars (fully fit), Tadic, Bertrand, Lallana, Morgan S, Beattie, Jordan (in his first season was superb), JWP Scary how poor the squad is now, weakest top flight Saints in my living memory. Livra will go on to have a good career and KWP was flying until Ralph starting messing him about. Aside from them and JWP it’s mid table Championship standard at best really, perhaps lower. To think with this heritage and standard of player - even across different eras - if some posters on here think the fanbase is happy with the status quo, Gao etc then they are deluded. As someone else said, it makes it all the more depressing seeing Redmond on the team sheet every week when you’ve had the Wallace brothers for years to watch, Mane, Pahars, Moran.

Palace have started better than SFC then, and that’s after the huge turnover of players they’ve had and Eze out long term. This will stand up to scrutiny with minimum 1.25 points a game over the next several. They will need to be a million times better than the Wolves game as they were turd but at home, that was shocking from SFC, sort of performance that gets managers the sack. If Ralph doesn’t achieve that then time for new blood.

I agree that the pool needs to increase and some of the intimidation is disgusting. It was bad even in Tyro League in the 1980s let alone now. Mike Riley was also dreadful, Durkin or Webb were miles better, Halsey as well. Peter Walton commentating on referees is a joke as well, just re-watch Saints v Brighton in the Champ in 2011 and your jaw drops at the incompetence. I In the short term, I can see this won’t be a one off https://inews.co.uk/sport/football/jared-gillett-referee-australian-who-premier-league-watford-vs-newcastle-1209077 - I would actively recruit from non UEFA leagues if people want to work and study here in careers meeting the visa criteria and then see if they can fast track through the system to shift to refereeing FT here. That’s until the pool improves and we can field the best of England and the world at PL matches as we do for the players (well mostly…). That has to be better than people like Dean hanging on through VAR when he is past his sell by date and was shit even before that. That list of bloopers from Saint John you could replicate for most regular PL clubs over the last 10 years. He didn’t cost SFC the game at Chelsea but couldn’t help but try and dominate proceedings through VAR because of his ego. One of the big things which needs to change in referee training as people rise through the system is game management and not being the star. The ref for the Saints v Wolves game was decent (better than the players as he at least tried to help a game of football break out amongst the mediocrity), wouldn’t mind having him again. Andy Madley was it?

Shocking if true that only 7 PL clubs have 50% of more of their first team squads vaccinated. Liverpool are in a better position than most to exclude players who refuse but strong management needed. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/58775881 You can still pass it on if vaccinated but given how seriously unwell some of Newcastle’s players were pre vaccines and Cotterill nearly dying of it you’d have thought even the average footballer with an IQ of 70 would get it sorted. Report in the Sun yesterday on front page that at least 3 first team England players refusing, probably bollocks. If I was Southgate I wouldn’t select them, unlike the contractural issues clubs face, national teams can make a stand. Would help flush a few people out as well in public. Funny how PL players agents are so attentive when transfer fees and contract renewals are due but don’t care enough to drive their precious down to a vaccine centre to stop them killing themselves and others - kids not vaccinated - around them.

It’s just common sense isn’t it to do this. I’d imagine it’ll be one of the first changes the new manager - Eddie Howe or someone else - will make. They have done OK so far but you can’t see ways of improvement with this manager, stuck and run out of ideas.

I work with some Leicester fans so definitely a ‘no refunds’ policy where Jannik is concerned. Great for 3 months last season but otherwise terrible. Very poor even compared to our better DCs of the dismal 90s - Hall, Super Ken let alone the all time best ones eg Michael Svensson, VVD, Toby and Mark Wright. Wesley saves him from getting into the worst ever SFC top flight squad. And boy have we seen some astonishingly shit, overpaid players in the red and white stripes since 2016 when Les got the train set. Ross and Les must have been consuming some strong stuff before and during the games they were watching - Vesty £17m, thanks for giving us 90% of that back Brendan, Hoedt a £4m player for £17m left on a free, Carrillo 10 games, £20m near enough, free…and so on. Sad about Berty as great player for us overall but has just run out of petrol. Hope SFC starts trusting Perraud and teaming up KWP and Livra on the right. Tbh, I’m not sure Lyanco can be worse than Vesty even after a shaky start at SU, and he only cost an average Championship fee. At least he can run for a start.

It’s going to be the reality until the real game kicks in with relegation which is a fact sooner or later with the rudderless ownership and not being able to compete so blatantly. That brings a scenario whether either Gao sells for a smaller amount to get out of the PRC altogether with or admin with MSD getting the keys. The sooner this happens the better tbh because Gao can’t afford the club in the PL with Sky money and would only get a small fraction of his asking price in the Champ, albeit enough to start a new life with. People have posted that he isn’t allowed to sell at a loss by the PRC authorities but that’s bunk because if they take it off him, they have to fund it which they won’t want to do, especially with horror of horrors an American lender owed a wedge from 2025. Derby are in a far worse mess but there seems to be plenty of bidders at the reduced price. League 1 was ok, get a good buyer and get going again upwards.

The course - Whistling Straits - was a Pete Dye brute. Pretty to look at but very tough and that’s without any real wind off Lake Michigan. If you overshot the greens on some of the holes, it was computer game-like with 45 degree shots up sheer banks blind to the pin. Ryder Cups are a bit like cricket where home pitches are prepared to suit their players and conditions. Started by GB (GB&I after early 70s) in 1957 where the US were not used to the collars of rough around the greens. Will be interesting to see how Rome sets up in 2023.

They do if longer visas and higher pay/equal conditions than they’d get in France or Italy bridges the gap for a few years and buys the UK government time to adapt. It’s better than ‘come here for same/worse until Christmas but only because we are in the shit but we don’t really want you here you foreigner’ which is the messages Schapps and co are sending.