stevegrant

There's a Michelin-starred one in London that I like these days

Not sure why anybody gets worked up about the England manager having a different opinion. Bertrand tends to come back from England duty tired or injured, so him not getting picked benefits us significantly.

Southgate's point with this squad seems to be one of continuity from the World Cup, so giving those who were there the opportunity to retain their places. There's only been three Premier League games in that time, so I don't think that's a completely unreasonable stance to take, and the 5 changes are enforced ones (3 sort-of retired, 2 injured). The October squad will be one that could be judged slightly differently, I think.

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Vince's recall causes Hampshire a bit of a headache. No guarantee he's going to play, as it's a 14-man squad which includes Jonny Bairstow - who may yet still be able to play despite a cracked bone in a finger - and Moeen Ali - fresh from a double hundred and 6-for in Worcestershire's win at Yorkshire. The game against Essex starts a day before the test match, so I guess ideally they'd decide on Bairstow's fitness by Tuesday or Wednesday which might allow Vince to play in the championship game if Bairstow's fit to play for England.

Cedric spends loads of time in London, he's constantly posting photos on Instagram of various restaurants he's visited. No big deal there.

Martina's record wasn't great either, tbf. One (ridiculous ) goal and three assists in 36 games in all competitions.

I'd be concerned in the short-term because we don't have another senior right-back. Sticking Targett there on the strength of a good 45 minutes against a much-changed Celta Vigo side in a pre-season friendly seems something of a gamble to me - the phrase "square pegs in round holes" springs to mind. Still a bit confused by the treatment of Jeremy Pied last season, really. Did pretty well on the handful of occasions he actually got a game, and yet we seemed to make it clear pretty quickly that we weren't going to offer him a new contract despite the fact there had been all kinds of stories linking Cedric with a move away for months.

Full list of assists: 2015/16 Newcastle (away) - cross for Pelle header Aston Villa (away) - cross for Mane header 2016/17 Leicester (home) - pull-back for Ward-Prowse goal from edge of the area Crystal Palace (home) - low cross for Ward-Prowse tap-in Chelsea (away) - cross for Bertrand header 2017/18 Arsenal (away) - cross for Long goal Arsenal (away) - low cross for Austin goal Everton (away) - cross for Redmond header That's it. Plus the one goal at Wigan last season. 97 games played in all competitions, 1 goal, 8 assists. Meanwhile, Bertrand on the other flank has 6 goals and 18 assists from 147 games.

Impossible to tell without us actually being in the situation, every club is different. Stoke have Peter Coates who has always been happy to plough money in himself, and recently-relegated clubs do get a lot more leeway now under the new EFL FFP regulations, so that's probably a factor in their spending. Our wage bill is big, but I would expect we still put salary reduction clauses in most players' contracts as a matter of good practice, and I guess we'd also be looking to sell a number of players - some who want to leave, others who perhaps don't - to generate funds to either plug gaps or to enable us to recruit players more suitable for the Championship. The wage bill is almost certainly why we're now seemingly in a "one-in, one-out" scenario, it's the long-term cost of players over the duration of their contracts that is the big issue, not the short-term ability to find money for a transfer fee.

The club doesn't spend more than it earns, therefore as long as Premier League football is retained and the broadcasting deals continue to pay out silly sums of money, the club is absolutely fine. We are not reliant on the owner putting money in.

I'm led to believe that the "official line" out of the club changed midway through last week, so basically it became fairly obvious that something was up, and that the illness line being pushed at the moment is a cover for him being a pain in the arse.

Not true. Mark Clattenburg was the nominated English referee on the list, which is put together at least a year in advance, but he then retired. There isn't a reserve list from each country, they just went with one of the referees from a different country instead.

As far as I'm aware, not a single offer has been made. Whether he and/or his agent think one will materialise as long as he sits tight, who knows?

Perhaps, but as much as many of the more vocal fans in any club's fanbase tend to make it seem like the majority are idiots, the reality is that most people can see beyond the platitudes and bull**** that are often offered up in this sort of situation. The reality that we can all see is that we've got one of the - if not the - club's highest earners now with the status of third choice in a position where only one gets to play each week, and our two biggest transfer signings are out on loan because they're either nowhere near good enough or have fallen out with the manager, and we can't get shot of any of those three on permanent deals because they're costing a combined conservative estimate of £150k a week and nobody else in their right mind will pay that sort of money. I don't think there are any new constraints within the club as a result of the takeover - to my knowledge, which may obviously be incorrect, the whole club has had a feel of "business as usual" the whole time, whether it was before, during or after the takeover. The club doesn't spend what it doesn't have, and when we generate additional revenue (as we have done in the last couple of years with new sponsorship and TV deals) that will be used towards the first team. The problem is that, in certain areas, that money hasn't been spent anywhere near as wisely as it used to be.

While I appreciate the general sentiment there, the club is currently in a situation whereby a number of past mistakes are holding it back in the present day, so I think reviewing those mistakes is a good idea on this occasion if only to refocus minds in the hope that we learn from them. We're seemingly unable to sign any new players now until we've sold one or two, because we've accumulated a bloated squad on massive wages who we now can't get rid of. As above, why was Forster given an extended contract when his previous year - the first year of an already-lucrative long-term deal - could charitably be described as "par"? Why, when the chairman has acknowledged that they had doubts about Pellegrino for some time, was a club record fee sanctioned for a player whose credentials never fitted what we were really looking for and was seemingly brought in because of his prior connection with the untrusted manager? From a non-footballing perspective, why does the ticket office persist in sending tickets - whether season tickets or individual match tickets - out at the last possible moment, giving themselves no time to resolve any issues? That said, I am also very interested in what Gao's strategy/motive is, although ultimately, fans of pretty much every club will always be taken for mugs indefinitely. That's the way football is, especially at the top level, these days.

Not Glaswegian, but definitely a clone. Auf wiedersehen.

The club are arranging free tickets for all travelling fans for each game. You just need to contact the ticket office by email (tickets@saintsfc.co.uk) or phone (02381 780780)

Well that was a ****ing disaster

Pretty sure GDPR doesn't apply in instances where a company is compelled to hand over data as a result of a court order.

Yeah, I binned it as soon as they wanted everyone to pay in Bitcoin.

I'm planning on doing the Schalke game as well, managed to get a direct flight from Moscow after England's potential second round game for less than £200. For those only doing one game or the other, the big Chinese cities offer 144-hour visa waiver schemes for UK citizens, so you'll only need to apply for a visa if you're staying for longer than 6 days. So I probably need to cram 4 or 5 days' tourism into two (Friday and Saturday), with a midnight flight back on Saturday night. Should be fun

A surprisingly comfortable chase. Top of the league

They've also signed Louis Dennis on a free from Bromley. 13 goals in the National League for them this season.

I like our batting lineup in this format, Amla can play the big, quick-scoring innings but will generally leave that to his partner, and Rossouw and Vince are more than capable of taking the game away from the opposition in the space of 5-10 overs.