Shandy_Top_89

Anyone who thinks the Liberals would go into coalition with the Conservatives to allow Brexit must have some degree of brain damage. If Labour came out as Pro Eu there is no doubt they would support them if the numbers took them over the line, being anti Brexit is literally their core reason for existence these days and if they went against it they would soon surpass the 8 MP failure in 2015. If it was purely about power then they had the numbers to go into coalition with them again this time around and didn't. As much as I dislike Boris Johnson he is playing a political blinder right now, the only way to stop him will be for Labour / Lib Dems / Greens / Plaid Cymru and maybe the SNP to play the FPTP system and refuse to stand against each other in target seats. Lib Dems, PC and Greens have already agreed this, if Labour refuse to work with them the Johnson will get a majority. Unfortunately I think Labour want to play chicken with Boris and push him toward the 31st of October to fracture the Conservatives. Meaning they are willing to risk no deal for electoral performance, I would like to be proven wrong through.

This was a reply to the question about Danny Rohl not being in Austria.... Pressed the wrong quote button.

Managing the XI for the friendly in China?

Does anyone else think that some of the surprise drop-ees might actually have been left to one side for that Guangzhou Evergrande game, given that its 'Southampton XI' thats playing and not the first team? Im thinking of the likes of Slattery, Reed, Lemina, Clasie, Johnson, Austin, Carillo. It will probably be an U-23's plus First Team Shop Window squad?

All good will from the World Cup gone from me now, that was utterly abject and the worst England performance since Iceland in 2016 (cant see that ever being beaten). Starts at the top, Southgate picked an absolute dog of a starting line up. But Stones should never EVER play for England again, I know Maguire had a poor game but the first howler was all down to Stones, Maguire gave him the ball in acres of space and he just stood around, waited to get closed down and then tried to Cruyff turn his way out of trouble. He then proceeded to fall to the floor and stay down, when if he had got up he may well have got to the ball and supported the rebound from Pickford's (excellent) save. Stones was also the orchestrator of the second howler with an excellent assist from Barkley. Not to mention he actually lost the ball in a similar fashion in the first half but got away with it. Genuinely one of the worst performances I have ever seen from an individual in one match and i've witnessed peak Jack Stephens.

Wider point, but this board seems to have way too many categories. Outside of Saints, The Lounge and The Muppet Show this forum is dead quiet, might as well just merge all non Football topics into The Lounge IMO.

I don’t see why they would do it though. Both Kiko Casilla and Bailey Peacock-Farrell are better keepers than Forster.

Unless something changes they will be out of power at the next election. Depending on what actually happens between now and the next general election, my (completely uneducated guess) is actually that the cons and labs will still be the largest parties thanks to FPTP, but they will both be an absolute mile off of a majority. Cons will be out by virtue of there being more coalition or supply options available to Labour. Unfortunately I think SNP could become kingmakers and we could end up with another EU referendum (which I’m all for) and another Independence referendum (which I absolutely detest). I think Lab / SNP / LD will be the only way to form a majority after the next election. Brex will do well, but they will just split the existing Con vote.

30m for Mitrovic? No thanks.

All media will be ridiculous tomorrow. But sometimes you just have to say fair play. That is an absolutely ridiculous result. Hopefully super Dusan can be the ex Saint to beat them all.

I don't think that will be the decision that costs them.... They have all sorts of issues they need addressing first, their entire structure is wrong. Big contracts dealt out to players that just aren't good enough (sound familiar). Poor transfer strategy focusing on signing superstars ahead of actually meeting the needs of the squad. They need to spend this summer removing the dross and fixing their core, then they can focus on sharpening their attack. Think it would take two years worth of decent transfer window activity for them to get anywhere near Man City. For now they need an entire new set of first team CBs (Maguire and De Ligt), a decent RB and some talent in the centre (Neves) to even get into the fight for CL.

RB, not XI

Top six is pretty tough, but ill give it a go; Gunn, Bednarek, Høj, Romeu, Redmond, Prowse. Bertrand is pretty key too and I think Valery is big for the future although id buy another 1st choice XI for now.

Think that playing friendlies and the lowest rank qualifier on the road is the way to go. Think England - Costa Rica at Elland Road had a great atmosphere, the same fixture at Wembley would have been insipid, the FA have seen this and have now recouped enough of the cost of Wembley to hit the road again. Top level friendlies, Nations League Games and the majority of qualifiers can still be played at Wembley, particularly as we actually seem to have a somewhat decent National side these days.

For me, double sub at half time; Sims > Targett Ings > Long Switch to 5-3-2, Push Bertrand into LCB and Stephens to RB. Move Ward-Prowse into the Centre and hope that Long and Redmond running at Newcastle can create some chances. We need to solidify or this could be 4 or 5, we aren't creating much anyway.

Because of the turn around in performances with our existing players, I reckon we could be in for a decent season as long as we get the following signings right; 1 x RB, 1 X CB, 1 x ST. I think the following will either be sold, or out on loan; McCarthy, Stephens, Hoedt, Austin, Elyounoussi, Gallagher, Forster (if we can get rid), Cedric, Davis, Boufal (Dont see Hasenhuttl putting up with his attitude and we have better AMs now anyway), Clasie, Carillo, Austin. So we will end up something like this; GK Gunn Lewis Rose RB New Valery Ramsey LB Bertrand Targett McQueen CB New Bednarek Vestergaard Yoshida Jones CM Hojbjerg Romeu Lemina Slattery Reed AM Redmond Ward-Prowse Armstrong Sims Hesketh Johnson FWD New Ings Long Obafemi Barnes We will probably see some new faces pop up from the academy too to bolster that. On paper the side looks kind of thin, but thats just an indicator of the sheer amount of expensive deadweight we've accumulated. First XI something like this; -----------------------Gunn------------------------ ----------Bednarek--Vestergaard--New------------ --New--------Hojbjerg------Romeu------Bertrand-- ---Prowse----------------------------Redmond------- -----------------------New---------------------------- Subs; Lewis, Yoshi, Targett, Lemina, Armstrong, Sims, Ings. Depth; Rose, Valery, Ramsey, McQueen, Jones, Slattery, Reed, Hesketh, Johnson, Obafemi, Barnes.

Hughes was pretty poor in the end, but still deserves a little credit for saving us at the end of last season. If we had kept Pellegrino I don’t think we would have registered the wins against Bournemouth and Swansea that kept us up. His appointment was just strange from the off, nothing in his track record suggested he was the man to take us forward. Although it looks like he has done an ok job with Leganes, so maybe lower La Liga is the right place for him. Hasenhuttl is simply a level above Puel, Pellegrino and Hughes. A manager more in the Pochettino and Koeman league.

On the one hand £40 off is nice. On the other hand I’m sat by the stairwell of block 15, so now the seat opposite mine is £131 cheaper by total pot luck and I stand very little chance of changing seat. Unsure how to feel about that overall.

Just imagine if we bottle it in the next six games and get relegated on the same season ticket prices as this year. £540 for a Championship season ticket... better get closing those corners again (and the whole Kingsland too).

I was wondering why I’d never seen this mentioned on here before. Would love to see stats on this as we must be one of the worst in the PL at this. Our players never show for throw ins, so the throw in taker never has options. It’s been a problem we’ve had since Puel.

“Very Excited. Fresh Budgets, Targets researched and scouted, and no January Premium on the players.“ This is an April Fools, isn’t it?

Are Man City on the verge of the easiest route to an FA Cup final of all time; Rotherham (h) Burnley (h) Newport (a) Swansea (a) Brighton (Wembley) Their League Cup run wasn’t the toughest either; Oxford Fulham Leicester Burton... They certainly don’t need any luck, but they seem to get it in spades.

Appears he has been touring Italy trying to agree a position with Italian MEPs where they vote to block Article 50 extension in the European Parliament. Sounds pretty close to the actual literal definition of treason, as opposed to the version of treason Brexiteers like to shout about. Doubt anything will be done about it though.

Think this is just the start. When (if) we leave then it’ll be the start of strong sustained pressure to rejoin, which won’t stop until we do. That could go on for decades. This issue is never going to go away. Brexiteers seem to be under some delusion that it’s over as soon as we leave, but I can see it intensifying...

Just the two assists at the Bernabeu for Tadic so far tonight......