melmacian_saint

In terms of economic change, this country is to be trusted: there was no mercy when de-industrialisation effectively became government policy in the 80s, I expect a similar attitude to financial services now the industry is facing similar structural challenges. And frankly, the jobs that are moving are those that can be offshored - that is, those positions with larger headcounts.

And the Cork and Ward-Prowse families are it again. Swansea will eventually stay up and James is doing pretty well, we basically have to make sure he plays with the correct alignment with the stars every week, but at least he's in the England squad- can't you just let it go? I have never seen such huge trolls hovering over a player that frankly is as sober and level-headed as you get them. Though I guess it's all proportional to the mediocrity of their protegées.

I'd advise a couple of places in Finchley Road- only a few minutes away on the Metro line a probably nicer/less packed than in Wembley.

Went for Sunderland, Middlesbrough and after much thought Bournemouth. Sunderland can't defend for their life even though Defoe keeps getting 15-20 goals every year (top striker). They might change manager in March once again but I feel that this time the trouble is deeper than before. Middlesbrough are quite the opposite: solid, very much the image of their manager as a player, but nothing more. 19 goals is rather poor despite their defensive record equalling that of a CL-chasing team. When other teams around them start feeling the pressure and upping their game, they will struggle even more. Which leaves me with my final one, Bournemouth. The reasons that led me to them are their momentum and calendar. They have by far the toughest run of games and also the most decisive, in a moment where they are far from their early (or last season) form. West Brom next week is their easiest away trip until the final day of the season, in what could be a heart-stopper against Leicester anyway. Including last week's game against Man City, they will be facing all of the top 6 teams before May, and these almost always follow a relegation 6-pointer (they face all of their rivals except Hull and CP). They also have little that is new about them: same manager, very much the same team and style than last season (so no surprise factor from being a newly-promoted side). As far as the season goes, West Brom vs. Bournemouth is the trigger for the final sprints for Europe and relegation.

Stephens who made his senior debut at Plymouth - so at best "groomed" in the academy.

Gabbiadini was exactly what we needed. Top striker and good technique!

I think we'll be fine- our seasons usually include a slow start, a strong push up to Christmas, a bit of a poor spell up to the end of winter, and then a strong finish. On evidence, by the time the League Cup final is out of the way (be it with happiness or frustration), I expect us to be in form again. Most relegation threatened clubs will have a slight dip in form around then before having an equally strong finish, so I can see us capitalizing on that. And remember our first season? It was the home results against the top 5, not the relegation 6-pointers that were crucial to our safety. We've been good against them this season too and with Chelsea running away I think their form will become a bit more inconsistent. We will be fine, whether Puel should stay is a different question. For me, winning the cup and staying in mid-table would not be enough, and he would leave on a high note.

Let's have a count of hands for the friends/relatives of the Cork, Ward-Prowse (you will have Davis to thank if James saves himself from the hype in the next few years) and Reed families that have posted here... Get over yourselves, enjoy League Two and Clement's great escape with the now rebranded Swansea Soccerball Swans.

Hmm as a financier, what would be more interesting, loaning to a football club or a property developer? Think Millwall are the most central club in London after Chelsea (maybe even before), and Bermondsey is too central to too many things, so it's one of the property/demographic hotspots at the moment. Craven Cottage is effectively a heritage site, but I'm surprised QPR aren't facing similar challenges, then again the bubble has well and truly shifted East.

We'll never know exactly what happened, but it sure seems strange that since 2014 few players are able to leave us in good terms, without handing in requests, posting weird tweets, getting into fights or agitating the board....

Make no mistake: had we started our European campaign in the qualifiers, it would have been Jutland all over again. So it was good that we made it to the competition proper. Having said that, after our defeat in Prague, you could see that we were very reluctant to progress. A shame because it doesn't seem like we will make this year...let's hope for a day out at Wembley!

This Olympic Stadium story is becoming a bit of a nightmare for them, isn't it?

Well in this case I argue that from a political perspective it benefits the UK to be on Ireland's side, so if anything it fits well with the current environment of the Tory-Fine Gael governmental relationships.

I hope this Government can start by picking its friends in Europe. After seeing how eager the Germans and the French were to show the Americans how big they are with their new found European liberty (finally without the British double agents, they will say), it's time to start making some strategic trips around. Nordics, Dutch and Portugal would be my first picks. And this probably won't please many, but the UK could even show some support to the Irish in their tax causes. Divide and rule.

We have gone backwards on the single, most important contributor to our progress in the PL of the last 4 years- the DM role. A few of us will remember the first few games we had back in the PL in 2012, where even with a number of tough opponents in the first couple of months it became clear that we were completely out of balance playing with a single DM (Schneiderlin at the time). This changed when Jack Cork came back form injury and he then got immense praise for the partnership with Morgan. We finally looked like a team who could play like we wanted (attacking in numbers, with a massive involvement of our wing players). The arrival of Wanyama was an improvement on this situation, and indeed we haven't let a DM (or defensive minded midfielder) leave on a free and always got money for the 3 that played in that role in the last 4 years. We knew how important this was, and we have had two seasons to find an adequate replacement for two outbound players, whose exits we delayed as much as possible. And yet all we got are Romeu and Clasie who don't really seem to be to different from each other, and we are playing in a formation that needs a true, physical holding midfielder as much as possible. Our inability to find a replacement to the most crucial position of the "Southampton Way" is what will cost Puel and ultimately us.

The real shame if things don't hit the ground running post international break is that we will probably waste our Europa campaign just to try to scrape a few wins, which will set a rather depressing dynamic for the whole year

Looks like a good deal, hope it's a success. It is quite annoying that with an airport 15 minutes away from most of Sotonians, most of our European tour will have to be done from Bournemouth or Gatwick...really does not simplify the logistics!

At least we've made it to the competition proper this time! Hopefully we can visit some decent stadiums, going to Astana or Azerbaijan on a Thursday is the worse that could happen to us.

Well Koeman showed the way with the Eredivisie, time for us attack the middle class of Ligue 1. Nice, Toulouse, Guingamp, Caen...come at us.

You are right about many people in the UK and Europe being unaware of what the roadmap is for Europe, or at least not actually believing that some of those steps will be implemented. I do think that the time for that is past: Europe will fragment, and sadly I think that it will affect the current predicament of many of its countries. But let's just think of the Commonwealth. Most of them are emerging economies that rely on low value added exports, others are developed nations that face the same challenges as the UK, except with smaller consumer markets, though perhaps with the ability of disguise their probems thanks to having larger pools of natural resources. Overall, however, it's a group of countries with massive shortcomings, except for CANZ, regions of the South of Africa and couple of others. Would we benefit from being closer to these economically than to the high value networks we have with some regions of Europe? I'm not saying we would not be able of having both, but I just don't see how one would argue a stronger economic case over the other.

That would definitely beat the record for the most clustered group in the history of european football. Having said that, I wonder what the record is? Not sure anyone would look at that statistic but would interesting to know!

We will most definitely be in Pot 3. In recent years, all the group stage debutants from the top 4 european nations (Torino, Augsburg etc.) have gone straight into that pot. Which means we may be able to avoid some nastier trips to Ukraine/Russia/Turkey, however we will have to hope that Pot 4 includes a few nice teams from Scandinavia or some Central european nation so that the whole thing doesn't become a pain. While there were two Azeri teams there last year, that pot also included clubs like Sion, Molde, Midtjylland (cough, cough) and Groningen, so one can hope that this year it will be the same and we can draw one of those! Based on past years, my favourite group would be: -Pot 1: A team from another top 4 nation (I'd say Germany for a decent away fan atmosphere) -Pot 2: Another top 4 nation or any team from Western/Central Europe -Pot 4: Team from lower-ranking W/C Europe, Scandinavia or in worse case scenario Greece or the Baltics (we can probably field a younger/weaker side there, so let's hope it's either the first or a last, irrelevant game)

I'm happy as long as all our trips are within a 3hr flight range.

Must say, after Midtjylland and a shaky period in the middle of the season, I thought things were going in exactly the opposite direction that they ended up going. So fair play and congratulations, Ronald Koeman. Your decisions and choices have been given a massive, European seal of approval!

http://www.global-counsel.co.uk/sites/default/files/special-reports/downloads/Global%20Counsel_Impact_of_Brexit.pdf Very interesting study, and show that there is no such thing as an "Unpopular" Britain in the EU... The UK has healthy, stable relationships with many European countries. Had it tried to use that soft power to push reform, and help other with their agenda, things would've worked out. It is true however that many of those potential allies have found themselves in fights for survival or to try to preserve their own positions within the EU (e.g. the scandinavians and their struggle to avoid joining the Euro, or the Netherlands trying to solve their banking woes). One thing has to be said: without the legislative leverage of Brussels, the UK would've probably become the natural leader of Europe. Which probably explains France and Germany's push for the emergence of the former.