CB Fry

What a load of nonsense.

Always nice to read another dispatch from Sholing's very own Walter Mitty.

How about the US, they've got elections to win, or is that not sovereign enough for you? If we go out of Europe we'd be utterly helpless in negotiations with the US and we'd be signing up deeper and quicker than the EU ever will. Also, Europe does have elections.

People that say "write off [the next tournament] and build for the [tournament after that]" are, frankly, Talksport-ian idiots. What would be the point of being intentionally rubbish or selling tickets for matches knowing there's a high chance if throwing the match driven by knowingly selecting a sub standard team. Secondly a flop qualification campaign would be a utterly harrowing experience for the players involved. There's this nice little preconception that chucking a load of young kids to fifteen months of utter failure, humiliation and national opprobrium would magically and conveniently turn that same group into a high performance winning machine just in time for the very next qualification campaign (the one we're not going to "throw away" of course) but being that the manager will have been hounded out by then and the players may well be figures of derision and/or fun, I'm not so sure. I'd also wonder how much better than 30 points out of 30 our "write off 2014" alternative squad would have been. Or, they are partying in the streets of Amsterdam this weekend knowing that the 2018 WC campaign is going to be an utter triumph. Watch out for the Greeks too - they've written 2016 off so much I think I'll stick a tenner on them winning the whole damn thing.

I looked at it once. Pitifully unfunny.

His little legs don't reach the floor, bless him.

Absolute comedy gold.

By winning every single game?

Bit of a dig from Factless there, I think.

He'd have to win a trophy or two with us to get anywhere near the Arsenal job, and even then he wouldn't get it. The chances of Koeman being he in summer 2018 seem remote to me. If he sees this season out and does one more that will be your lot. What I think will happen is he will sign a rolling "extension" to avoid a year of will he/won't he nonsense but leave in Summer 2017 anyway. He will obviously be the Dutch coach one day, hopefully later rather than sooner.

Frank, Soggy various people called Nick, loads of others on the bandwagon. About twenty times more people than called Pelle the best in the world or whatever you were going on about yesterday.

Next qualifier. I would think they will very popular friendly opponents pre-France 2016.

Not sure people on this forum cam give it the large about catchment areas, given the horses hit spouted about it on here in the past.

Handed their season tickets back because being charged to park in the car park, I believe.

Talking ***** like this: "He has been excellent in his role in charge of the Saints" "It would be a hammer blow for Southampton, however, if Koeman left." You know, talking ******.

For broadcasting rather than gate receipts but yeah, basically. Us and Germany/Italy/Spain have to be in bigger groups for the pan-European TV deal that was agreed.

It's only about four hours on the train from central station to Manchester for you, so you could have a little day out to investigate.

It should be something like this, maybe a bit the Davis Cup thrown in where the smaller nations have to qualify for the qualification groups proper. But won't happen, yet - the FA need to pay for Wembley and can still sell 70k tickets for pointless qualifiers against no marks. Ditto other nations who want a fat calendar of fixtures. One day the powerful club bloc might smash it, but feels a way off.

Of course we don't suffer any more than any other club. Just paranoid dins on here.

Only people in Saint George's utterly fictional world.

This. It's naive to think we are a "commercial strategy" away from breaking America or Japan or wherever. The only "commercial strategy" that is going to "work" is us winning trophies and being the Champions League. I have no doubt Manchester City have more fans in the USA than they did when Shaun Goater was playing for them but it isn't because of some great commercial strategy. If they'd finished 10th for the last five seasons no one in Seattle would give a stuff. As you say, most of commercial opportunities will be with people a bit closer to home, including those who live in the UK like Saint George.

The ramblings of a fantasist. I'd forgotten his classic routine about red and white stripes. Saint George gold, straight outta Sholing. "All the folks I know in America where I live and everything honest I do live there I mean here honest gee whizz howdy anyway all my good old American friends I live with all hate red and white striped items of clothing they do oh you limeys that's what we call you here where I live in America oh I love a Twinkie bar me. Yee-ha."

At absolute best, no short term change. But over time we will remain tied to all EU trading regulations/standards etc but with no say whatsoever in how they are devised. Either way in a short time we'd be weaker in Europe than now, and lots of small businesses could struggle, and larger businesses could reassess where they should be. You want to believe the Alex Salmond-style argument where we leave the EU and lose all the bad stuff but keep all of the good stuff but I don't.

Because it's the biggest and our biggest market, and on our doorstep. Maybe that's why.

And the EU, even without us will still be five times bigger. And contains 3 of the top ten, all three of which won't be falling over themselves to give a standalone UK a better deal than they're getting.