suewhistle

Just listening to the radio commentary of Sebia - Wales... (Tadic, tadic, Tadic - definitely involved).

I think the word that sums it all up is hubris. With a bit of schadenfreude on the side. Good these 'ere foreign lingos, eh? As I'm limited in my number of posts I might as well go on to say that not supporting Trident is really not as big a deal as we think. We couldn't develop, maintain and operate without U.S. help, and we certainly couldn't use without US say so. In the meantime our conventional forces are down to bare bones. We live near Portsmouth: ask anyone in the know about our type 45 frigates, we've got only one squadron of fully operational Tornadoes, and so it goes. If you want to look at domestic security, which is more important for most of us Teresa May as Home Secretary oversaw a reduction in police numbers of 20,000, major reductions in border force staff (wait until the French start getting shirty at their ports!) and reductions in prison staff and probation numbers so that suicides are up, drug use is up, rehabilitation is going out the window and prisons are now even more effective academies for radicalising disaffected youth. A shambles in so many ways and I haven't even started on the NHS, education and Brexit. I don't particular like Corbyn or think him PM material, but he's come out of the situation with a lot more dignity than May, and has done well in spite of a virulent, nasty press - 13 pages of character assassination in the Mail, I think it was. Anyway, I'd better keep a post for the new manager debate where I occasionally drop in to see what that trolling runt Heisenberg has to say for himself..

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jun/07/liverpool-virgil-van-dijk-southampton-drop-interest I just saw this so came here for an update!

I'm getting old. You couldn't possibly explain that cultural reference to me, old boy?

ah... I was just about to write what skint did. I was going to make it a question though! :-)

Even more in the Guradian!! https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2017/jun/06/virgil-van-dijk-liverpool-southampton-ultimate-upgrade

I've seen no quotes attributed to the player himself, all reported second hand, to disassociate the report from any human agent. (Hmm, agent?). Just like when you've had an accident.. "Mum, the window has been broken", to deflect blame. The club know there'll be interest, but the blatant reports in the press (with no direct attribution) and no contact from Liverpool, have bought things to a head.

It's made The Guardian too. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jun/06/southampton-to-report-liverpool-to-premier-league-over-virgil-van-dijk-approach

Pellegrino is currently on a pilgrimage between various clubs. Perhaps he'll end up at St James', maybe he'll end up a saint. Who knows, I really should get on with my work.

We don't skirt around issues here, we zip strait to the vitals.

Well, I've renewed. We could get great footie with Puel as he gets to grips and new players or we could have utter crap with a new manager, but I constantly thank the powers that I'm generally optimistic, and that I'm not Heisenberg or Pluto or the rest who are glass almost empty even when it's pretty full. I do appreciate some people enjoy being negative moaners, whether they're justified or not. But the constant changes to match KO times and Southern railways are both, I believe, legitimate reasons for negativity! :-)

Had a good day out there a few years ago - apart from losing 3-1 (I think) and realising Jake Thomson wasn't the answer. The Station Buffet was great and they had a food festival in the station square, which all helped mellow me out for the Saint's performance..

Possibly in the drunken company of McInnes, if my Pompey supporting bar steward (really) is correct in recounting the tale of their behaviour down Goldsmith Avenue at the end of the season.. It's actually very difficult not to imagine John Major writing that 'not inconceivably' and reading it in his voice..

Very sensible. Although I haven't got them on ignore I also find it a good idea to skip over what Heisenberg, Batman, Shurlock and Hypochondriac post. The occasionally useful factual observation (like the Puel presser summaries) tend to be outweighed by the dislikeable negative, repetitive and reactionary cr*p. Whilst I'm on on a rant it occurs you could add Charlie Wayman to that list. Some of the other curious comments on this thread are only from part-timers, so they don't pass the "oh gawd, not again" test.

We can but dream.

Yep. Fortunately it was only like a bit of a play punt for me, and to have a few AGM rights, I knew I'd never make money on them.

It's funny. According to Kinsey 98% of us do it at least occasionally, but there are some people who take it as their life's mantra and act it all the time. MLG, bless 'im, hasn't realised that.

It was patently obvious why he was brought on. We weren't getting anywhere through the middle - and we had the pace and trickery of Boufal there too (however inneffective he turned out to be). Pied was there to give us width and a bit of pace on the wing, working in conjunction with Cedric. The problem of some of the criticism I've seen is that whatever Puel does, whoever he brings on is going to be criticised, probably by the same people who think JWP is useless.

I never had Mr. X down as a troll. Sort of thread the Heisenberg Discontinuity would post.

Yeah, Pirates of Portsea Island is getting panning reviews..

Really? Leaving the professional players less time to prepare? I expect the whole sodding squad to be ready and eager to play, like when I'm not in my team's matchday squad and still chuck my boots in the boot when I go along to watch in case I get the opportunity to be on the bench and pay subs' match fees. As for players not being happy not playing, quite right too. Redmond hasn't had good games every time he's played either and nor has Tadic. And if he doesn't play "his favourites" he gets criticised for rotation. There's room for improvement and we desparately need to score more goals, but some of the criticism is inconsistent c**p.

Well, it was only Manchester United, so not much of draw (this season). Quite a few season ticket holders around me not there and my friend couldn't make it as she was babysitting the grandchildren. There are difficulties for some people in going to mid-week matches, particularly rearranged ones. Plus you then get Southern cancelling the direct train to Littlehampton - again - which rather illustrates my point. Luckily I got to the station early, got the Portsmouth train and (surprise) found the Littlehampton train at Fareham, they couldn't be ar8ed to run it from Southampton, nor did they bother to tell anybody of the alternatives. Rant over.

We had a game against Leicester delayed 30-45 minutes due to a cloudburst. Fratton Park might see a postponement and you'd get wet in the stand, but we should be fine. Currently getting wet inside in a Wetherspoons...

Normally it's us older people who are miserable gits, but on here the younger ones are taking over. The advantage of a bit of experience is that we can put things into a slightly wider perspective. So home performances have been disappointing and we haven't made, and more particularly, taken enough chances, but it's all getting a bit overwrought and exaggerated here. A change after one year isn't going to resolve issues, will cost and be disruptive. Just like some of the players we need to allow a bit of time. A season without Europe and the rotation that involved, important players back from injury, some stability and a judicious signing could all make a big difference. That will be a truer test to see if we can get to a final, finish higher than eighth AND play sparkling, scoring football.

They may be nibbles but I don't think many get hooked mind. It'll be interesting to see the approach next season when we don't have all the extra games and some of our overseas players have bedded in a bit more and know what to expect. Remember that we can't afford to buy the finished article so would hope to benefit from improvement in our young players. Two more wins to see off this season would be nice..