suewhistle

Having a brief look at the training pics for clues, is it just me or does Boufal look to have a bit of excess stomach on him?

Did Rallyboy make it across, we've been missing his er.. perspective recently?

I've just had a glass of wine with my Sunday dinner, so in a spirit of relaxed flippancy, and with the idea stimulated by reading the MBM report on tonights game, what sound effects should we have at St Marys for this game? Our most impressive feature is when we get the whole ground singing OWTS, so surely they must have a recording of that to hear once or twice?

i believe RH was telling him to look up more, and if you look at our third goal that is exactly what he does and picks out Redmond. We should all remember he's not the finished article but signs like that are promising and that he's learning.

Yes, was wondering about that. Perhaps RH wanted to get a true gauge of the fitness of his core starters against other sides in a match situation? Either way he must have been pleased with their performance. We'll see against Arsenal on Thursday, I suppose. Let's hope Arsenal's luck doesn't change against us..

In one report I saw it mentioned RH being heard urging YV forward and O'B to get his head up when playing, and he himself commented that it was normally the same players he had to speak to without saying who. It will be interesting to see what playing without crowds does, if only for the fact it makes touchline coaching easier. For all they are told in training it's always different in a competitive match situation.

If there are no loos that would get rid of thousands: everybody of a certain age, all the pre-match pub drinkers (will there be any?).. Flippancy aside I can't see no loos, it's a public safety/health concern, but there might be additional staff on hand for cleaning. Also will they institute a mask requirement and maybe temperature checks on entrance? At what stage will restrictions be relaxed, at a particular R rate, nationally, locally? When will even know given the shambles they've made over TTI. I'll probably renew, but it's going to be a season as odd as the last one and I don't envy the organisational task in implementing the new and changing requirements. Incidentally, has anyone involved in grass roots football received the FA's circulars for regulations on resumption? Looks like a fair bit of thought has gone into it.

Are they selling a saints badged face mask yet? 🙂

Ha ha, I just came to check too!

Article in the paper today: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/may/18/premier-league-will-be-allowed-to-ride-shotgun-into-unknown-frontier This is the bit that struck me:

Well, we saw what such hubris did to our own PM. We live in hope..

Yeah! And they could shove in an ad break.. I was reading about the plan in an Italian newspaper: The two Manchester stadia, West Ham, Arsenal, Leicester, Aston Villa, Brighton and Southampton are the listed grounds, plus talk of other rules, no spitting, no post exercise massages, training in masks, twice a week tests.. etc.!

Jesus, I've just gone back a page! I've a few other suggestions now, but at least there's no doubt in my mind!

I haven't dropped in on this thread for ages but is the general consensus that GM is a)mad b)a troll c)both?

Bloomin' eck. Just watched that. John McGrath definitely looked like Desperate Dan!

Nah, I'd say he's always been pretty reasonable. Bear in mind all the sh@tty insurance companies, telcos and the like who have been taking the p*** for years. Anyway, I've paid my council tax up front this year as their cash flow probably needs it a bit more this year and I shan't be going anywhere very soon. Will I even be buying a season ticket in the next few months?!

Fair enough. My pension is not massive, but I was able to pay my council tax for the year in a lump sump this month; I thought the local council might appreciate the cash flow in the current circumstances.

I'm not happy that anybody more should die from the virus, so can I suggest your vile suggestion says more about you than me.

As for the defenders of Johnson, I really despair that they cannot see what a narcissistic, lazy, flippant, frivolous, untrustworthy and selfish person he is. I didn't wish the virus on him but was utterly unsurprised that he got it, having shown by his mixed messages, let alone his actions over time, that he wasn't take it seriously. The government did hardly anything for two months before panicking, which is why we are in our current situation over PPE and testing, let alone the longer term issues of not having enough ICU beds, nurses, doctors, ventilators.. and the 2016 health committee recommendations regarding potential pandemics were ignored. They may be spending money now, but years of austerity are coming home to roost. As for going on about people wishing nasty things on Johnson, I can only observe that the reports I see on actual political violence seem to involve right wing types, so perhaps you could show an itsy bit of disapproval there too.

More than the Home Secretary has done! She's been completely invisible since this all started. Obviously nothing to do or say.. Small mercies..

Yep, I idly looked at FlightRadar on my phone last night, and all the very few flights were cargo, FedEx and the like. In the meantime, have we seen the OP recently or has he seen the light? It looks like the Darwin Awards are going to have to do a mass team edition..

Not sure whether this has been quoted here, but an interesting perspective from an ex-pro.: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/apr/03/premier-league-players-tarnished-by-taking-too-long-to-act-on-pay

Well, Zilina who are second in the Slovak league have gone bankrupt to save the club and have got rid of 17 players in their first team squad. The players were presented with a fait accompli of being paid only 20% and, partly due to the way it was done with no negotiation at all, didn't accept. If the league starts again the club say they will play the youth team.. The players say they were prepared to negotiate, the club say "our 2020 budget was based on earnings which are now zero". They also make the point "unfortunately we won't be the only ones who have to make radical decisions". Ain't that the truth.

Well, as usual the right wing posters are writing what you'd expect them to write and showing the empathy of a killer whale to a penguin to anybody who isn't like them. As usual they make up straw man arguments to argue against. Is the NHS worse off than other countries? Do your own research on number of intensive care beds per unit of population compared with other better off societies within Europe. Do the same for number of doctors and nurses. You could also do it for police numbers too, where we're right at the bottom..

Similarly an Iranian university has modelled potential deaths there (where news on numbers looks like it has been surpressed). If government guidelines are actively ignored (and crowds have been trying to storm into closed mosques) they reckon deaths could reach 3 million..