aintforever

I don't think sliding towards relegation was part of our business model though.

Can't see Corbyn hanging around that long somehow. My point is it is all about perceptions, at least now when David Milliband or someone similar takes over with a half decent team it might appear like a fresh, more electable Labour - not just another bunch of career politicians (which is how it would have been perceived had the current clowns not taken charge). That's assuming Labour can elect someone half decent, which is a big assumption.

Blair would never get re-ected purely because the mess he has made of the Middle East with his illegal war, they are the only chickens coming home to roost. The idea that New Labour was dead and buried because of the last election defeat and the party had to go in a different direction nonsense IMO. Labour lost because they had an unelectable leader and just happened to be in power when the global crash hit. A similar Blair style Labour could easily win again, especially if the Tories are in power when the next crash hits. In a way this period with Corbyn in charge could prove to be a good watershed for Labour.

Yes, but that has little to do with how electable they are. The largest effects of the last labour government was caused by the global crash. Whoever was in charge at that time would be easily blamed by their opposition and have the **** kicked out of them by the electorate.

Except I don't think it was Blairite policies which the country rejected, it was just Milliband was unelectable and Labour just happened to be in power when the global crash happened. It's not hard for Cameron to look the best bet for PM when the opposition oversaw the disaster and their leader is a cartoon character with a speech defect. A cente left, Blair style Labour is the only Labour that would get into power IMO.

Relegation is a serious threat, we need to invest some money this window.

Not sure why. I hate the Tories and all they stand for with a passion, but I would have to think twice before giving him the keys to no10. I agree with some of his policies but certain things, like his hug a terrorist approach, make him simply unelectable.

I just find the whole thing fasinating. Corbyn and his supporters appear to be in a complete world of their own, I guess these political types spend their whole lives surrounded by similar people and get carried away with their ideas. Then they get to a point where it becomes an internal struggle within the party and their own selfish agenda and desire for power outweighs what is in the best interests of the party. Just being in control of Labour is their victory, what happens at the general election or what it means for the rest of the country is irrelevant. We need a new left of centre party, unions are an out dated concept anyway.

As long as we have a decent team I couldn't give a monkeys if none or all our squad comes from our academy - it is not important to me in the slightest.

I'm note sure why anyone is getting worked up over this. Fact is that the market we are in we are going to get players using us as a stepping stone. We buy players that the big clubs are looking at but don't take a chance on, get them to prove themselves as good Premier League players then sell for a profit. Players will always choose a Liverpool or Spurs over Southampton, you just have to accept that and build a plan around it which is what we have done very effectively so far.

Interesting link, this bit particularly rings true; " To an extent, what is happening in the Middle East is what happens when America and the West suddenly lose interest." Militarily IS are **** all, for all the big talk in the media the UK and US don't give a ****e about those areas of Iraq and Syria. Most of the oil producing parts of Iraq are secure, that's all that matters. We've gone in, secured the oil, and left the place to rot.

Yes we are, it's amazing how so many people get deluded after a couple of good seasons. There are loads of examples of teams getting into Europe then relegated the season after, like Hull last season. In 2003 we were a model club, thought we'd cracked it. Yet in 2005 we finished bottom.

No reason why not, done it before. All you lot wet the bed when Lallana and co were sold.

No one is going to rip up the plan and start again just because we finish 12th, it just means a couple of signings were not as good as thought, and our best keeper has been injured. We will carry on as usual, if we get high enough bids for anyone we will sell and replace them with what the club thinks is good prospects. There is no crossroads.

I don't think we are at a crossroads at all, we are doing very nicely - last season was probably the best we can achieve bar winning a cup. We are always going to lose players to clubs like Liverpool and Spurs, that's just where we are in the food chain. We are nothing like the club that Saints was in 2004.

The crazy thing is that we are borrowing billions every year just to give it away as aid, so it's not even our money and will have to be paid back with interest. Having said that, at least foreign aid will save lives, not just the carpets of people who choose to live on flood plains. I would say blowing billions on new nukes or a high speed rail link is a bigger waste of money. Cameron is guilty of a dereliction of duty with his cuts to the environment agency, all science points to climate change causing more of these sort of extreme weather events. If we are not going to bother seriously doing anything about climate change we should at least be preparing for the inevitable consequences, we should be investing massively in flood defences.

They can't recruit other extremists unless they communicate their views somehow.

People walking around in a forest carrying a rifle, hmmmm I wonder what they could have been up to?

Might not, but it would make the chances of catastrophic warming less likely. Like I said, as these events happen more and more the cost will be so great that it will make investing in renewables and restricting carbon emmisions a no brainier.

Of course it will, but how long will we sit and watch it get worse and worse before doing anything about it? There will come a point where the cost of clearing up the mess or trying to adapt will be more than the cost of changing our way of life. And that is just here where cost is measured in money, not human lives.

Saying that weather has been happening for billions of years is just a pointless statement, fact is climate change is making it more severe, it's only going to get worse and most our settlements are near or on waterways. We need to plan to cope and do something serious about climate change because most of the people in the world who are effected way more severely are not in a position to cope. We are lucky that we just end up with a few people moaning about wet carpets, not dieing of starvation.

I wonder how long this will go on for before we get serious about doing something about climate change?

LOL, u ****s know **** all about football.

Not sure of the relevance of historic migration - we have never experienced immigration on this level before. At least leaving the EU will mean our government can control it if they want to (which they probably will).

On the subject of 'state of denial', if we are in any way serious about combating climate change then fracking is definitely not the sensible option. I think it is something like 3x more carbon intensive than tradition methods of extraction. We would be way better off just buying from abroad. Or we could just pretend the scientists are all making it up because it suits our lifestyle.