John Boy Saint

I get the point totally - its the fact in some quarters that he played at Swindon as a nipper - that's it the lad is always going to be a 3rd division player until they screw the lid down on his box.......he could pop up and score the World Cup winner for England in the World Cup still as a Saints player (having played a season with a 38 game consecutive clean sheet defence ) instantly a national hero: on here "yeah but he played for Swindon 8 years ago......we could get a better player".

Wow! its is amazing what folks type - "oooh 5+ years ago at 3rd tier Swindon" cripes "the lads a steaming pile of manure" "you must have potatoes in your head to think he could that or even contemplate being a Premier League player!!" Whilst I am not saying that JS could play a DM role, the fact he is 5 years smarter (more experienced) seemingly counts for diddly squat in some folks minds - the lad learned to tie his boot laces at Home Park, Devon. then the County Ground in Wiltshire Hmmmmmm - if only he and learned to do that at La Masia in Barcelona "we could try him up front then". Fifa on Playstation is a game, the people aren't real, your team are only as good as your fingers make them work................ if you have been playing footie on a games consul for 5 years if you could play yourself from 5 years ago you'd be smashed off the park. The real Maldini, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, they weren't always the players everyone got to fawn over: and I am not saying JS make their level (bloody great if he did) Jack Stephens is a damn sight better than some folks give him credit for. Anyway we have all digressed, this is about Hojbjerg: hopefully by teatime it'll all be done and dusted.

Do you know, when we can all go back into the ground, whether on a day when I have driven 300 miles visiting customers having just enough time to swing by home to pick up Mrs JBS up (oh and get changed) driving the 30 miles to the stadium, getting through the turnstiles at 19:05, having only grabbed a quick sarnie from M&S at 13:00 .......... if I will still be able to buy one of the cracking pies made Brighton way that the club had on offer from the concourse to fill the void prior to kick off: as always Thank you in advance John Boy xx ☺️

yup The Sun reckons 21st August

Come on you Bees!!

No one seems to have commented that in all the launch hullabaloo so far there is not one image (that I have seen) of the whole kit being shown - maybe I’m being cynical but is this because in the cold light of day the lighter blue shorts and socks with the dark blue shirt looks an absolute dogs dinner or a village youth team who have cobbled a kit together by raising funds holding a raffle, washing cars, then raiding EBay?

Did for a while, mainly because he looked half arsed especially with the captains armband he was given presumably to keep him sweet. But going on a comment He made just after Ralph’s arrival most of that was likely down to the turgid football we played under Puel, Pellegrino and Hughes. He has been much better this season.

2 games stick out with him for me, one (alas the oppos desert me) but he was playing just in front of the defence, he was up against comparative monsters in the opposition forward line, but he was like a janitor, mopping up everything in very tidy fashion seemingly not getting at all flustered. The other game was his cameo against City under Poch where we upset the form book, he got sent on in the latter stages at 3-1 seemingly with the instruction to shut down Aguero. Every time Aguero got the ball Reed was all over him like a rash, which I thought was impressive for a green player up against someone who was already well established as having plenty of guile on the pitch. After being thwarted by Reed for the 3rd or 4th time, Aguero stood by the Kingsland touchline looking at his team mates and bench with the body language of “I don’t know what to do against this guy” I’d have thought that he would fit into the world of Ralph because he does seem to have a good engine and the tenacity to hunt the ball - which is how Ralph wants us to play. With PEH out of the picture and Romeu seemingly stepping up his game, it’s whether Reed himself would poke up with sitting patiently on the bench - he does seem to be one of those who just wants to play football.

I thought the same when I saw him - in the Bees game the night before when they mentioned Dean Smith Villa boss being their manager after Warburton departed them bizarrely after seemingly doing so well. Should be an interesting play off final - be surprised if it’s a cagey affair.

Like was said by one of the better Journos at the time of FFP being switched on - whilst being good in parts basically FFP is kicking the ladder away for teams looking to break into the top group of teams. Blackburn came close with Jack Walkers money, which is where the question was spawned, Man City are the only team to have pulled that rabbit out of the hat since Blackburn but as we have seen in this carry on they have had to apply some financial chicanery. Leicester winning the league wasn’t done with money it was just a freak of nature, but look at all the “big” clubs who swooped in to pick them apart of players afterwards. It’s interesting, reading some of the Hagiology books, Saints could have been an established as footballing power house, trouble was the geography of Football. We were capable of mixing it in the top flight of English football years ago while Football was still in its infancy. What would have killed us was the traveling to play in away games, top flight football was centered around the Midlands and the North the travel expenses to play away in these places would have crippled and broken Saints finances of the time. Certainly would have been interesting to see what might have been if we had the wherewithal way back then.

As I said around the time - I can live with that score line simply because my neighbour is a Leicester fan (more Rugby than Footie) but weirdly that was the first time he had seen them in a league game, and what a game to see your team win handsomely away as a first. The reason why I can live with it - my neighbour nicest chap getting all set for retirement has the bombshell dropped on him that he has terminal bowel cancer - his first target was to see last Christmas, his current target is to reach his wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks time. For him I am pleased he saw such a bizarre spectacle - as for the game his situation puts everything into perspective as a team and fans we can brush ourselves down and carry on.

Cheers Billy for once again keeping us throughly entertained with your post match reports for another season.

"Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said "another Liverpool legend" had left the club" ☺️"Legend" !!!!! If Lovrens a legend then Liverpool really have become B&M Bargains..............that quote has made me laugh more than when he missed that decisive penalty.

Probably not a bad thing as the Cockwomble would no doubt have had him heading to Anfield or OT by Wednesday teatime in his 'review' of him.

But that nice Mr Klopp has blown sunshine up his backside by saying publicly this season that AL has been an integral part of the success at Liverpool. Unlike that Tommy Fourpast by comparison who got himself front and centre of the dressing room images singing “we are going up” when we got promoted back to the premier league - not one person at the club had a positive word to say about that bloke.

Egg me old mate I would suggest that you blow the flame out on that particular candle, the bloke is a wastrel, and he sure as hell ain't our best midfielder as he ain't been in it for over a season. Given the outlay we made on buying him, versus what he has given back he is nowhere near consideration as a "best midfielder ".

They seem to be using all the channels where there is spare capacity to squeeze out 8 live games simultaneously Think the British Masters will be done by Saturday Tea Time and Sky can't be bothered to change the Channel name to Sky Sports Toffee for 2.5 hours. And whatever Golf the Septics have on this weekend doesn't start the live feed until 7pm and beyond.

I would like to see them both get into a position where they both drag each other along in a friendly goal scoring competition, they are both relative youngsters one who has only known Premier league the other who has struggled a little to come to terms with it, which has prolonged the issue. Both are capable, players Ralph knows MO still needs polishing, MO makes no secret of the fact that he has Ralph in his ear and seemingly he accepts that as he is eager to be better. Anyone who has watched Che with their own eyes can see the guy has a footballing brain whilst his shooting boots have been misfiring somewhat, he does seem to have good vision on the pitch. Get the pair of them to click and it could be fun. I don't think that "click" is far away, against Chelsea Boxing Day when Obafemi scored if you look back at it as Michael was running at the goal, Che was ahead of him and rather than get involved if you watch Che you can see him backing away from Michaels run and in doing so taking the defender with him and making a bigger aperture in the Chelsea defence for Obafemi to work with. Last Sunday Obafemi had the quickness of mind to see he was heading towards a cul de sac Adams was showing for it, Bingo! They are both capable enough, just get them both to knit together and we could be onto something, certainly take the pressure off Ings if they do.

They must think Tella has something as he penned a new 3 year extension a couple of weeks ago.

Why would he want to go anywhere at 31 he has a contract paying him reputedly £450k per week until 2022. Having bumped into him at the Vale Resort last Autumn, Wales were playing at home and it’s the accommodation for both the Rugby and Footie when playing in Cardiff - good luck to him is all I can say.

What an easy job that is - all done, dusted and crossing the ether while still sat in your Jim-jams and still coffee in your cup! Just shows what little attention the hack has paid to Ralph’s preferred player profile. Still always good to keep abreast of what life insurance and solar panel deals are available to me locally. 😁

Poor little Adam Lallana doesn’t get a last hoorah at Liverpool. 😪 😄

That’s curious - I guess if I find out en route to the the game that I have missed out on a social distanced seat for the game, I can divert to the golf course and not have to change my shirt.

Jeez even I would take the job - money for old rope - lose 2 get the tin tack whatever cockamamy contract you have paid up. What a way to earn a living - rest of us ordinary souls get the sack “bugger how am I going to pay the mortgage” football managers “Oh dear this’ll upset the wife for a few weeks - I’ll take her somewhere nice”. - they need fire and brimstone for the next 2 games and they are looking at a limp lettuce leaf............. the running of football does make you scratch your head sometimes.

Or just Shite