Jeremy Corbyn

12 odd million sterling for ABK isn't bad for a player not in the first team plans but hard not to feel a pang of disappointment. Clearly showed tremendous talent.

Home grown, good age, 19 goals last year. Certainly a bit of a risk as he's only done it once, but if he is able to maintain last seasons form for the next few years its more than a fair price. As mentioned, there aren't loads of great #9s out there at the moment.

It would be much easier legally to send people to the Falklands though - the whole stupidity of the Rwanda policy is it was legally unworkable (and they knew it). Can't image the people of the Falklands will be thrilled.

Just back from Paris, it was all very well run tbf, saw 5 events and no issues getting around / getting in. The stadiums are all decent too. Think they screwed themselves with a pants opening ceremony, but they've been unlucky that the games has been overshadowed by politics and it could just be me, but it feels like there are fewer "stars" this year.

If ESR can put his fitness issues behind him that's an excellent signing for Fulham, he's a champions league player. Big if though.

Heading over on Wednesday for a week. Looking forward to it though sounds like security is going to be intense.

Waiting until November to get a new leader, especially with Sunak now playing the nice guy with Labour, makes me think they're taking their time to properly work things out and go for a win in 10 years, rather than go for a quick option to try and be competitive sooner. Sensible approach IMO, would be to give it to someone boring for the next 5 years, rebuild the reputation by not being completely shit and then get to the other side of the 2029 election with circa 250 MPs to build on. In the meantime try and alienate all the mad MPs they currently have (i.e. most of the leadership candidates). They basically need their own Starmer.

KWP doesn't fancy a stint in Riyadh does he?

Have England been defensive or just crap? What I've been seeing is a team that's just not cohesive at all, I don't think it's particularly defensive, maybe a bit cautious, but I think that comes from the fact things aren't working.

It's a lot worse than that, it's like a player better against a team he's playing for. It's essentially the political equivalent of match fixing. It's probably legally worse than what the Tories have been doing but certainly politically not as bad (as noone really seems to care).

Needs benching, might wake him up a bit and can't hurt for a rest I'm sure. We have so much quality in this squad so it should be an easy decision to make.

He's obviously been generally poor and his output last season was abysmal for his ability relative to the league. However, he is one player we have who clearly has the ability for the prem so you never know it could come together.

By all accounts he's developed in to a very good defender over the last couple of years. Always thought he looked like he had a lot of potential at Southampton, but Ralph didn't seem to fancy/trust him.

I'm not normally one for "why would he go there?!" but Gusto and James are both top class, if James can get any sort of fitness he'd literally never play.

We should do what we can to convince ABK to have another go - him and THB would be a superb pair (on paper) - keep KWP and we're 3/5s of the way to an excellent defence.

Southgate might not be an excellent tactician and his game management is poor, but Christ people have short memories. Under Capello we did have a weaker squad than this, but we drew with the USA and Algeria and scraped past Slovenia before getting trounced by Germany. Hodgson lost to Iceland after failing to get out of the previous World Cup group, losing out to Costa Rica. McClaren, well. And Sven the only other remotely competent manager of this century was significantly less successful than Southgate with an equally top level squad. I like having an England side that wins matches and my fear is when Southgate moves on we'll get the appointment wrong and be in a much worse position.

I expect at least 2 more CBs to be dropped, possible 3 and a keeper, that'll even things out. Going in to the tournament with Kane, Watkins, Toney, Saka, Foden, Gordon, Bowen, Bellingham, Palmer and Grealish (as the moral guy) as attackers is very strong, not sure Maddison improves that pool by much.

What this sounds like: 1. Torie's have a terrible GE (circa 20%) 2. Reform have a good GE (circa 15%) 3. Farage goes to the Tories after the election - "you can either have a falling 20% with reform eating away at you, or we'll merge (stable 35%) under my terms 4. Tories accept and Farage choice (Braverman?) becomes LOTO with NF pulling the strings

Such a sad state of affairs, it's literally people who don't have any logical capability being manipulated - and for decent chunks of cash.

I think the challenge for Labour is that I don't think they can technically block her running for Labour and her constituency will want her, so they're a bit stuck. They need to look anti-Abbott to win the racists over ultimately.

BBC making a big deal that Labour are in turmoil because they've "angered the left" whilst it will be perceived very positively by the swing voters. Having Dianne Abbott moaning about Labour is a good thing for Labour.

Can't comment on the full positives and negatives of brining in Lallana, have to assume the club has thought it through. However, if we want a full squad that can compete in the premier league then we'll need to bring in some pragmatic (uninspiring) signings - the veteran pool is probably the easiest, most reliable way to do that.

Lavia and Downes in the middle of a russball team 🍆

Very, very good performance, got to give him credit where it's due - superb job to get us promoted.

Whilst I'm disappointed he let her join, Keir is all about calculated risks and personally I think this is a massive blow to the Tories. One of their biggest "anti-immigration" MPs thinks they're incompetent, will seriously weaken their claim they're the best to handle it.