Holmes_and_Watson

Fraser 10/10 to be forgotten by Gio. 🙂

"Like politicians leaving a sinking party," as marine based rodents say. Sunak's predecessors, major financial hits, policy fails, fatigue that all parties get, internal bun fights/ power grabs. Whatever [insert phrase other than "green shoots"] is being made now is offset against that lot. Also offsetting it are people's memories of previous labour administrations. There are still not many interviews that go by without "fully costed" being mentioned. A number of radio programmes this week taking us back to the 70s too. Grim. That might make it closer. Even then, Starmer looks likely. He'll then see his party expand into government, and keeping the lid on the parts of the party he's trying to purge will be hard. And he has to be careful not to lose the votes connected to some of those to other parties. Implementing major "fully costed" measures, will be difficult too. Being able to change with the wind and making u turns won't be as easy as it's been. The recent conservative policies have left even less wiggle room for them financially, as Egg said. So far, he's got a handle on what makes them electable, rather than just ideologically popular. Something some of his party have generationally struggled with. It's an ask to keep his party coherent. But, if he shows a strength of leadership (which doesn't seem to be big part of him, but might be him with his eyes on the voting prize) it might take a couple of parliaments for them to really implement anything they really want. Keeping the electorate onside, while also building for that lot is also going to be tough.

I thought there was a mix of things going on with Romeu's departure. He was very happy at the club and the area. He had become our regular starter by then. Later, and I read it as contract negotiations, there was a hint of a move somewhere else. Livramento's success was the perfect example for SR (even if he was starting to look tired, before his injury) They were also looking to significantly reduce the wage bill. Lavia turned out to be another good fit. Whether the club had told Romeo that his minutes would be more limited. Or if he could see SR's approach and saw he wasn't going to be first choice. The club may have had to give Latvia some assurances to get him here too. When the offer came in, it would have been a tough decision for Romeu. Some of it suited him. Some of it suited the club's goals. The deal needed some additional help to get over the line, even then. It would have been perfect if the club had realised it was a position that already needed strengthening. That young players are not going to be able to consistently perform across a season, not to mention fatigue and injury. There were plenty of minutes there for both of them. It's a shame that the club didn't find a way for that to be communicated to both enough, that they both wanted to stay. Had they both played, then there would perhaps been an issue elsewhere, but could have been resolved. We really needed both. AMN, as others who knew much more than I did about him, commented on what a poor replacement he was for that position at the time. There's a bit of me that thinks the club gets carried away with itself (not just SR). I'd hope it's mainly PR, but suspect they actually believe it. So cutting wages and bringing in young talent may have made them keener than they should have been to move some players on. Throughout all this, and his career, Romeu was a consummate professional. One of my favourites in recent years. A mix of everything we want in a midfielder from breaking up play, technical ability and getting us organised and moving.

Horn

Us at the pub? Oh no, we're being sold! 🙂

Hoot

Probably true enough. I caught the Beeb news cycle on it this morning. Their representative sounded really weak trying to defend a lot of what Elphike had said in the past. One question, picked up on from an early answer, was how did Elphicke saying sorry allow her in, while Dianne Abbott is apparently still waiting for a decision, a year after her apology. The answer was't connected to the question. The rest of the interview was like that, which isn't a good look. It came across as them not having any stances on anything, that would prevent anyone coming in, if it suited them. But in a while, she'll just be listed out as a name when the next detection occurs.

Golf swing is no Windmill.

And possibly last. 🙂

SR's perfect recruit. He gets more successful, resisted every step of the way by SR's policies. The perfect balance.

They're no Pat Nevin, are they?

"Top Bins!" shouted the successful sperm, already sure of the life waiting ahead.

The idea isn't posession for the sake of it, though. The idea is to shift the ball, either attracting players vertically or moving them even slightly out of shape horizontally. Then it's to use that space to move it through them. An example was just in the last couple of fixtures. The ball was getting passed around for the fourth time, when we got that space, it went up the flank and we got a chance. I pressed backspace on my comment. 🙂 There are arguments against doing that at all. Or that it shouldn't take as long. Or that constantly doing it saps momentum from our play. We've certainly had games where we've not managed to create with our possession (others went fine) and certainly that all that possession doesn't stop us conceding. Martin is usually frustrated at us not getting it forward as quickly as he'd like. That just raises more counter arguments about why that is, right enough. He's been happy with the possession stats. But, I've never thought it was that and an off chance of getting a goal. There's always been more to it.

Delay

Steady stream of defectors > Labour majority > Labour torpedoed by all it's new members doing horrible things and destabilising party > Electorate upset by dysfunctional Labour > election announced > Conservatives squeak majority with it's new less weird group of MPs. A plan so cunning, your candidate should be Mr Fox... although possibly not Lawrence... 🙂

How can there be time to practice penalties, when we don't give them the ball until a Friday afternoon, to keep 'em hungry? 🙂

Same opening post... Glass half full gag... Glass half empty gag... 🙂

Cause

Not unexpected.

In other conflicts, Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-middle-east-68963839 Details sketchy, so far too early to see what one side has agreed to and if it's acceptable to the government of Israel.

Welcome to the Saints, Mr Goalie! 🙂

Lamping things with our feet signals a suprise return of Nathan?

A really pleasant surprise, and hopefully Downes will be agreeable. He'd be good in any team, but critical for ours.

Fortunately, your dream ended before their second half come back, when we gave up our midfield. 🙂 It's okay, we work to the whistle, with Fraser getting a fifth and Stewart a header in the last second, in a crazy 6-4 win.

"What could be more left field than a completely unexpected traditional hire?" cackles Joker Rasmus, trying to find Gotham on a map. 🙂