Holmes_and_Watson

Despite what fans of the club see week on week, the perception of commentators and the visibility those opinions give managers seems to count far more than it should. Just another reason for RM to double down on his "philosophy".

Just mentioned him on 5 live, along with Potter and Howe. And as I type "Russell Martin playing the right way" and are indicating that it's the players letting him down. "But they've decided to not choose an English manager."

I said "freebies". That has no bearing on those trying to drag my idol Taylor Swift into sordid politics. 🙂

I care about the freebies as a matter of integrity (yeah, I know. But I do) I can care about that alongside caring about health, the economy, taxation. Labour looked like they were taking a good run up to governance. This week we've had the investment conference (regardless when deals were done) and inflation has fallen below where the Conservatives were trying to get it to. Workers rights were last week. Infighting may be getting quietly stamped out with the leaks and turf wars being dealt with by new faces. I've not heard the Transport secretary commenting on P&O since last week. Perhaps the cabinet are taking some lessons on when they have to act collectively, unless they want punted to the back benches or out of the party. I like a party with some dissenting views. But that's not the cabinet. We've had new strike announcements (something they are prone to being hoisted on, due to their paymasters) and a budget, that both parties played down before the election. So, lots of challenges to come. For all their sneering about other media sources, there's not a newspaper or broadcaster you can read without a pinch of salt (or a sack load.)

We've still got a few of the players from a previous change in Bree, TP and ABK from before then. Considering at least one player said that they had to relearn a number of their football instincts to get the best out of RM's system, and how we see it working, it's safe to conclude that they would adapt to other, more traditional, systems. Whether that would be enough to keep us up is unknown. Another left field, system at all costs manager might take more time to settle in. An average, yet traditional, manager may find we're much of a muchness with the others and not staying up anyway. It's been a lot of managers since any of our players got to express themselves.

I hope that whoever they look at, they also look for comments from former players/ coaches, if not the fan base. Jones really struggled with coaching PL level players. Whether they had dropped to the championship or in the PL. I don't know whether that was lack of confidence or experience at that level playing/ coaching under someone. But it was well enough known from his previous club. Rasmus, of course, took that as a learning experience. And, I'm sure Nathan wanted another shot at it. Sadly, it wasn't something that had been resolved.

The longer they leave it, the wider they will have to cast that net as the odds increase on us staying up. If they are asking after some candidates now, then I guess Martin is on borrowed time. Just needs one of them to say yes. Sometimes, having the actual vacancy focuses the minds of applicants. But that, or an even less qualified catetaker (Lallana?) could sink our season too.

Jenrick asked about the property scandal. He claims he acted completely above board. It was pulled because they didn't want a hint of impropriety. And Labour agreed to build it 4 years later, so the dodging tax bit must have been fine. And if you believe that, I've a property in...oh, hang on it's not clear where he was living during lockdown

What do you mean "one of"? 🙂

Taking the party forwards...to the 1850s.

Pickford might not get his place back, as TAA will be there next.

I don't know the criteria, and without an axe to grind, he was first minister of Scotland. I reckon the RAF are taking him to prevent Swinney and Sturgeon staging a Weekend At Bernie's, pretending he's alive and clearing them of all their crookedness.

"This story may contain nuts. This warning certainly is."

Lovely work and cracking pass to give Pike a chance. Saints doing well, but a really nice one touch move right up the park from Portsmouth nearly gave them a good chance.

Le Tissier puts away a penalty "as cool as you like" Yeah, it's Maya Le Tissier for Man Utd, but still makes me smile. 🙂

Listening to an Athletic podcast on the promoted clubs. For us, nothing that hasn't been commented upon. They say that it either needs a change in the approach or a change in the manager to keep us up. They point out Martin's criticisms of his team, then that he tacks on a sentence where he takes responsibility for it. They link that with a bit of self preservation on Martin's part as he points out to suitors what he wants to do with better players. Tactically, they say that the system is an extreme version of systems already in place in the PL. They point out that others lessen it to provide pacier attacks. Stats wise they say we're comfortably ahead in passes in our own third, bringing with it the most errors, while offering a lot less in our opponents third, and penalty area. Edit: They also talked about recruitment, with Leicester willing to bring in experience with little sell on, while we look to bring in those we can develop longer term.

Although it's got worse, he's been like that for such a long time. Only having someone as incoherent as Biden sometimes became was a distraction from the severity of it. No wonder he flails and rails against Harris, infuriated that she can complete a coherent sentence. I watched a televised Biden message regarding Milton. He got through it, but looked even more frail. Harris, who commentators are saying doesn't really have a role in a lot of this, but gets air lifted into everything ahead of the election, had much more energy and was able to interact with responders.

It was only recently that his ex-party chose not to enter into discussions with his party, resulting in the removal of the first minister. That's how much his former party turned on him. There was still ongoing legal action. While he lost the referendum, he emerged as still very popular outside the people who replaced him. Increasingly so, considering the obstacles he overcame to get a vote. And considering the terrible governance that succeeded him.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce81p528ejmo DP World now to attend. Reported that there were lots of discussions at "the highest level" but this article says that didn't include Starmer.

Jury

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/10/11/dp-world-halts-1bn-uk-investment-over-po-ferries-row/ Telegraph and some others also keeping Rayner in the frame for her comments. Widely reported shadow comments about them being clueless, the investment uncertainty of having this before a budget, data protection breach by releasing email addresses, Haigh's previous on pay rises and Qatar selling Sainsbury stake citing budget uncertainty.

They could mic up the players, combining that with inscreen data updates from their sports bras. Stephens mic Now I'm centre half. Now get to left back. Now stand and watch someone stay onside. Now make a rubbish tackle. That's never a red, ref you #!*& Stephens 1st in covering all positions in a team Stephens 1st in offensive swear words Stephens 1st in putting off team mates with dodgy positioning

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj9jp3ey0exo Downing Street distancing themselves from cabinet minister's comments. Louise Haigh set to walk the plank?

As @hypochondriac says, they'd clearly worked to make it a key part of the investment announcements. This would have seemed to be a decision Labour would have to make between worker rights of a subsidiary and the investment of the group. It seems the decision had been made to deal with the group. Labour had made the call. That has been undermined by, not just MPs, but by cabinet members. Perhaps they didn't foresee the fall out, wanted the investment and to complain about it, or are just naive ? Perhaps they will come out and say they don't want the investment with that group. Which really could have been dealt with before this stage. Like you say, there's a clear split in the cabinet/ party if one side torpedoes the work done by the other.

It looks as though at least one, much larger, investment due to be announced is now under review. https://news.sky.com/story/blow-to-no-10s-investment-summit-as-port-giant-pulls-1bn-announcement-over-pando-row-13231876