Gloucester Saint

Bethell should have been playing more red ball for Warwickshire. Hardly a surprise he’s come in cold and struggled for all of his ability.

Time for Smith and Overton to be heroes. Siraj doing loads with the ball, incredible given the overs he has bowled.

Hmmmmm, anyone see what the problem could be there?

Maddison’s likely ACL may put them back in the race for Fernandes/Dibling. Fernandes a bit expensive for them with the clubs involved and Everton’s keenness will push Levy up on his normally absurdly low bids on Dibling.

🎵 Fuck is the worst word that you can say….

Having read the comments in full, they are worse than I’d thought. Opening league game as well! https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c6276r0v470o

Loved the England fan in the long-sleeve blue shirt near the boundary rubbing it in right in Siraj’s eyeline.

Should win from here now I’d have thought?

Hard to say until early September and what incomings/loans there are. Key is not to fall too far behind so it rules automatic promotion by October.

Got an Everton signing written all over it. West Ham have been sniffing but if he has school-age kids, might not need to uproot them.

Saw a few on the 2004 Test tour, and you normally spotted them by how sunburnt they were. Was having a few Banks’s the day before is started with the groundsman and locals, an American got out of the sea and was the colour of a lobster. The locals were horrified, as was I, shuddered thinking about the sore skin, and a local older guy walked past and remarked ‘he may not know it now but in 10 years, he will know about it’.

Absolutely this. If Baz does enjoy an upswing then it’ll keep him on his toes.

Fair play to you, we don’t 100% agree on this point but you’re a good poster and I know you’d be honest and objective.

Interesting, maybe with the US economy weaker under the tariffs they can’t afford their usual favourites such as Aruba let alone the higher end islands like St Lucia, Barbados and Antigua.

Wood is English not RoI which helps, as it rules out Martin wanting Smallbone, Baz or Manning. Wood has a high ceiling and quick for a centre back but he ball-watches and as we’ve seen with Jack it is not an easy fault to address.

The club have done their typical thing on here of staff and insiders of the leadership planting seeds on here ‘Gavin is highly rated by the club’ and the latest variant ‘he’s not ideal but fine for the Championship’ despite vast quantitative evidence to the contrary. We also saw them leaking against some departing players popular with the fans. Now the narrative spun is ‘see, people wetting themselves needlessly, look at the two friendlies’ and ‘we are not inviting as many shots at our goal’ (going by the astonishing 51 Rangers have yielded in three games they have a point on that one). Gavin didn’t have a bad pre-season in 2023 either but was terrible when the real stuff started. Watch those posters disappear under their rocks when he messes up in the derby and Still comes under massive pressure as a result. i hope Gavin proves us wrong but he objectively doesn’t have enough of the basics over a 46 game season to finish top 2. Yes, McCarthy’s contract (thanks again Russell) will expire next summer but we will have few funds to replace Ramsdale properly with the reduced parachutes.

Need at least one more central midfielder let alone the 10 and wide areas. Smallbone moving on for a modest fee I reckon, sporadic in pre-season, no sign of a new contract and Saints won’t want him leaving on a free. Good at the central midfield head of a 3-5-2 but if that’s not Still’s system best to move on for all parties.

I think he could be a Jack Cork type of player in the PL with better players around him but yes, in essence, why would the club take a loss of £8m on a proven top player for the division they are currently in? Rangers can’t afford the wages let alone the fee and Martin probably won’t be there that long. Plus, haven't Flynn and his partner had their first child? Not optimum for uprooting.

Similar to Saints v Rotherham nearly 2 years ago.

Well, he’s in the land of Braveheart now. When in Rome….

Smells like https://www.febreze.com/en-us

Fraser can’t seriously be ahead of Robinson for Wrexham. Ipswich away could understand Fraser featuring as more tracking back required.

Loads of those around here. In Cheltenham, they’ve had to put a sign up that Webbs garden centre is still open despite the seeming forever roadworks next to the racecourse.

We should be but we have to earn it on the pitch by working harder, hopefully the fitness work pays off. Their pre-season has been worse than ours but assume nothing. Club needs humility and realism game by game.