Gloucester Saint

Season starts next Saturday and the fixtures are harder at the start. We got some early points in August against weaker teams last time and then a horror September which meant we were always chasing. Possible we do the play offs but a big ask to go all the way. We don’t agree about squad strength - Downs has a lot riding on his young shoulders, hopefully the Espanyol cameo is a portent of what’s to come. KWP was a big attacking as well as defending factor last time. If THB was fit I’d be more comfortable but the defence lacks experience and goalkeeper doubtful. Downes injury hopefully is short-term. If Still can wring a couple of wins out of what is there in August and a draw, that keeps in the top two picture if there’s some quality starter incomings and a #1 keeper, Ryan will do nicely, for this level.

Hope you’re right and the Jan 2023 splurge should’ve come off of the PSR calculations by now but who knows. Any activity is probably a bit too late for this season now but get rid of Brum and Ipswich, and 26/27 might be able to have more of a go at the autos.

He’s one of their own after all.

Alfie House made it around £40m including the SAA money before Dibling is sold. Fernandes will be going as well so that should take it over £100m. Issue as per 2023 will be the incomings. Probably will be a couple of PL 19 year old ‘projects’ on loan, I can’t see any Charles-type incomings this time. They should be recruiting a #1 keeper, even if it’s a Ryan on a free but I’ve a nasty feeling that they won’t even do that.

I wouldn’t believe anything coming out of the club any more than I would Starmer, Badenoch, Davey, Farage and whoever the Green leader is these days.

Yep, if you want to feel some sense of interest in someone’s professional sporting career and that they value the support they receive, cricket, rugby, darts - they’re the sports where that still happens. I only follow what happens at Saints in the same way someone’s been watching a soap opera for 40 years plus in TV and although it’s really not very good now, you can’t quite push the off button entirely. I feel sorry for the youngsters though as they won’t have that sense of identity with Williams/Moran/Wallaces, MLT/Shearer/Case, Antti/Beatts/Killer, L1/Champ promotion sides and the Poch/Ronald/EFL Final sides.

Moyes was on their pre-season tour in the States complaining about how difficult the transfer market was this summer and that they finally had some money to spend, the new stadium but that their league position over the last 5-6 years wasn’t helping.

There’s a few towns in the south Midlands where there’s not that much custom and looking iffy. Still no excuse to accompany raid videos with music though. Comes naturally to someone who commissions real estate videos in Gaza.

Much better day so far, Baker took two early on with looseners but bowled very well after that. Big thunderstorm and heavy rain here so if that heads north there might not be much more play today.

Good from Jess Glynne https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyjggjplyqo Whilst the boats do my head in, this is really tacky even for the GOP and MAGA. I’m sure BNP/Reform voters will like it though.

True, there’s not much of a football club pulse there these days.

Ha! Farage is going to regret her getting elected in Runcorn even more than Starmer regrets moron Mike Amesbury punching someone in the street. The Tory reject gift that keeps giving and doesn’t have an off switch. Marvellous. Funny how they’re not in favour of their much vaunted freedom of speech all of a sudden when the speech doesn’t align with their racist views.

Given the record of both those players in terms of going down it was a miracle the plane landed safely!

The shithousery from JWP to Zaha was classic. It was like watching a wind up device about to go off at any moment.

That’s top two for you - Taraabt produced it for QPR for example. If he’s asking Shea and Flynn to do his pressing, tackling and intercepting, and a lot of his running which he can’t do in a central two (and we all know this), he has to be regularly winning games as the advanced midfielder if Fernandes goes as expected. Taraabt was an arse but because he delivered the goods and the title, his fellow midfielders could live with it.

Smallbone is effective but only in a central three. He simply cannot do what is physically needed in a two. So if Still wants to use him, that locks him in on formation.

He did have a decent season last time but needs to be scoring double figures and similar assists if Still builds around him as Will simply cannot perform in a 2 man central midfield. There were enough examples where we leaked like a sieve and the opposition charged through gaps (see Norwich home and many others). He locks you into a 3-man central midfield, you sell him or use him as an impact player if Still changes formation, Smallbone will want to play at his age so selling is the obvious answer with only a year left. Aribo’s only got a year left also and surprised he hasn’t gone yet. Can at least play in a central two in the Champ, albeit not the PL, but he will go.

Given John Curtiss reckons 85% or so of support to Reform is leaking from the Tories, and 10%, at most 15% is from old Labour, it would be a medium-level issue that anxiety ramps up if you’re a 2024 generation Red Waller in say two-dozen seats. What Reform voters think of Badenoch is more of an issue than what they think of Corbyn. They might think Corbyn is honest but none of them voted for him on a very left wing platform in 2019 did they? In fact this demographic ran a mile to Boris and got royally shafted. The question no pollster will ever ask because it’s a poor reflection of our society but could be important is whether the Tories reclaim some support from Reform with a non-ethnic minority leader. Of course it shouldn’t matter at all but it bet it really does with a sizeable minority of Refotm voters. From a Lib Dem perspective, there’s very few people that would switch to Reform and vice versa because of Brexit. Very few Remainers would ever vote Reform and nor would ardent Brexiteers vote for us.

If you type Matt Ryan and Southampton the most frequent finding is an academic at the University.

Quite, and the headlines in the Telegraph and Mail today are pathetic. I’d have more respect, albeit strongly disagree, for their editors if they just said what they really want which is ethnic cleansing in Gaza. Those two are well out of lockstep with the British public. Arab nations are putting a lot of pressure on the Palestinians to ditch Hamas and Iran if they want rebuilding help and the Palestinians badly need to start making some better choices.

I agree but Ryan ought to be first choice. That said, Bazunu v Wrexham seems likely and it’s up to him to show he’s improved 200% from his last outing. Having seen the Liege highlights very recently I very much doubt it but the club are determined to claw some of Gavin’s fee back even if it risks costs promotion.

Not concerned about that, concerned about ensuring Saints have a reliable goalkeeper option next season, which Ryan is far more likely to be.

Probably, but it’s an obvious move now given the circumstances. Ryan isn’t perfect but for Championship he’s far better than Gavin or Alex, and has been managed by Still very recently.

A few weeks ago and not the most reliable source https://saintsmarching.com/former-arsenal-goalkeeper-lined-up-to-replace-aaron-ramsdale-at-southampton Apparently fell out with Potter at Brighton, kept them up under Hughton, very good core keeping skills but his flaw is short passing, everything goes long. But that’s not an issue next season, we need the opposite of Baz who does pass well but no core keeping skills. Went on loan at Arsenal. Seems so obvious as a move to make that SR being contrary will probably recruit a keeper from the Slovenian second tier instead.

Agree with the top part… But nah, not the second, Mat Ryan is on a free, just played well for Will Still at Lens and heaps of good experience for Brighton in the Prem. If he wants to join, #1 is sorted next season and #2 sorted if we go up. Simples. No need to gamble on Baz or Alex.