Gloucester Saint

£18m for Downes wasn’t it? Cannot see anyone wanting to pay anywhere near that, maybe £10-12m from Ipswich if McKenna stays there and still interested.

Probably less ‘who would we like’ and more ‘who is willing to do it who isn’t a Russell Martin/Ivan Juric disaster area.

Agree but who wants him/can afford him? Argyle would but we’d have to pay 80% of his wages. That is one of the worst individual top flight outfield Saints performances I’ve ever seen from a player. A fan from the away end would have been a huge improvement. He’s nowhere near even being Champ quality now. I say outfield as Bazanu is a category of toilet all on his own in goal.

Only because Argyle or Truro can’t afford his wages.

Even he admits they’ve basically thrown the game from kick off and not tried a leg. Cheats, spivs and wage thieves.

As his name suggests, he is best feeding the young.

Sounds like a Tofu substitute to me.

Rasmus

Smallbone is only a Champ player in a central 3, he’s nowhere near Champ level in a 2. Downes is Champ but can he do it outside Martin-ball? Questionable. Stephens I think has regressed to top half League 1. BBD has been poor on loan at Sheff Utd and can’t get a start now. Stewart has only played 11 Champ games so certainly league 1. Bazanu - worst keeper in the Champ 23/24, error prone for Pompey in L1, there’s another. I’m not even sure Sulemana is a professional footballer. Runs fast, but so can Usain Bolt. Less end product than Evri. Larios - not suited to English football at any level. Manning wasn’t particularly good last season, actually bit better this, Nathan Wood lower Champ at most, probably closer to league 1. Not convinced about Sugawara defensively in the Champ, might be an Otsemobor.

I think people were saying more that for what was a mid-lower Championship fee at the time 200 appearances and umpteen Poland caps isn’t the worst transfer we’ve done post-Koeman, one of the better ones. The fact Les Reed and Wilson were so seemingly so shitfaced that they paid £18m for Vestergaard and £17m for Wesley Hoedt 😂 underlines it.

Even the 08/09 side was better and that was a squad of kids in administration. At least they ran, competed as best they could and tried even though they were even more out of their depth. With the exceptions of Fernandes, Ramsdale and KWP, these players do not deserve to play for Southampton Football Club, the club, fanbase and stadium are far too big for them to handle. They need to move to easier leagues or League 1 and below more suited to their abilities and fitness.

2.5 years, Gloucester Rugby doing well this season, and the infamous Coopers Hill (very steep for those who haven’t seen it). Takes place at the second May B/H. TBH, I much prefer watching League 2 Cheltenham, Gloucester City or Bishop’s Cleeve than Saints. If I wasn’t originally from Southampton, I wouldn’t bother. Not been since Pellegrino and unless there’s a new keeper to replace Ramsdale when he goes and a whole spine to the team with a manager that I believe will secure automatic promotion it would be a waste of petrol.

Possibly, could be environmental toxins but more likely that women and girls have traditionally masked ASD better than boys/men. If we make small adjustments in education and work, it need not be as big a deal as it is, and it shouldn’t be a culture war issue for politicians.

Oh I don’t know, I think Farage was using the ADHD assessment costs to bundle genuine neurodiversity with mental health as anti-woke banner to stir up the worst of his base. Trump has done exactly the same over there. Those issues should never be conflated without proper evidence. Yes, the welfare bill has to be addressed. It is far too high. But there are multiple ways to do that in tandem with sanctions so young people get a good taste of the workplace with small/no cost reasonable adjustments or technical training and want more. And Farage, Badenoch and Kendall waging a culture war or wanting to abolish the Equality Act (Farage) is not going to transform neurodiverse employment rates, modernised practices which enable people to shine will do that.

And they were doing the jobs young Brits didn’t want to when the vacancies were there (and still are) - social care, nursing - and an important arm in construction/trades, which is why it’s such a struggle to get houses built now and the drop in quality. We have an ageing population which is living longer with multiple conditions and it needs some focused balancing out. Also, a huge driver behind Brexit was deprived English communities getting decimated by first the financial crisis and then the severe austerity to their services following it. It is no accident that the anger about A8 nation migration (Straw did cock up there btw) accelerated into support and victories for UKIP and the BNP during and immediately after the financial crisis of 07/08. Until then, it wasn’t in the top 20 issues of most public polls and key issues. Stalling and falling living standards have spread to most of us and widened during the pandemic as the super wealthy really pulled away. Where I’ll meet you in the middle is on asylum. Not student and dependents, that’s Braverman bullshit, or NHS dentists from Poland who train, help for a few years and go home, but young lads turning up on boats. However, the solution is not hard Brexits and turning tail, it’s solved by working with the French, Germans, Belgians and Dutch on shared solutions and shared costs. That will free up money for public services and grow the economy on our doorstep.

Now cringing remembering that baby shark song at Chelsea

Huge difference between dickhead movie directors and the President of the United States. Or there should be, if they hadn’t elected a complete buffoon and moron.

Seemingly so https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-54034707 Said some dreadful things about John McCain’s funeral in 2018.

Trump miner voters getting their x-ray and treatment programmes removed Just not learning still

Suicide football, lack of DMs/refusing to use Shea Charles and Bazanu letting in anything aimed at his goal explains exactly the extra 20-25 conceded.

I totally share your concerns as a Lib Dem voter and your frustration at the direction the world is going in with the rule of law and science going out of the window with these populist morons. I agree with 95% of your post but I take slight issue that trying to fight Reform on its own ground is a good strategy for Lab-Lib-Green. Those parties have a natural majority. Let’s use it. The Tories over the last decade have fought Reform on their battlegrounds and look at them now, their organisation in seats defended this week was 10% of what it was. Protect the core of the country and let the Red Wall areas go pop. Starmer’s direction is a mystery to me as well. Brexit is a fucking disaster beyond argument - why are they sticking with it, get back in the Single Market and have 6% more of the pie to do Labour things with. Renationalise railways, get health waiting lists down further, train more dentists. It’s not as if being out of the EU has made the borders any more secure - far less so actually - and the freedom of movement is mainly white which might turn the volume down on the tabloids. A final point of hope - every time UKIP and Reform have won positions of responsibility, it’s fallen apart quicker than Saints in a 1-0 lead. Just look at Thanet, just this year in Derbyshire https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0lz8xn8zd8o and the Lowe bust-up. At scale, the people they’ve elected are Tory cast-offs who were the awkward squad. They won’t magically improve under a light blue rosette.

As Badger said, most of them are Tory cast-offs who split from their party during the May/Boris years, and Sunak/Badenoch are or were the final straw. That’s certainly true of where my folks live but the ones elected were very difficult people in their local Tory party, they won’t magically become well disciplined and organised beyond an election campaign because the rosette is a lighter blue. You’ve only got to look at the recent councillor resignations in Reform with stinging criticism of Farage and the Lowe bust-up.

This is well worth a watch about how the main two parties can tackle Reform. The Lib Dem’s are the most distinct and carry on doing what we’re doing. I concur that tacking to the right to take on Reform ain’t working for the Tories or Labour, and there’s only 5% vote loss to Reform for Labour. The Oxford scholar is right to say that there’s more risk of ex-Corbyn supporters going to Reform to attack big business and Neo-liberalism, which Labour is continuing. What makes Reform dangerous for them is that there’s 80-odd seats where Reform is second because they’ve cleaned the Tories out and Lib Dem vote is holding up. Tactical voting is crucial to contain Farage. The Tories rebounding would help but Kemi has stop talking about transgender all of the time. We’ve had the Supreme Court judgement now - move on and put pressure on Reeves about the economy. Do your job as leader of opposition and put your own hobbies to one side about ‘woke’ etc away. If older working people in their 50s and 60s want anti-woke (she’s already got the over-70s sewn up and the average Tory voter age is 70) they’ll go to Reform, not the Tories post-Cameron, May and Boris. As the thread’s on Labour, Peston hits the nail on the head in his summing up. If Starmer wants a 10 year mandate, work with the Lib Dem’s, and the Greens becuase there is a natural FPTP majority there and a Remain majority. Daniel Finkenstein the Conservative and ex-SDP pundit has said this numerous times too.

I don’t think they need to go that far, a simple one would be re-nationalising the very worst railway franchises earlier. Consistent public support 65% and above for that. A much better trade deal and going back into the Single Market would turbo boost the economy and public support for that has grown strongly since the abject failure of Brexit. Not point competing with Farage on Brexit and actually more than 50% of the country hates it becuase it has failed abysmally. Hang it around his neck as a millstone. Movement of people but my sense is that if those people are white/European it’s ok (witness the lasting support for Ukraine). Some moderation on PIP, it has to be tackled but the severity in one go is alienating their core supporters from the outside looking in. Ok, some of the Red Wall seats will hate it but they aren’t reliable seats any longer for the main parties and Reform won’t have any more luck turning them around at local level. The Tories tried bribing them with the levelling up agenda and they bit them. Some of those seats will keep changing hands until the boomers pass away and a new generation can re-shape what innovative post-industrial areas can really be. Labour should target some of those seats showing younger energy with creative industries start-up funding to get that generation up and running.

The Thanet debacle is the hope I have that now they are under the microscope and have to deliver as a collection of individualists and oddballs, that they fall apart https://news.sky.com/story/ukip-to-lose-the-only-council-they-control-as-thanet-leader-resigns-11258103 Farage will say that was UKIP, and Reform UK is different, more professional. But Thanet was only 2015-18. Already tensions between Jenkyns and Farage over neurodiversity (I’m staggered she said something I strongly agree with, but Farage’s comments were vile).