Gloucester Saint

As others have posted, Peter Walton v Brighton whilst in our favour was as bad as Leeds home, and you can understand them losing the plot, it was that bad. For those of us slightly older ones, there were some further howlers long before the days of VAR, when the officials really should have no excuse now (but PGMOL writes them a dog ate my homework letter anyway). Steve Dunn, a plump little referee from Bristol disallowing Shipperley’s header (nothing wrong with it from any camera angle on Sky) in a FA Cup QF at Old Trafford. Even Fergie scratched his head when asked why it was ruled out. That Man U outfit didn’t need any extra help. Then he had a shocker in one of the first home games at SMS, sending off Delap and Dublin for joke incidents, when a bit of booing of Kachloul on his return spiced things up and Dunn lost the plot. David Axcell has to be mentioned for missing Paul Davis’s GBH on Glenn Cockerill at Highbury in 1988. IIRC he made another horrible blooper in the early 90s as well and nobody involved with SFC wanted to see him ever officiate one of our games. As others have said Mike Dean multiple times where it did get personal and Lee Mason v Villa including Cash’s punching the ball over the bar on the line when it was going in and had beaten their keeper. Unlike Axcell and Dunn, VAR was on offer and they STILL got it wrong. Andy D’Urso’s top flight career ended after booking Barry Ferguson twice and no red card in 2004 plus a very off penalty to us in injury time. Still wasn’t enough to save Paul Sturrock’s job. Whoever was referee Derby away September 2005, Redknapp and Bassett were sent off in protest and were still visible on camera angrily berating the fourth official in the tunnel area. Kevin Friend was bad multiple times including Liverpool home but not in the same league as the above pillocks.

Kriek Lambic is a favourite of mine and also Fou’Foune which is a mix of 18 month matured Lambic and Apricots. Timmermans Peche is a good one as well, not so keen on their Curvee Rene. Took me a few tries for my palate to adapt in my 20s to the funkiness and complexity but have come to enjoy and appreciate them.

Has been the case for most of this season and more so after the Bournemouth debacle.

It’s what I’d do in his position, he must realise that things are not going well at all and his co-partners are miles out of their depth.

Ok, an opinion then. You're entitled to it, as are others who believe that Martin’s approach and the player recruitment set-up we have will never be effective.

I agree, but as someone else has posted, it’d be difficult for Dragan to sack Rasmus even though he is the main investor. Best way would be to bring other large investors on board so Rasmus and Kraft are outvoted. Anyway, best way to vote is with our feet. The protests, memorable as they were, didn’t get rid of Branfoot, the 9,000 gate v Ipswich (less than that in the Dell that night too) and issues getting sponsors did. Empty seats hurts their business and revenue streams.

Source?

Large Albanian flag across the Northam wall might do it https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-44586587

For sub-£500 yes, perhaps £750-800 if one day and very straightforward, but for bigger jobs you’d want to keep a bit back at least to ensure it all worked and be able to snag etc. Because if they’ve made a ricket, and you’ve fully settled, good chance they ain’t coming back if they’re on the more feckless side. The ones with a work ethic and pride would, so you’ve also got to see them working, are they tidy, conscientious etc.

Corberan’s stock would stay higher getting WBA into the play offs again.

Watford mark 2. Ask their fans what they think of the Pozzos. Thank you Martin Semmens - Gao and now these jokers. What a charlatan.

We will be back to the attendances of 2008/9 if they do that. Martin has become as divisive as Lowe was and SR are on notice with the supporters to improve or sell.

But only at the £20-25m level now unless you are willing to take a hefty buyback clause others won’t consider as was the case with those two. Tino and Romeo wouldn’t be going for £5m and £12m now even so, and it’s idiotic that Semmens made a strategy of it and SR copied it.

It’s a shocker, still doesn't excuse Martin being Wessex League tactically, but PGMOL are very dubious. Wolves and Forest suffered from some very suspect officiating last season. What should have happened is the police and Premier League looking into the financial affairs of all officials concerned and Stockley Park employees to ensure there wasn’t a corruption issue. Italy and Belgium had historic issues with it, we aren’t immune. Instead, Forest get hit with a record £750k fine for speaking out and the dirt is brushed under the carpet again. With the amount of money swilling around and portals to gamble on nowadays, it would only hypothetically take a handful of addicted people to cross the line. On the other hand, the Euros did show our officials to be Europe’s worst so it’s just as likely a competency issue. Every game there was a fucking problem they were involved on pitch or VAR. Other countries can use VAR, ours can’t. Look at last season’s debacle at Bournemouth. What was it, 7 or 8 minute delay for a 45 second decision?

Some of them were good - Fernandes (I was wrong there), Lallana, THB, Archer, Taylor - but in the forward areas we needed a better player instead of BBD/AA new contract/Cornet loan. Just one example of quantity over quality, and it’s how Nathan Jones couldn’t fit his squad into a single dressing room it was so bloated. And it just happened again. Alcaraz - good player, good lad, but sack the managers and bring in a slower tempo possession obsessed one which didn’t suit Carlos. The SR approach of just focusing on single transactions is flawed, you have to recruit to the overall plan and invest in more quality where you really need it.

That’s relatively more recent though in our overall history - October 2019 and what, 2021? Project re-start we played some lovely stuff and we were far more competitive in both those seasons overall. I agree it’s been a crap few years but back to back bad owners will do that. And not SR hasn’t spent unlike Gao - it’s just had an overgrown kid playing computer games and one of City’s castoffs in charge of recruitment. Common thread is Martin Semmens in terms of both dud owners.

Yep, not just me smelling a rat on the rushing either. I’d be looking at the quality of the job definitely. We’re re-doing the extension next year (the original way before us didn’t have proper footings unfortunately) and the local family builders and glazers est 50 years plus we are using don’t want any £ up front even with a large job and proper payment by completion/quality agreement because they back their own high standards with a stack of good references and work we’ve looked at ourselves. And they know we will make good on our end of the deal from their due diligence.

But without the budget. It might work better if Dragan was one of the main investors, not the only. I’d see £3-5BN as a minimum for what they’re trying to do. If they got Saints top 10 PL established again, it would lift the rest of the group but when the main club performs below its typical benchmark since 1966 bar 05-09 as an outlier, that’s not attractive. Other investors with a bit more drive and ruthlessness would see the likes of Rasmus down the road PDQ with less of his ‘Funky’ decision-making.

Also see Pozzos and Watford - except when you fail to bounce back one time.

I can’t get as worked up these days I’m afraid, but I agree the causal issues and viruses lie here and Russell Martin and Nathan Jones were the symptoms. To make their model work, they need both a new main investor along with Dragan firstly, you can’t do multi-club properly without £3-5BN in potential capital IMO. Secondly, yes, Rasmus is a glorified scout managing databases and it’s becoming clear who really did the day to day leadership at Brentford, and who took the spotlight instead. He’s great at his own PR but based on what we’ve experienced, dreadful in practice. If they can get more financial clout behind them, then I can see a Moyes or bigger with the contacts seeing it as a good leadership opportunity as the tracksuit appeal wanes.

Understand the frustration but not the homophobia.

Only by a minority - Alpine and a handful of others. I can only speak for myself - I loved 2012-16, and 2009-12 rebuilding, bits of 2016/17 as well, 2017 was awful with Pellegrino the sleeping tablets king, but some brighter patches under Ralph early on, project re-start and two-thirds of 2021/22 until the West Ham cup game and whatever went on behind the scenes. And it ignores the 70s and 80s - a trophy, should have been more, European runs, signing top players. And the 90s and early 00s battling v the odds, new stadium, WGS and Cup Final.

I think he’s quite happy with his Hollywood assignment. That bloke always lands on all 4 paws.

Agree in principle but I don’t think Martin is a personality that would cope with it. We tried this with Ralph in SR’s first summer and that didn’t work. We just need a more experienced and organised hand whilst SR sort out Rasmus’s future and the whole direction of their group as they are a rudderless mess in need of even more top level football leadership than Saints are. They probably need another major investor with Dragan who is a bit more ruthless and to walk the basics before they try to run with more business nous and capital behind them.

SR are in last chance saloon with our fans as much as Russell Martin is/was. They need to finally convince us they are taking our club seriously by appointing a sporting director with top leagues experience who focuses on sorting out Saints as a football business over the next five years with an ambitious first team manager, so we are least back to where they found us. That will help the other two clubs in the group too if Saints are doing better. Rasmus isn’t up to it as much as Martin isn’t. There is far more to it than player trading although considering that’s meant to be Rasmus’s forte, it’s been atrocious from SR throughout. High volume, low value, high losses mostly bar Lavia. No more experiments now - proven names or sell up and go. A bigger investor alongside Dragan who is more demanding and driven would help with the model they want to implement. Say £5bn to Dragan’s £2bn.