Gloucester Saint

Agree, I think football clubs and scouts must be watching a different game to me at times because I see a bang average centre half similar to Bednarek in a 4, and in a 5 THB has been miles worse than Jan, and even worse than Stephens when the latter has been off the pitch. Not even sure he’s been better than Wood in a 5. He’s alright on the ball but so is Stephens when he’s not sent off. That England cap might make us very grateful to Lee Carsley if we can somehow turn a profit on him. I do hope that it is another learning point along with Bazanu (the biggest lesson), Larios and to an extent Edozie that because a player has looked good for an ECL petrol club below first team level with genuine talent around them that it will automatically translate to PL at a medium sized club. The Livramento and Lavia transfers made money but they also killed SFC in a lot of ways.

One look at where Reform’s funding comes from tells anyone with an IQ in double digits that those are the people Reform is going to shit all over. As Rallyboy says, it’s an opportunity for Reform to prove their worth at a local and regional level. Andrea Jenkyns promising DOGE forLincolnshire and already stomped off a Sky News interview with her nappy around her ankles. Quite possibly the most unpleasant human being in British politics but given Lincolnshire’s leading role in Brexit they absolutely deserve each other. Cue the whining on social media when their remaining public services disappear. But too dense to watch the News and what is happening in the US https://news.sky.com/video/reform-mayor-andrea-jenkyns-pushes-journalists-mic-away-13359666

Don’t know what that makes Jannik Vestergaard then - cost Saints £18m, then even more astonishingly Leicester paid £15m for him with only a year left on his deal at Saints. And he played in the 0-9.

Gloucester City in the final - my Hampshire roots mean that I’d like to see Totton win though. But if not, local 6th tier football plus Cheltenham Town in League 2. Bishop’s Cleeve had a great season locally as well.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14650649/cia-deputy-director-son-russian-ukraine-war-death-michael-gloss.html

Their main stand from 1971 is interesting and very imposing, that third tier tapers in an interesting way. Rumour was that Alan Ball had to be sold to Arsenal to help fund it, breaking up the Holy Trinity. Surprised by that stage that it had pillars, Chelsea’s East Stand in 1974 had none, but then it did bankrupt them!

£5m was a mid-level Champ fee at the time, now its top 10 League 1. 200 odd appearance, bulk of them in the top flight, can’t really moan. Not Jannik’s fault that Reed and Wilson couldn’t stay off the sauce long enough to think that Hoedt and Vestergaard were worth £17m each (£30m today).

Agree with much of that, being lactose intolerant I watch ingredients like a hawk. Anything with more than 4-5 listed I’m naturally suspicious of and much less likely to buy. For balance though, bacon, lower grade sausages supermarket bread are as bad as anything else.

Not a surprise when you look at what Trump has said on record https://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/trump-racist-rhetoric-immigrants-00183537 If Hitler had said those things at Nuremberg no-one would be surprised.

Same story about Witkoff has appeared in the Moscow Times that he met Putin solo and didn’t even arrange a translator https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14666633/trump-insider-steve-witkoff-putin-russia-meetin.html Fuck me, Trump knows some morons. Waltz goes but the suspected rapist, domestically violent and ex-Fox News presenter clings on https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/pete-hegseth-confirmed-defense-secretary-assault-allegations-rcna189168

Arib-go https://saintsmarching.com/southampton-midfielder-wants-leave-amid-recent-transfer-interest One of the bigger earners, done OK but not fussed if he moves on, need far more of an engine in that area. Smallbone also needs to move on for the same reason, also only a year left.

Sing to the tune of the infamous Harry & Jim song 🎵 Just get a point, You Useless Pricks Just get a point You Useless Pricks 🎵 Our lot will just stand there and clap them instead

I think the Leicester forum has called it The El-Shatico. Same thing and both clubs and squads are a disgrace to English football.

He’s economically illiterate, not difficult to see why he’s endured a string of bankruptcies. Hinting at elimination of income taxes is typical populist fantasist thinking, Farage is in a similar mould, as was Boris as well. No qualification of what ‘massive’ is or any evidence of it bar the odd new plant, nowhere near covering the jobs lost in the commercial sector. And that’s pre-DOGE, because tens of thousands of highly skilled people won’t be buying new Chevys or extending their townhouses. They’re more focused on not foreclosing. He’s has been propped up by Daddy, the banks and shady billionaires (eg Musk), hasn’t had to face realities. If he presented this as a business plan at the interview stage of the UK Apprentice, Claude Littner would tear him a new arsehole.

Apart from slightly higher inflation, Biden actually left the economy in decent shape. The fact he was doddery and should never have been standing for a second time is tangential if we’re only discussing the economy. People voted for Trump claiming they felt he would put more money in their pay packets and he hasn’t. Given the disruption caused to global supply chains already by entirely unnecessary tariffs it’ll be quite some time before there’s any prospect of that being the case outside of the odd isolated specialist sector. His billionaire friends - and Marjorie Taylor Greene - seem to have done rather well out of insider trading however. By contrast, the UK pattern postwar has tended to be - centre-right government, better public finances, worse public services, and swap it around for centre-left. Now I’m no fan of Reeves but this government has had to address dreadful public finances and public services, acknowledge to be the worst postwar right across the economic and spectrums. The IFS warned there was a conspiracy of silence about what was needed post-GE across all parties but some of the public don’t grasp that losing 6% of our economy to a very hard Brexit and funding furlough has done grave damage despite Boris and Farage’s sunlit uplands. The latter is borrowed and has to be paid back, that is adult life. By contrast, the damage by Trump’s tariffs is only 0.8% of GDP. Could do without it but drop in ocean compared to above.

Or that was it how it presented around the SR Boardroom table by a certain member.

And retreating like an Italian tank in WW2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c70zy5w983go https://news.sky.com/story/trump-100-days-executive-orders-tariffs-stock-markets-trade-war-latest-live-13209921 The amount of lies here is astonishing. The DNC is a disgrace though and should be mobilising ahead of the mid-terms. Instead they are AWOL, even if Trump and MAGA are doing a fab job of sinking themselves https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c98gv43pjjno

Mind you, Jeffrey Archer would’ve been more of a threat to defences than Cameron’s been.

Edited it for you

A non-Melania one (allegedly).

This area needs further research, it’s a real gap at the moment. Would have a lot of benefits if done well.

St James Park for all-northern games even pre-renovation let alone post. Villa once North Stand expanded/renovated, Brum’s new stadium if they build it.

It does look a bit lopsided with the existing smaller lower tier and widened and higher upper, but still a big improvement on what is there now having been in that stand when the lower tier housed away fans https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2025/april/24/aston-villa-announce-redevelopment-of-the-iconic-north-stand/ Leeds have plans for a second tier on the Revie End but I suspect that’s subject to survival next season and a prolonged PL stay. Hillsborough by comparison has had virtually nothing spent on it since the main stand renovation for Euro 96. In the 1970s it was miles better than most Division One grounds despite Sheff Weds languishing in the second and third divisions. The Leppings Lane was a problem by the 1980s but poor policing played its part too as other SF venues eg White Hart Lane, Highbury, had ends that were dangerous.

Having been there to watch Saints, it’s still got the bones of a major stadium, tunnel for the coaches under the main stand etc. North Stand a stunner of it’s era. But the away end is monsterously dated, dangerous and basic, even without its chequered history, pure 1970s with asbestos roof, Kop has pillars in it and the blocked off corners. It would need £100m spending minimum to renovate it to that standard for SFs/Euro matches. In the 1990s, it and Villa Park were peers and the latter could still host a cup semi once the old North Stand is replaced and capacity up to 50k. That’s what 20 years plus in the second and third tier wilderness does.

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/dragan-solaks-stance-southampton-sale-emerges-big-simon-jordan-claim/ At the moment, probably better with SR even with their flaws.