Gloucester Saint

Yes, I think so. But there were some Saturdays, perhaps once per month, where the bulk of Champ, L1 and 2 matches were televised in parallel at 3pm. As well as watching a few live I saw Cheltenham play regularly that way once Saints season was over by the leaves in the trees changing colour.

Leicester away for them I reckon and yes, TV Friday night guaranteed. Like @skintsaint I reckon someone like PNE or Stoke home or away. A more interesting possibility would be Charlton home - which like Wrexham would be guaranteed to be on TV. Are Sky repeating their extra EFL games on certain Saturdays as per last season?

You’d be very unlucky to find worse than CrossCountry in Germany. Their non-dom ownership, leadership are parasites, they barely run trains at all, let alone on time nor in conditions which are safe or sanitary. All for the highest fares in Europe. Add the infamous RMT into the mix, and it’s a clusterfuck. Sack them off, renationalise and put the ballot minimum for strike action across the membership up to 60% of eligible members. Stealing a living, astonishing Heidi Alexander sees improvements in them. All they did was get worse even before the overtime ban (and no business should rely on as much of that as they do).

Good question - is a player more dislikable for not being able to do what the club signed them to do for good money and wages - Wesley Hoedt, David Lee, Lee Todd, Gavin Bazunu, Guido Carrillo - when they are clearly ability-wise League One players (Hoedt probably Championship tbf but never PL in a million years) or is that the manager, DoF and club scouts who should take the flak and it isn’t the players’ fault? Or are the players who are plenty good enough and have a dreadful attitude - Osvaldo, Lemina - the ones we should really dislike?

Latest offer for Sulemana apparently up to £14.5m. Round it up to £15m and take it as long as the ‘up to’ is practical. Onachu reportedly fed up with the latest ongoing boring Trabzonspor saga - may I suggest his agent asks that his new club finds a Chairman with some actual money and not the monopoly stuff? Goztepe could do a lot worse, finished only a point below Trabzonspor and they have more money than Trabz, who seem to be in some trouble. They pulled out of signing an Ipswich defender on a free as well.

What I want I know is why the current government and previous one won’t pass legislation enforcing unlimited fines and jail time for large firm’s CEOs and Directors proven to be consistently employing illegal immigrants? Large firms like Deliveroo despite their opaque and devolved operating model should be bearing the cost directly of the hotels, regardless of how much that is. Their turnover is in excess of £2bn. So a £250m fine is affordable and reasonable for them, whereas for a local takeaway they are already fining a proportionally similar amount https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/25012992.oxford-takeaway-fined-30-000-employing-illegal-workers/ https://glastonbury.nub.news/news/local-news/glastonbury-takeaway-fined-ps80000-for-illegal-employment-254665 No point meeting with them, just prosecute them fast track as they’ve done to the SMEs quite rightly, and fines on a sliding scale of £70m-£250m for starters will soon cut it down https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj615p5y5kko Theresa’s May’s idiot legislation puts the likes of you and me liable for ensuring that our firms don’t employ people without the RTW in the UK even if we were born here. If large organisational leaders thought they’d be having a day in court instead and risk losing their business and family home, it’d soon reduce rapidly. Cracking down severely on illegal working and knowing employment of illegals would do far more to slow the influx than just ‘smashing the gangs’ in isolation or eye-wateringly expensive Rwanda schemes. We can do a mix of those in parallel too, not either/or.

Seen from the perspective of May 1974 and 1975 I suspect it would’ve been an unpopular internal promotion. Seen from May 1976 to 1985, a very different story!

Agree with this post overall but I reckon Frank and Mbeumo leaving not properly replaced will totally take the air out of Brentford’s tyres and they could be the implosion you cite. Leeds are the most likely to be able to take advantage but their recruitment has to be pitch perfect. We shouldn’t have gone down in 04/05 with Beattie, Phillips and Crouch but once a medium-sized PL’s club’s ambition is reckoned to be on the wane and the owner’s foot off the pedal and up on the dashboard, the wheels can really fall off.

Amazed Brentford didn’t try - or hard enough if they did - for McKenna. High probability that Ipswich and Brentford trading places in May.

My late friend was one of Pulis’s scouts and recommended he sign Davies which Pulis did after watching him further. Unlucky with injuries.

It stinks of what Lowe tried to do in 2001 with Stuart Gray, WGS dug him out of a hole, clearly wanted rid of Sturrock summer of 2004, after the Blackburn win replaced him with Steve Wigley. Shorthand ‘promoted teams are rubbish, we won’t go down, let’s have a cheap manager for a cheap little season, do the minimum on buying players, sell a couple of key players and go again next season with our powder dry’. History shows what actually happened and Leeds in particular will be licking their lips, possibly Burnley if they can find a striker or two. Brentford have pretty much relegated themselves, surprised at Matthew Benham as I had him down as more Tony Bloom than Rupert Lowe.

Superb debut by Tilak, hope he gets his hundred tomorrow. Making his point that he’s not just a white ball player and putting pressure on India’s new Test number three. Dawson 67 no and half-century for Middleton as well. Very good day today, need to follow it up tomorrow and build a good lead so not too many to chase batting last.

The only one where I thought ‘good signing’ was Harry Darling to Norwich but never thought ‘wish we’d signed him instead’. More that for a good centre back at this level on a free it was good business but he knows Liam Manning their new manager well.

Still a very good player even at 37, ran the game in a home win v Spurs. Can see why he had the career he had as a player.

Essex have got a few too many, brilliant yet again from Abbott. Batting line up looks deep right down to ten but top and middle order have got to show up this time as batting last will be tricky v Harmer and mustn’t concede a first innings deficit under any circumstances.

Tranmere FA Cup replay *shudders* Interesting that was his last professional game, and only two games on loan at Stockport on loan late 90s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Gibbens

Glad it wasn’t just me. Crap product too. Another of mine is when adults refer to midweek as ‘School Nights’. If you’re a parent of school-age kids, possible more excusable.

David Speedie and Stuart Ripley - two Blackburn players who clearly did not want to be at SFC. David Lee - Branfoot’s first signing which foretold the horrors to come Wesley Hoedt - how clueless/on the sauce does a DoF and Head of Recruitment have to be to believe a Lazio squad player is worth £17m, £30m in today’s money? Very is the answer, ponderous, reluctant to attack the ball, poor distribution. Fulham away was one of the worst top flight displays by a Saints footballer. Mario Lemina - if Hoedt was a £1.7m player where the Chuckle Bros put the wrong decimal on the cheque, Mario ability-wise was the real deal. Could have played for any club in the world. Attitude-wise, as bad as we’ve had - more 3 points for passing red lights than he ever won on the pitch. Let Wolves down abysmally too after they supported him through bereavement - captain crap for them. Nigel Quashie - the one player supporters at both ends of the M27 can agree on. Lovren and VVD - striking muppets, although the latter is a class player, Dejan so so as Toby showed the next season by comparison. Kenwyne Jones - another striking shit, and we got a better player in exchange in Stern John. Good athlete but couldn’t trap a bag of cement and controlled it as far as he kicked it. Allegedly caused loads of trouble at Stoke. Carlton Palmer - another with zero first touch. Very effective first season but fell out with people not least MLT and ended up training alone. ABK - a small budget Wesley Hoedt mixed with some Kenwyne Jones. Gavin Bazunu - nothing against him personally, I just felt anything aimed at his goal went in. His wretched spell at Standard underscored this in capital bold.

Don’t forget Jumpin’ Jacks

Aribo is going 100%, one year left, high earner and wants out. Will go to Galatasaray, Beskitas or Rangers if he’s willing to drop some wages even post-relegation cut. Smallbone probably a nominal fee or loan out, but depends on Still’s formation. If he uses three in the middle keep as a squad option. Also only a year left.

Agree it was worse than Holgate at Sunderland. Perhaps not Jankewitz though… Worst for any club was an Aussie goalkeeper for Norwich at home to Colchester - 1-7 opening day, was at a Norwich fan’s stag do. One game and out. Bryan Gunn signed him and he was a top goalkeeper as well.

Wheal has been in decent form so presume injured. Stoneman was a cheap and not cheerful signing to blunt the new ball. Barker - a 38 year old out for a year isn’t going to transform the season. Orr surely has to come in and Albert out to play in the Hampshire leagues or perhaps loaned to Devon or Berkshire to get bat on ball in minor counties. Nowhere near first class standard this season so far annd can’t see him doing better on loan in D2 unless half a batting line up somewhere has broken their fingers. Eddie Jack only if the pitch looks like a Bunsen. Stick with Currie and Prest as need to bring younger players with ability through.

Very risky not only internationally but domestically for his coalition. The isolationist faction, and it is a large faction, won’t support this and if Iran or more like it’s proxies start attacking US facilities and citizens, he’s heading straight down the road of George W Bush.

Got better but that debut v Palace….his namesake the famous playwright would have been more solid that day. Works for the FAI now.

Richard Chaplow’s first Saints spell was on loan as was Jack Cork’s as someone else mentioned.