Gloucester Saint

Nic is the ex-pat in SE Asia I thought. Soggy is in Kent, was Maidstone but now Romney Marsh?

Donley going to Stoke on loan https://www.spurs-web.com/spurs-news/jamie-donley-is-set-to-join-a-tottenham-teammate-on-loan-in-the-championship

Quite, the guy was a lethal mental health timebomb who should have been cuddling a pineapple in a padded secure unit somewhere and would have been if the bark hadn’t been stripped from the trees in terms of mental health care and monitoring potentially dangerous patients. True of Nottingham too. And in the Southport case, the killer was born here anyway!

I suppose the phrase ‘When in Rome’ can be extended to ‘When in Thailand’…

I come off the M5 regularly to go to Malvern and see their stadium (Worcester’s) just off that junction. They’ve re-started the rugby club in the Championship but a tortuous process to get there even with new owners. Quite a big stadium too and weird to see it there not used. EFL and PL are a shambles with due diligence - witness the mess with Saints and Gao - and much stronger powers to take clubs into admin and out of the hands of shysters to preserve them even if they drop a division or so in the process. Wednesday are another case in point. Call me cynical, but I can’t see a football regulator being a panacea.

Typical Rupert, I remember that quote, what a cunt that man (Lowe) is. Enjoyed watching him, direct and good change of pace. Not sure why it didn’t work out at Villa, on paper should have been a Graham Taylor player. Bit of a hot reception in one of the early SMS games, IIRC Delap got sent off for us after an incident with Hassan and Dion Dublin was then sent off for them for barely touching heads with one of our players. Another game that fat little Steve Dunn lost control of.

Fine for PL back up, less so for regular starter.

Yeah, at least one more box to box midfielder as well as a #10 and couple of wide players needed. Smallbone can’t cut it physically in a two and I have a feeling Still is quicker on the uptake than Martin about this. Aribo in the Champ a bit more but he’s off.

Still there https://mill-inn-withington.co.uk Northleach isn’t far from there which is also very nice. Didn’t buy there as most of the houses had oil-powered heating.

Assuming the club don’t sign Ryan or someone to compete with him, the derby is an acid test. If he fucks up in that, even the supportive posts dry up. It’ll be like Steve Baker was after the 1988 game, shipped down the leagues paid off at the first opportunity. If he gets through that unscathed, and no major bloopers by October, we can probably say that he’s turned a corner. LONG way to go yet though.

KWP worked out alright though. And however Spors turns out, he can’t be as much of a mug as *Rupert Lowe *aside from the residents of Great Yarmouth He doesn’t live that far from either of us if you know where Withington is?

We could extend the contract unilaterally up to a certain age but IIRC that stops next summer?

They’d probably be unrelated transactions other than Saints accepting Spurs bid as the highest presuming Tyler wanted to go there. *MLG mode deactivated

Big risk though. With 12 months left, even with a strong season this year, his value would be £20m tops. Whether SR buy a lot of pet project garbage with some of the £45m is another story…

Donley on loan, although someone said Mason at WBA is in for him.

The reason I suspect Newcastle is that Everton are getting pushed higher and higher - and that’s not Levy’s style. Newcastle are also frustrated at missing out in several ‘name’ creative players and forwards, so they might opt to buy their own. They’ve liked Tyler ever since that youth cup game up there. Spurs have just lost Maddison and Son in one weekend so Levy might do something rash.

My prediction is based on whether Flynn is fit and can give us at least an hour. If he can, we will win (which will feel weird after the void season of 24/25). Him and Charles combined should dominate midfield. If not, a nervy 1-1.

Could it be an Everton or Spurs logo stealing Dibling away from them? Or maybe it’s their turn to nick in ahead of Everton? In the 1980s, it was the scousers who did the nicking.

Yeah, I reckon there’s other clubs in play. Possibly Spurs after Maddison’s injury which looked very bad and ACL-like. But others as well which is good if Levy is in the picture. Newcastle wouldn’t surprise me.

Curtis Davies a glaring reminder of what we hadn’t bought and the need for a takeover. Hajto king of the yellow card in the Bundesliga didn’t cut it by comparison.

Mid-table and then around March and a hammering at Sheff Utd we looked set for consecutive relegations. Fuller then returned from loan with a brace v Cardiff (won the game but several landlords left with the evidence of a Soul Crew visit - they were beered up and well up for trouble) and under George Beerley we finished top half with a strong finish and some good loan players eg Chaplow.

Quite - I can’t see it. And he won’t be PL-ready until October having missed pre-season. Might get away with it by Sept in the Champ. If you’re spending that fee, for most PL clubs bar 3 or 4, that’s a starter.

The bowling is a quandry for the Ashes. I’d be tempted to use Archer lightly in the SA white ball series, Wood will have recovered but at 35 can he still bowl mid-90s? Woakes may retire if that’s a broken shoulder which it looks like. Overton looked rusty after little cricket for Surrey. Tongue looked both Dog and Duck and world class in his spells. Did a job on their tail more than once though. Cook looked 5-10mph short of troubling Test players. Atkinson taking the new ball in Perth barring a mishap is a certainty. How much can Stokes bowl in the winter? Dawson didn’t help himself not switching out of white ball mode at OT and then fielding at the Oval. Bashir probably starts but looked innocuous this summer.

Of those clubs, only Everton or West Ham could stump up around £35m for what Saints would want, because the Dibling and Fernandes sales will relieve any financial pressure. Palace can afford it and European football, but is CB a priority to strengthen for them?

Wouldn’t surprise me if Donley ends up being a very late loan although the Maddison suspected ACL and Son might put paid to that.