Gloucester Saint

Agree on RVN, former strikers who become managers often struggle to set up and organise (also see situation in South Devon currently). McKenna is excellent because their League 1 squad that got double promotions wasn’t at the same level ours or Norwich’s was. A higher proportion of their signings are working out from this summer which combined with a superior manager gives them a chance. But Ipswich had the hardest task this season and Wolves are picking up. Everton also taken over.

Whether it is or not, none of those roles or personnel in them are effective in the slightest. May as well have them vacant if people recruited aren’t going to show any heart or backbone.

Someone from the national press or at worst local needs to reflect that horror list on social media and rub Rasmus’s nose in it. The managerial selections have also been appalling but the player recruitment has been far worse than Les Reed and Ross Wilson which I didn’t think was possible. Regarding Ross Stewart and especially Larios, they ain’t going to play again so retire them whether they like it or not and claim the insurance. Sick of them sponging off the club. Bazanu won’t make a professional goalkeeper above League One as long as he has a hole in his arse, and judging by the horrific goals he lets in he’s got holes in plenty of other areas too. Offer 50% of his wages up front and terminate his contract. Give ABK some starts so people can see the heart issue was made up and help him out of the door. A decent start next season means a core squad who as a minimum are fit, capable of top two Champ finish and want to be at SFC. Anyone else can leave or be dispatched.

I’m not bothered about words, David Moyes or another good name Southampton FC Director of Football backing Juric, Rasmus exiled to Turkey, and biggest transfer budget possible next summer with the aim of biggest in the league, that would be a start. Get the players fit, stop the excuses culture and get back to being a well-run, efficient outfit as per 09-17. No philosophies or strap lines, get the basics right over the next 3 years. Also, get the pathway back to the academy and stop buying third rate tat from Rasmus’s spreadsheets.

Ipswich and Leicester are competing. Not brilliantly, but they are competing and Ipswich went up twice. Saints recruitment has been shocking post-Koeman. Ings, Ralph, JWP and KWP covered over Reed, Shields and Rasmus’s stench but the Febreeze bottle is empty.

You are probably right on most of that and definitely on Bazanu. Not seen a worse goalkeeper above Southern Premier/Evostik levels for any club, perhaps with the exception of the Aussie keeper for Norwich who played one game, their 1-7 home defeat to Colchester. Joint worst then. Makes Blayney look like Gordon Banks. A 37 year old Chris Woods with a broken leg was more convincing in goal for Saints than Gavin. With any luck, the skates will get a couple of injuries and need an emergency loan….

Free transfer to Glasgow. Bazanu and Stewart as a 3 for 1 https://agile-city.com/building/glue-factory/

Let’s start a thread about Tyler Dibling or Aaron Ramsdale as well. KWP as well, possibly Jan. Because along with Fernandes they are the only players we have with any clue at PL level. THB might have an England cap but Claus was better in 2004/5 drunk than THB has been this season, let alone when he was on the rails and very good 1996-2004. Archer might do OK with less shit around him. Stewart, Bazanu, Alex McC, Larios, Sulemana - destination glue factory please. No club is going to want them. Melted down onto a Pritt Stick at least they’ll help the season tickets go out to any mugs buying them.

Could well be a 2005-9 spiral without the play offs bit.

Million % this. For next season, Dibling, KWP, Ramsdale and Lesley will gone and as for the rest, I’d only want to retain Archer, Jan, Downes, Charles, Taylor, and for the Champ only AA, Bree and Manning. Add in SAA and Ballard. Turn Stewart and Bazanu into glue, that’s all they’re good for. Waste of wages - try and prove Stewart in particular is finished and claim on the insurance. He has enough money to sit on his arse for the rest of his life, the one thing he is truly outstanding at. Set Juric a budget, have a Ronald style new squad circa 2014 and Rasmus told by Dragan that his fingers will be cut off one by one if interferes in Southampton FC affairs in any way whatsoever. Even choosing the concourse beers.

The only hope is that Juric might do Dragan and all of us a favour by calling out most of the assorted shite Rasmus has compiled and insist on full control of recruitment. Even the ‘better’ signings like THB have still been below Claus’s Jumpin Jacks-soaked nadir in 2004/5, and can’t hold a light to Claus when he was very good and on the straight and narrow before that. There’s been far too many Davenport and Bernard examples since SR turned up.

We’d be better off leaving player recruitment to strategic tie up with a leading agent like Wolves do - point them in the direction of what we need position and profile wise and set a package limit. Rasmus has not got a clue. Whoever’s idea it was to sign Ross Stewart should be put in stocks at the Bargate on a Saturday morning and have sharpened 50p pieces aimed at them for being a moron. Or given the Freedom of Sunderland.

Was driving back from Hampshire after visiting family and forgot about this game. Quelle surprise a defeat. Another goal for Tyler at least to add to his value. Hey ho. It’s been a good Christmas and if the club aren’t bothered in the slightest about results I don’t see why I should give a toss either. Until they get an SFC Director of Football with a good profile to dislodge Rasmus’s input and a squad who give a shit to give Juric some kind of chance next season I don’t see that changing.

Farage and Badenoch spat escalating with Kemi complaining about the extent of Farage’s airtime on GB News and making threats about regulatory action. A few issues there Kemi: - You’re not in power and not likely to be so for some time (hint, it won’t be as PM) - Hypocrisy; not long ago that Tory cabinet ministers were being interviewed by Tory MPs - Nobody watches the channel apart from Tory MPs, Reform and the most hardcore and obsessive members of both parties Musk now apparently ‘fake news’ assigning Kemi’s X posts as well. Remember, Reform is the party for working class people.

Plymouth it is. He probably wants Norwich - chance their Danish manager gets the push with them drifting 12th, 8 points off the play offs. Some of their more clued in fans have noted this season’s tactical clusterfuck so not sure it will be the love-in he hopes if it happened.

IIRC Saints voted against it, but 13 clubs voted for.

He really did drink the Pep Kool Aid. Deluded. My WBA colleagues will be delighted though, they are not fans of his.

It wasn’t just Truss though was it? She stupidly poured IEA super accelerant on it, but the economy was already well fucked under Boris and public spending out of control with the cost of the ramped up civil service to deal with Brexit plus COVID debt on top. A bit like the 1970s stagflation, Howe and Thatcher didn’t get out of that in 6 months, or 24 months, took into later 1982 to really show signs of recovery. And they took some very unpopular decisions like doubling VAT early on, letting shipbuilding and steel go to the wall etc. SDP were winning by elections, and Tories were frequently lagging third in the polls. If we are still at this stage in 2026 onwards, then I’ll revisit my perspective and be as cross as you are. It took time to build this mess and poor decisions by politicians and publics to get to this point. It won’t transform in 6 months. I didn’t vote for them and not a huge fan FWIW. Far too timid for a start on reconnecting with Europe which would help close the economic gap but then I would say that. I know we have different views on that aspect. Where we agree is that their communication and presentation of policies is poor and has to improve. The press and social media is far more hostile than Blair had, the electorate highly cynical with all parties (including Reform) and not willing to own its balls ups. You can’t have a hard Brexit, lose £40bn pa and expect 2000s era quality public services. Some of the Red Wall seats need a serious reality check - levelling up doesn’t achieve what you want when you’ve cut several % off GDP - but so do this government. They need a Campbell or Ingram figure for when the shit has to hit the fan. That’s where Starmer has been wanting and I think Streeting or Milburn might be leader by the next GE. Abandoning Rwanda was not an error though, it was a very expensive fig leaf token for 1% of illegal migration. When people are flooding out of nations like Eritrea where permanent conscription starts at 14, Rwanda with a few quid in your pocket isn’t a deterrent. The rejections are actually being processed quite a bit faster and numbers falling but the boats are increasing which is another PR challenge. There’s actually been quite a bit of progress in disabling the gangs but it’s an ongoing battle. The smugglers are now operating out of Germany because France is too hot in terms of being dispersed.

They haven’t made the impact hoped yet but if they hadn’t have taken steps to repair some of the severe damage from Boris and Truss they’d have been accused of recklessness. Personally I preferred the Blair and Coalition eras to this, but a hard Brexit plus Truss’s failed gambles and the Ukraine war haven’t exactly given the new lot much scope for manoeuvre that those two eras benefitted from (and Cameron tossed away). Personally, I’d have repealed the stupid and unaffordable NI cut instead of what they did, and Ed Miliband has always been a twat. However, as a Lib Dem majority government will never happen, and then the alternatives are Badenoch or Farage….obvious to give them another couple of years to start making some headway.

You’d have been saying the same in the pub in 1980 about Geoffrey Howe the last time a new government had an in-tray that chronic. And in 1981 and early 1982, people talk about the Falklands effect but the economy picking up and Michael Foot being 15 years past his sell by date helped the 1983 landslide. Howe got pelters for doubling VAT similar to the employers NI increase and it was perceived monetarism was killing the economy, lots of pressure from even their own side to stop it.

Didn’t vote for this government but to compare Reeves to Truss shows pure senility. That’s usually what I expect from Andrew Neil. The flop at GB News has turned him into a bitter old git. No different to Soggy posting a whiny one from the Guardian, Andrew Neil is best ignored.

Another example of why business and politics are different in what drives them. This time, Musk being rational but finding how irrational the GOP is https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clyv7gxp02yo

Really quite facile spat about membership numbers between Farage and Badenoch https://www.harrowtimes.co.uk/news/24820989.nigel-farage-threatens-kemi-badenoch-legal-action/?ref=rss

Had the odd good game eg Swansea away at tail end of 17/18 to keep us up but on the whole, Champ with Watford is the right level. Pure senility to think that he was worth £17m from Lazio’s fringe squad which is about £30-35m in todays money. Edit - didn’t know he’d gone to Saudi but explains why Watford are doing much better! Wesley never stays anywhere long before stinking the place out.

Oh Pep did learn from Russell Martin 👍