Gloucester Saint

True, he did score with the odd one eg QPR home but hasn’t quite mastered the art of keeping his head over the ball.

Edozie must be counting a couple of goals in the bank. Shoot low and with decent-ish power and he’s scored regardless. Could be a heavy defeat for Liege.

https://www.indy100.com/news/brexit-no-deal-quotes-boris-johnson-david-davis-dominic-raab-8463121 UK economy 6% smaller than 2016 - let that be the Conservative and Reform UK legacy. Although John is trying his best to close some of the gap just in alcohol purchases. 🍻 Cheers - hiccup. I would add a vomit emoji for normal drinkers but I suspect John is well past the hangovers and sick stage. His house must be a right fucking mess though when he sobers up occasionally.

Wouldn’t get past Charlie Austin in their first XI anyway.

Unless you’ve consumed a 24 can pack of Carling, and a bottle of cheap wine by 2pm, that’s impossible to do. John giving trade and business advice is like receiving advice on having stable and long-lasting romantic relationships from Katie Price.

Yep and the failure of that trade deal for the UK was endorsed….by the Conservative Party https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-63627801 As Boris Johnson famously about Brexit, ‘fuck business’. And in the food industry it did https://www.politico.eu/article/liz-truss-uk-food-sector-australia-new-zealand-trade-deal/ The FT’s verdict https://www.ft.com/content/bb70437e-b565-4415-a008-0c2424c0b0de

So he claims. On defence spending amongst some NATO members, he’s always had a point. On tariffs, there will be claims and counter-claims. He wants countries to buy more US LPG but it’s a stupid way to do it, because when he’s out of his honeymoon lap he’s pissed off key allies like Canada for a long time. And it’s far from certain that all of the GOP Senators will back him either - see budget amendment saga over Christmas. Only takes 3 or more GOP to rebel - and the remaining non-cult GOP Senators do not like any trade restrictions bar China, Iran and Russia (just about on the latter).

I think it’s unlikely with the UK, as we trade either at a small deficit or surplus depending on the cycle so what he’s saying ‘Hey Keir, why don’t you buy a bit more of our LPG?’. US is the biggest producer of it. Whereas he wants the Germans to buy a lot more of it with the Russian pipeline switched off. Musk mouthing off with the AFD looks rather stupid in that context.

And Ely, Vestergaard and Hoedt. All of who, plus Carrillo and Stewart cost far more than Jan and probably less games than him combined.

Good to see that. The GOP and their voters started this so should pay the extra.

Yep, and this from the Heritage Foundation, of all places as well https://www.heritage.org/trade/commentary/we-shouldnt-rinse-and-repeat-when-it-comes-costly-washing-machine-tariffs

Classy - soundtrack of loud jeering and laughing from Tory and Labour councillors as he unfurled a Union Jack. A distraction from being sacked by the Tories for sending picture of his bollocks unsolicited https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/24853860.reform-councillor-accused-criminal-behaviour-meeting/ Farage involved in a very dubious side hustle he’s putting his name to https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/nigel-nine-jobs-farage-scored-34553834

We haven’t had a January 2023 style splurge this time which helps a lot plus Dibling sale will really boost PSR

Not in the way you imagined though…

They are….but that’s exactly why this January should be quiet. As much headroom as possible for Spores in the summer and clear the deadwood in the scouting and recruitment let alone the playing side.

Undercooked meat

Circa 40000 of those on the Pompey Takeover Saga Thread probably

Saints’s league performance was interesting in the late 1960s and very early 1970s - either staying up one season with lots of heavy defeats and top seven and Europe the next. 1972/23 was an outlier with bang average 13th and then relegation 1973/74 with Lawrie taking over from Ted mid-season https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/fc-southampton/platzierungen/verein/180 Do fans who watched us then remember broadly why? Was it literally Ron Davies having a couple of stunning seasons and losing form? Goalkeepers coming and going?

1974 The 8-0 at Everton was May 1971, last act of their midfield ‘Holy Trinity’ https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/day-everton-fc-thrashed-southampton-3360659

The UK needs to be lowering trade barriers for our SMEs with the EU. America is simply not a reliable substitute trading partner https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ckg0m79gm10o As prices increase for US consumers rather than reduce as he promised them, it’ll be interesting to see if the wavering voters who said they didn’t like him or his views but thought that the economy would do better under Trump and they’d have a few extra dollars a week, stick with the GOP at the mid-terms.

But that’s how some SA players saw it from that era, a certain SA born player for England moaning about quotas. KP was a great player for England but his domestic record over there wasn’t great. He argues he was being asked to be batting too low and having to rely on his so-so bowling. It’s choosing good players from any background but when they’re similar at a certain point the diversity aspect can be a tie-breaker. Now their set-up is more balanced the quality is coming through from all backgrounds.

Not all but may have needed a bit more time in the team environment to bring their very best. In SA cricket, the pipeline took some time before greats like Ntini and Hashim Amla emerged from non-white backgrounds.

99.9% of jobs aren’t sport or measured like that though. Carrying on the sports analogy, South African cricket had a difficult spell but they are in the World Test Championship Final. If they could get more people through the turnstiles to their Tests and ODIs they’d be in fine shape. And the rugby side, who also diversified, are definitely not doing shabbily.

There’s no online evidence whatsoever showing a reduction in standards or competence let alone any major accidents or incidents. There’s some conjecture in the US about workplace dynamics on the specifics of how DEI programmes have been implemented in a small number of cases nationally bur subtle adjustments were the answer. There is evidence that all employees regardless of characteristics have had better work environments with them, although this varies by age (oldest by age tend to be less enthusiastic). But employee performance and productivity seem to be healthy. There can be DEI fatigue if clumsily implemented but overall most employees are positive about them https://www.aihr.com/blog/diversity-equity-inclusion-belonging-deib/ White very conservative leaning billionaires have pushed for this and got it.

I can only comment on UK ED&I policies and programmes, as I don’t have experience of US ones (didn’t stop Trump obviously even in the wake of a disaster). They have never been about hiring less able or qualified people to positions firstly. Secondly, it’s giving people from a different backgrounds an opportunity to interview and assess and mitigating access where that access has been less. Be that through less social networks, the assessment process being made more transparent (eg clear on salaries and questions). We’re talking small reasonable adjustments. For example, there are some very bright neurodiverse people out there but only 3 in 10 are in stable employment. Talk about putting a spike in economic productivity. Also means the goods and service sold or provided to diverse customers are not reflected in the workforce and social mix. That’s trouble, we know that from history.