Gloucester Saint

Ah right, I see. Territorial about the club. Good job Bowen didn’t chat up one of the barmaids otherwise your friend could’ve shouted ‘nothing in this game for 2 in a bed’.

If Ramsdale goes, argument for two keepers being signed, not just one. But who wants the two we’ve got? So it’ll be one signed and cross fingers they don’t get injured at all. No idea was Martin was on giving McCarthy an extension, as stupid as the Stephens one last week.

I’d be happy with that, the thought of Bazunu and/or McCarthy fills me with dread and the opposition with delight. I’d rather have Shilton back in goal in his 70s than those two 🤡

He’s done that in competitive games as well.

There’s about what 30 years between Hillsborough and this trend starting up though. The Muamba heart stopping on the pitch at Spurs probably had more to do it, fortunately there was a doctor in the crowd watching the game as a fan. But huge difference between a incidence on the actual pitch and in the stands unless it’s a behind a goal where it could distract play and/or be visible on TV if it’s live on there. Always huge sympathies and well wishes when it happens but the volume of stoppages is not sustainable.

Alan Bennett. I actually saw the famous play right cycling through Covent Garden regularly and he’d have done better than the Reading loanee against James Scrowcroft, the usually non-scoring targetman.

It needs to be phased out unless the spectator cannot be physically moved onto the concourse safely. There’s not any more or less of them than there used to be, I saw a few at SMS when I had a ST.

McCarthy finishes summer 2026 unless the club are stupid enough to give him another extension because he’s a ‘good lad’ as they’ve just done with Stephens. Bazunu would have one year left, subsidised loan to league 1 won’t hurt financially if we’ve got promoted again.

Did Bowen not like the band or your friend’s vocals?

The two replacement wingbacks should bring a bit more energy and both are better at crossing the ball. Bree and Taylor are better defensively, albeit you wouldn’t have known it in the first 10-15 minutes.

EDIT - you meant Still. Re Smallbone…. He saw that at Stoke, then two years ago as well. He still looks like the upright brush in our kitchen dustpan set. Wasted the last two summers when he should’ve been on protein shakes and weights before pre-season. Ralph kicked JWP up the arse about having a Tyro League physique and mindset, hence going on to shithouse Zaha so wonderfully. No such discipline around the club these days. Will has ability but locks you into 4-5-1 as he can’t tackle - as he just showed yet again as if Still wouldn’t have learned from the last minute of rage season v Arsenal - and doesn’t track back. Club of dunces.

Wellington should get a run second half, and whatever Sugawara’s defensive awfulness, he certainly knows how to put good crosses in. Wouldn’t be surprised if the manager wants new signings in wing-back and the wings.

Charles has looked tidy, other than that, really poor even given it’s the first friendly. Eastleigh should do alright this season.

It must be absolutely boiling in those stands - today is not a day for the sauce pre and post-match either.

I think it’s more a case of ‘anyone but Bazunu’ and probably McCarthy to an extent as well.

Smallbone booked for a foul 😂😂

Sat on a table opposite Paul Weller and Noel Gallagher at a Turkish cafe just off Marylebone High St not far from my office at the time circa 2010.

Er, minus Fernandes and the departed KWP that ‘w’ word could be a barrier with group of players. They’re none too keen on it you see.

If it’s a hot as it is here in Gloucestershire it will not encourage a pressing game. Mind you, these players will have taken Still’s comments that there doesn’t need to be much of an overhaul to take their foot off the gas. Actually, that’s not right, they never put their foot on it in the first place. The new manager is seeing what we saw last season.

And further back - Fraser Forster, McCarthy’s previous extension which was on whopping wages, Hurlock, Branfoot. Only times in living memory we’ve made better decisions is when there’s been proper football pedigree and experience in the building - Bates, Lawrie, Hoddle, WGS, Pardew, Ronald. SR are rank amateurs even worse than Askham and Lowe. The club always thinks it knows better but it never has - we forgot more about football and their own club in the time it took to type this post than anyone in SR will ever learn. Watch Smallbone and Bazunu new contracts next - they are that clueless.

Still is very wet behind the ears. Plenty of other ex-managers have been taken in by Jack though.

He’d purr-fur not to talk about it.

As a forward though, one can go in off your shin, the fans cheer, then another at a level you know you get another one next game when you’re picked again and the confidence could return in the rest of your game. Remember how Ricardo Fuller came back off loan, a brace v Cardiff, turned it around for part of a season before being sold to Stoke. Harder for keepers and defenders in many ways.

Stewart is a fitness risk though. Incredible comeback late last season, earned a ton of respect from me for that after almost 3 years out. I’d see him like we did David Connolly in 11/12 - runs of games and important goals/assists, runs of injury niggles and absences - but if he can have a similar level of output to that, maybe a few more games than David, than he’ll be well worth having around. You can’t assume or rely on it in transfer planning though, he’s a welcome bonus. Connolly had a lot more Champ experience than Stewart had though having said all that. So AA will need replacing if he goes. BBD you could argue has been superseded by Downs but BBD has the Champ experience right now, plus I’m not sure that unless Wrexham don’t think J Rod will last a season and Hardie needs a different type of partner, that he’s got much of a market (BBD) after three rank spells at clubs. I think he’s better than he’s shown but needs to be much fitter, the Martin regime really wasn’t for him.

Forest also promoted to Europa. Not the worst thing though, Palace might have a proper chance of winning that, not quite as taxing on the squad as the Europa, and their fans still get the away trips they’ve never had. Still some decent sized clubs in it as well.