Gloucester Saint

Not legal, but Alan Ball when he took over as manager apparently banned it from training to knock the Branfoot launches forward by the defenders every time. Players who launched into the channels in training matches without targeting a specific striker/winger were fined.

I’d be reassured if he was talking more about how we’re going to beat the high press or even just the fact that we need to bypass it sometimes and blend the playing pattern more often.

I see what you’re saying but SR are investing. It’s not dry like it was under Gao. But how they’re spending it is the issue - it seems to be about lots of player purchases who individually they see as making profit but not enough consideration of the squad balance and certainly not the methods the manager is determined to use. BBD would be a prime example, and Archer needs quicker balls in, look at Saturday’s goal. BBD is better than we’re seeing but you need a focal point with him, and rotation option with Archer. But you probably don’t need AA as well but someone with a bit more craft/express pace. Maybe that’s meant to be Cornet but he’s a last shoulder of the defender forward as well.

Quite, wasn’t seeing this on SWF and I suspect on SM for people who spend time there 2012-17 (incorporating the EFL Final and Europa League even if the football was very drab at times). Or indeed at times under Ralph when the investment level was zero but we still competed most of the time. Bournemouth, Brentford and Brighton, to use three examples, are enjoying themselves a lot more because they are better owned, run and focused clubs whose playing style reflects their transfer budget and have an adaptive transfer approach recognising when needed quality over three players for each single position because a spreadsheet ratio so where says one of them might turn a profit. We needed a couple of outfield Ramsdales sprinkled in instead of a half-a-dozen players this summer where one or two better were needed and the wastage of previous summers that we are hardly using. That’s not the league’s fault. SR needs to accept that they need EPL experience and track-record to get it right for next time.

Nor, clearly, was Luton’s but they at least competed last year and took it deep into the season to give themselves a shot at surviving and giving the club and supporters some hope. We have the Blades frontline granted but we are clearly better in midfield and at the back bar Gus Hamer. As it stands, Sheffield Utd’s points total and our own from 22/23 looks pie in the sky at this rate. Archer showed on Saturday he can be dangerous with quicker balls in/through, and we have the players - Fernandes, Lallana, Downes (ok, error on first goal Sat), Smallbone, KWP, Taylor, Lesley, Sugawara - who would look better moving the ball quicker. Our forward line whatever their limitations bar Onachu trade on movement before a defence and screening DM get set. And it’s moving so slowly they aren’t the type of players to create a trick to break a defence down in front of them. Unlikely we’d have stayed up, but very unlikely now after chucking away 4-5 obvious points for the taking largely through an obsession with method on a slower possession-based style of play, when a more blended approach would help.

I think it’s significant that it’s reached a free vote and debate stage - I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion that it would pass as there’s plenty of Lab-Lib MPs who are from faith backgrounds but conversely there are a few Tory MPs who are likely to be free choice for individuals. Taking the matter out of party politics for a moment, because it’s far bigger than that, pressure has been building for a long-time through campaigners and the different court cases. It’s something which needs discourse in our democracy especially as more people are living longer with multi-health conditions and the wealthier people considering it can afford to travel to Switzerland and other countries. I’m personally a bit uncomfortable, I wonder whether the existing right to cease treatment/DNR could be adapted rather than a brand new bill? I sadly had to deal with this issue in the family a few years back and it is highly triggering just discussing this. But too important to put away in a cupboard. I’m wary that this becomes a default for otherwise healthy people to exit because we’ve cut services beyond the bone for mental health and lack of societal understanding and minimum training of reasonable adjustments. https://www.england.nhs.uk/improvement-hub/wp-content/uploads/sites/44/2017/11/Advance-Decisions-to-Refuse-Treatment-Guide.pdf https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/end-of-life-care/your-wellbeing/withdrawing-treatment/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/end-of-life-care/planning-ahead/advance-decision-to-refuse-treatment/

Simon Case going as well, be interesting to see if that and Gray’s move will quell the leaking and griping.

Apart from the tabloid locked in Reach’s basement (Express). MOS’s front page today even more pathetic https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4dxjxlzljo

This is true of quite a few other squad members as well. Archer looks dangerous when we actually get him quicker balls in/through.

Reported that despite a mixed start, Labour leads on all issues in the polls bar two issues where the two main parties are tied. The polls after their conference were interesting, Cleverly shown as the most popular with both all voters and specifically Tory voters. The members are only a tiny sub-set though, and more likely Jenryck wins with them, as Badenoch has declined with the maternity pay comments. Jenryck may also have an IDS-type problem - campaign to win the right wing and find they hold you hostage when you try to tack back to the centre right and/or boot you out. Didn’t realise that it’s now only around 16 letters needed to the 1922 to trigger a leadership contest… William Hague gave an interview last week saying he didn’t regret being leader as someone ‘needed to do the night shift’ but did regret bringing in the current leadership election rules.

That’s what I meant, to clarify, that he made a mistake you’d expect from a 22/23 year old back up CB against an all time great forward, but that many of us thought he could improve his concentration and positioning as he got into his mid-late 20s when players in that position typically peak. Allied to his ability to bring the ball out. And he hasn’t, really, he’s struggled even this season to look like the squad centre back he was under Ralph and at Bournemouth. Arguably, the technical ability on the ball had diminished as well. Only early 30s now and thought he’d be absolute peak now when seeing him as a younger player. Les was a disgrace that January to have sold Fonte and only brought in a half-fit Caceres. Plus Vardy crocking VVD.

Worst of the lot for me taking into account the resources and standard of football was Pellegrino. Fell asleep at the Watford home game in the sunshine after Fraser let the second daisy cutter in from range, and the nadir was 10 men behind the ball v Huddersfield at 1-0, league’s lowest scorers there for the taking after Austin’s early goal. Les must have been highly pickled that season not to have sacked him before March, or an ego the size of Rasmus,

That was a frustrating moment but him and Yoshida otherwise acquitted themselves well at Wembley, Fraser’s error on the free kick was very damaging. From there I expected him to kick on but the ball watching and losing strikers has become a more regular habit than it should be for someone with what, 150 PL starts?

Someone who wants to play at a decent lick. The likes of Fernandes, Downes, Lallana, KWP, Sugawara, Taylor could all cope with it, and the centre backs would be less exposed. I dare say the forwards would appreciate earlier deliveries into forward areas before PL defences get set and everything goes on in front of them. Which is how our opponents want it.

Shocking statistic that between 2013 and 2022, 66 under-19s have been killed by falls from tower blocks https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8elp45llz4o You could argue residents could fix it themselves - on the lowest couple of floors maybe - but above that it needs people experienced working at height to fit new latches and from the sound of it new windows on some of the 1960s and 70s stock. To let windows and doors degrade to that extent where young families are living, especially very young kids with less of a sense of danger, is unacceptable in a western country.

Stokes doubtful for first Test v 🇵🇰 https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/articles/cj6e9k22e88o As the article suggests, save him for 2nd 3rd tests, have Smith at 6 and 5 bowlers. The wickets there are often very flat. Grass on it now but less so by next week.

True, although the Central Lancashire Leagues have always been strong. Maybe not quite as strong as their 1970s/80s heyday with the proliferation of franchise white ball cricket before many rising stars have even established themselves in their national sides. There was a lot of moans about Jamie Smith’s Test selection in the Midlands and North but he’s been superb, McCullum, Stokes and Key can spot a player as Duncan Fletcher could.

Probably but most of the PL outside the top 6/7 would be in the bottom three if they played a slow recycling game as Saints are at the moment, which is so easy to set against. It would have been interesting to see how we could have fared with a more varied pattern and style of play, and certainly moving the ball quicker. At least be competitive ala Luton last term with a squad costing a fraction of ours. Unlikely we’ll even pass Sheffield Utd’s total at this rate without a huge change in results. Derby’s 11 points record will go if Martin is here for 38 games. If we ship 5 or 6 at the weekend he probably won’t make the Leics game, especially if 2 of their goals are from intercepting slow recycled play.

Makes Saints seem like George Graham era Arsenal with Adams, Dixon, Bould and Winterburn by comparison.

I suspect that meant to say ‘fastest ever goal scorer’ (Watford away) but someone got mixed up in a rush and wasn’t checked before publishing.

Suella wanted to send asylum seekers to the Falklands but Rishi overruled - could this have been an alternative? https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/home-office-offered-up-falklands-as-back-up-for-rwanda-policy-z8stsjc83 Anderson suggested they could be sent to the Orkneys instead. And further back, Blair allegedly wanted to send them to the Isle of Mull https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/29/tony-blair-government-house-asylum-seekers-isle-of-mull/

There’s a difference between overseeing the paperwork and being the ‘strategic genius’. Which Mr 🐂 💩 thinks he is.

He can work with the other two clubs, I just don’t want him anywhere near SFC decision making, even down what beer is in the concourse. One of the most inept people I’ve ever seen in any industry. The Frank Spencer of transfers.

Reminds me of that song at Alan Knight’s testimonial before all the trouble afterwards 🎵 ‘Alan Knight is a scummer, scummer His children are scummers, are scummers His grandkids are scummers, are scummers, His great, great children are scummers, are scummers’ 🎵

This time, Rasmus has to go as well. If SR want to employ him at Goztepe that’s up to them. But he is the most harmful individual I’ve seen in relation to SFC, even worse than Lowe or Askham.