dubai_phil

Mate, we talked through all angles on Saturday. Gutted tbh. On the plus side for the Hull game we had a new dubaisaints member just landed here & Saturday we had a transit passenger & one of the regulars Dad in town. The whole sorry mess got forgotten as me & Dad discussed Dougal, the Soul Cellar, Marseilles & Anderlecht away............. We NEED to be in the Europa League with the two Sam's & JRod leading the line. Just gonna have to wait until season after next. And being farking Selfish, Wembley this year would cost me at least US$4,000 which I cannot afford. Next year? #gamechanged

Edit: I just want to point out that in no way or in any shape does the Leeds fan I talked to work for GFH. I was simply playing (Bad) golf

Talking to a Leeds Utd fan today, there is the possibilty that the phew may rise one place in the Pyramid before the end of this season irrespective of their results........

Coventry

So far this season Swansea have played 10 extra games due to the Europa League. Our 1st team is NOT up to that. Sign players scream the crowd. But the WHOLE point is that we have great KIDS coming through. In 2015/16 the current U21 side MAY be ready for the Europa League, but right now we are not. So to claim a Cup win COULD mean the likes of Read Rowe McQueen Stephens Targett Isgrove get EITHER burnt out as we lose meaningless early group games in Eastern Europe OR get pushed back by "Glamour Squad fillers". Sorry I lived through the "Squad fillers" era. I NEVER want to see that type of mehballer in our team again (ie thanks & goodbye Jos & Guly & Kelvin & Gazza) Dubai Saints talked about it Saturday - God we would have LOVED a trip for 10 0r 20 of us to Wembley in May. Holy Krap WHAT a flight THAT would have been. But as Swansea have found, IF we had made it to the Final, we were NOT ready for what came next no matter what Katerina spent in the summer. I'm angry & p1ssed off at the performance, but IF I was MP, (& I hate myself for this) I would have picked the SAME team to start that he did

Not being a Happy Clapper I agree with that. Full whole "Project" is about getting better every week & every Season, to do that you need targets. What the post match hysteria has missed is that JWP SHOULD have scored but scuffed an attempted side footer in the first half, Lallana SHOULD have scored but missed the target from close range and THEN SRL became the butt of Pizza delivery ad jokes by missing from close in. The team which MP put out was NOT our best but REALLY should have beaten them. Anyone who has been a follower of football and of course Saints would understand results can go against you as it did yesterday. Personally I fully understand the clamour to have played our best 11 & treated it as a PL game, I also have a feeling deep down that even IF we had, our name wasn't on the Cup anyway so it would not have mattered. Let's face it, we were beaten by the kind of fluke strike that only Gaston Ramirez could score, BUT which seems to happen against us too often. SRL is as liable to refund the MAGNIFICENT away support as the club is for that miss.

Meh. When Lambert AND Lallana miss from one yard you realise it doesn't matter WHAT team you put out. #namewasneveronthecup

Good luck and be safe to anyone travelling up to the game today. Watching Sky News this morning it seems insane that anyone could even get out of the South, certainly by train!

So. Could the problems in California, which are being caused by a 2,000 mile ridge of High Pressure in the PACIFIC be causing the problems in the UK? Somebody somewhere needs to stop being all Hollywood Disaster Movie with the News and start to explain what IS actually happening with Interconnected weather systems. Sod the Global Warming/Climate Change politicis & gravy train, what is going on with the weather at the moment? IF this resilient ridge is around - Why? For how long? Will that continue to cause strange weather patterns? Should THIS impact short term decisions NOW on Flood Defences? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10638983/The-new-Dust-Bowl-epochal-drought-hits-Californias-Central-Valley.html

Enough said @LukeShaw3 pic.twitter.com/EFunAKCsD3

How not to take a photograph at the winter Olympics: pic.twitter.com/FR8iWghPXq

They keep extending it yet we keep reading of more and more of the regular fans who are not happy with the way the "Elite" of the PDT are running things

Note: This is a very unusual review by me as last night I only had a couple of beers, so this report was not enhanced by any outside agency! So last night was the opening of Dubai Jazz Festival. It's an odd thing, heavily sponsored by Toyota, Emirate & Dunhill, it has a Jazz Garden - a medium sized stage with Pub style picnic/garden tables then a main gig venue. The Garden is full of Car displays, Arty Craft stuff, seemed to spend an age registering to get free gear, silly hats, blankets, lighters & Chocolates for some reason. Down side is 6.50 for a 33ml CAN of Heineken, 7.50 a pint! So. Originally the 2 week bash was due to open with The Stone Temple Pilots with Chester Bennington, but for some reason they pulled out at the last moment leaving the organisers screwed, not enough time to sell tickets for anything else. So IF you pre-registered OR took a ticket to any of the other 3 nights it was free admission. At that price we gave it a whirl! The "last minute replacement band" was Al Mackay's All Stars (The Earth Wind & Fire Experience). There had been a lot of media coverage to tell everyone that this was NOT a Cover/Tribute band yadda yadda yadda. But we felt a bit of Jazz Funk might get the old bones wobbling! Because the free tickets were only valid for entry up to 8:30 we arrived a full 100 minutes before the main gig, so took up refuge in the Jazz Garden and listened to Tony Lakatos with his Sax doing Trad Jazz then Al Foster. I hate Jazz..... Normally. But even with only 1 beer I realised that the quality of the music coming from the stage was simply outstanding. The two acts were worth the 6 quid taxi fare alone! Then through to the main stage wondering what all the fuss would be and why this lot were NOT a tribute band. Al Mackay is a 5 time Grammy winner, he was the original EWF Guitarist, songwriter & producer. His Band had 14 members on stage led by 3 singers. The best way to describe Al would be "The Nile Rodgers" of Jazz Funk who didn't make as much money. By the time the 3rd song was up and running the entire crowd had slipped into a groove / wobble vibe. I don't think anyone there had ever bought an EWF album so for most of us we were hearing this stuff for the first time. The quality of the Jazz/Funk sound the band produced was just outstanding. The "Brass Section" Sax, Trombone. 2 x Trumpets mixed with the incredible vocal range of the guys singing was "amazingly to us" brilliant. About half way in they played the slushy "After the Love has Gone" which went into a 20 minute Jazz/Jam world that was possibly the best music I have ever heard - The Sax solo, the Vocals (insane) then a Sax and Vocal duet then Sax & Guitar then a sort of George Benson esque Vocal & Guitar duet. The crowd basically kept being hit with a new moment and you could just hear WOW! coming from all around (plus a number of Holy ****) They finished by asking that question.... Do you remember? and went non stop through all their big hits and the "who the hell is this band" crowd had simply melted into one huge Disco Dancing mess. So. The gig was free. It was a night out instead of sitting in front of the telly. We spent about 40 quid on beers and taxis for two of us. I had NO idea what we would hear. It was a sensationally good evening and the band were "Extraordinary". The depth of the sound was SOOOO much better than listening on CD. They didn't play a single note all night. They just stood on the stage, FELT the music and it flowed out. http://almckayallstars.com/ Honestly? If I HEAR better live music than that this year then I will be amazed. Edit: I just worked it out. This was an ensemble of extremely talented musicians playing somebody else's music. It wasn't a bunch of guys who have been playing the same songs for the past 35 years or more. I think that was why it had an extra Vitality or edge to the sound. Would they be worth driving all the way from South Coast to London to see in concert? Hell no. BUT I tell you what IF they pay at a festival in the summer, do NOT miss them.

Isn't he busy touring with his band?

The detail. It doesn't ACTUALLY say he will play in The Fail but you can see why it has been inferred he will

That COULD be better than Gareth Barry's OG Retweeted by Chris Rann Tips Out For TheLads ‏@TipsOutForLads 18m Oh Kolo! *facepalm* https://vine.co/v/M7u7v6YVeHE

Oi! My "let MLG recycle an old joke" thread was 1st!

Posted from 41,000 feet over Turkey in the Bar in Biz Class on Emirates A380 (it was an upgrade blag) saying goodbye to PDT (it was a while ago on PTS in the Lounge) love to nutjobs and giving Oldnick sh1t about him moaning in a post that I made things up. What do I win?

No seriously! http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2557867/Ive-Hull-Saints-defender-Jose-Fonte-shows-battle-scars-scoring-match-winner.html

Arse biscuits

The Dubai Saints 40 point party is already being prepared. Cases of Heineken & OSH are being chilled. Vol-au-Vents & Sausage Rolls are being baked & a trip is being organised to the the "Hole in the Wall" out in the desert to stock up on cheap Prosecco for the Ladies. More worried about the 60 point party. That's planned for my gaff #notenuffbeerontheplanetforthat

BBC Solent Sport ‏@solentsport 20m England manager Roy Hodgson mentions @LukeShaw3, James Ward-Prowse @jackcork1 and Jay Rodriguez when talking of his widening pool of players

Once upon a time, when I was a kid living in a village, the fields were smaller, they had hedges and trees and stuff. Every year we would get held up on the country lanes by diggers or Council workers digging out the ditches at the side of the roads. Then I moved away but over the years read stuff that made the International news about the EU, Common Agricultural policy and farmers being more efficient and having bigger fields. I noticed even then some people saying that leaving such huge tracts of land without the hedges and ditches would give problems and run off, but hey, you had years of Drought and nobody listened. I never really noticed it until I went on vacation to France where all the fields are small, they have hedgerows (of course they are inefficient but they are Socialists so the Germans pay for it). Now, I have been away a long time and watch mainly Sky News & CNN but somehow I must have missed these same storms causing such disaster and pain in Brittany? (Yes I saw that Cork had flooded so Ireland clearly has some issues). No idea what the answer is, I live in a Desert without Politics. Just deep down when I fly across Europe on an EasyJet or Ryanair into Stansted or drive around the area south of Salisbury & north of Weymouth/Southampton, I don't see the same patchwork quilt I grew up with. Interestingly, in those days, the only horrific flooding images I ever saw were from other places a long way away.