trousers

We've never really rotated players for Premier League games this season. I did some number crunching a month or so ago and worked out that during our busiest period (i.e. September to January) our Premier League starting 11 only changed by something like 1.8 players (on average) from game to game.

I suspect its more do do with giving as much game time and experience to Stephens, and to stick with a winning starting 11 during a period where we don't need to rotate, rather than Caceres's fitness per se.

#THFC: Lloris ©, Walker, Dier, Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Davies, Wanyama, Dembele, Dele, Eriksen, Son. Subs: Vorm, Trippier, Wimmer, Onomah, Sissoko, Winks, Janssen.

Probably nothing significant in this, and it may have been posted before, but for the nutjob records I note that Mark Catlin was made a director of Portsmouth Community Football Club a couple of months ago. Not sure why he would only recently have become a director. Anyway, as you were gentlemen (and ladies). https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/07940335/filing-history

Congratulations to the journos at today's pre-match press conference (live broadcast section) for no-one asking when VvD is expected to be back in training. Bravo (yes, I know it might come out in the embargoed section but I'm still gonna be a bit grumpy about it in the meantime )

Local rag covering tinpot 5 year old football club in clutching at straws shocker

Thanks Alex. You're far too kind, although I do feel a bit bad about having to take some of yours

Ha! This

Please accept my humble apologies Alex. You're right, I should have given your repeating of John Cross's tweet much more credence. Any chance of unblocking me now?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-39293513

That thought did occur to me! (where's MLG when you need him? #cantbearsedtocheckmyself)

Under 21 squad....

I think what he's saying is that the 1,367,764 people who voted 'leave' in NI and Scotland is greater than the 1,269,501 votes that 'leave' won by overall, thus (technically) the 'leave' voters of Scotland and NI *could* have prevented 'leave' winning overall if they had voted to remain. (Yes, and the same could be said about other voting 'blocks' around the UK too...)

Enough said

Interesting! Where have you seen that btw? (U21 squad hasn't been officially announced by England via Twitter yet)

Its occurred to me for quite a while now that its rare for Saints players to be included in the England U18 and U19 squads. This has been reinforced today by the announcement of said squads with no Saints players in sight: http://www.thefa.com/home/news/2017/mar/16/england-under-18s-squad-announcement-160317 http://www.thefa.com/home/news/2017/mar/16/england-under-19s-squad-160317 Surely we've got some English academy players who are good enough to play for England at U18 or U19s? If not, does it suggest our academy isn't as productive as its renowned to be? I'm not raising this as a criticism of the club, just curious as to why. Edit: same applies to the U20 squad: http://www.thefa.com/home/news/2017/mar/16/under-20s-squad-announcement-160317

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/sport/15158454.Ward_Prowse_waits_on__perfect__call_from_Southgate

Thank you kindly for noticing, sir. I was beginning to think that all this gibberish I spout was wasted on the self-appointed intelligentsia on here.

Is it more or less ironic in reverse? i.e. the SNP wanting to break away from one union (the UK) but remain part of another (the EU)? p.s. As Richard Osman would testify, the UK is a 'nation'... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_the_United_Nations

I don't have much idea about how anything works. Well spotted though.

Because too many people fall for the SNP's "Scotland = SNP" conflation mantra. People seem to forget that the SNP are running a minority government in the Scottish parliament at the moment, propped up by the Greens. Imagine the hoo-hah amongst the social media intelligentsia if a minority Tory government in Westminster were playing the "look, the whole country is behind us" card across the whole UK as the SNP do across the whole of Scotland. Less Scots voted for the SNP at the May 2016 Scottish Parliament elections than Scots who voted to leave the EU in July 2016; and only 36% of the Scottish electorate voted for the SNP at the UK General Election in 2015. Aided and abetted by the media, the SNP PR machine are very good at spinning the 'facts' to suit their agenda (yes, all political parties do this, but the SNP are particularly good at it)