revolution saint

I'm not sure anyone would start a world war over Sunderland. Possibly the Arabian state of Newcastle.

I don't recall him making too many fantastic saves that I didn't expect him to make but there were a few I thought he was at fault for. Seems to me that he's relatively comfortable with the ball at his feet so I expect him to stay and be first choice but personally I'd rather we had a good solid keeper even if his distribution isn't all that. I don't think he's big enough either - not much he can do about it but his size is probably a disadvantage.

TBF he did come out and say things wouldn't happen overnight, mentioning that Burnley were playing differently at the start of the season to how they ended it. There's a time and a place for playing it out from the back and hopefully he gets the right mix. Have to say some of the goals Swansea conceded are horrific and if we defend like that then he'll be crucified.

You're absolutely right, I don't feel qualified either but I've had a crap day at work and need a good argument so if you don't mind I'm going to insist that you really should have an opinion on this topic. You're both transphobic and sexist if you don't. And probably racist. Scum like you make me sick.

I thought he spoke OK but he wasn't as funny as Nathan Jones.

Hopefully we'll be playing with passion and smiles on faces. As a fan or manager that's all you can ask for.

Losing Tino would be disappointing but depends on the fee we get for him as to whether it's a good deal or not. There's go to be doubts over his ability to last a championship season after the injury he's had and even before his injury he had stamina problems. Shame cos when he's when he's in full flow he's great. If we get 25M (or somewhere close) then it's not a bad deal. Bree will probably be OK in the Championship and I suspect Wilcox and Martin would have a good idea of replacements. Didn't one of the Swansea lads say they were linked with the Barnsley right back who's supposed to be decent?

Agree with you to an extent and the first couple of months probably won't be plain sailing which could possibly cost us automatic promotion if there's a team that has a fantastic season. We should be able to get play off positions though even if we have a dodgy start. I think SR have come out and said their intention is to win the division though so it doesn't look like they've managed their expectations too much.

Yeah, and hopefully that's the case. Just don't want to be in a position where we're insisting on playing out from the back (for example) but lack the quality of player to be any good at doing that.

Trust the process etc etc. You're right though - I don't recall a particular emphasis on philosophy under Adkins apart from making sure the players worked hard ("Hard work beats talent if talent doesn't work hard enough"). This is a worry for me as well and I mentioned it when we appointed Martin. I'd rather we had a flexible manager who came in, looked at the players and came up with a system and style that got the best out of what's available and then adapted to suit the opposition. It sounds like Martin is more of a dogmatic coach that will insist upon a specific style regardless of the playing staff and their various attributes. For one thing it'll lead to us becoming predictable which is never a good thing.

He does, and there's a few others who seem to know what they're talking about. Personally I have no experience in this so I find it really useful and interesting. I feel we're missing a golden opportunity for Alexei to inform us about catering logistics in a military setting so would be good if he can fill that void.

Apparently he sounded much better if you were there in person but I agree he didn’t sound so great on TV.

The other thing, and this is just me speculating, is that those troops that followed Prigozhin are sick of the war and sick of dying. They don't want to go back. I'd imagine a fair percentage of those regular and Wagner who stayed in Ukraine felt the same and today would have given them a bit of hope that maybe things might change. Probably me projecting but morale can't be good right now and it wouldn't take much to break a fractured army in a war they can't win, in a country that doesn't want them.

Will be fascinating to see how this plays out. I bet there's loads who'll be looking to take advantage of the situation. If there's an anti-Putin/anti-war movement then now is the time to make a move and come out demonstrating. Similarly the far flung regions that have been disproportionately affected by conscription, mothers of dead soldiers etc. Any political actors could be considering a move and the same goes for elements of the army. If you're a conscripted Russian soldier do you take this opportunity to get the fuck out of Dodge? Putin looks weak now and I hope the vultures are circling.

Gotta be honest, bit underwhelmed by Arctic Monkeys. I wouldn't class myself as a massive fan but I've got "Whatever...." and "AM" on the jukebox and love them. Also got a copy of Last of the Shadow Puppets kicking around but the later stuff feels like too much like lounge music. All subjective (obviously) but not that impressed so far.

Would obviously have some effect but what is it now, something like only 30% of households actually have a mortgage so it's effects aren't going to be as big as they once were and the people they affect are probably not the ones fuelling a consumer based boom (if there even is one). In fact, if you look at something like state pensions then it's a massive slap in the face for anyone working with a mortgage - you get to fund an inflation matching pay rise and then told you can't have one yourself and by the way here's a hike in your mortgage. Raising interest rates is becoming an increasingly blunt instrument, especially when the situation hasn't been caused by consumer spending but supply side issues and energy prices.

I expect August and September to be a mixed bag due to new manager, uncertainties over who stays, who goes and both new and existing players getting used to how Martin wants us to play. That'd be the same for any new manager coming to us at this time though. By the end of the season I'd be really disappointed if we weren't at least in the play off positions.

So you're getting worked up over how you think people will respond, rather than what's actually happening? And you have the cheek to talk about meltdowns?

If JWP wants to be a craven cottager then there's not much we can do to stop him.

My big problem with Russell Martin is him being a Buddhist and believing in reincarnation. He probably thinks he can have a go and if it goes wrong he can fix it in the next life. There's clear difference between his philosophy and that of Eminem who subscribed to the "You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blowThis opportunity comes once in a lifetime" mantra. I think we should have got Eminem instead. Or Frank Sinatra.

Sorry, completely missed May. That's a shame - could be an important one too.

Yeah, televised first game, tough September, two home games over Christmas including boxing day and a home game for the last game of season.

Jason Puncheon coming back?

Ah OK, I would have thought that it would be a case of next year, if Man City want him, they can trigger the buyback for 40M (of which we get 32M) and there's nothing we can do regardless of any other higher bids coming in. If they don't want him then it's irrelevant and highest bidder wins. This year it should be a case of highest bidder wins regardless. Who knows though. A release clause would obviously be different but the buyback only relates to Man City and next year. Anyway, apparently we have Russell Martin and only a fool would leave such an upwardly mobile club as ours. I fully expect Lavia to remain forever and get a job doing car parking for the club once he eventually retires from playing at the ripe old age of 64.

Is there a gay buyback then? How does that work? Joking aside I'm not sure I catch your drift but I haven't really been paying attention to all of this thread. Seems pretty simple to me - in a bidding war clubs will outbid each other until we accept a bid. Once we've done that then yeah, no other club is going to go over that.