The Kraken

Why? We don’t have a right back without Livramento.

Probably my favourite movie of all time. Fantastic casting, Ray Liotta was brilliant. Excellent in Field of Dreams too, the first film I saw him in.

I think I’ve spotted a flaw in your plan.

The question I’d ask is, why did he not do anything about it before now? Not allowed to? Wanted to but refused by the club? Other?

In that case, yeah, Delap may well struggle to get a chance. Although it looks like Jesus will be off this summer, so who knows.

A loan seems the most likely outcome to me, but even then I wouldn’t be surprised if Man City don’t want to release him. Last season City played almost 60 games in all competitions. They’ve got an extremely good squad so are able to rotate their players, but they don’t have an abundance of genuine ‘strikers’. Haaland will obviously get loads of game time, Jesus will get some if he’s still there, but Delap is only 19 so still plenty of time for him. City resisted offers to send Delap on loan in January so it will be interesting to see what they’ll do this summer.

Those aren’t the only choices, are they? He is supposed to have been on 40 grand a week base salary at WHU, and they don’t want to offer him a contract, he’s been injury prone this year and slipped down to third choice RB. In any case, it seems he’s going to Fulham.

I quite like the booking systems as it seems to keep numbers down, but the lack of same day booking gets me. It’s pretty annoying. Saying that, I have never had my vehicle reg checked whenever I have gone to the tip (at least not that I’ve seen them checking). The appointments are available in 30 minute blocks, best to leave it until 15-20 minutes after the start and there’s usually loads of parking spots available.

Wont somebody think of the poor energy companies who are being taxed on their record profits earns in a time of national crisis. At least those energy companies have been given right of way through this levy-not-a-tax to get future tax relief on their pillaging of Britains fossil fuels for decades to come.

Not sure I can tally these two posts. On one hand you say that you always only ever vote for whoever benefits you and your family. But if the Labour Party would be demonstrably better for you and your family, you wouldn’t vote for them because they cover up child molesters, they’re race baiters, and they don’t know what a woman is.

Blimey. That’s a huge step that the club have taken, fair play.

Yes it does. But we don’t know yet. I’m hoping for this outcome and that Ralph is fully on board with it.

This is the part that troubles me. A manager and his coaches need to work together, bounce ideas off each other etc. if Ralph is forced to have coaches he doesn’t pick, that spells disaster to me. My concern is whether or not Ralph is fully on board with this. If he is, great, I’d only ask why he hasn’t effected this sort of change before now. If he isn’t, well, the options are stark.

What I said and what you’ve said aren’t mutually exclusive. But it seems quite clear that this is a direction he was given. Hopefully it’s a positive move. I just hope it’s not something that Ralph resents, as that spells conflict. Hopefully you’re right, this is something that Ralph wants. I’d just wonder why he didn’t act on it before now.

Obviously sorry that three fellas have lost their jobs. Good luck to them all. But, from the club’s POV, this at least seems to be a positive step towards addressing our problems. I won’t claim to have an inside knowledge of our set up, so can’t comment on what Ralph was getting in terms of input from his coaches. But it definitely seems to me that Ralph needs people to support him and challenge his ideas. The whole Salisu long throw nonsense sums up where we were in terms of set piece invention. it will be interesting to see who comes in and where this leaves Ralph. If I were him, I’d definitely feel like I’d had my wings clipped.

We’re run like a B&B

We need @alpine_saintback to whinge and whinge and whinge that we haven’t made any signings before May is out.

You’ve got to have tray.

When Valetta FC sign on, we’ll have cracked it. How do you make a Maltese Cross? Poke him in the eye then tell him he can’t join the Sport Republic revolution.

If he actually has the option he should hold out for Liverpool. If he’s got any chance to go there he’d be a decent fit. Jordan Henderson on the wane, James Milner can’t go on forever. So, in answer to your question, Liverpool. That’s who he should hold out for. If he hasn’t got a chance of signing for them, Spurs are another slightly lower option that he might pursue also, but in footballing terms it’s Liverpool.

Brilliant news. The empire continues. Can’t wait.

It is a lot of money though. You’re talking about spending that sort of amount on getting all of the women to go pro. That’s even assuming all of them are on less then 25k a year in their day jobs and would take up this offer. Then you have the manager and coaches on their salaries, plus all other incidentals, total annual costs would probably be hitting close to the 1 million mark. The boys/mens academy feeds into the first team and so is directly funded by the fact that St Mary’s gets 19 games a season with 30,000 posting top whack to be in attendance. Plus the enormous Sky money on offer. That’s the incentive for funding all of the academy sides. The women’s team is separate. Without some hefty sponsorship it would be a loss maker with everyone on all pro contracts. I absolutely think that SFC should be expected to fund some losses over the next few years to get the womens team going, definitely. Expecting the club to prop up a million in costs per year with little revenues the other way is a big ask. Especially when the club is so heavily in debt. Walk before you can run IMO, generate continued interest in the women’s side, get the crowds up and the revenues increased, then the funding can increase. I imagine the club already have it in Mind that ongoing costs will go up after promotion. Going all pro so quickly is not something I’d expect the club to bear just yet.

It’s not ambitious at all, it’s a reflection on his past.

It’s not easy, no. Some of it is actually saving money by *not* signing ageing rubbish like Theo and Long. Neither of them deserved their contracts and they cost the club around £130k a week or £6m to £7m a year. Don’t do that, most fans said at the sign don’t do it. So there’s money to put towards it. If I pick one player off hand to show it, it’s Johnny Evans. Signed by Leicester in 2018 for £3.5m at 90 grand a week. It’s an outlay and you have to get it right. But you get a proper leader in your first team. Maybe Saints aren’t quite at that price bracket, but maybe we should be. And don’t sign a Djnepo if you need to offset it. It’s very hard to do. It’s also doable, even at our level. We don’t buy enough known quality, mostly because we can’t afford it but often because we choose not to.

Dave Brailsford’s marginal gains are a worldwide phenomenon. Good business practise.