Sheaf Saint

He even admitted himself when he signed that this was very much a stepping stone move for him.

I know he's not amazing, but I do think he has been criminally underused by Hughes. He actually looked decent when he started against Chelsea, and showed more threat in that 60-odd minutes than Austin has all season. So quite how he then gets dropped in favour of Austin in the next game is just baffling.

Yep, this. Absolutely this.

It's just bonkers isn't it. Yoshida, despite his faults, is our most reliable CB by a long stretch. He did OK against Chelsea, given the strength of the opposition, and now gets dropped to the bench again with Hoedt still, inexplicably, managing to be the first name on the team sheet. And Gabbiaidini showed more threat in the time he was on the pitch against Chelsea than Austin has done all season, so naturally he gets dropped as well. I was so willing to give Hughes the benefit of the doubt, but he clearly doesn't have a clue what he is doing.

I'll never forget trousers' now legendary "This has got 0-0 written all over it" comment on the match thread!

It's good for the short-term interests of American fossil fuel industries, but that's as far as it goes. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S026499931630709X On a wider scale, it's disastrous for the global economy, and therefore for America as well. But then I wouldn't expect any Trump supporter to be able to see the bigger picture.

Yeah you're probably right, Sunderland were comically bad that day. Mannone had the worst game any PL keeper will ever have, and after number 5 went in they just threw in the towel. But credit where it's due - we put them to the sword ruthlessly.

https://twitter.com/SouthamptonFC/status/1052823743398125568 I really miss that team The rate we're going at the moment, we'll be lucky to score 8 goals at home all season.

I've tried and tried, but I still cannot imagine what 'good' has or will come from this. Perhaps you could explain it. I think you'll find it was the Russians who did that. The US, UK & France have all been supporting the Jihadists in Syria FFS.

This is why he is an international disaster. Although, he's not alone in this respect, sadly. https://twitter.com/GavinNewsom/status/1051875993042866177

Which is pretty much exactly what he said would happen if people vote Democrat in the upcoming mid-terms at his rally in Iowa today. https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/09/us/politics/trump-rally-kavanaugh-iowa.html?smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur This is identity politics at its very worst. He might as well have said that the Democrats are a devil-worshipping death cult who will bring about the apocalypse if they get into power. And his moronic base supporters would believe him as well.

https://highlightsfootball.com/video/everton-vs-southampton-highlights-3/ 03:03 on the video. Absolutely rifled it into the top corner. Great penalty.

Oh FFS, I don't know haw many more times I am going to have to repeat myself on this. Yes, I make no secret of my contempt for the current Tory government, and yes, my views and opinions mean I naturally lean towards Labour, but I am not a 'Corbynista'. I think he has some good qualities, but I also think he has some very poor ones. I am very skeptical about his suitability for the Labour leadership or the role of PM. He doesn't have the authority to unite his party, and he has definitely shown questionable judgement in some of the people he has associated himself with in the past. Even if his intentions were benign, that's not a good look for a prospective PM. His failure to open a significant gap in the polls over the worst government in living memory is also quite worrying, but then how much of that is down to the negative propaganda he has been subjected to I wonder? So rather than defend him out of some blind loyalty, I have always striven to use critical analysis when looking at the accusations against him, because I genuinely want to do due diligence and find out whether he is deserving of my support or not. And the inevitable conclusion I have drawn from this is that the incessant media attacks on him since he became Labour leader are mostly without merit, and quite blatantly driven by a political agenda, both from his political opponents at home and abroad, and from those within his own party who would rather see the Tories stay in power than allow him to become PM. The narrative being pushed by many over recent months - that he is a rabid antisemite who has deliberately cultivated a hostile environment towards Jews in his party - is patently false, as despite all of the column inches and airtime given to it, nobody has yet been able to present a single shred of convincing evidence to prove it. Show me some and I will hold my hands up and accept it. But you can't, because there isn't any. But, and here's the thing, this campaign is having the opposite effect than what was intended. People are wising up to the fact that it's all a propaganda campaign, and this is actually galvanising his support rather than eroding it. I'm seeing evidence of this all over social media - people who have decided to join the Labour party and support him in response to what they see as a disgraceful campaign of lies and distortion.

Come on Verbal - play the ball, not the man. Can you dispute the findings of the report? http://www.mediareform.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/Labour-antisemitism-and-the-news-FINAL-CORRECTED.pdf

Well, well, isn't this interesting... http://www.mediareform.org.uk/blog/new-mrc-research-finds-inaccuracies-and-distortions-in-media-coverage-of-antisemitism-and-the-labour-party So a comprehensive study into the media reporting of the antisemitism 'crisis' in Labour has shown beyond doubt what those of us with an objective viewpoint could see quite clearly all along: that Corbyn has been the target of a relentless disinformation campaign by the corporate media and the BBC. Who would have thought it eh?

OK, fair point - he made no direct reference to it being a majority. But the overall tone of his post seemed to imply that the only people who would be happy to see a Labour government are people who expect something for nothing. I can assure you and OldNick this is not the case. And as I alluded to in my previous post, my own personal experience of the kind of people he was referring to is that they also tend towards the sort of right-wing, patriotic, anti-immigration rhetoric you would normally associate with UKIP or the BNP. If you were to go door-knocking round the high-rise towers of Millbrook and Weston on a weekday afternoon to ask people about their political opinions, I very much doubt you would find a lot of support for the current Labour party.

Agreed. Benefit fraud only accounts for a very tiny fraction of the government's budget, and a life on benefits is no life at all. There may be some people who have no intention of ever working and are happy to live of meagre handouts, but they represent a very tiny minority and the cost of their benefits to the taxpayer is insignificant in real terms, and is dwarfed by the cost to the treasury of corporate tax avoidance. The vast majority of benefits are paid to people already in work. But there is certainly a stereotype about 'benefit scroungers'. I know they exist because I knew a few in my younger days, but Oldnick appears to have fallen foul of the belief that these people make up the majority of Labour supporters. He couldn't be more wrong. The kind of people you associate with this demographic are far more likely to vote UKIP in my experience.

But still no PL goals or assists yet. For an attacking player, that is all that matters. Pace and trickery counts for nothing if it doesn't produce goals.

Sky News are "leftie Remoaners"?

I guarantee he wouldn't have that record this season if he was still here. He needed a clean break to get his confidence back, and playing in a decent team does wonders for that.

Yep, fair point. I guess the way the season has gone so far it's understandable that people will to try and find the negatives. I'm usually a pretty optimistic supporter, but I'm obviously not immune to that myself.

Remind me how many goals and assists he has so far this season please? He's just a show pony. Looks dangerous on the ball when he wants to, but offers absolutely nothing in the way of end product.

I know he messed up his last one, and his all round game has been dogsh*t recently, I grant you. But in a one-shot chance from 12 yards, I would still rather he was taking it than anyone else in the squad, except maybe Bertrand.

Not at that level, sure. But who else in the starting 11 and subs bench tonight would you have more confidence with in a shootout?

Happy we won, obviously, but sweet Jesus what was MH thinking? Takes off Gabbi and replaces him with Davis who has surely proven to everyone that he is not the right man to bring on when you are trying to defend a lead. Then goes into a penalty shootout having only made one sub and with Austin and JWP still on the bench. Bonkers.