saint1977

Yep, correct on all of those. On 3, WTC collapsed like it did because of shoddy regulations in the 1960s on fire codes and resistance (hence why Brexiteers so keen on US alliance). The length of the joists tested were a lot longer than those covered by the code but it was passed even though very risky given the comparative lack of masonry. The protection was spray on asbestos, which killed plenty of workers spraying it on (watch the videos of its construction turn of 1970s and you will see the clouds of dust) but was way too easy to dislodge and which was when the towers were hit in the process of being replaced. Sadly, they had only gotten to floor 40. Of course, the impact of a jumbo jet dislodged the remaining asbestos and left the long stretches of joists unprotected to huge temperatures, bTW, Trump still maintains if WTC had more asbestos it would have survived https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-asbestos-707642/ https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/07/world/europe/asbestos-russia-mine.html And Steve Baker wants to legalise it again in this country https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/brexit-ministers-asbestos-links-questioned As for Nixon, plenty he ordered, discussed and encouraged was illegal not least the Pentagon Papers activities, wiretaps, Cambodia/Laos incursions, Watergate burglary itself although the most damaging of all was the cover up which saw several senior aides and the Attorney General doing chokey. Blame Ford for Nixon not doing the time he deserved. As for Iraq, very short of evidence of WMDs, Bush and Blair did appear to act illegally and should have faced international sanction. JFK - Cuban driven alliance with the hard right to wipe him out. There’s plenty of lengthy books from respected scholars on this topic. Some of the same Cuban names from the period then pop up again during Watergate and the Burglary.

Tough mini season with all away games, we know the batsmen are very poor but not helped by the Aug/Sept wickets. Only Simpson and Alsop really going their SRs going today on either side. Crane bowled well. Tom Helm is a quality quick in the making and removed our only two truly established first class level batters (Vince and Northeast). The others have had good knocks but little consistency over a few seasons now. Fuller has contributed quite well with ball and bat. Holland does a job but you’ve got to question Wood and a few of the other bits and bobs being kept on. More quality and slightly less quantity in the squad next year.

Only games I’ve seen him make an impact I’m are an awful Huddersfield side (lower champ) and Villa (played like they were Champ) so could be an argument for a Champ club. Either way, needs a season of man’s football regularly, looks physically well off it at present for the Prem in his last few games.

Hodgson did a number on Ralph tactically today. Missed Armstrong, has become a vital link with Ings and Che.Ings and JWP looked jaded after England I thought. Smallbone needs a season or two learning man’s football with a progressive manager like Robinson at Oxford. Looked like one of the U17s had snuck on. If he can stand out in L1 have another look next summer. I know Djenepo was inconsistent last year but odd not to get him on earlier. High line didn’t work. Zzzzz all round really. Busy few weeks ahead for Crocker and Semmens to bring some a few new faces in and move a few more of the Les flops on.

Yes please, would suit Ralph's system as well. Where did you see that?

FA = what Les and Ross know about football combined. Clubs' Directors of Football must have been seeing SFC during that period post-Ronald/Poch like ruthless double glazing salespeople visiting the house of a vulnerable/confused pensioner and selling them all sorts of over-priced tat. Shame on Kreuger for not stepping in and nearly killing SFC. Last night's England display and tactics reminded me of Pellegrino's Saints, only Pickford ruined it by actually saving their two shots on target and Les not being able to spend £20m on a latter day Jon Parkin. You'd hope he has no influence on first team affairs but England have gone rapidly backwards since Les was appointed. Probably a coincidence but no Koeman to prop up him this time. As for Ross, hit gold with Ianis Hagi but if Celtic make it 10 in a row, he's a lot more disposable than Gerrard. Don't blame them for Boufal, that was Le Dour's signing as much Pelle was Ronald's. Poor manager but to follow up up with Mr Bean and the Hughesasauras was astounding incompetence. The one saving grace was Gabi's sharp reactions at Swansea which was a Les signing. Shame they wasted a quality player under three appalling managers. He'd have fed off Pelle and Tadic beautifully, think about the link-up with the latter in his early games.

It's a lot of money and a gamble but has a bit more to his game at that level than Adams had. Still, quite a premium. Similar sort of signing to us and J Rod in 2012 and that was only £7m! A big beneficiary are Exeter City. Assuming a 20% sell on (not ITK here) that's a £3-6m injection depending on how the Villa deal is structured. For a proper fan-run L2 club (take note Pompey pre-Eisner) through Covid that is an absolute lifeline.

Yep and Maggie Thatcher was also a very outspoken PM for a decade even through some bitter national disputes eg miners. People will have different views on it but honestly don’t think any of it constituted hate speech, however divisive it may have been. Can anyone imagine her being dictated to by Putin like Trump, Cummings and Boris? MLT is entitled to his views and still love what he did as a player but if any of us had tweeted that, there would be ramifications for our businesses or employers in terms of disciplinary action/losing contracts. Working for a corporate organisation like Sky who were pondering changes anyway was only going one way. I hope he now learns from it or asks family/friends/agent for help with managing his account as a bit of better informed filtration.

He’s got some serious problems when he gets online. Absolute pleasure in person, well-respected as an ex-player and rightly an SFC legend but someone around him - family, agent, ex-colleagues - has to got to be saying ‘that’s mental, totally uninformed and going to make you unemployable’ if it hadn’t already. Still a hero to me but even for me today’s post was vile taste and he needs to limit his social media time or have family/friends run and edit it for him

Looks like he was a Chelsea player at the time - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Johnson#Personal_life

I potentially would be once we have a bit more clarity on COVID hopefully in 2021

I suspect there is a bloke in Russia who likes that idea and has been executing a similar strategy with his puppets in the Oval Office and having decoupled the UK from the EU. Makes you laugh hearing those muppets at the RNC banging on about patriotism when Trump allegedly discussed bounties on the heads of troops with Putin. The Labour left long have had links to Russia and alleged influence as well. Coronavirus is a separate issue but creates further opportunities for Putin and others - China, Trump - for those wanting to shut down open democratic societies.

Think it was the Smugglers pub towards the Itchen Bridge he was drinking in before being caught IIRC - I think there was a board outside making a joke of it for a few weeks afterwards. Badger - I also thought of Mark Dennis.

Westwood allegedly creating a stink at Totton. Wonder if one of the Pompey Bandstand was his designated driver? https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/southampton/forum/262040/john-pfc-westwood-at-totton/#6

That’s Gunn leaving on loan or a perm if Leeds still interested. Madness to have 3 senior keepers and that small a midfield pool. That’s Les Reed logic for you. Reed, Lemina and Gunn moving will pay for a new CM even with the sponsor debacle, probably the guy from Stuttgart Mangala

This is true. I don’t know the unit of production of football shirts but estimating £7 x 40k run at a time? Plus the distribution and supply chain costs. They could peel the labels off and seal the new logos on I guess for a proportion but that’s probably costing too much plus green objectives. SClarke - I agree that the governance here was as bad as the PL in allowing Gao to take over in the first place. They won’t want to delve deeper into their laxity and will be relieved when SFC is finally sold. It’s why good professional people like Semmens exist, let them get on with their jobs. For the most part, Gao does seem to have done but not sure what made LD an exception, or rather who.

My sense on whole LD saga as well. Although posters on here say we got the first £7.5m, and say the new deal is £5m for year, that’s £2.5m down with 12 months to allow RH to carry on improving the first team and Semmens/Crocker the rest ready for a longer term deal 2021 onwards. It’s a PL place. Not great but compared to the sheer destruction Les Reed wrought - Fraser second very dubious contract extension, Carrillo, Pellegrino and staff, Hughes and staff, Hoedt - its a drop in the ocean by comparison. Reputationally worse of course and the reason most of us want the club sold ASAP is because we don’t want the club caught in the crosshairs of Boris/Trump vs China.

Agree, but it’s the pragmatic solution in the circumstances. It’s the other stuff they’ve lost in terms of collective memory eg the proms, other rites of passage, yearbooks and shaking your teachers’ hands at the end of school/6th form and the new undergrads this term coming. Wasn’t a lot of social distancing sometimes in Freshers’ Fortnight in the mid 90s!

It just gets worse for Trump; QAnon alignment by himself indirectly (I know they like me), various other far right looms on Fox and social media forming more birther fake news about Harris and now Bannon, who was pivatol in him getting him elected charged with some serious fraud in relation to a policy cornerstone https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-53853297 Bad things happening to a really bad human being

Yeah, pretty much, and by the time you put a degree certificate/Higher professional quals/work experience on top it’s smaller beer. Most employers will look at it as a balanced scorecard, I wouldn’t judge them unfairly because the average was artificially up.

Staggering that he has appointed that abject failure into a role she as no qualifications or experience for. Pathetic performance at Talk Talk after the data breach, and married to John Penrose who guess what a) has proposed abolishing Public Health England, established by the bloke who Boris beat in the leadership contest and b) wants to abolish the NHS altogether. Shows you how much all of the North and Midlands seats were stupid and gullible being taken in by that red bus with an extra £350m for the NHS on the side if we left the EU. Plenty of idiots down here as well fell for it. That’s 54 times Britain was a Bellend. Maggie was ideological but actually for the most part picked her cabinet ministers on ability with the likes of Heseltine, Clarke, Gummer and Patton all being long term fixtures. Boris and his mate only seem capable of picking either ex Vote Leave drinking buddies or people they were at Uni with. You shouldn’t be running a parish council in Cornwall like that, let alone a nation.

Agree with many of the posts and shows it’s imperative to have managers with presence - WGS, Ball/Lawrie, Ralph, Poch (in terms of way of playing on pitch), Hoddle, Ronald, Nigel, Pards and Pearson (although latter duo never managed us in the PL). The quieter or more dour managers with less presence have never worked out and been disasters - Branfoot, Puel, Pellegrino, Burley, Hughes, Gray/Wigley caretaker types. The only exception in that category might be Dave Jones who did a reasonable job overall but you could argue Ralph has had the same transfer market restrictions as Dave had eg Reed and Wilson’s nuclear squad mess Vs being held back by the Dell and having to work with Rupert Lowe. Sturrock was an up yours to the fans and undermined by the club, felt sorry for the bloke. The outgoing nature does need to come with understanding of the club’s history and values, and applicable people skill, otherwise we’d appoint Di Canio types. Ought to be a key founding principle of recruitment for the first team manager post. my favourites Ronald Ralph Ball/Lawrie (such a relief after Branfoot) Honourable mentions Nigel and Poch

Don’t worry, we will. The only time we nearly didn’t have a sponsor was at the height of the Branfoot protests when Dimplex stepped up late on. Different situation now with respected manager and improving team. Gao is a problem but I think most of the Chinese ‘owners’ will be told to sell clubs and he’s been looking to for a while anyway. Having a bone fide sponsor, which we will get, is better for the brand than a questionable one/nonentity.

Absolutely, Hope this heralds a swift exit for Gao. DJ Harvey - it’s only a loss of income if it’s a genuine firm and can can pay the money. Happy to have Virgin again or anyone legit really. Which isn’t Gao. Gao out and clear decks with KL as well.

Williamson in all sorts of trouble about A Level results and the worst disparities being suffered by offspring in Red Wall seats especially. A* and A grades up 5% for independent schools (Gove and Boris will be thrilled) and Sixth Form Colleges well down. Expecting a protracted and very public appeals process by hundred of thousands of learners. BTEC and more vocational Higher Courses more accurate because more work done during the year. I always did better in exams and so glad I went to a top University under the Major government which believed in social mobility. That said, I think there is a lesson from the more accurate BTechs and predictions.