egg

If we played Smallbone this forum would go into meltdown. Personally, I like the lad, and I'd play him in a midfield 3, but he's far too lightweight to play as one of the 2 in a 4231. How do you suggest Smallbone be accomodated? I'm not sure when Edozie became the answer. Stepovers then nowt is his calling card.

Every one of those suggestions would lose the midfield. Fernandes plus Charles with Robinson dropping in is a shocker in particular. Also, any CB pairing with Quarshie in a 4 would get battered. Your suggestions show that Still doesn't have the right players. The squad isn't right, although I agree that starting AA through the middle on his own was/is stupid.

Cracking singalong, bounce along song. Gets murdered by some cover bands, but only disliked my miserable bastards.

Indeed, hence an extra CB ain't necessarily a bad thing.

Devils advocate...we haven't conceded, so it's working from a defence perspective.

Net

Fair point!

Hmm

Who? If he picked Smallbone you'd moan.

Stephens has been our best defender by a country mile. Of course he's being picked.

Not unhappy with that, although I'd have preferred any of the other 3 up top instead of AA. Wood at the back for Quarshie makes sense.

If a hazelnut is a cake, then yep.

🌰🐚

Yep. Bad advice would be to move to a PL who wouldn't play him. Good advice is to move to a PL club who will. Even worse advice would be to stay in the championship.

£67m net spend in the 24/25 season, after losses as below, with inevitable as yet unreported trading losses, and you seriously don't appreciate that we need to sell. We do and we will. Year ended 30.6.24 - loss £66.6m Year ended 30.6.23 - loss £49.2m

Year ended 30.6.24 - loss £66.6m Year ended 30.6.23 - loss £49.2m We will have lost money since then. Where's the surplus that means we don't have to sell?

The accounts. I can't recall the detail, but we're massively short of where we need to be. The failed window really hurt us, and £4-5m here and there isn't enough to bring us bear balance. We need the money from Fernandes. Feel free to show me the numbers and tell me where I'm wrong.

I think we do. The books are more unbalanced than a Russell Martin team selection. I'm also not sure we particularly need him. That Azaz lad or Rudoni would offer no less at this level imo. The only caveat is that selling without a replacement would be crazy, although I suspect we can do that now Dibling is gone. I'd expect a decent AM this week, then Fernandes gone.

Council

No. Did Robbie play?

The overall is an average I think. Here's the country specific list. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/products-euro-indicators/w/2-20082025-ap#:~:text=The lowest annual rates were,six and rose in thirteen.

Yep. Selfish ones especially. Which seems to be most of them.

Yep, governments have made a right mess of things, although Thatchers sell off was the catalyst, and subsequent stamp duty giveaways etc haven't helped. The rental market is dominated by private landlords but that shouldn't be the case. So although I don't have an issue with landlords, I think it unfortunate that we're in that situation.

I'm not getting into a wider discussion, just giving some actual facts about local house rental and childcare costs. Too many people float around made up numbers, and forget that child care costs don't apply to all kids, all day, every week. I'm not sure how you've gleaned that I feel that landlords are the issue.... there's a reason I'm in tune with the rental market. The need to rent, the rise in property prices thus rent, and the lack of housing stock, is entirely down to government policy.

Ex council houses in Southampton rent for £1600pcm, so about £20k a year. Childcare locally is about £70 per child per day, so about £33,000 per year based on a 5 day week with 47 weeks in work. So over £50k a year for rent of an ex council house and to have someone else look after young kids. Obviously, the childcare costs drop massively in term time for school age kids as only wrap around care is needed. Rental costs are the killer, but that's what happens when you sell off your social housing and encourage every man and has dog to buy a buy to let or two.