benjii

Surely you just go with Everton and West Ham? Obviously Everton doesn't work here so the best rumour is West Ham. You could also add a bit of intrigue by saying that Villa are preparing a "warchest" and want to spaff some of it on Bolasie if they win the play off final. Where do I get my agent's licence?

NB. "Director" includes shadow director and people exercising control so you can't simply side-step the rule by appointing patsies as directors.

Coukd have been F.1.6, I guess: "A Person shall be disqualified from acting as a Director and no Club shall be permitted to have any Person acting as a Director of that Club if I'm the reasonable opinion of the Board, he has engaged in conduct outside the United Kingdom that would constitute an offence of the sort described in Rules F.1.5.2 or F.1.5.3, if such conduct had taken place in the United Kingdom, whether or not such conduct resulted in a Conviction." F.1.5.2 says: "he has a Conviction (which is not a Spent Conviction) imposed by a court of the United Kingdom or a competent court of foreign jurisdiction in respect of any offence involving any act which could reasonably be considered to be dishonest (and, for the avoidance of doubt, irrespective of the actual sentence imposed)". Obviously, I have no idea or evidence suggesting whether any offence was ever committed. Just speculating over the rules.

Don't rate Mings. He was no good for the Cherries. Ideally, we need a CB with an experienced head and some leadership. We then have two of those (new guy, plus Yoshi) to help bring Bednarek and Vestergaard along. There's go to be someone knocking around the Bundesliga that Ralph could identify?

That makes no sense.

Really? I'd rather see Poch and his man-boobs win it than Klopp and Virgil.

Who exactly do you think is "at the top of the club"? Apart from Ralph H and the football staff, they are mostly unremarkable salary-men. None of them has a stellar CV. Ralph K and Reed have gone and not been replaced. Who's in charge of overall football strategy? Wee Ross? Goa is silent and doesn't seem to have any money. Nelly is the only director of the ultimate UK holding company. The rest of our board are accountants and compliance officers. I think you'd be surprised how sparse the non-footballing side of things is. To be honest, this is the most worried I've been about the club since Mickey Fialka and Tommac.

Yes.

I finally did! Got a 2015 GT Sport yesterday. Haven't really had a chance to take it for a proper drive yet but it seems to have a bit of a split personality. Keep it in standard Auto mode and you need to rev it pretty hard for it to feel fast or particularly lively. It just feels like an exec saloon when you're driving in traffic. Stick it in sport or manual sport and it gets pretty feisty though and if you floor it, it throws you back into your seat big time and it ROARS! I've only really been on boring straight roads so need to take it out on a more interesting route.

****ing morons. Hope Spurs **** them. Never thought I'd say that!

I’ve always found it amusing that, after Goa took over, we voted in favour of the PL rule change that would have prevented Goa from buying the club if it had been implemented sooner.

That's nice.

Depends what you think a football club should be, I guess. But either way, the lack of transparency, the weird websites, the silence over strategy, the initial failing of the owner's test.... Imagine if Ralph hadn't worked out and we'd been relegated. The club would be in an absolutely awful mess and these issues would be in the spotlight. Just because we got a manager who worked well doesn't mean these concerns aren't valid.

Who says he isn't? Have you got something to say?

I don't think a petition will help but the other two are decent ideas.

Don't be like Skates.

And if was part of a state initiative then he wouldn't have struggled to cobble together the purchase money. Unless he has come under state influence since the deal was first done.

If that's true then it's not Mr. Gao that's interested and he is just a stooge.

Maybe we could rename the team as "Belt and Road FC"? I think the day we were sold to Gao will be looked back as the day that Saints FC, as an entity with any sort of local roots, died.

Stranger things have happened.

Yeah, but that's OK because now we're going to smash the fair play rules.

They've still got a Wimpy in Swanage.

I don't like the cut of his jib.

Brighton's squad is utter garbage. He made Glenn Murray seem decent. I'd actually like to see what Hughton could do with a bit of backing at PL level. That said, I don't think there is any conscious or unconscious bias in any way related to this decision.

Oh, absolutely. His background is squeeky clean and from day one his policy of frank and open communication with the fans, coupled with his vision and passion, leave me in little doubt.