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Thread | Thank you and goodnight
at 08:24 29 Oct 2025
For a number of personal reasons, mainly connected to protecting my mental health, I am taking a break from this platform and indeed most forms of social media.
There are a number of negative - and mainly self inflicted - "problems" in my world right now which are combining to threaten a return (for me) to some very dark places I have been to before.
I'm sure many of you will be happy to see the back of me and I will miss the "banter" (especially enjoyed the "keep politics out of football forums"). I will from time to time check in but for now my contributions will cease.
As the cliche goes, sometimes it's OK not be OK. The trick is recognising that and doing something positive.
Good luck, good health and prosperity to every single one of you.
COYR |
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Thread | 4 wins in 50 games
at 09:10 27 Oct 2025
The above statistic is one quoted on Final Score at the weekend. I've not checked it.
If it is correct, then it points towards a systemic issue with player recruitment and ownership "strategy" rather then - or perhaps in preference to - blaming the players or the manager.
Playing squads need to suit the task. The Championship is league of teams who play in a very physical and direct style. I'm always a little intimidated when the teams line up at the start because the opposition always seem to be taller, bigger than our boys.
Many Championship sides are very direct. Get it wide and cross it or overwhelm the central midfield and bully through the centre. Our boys seem to be spectacularly ill equipped to deal with either.
Our boys seem to think that the opposition should stand back and admire their ball skills, rather than be getting in their face,
The manager needs to recognise the flaws and tell whomever is recruiting players what he wants. I suggest that Mr Still is not doing that - just grateful to have such an opportunity.
If the manager is not willing to match other teams, then he needs a plan which doesn't allow oppositions to dictate play. He doesn't have that plan. He needs help or he needs to recognise that the job here arrived with him a little too early.
Either way, 4 wins in 50 games means that the owners investment is losing value every game; the club becomes desperate for any sort of available talent, regardless of whether they are what we need; good players who are available will avoid us.
We are in a spiral - downwards - and doing the same thing with the same players is not how to stop that trajectory. |
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Thread | The truth, the whole truth, etc?
at 11:51 22 Oct 2025
I'm sure some of us are following the slow motion car crash that is the enquiry into the exploitation and abuse of young girls by various groups of men. And to address the elephant in the room, the media focus at least is upon the ethnicity of those men with a bias toward reporting those of Asian origin whilst ignoring Caucasian roots.
Two women have resigned from the enquiry. They are acknowledged victims of the various heinous acts and deserve to know the truth about the authorities failed to protect them. To that extent, their reluctance to accept a leader of the enquiry who may have a conflict of interest (e.g. social worker or police officer) is perfectly understandable.
These two (Fiona and Ellie-Ann) were yesterday and today front and centre of various media outlet stories - TV, radio, news websites, etc.
I fear however that those outlets have been selective.
Fiona is being mentored by our old friend Mr Lowe. He has little interest other than to forment division, opposition and challenge to the current administration. Presumably that's what gets him excited i.e. being against something rather than for something.
Ellie-Ann is a Reform councillor. Space does not permit listing the inconsistent and incoherent activities of such councillors - presumably following the Reform party instructions - but suffice to say that there are a number of difficulties for them.
I have no idea whether Fiona is unduly influenced by Rupert. I have no idea is Ellie-Ann is a good or a bad councillor in terms of following Reform's instructions.
Equally I have no idea whether there is an ulterior motive in their coordinated departure from the enquiry, such as creating yet more rage against the establishment.
I do think however that the media reporting should at least have mentioned the above connections as being relevant and perhaps asked them whether those connections played any part in their decision.
I am absolutely convinced that these women were abused not only by those scum who groomed them but also by the indifference or sometimes active participation of social workers and police. They and we deserve to know the truth. But that truth did not end when the abuse did. If there is some political intent here to prevent the enquiry from undertaking its work, a hidden hand seeking to guide the process via these women, then is that not also part of the truth? |
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Reply | Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned...
at 12:39 20 Oct 2025
It is difficult not to agree with the various views above (including Mr JB) that religion has been used as a convenient power base for those people seeking said power.
Pretty much every religion can be shown to at some point or other, to have been corrupted by those seeking temporal authority.
We see it in the USA where "fundamentalist" christian sects seek to influence politics despite their constitution being very clear that state and religion are separate.
We see countries - or perhaps more accurately peoples - who follow a particular branch of Islam, use their interpretation of "holy" writings to control populations.
Faith - by which I mean a personal belief in some form of supernatural force - benign or otherwise, is different. |
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Reply | Anyone got the figures….
at 12:29 20 Oct 2025
Small clubs?
Is that not what we have become?
How do you measure "small" vs "big"?
On field success? = small
Fan attendance? = big but perhaps declining
Ambition? = who knows |
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Reply | Anyone got the figures….
at 11:22 20 Oct 2025
The official attendance is based on ticket sales and not people through the turnstile so season ticket holders get counted whether they turn up or not..
Clubs have a core supporter base who will turn up in all weathers and regardless of form. That tends to reduce over prolonged periods of underperforming, but for us is likely to see 20k this season.
More occasional fans will be much more driven by more recent form. Our inability to actually win a match at home is therefore a huge factor when that fan is making a choice about what to do that Saturday. (Messing around with kick off times is also a factor).
We have the players, the manager is going nowhere, at some point we will put a lot of gaols past somebody and hopefully our season will turn from "danger of relegation" to "mid table mediocrity) |
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Reply | Maccabi Tel Aviv fans banned...
at 11:15 20 Oct 2025
There is an element in the Maacabi fan base that either is or appears to be as much politically motivated as it is by football. This contingent of "ultras" has form for whipping up trouble not only in away games in Europe but for "home" games against local opposition. See the events at the attempts to play a derby game last weekend which was eventually cancelled due to their (and the oppositions) behaviour.
The appearances in Europe to date have not been incident free - see the match in Amsterdam which before and after the match saw violence on the streets.
Whatever your position on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, reflecting that on the supporters of a football club is probably a bit immature and facile.
However, reacting to the potential for a situation to rapidly get out of hand, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds to contain, perhaps risking inflaming local and national tensions and potentially injuring those policing the event as well as "innocent" bystanders, is a no more than taking sensible precautions.
In my view, the initiative should be put on the Maacabi club to vet and manage their supporters going to the match and it is for them to arrange safe transport in and out as well as being responsible for say half the cost of policing it.
If UEFA admit clubs with known violent followers, than again, they should be managing that and footing the bill.
I think Frankfurt are playing in Italy this week and are also known to have a faction prone to violence. The Italian authorities (government) has suspended the Schenegan arrangement for 48 hours in order to be able to prevent Frankfurt fans from getting into Italy. The UK allegedly controls its own borders, so we could do that?
As for the Villa game, I would support a ban on away fans simply on the grounds of their potential to cause a civil disturbance. |
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Reply | Danny Rohl Turns Down Rangers And Stirs Up Southampton Rumours
at 14:03 16 Oct 2025
The Rangers job is a poison chalice.
For many years now, the Rangers team has played second fiddle to Celtic and they have hardly shone in Europe or even the Scottish leagues.
Nonetheless, their fans are really that - fanatical - and they cannot or will not see that they are not equipped to be a force in Europe or Scotland.
That might be because of player recruitment, coaching, managing, ownership etc. It matters little to the fans who are just desperate for success - and that has to come FAST.
If I were Rohl, I'd be looking for a second/third division outfit in England to hone my skills and then look to the Championship next season or possibly go into Europe. I would be steering clear of a club with limited resources but huge expectations. |
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Reply | Will Still Appears To Have Decided Loanee Has No Future At St Mary's
at 15:30 15 Oct 2025
The financial model being pursued by SR and others is not based on the profits made by the clubs.
The profit made by a club - as reported - is usually game/TV/merchandise receipts, less costs such as salaries, premises, overheads.
The cost of a player is a capital cost - not a revenue cost.
For the purposes of reporting for FFP etc, the cost of a player is spread over the period of their contract (hence we say Chelsea sign players for ten years).
The sale of a player is likewise not part of the annual income v expenditure but rather a capital transaction.
SR make money from buying and selling players, not whether we make an annual profit. |
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Reply | Pitch invader
at 14:46 15 Oct 2025
I worked with a guy who was privately educated, good university, very supportive and high achieving family, and who had the intelligence, connections and ambition to be a stockbroker (when such beasts existed).
He was (probably still is) a QPR fan.
He went to Newcastle for a match and was having a beer pre kick off. A fracas exploded around him (he swears the first he knew was when a glass missed him by inches). The police waded in, arrested everybody with a QPR shirt or scarf.
He ended with a missed last train home and a police caution for affray.
He had to disclose that police caution on applications to be financially regulated as there was no expiry.
He never became a high earning stockbroker or indeed hold any other position in the financial world other than a salesperson. |
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Reply | Will Still Appears To Have Decided Loanee Has No Future At St Mary's
at 14:25 15 Oct 2025
If we view the European and global football pyramid, the financial pyramid, together, the English Premier League is literally in a league of its own.
It outspends every other European league and those leagues in turn outspend the South American and other leagues.
In any statistical analysis (and therefore in any quantum driven financial analysis), the PL is an outlier.
There are perhaps 10 to 12 clubs there who are "permanent" and 8 to 10 clubs who cannot claim that.
So really getting to and staying in the PL is limited to those 10 to 12 clubs. To put that in context, that's less than a quarter of one percent of the global professional club population.
To build a business model on reaching and staying in that <0.25% would mean that you are supremely confident, have the backing of probably a sovereign wealth fund, would be running at an operating loss for a decade. For almost all clubs without these attributes, the PL is unobtainable in the long term.
Therefore a model at a lower level - and here perhaps we assume that the Championship is equivalent to most European top leagues with the exception of a few stand out names - is likely to be more (financially) stable and sustainable.
Finding one "star" who was acquired for relative peanuts, played a few games and is then sold on for megabucks (Lavia perhaps?) is enough for at least one years' profit especially if the overheads etc are lower than the PL. |
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Reply | Southampton General Hospital...
at 09:32 15 Oct 2025
Man calls police - please come out and help me, there's a man in my shed and I think he's trying to steal my garden equipment.
Police: I understand sir, is there any threat to you or is this just petty larceny?
Man: I think he is harmless, but he's taking my possessions.
Police: I'm sorry sir, but we have very limited resources and the soonest we can get to you will be in about ten hours.
Man: But you can come now and catch him in act!
Police: Not with our present resources sir.
A little while later, the man calls the police back.
Man: there was a man stealing my possessions from my shed. I called you about him. Don't worry now though because I've shot him and I think he's dead.
Within five minutes, there are five police cars, armed response, detectives and family liaison pulling up outside.
They find the burglar alive and well if a little overwhelmed by the number of police.
Police to man: Sir, I thought you said you had killed this thief?
Man to police: I thought you said you had no resources! |
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Reply | Will Still Appears To Have Decided Loanee Has No Future At St Mary's
at 09:25 15 Oct 2025
In my view, what we are seeing is a number of different agendas and plans being imposed upon the parties involved and to date at least nobody is willing to give up their own objectives and pull together toward a common target.
The owners are still in the business of making money and whether that is in football or making widgets, they don't care. It's all about the bottom line and keeping investors happy. That means - in the level of football we are at - buying players and selling them again for a profit. It's a bonus if they get some first team minutes (and perhaps some are given those minutes at the insistence of the owners over the objections of the manager?) because that increases their value.
The "Director of Football" has assembled a squad with little cohesion or process and we have either got 3x or 4x cover for some positions and zero for others, but he is happy because he has stock he can sell and keep the owners happy - and if the team fails to perform he can blame the manager.
The manager is untested at this level and has a squad he may not have chosen. The weakness this brings is that he does not have the experience to get the best from the players he has at his disposal and is therefore experimenting. That is not just with players but with tactics, game management and himself. I think he will be a very good manager in due course - hopefully for us - but there is a period to be endured whilst he is learning.
The players are nervous and that comes across as a lack of confidence in system and themselves and that is why (IMO) we see such inconsistency at the moment. Some will feel that they are playing out of position in a system that doesn't suit them. Some (like Captain Jack perhaps?) are wondering if they can get back into the first team and if not, then where is their future.
So we have all of this going on and a focus on individual jobs, objectives and ambitions and in the meantime we meet teams who have been in the league for a while and know what it takes to grind out results. |
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Thread | Do you know all the words?
at 17:18 9 Oct 2025
Following on the threads about bands you're meant to like and gigs etc, I would stick my neck out and say that you know all the words to some songs from bands you don't like or listen to regularly.
For example, I think I could "sing" a dozen or more Abba songs and perhaps the same number of Paul Simon songs but they're not bands/artists I listen to at all.
On the other hand I know the first verse and chorus of songs from some favourite artists (Lumineers, Drew Holcombe, The Brevet) but am basically making it up after that.
You? |
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Reply | Survey results as reported in the Times
at 17:09 9 Oct 2025
Why do you associate a stance of caring about people who have taken desperate measures to get here as "leftie"?
In your mind does "leftie" mean somebody who is a soft touch, a bit too PC, too welcoming, too tolerant?
If that is correct, then does it mean that a "rightie" is somebody who is intolerant, hard nosed and willing to discriminate? |
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Reply | Top 3 Hidden Gem Cities
at 13:06 9 Oct 2025
Been to Portsmouth NH many times.
They have a couple of very good breweries there and an open air museum which is basically some of the older houses in the town relocated to a park. Think it's called Strawberry Bank?
Also full of sports bars and most weekends the vibe is good if you like sport. (Luckily my wife does).
Rural NH is more of an acquired taste. Bear in mind that the state logo is "Live Free or Die", many of those outside the few towns, do live by that credo and don't always take kindly to "incomers". |
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Reply | Survey results as reported in the Times
at 10:07 8 Oct 2025
There can be no real "solution" unless the root causes for people seeking to come to the UK etc are removed.
Some of those causes are specific to their country of origin. These might be hunger, corruption, political or religious oppression. There are probably very limited things that the "destination countries" - i.e. UK and Europe can do. Equally these destination countries are not helping themselves by reducing the amount of financial and humanitarian aid that is provided.
Some are the result of political meddling by the Western countries in particular. It suits the US and many European countries to fight proxy wars far from their borders but to deny sanctuary to people displaced by those wars.
Most of the EU countries are signed up to the ECHR (which is of course very much based on UK legislation developed after the second war in order to deal with millions of refugees within Europe). That sign up allows them to claim to be powerless in preventing migrants moving into and through their own country.
The "criminal" activity we see is however mainly from those people smugglers charging huge sums to get people to and around Europe. There is a real need for a European police campaign to limit these activities and to use political means to put pressure on some countries who allow these crooks such access.
This is not a single country issue and the claims of the far right in the UK that this is a problem caused by weak (usually leftist) political parties and that they could "solve" it within days of winning an election are all fairy tales swallowed by the gullible. |
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Reply | Top 3 Hidden Gem Cities
at 09:51 8 Oct 2025
Some great suggestions above, some of which I've been to and some I have not. I am though now "semi retired" at least according to my wife and we have begun to create a bucket list and have managed to cross a few places off.
Recently we were in Lisbon. And loved it. Great food/wine, friendly people, lots of history to indulge in, great weather.
For the more adventurous, we were in New Zealand last November. The scenery in the Southern Alps is stunning. The North island geothermals are not unique - then the first time we had witnessed them. People fabulous. Auckland has a great vibe. The wine is incredible.
Honourable mentions also for Seville and Puglia.
We travel a lot in the US (worked there and have US born daughter in laws) and whilst there are some US cities and areas I would revisit (New Orleans, San Francisco), there is unfortunately an increasing number of cities in particular which would be way down my list.
These include New York (too busy and up itself), Washington (too many politicians), Seattle (too much rain).
Boston and many East Coast cities are still quite European in style and outlook but we do avoid Philadelphia. |
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Reply | Russell Martin to be sacked in the morning
at 15:32 6 Oct 2025
Well 40 years ago (85/86 season) we managed to lose 7-0 to Luton.
We don't want a return to that situation.
Why would we ever bring back Martin after the damage he did? |
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