Rayvin

Aye well yeah. And tbh, it doesn't look like the new guys will have the capital to push them forward quickly - it'll be sustainable planning and growth. The Ashley model, arguably.

One thing I can't quite get my head around concerning Short and this paying off the debt fiasco - if he was ready to do this, then it makes the Fish look right about his reluctance to spend in January. If he can afford to stuff an extra £80m or whatever it was into the club to pay off that debt, then why didn't he spend any money to save them... £80m would easily have been enough to get them contending for promotion this season. Although I suppose you have to consider that if it had all gone wrong again he would have had no money to bail them out later. Hard not to see this as a silver lining for them tbh. Debt free for a club that size is like a second lease of life. Once they sell off their loaned out players for about £15m or so, they can presumably funnel all of that straight into recruitment. That'll see them promoted from L1. I don't think they'll be resurgent beyond that tbh, I suspect that the Championship will hold them for a while, but still, administration and further collapse seems to be off the table.

Tbh I'm stunned that something actually happened at all here so I'm going to say that this ever so slightly raises my faith in the government. From 0% to 0.1%.

Hippy Green? I used to hang out there too I don't think the 'kids' use it to the same degree these days tbh.

But does anyone care? We've had someone fall on their sword already.

Aye, this is the stuff the Guardian does well, and what makes me want to pay for its upkeep sometimes. Shame about the rest of it. As for May, I don't think Rudd would have gone if there was any chance of May going too. I remain convinced that she's only still in the position she's in as a lightning rod for the great Brexit calamity.

Would go Ruth Davidson myself, assuming she can win her own seat.

Woulda been out at the next GE anyway. Margin of 100 iirc? Future Tory PM though, apparently, so I'm glad to see that notion has been dumped on its arse.

Yeah but that's what the statement says, apparently. That he wrote the debt off. Whereas we're simply looking at this being unlikely on the grounds that he'd have to be fucking mental to do it. But the statement does say he did... “To achieve this, higher offers from less qualified buyers were rejected and I have paid off all debts owed by the club and leave it financially strong and debt free for the first time since years before I owned it.”

Why are they all reacting like this is what has happened then?

Short has paid off all of their debt..? The man is insane. But if thats true, he has saved them, and they'll recover quickly IMO.

That's them going down as rock bottom. Pathetic. Shameful. Fitting.

I wasnt happy with Miliband. And many of the old Labour membership (Renton) hate Corbyn. The difference was the widespread appeal of Corbyn to many who were disengaged altogether.

Nah CT is a Tory, only he can tell you why he was persuaded to vote Labour last time after years of voting Conservative.

Nah he voted Labour last time out.

... Can you imagine if essembee put the same level of dedication into something legitimately productive, as he does into hating Sunderland? He'd probably be running the fucking country by now.

That Tory leadership race was House of Cards esque Gove's wife got the Mail to back him so I remember being terrified at the time, and amazingly, slightly relieved that we got May on the basis that I didn't think she would be competent enough to stay in power that long anyway. As it turns out, she's a corpse that's been nailed to the mast of the shipwreck that is Brexit - something I didn't anticipate. At least she's not Boris Johnson though.

Without condoning the whole Brexit operation, I agree that Raab would have been a better choice. Presumably he was a Remainer though, and May seemed to put Brexiters into high profile positions as a shield against being remembered as the PM who oversaw whatever horrors will follow (break up of the Union, economic regression, etc).

Well, me too. But ideally they should be in positions that reflect their background. A military guy in Defence, sure. Negotiating Brexit? You'd think a lawyer would be better for that... Starmer would have been ideal.

And now? Never really been clear on what having a 'military background' gives to a politician I have to say.

Have to confess I've only had him on my radar really since Brexit. What about him makes you think (or made you think) that he was competent?

Violence begets violence.

As long as we spend net £40m, I'll be happy

Yeah. I toyed with the idea of taking a lower league team but I figured I would go for enjoyment first and challenge later. I'm not great at these games anyway - although I can see what you mean about it being stripped back a bit from the full version, which I hugely prefer. I do not miss team talks and the like. It's tidy enough on the Switch and I've sunk a good few hours into it so far. Club got taken over in the first 3 months and I had a massive £250k added to my transfer kitty Enough to pay for one whole agent for my next transfer's contract negotiation. EDIT - was stunned to start with £48m to spend though...