Sunak at the Silverlake

[hantslondoner]

What's he doing there?

As a season-ticket holder I protest against the club giving him a photo opportunity, airtime, and distracting him from his doubtless very important work at Westminster. Is this good publicity for the club? Really?

I expect the club to host Labour, Lib Dem and any other leader who wishes to visit, in that case :-)

And in case anyone moans about political posts, the club has made it so. And he's a Saints fan!

[Will]

The photo below features a divisive figure, clearly out of his depth in his current role and struggling to gain the respect and support of those he represents, who will almost certainly be out of a job by the end of the year.
Also pictured is Eastleigh manager Richard Hill.

[eastleighnumber9]

Welcome to the club

[davep]

He used the visit to campaign as well, which is really poor in my opinion. I don't want to get into politics itself here, but the club would be better off just staying neutral. When you've got a few thousand coming through the turnstiles each week you're going to get a range of people with all sorts of political views.

[eastleighnumber9]

Why shouldn’t the club be welcoming of the PM

[davep]

If he wants to come and watch he can be made welcome, he shouldn't be allowed to campaign. Obviously it's up to the club who they invite in and i'm just a supporter, but for me Eastleigh FC are a big part of the community and should stay neutral, letting him campaign is close to approval.

[blackie]

Sunak can do one for starters.
He just as unwelcome at Southampton, Russell Martin didn’t want to waste his time meeting him, top marks for that.

[eastleighnumber9]

Jan 19, 2024 21:42:23 GMT blackie said:

Sunak can do one for starters.
He just as unwelcome at Southampton, Russell Martin didn’t want to waste his time meeting him, top marks for that.

Not very welcoming at all, Eastleigh players seemed happy enough in the pictures the club published.

[usspitfire]

We haven't had a game postponed in ages. That useless ****stain shows up and the game gets called off. Confidence? I think not!

[eastleighnumber9]

Jan 20, 2024 17:19:45 GMT usspitfire said:

We haven't had a game postponed in ages. That useless ****stain shows up and the game gets called off. Confidence? I think not!

Would have been approved by the Board/owners one would have thought, pretty sure it was called off due to a frozen pitch.

[usspitfire]

Jan 20, 2024 18:07:03 GMT eastleighnumber9 said:

Jan 20, 2024 17:19:45 GMT usspitfire said:

We haven't had a game postponed in ages. That useless ****stain shows up and the game gets called off. Confidence? I think not!

Would have been approved by the Board/owners one would have thought, pretty sure it was called off due to a frozen pitch.

His heart is so cold, he only had to look at the pitch & it froze!!!

[tenacres]

I’ve never voted for the party he represents (and almost certainly never will) but I can’t see what Eastleigh fc have done wrong here. As I understand it Eastleigh fc/sherwoods is pretty much open house during the week so I can’t see the issue. I very much doubt that Eastleigh fc did the invitation.

They haven’t mentioned it on social media so the only publicity is the local media picking up on it. Different situation to saints as that was a match day and this wasn’t. The managers role is clearly defined on a match day, not so much a training day.

I note the local MP was there, it’s not the worst idea to have these kind of people onside with regards ground improvements/hosting events/big matches etc. I appreciate people might not like it, but that’s the way the world works.

Then again he probably won’t be in the job much longer so maybe we can have a different PM down at the silverlake next season :-)

[ajc]

He won’t be back at the silverlake, it’s the boot for him soon, then he can bugger off back to America where he really wants to be !
or the sub continent where his missus wants to be.
All in all good riddance!!!

[davep]

Jan 21, 2024 13:51:22 GMT tenacres said:

I’ve never voted for the party he represents (and almost certainly never will) but I can’t see what Eastleigh fc have done wrong here. As I understand it Eastleigh fc/sherwoods is pretty much open house during the week so I can’t see the issue. I very much doubt that Eastleigh fc did the invitation.

They haven’t mentioned it on social media so the only publicity is the local media picking up on it. Different situation to saints as that was a match day and this wasn’t. The managers role is clearly defined on a match day, not so much a training day.

I note the local MP was there, it’s not the worst idea to have these kind of people onside with regards ground improvements/hosting events/big matches etc. I appreciate people might not like it, but that’s the way the world works.

Then again he probably won’t be in the job much longer so maybe we can have a different PM down at the silverlake next season :-)

Thing is, he used the trip to have a pop at the local council over the debt, looked like a fairly unsubtle attempt to campaign for the GE locally. Must be a pretty good chance the next election will give us a Lib Dem MP in Eastleigh, so if we are after influence on planning we've scored an own goal.

If he wants to visit, fine, I guess but PMs don't normally go and visit teams knocked out of the FA Cup 3rd round, and he conducted interviews in the stand with a TV crew. To my cynical mind it looked like an attempt to get some "man of the people" publicity off the back of the Cup run, hoping we were getting through, and doing Holmes/Joynson a bit a favour.

I don't like to see the club used by politicians like this whether red/blue/yellow/green.

[tenacres]

I don't like to see the club used by politicians like this whether red/blue/yellow/green.

Agreed. I am more interested in how the club can use politicians for our own ends.

Last election was con 55.4% Lib Dem 29% so with a big swing expected your are right we could have a new MP.

Must admit I was suprised by the visit. I half wondered if they had given him wrong info that we’d won & the Man Utd game was in the offing.