Chris Bingham

Tories out!

[Chris Bingham @RaRaRasputin]

@80s_Kidz A backa.

[Chris Bingham @RaRaRasputin]

@_onlyscott Jude Bellingham

[Chris Bingham @RaRaRasputin]

@_offside18 Thierry Henry

[Chris Bingham @RaRaRasputin]

@GunnerPuls Jan Koller

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Sunderland’s starting XI in their joyous, season-ending 2-1 victory over listless Chelsea cost the same as £106m Enzo Fernandez. This is no slight on a world champion, an elite attacking midfielder, full of craft and craftiness, if moody at times. This is simply a celebration of Sunderland’s exceptional recruitment, finding gems who can see - and seize - the opportunity at the Stadium of Light.

This is also a celebration of Regis Le Bris’ remarkable team-building, blending and bonding qualities which have guided a side promoted via the play-offs into seventh and Europe. For those of us who thought Sunderland would go straight back down, apologies and enjoy Europe. You deserve it. A well-run football operation deserves it. That backing from stands to boardroom deserves it. Football also deserves it: a reminder that the status quo can be challenged with shrewd planning and investment and hard work.

Of Le Bris’ starting XI against Chelsea, eight joined on the eve of the season and one in the winter window: Roefs a reported £9m from Nijmegen; Mukiele £9.5m from PS-G; Reinaldo free from Atletico Madrid; Geertruida loan from RB Leipzig; Le Fee £19.3m, loan made permanent from Roma; Xhaka £13m from Bayer Leverkusen; Sadiki £15m from Union St-Gilloise; Angulo £17.5m from Anderlecht (in February); and seven-goal Brobbey £21.6m from Ajax. Two 2025 arrivals came off the bench: Diarra £30m from Strasbourg; and Isidor £5m loan made permanent from Zenit St-Petersburg (in February 2025).

Three of the 14 involved were already at the club. The starting pair of: Hume £200,000 from Linfield in 2022; and O’Nien undisclosed but reported as £200,000 to £300,000 from Wycombe Wanderers in 2018. And the sub: Rigg from Sunderland’s academy. (The £105.5m total does not include the undisclosed loan fees).

When Sunderland won 2-1 at the Bridge in October, Le Bris’ starting XI cost only £75m (and also had the important Ballard, £2m from Arsenal in 2022). Chelsea’s starting XI was £433m.

Four miles from the Bridge, on Park Lane this evening, the League Managers Association celebrates its members’ many achievements this season. Le Bris certainly deserves a mention. Mixing old and many new players, and getting new signings to settle quickly, requires real people skills. Le Bris and his staff clearly have them.

It’s also a reflection on Sunderland’s family club reputation that so many newcomers are welcomed and assimilated so quickly. Some will move on, some will be moved on but what a journey this is across England - and soon Europe. #SAFC

[Chris Bingham @RaRaRasputin]

Sad news. R.I.P.

[BoomRadioUK @BoomRadioUK]

We're so sad to hear of the death of Dennis Locorriere - the legendary voice at the heart of Dr Hook. He was a remarkable performer and we shall miss him. Dennis was born in New Jersey and made his home here in the UK for the last 24 years.

[Very Brexit Problems @VeryBrexitProbs]

The Nigel Farage Guide to Being a Working-Class Hero

Step 1: Be born to a City stockbroker.

Step 2: Attend Dulwich College, fees currently £53,000 a year.

Step 3: Skip university. Become a City commodities trader instead.

Step 4: Run one of your metal broking firms into insolvency.

Step 5: Get elected to the European Parliament. Spend the next 21 years drawing a salary from the institution you're paid to dismantle.

Step 6: Claim £15,500 a year in expenses for an office your party was given rent-free.

Step 7: Put your wife on the EU parliamentary payroll. Take her off only when the rules force you to.

Step 8: Get investigated by the EU's anti-fraud office. Eventually have half your MEP salary docked to repay misused public funds.

Step 9: Throw a Brexit victory party at the Ritz. Decry the "professional political class" to a room of millionaires.

Step 10: Take £450,000 in personal gifts from Arron Banks. House. Car. Lifestyle.

Step 11: Take £5 million, undisclosed, from a Bangkok-based crypto billionaire. Days later, announce you're standing for parliament after all.

Step 12: Win Clacton. Take the £93,904 MP salary. Add £1.2 million a year from GB News at £2,300 an hour. Become the highest-earning MP in the House of Commons.

Step 13: Speak in parliament fewer times than any other party leader. Fly to America at least nine times in your first year. Refuse to hold in-person constituency surgeries. Holiday in France while parliament is sitting.

Step 14: Tell the working class you're one of them. Tell them to vote against their own interests, over and over again.

Pint, mate?

[Chris Bingham @RaRaRasputin]

@dailybritainonx He should but that would require integrity and a backbone. One rule for them and another for everyone else. Concrete proof they've got out interests at heart, not.

[Chris Bingham @RaRaRasputin]

@RoversXtra @davidornstein I nearly sh*t a brick reading this until I realised what day it is 😂

[Count Binface @CountBinface]

I see Question Time has reached its inevitable endgame. It was bound to happen.

[Chris Bingham @RaRaRasputin]

@Ladbrokes 9

[Ladbrokes @Ladbrokes]

Saturday free bet to be won! 🤑

If Erling Haaland scores against Newcastle, one of you will win £100 in free bets! 🤩

1️⃣ Reply to this post with Haaland's shirt number for Man City
2️⃣ Repost and like this post
3️⃣ Follow @Ladbrokes

One eligible entrant will be selected at random and win the prize! 🎁

FULL TERMS AND CONDITIONS APPLY: https://t.co/21L800b7JZ

[Chris Bingham @RaRaRasputin]

@BraddrofliT 💯

[Protect Kamala Harris ✊ @DisavowTrump20]

Bruce Springsteen on ICE: "If you believe you don’t deserve to be murdered for exercising your American right to protest, then send a message to this president — ICE should get the fuck out of Minneapolis”

RETWEET if you stand with @Springsteen against Trump and ICE!

[Jack Hopkins @thejackhopkins]

Let me say this as clearly as possible, because people keep getting it wrong.

Republican lawmakers didn’t stick with Trump because they were hypnotized...terrified...or somehow helpless.

They stuck with him because he’s one of them.

Trump didn’t corrupt a moral party. He exposed a corrupt one.

If Trump were merely embarrassing...reckless...or rude... they would have dumped him years ago. Politicians abandon liabilities fast. What they don’t abandon...are mutual liabilities.

Trump normalized behavior that many of them were already guilty of: ethical shortcuts...financial murkiness... abuse of power...contempt for oversight... lying as policy.

He didn’t invent the rot...he gave it cover.

And here’s the part people don’t like to hear:

For a lot of Republicans in Congress, Trump isn’t the risk.

Accountability is.

Trump absorbs attention like a sponge. While everyone is watching his circus...others operate quietly in the shadows. He’s not a distraction...he’s a shield. A very useful one.

Once they crossed certain lines together...election lies, January 6th...obstruction...weaponization of government ...there was no clean exit.

Loyalty became self-preservation. Defection meant subpoenas...investigations...and career death.

That’s why the so-called “good Republicans” vanished.

They weren’t persuaded. They were purged. Retired. Primaried. Marginalized. What you’re seeing now isn’t universal agreement...it’s selection pressure.

Only those comfortable with ethical decay remain.

This is how systems rot. Not with villains twirling mustaches...but with people who decide, one compromise at a time, that survival matters more than principle.

Trump didn’t take over the GOP.
The GOP recognized itself in Trump.

And that’s why expecting them to “come to their senses” is a fantasy.

You can’t ask people to enforce standards that would incriminate them.

The alliance holds...because it has to.

That’s not psychology.
That’s incentive structure.

And until people stop confusing fear...with complicity... they’ll keep being shocked by behavior that was always predictable.

[Henry Winter @henrywinter]

Lot of anger about only two FA Cup third-round ties being televised live Free To Air (Macclesfield-Palace, Spurs-Villa, both on BBC on Saturday) and others scattered over four days on subscription (TNT). Some thoughts…

🏆So much anger/frustration about access because the FA Cup was so good this weekend. Upsets, drama, great goals, emotional individual stories, and reminder of the power and passion of the pyramid. Everyone wanted to see it. The Cup still matters.

🏆Own goal by FA not demanding in TNT contract that BBC had a game on the Sunday.

🏆Worth noting that, growing up, none of the ties were on live terrestrial. The FA Cup final always protected on the ‘crown jewels’ FTA list. Radio was king. Under current deal, BBC TV shows two live matches each round through to the quarters, one semi and, as always, the final.

🏆You’ve got to fight for your rights. It would be nice if BBC could remember it is the national broadcaster, football is the national sport and compete more for rights, perhaps in partnership with ITV (Scotland has own deal). BBC has some brilliant football presenters and commentators. Be nice to hear and see them more. Barring the occasional live game, BBC TV is becoming more a highlights and digital clips operation (see also Champions League). nb: BBC Radio – 5Live and local – covered all 32 ties and invariably do it well.

🏆Licence fee important if BBC is to compete.

🏆Problem for terrestrial broadcasters is FA chasing paywall money rather than thinking of next generation of FA Cup fans. Naïve to think younger generation only want clips, not live. Family viewing, too.

🏆Situation will encourage more use of firesticks.

🏆Draws – especially third round - need proper separate shows, not tacked on before a live game. Tonight's draw before Liverpool-Barnsley on TNT. BBC says, “Supporters can also follow the draw on the BBC Sport website and app”. Not ideal. But that's the route that the FA has chosen.

🏆It's all about the money. Sad, especially as the essence of the FA Cup is about joy and glory.

[UK Back in the Day @UKBackintheDay2]

McAlmont & Butler’s performance of "Yes" on ‘Later with Jools Holland’ 1995

[Zack Polanski @ZackPolanski]

British.

[Chris Bingham @RaRaRasputin]

@Nigel_Farage Isn't he exercising the free speech that you herald so much? I'd have thought you'd be applauding him for "Telling it how it is." Oh wait, he has an opinion different you, so he clearly isn't allowed to, and instead, you vilify him. Double standards.