Pata

I detested Klopp at Liverpool but at the same time I recognise he’s a magnificent coach and most likely would love him if he ever was a manager for my team. Would be a ridiculous coup for England but don’t think the timing works, maybe if he had resigned a season earlier.

Has happened to me a few times too lately, no idea why.

This is just nostalgia, many of those players wouldn’t be starters for the current team. Gallas, Evra, Abidal, Djorkaeff, Karembeu, Petit and Giroud were fine players in their day but nothing special and then saying there are 20-30 more is just ridiculous hyperbole. Theo Hernandez, Saliba, Tchouameni, Maignan and Mbappe are world class, even Kounde. Griezmann is getting older but he’s had a great career. There’s also young talent like Camavinga, Zaire-Emery, Barcola waiting for their turn. Dembele, Kolo Muani and Thuram have rarely impressed in the national team but they are still playing for the biggest club sides in the world.

Think Mbeumo is too expensive to be that player. Rather someone cheaper and a bit younger with a higher ceiling which sounds very easy.

Yes, very much. He’s not jumping ship to a rival but to the national team of his country. Not that I think it will happen.

Obviously it's only me guessing. My point was that IMO he could easily wait say four years in which point he would've been with us for a very long time and possibly look for a new challenge. It's very likely he would still be one of the hottest English managers and the squad could actually only be stronger with only Kane probably done (Bellingham, Foden, Saka, Gordon, Palmer, Mainoo at their prime and even Rice would still only be 29). I'm certain he has the self confidence to think he's not a busted flush in a 4 to 8 year range and he still sees NUFC as unfinished business.

Oh, thanks.

Yeah, the team spirit and momentum were massive until the injury crisis last season stalled us a bit. We've had massive contributions from players who have no business competing for CL places in the PL.

Howe is young and he knows he'll be a top 1-3 English manager for at least the next 10-15 years. Think it would be riskier for his career if he actually took the English job now instead of staying. The core of the English squad would also be only better in the future, only Kane is older. I'm not really concerned at all that he would want to leave after last season, think there's like 10% chance at most that he goes now.

Yeah, Bilbao have to pay big wages to keep their players and they have no need for money. How would they replace the Williams brothers if they wanted to leave even if they had a billion in their accounts?

Are you seriously comparing a 20 year old Italian international to a washed up Chris Wood who we bought to weaken a relegation rival as no one else was available in January?

Gnonto would be a class depth signing and probably not that expensive. £30-35m would be a good deal to have him as a cover for LW, RW, SS with a really high ceiling. Only 20 so there wouldn't be almost any risk either, could always sell him on if his development stalls.

Was the problem really the teams 17-24?

Carvajal was so good today, didn't know he could be that good with the ball on top of being the usual terrier-esque nuisance defensively.

Yeah, think I said this after the first match. Second CM was a problem and Bellingham deeper would have opened a spot for Gordon or Eze and you would've had at least some balance. Bellingham was a £100m CM last summer after all despite playing higher up for Real Madrid.

Viaplay, Scandi company. No studio so just a talented cameraman and the stadium waiting for the match, was decent.

Caniggia

I've had an old school totty cam for an hour.

Fucking hell, that looks horrible. Thankfully the security guards didn't bring their AR-15s to the match. Saw a dog just walking away from the chaos and the owner panicking before getting the dog back at the end.

Have no idea about Afobe but Bournemouth got their money back from Wolves after two seasons. Brooks cost £10m and TM had his value as high as €30m before he lost one season to an ankle injury and another to cancer ffs. Mepham is a £10m CB, I don't know how he could be seen as a failure. Solanke has more than doubled his value and is still only 26. Also cost ~£15m which really isn't much for a PL striker. Looks pretty fucking good if those are the big misses alongside Ibe.

I think Kane might be the biggest victim of Southgate in this tournament and he just picked his name when Watkins or Toney would've been much better fit to his tactics. Kane dropping to same spaces where Foden and Bellingham were already standing in each others way was never going to work and Kane had no idea what to do. He also needs runners which Southgate refused to use, Gordon would be perfect player for Kane. He doesn't have the physical traits anymore to be a combative CF but no way he scores all those goals for Bayern if he's really finished IMO.

Also certain Pickford just wants to kick the ball as far away as he can as a brag to look macho and tough, was ridiculous tonight.

If people were asked to form a combined eleven out of England and Spain before the tournament, I honestly think Rodri would be the only lock Spaniard and few others like Pedri and Williams might get some mentions. Spain were impressive all tournament but there's absolutely no reason why England shouldn't be too with a manager who has some balls and doesn't try to force big names to fit in to a formation out of position. It's mind-boggling that you just never used the left wing all tournament and it was Bellingham in the end who got sacrificed there after Foden failed miserably before.

Format is partly to blame due to so many third place teams going through which results in cautious approaches in especially the third group games. Much bigger problem IMO is that so many big countries are playing abysmal football right now with their terrible scared managers. Honestly think Spain and Germany were the only big nations playing entertaining football, shame they faced in the first knockout round. Many smaller nations were playing good stuff and especially Rangnick and Austria showed that you can play good football and get results even with a very average squad when it's well coached. France, England, Portugal, Belgium, Italy and even Holland should be ashamed of those performances, no matter the results. Just horrible boring football.

Carvajal has been magnificent.