The College Dropout

Ours was at least a market for French players - not just hoarding them because of an agent

Wish Dubs all the best tbh

Aye. The club has become a player market/frm and a cashpoint for a powerful agent. Letting go of the likes of Coady, Saiss, Gibbs-White and replacing them with Portuguese speaking or Mendes players feels like the final coffin. They seem to have a decent academy and are bringing through a few prospects but I understand why Wolves fans will feel out of touch with the club. There's also a serious lack of ambition. Stay in the league - hoard average Portuguese players, become a springboard for the better Portuguese players

Aye - big boys at home now. Man U and Leicester away would be the toughest. Both would push hard for the W - strong teams.

Aye if he hasn't. 1-6 months. If he has then it will be 18 months or more. That's what Barton got. Barton has been involved with so much shit man. Terrible human being.

I thought he was good at WC.

People definitely wanted Bobby sacked in one form or another. That era is where the "deluded Geordie" thing started.

Morocco did better than England imo. Offered far more in open play. Wasn’t scared of Mbappe for 90 minutes. France are comfortable fighting from the ropes. They back themselves to do the business when it mattered. Morocoo got too much joy down France’s left. Deschamps adapted and they ended up pulling away with the 2nd. France have never been behind or even drawing when it really matters. If they went behind I wonder how they react? But when level, they do enough to get ahead again. I do feel Alvarez and Messi will land a KO blow if they keep it up like that. But I hope they win it again.

An African side has never won the World Cup. A non-European side has not win the World Cup in 20 years. A non-European side hasn't won the World Cup for the first time in 42 years. As far as I know, there's never been a shock World Cup winner. Morocco winning would mean beating Spain, Portugal, France & Argentina in the KO rounds. That amounts to one of the hardest KO wins we've ever seen. Nothing would surpass Morocco winning the World Cup. Winning the World Cup is the hardest thing in football imo. Harder than winning the league. So many things have to go in a team's favour to win it. Which is why if France win it, you have to hand it to them. The quality in-depth that country has produced, is something else. And then the nerve to win it. They would have won 2 WC's without the greatest 9 in their history (who was fit for one and injured for the other). As well as their midfield winning duo.

Rice is a better player than a lot of people are giving him credit for. Miles better than Longstaff

Apart from France.. all of the teams have been like that

He didn't cost them anything. Sell him for £80m in 2023 (and I only think mega clubs can afford that, excluding us). Or have him for another year and still get £40-50m. At that price point, I reckon lots of clubs want him and that pushes the fee closer or past £50m anyway. At 40m he goes to any top 6 club imo. That's utility player money for some of them.

Ake's been injured. But when he's been fit, he's had the left footed role over Laporte. I remember a couple of games this season Akanji was preferred to a fit Stones.

Nah Ake is better than Stones - as of this season at least. Ake's been the #1 left footer in defence this season for City.

Rice contract is until 2025. West Ham will keep him until 2024.

Maroc Croatia France Argentina

Those were definitely 2 yellow card offences in the space of 10 seconds.

I think too much is being made of the referee. I like the fact VAR is leaning heavily on the referee's in game decision. The foul on Saka was definitely a foul but it happens such a long time before the goal that i'm not overly upset over it. There was a lot of football to play and defending to do. The biggest issue was being overly concerned with Mbappe, midfielders being too deep and allowing Tchou the free shot. The Kane foul, was a foul but not a penalty. The ref missed it, play on - it wasn't a penalty. The fact he didn't blow for the penalty was annoying but VAR corrected it. Biggest issues was over focus on Mbappe and Southgate not making substitutions based on what was happening on the field and game state. He had Walker babysitting Mbappe for 100 minutes. Shaw ended up being the best crosser of the ball when we were chasing and a right-side of Walker and Sterling. We needed Trippier/Trent and to leave Saka on until his legs went. Rashford needed to come on earlier. And we shouldn't have ended the game with Rice & Bellingham. Silly penalty aside - we didn't create any good opportunities at 2-1 down.

The managers with the best club record CRASHED out early (Spain & Germany). The third best in Europe didn't even qualify (Italy).

This is the same for the likes of Rabiot but his mother doesn't get the credit of being a "really good parent".

Messi in his latter days has never run "entire games" at the most elite level. He's doing what Ronaldo was doing 1-4 years ago. Providing pivotal moments in bursts. Zidane vs Brazil 2006 - he's not done for club or country imo in recent years.

For an elite player - Kane has never taken a crunch KO game into his hands and won it for his team. Is that harsh?

If Rooney was the star man in a WC winning team he would be a living god in England.

When he's in a good mood, Mourinho is good fun. As a manager, he's overly prone to being a prick to everyone. But he would be good fun as a pundit. I don't see him ever doing it long-term though. Portugal job next i reckon.

Won La Liga midfielder of the year in his first season. Fantastic talent. Just a pure luxury player. I loved that midfield 3 of Kroos-Modric-James. Played some blinding stuff but it needed stiffing up to win trophies.