Flip

Vini, Haaland and Mbappé at their prime together.

Shame, but this Peruvian side isn't that good. Peaked in 2019, were excellent despite not making it out of the group stages in 2018. But complete free fall since then, just lucky Colombia crumbled under their previous manager and Chile insisting on playing the 40+ year olds.

I'm all for England being more offensive, but this is suicide.

Ekitike, Paqueta, Diaby and Botman. And we are ready to fight for top 7 next season. That’s based on only having seen Paqueta out of the four playing

Far worse than I expected How can ref look at that and sincerely feel that’s a pen. Maybe its the angle, but doesnt look like he touches him whatsoever.

Having re-read your post I'm not even sure if I'm quoting the right post. Don't think I read it properly. I read we beat the easy teams and then posted without reading it all. That's what happens when you post KI, I can't bother reading through the whole post

I'll never forget his performance against Arsenal (not the 4-4 one). Was one at Emirates I think where he dominated Fabregas. Can't remember if it was his first season for us.

I'd agree here in many ways. We discussed Martinez wasting talents yesterday, but I feel like Southgate should receive far more criticism than Martinez in regards to that. England had the golden chance to reach a World Cup final and then lost to a rather average Croatia side (evident by the French demolishing them). I doubt many top nations has had an easier way to a World Cup final than England had in 2018. That being said, England have a good enough squad to win it all this year and national team managers aren't as important as in club football.

I mean we could argue for ages, and I here you, but I don't agree. In a way you are right, the Conference League etc is very good for smaller clubs, the same way the Nations League is good for smaller nations. However, your example forgets the fact that Liverpool, Real etc aren't playing the CL, Europa League and Conference League. If they were, no one would care about the Europa League or Conference League. This is evident by the fact that many teams are treating it like friendlies with their line-ups. Trying new formations and new players as preparation for the World Cup. I mean, it's like saying Messi winning the Finalissima is a major international trophy for him. It's not. I promise you, ask any European country if they'd switch qualifying for a major international tournament for winning the Nations League.

I have for Brazil if they reach the final. In other words a beer on me the day before if both makes it

A slightly bad performance and he gets called shit Reece James is a fantastic player. The fact he’s more solid defensively than TAA makes me think he’ll surpass him one day.

I don’t agree Kaka. Whatsoever. A player that has won things should have more of a right to go for the money than someone like Botman. His main focus should be to play with and against the best (Champions League) and win titles. He can move to the PL in a few years. Bit sad that we want the PL to be the Super League of Europe and to discredit anyone not wanting to play in this league. A league hugely dominated by one team for the past five years.

It’s a glorified friendly/qualifying tournament. No one cares about winning it. It’s great for European football as teams play against similarly ranked teams giving smaller national chances to win as well as qualify for major tournaments. However, in history no one will remember who won it. And I am one of the few that prefer international football to club football due to its charm (and Brazil always at least entering tournaments with a chance to win it compred to Newcastle :lol:)

nations league isn’t competitive. No one cares about winning it.

Very good signing if true. Maybe they’ll bench Fred completely so Bruno can start for the national team.

Of course, I did state the prospect of PL as well. What I mean though is in terms of football club, Milan is far bigger and far more likely to succeed for the next few years and saying players would be daft to choose Milan over us should be punishable by law.

Honestly, you said it would be daft as fuck to pick Milan over us. What you are calling project is in fact money. What we as a club have over Milan right now is money and the prospect of playing in the PL. I, just like others, am saying that picking Newcastle over Milan in the current situation is picking money over football. Not only myself, but most in here apart from you seem in agreement that for at least the next five years Milan will be ahead of us and will most probably win more titles. They also have new ownership who might be willing to make invest in them and make them compete at the highest level. We are quite a few years away from that. So just to finish it off, it wouldn’t be daft at all for him sign for Milan over us. In fact that would be what even a majority of Newcastle fans in here would feel is the right decision.

I interpreted that as you being offended. You are also still suggesting we’re a far better club to join than Milan at this point. Luckily, no one agrees with you. Gives modern football hope at least.

”I honestly think players are daft as fuck to be turning us down unless it's for the absolute elite (Madrid/Barca/Bayern/PSG etc). ”

Fair enough. It's not controversial, the same it wouldn't be if a better manager didn't go as far. In knock-out stages there's an element of luck and momentum. Just look at France, no way Deschamps is a great manager like. My original point was that I felt saying he was wasting the talents when they've actually done well is harsh on him. I'm not his biggest fan like. Thought his Wigan side was fun as they tried to play football despite being terrible, but clearly he was shite for Everton and quite lucky to end up as Belgiums manager.

I'm on about the fact you seem offended by Botman (possibly) choosing Milan over us, because we might or might not become a dominant force in football in five years time. Who knows, maybe in five years time AC Milan is the Juventus of the last 10 years, dominating Italian football and reaching the deep parts of the CL.

Any sane footballer would if both clubs offered the exact same amount of money. The fact that the rumour is that Botman is willing to go to Milan over us for less money should be a fucking inspiration in modern day football (if it were to happen).

It's funny that when it was Chelsea, Man City or PSG it was money. But when it's us, it's a project? I'm sorry, but as ponsaelius and plenty have put it, for the near future we're not there.

Of course you can suggest finishing third at the WC was considered successful. Doesn't mean that was mission acomplished though as I'd expect all top teams to want to win it all. But the matter of fact is more talented teams didn't go as far. Belgium is highly overrated when it comes to this ''golden'' generation. Their ''golden'' generation has actually in fact been two players at the absolute top De Bruyne and Hazard. Furthermore, at the last Euros only De Bruyne was really at the top. Eden has been half-dead for the past two years, and Lukaku has always been slightly overrated for what he actually is.

I'm not at all. I think it's equally disgusting that our fans (or at least on this forum) has for the past 20 years vilifying players for picking money over football no matter the size of project. And now when it's our club that has the finances, we're being offended by players not choosing money over football. In the near future Botman has far more to win by playing for AC Milan than for us. That is the reality. I do hope and do expect us to be within the top 5 clubs in this league in the next five years, but we're not there and a lot of players will turn us down because of that. I mean, I do hope that at some point we become more attractive than AC Milan. But we're not there yet.