The Prophet

Wor Flags, do your thing.

Totally get this. I think it's the following factors for me. The domestic season has been a slog - Caring about NUFC is hard work and last season seemed to last an eternity. I can only imagine how it felt for the players. My love of football is generally declining - While support of my club is still riding a post-takeover wave of enthusiasm, my excitement for football is generally declining. PSR, VAR, the general capitalisation of the game. Put it all in the bin. This tournament has been a bit dull - Admittedly it hasn't helped that I've largely caught the shit games and missed the limited amount of entertaining ones. I'm not particularly patriotic - pretty self explanatory. I'd also say the soundbites from the players hasn't helped, constantly trying to gaslight fans and using whatsboutery to deflect from shit performances. Don't get me wrong, I'll be pleased if England win, but I won't lose any sleep if they don't.

I do hope he is ruthless, I've heard PIF don't settle for second best.

Perhaps it's because they haven't left the club yet? They won't until their shares are purchased.

Bayern going for a proper rebuild.

Are the rumours of the Alnick transfer meeting correct or is it ITK nonsense?

I have a feeling England are going to do it. Objectively, Spain have been the best side in the tournament by a distance and are rightfully favourites. Being difficult to beat, good mentality and luck count for a lot though. It helped Greece upset Portugal, Portugal upset and France and sides like Liverpool take down the great Milan team of the naughties. We've seen it so many times. On paper Spain should win, but my gut is saying England will.

I'd say we've had far more bad luck down the years than good. You need a bit of fortune to win these things.

...but the follow through is absolutely minimal. Both players have a high boot trying to play the ball, it's not like the defender has impeded Kane or is late in any way. In the scenario you're describing the attacker tends to get caught or wiped out. I'm not entirely sure how UEFA implement it, but the referee hasn't made an error. If he'd have given the penalty in real time, it probably wouldn't have been overturned either, given the precedent they've set with past interventions.

This angle doesn't look good for him.

That's just one factor as to why it's a ludicrous decision.

The defender and Kane challenge for the ball. Their feet are both in natural positions, given the height of the ball and contact is minimal. Beyond that it isn't a "clear and obvious" error for VAR to be overturning. If Kane doesn't go down like a sack of spuds, it probably isn't even reviewed. All in all, it's a honking decision and the fact it's being entertained as a penalty goes to show how utterly fucked the game is, largely thanks to VAR changing perceptions.

It crossed my mind as well.

Based on the articles from both Caulkin and Waugh, it seems like it was mutually agreed. Caulkin mentioned the "too many cooks" line while Waugh states that Ashworth felt they were too involved and now with Eales and Michell in place, it seems like a natural time to part ways.

As much as some love to get a throb on about ruthlessness, the fact the article even mentions how process drive PIF are as a criticism, goes to show how unlikely it is they'll resort to a knee jerk reaction.

Him and Kane both challenge for the ball though. It's a perfectly normal action, with incidental contact.

England were the better team tonight, but they were somewhat fortunate. That's international football though, look at Geece, Portugal or even Spain. None of them were particularly pretty to watch, but they were all organised, solid at the back and very risk adverse. Then you just need your moment of quality or slice of luck. We've been the plucky underdog so often, it's nice to see the players have a mentality that makes them difficult to beat. If we win the pot on Sunday, no one will care how pretty it was.

If that's given on a regular basis, we might as well just give up.