Kid Icarus

Diego's in a boy. He's saying Maradona is a nonce.

England were okay at the 2010 World Cup? Howeh, they were absolutely dreadful and you know it. Every match was awful, with that 0-0 draw with Algeria being one of the worst England performances I've ever seen. Euro 2000 was a disaster because despite beating Germany, we lost from winning positions against Portugal and Romania and went out at the group stage. Again the idea that on paper only Beckham and Scholes would get in this side is cloud cuckoo land stuff Seaman, Campbell, Adams, Scholes, Beckham, Owen, Gerrard, Shearer, McManaman, Fowler would all walk into this squad, with the first 5 to 7 having either been initially picked to start, or pushing to start.

I still think it's mad like. In every other situation, the buck stops with the manager. It's generally accepted that if things are going badly you sack the manager, it's also imo generally accepted that you can't just get great players, chuck them together and expect it to work - any England fan who witnessed 'The Golden Generation' should be very familiar with this - You need a manager with an eye for team cohesion and picking the right players for the system rather than the 'best' players. But for some reason all of that's thrown out the window when it comes to England under Southgate. Southgate apparently has everything to do with England's perceived failures and limitations, but on the other hand all of England's successes have nothing to do with him, could have been achieved by anyone and have happened in spite of him, through luck, and because everyone we've beaten just so happen to be bad, even when they won the Euros, beating Belgium, Spain, and England on the way, or when they beat one of the teams everyone accepts is good. It's incredible.

Considering it's literally only Phil Foden from those teams that now regularly plays for England, no I don't mean them and neither do you. We've been through this before like. Thinking that these players are man-for-man better than the golden generation is still utter lunacy in my view.

The old 'this generation (that everyone thought were a bunch of nobodies until Southgate came along) are actually the real golden generation that Southgate's holding back argument.

Yes, are we not people like? AM I NOT A MAN?

Other people just think differently to you Rod. It's not a fucking conspiracy

10 men England winning 2-1 against Italy, in Italy for the first time in 62 years. Surely this is the end of Southgate.

Really good pressing from Gallagher

Pleased he's not going to Spurs like.

Did I not just explain like?

It's barely an argument tbh, if players play well for England it stands to reason that they'll get picked, if they don't they won't. This idea that club form is the be-all-and-end-all is the wrong way around imo. Look at Pope, undoubtedly the best 'keeper in the league this season, would fully deserve to be England number one on club form - comes in, immediately fucks up playing for England. So do you continue playing him because he's been class for Newcastle? Or play Pickford who's not been as good at Everton but has been consistently solid for England for years? It should be obvious, you play the player who plays well for England, every time.

Definitely Sterling, sometimes Rashford, Grealish was good there coming on in the Euros. Mount shouldn't ever play there imo. Foden's an incredible talent but I feel like he's plateaued a bit this season like.

Chiesa was so fucking exciting when he came on the scene like. It'll be a crying shame if the double ACLs have ruined him.

Foden doesn't really play well for England

I can live with references like this

You could have just guessed based on the way he goes on like.

Graeme Bailey. Total know nowt gobshite.

I think this is probably me just being a misery and not looking into it properly, but from a distance I find the whole fuss around Wrexham because it's owned by a couple of celebrities canny irritating.

Talbot and Bailey belong in the Twitter bollocks thread like.

Ah okay, so not on here.

Literally no one did like

Introducing a Fan's advisory board https://www.nufc.co.uk/media/75368/nufc-fan-engagement-review-202223.pdf

Favourite win: Tough one tbh, it's very close between quite a few, but I'll go with Forest away just gone. Not winning for a while and winning in the way that we did felt significant and triumphing over adversity - I've been dining on that win for nearly a full week now and kept randmonly celebrating like it was full time for a day or two after. Favourite goal: Longstaff's 2nd against Southampton. Willock and Joelinton with lovely quick play down the wing, Almiron overlapping, played back to Longstaff in the box. Brilliant, fast football and significantly for me all pre-new ownership players, highlighting the improvements that Howe's made in those players. Who's surprised you most: It has to be Almiron, but shout outs to Pope who is miles better than I thought he'd be, Murphy in recent weeks, and on the opposite end of the scale Fraser and Targett who haven't featured like I thought they would this season. Most frustrating: Wilson, the drop off after the World Cup was almost unbelievable. Shout out to ASM for being constantly injured and never really tearing it up aside from vs Man City. Best player: I think Schar has been the most consistently of a high standard, but again other players have played very well fairly consistently: Almiron, Trippier, Bruno, Pope, Joelinton, Botman have all been great. Moment of the season: That second goal by Longstaff vs Southampton. I was gobsmacked by how good it was, I haven't seen Newcastle play like that for years. In a way it was where the wave broke at the high watermark, both in that match and the first part of the season. Our form dipped after that, but it hopefully now looks like we're back on track again. I'll add a category - Most underrated: Schar and Willock. Schar has been arguably our best player this season, yet is never really mentioned despite Pope, Trippier, Botman, and sometimes Burn and Bruno making it into best PL XIs of this season. Willock is another who might not have been as consistent as Schar has been, but has had some great moments this season, is always important to how we play and is involved in so much of the good football that we play.