TheBrownBottle

It’s Howe protecting the player - and tbf, we don’t need the manager to tell us what we saw

You can’t legislate for what Dummett did - it wasn’t even about Dummett being old or shite, it was fucking brain dead. That should’ve been a reasonably comfortable 1-0, Howe can’t be responsible for informing experienced footballers that doing a cross-face chicken wing on an opposition attacker in the penalty area is suicidal play

I honestly don’t remember a time when that wasn’t a foul. He had him in a headlock man

1) You're making an assumption about a new stadium's capacity 2) Don't know how many different ways this needs to be explained - the issue is corporate revenue including other amenities, not matchday ticket sales. If you think that a new stadium just equals extra season tickets, then you've missed the point entirely. SJP's corporate is not even close to what the Big Six have, and never will be.

But obviously spending hundreds of millions to grab an extra c8k seats - the cheapest in the ground - makes perfect sense. Just say the Gallowgate extension is feasible - the additional ticket revenue would likely be around 5m per season. It would take a similar time to what you've stated to pay for itself. And the FFP reg you've cited would comfortably be covered by adding c.20k seats and vast swathes of additional corporate. TBF, this is all based on failed 'ITK' Ando7, who has stayed away since getting the end of the 2022 summer transfer window completely wrong.

Which may not be the worst thing, tbh - they have went very, very quiet and Bloomberg and the FT were reporting a week or so ago that PIF are having some issues. I don't see how they increase revenue streams to catch the Sky Six other than squeezing the support for more cash if they just extend the Gallowgate. SJP is seriously outdated. I still don't buy it, I'm struggling to see how it can be done without either removing the Metro station - cantilevering over the station would surely be too wide a span.

I'd be interested to see how they'll achieve it tbh And if true, kiss goodbye to entering the 'big six' - it would suggest a drawing back of ambition

Wet Lines (Don't Do It)

the best part of that post was the number of follow-ups pointing out that sunderland had won ... utterly obsessed

Eddie should try playing 'fog man back'

Yep. And it’s no different from what’s went before - the difference being that in the past, the tournaments weren’t as bloated with so many beatable sides. The Euros are a joke at this point. Here’s England’s KO record post-1966: 1968 Yugoslavia (L) 1970 W Germany (L) 1986 Paraguay (W), Argentina (L) 1990 Belgium (W), Cameroon (W) W Germany (L) 1996 Spain (W) Germany (L) 1998 Argentina (L) 2002 Denmark (W) Brazil (L) 2004 Portugal (L) 2006 Ecuador (W) Portugal (L) 2010 Germany (L) 2012 Italy (L) 2016 Iceland (L) 2018 Colombia (W), Sweden (W), Croatia (L) 2020 Germany (W), Ukraine, (W), Denmqrk (W), Italy (L) 2022 Senegal (W), France (L) England in that entire period have beaten major nations twice in KO football - Spain at Euro 96, Germany at Euro 20. Both at Wembley, which likely isn’t coincidence - and that Germany side was utterly shite (Spain at Euro ‘96 weren’t much better). Yugoslavia at Euro ‘68 and Iceland at Euro ‘16 are the only fixtures on that list where the result didn’t go the way most would have expected. We don’t beat better teams, and nothing has changed under Southgate.

Feeling very little confidence for this one, so that’s probably a good thing for all concerned, as my predictions are usually off

Yep, me too. Genuinely think that a fit and firing Isak is the closest I’ve seen to Henry, and he’s got his best years ahead of him. He’s going to be one of the world’s best centre forwards in the coming years - we don’t have anyone else where that applies. Hope he’s with us for the long haul, but no idea if he will be.

Southgate has the benefit of a group of young players who won the U-17, U-20 WCs and U-19 Euros. He’s won knockouts against Colombia, Sweden, Denmark, Ukraine, Senegal and the worst German team since the 1940s - that’s about as favourable as you can get. As soon as we played a genuinely top side - Croatia, Italy, France - we don’t win. Absolutely 100% par for the course in terms of England’s history. England have not historically underachieved - they’ve pretty much always performed broadly to par. They generally reach the knockouts of major tournaments, before losing to the first top side that they meet. They’re middleweights not heavyweights in international football. The difference at the moment is that England have possibly the best available selection in forward positions in world football, yet to watch a Southgate team you’d never know it. That 2016 Iceland team finished above Holland and Turkey in qualifying, and above Portugal in the group stage. They weren’t muppets; that doesn’t mean England played well, but they hardly deserve the implicit disrespect.

Given his availability, it would be for me too. I’ve never been 100% sure on my position re anyone who isn’t English managing England. Can’t be arsed with the xenophobic shite, but I do also think that all national teams should represent the best that the country has to offer in all roles of the game. It makes me uncomfortable when I see African and Asian countries with a European coach (even with successes like Hiddink etc), so it really should be the case that England can find an Englishman to manage them.

Yep. Absolutely bloated now

The Metros do actually need to turn around there, you know The Metro station was always the issue and is why expansion is likely impossible. The piling you’d need to extend the Gallowgate back would be monstrous, and would go straight through the station.

Isak is comfortably a better footballer than Sir Les or Cole, for me. He’s a better goalscorer as well - England’s top flight wasn’t close to the level it is today. Wilson is a better centre forward than Ferdinand for me, too. Just constantly knackered.

Love discussing using the SOS, knowing that their board would be radge enough to say yes because money, and their entire support would throw the biggest wobbler in history

In a sane world you give the Mackems £10m a season to rent the SOS. But we don’t live in a sane world

Yeah I’d have given Tomori a go. Odd that he hasn’t been

He didn’t vs Brazil, but it’s been his preference for some time. It was ‘experimental’ vs Brazil. Southgate is too conservative not to revert to type when it counts The defence and goalkeepers are a long way short IMO - particularly the centre half options. Maguire is just shite at that level - that back pass … but then look at the other options. Dunk is hardly an international class centre back

Cue angry Scots, Welsh and Norn Iron readers

Foden would play ahead of Gordon for me, though you can play both if you’re not Southgate and don’t insist on playing two holding midfielders

I think you’re right, but I would still doubt that they’d spend a couple of hundred million to build a temporary ground for two season which would bring in less than half that money back