TheBrownBottle

Hindsight is the only way to judge whether a signing was any good or not - you can’t judge it before the player has played

Yeah, I know what you're saying TCD - but for me, playing Foden as a '10' would be more likely to get the performances out of him. In terms of traditional CMs - that's exactly what I'd be looking at; agreed that it is a position slightly deeper than Bellingham's more usual position, but for me I would put him there and basically give him the freedom to push on whenever he sees fit. I'd ask Rice to stay more disciplined, despite his likely inclinations. Which would mean I'd want someone on the left who is a more natural winger, with Foden and Bellingham spending most of their time playing off or alongside Kane. Tbf I'd also go three at the back, given England's lack of defensive options. Move Walker to RCB. Play someone like TAA as a libero - a player who is a defender but does have a pass in him. So effectively a 3-3-4 as a starting formation. Perhaps I'd win nowt as a manager - but what's the difference for England in that regard? - and it would be entertaining

Even more unpopular opinion - I never liked either of them

Yeah, definitely

I remember Keegan talking about how you need several captains in the team to win things - and even pointing out that that was probably what was missing when he was here as manager; that he didn't have that. Bruno is one of those players who is like a captain even if he doesn't have official recognition. There is quite a few in the dressing room now - though I suspect we'll lose a few of those in the next season or so (Wilson, Trippier, Burn, Schar). Bruno's character is just first class. Another three or four like him and it really is a case of when, not if, we win things. (If he stays )

Rice and Bellingham are both midfielders - if Southgate had a clue he'd play them there. Don't need a '6' or an '8' - play them as traditional centre mids. Play Foden as a playmaker behind Kane.

Didn't say we did in fairness - though I do think that there is more quality than Portugal upfront. France still have the strongest overall squad for me - but I wouldn't swap the French options in attacking positions overall

Apropos of nowt much, I'm not starting to call Turkey 'Türkiye' at the behest of that cunt Erdogan.

I'm not sure re this year (though the noise about needing to sell a Bruno or Isak is obviously bollocks), but I'd hope there are some more sponsorships on the horizon soon - next year is likely to be tight as well

Sponsorships in July won't help with FFP in terms of what SW calculated though. If we need to bring in revenue for the accounts for this season

No, he explained that the £200m of headroom over the previous three years of the Ashley regime worked out as potentially £600m of spending based on the three year cycle; but the issue is that the FFP three year cycle is rolling, so that figure represents what could have been spent and wasn’t. So the idea was that we could have spent £600m in 2021/22 and not have breached FFP at that time due to £200m headroom (£600m being amortised), but that spend would have meant likely being crippled in future seasons.

For those who’ve never had the pleasure, a couple of reviews with top excerpts from the Bruce novels: https://www.balls.ie/football/steve-bruce-novel-293169 https://thesetpieces.com/latest-posts/sweeper-steve-bruce-review/

It is - though anyone who read any of the Steve Bruce novels (I did many moons ago - picked them up for next to nowt for a laugh - wish I’d kept them as I think they sell for a few bob these days) will hopefully think I’ve done a reasonable job of capturing the quiddities of Bruce’s unique writing style

£300m in revenue excluding sales was where most of us had last season tbf. Looks about right to me. I suspect that the matchday revenue will be slightly higher than SR has allowed but a couple of million is what we’d be talking about. Wages and amortisation also looks in line with what some of us had projected on here previously. He doesn’t include player sales in the income, but does allow for it in the FFP calculation at the bottom. ASM and Wood’s sales are in there. He hasn’t included them as they wouldn’t be relevant - they’d be zeroed out in the FFP calculations.

Fair enough, seemed batshit to me and the time and remains batshit today. I don’t think anyone will bid £100m+ for Bruno, so I’d be surprised if he isn’t here next season. I think I’d be less confident next summer if we don’t have a really good season next year though.

There’s definitely an English premium applied to all players with that nationality, due mainly to rules around local players. If Grealish was any other nationality then Man City aren’t paying £100m.

Fernandez and Caicedo were utterly insane transfers by a club throwing money about like it was going out of fashion. Grealish’s passport accounts for a fair mark-up. Perhaps a club will be crackers enough to bid £100m+ for Bruno. I doubt it though.

Excerpt from that latest modern classic: ’I was about to put the keys in the Jag. It’s the latest F-Type R75 Coupe. The model with Metal treadplates with Limited Edition branding. It is everything you’d ever want in a car. I suddenly thought about how this desirable car could be used against a top football manager by those terrorists. So I got out and looked behind the wheels; they are the 20" Style 1066, Diamond Turned with Gloss Black contrast which go towards making this car such a favourite of successful business and entertainment people. And that’s when I saw the flashing light of the car bomb. I thanked my instincts and - quick as a flash - used the tweezers that my attractive younger wife bought me for my birthday last week to cut the yellow wire. I knew about the yellow wire on car bombs from when I was top of the class in O-Level electronics.’

From 1st July other clubs aren’t limited by FFP for the current season. I don’t think the speculation will end until the window closes. I also think it’s likely that Bruno stays as I don’t think anyone will offer what we’d likely want and he’s unlikely at the moment to agitate for a move - he isn’t a £100m footballer, and I’d be surprised if we got a bid for that amount. The clause would have been set at that amount and agreed by the club because it outstrips their valuation of him - you don’t agree to automatic release clauses under or equal to the amount that you think a player is worth to you.

How many international sides historically have been full of world class players? They usually aren’t. France 98-00 and Spain 08-12 are the only sides I can think of in my lifetime where this could be said. Every other international side which won WCs or continental competitions had weaknesses. England has a significant proportion of top players, and relative to the rest of the teams in the tournament potentially has more than anyone else, which is not something which we could say historically. Southgate is pissing away the country’s best ever opportunity to win international competitions. Euro 2020 will always be the nadir for this - and that Serbia game was remarkably similar. Take an early lead then retreat into a shell, when the talent was there to go and get a killer second goal if you only had the bollocks to go and get it.

I’m perfectly happy to blame Southgate for Foden’s performances. They are the performances of a poorly managed player. The lad is simply playing uncoached for England, it is clear that Southgate cannot get the lad to unlearn elements of what he does for Man City which won’t work in this England side. TAA in midfield is a pisstake. You’d think Southgate would remember being played in midfield by Keegan and think ‘this isn’t a good idea’. It is just a miserable experience watching a Southgate-managed England side. They’ve got the best attacking players in this tournament, and this mediocre empty suit has them playing on the back foot with two holding midfielders despite England not producing any holding midfielders. I just want to be entertained, I’m not that arsed about England winning or losing. The quicker the glaky looking twat gets the boot the better.

You get nothing in this game for three on the bench

Imagine having the attacking options England has, and then looking at the defensive options and thinking ‘defensive football is our best bet’. The man is an oaf.

Every England manager in my lifetime suffers from having a preferred system and plugging players into it, instead of basing the system on the players available, which is why I’m watching Foden being so poor and a clumsy TAA completely out of position in midfield. Robson is the only manager who changed it, mainly because the players pretty much forced the change on him at Italy ‘90.