TheBrownBottle

Agreed, it’s not healthy wherever it occurs - though the big difference is that if this was Germany, Man City would be signing the best players in Arsenal’s side this summer and sticking them on the bench

Di Stefano levels

Yeah, he’s been dropped. In fairness he wasn’t in the best form after the WC break (and a little before), and he’s not a regular starter when he is.

Happy for the lad. He should retire from international football now as it means that his goals to games ratio is better than other one cap players like David Nugent and Francis Jeffers

Different strokes for different folks, but I’ve never liked Caulkin’s writing style - I don’t like sickly sweet sentimentality in sports writing. This constant desire to make something super emotional - and the Athletic pod when I’ve listened to it has a lot of that. I quite like Waugh‘s journalistic writings, and the fact that they attempt to take the piss out of him on that pod for being like a football tactics rain man figure tells me all I need to know about it. It’s Caulkin they should take the piss out of - ‘go on George, tell me how about your latest article where you’re attempting to tie Newcastle losing to your rabbit dying when you were eight years old to try and make the reader bubble’

I think Rafa and Howe would end up pushing HBA out of the door, too. That’s not to say Pardew is on equal footing, nor that he handled HBA well - but I agree with the Gazza comparison. The fact that HBA ends up at NUFC at all - and stays for a few years - is sad testament to a wasted talent. The lad was well known about and was a wunderkind - he should’ve been moving to Barcelona (or similar) instead of us. HBA was a sublime footballer - but clearly, there was more wrong than him just being ‘Pardewed’

That's a flag of them coming over here, with their scimitars, and their ... penguins? ... and their clip boards. Hang on, I think that's Jake Humphrey and one of his lists

I mean, you're right, he agreed with Farage but didn't push on with it. But you're being interviewed by Nigel Farage for GB News; I'm struggling to fathom the circumstances where you'd agree to do that if you hold his views in complete contempt.

Being a pretentious arse. The only one of those High Performance interviews I've seen was with Howe - it was three men sat in a room sounding like one of those self-help books which now pollute an entire section of every bookshop worldwide.

Farage: "we always get this, don't we, the human rights record in Saudi Arabia ... all I'm saying is, in the end, doesn't the English Premier League need to keep some sense of Englishness" Aye, nowt political in that interview like.

The sprint time claim comes from Superstars in the '70s - he did 96m (he was given a 4m head start) in 10.4 seconds. Much faster than most could ever hope to do, but some tales become taller in the retelling. I get up at 5am every day - including weekends. I don't arse myself with lists, mind - I've got labradors who want fed, watered, and walked at that time. Maybe that's where I'm going wrong - it is why I'm not world class at what I do like Jake. Unlike Jake, most of us don't get decisions most days of the week - Mon-Fri the list would be 'shit, shower, shave - gan to work, come yerm'. Fucking lists my arse.

He played Barcelona in a pre-season friendly - a glorified training session. It's not the same level as competitive league football. The lad might come good, but if he's not getting minutes it is for good reason - I did think when he joined that the SPL was a big step up. The old Division Four would have been a better place for potential minutes a la Anderson.

Yeah, I'll join the 'Norman was a canny bloke' club. Seemed sound to me - a rarity on their pods.

Brad Friedel never did recover his sanity after Keegan decided not to sign him for NUFC. Though his theme for The Terminator was awesome - stick to fillum music, Brad.

Moved that one for you - sentence reads much better now

Stuttering drunk who lost the shirt off his back on a call centre business in Italy yonks ago - which is why he ended up commentating on Football Italia. Likely hates all things forrin as a result. Just a guess mind, not everyone who is a cunt needs a tipping point. I can just about separate the art from the artist when it comes to football - I mean, look who I have in my profile picture on here. It would be nice if the club legends weren't complete wankers, but hey ho. Supermac hasn't kicked a ball in anger for NUFC in nearly half a century - its easy enough to ignore. edit: I now know who 'Scotty T' is, too. My loss.

Yeah, the Gotze move was first class shitbagging. Fucking horrible club.

Being sacked for not winning the league at a canter is damning of the entire structure of German football at present. Ten titles in a row in a major league is a joke - the Bundesliga is often lauded up for its ownership models, but Bayern’s total dominance (rather than just winning it every other year) has coincided with a massive downturn in the national team’s players and performances. It’s embarrassing, in all honesty. And I’m sure Bayern being the biggest pusher of ‘FFP’ has absolutely nothing to do with their dominance - the worst of the closed shop brigade. Cunt’s club. Edit: for context, unless this has changed in the last decade and I’ve forgotten (can’t be arsed to check), three in a row is the most managed in English football. Herbert Chapman’s great Huddersfield and Arsenal teams managed it in the 20s and 30s respectively, Liverpool’s superb early ‘80s side, and Ferguson managed it at least once from memory (99-01; I think they may have done it again under him, though I could be wrong). Winning ten in a row is such a joke that no-one has even managed it in Scotland.

We also need to allow for the sizeable differences in tournaments from the past until now - ‘74 and ‘78 were 16 team WCs; Euro 76 was a four team Euro - it was much trickier to qualify. England weren’t awful at Euro ‘84 - they were in a four team group (again, an eight-team tournament) with Italy, Spain and Belgium. They were ok at the 2010 WC - as per, they lost to the first good side they played. The draw vs the US after a goalkeeping calamity dropped them in there. Euro 00 is always talked about as a disaster, though it was a tricky group (England beat a terrible German side - though apparently England beating poor Germany sides then didn’t count, but Southgate was the man who oversaw a win vs an equally shit Germany at Euro 22). It was also a very average England side - of that side which beat Germany only and Scholes and Beckham have a chance of making the current side. Dennis Wise was on the LW ‘14, ‘16, ‘88, ‘92 and ‘94 were all the worst showings for me - poor sides made to look even worse. They were also low points in terms of football talent - or in the case of ‘92, an absolute doylem as a manager who was playing Tony Daley, Neil Webb, Carlton Palmer and Andy Sinton ahead of Waddle, Beardsley and Wright (also Barnes and Gascogne were injured).

I know where you’re coming from - ultimately, international managers are at the mercy of the talent pool they have available. But for me it is about what they achieve above what might be expected - and clearly we disagree about the talent pool available to Southgate - which is why Rehhagel’s achievement in 2004 should be seen as a superb piece of international management, yet I never see him named in discussions re great international managers (etc etc)

Italy are, for me, an average international side - but in Italian terms, they’re a bad side. Southgate is a conservative manager, but he’s the FA’s dream. I understand where you’re coming from re the difference between international and club management, but I actually think he’s blown several chances at this point - EURO 2020 in particular (England’s track record for home international tournaments is W-SF-F - home advantage helps). At WCs, they didn’t outstrip their usual performance - losing to the first decent side they play. He isn’t terrible - McClaren was terrible - but his selections are beyond favouritism at this point, and I think he’s a reactive manager.

We’ll agree to disagree KI

Doesn’t mean that teams don’t become poor. This is the worst generation of Italian players post-war. Couldn’t qualify for two successive WCs for the first time in their history. I’m sure all those who think Southgate is a good manager will call for him to get the NUFC job when it becomes available.

The generation which won the u-17 and u-20 world cups and u-19 euros you mean? The best batch of young players we’ve produced success-wise? Only dafties underrated this pool

Yep. First side since the mighty North Macedonia to achieve that Herculean task.