TheBrownBottle

If he was managing the team in ‘94 he’d have failed to qualify too. Let’s face it, England’s international record is garbage for a number of reasons - one of those being that we don’t produce large numbers of quality players. That isn’t the case at present - and the international field is as weak as it has ever (and likely will ever) be.

Maybe Bruce would have been similar. I’d stake my house on knowing what Southgate’s post-England career will look like, and it’ll be hard to distinguish between him, Bruce and Pardew.

We’re not going to agree on Southgate Yorkie the man is too conservative for me. The Euro 2020 final should have been curtains for him. He’s a cautious, conservative manager wasting an opportunity not afforded to his predecessors - no-one post war has seen such a complete lack of footballing talent in most of the big nations (France excluded). Germany and Italy are the worst they’ve been post-war; Holland and Spain look brittle and mediocre. England in the meantime have more genuine attacking talent than they’ve had at any point in the past - and this bloke plays double-pivots, rotating between a player playing in a (dry) pub league, a player who has barely played in two years, and a player who is actually a full back.

Honestly, thank fuck I’m from Newcastle. Must be a nightmare to be from a smaller provincial town and this is the best football a team you support is likely to play. No wonder half the soppy twats end up supporting ‘United’ or Chelsea etc.

Any Southgate England game tbf. Southgate is a manager capable of making experimental XIs boring. If you’re going to experiment, how about playing a 2-3-5 formation and making it fun

He’s a nice chap and won’t rock the boat. Custom designed for the Old Etonians on the FA ExCo.

Usually lower league supporters with no chance of European football. It’s also why you often see the small town names on the St George’s flags in the away end. I went away with England once many moons ago, and instantly hated it.

International football doesn’t feel like the appropriate time to start trying players in completely new positions. And it isn’t as if England are underserved in that position. Agreed, hopefully we don’t see this again.

It’s funny how irritated I get watching England. I don’t really give much of a shite about the results, and therefore I’d just like a bit of entertainment. I don’t care in the way that I do for my real national side, so watching some canny football would get me engaged. This is just fucking turgid, and there isn’t any excuse given the players at the manager’s disposal.

Probably because he’s a full back being played as a trequartista by the overcautious berk in charge

Good old ‘One Size’

Graham Potter got a job then?

I’ll go Given; Woodgate, Botman, Albert; Solano, Lee, Bruno, Cabaye, Robert; Shearer, Beardsley 3-5-2. Wouldn’t waste too many slots with defenders

You were around to see Beresford (a thoroughly average left back) et al yet no Beardsley? Sacrilege, sir

We don’t a choice, unfortunately

Yep. I remember full well what happened when Chelsea in particular, and later Man City’s unrestrained transfer spending was in flow. It completely wrecked the transfer market, causing wages and fees to spike disproportionately to what they were previously. Those two clubs hoyed stupid money at some mediocre players as well as good ones - it was massively disruptive. I also don’t want to see a ‘you can spend whatever you want environment’. Plenty on here are suddenly keen because they think we’d benefit, and the mid-tier clubs are just stupid and jealous. There will be some of that involved, but unrestrained spending by NUFC would be disruptive and destructive to other clubs’ wage structures etc. FFP needs reform, not removing.

Wonder how he’d perform against functioning goalkeepers

The shit levels aren’t comparable there like. Bruce’s team was shite in our terms, but they weren’t third tier

I mean, I’m sure the Mackems spending half of their seasons during my lifetime in the lower leagues is a canny way of keeping everything broadly equal. They have a habit of disappearing out of sight when we have a good side …

It’s also untrue. NUFC has the most derby wins.

To amend PL rules needs a two-thirds majority. So 14 clubs - minimum - needed to vote to change those rules. So it’s not just the Sky Six.

If he’d remained a domestic manager, then I’m willing to bet that his track record would absolutely the same as those two. Even Steve Bruce wouldn’t look at England’s forward and attacking midfield options and think ‘fuck that, I’m playing a full back at no 10 and two defensive midfielders’

Everton are hardly Rob Roy here. They knew full well what they were doing - if they wanted to challenge FFP legally, they had several years to do it. They tried to bullshit and lie their way around it. Fuck them.

Not the place for this one, though ‘said nothing wrong’ is stretching it. And given this is your first post, I’m so happy that Musk’s insertion into that has clearly provoked you to come on here from mums.net or Glinner’s blog site

They’ve been overspending for years. I’ve zero sympathy whatsoever. Other clubs followed the rules, Everton flouted them. Without their flouting of the rules, they’d likely have been relegated in the last couple of years. One of those relegated clubs would have stayed up instead. This has been a long time coming. 10 points is light, frankly.