Jonas

Probably get to keep the 20% sell on fee for themselves with the hotel proceeds

Some tidy links all of a sudden mind

Dave Mitchell, Darren Huckerby

Was young, but he looked a class above when he first came and galvanised that whole season (probably the in form team in the division from his arrival on) seemed to fall off a cliff the following season

Don't know if slim pickings or if he was actually decent and forgotten but whenever we did our best XIs and subs, Alain Goma always got a look in to mine until recent times.

I just feel things are skwered with Venables. By two games at Euro 96 and whatever ratio he has bare in mind he had unprecedentedly almost exclusively (95%+) home matches and played one good team in all those friendlies (Brazil - well beaten by). Any other manager would have been scolded for unimpressive one goal wins over Nigerira, Japan, Hong Kong, Bulgaria and 0-0 draws with Uruguay, Croatia, Colombia and three times Norway. They played well against and thrashed Greece before USA 94 (where they were probably the weakest team) and beat Switzerland (not replicated when it mattered) quite comfortably but that's it. SBR and Hoddle's football was better to watch, had more competitive games and tougher opponents.

Will only go the other way but get it back to 16. Its supposed to be an achievement to qualify. Presently its a shoot-out between 3rd and 4th rate teams to see who makes up the numbers and a procession for the usual qualifiers making the disruption to club football even more of a pain in the erse. Latvia qualified for a 16 team tournament. Greece won a 16 team tournament and Denmark and even more exclusive one than that.

Don't think there's much to analyse from the final - beaten by a team that was better on the day and so much better in the tournament it would have been sad for football generally and damned that drag of a tournament had England won. There's ways to beat better teams but no science and whatever is deployed it rarely happens The analysis as to why they were so awful against modest opponents in the games they didn't lose is fully justified, Maybe entering the final with some good performances behind them would have proved decisive.

Not critiquing Venables but he gets away with more than other managers have done. Euro 96 was one excellent performance, one good performance, a lucky win against a bad team, a draw against Switzerland which was the most they deserved and a penalty shoot-out win after a poor and lucky performance against Spain. Whilst the 2years of friendlies few were better than torturous. Sir Bobby was slaughtered for less. The football under Hoddle was better for about the same results.

Euro 2020/21 is too messy in my mind to gage but since they've expanded it that's at least two shit tournaments when the only bad one in the previous format was Euro 96.

I was thinking of one involving Wolves which I guess was a year further back in 2002. Cant remember who the other team was unless it was Hartlepool again.

England fans and the English media have gone all Homer with his support of the Isotopes from Wild Barts Cant Be Broken after calling the team and manager worse than shite for the last month.

2034 co hosts about to be confirmed as - every country on the planet just do away with qualifying and call the whole thing the world cup

England are Argentina 1990, blagging their way unimpressively and luckily through every game en route to the final. If you took away the little flair Argentina had and gave them a piss easy run instead the hardest possible one.

Yes, was involved in the Man City takeover was she not? Expected much the same with us but glad she hung around long after that as the soul of the takeover which perhaps lead me to think it would be different and she'd be here long term, certainly imagined that, which is perhaps where some discomfort comes in.

Yeah I'm there too. Could be age. Used to put teletext/ceefax on and freeze the clubcall page that was page2 of some actual story at the bottom of the football page and only on for a few seconds just to decipher the bullshit bait in the headline even though you knew it was bollocks it was still juicy. Find such links on X etc kinda boring now and most is as much of a scam as clubcall was, only interested in concrete stuff.

They played Crewe in the Carabao cup first round last August, opened one stand for the occasion and got beat but the most small-timedness thing of all as you remind me was that it all passed unnoticed, just another one of many horrific cup attendances and a meh result, not even an occasion that would live long in the memory of Crewe players and fans.

Spain are the best team in the tournament by miles, the only special team, they've had a hard run to the final and have been one of the very few that's been good to watch. Which all conspired to give me a horrible feeling somehow they wont win it. Just seems too logical and fair for football. Mind it would fit the tournament if they didn't.

The Don Bradman theory came to pass. The worst have got better but the best haven't.

Favourites for the tournament being lauded for being 0-0 against Switzerland in the same tournament as being slaughtered for beating and drawing with teams either no worse or only slightly worse earlier on in the same tournament is classic English media drama queendom

I thought about that but wasn't sure about the technicalities as he played in midfield that season. As with Watson and Beresford above and a Bjorn Kristensen goal. Albert v Man United Schar v PSG Hottiger v Blackburn Robbie Elliott v Leeds 94/95 Griffin v Charlton honourable mentions as not raised yet: Stuart Pearce v DInamo Kyiv and Dabizas at Watford

Fully agree. Tino and Batty were two of our better players the back end of that season. Everybody else bar Albert were off the boil (I'd add Ginola to Ferdinand and Lee as particular cases). Tino's goals and assist record in that spell was very good whilst Batty was arguably our best player, many, myself included believe that to be the case. Won his England place back, PL teams of the year, player of the month several times for us in that team on the strength of his performances. The gap after Batty's debut which we dominated and should have won and he was excellent in was 3points. He was the last person responsible for the gap having closed.

I've never known them be so determined about anything (world cup bids, respecting officials, punishing clubs for trying to form other leagues, genuinely protecting clubs from doing a Leeds) as they are about wanting to maintain the status quo and deduct points from and punish other clubs - just for trying to compete. They'd sooner see half the league on minus points, clubs qualifying for the PL/CL and weakening themselves and creating new rules bi-monthly to offset it than allow it to happen.

They were lucky it was only 3-1 too. Leeds ran them absolutely ragged. "No way are they championship material" one thought

Juninho had the opposite effect on them He signed less than 2month before that table (debut against Leeds early November). They were obviously doing well up until then having just been promoted. Momentum accounting for a lot perhaps. They won more games in 11 without him than in the 27 with him. After this they won 2 more games all season and were in total freefall and continued that relegation form throughout the whole of the following season. Probably as a result of upsetting a modest but solid team to accomodate a completely different sort of player far too soon.