Sheaf Saint

No wonder they've got the wonga to sponsor a PL team if they basically just keep people's winnings! 😬 Did nobody at the club honestly consider the terrible optics of this before signing the deal?

It's not the fact that it's another gambling firm that bothers me - it's so common now (despite the looming ban) that I've just become numb to it. What irks me is the way the club have tried to dress this up and paint Rollbit out to be an exciting, innovative online sports and entertainment firm. It's almost Comical Ali levels of spin, and just makes it look like they are treating fans like total mugs. I get that the sponsorship deal means we have to promote the company, but FFS just be honest about what they do. If their business model is so unpalatable to the general public that the club feel the need to lie about it, then that is hugely problematic IMO. It pisses all over our image as a community club.

In which case they might have been better off hiring Boaty McBoatface.

We're back in the PL now. It's all about the global TV audience. They don't give a toss about actual fans.

Not that you woukd know it from the club announcement: "Rollbit is making huge strides in the online gaming, esports and entertainment space. Through their platform, Rollbit blends entertainment with investment in an innovative way, including the creation of digital gaming spaces for its users to explore". Do they think we're fucking stupid?

And yet, on paper, we had probably the best collection of attacking players in our squad out of anyone in the tournament. Shocking mismanagement.

Agreed. The Spanish press was so much more effective than ours. We struggled to get out of our own half for large parts of the game because they pressed us as a team. Our press, on the other hand, was completely ineffective because it consisted of Foden and Bellingham making half-arsed individual attempts to close down their defenders and Kane jogging about completely ineffectually. It was so poor they were able to pass their way out of it and into attack with ease. For all his goalscoring records, I really hope we never have to see Kane playing for England again, because he's just a spent force at international level, and it reflects very badly on Southgate that he couldn't see that in this tournament.

It really was. I just can't get my head round how he made the change to get us back in the game, then as soon as we scored we just retreated into our low block again and failed to put their defence under any kind of pressure, while inviting them onto us. Was only ever going to be one outcome from that, yet Southgate clearly couldn't see it. Time for him to move on now. We will never reach the next level with such an insipid manager playing safety first football. We need someone who will play to the strengths of the players available, instead of restricting them by playing them in an outdated system.

He's scored more goals at Euros finals than anyone else since it began. To say he never turns up when it matters is just wrong. But he's been very poor overall this time round, despite the goals he scored. Southgate should have dropped him much earlier.

Best team won. Just really fucking annoying that we gifted it to them by standing off too much and inviting them onto us. We scored a good goal and had a spell of pressure, then just took the foot off the gas.

Pickford has kept us in this. IF we are to go on and win this, hecwill have played a very big part in that.

We seem to have retreated again since the goal.

Great save.

They're all over us now. Changes needed urgently.

We simply can't employ an effective press with Kane up front. Get him off Gareth.

Williams completely unmarked again - nearly a second.

Oh dear. That will have screwed the HT team talk.

Once again, our lack of a mobile CF means we're really struggling to get out when we regain possession in our defensive third.

Thought it was harsh at first cos he got the ball, but it was warranted for the follow through.

England growing into it now after being under the cosh for a while.

Oh would you just give it a fucking rest Turkish. Please. Your relentless vendetta against the guy is so fucking boring now. If you're so convinced that SOG is a wind up merchant then why must you respond to literally every fucking post he makes?

I really don't know how to call this. Of course my heart says England win, but it will be far from easy. Spain have looked good, but I wouldn't include their current team in the Euro hall of greats. They have some decent players, but they also lack experience in certain areas and are not invulnerable against a decent attacking team. They had to come from behind to beat France in the SF who, let's face it, were pretty poor (although exactly the same could be said about our semi against the Netherlands). I keep thinking back to the final 3 years ago against Italy, when a mostly young and inexperienced England side didn't have the wherewithal to overcome a wily Italian team who were very adept in the dark arts of football. This team has grown since then, and has shown some character to dig deep when necessary in the knockout stages. But I can't bring myself to make a prediction. I wasn't even born in 1966, so all I've ever known with England is disappointment, and that lifetime of experience has taught me to know better than to allow myself to be hopeful we might actually win.

One Republican senator has already claimed that Joe Biden "gave the order". Sounds pretty libellous to me.