Cabrone

Sounds like an exciting signing. Have Pool put in a bid for him yet?

It's because we are desperate for anything positive about England. If Robson and Venables were Italian or German they'd have been thought of as fairly mediocre managers but English fans have had so little to cheer about that they are put up on a pedestal. I personally don't rate Venables - he snubbed Matty when he was at the peak of his powers, something that still rankles with me to this day. Supporting England is like having an abusive girlfriend, you take endless **** but you hang on in there because deep down you still love her. Eventually after years of abuse you either go down the 'don't give a ****' route or end up having a love\hate relationship - you love her but you hate her at the same time. I think this is why so many English fans are genuinely delighted for Wales, they are a conduit for our long supressed need for some joy and good news when it comes to international footie plus they are showing England up for the pathetic rabble they are.

Utterly superb Wales, given me a bit of a lift after the desperate pile of merde we witnessed on Monday (Iceland were superb BTW). Just goes to show that British players can do the business if the manager, tactics, ethos and selections are correct. The pampered prima donnas need to be dropped if they don't show a heart and a pair of balls, no favourites. N.Ireland can also hold their heads high, they gave some good performances, it's only England as per usual that's a let down. Now go and win it Wales!

Sounds like a good deal to me, on his day he's great but he goes missing too often to command a £34M price tag. Liverpool will have to coax more consistent performances from him and if they can then the £34M will become justified. If we spend that money wisely it could be another boost for us.

Maybe it's time to get radical with England, they just can't keep on going as they are. How about sending the champions and their manager to the tournament as England, we should have given the Leicester players England shirts and made Claudio Ranieri the manager. The slots vacated by non English players replaced by the in form players regardless of the team they play for, friendlies ended. They are a waste of time and qualification games played by whoever the form team in the prem is, non English players again replaced by the form players in the league. I think Leicester would have beaten Iceland last night, Saints would have too.

Someone needs to check for any irregular betting, that was so bad it was suspicious. Check Woys pockets for brown envelopes, my expectations for England are rock bottom but that performance was in new territory. It really smells. Congratulations to Iceland for their gutsy performance, thoroughly deserved.

Has England ever won a penalty shootout? I seem to remember maybe beating Spain in Euro 96 on pens? Can't think of any others.

Iceland will park the bus, England will huff and puff without creating much and the result will be a 0-0 bore draw. Iceland win on penalties.

Slovakia parked the bus and asked the question, England didn't have much of an answer. We snatched a few chances but never really created anything good. Final ball wasn't particularly great. Against a team like Slovakia you either need to attack at pace and pull them out of position or you need to do something clever, fast 1-2's or beating players in 1 on 1 situations and creating space, England couldn't do this. Frustrating but that's England for you.

Luke warm about Pellegrini, thought he underperformed at Citeh given the resources and does he still have the hunger having previously managed some big clubs? Would personally prefer a young hungry manager but a guy like Pellegrini does have the 'big name' status which will attract quality players. I will say that it would an ambitious statement from the club (despite my questions) if they get him bearing in mind his status in the game.

Rod Wallace did OK, got a league winner's medal with Leeds - best of the Wallace bros IMO Dennis Wise had a pretty good career too

Glad to see Vardy on the pitch, a real talisman and someone you want in the trenches with you. The guy is always snapping and sniffing and never gives a defence a second's rest. He's also no respecter of the oppo's status, he'll give it his all whether he's up against Spain or San Marino, that's got to be a real morale boost for the rest of the team. He's in my starting XI every time. I'd also stick with Kane, he has been quiet but he's class and can do damage. IMO if England are to have any chance of progressing we need a Vardy\Kane partnership up front and the more time they are given the better. When up and running they are a real threat. Once again Rooney looked good in the mid gen role, he'd be in my starting XI every time too.

Well done Italy and top finish from Graziano, got be worth another million or 2. Never write off the Italians, they know how to win tournaments ad this outfit are really playing as a team. What is up with Belgium? That team absolutely oozes class but just can't get it together, maybe too many good players and corresponding egos in one team? I'd like to see Belgium get their act together because I think they could be something else if they clicked, only 2 games left to do it though.

I do, I think he's done a fantastic job and no hard feelings - that's football. I do wonder though if he may be joining a circus, Everton are crossing their fingers and giving one manager licence to spend £100M whilst the fans have exceeding high expectations. He won't get much of a honeymoon and if they pull the ejector seat they will inherit a new manager who probably won't have much money and had no say over the players he has. I prefer the SFC approach which appears more stable, strategic and long term. Time will tell.

In my time it has to be Mark Dennis, a bit of a loon but also an absolute fantastic left back - one of the best in SFCs history. Dennis was in the Stuart Pearce mould but never got the same acclaim because he was a bit of a nutter. Fights, stabbings, 53 day bans (for elbowing Ossie Ardilles in the face), more sendings off than I can remember, a long list of clubs, 'I hate you Nicholl' headlines in the tabloids, a liking for Colombian marching powder - traits that are not exactly going to endear you to other football clubs but what a player. His wife was a bit tasty too, multiple bust ups and police interventions during a lively marriage. Haven't seen a pic so here's one of the man in his prime.

It's going to be Clive 'just like rugger' Woodward and Mickey 'ill have a whip round' Fialka, the dream team. You heard it here first.

Zlatan as player manager. Christ that would be something.

All I know about this Emery guy is that his team gave 'Pool an absolute footballing lesson a couple of weeks ago. A very impressive 2nd half display. If he could do something like that for us he'd be a top signing. Normally I'd think it was out of the question but if he was interested in the Everton job then why not us and being as we are the best currently available entry into the prem you never know. Seems that the prem is flavour of the month as far as managers go at the moment so maybe we could tempt him, TBH I never thought we'd get big Ron and we landed him so you never know. Could be a fun run in the Europa.

Do a swap and get Roberto Martinez, yes he had a bad time at Everton but I think at a well run club like us he'd do really well. Thought he worked wonders at Wigan. If this happens I'll be gutted - I think he's made a bad move there, the expectation will be immense but that club looks like a bit of a circus. Still you make your bed and all that.

Good goal and when he's on song he's a great striker. Trouble is he goes missing for extended periods during a season which costs us. If we got a decent offer I think we should let him go.

Osvaldo and Delgardo stand out a long way. David Hurst was pretty dissappointing at the time too.

Feyenoord would be interesting but not too bothered TBH. Some really good teams in there, looks like it's going to be a great adventure next year.

Hang on, we haven't sold anyone just yet and if we do I'm sure a) We'll get a big payout b) We'll replace them with someone of equal quality. Besides which Pelle, Tadic and Mane whilst on their day are good can suffer a fair bit of inconsistency. Ditto for big Vic + he wants out and Juanmi (sadly because I rated him) doesn't look like he ever fitted in. Come on, I would have thought by now that the club would have done enough to earn a bit of trust from the fans?

I think they got the size of his head right, it's massive.

Well done Man U At least we're in the group stages now.