SaintBobby

Wow. Some great leaps of logic there. I listen to Marcus Rashford on politics with about as much seriousness as I listen to my Great Auntie Joan. And she has been dead for 15 years. But if either he or her were to make a great stand of principle on something and get huge media coverage for doing so, I'd invite them to think through the logical conclusion of their argument. If the case is "we need to get our own house in order before we worry about racism elsewhere," then I'm struggling to see how or why the murder of George Flloyd in Minnesota led to huge protests in London. Also, I voted "Leave" in the 2016 referendum.

The bit that grates with me is that I just don't care about race. Ok, I'm white and middle class so maybe I just don't see racism or experience it. When we lost the penalty shoot out against Italy, I was gutted. I hadn't considered any racial points (unless singing "You can shove your tagliatelle up your arse" on the tube is considered racist?). Then - although it wes a bit random - I heard one guy say to his mates, "did you notice...the white guys scored and our whote goalkeeper saved the panlties, the 3 black guys missed". He did say "black guys". He didn't use the n-word. I just thought it was a weird way of looking at the world. Old fashioned, rather odd and with a slighlty worrying thing about "what comes next?" All that said, I don't think racism in Britain is much of a problem. It exists. It's real. And people unlike me are on the receiving end of it. Playing football in Qatar, where it looks to be literally the case that the bodies of slaves are buried under the pitch. Well, that is a pretty big problem. I hope those taking the knee will adress it. I assume they will refuse to play in such a country. As well as eschewing any stadium or club that accepts any sponsorship from China, who seem to be practising something close to genocide at present. If that's what taking the knee means, count me in. If it's just a bit of virtue signalling without any tough decisions being made by those who do it, I call bullshit. Worse than that. Bullshit that deflects from massive, real and serious human rights abuses in the world. Being abused on Instagram is nasty. Not as nasty as China and Qatar. Not by a very long way.

I'm relaxed about the whole thing now. The vaccination roll out places the risk for most of us on a level below flu. It will continue to kill people every year - I think flu often leads to 20,000 deaths in a year - but it's now an unplesant controlled disease rather than rippign through society unchecked. That's enough for me to want to return to normal.

I think I'm in favour of the media sharing examples of the online attacks on the players. It's a difficult call, but when the BBC simply report "racial abuse", this is hard to get an exact handle on. That could be anything on the spectrum from unpleasant to utterly horrific. Everything on that spectrum is bad, but exactly where it is on the spectrum is surely meaningful?

I’ve managed to get a ticket but am feeling sick with nerves already. I think I’d rather we were the standout favourite or rank outsider (as Saints have been at cup finals). The 50-50 nature of this match is exciting in prospect but rather too exciting…

Well, that was a predictably boring evening of football! Fuck, we might win this

Getting to the final is a real achievement. Maybe even getting to the semi...although losing to Denmark ratehr a recognised "big team" would undermine that achievement somewhat

If JWP had been playing, we would have won 8-0. The poor selection decisions by Southgate are still costing England dearly 😀

Yeah, there's a big difference between something being unpredictable and it being a lottery. One of the great joys of football is how damned unpredictable it can be. But that doesn't mean it's a game of luck.

Everything has a price. Would I sell JWP for £40m? No. For £80m? Yes. It’s not a binary “keep or sell”, it’s just about the figure. I doubt any team will offer a fee that Saints would accept.

The whole Germany “monkey on the back” thing is maybe more a neurosis than a statistical fact. In major tournaments since the Second World War, the England record is now Won 3 Drawn 3 Lost 2. Sure, two of those draws led to penalty defeats, but they’ve only ever beaten us once inside 90 minutes in a tournament match - and that defeat was the one that involved Lampard putting the ball three yards over the line but no goal being given.

We’re a pretty dull and compact team. A bit Mourinho. But that gives us a fair chance to win the tournament. It’s just possible we will grind it out with just a few more 1-0 wins. I’d rather that than see some silky skills and lose again.

Eastleigh would stand a better chance against Brazil on penalties than over a 90-120 minute match, for sure. But they'd still be a huge underdog. A single slip on a penalty shoot out can be decisive, whereas these can be recovered from in normal play (see Croatia's first goal yesterday...). I think I'd make Brazil 98%-99% to win a match v Eastleigh and about 90%+ to win an penalties.

I don’t think either was the best game ever. But both games were amazingly good and I count them both as contributing to a night of football.

Was that the best night of football ever? Went down the local bar at 5pm intending to go home for dinner at 645pm. One thing led to another and end up still there gone 1030pm after two incredible matches. Boring 1-0 win for England tmrw pls.

If they beat Slovakia, they will prob top the group. If they don't, they can't finish in the top two.

If it stays 1-0 to Spain v Poland, then the record of the three teams with Saints players will be Won 0 Drawn 1 Lost 5...For 2 Against 8 Eerily faniliar! Lol

I was at Wembley. Utterly dire.

100%. I don;t think there's been an error yet of note - nor any serious agonising delays.

Not bad from England at all. Shearer, Lampard and Rio getting a bit carried away on how “excellent” we were. Solid. Not much more. V disappointed in Croatia, they looked poor for World Cup finalists. Progression to 2nd round almost certain after that. Still don’t expect us to get much further than that though.

There's all sorts of stuff I'd watch on TV, but i don't think should be broadcast. HTH.

I agree, it was terrible that the BBC didn't switch back to the studio more quickly. The other thing I found weird - and bizarre - was that they used those flags to over the stretcher as they deparetd the pitch. To my mind, this meant for sure that he was dead. Also, there are no reports yet - are there? - about what actually happened to him? Stroke? Anyeurism? Heart attack?

If JWP played for Burnley, Turkish - for one - would be fawning all over him. Because Burnley would then have at least 7 players who could improve the Saints starting XI 😂😂😂

When does the announcement for the 26th slot get made? Tonight?

The bit that irritates me is every time they take the knee, the commentator says the players are "once again, sending a very clear message". What exactly is the message? If it's just that we abhor racism, great. If they disagree with BLM on defunding the police and replacing capitalism with Marxism, I'd like the PFA or players to make that clear. I'd like to boo those last two propositions, but it's a bit unclear to me what the players are really signalling. It seems either (a) obvious or (b) wrong. I just don't know which.