saintant

This guy really knows his stuff. Well worth watching.

A bit more than I hoped we'd pay. Let's hope if they sign KWP we get a fair price.

My guess is that Kane was far from the fitness levels required for a major tournament. As such he would have known that himself and had a duty to make Southgate aware. Between them they should have made the call not to start Kane in any games.....unless he was fully fit in which case he's just way below the required standard so should have been dropped/left out for that reason alone. Either way it is clear to most that he should not have played as many minutes as he did and this was at the expense of others in the squad who may have done better. These sort of poor decisions must have impacted on the moral of the squad and their trust in the manager.

Lyrics by Rolling Stones.....Long John Baldry was one of their early influences ergo we are signing John Stones.

Ted Rogers lives! 🙂

Would be a decent signing if we are interested. Good finisher and bags of experience at this level.

The fact that Cucurella looked so good in a Spanish shirt as opposed to a Chelsea shirt tells me our national side is going about everything in the wrong way - tactics, team selection, in game management, you name it we are getting it wrong. If Southgate goes nothing about those who will choose and appoint his successor fills me with any confidence or belief that things will improve. Their main criteria, as always, will be to bring in another yes man who will not rock the boat.

For the second header (I think by Guehi) his shirt was clearly being pulled by a Spanish defender. For me it was a possible penalty shout and VAR should have looked at it. I get that a lot of shirt pulling in the box goes unpunished but this happened when Guehi was attempting a header on goal.

Once again England have been strong, resilient and hard to beat. Unfortunately, this only gets you so far as we again found out tonight. Spain were far more comfortable on the ball and able to build from the back quickly and efficiently. Their movement was clever and purposeful and led to chances. They always looked the more likely winners. We don't seem capable of producing a fluent team from the players at our disposal. Spain closed us down and pressed us intelligently leaving us neither time or space to get any momentum going so we were mainly reduced to long hopeful passes that rarely led to anything. I'm not sure what the answer is - we watch the excitement and pace of the Premier League and I guess we hope to see that from the national side but it's different because of the style and the foreign players in our sides. I'm expecting more of the same at the next World Cup - we just aren't technically good enough to compete with the best so will inevitably fall short.

As Souness said Kane is playing like he's towing a caravan.

Spain were a level above us and deserved the victory. It never felt as though we could beat them. Makes it easier to accept. We just can't seem to produce a national side that plays free flowing football so it's always a struggle.

Fuck!

Rodri off at half time!

Southgate won't take him off unless we go behind. With a mobile centre forward we would be far more effective but once again Kane showing that he's either unfit or just not up to it at this level. I think we can win this because we are handling Spain pretty well but the lack of a focal point up front may cost us. Southgate's time to be brave.

The Dutch changed it at half time because we were all over them. They put in a low block and hoped to hit us on the break or score from a set piece. Not saying England have been perfect but we've grown into the tournament and were worthy winners against the Netherlands. We have a good chance today but will need to bring our A game, take any chances that come our way and hope for a little luck. This is not one of the great Spanish sides yet although they may evolve into one.

I'm hoping the ref isn't fooled by Morata who is one of the most frequent divers in football.

Think they might end up signing Ramsdale.

Flying winger maybe?

For a number of seasons now we have been relying on goalkeepers who are not up to the required level. Ok, we'll probably struggle to unearth another Niemi but surely we should be able to identify a keeper who can save us points over a season rather than cost them.

I look on this thread as an alternative source of transfer news and quite enjoy trying to unpick the clues. It's a bit of fun and there may be nuggets of information lurking in the pictures. At the end of the day those that slag it off can quite easily decide not to look at it.

Looking again at the Adam and Eve picture I spotted the beak on the left. In horror I thought surely we're not after Danny van de Beek and then, to my relief, found he's going to Girona.

I take my hat off to Southgate. However, a ruthless manager would be ditching Kane for the final and playing Watkins up front. Hard on Kane? I don't think so - he hasn't done nearly enough in this tournament to warrant a place in the eleven to start against Spain and has looked completely unfit whereas Watkins will be straining at the leash and will give Spain problems. Harry has been a tremendous player for England but sadly is now past his best. However we all know Southgate will start him on Sunday because he allows sentiment to cloud his judgement. Hope it doesn't cost him his final chance to manage England to a trophy because he deserves one against his name.

Thought he was quite even handed to be honest. The big call was of course the penalty and that was a VAR advice to look at the screen and we all know what happens with those.

Agree. The Dutch knew they were being outplayed so stifled the game second half and hoped to nick a goal from the big lump. Spain won't do that so we'll have a chance to play as we did in the first half today. They are very good but we can give them plenty of problems.

Absolutely brilliant finish from Watkins from a superb Palmer pass. Well done England and we deserved it as we were the better side overall. Would love to see Watkins lead the line in the final but we know it'll be Kane who is neither fit enough nor good enough now I'm afraid - he is a shadow of himself and time appears to have caught up with him. Well done to Southgate and his coaches for getting us to consecutive finals in this competition. Win or lose on Sunday he can now bow out with his head held high.