S-Clarke

Best game could be between two - that amazing afternoon where there were two 3-3's in normal time (Spain v Croatia, France v Switzerland) I'll go France v Switzerland, as that also saw the game of the tournament from Pogba. Can only comment on the one's I watched, but England v Scotland was pretty bad. England v Czech was equally poor in entertainment alone.

Forgetting about the England game for a moment, what a great tournament overall. Lots of goals, lots of great games, come backs, extra time wins etc. It's been my favourite Euro's since 2004 for the sheer drama and attacking quality on show. Best team were easily Italy, but I also thought Denmark were a breath of fresh air - ignoring the first two games. The only thing I didn't really like was the pan Europe approach, I prefer a Euro's when it's in a single country. Glad it's going back to that model for 2024. But overall it's been a fantastic month of football after a year of rubbish.

Bit of a strange one. Lots of fanfare when he first joined, talk of big clubs wanting him last year. But he's ended up at young boys. Not sure he's cut out for it, but we'll see. It does seem as if you cross Ralph at any point then you never come back.

Yep, exactlyy, it was my fear after the Denmark game - as I thought for the majority of that game Hoj and Delaney had our number. Rice and Phillips are almost identical types of player. We need someone else in there alongside them to drive, because based on that showing we are light years behind the top teams in that central midfield department. It was our undoing against Croatia in 2018 as well. JWP isn't the answer either by the way! He'd have been equally over run in there. If only we had a Jorginiho or Verrati type who have the ability to run a game. We don't have anyone who can do that. Not sure Bellingham will be that sort of player, not seen enough of him. But central midfield worries me as I don't see much there long-term.

There aren't many, if any, better number 9's in the world. Just look at his stats. We just didn't paly him right, he was dropping too deep and not getting into the 6 yard box, so he gets very few chances to have a shot. 4 goals at this tournament though and just 1 goal away from being the top goal scorer for England in tournaments. He's as good as we've had up top since ever, we just need to work out how to get the best out of him in games like today.

Never fancied him, he's looked shot all season. Would rather have brought someone like Calvert-Lewin on.

We took the lead, and after around 25 mins we stopped playing and pretty much retreated. The back 3 turned into a back 5 very quickly which is why we changed it in the 2nd half, but it didn't really change much as the midfield was just overrun with superior players, and once you're chasing a game for so long (as we were) once you concede it's pretty much done. That's why we just hoped for pens after that. I'd have like to have seen us maybe go for it, but we'd have been picked off and thrashed imo.

We took it right to the death, but we faced the best team we've faced so far and were pretty much outclassed for the majority of that sadly. Started well and got on top, but once Italy got to grips with their midfield we just couldn't get near them and that's when the inferior technical quality within our midfield comes to the fore. But they make up for it with drive and aggression, but we do sorely lack technique in there which will always be shown up against the better sides. We defended well generally, penalties felt inventible after the first 90. I can only assume Saka said he wanted to take it, but it was a very daft idea. He's a kid with the most important penalty in a generation, too much. He should have been pulled and someone with some experience should have taken it. Let's see what 2022 brings, lots of good young players in this squad - but there is a feeling that this was probably our best chance of a generation.

Loved Fonte, so pleased for the success he had at Lille. I think he will end up back in Portugal where it all started and then retire. He wouldn't be able to deal with the PL anymore sadly. I'd definitely take him back as a coach if he retires though.

Jenas is alright, one of the better co-coms. I think he's better than the previous we had - Lawro.

He's excellent. He's been refreshing to listen to. I can see him getting a gig at BT or Sky for the new season, I think he's wasted on Amazon prime which is where he was stuck for the PL games.

Yeah, I found that very odd. Matterface though isn't it, proper skate. It wasn't even a case that he didn't mention players of other clubs, as he was quite freely mentioning the Brentford guys when they came on. He just couldn't bring himself to say it about Vestergaard. Typical bitter/jealous skate. And he's generally an absolute shocking commentator, no idea why he got the top job at ITV. He's one of the worst going.

I thought it all started a bit too frantic, once it settled down it was Denmark who came in with more of the composure. Their midfield was just sharper than ours for a good portion of that first half I felt. Free kick was weird, it was dipping and bending with so much pace. It was saveable, but it would have been one heck of a save had it been kept out due to the pace of the hit. Equaliser came at the right time as Denmark were just settling into a pattern of frustrating us. 2nd half was more of the same until 70ish mins. Denmark made a ton of subs at once and it ruined them. I thought Dolberg up top was providing them a real threat and stretching the game along with Dalsgaard. Once their attack had changed up and Poulsen was the front line that threat was gone. So from that moment on it was backs to the wall for Denmark and we just kept working and working down the wide positions and into the box. Penalty was soft as shit, no denying that. I'd be utterly pissed if we'd been knocked out on that. But you have to look back at previous tournaments. The 'goal' Sol scored in 2004 that was chalked off for a 'foul'. The play acting red card for Rooney in 2006. The over the line goal for Lampard which wasn't given in 2010 etc. Plenty more. So we kind of deserved that break. I don't think we should feel sheepish because of that winner, we deserved it on the overall game anyway. No idea what to make of Sunday, it's going to be another level than we have faced for a long time. Shit house defenders who will have our attackers number, midfielders who are a lot more clever at this level as opposed to Rice/Phillips etc. 50/50 game....but I'm booking Monday off.

But his primary role should be as a defender, not being a key cog in our attacking play. I'm not denying that he has been key to our attacking approach, as he has been - especially during the start of last season, he was often our out ball either spreading it or splitting the opposition midfield. But my argument is that players in the middle of the park and attacking third should be the ones doing that, not our CB. The CB's goal is to defend, something which he has struggled to do.

I think Bednarek has developed under Ralph, but he's still a pretty average centre back who is prone to absolute calamities - but he's about our level. The thing I've always felt uncomfortable about is the lack of pace around him, he needs quick players to cover for him - especially when he comes forward. Vestegaard is slower than me. So in a round about way I expect our defence to be better next year than this year. And potentially £20m richer if we do cash in on Jannik. (which I'd use to bring in attacking players, with a loan to come in and become a cover CB)

That loan wasn't just taken out for player trading, there's a lot more to a club than that. There are a lot of other bills which we also have to self generate funds for too, usually comes from gate receipts etc but obviously that dipped. That loan, more than anything, is to have to cover the operational costs over the forthcoming years.

Agreed. I think this will be a very tough game, but I still think we have the edge. Denmark will be leggy, whilst we have the likes of Sancho, Grealish, Foden etc who haven't really played a great deal - great weapons to have up your sleeve. No risks of yellows or suspensions for the final either. It's pretty much the perfect situation to go into a Semi Final. At home, full of confidence, fresher squad, no suspensions. We will never get a better opportunity.

Maybe, but he was still decent under Van Gal to be fair. He didn't really do anything wrong but Mourinho loved to pick on him, it was quite weird. He still does pick on him as well. I don't know if Shaw slept with his wife or something, it feels personal rather than professional. But it's what Jose does. Alienates people at every single club he goes at.

All that really does is kick the can down the road to be honest. Doesn't really change much, we'll be in the same position in a year's time and he'll probably be worth less than he is now. The thing with Ings is that he's not going to generate interest tomorrow, he's the sort of player that clubs are going to look at during the back end of august when options 1, 2 and 3 haven't gone through. No disrespect to Danny, but that's how it is really. How that affects our ability to replace is interesting, it may be a late rally.

Not disagreeing with that, but it would give us more flexibility in being able to plan and evolve before their departures. Or build a more competitive squad that wouldn't feel Ings departure as much as this one would. The overriding fact under Gao is that we cannot do anything until player x goes, you cannot run a club like that over a long period of time. I don't care what anyone says. That's not sustainable in my eyes, it's entirely unsustainable because you just get left well behind over a long period. It's like a slow death. I want my club to be sustainable in a way that enables us to grow. I don't want to be a City or a Chelsea for example, I just want to know that my club is able to go and improve midfield or centre back in a transfer window if they feel they need to. But they can't without calculating who they have to sell first to make that happen.

I assume that's a joke.

Feels like the club have accepted that we need to cash in now if we are to evolve the squad. A good Euro's has added $$ onto his value, so that's a positive. He's not a great defender, let's not miss that fact. He uses the ball well, he's good with his feet, good in the air. But he has been part of one of the worst defences in our history, for that alone...if we can get good money for him, I won't lose much sleep. Salisu will add a lot more athleticism and pace on the left side. For all the importance that Vestergaard added to our 'attacking' (in terms of splitting the midfield with his passes), maybe we should try and buy a CM who can do that?

It is a rubbish situation to be in, but I think it's been inevitable from day dot really. If he wanted to sign he'd have signed a long, long time ago. The situation is exasperated by the fact we have no money, not a single pot to piss in. So we can't replace him until he's gone. But, do we risk letting him go now and taking the gamble on someone like Adam Armstrong? Or do we keep him until the end of his contract and only have loose change to spend on a replacement? It's all a bit shit really. In an ideal world you accept he's going, buy his 'replacement' now but keep Ings until his contract is up so you have the best of both worlds. But because we can only spend money when we sell it kind of makes that approach a non-starter. We need new ownership, it's like watching a slow death at the moment.

There was a post like this last season as well. I'm desperate for him to do well, but it looks more and more likely that he's just not going to cut it here. 2 full seasons he's had and bar two goals in his first couple of games in 2019, the only thing he's been consistent at is getting injured. In normal circumstances we'd have probably cut our losses already, but beggars can't be choosers. I doubt next season will be much different tbh. More flattering to deceive and lots of knocks and niggles. We are in desperate need for better than him and Redmond in those wide/10 positions, but I'm not sure we have the finances to do it.

It's two massive fingers up at Jose Mourinho as well. Shows him up as the dated manager he really is, just looking for enemy's at every club he goes into. Ali was the most recent one at spurs. Not sure why he does that. I wonder who it will be at Roma?