S-Clarke

I think it would be passable without the sponsor, that's really killing it for me. Makes it look cheap as chips. It almost certainly won't be when you want to buy it though. See, this looks much better -

They have made a right mess of this tbh.

Probably. But it was either this or emptying the dishwasher for me, at the time this seemed like a good idea. But I'm starting to regret my decision.

They'll be gutted once they know that it was leaked on twitter an hour ago, and Flynn Downes was confirmed by Fabrizo 2 days ago.

I think the memory of this event will be the unveiling of Flynn Downes rather than the kit.

It's riveting isn't it. They aren't half dragging this out.

Steve Grant taking a beer, that's where our fivers are going people. (said in jest before anyone wonders)

You have to be outraged with the kit, it's tradition.

Not sure you can see it clearly enough yet - need to see it on person to see how it all lines up. On the pic the red looks a little too light, so I imagine it'll look much darker and punchier when we see it shortly. I do think it's the sponsor that kills it though more than anything.

I imagine his announcement will come with him in the kit, good timing and all that. Hopefully he'll make it look a little less bland.

Starts at 7:30 according to the website.

It's pretty bland, but the pictures don't show it off to it's best. Be interesting to see it in the flesh. But it's red and white stripes, there's very little you can do with a red and white kit other than make it red and white stripes. The sponsor looks to be what ruins it though (the yellow bit for the O, that's what makes it look a bit cheap imo)

I wouldn't pay much attention to that page, once they all have their pictures with the new kit it will be updated. It's certainly not where I look for gospel info, the media team update that as and when. Almost certainly just an oversight I'd have thought.

It's not a surprise and I'm glad he fell on his own sword after a final rather than being absolutley vilified had we come home after that Slovakia game. It feels the most dignified end, although the routes to the finals have been somewhat paved in gold, he has provided generations of England fans experiences they could have only dreamed of in years gone by. I can't see the FA going for a manager employed at a club, it's not how they work. They will focus on options that are currently out of work or already within the FA Setup. For me that creates an immediate shortlist of Potter, Carsley, Poch. My hunch is that Carsley will be put in 'temp' charge for the nations league games in Sept and will probably get the job if we do well in that.

I'm kinda expecting Lee Carsley, might be wrong.

We've had some stinking sponsors since the Virgin Media deal expired, not that it really matters in the grand scheme of things. In the new world of PSR, what you can get from sponsorship is what helps clubs like us compete. As bad as that is to say, if these guys offer us the most money and can help make us a better team then who gives a shit.

The Lazio home game will be epic, can't wait for that one. It does feel like a proper pre-season line-up of teams, we'll get a good work out from varying styles there. Some actual thought has gone into this for a change rathe than just noddy Austrian or Germany 6th tier teams.

There is an element of that for sure, but it's still incredibly luck based. Sometimes you can finish top and still face a pretty shocking route, the way it pans out doesn't always correlate to how the groups finish. For example in 2022 we finished Top, but still had to face France in the quarters (who inevitably beat us). I think I'd certainly label Southgate as a very lucky manager, things have fallen for him that haven't fallen for other English managers. And he's still not grasped that opportunity - the home final against Italy in 2021 will forever be the one that got away for me, terribly game-managed after that early goal. We were the home team, we should have stomped our way over a pretty average and aging Italian team at that point, but we did what we always do - retreat and try to soak it up.

I'm in the same boat. You hear that from a lot of people who don't generally follow football, but have tagged along at the end as it seemed to get exciting. To them they have no idea of the context of which we reached the final, but we fluked it - on the lucky side of the draw too. If we'd have come through the lucky side of the draw and beat Slovaka 4-0 and Switzerland in normal time quite comfortably I'd be more content I think - but we staggered to the final against some pretty weak sides. We only won 2 games in 90mins - Serbia and Holland. Spain won 6 in normal time. Turkey or Austria were more deserving of a final place than us in my opinion.

Great news on Downes, a vital cog in our team - hopefully that £18m includes some nutritionists and physios to ensure he's available more! (no more dodgy liver for Flynn)

Casualty of the way we approached games really. In history we've always complained about how technical Spain/Brazil players etc are in comparison with our players, but Foden is in the style of a Spanish or Brazilian player. The way we play does not cater for players in the style of Foden, your sloggers and workhorses will do well in this side (which is why Kalvin Phillips looked decent, Trippier in the past etc), but pure technical players will be lost and you'll never see the best from them - apart from the chance of 'moments'. I saw quite a few occasions in all 7 games of Foden coming so deep to collect the ball from the CB's, that's not where you want him. He was having to come to find the ball as we had no concerted system to get the ball to our technical players in space. It was so painful to watch the most technical attackers in the world have their attacking stats through the floor. That's not the players fault.

There's no basis for those claims anymore. They were made null and void the moment Spurs and Newcastle jetted off for a series of friendlies in Australia the week after the season ended.

I think in a way you are overestimating the Spanish players here. They have good players, but they aren't hitting the same heights as ours domestically. Cucurella surprised me this tournament, as he has been nothing but a comedy figure for Chelsea. The best player in Spain this year wasn't even a Spanish player, it was Bellingham.

It's sad to read this really, I do think there is still quite a large element of dinosaur/Allardyce/mike Bassett level coaching in this country. We had fans last season shouting at us to ''GET IN THE BOX'', that seems to still linger in grass roots coaching as well. Honestly, football moved on 20 years ago from that. There are players who do seem to escape that coaching - Foden, Saka, Bellingham, Palmer are seriously technical without being 'massive' - but quite a few of those have had the Pep influence through their young days. Pep has actually done a lot of good for English football and the coaching of our younger players. I do still think there is too much of a focus on old school England 4-4-2 ''get in the box'' style from British coaching. We had a problem previously where we weren't producing the right players, but I think we are now in some area's. We just need the coaching to embrace it as like you say, really good technical players are going to fall through the gaps if the coaching doesn't improve.

On the other hand, Spain had a plan for our players - for one, I noticed Saka had no space. Whenever he was on the ball he was doubled up on, normally Williams helping out there as well - Saka never had any real chance to take on a player and get past them as they did a good job marking him out of it. Spain play good football, but their off the ball work was just as impressive. They pressed in packs, as groups - it was all choreographed. Whereas if we pressed it was a half arsed effort from Kane or Foden as a single press. Sometimes a couple pressed, but because it wasn't a concerted effort Spain would break the transition and be at us. Maybe we don't have the players to press like they did, but you could see the work Spain had done on us tactically to stop our threats, yet we just did the same things as we have done all tournament.