S-Clarke

Oh for sure, don't disagree with you on that one either. Think he needs replacing too if we're to offer any competitiveness at PL level.

I like it, feels like one of the more believable leaks. Shouldn't be long until we see it.

Bree was better for that little period in Dec, then he got injured. When he came back into the side after that he was horrifically bad. His performance at Ipswich stands out for maximum level incompetence. He was perfectly ok for a squad backup as a Champ team, but if we're honest he should be nowhere near a PL squad. He was signing to appease Jones, much in the same way Carrillo was signed to appease MP. Let him head off to Charlton or something.

Oh for sure, the majority of the Friendly tours are for revenue (advertising, fans, sponsors etc) - zilch to do with fitness. It was the same with the stupid friendly Newcastle and Spurs had, against each other, in Australia, a week after the season ended. Make that make sense.

Saw something online yesterday that suggested Liverpool and Celtic have missed out on McCarthy as he's signing a contract with us. They were going to sign him as their backup keeper, or at least squad keeper. (that's the story anyway). If that is true...then he will sign with us to be first choice, as painful as that is to say. He doesn't turn down the opportunity to be backup at Liverpool or Celtic to be backup here. I still hope with everything that it doesn't happen (thanks for McCarthy for what he did at the end of the season though - but that's where it needs to end for me, on a high). The clubs goalkeeping decisions over the last 10 years have been absolutely bonkers though.

Yeah, they're basing the odds on the side of the draw we're on. Very fortunate to be fair. We even lucked out by missing Holland, Slovakia haven't been great tbf - one of the worst third place teams. Italy, potentially, in the quarters will probably be our undoing though.

I thought the competition started off pretty well, the first round of games at least - but you're right in that it became more turgid as teams saw how others had done, and realised they didn't need to exert themselves a great deal due to that third place best of rubbish. I was surprised when I read that only one player has 3 goals so far, and that's a Georgia one. The final rounds of games in all groups, bar the Austria one which was great, have been bore fests.

He's a bit of a superstar to be fair, I think last year he was linked to Bayern and Real for in excess of 100m euro. He will be one of the most expensive players when he leaves Napoli. Georgia do have quite a few good technical players though (and their GK), so they've hit a bit of a sweet spot with their generation right now. Probably more obtainable for us is the Watford player they have, Chakvetadze - who has been pretty tidy too. (never seemed to be that good whenever I've seen Watford)

That's a wonderful start. It'll be fun watching this playout, they'll be in for a rude awakening. I notice a lot of pundits have them as finishing top 12, but I look at their squad and I can honestly say I don't know any of their players. I knew of Ipswich's players, ditto Wednesdays, but I just have no idea who half of their squad are. Just randoms.

Don't excite MLG This is just for the fan zones outside of the Northam.

Yeah I don't quite get this logic either. We had the easiest group in terms of team rep in my opinion. Serbia are a bit shit, Slovenia bar Sesko are utter fodder. Denmark aren't what they were in 2018 - but we've struggled so badly against all three. It's not inconceivable that we could have drawn with Serbia, lost to Denmark (based on the game) and ended up on just 2 points. (That would have been the fair outcome imo). The logic that we will somehow now turn up against Holland confuses me. We were lucky the three we've already played didn't have the quality to really punish us, once we face that quality there will only be one ending. This is flowing very similar to the 2010 world cup in South Africa. Two shitty draws against USA and Algeria I think, the final group game saw us booed up and Rooney slagging off the fans etc. The logic was similar then...facing Germany in the last 16, you'll see the best of us then etc etc. We were utterly trounced. It's going to play out the same here, and it won't even need to be a team of Germany's level.

I think it's along the lines of us needing to make a profit on player trading to provide us more flexibility, i.e. selling KWP for big bucks (we don't have many we can sell for big bucks) will provide us a little more wiggle room within FFP/PSR to improve the squad in other areas. Otherwise we keep KWP and maybe don't sign a striker or something like that. Sulemana, Onuachu, Perraud sales etc all will represent a loss for us as we wouldn't ever break even on what we originally spent. It's an entirely backwards way of doing football, but here we are.

Our fishy friends will have a nice bump back to reality on the opening day then!

Holland are a little dodgy defensively, but we won't cause them enough problems to make them worry. Not expecting anything other than a comfortable Dutch win on Sunday, putting an end to this miserable attempt. At this stage we might as well have stayed at home, although it feels like we have.

This is why Southgate should be strung up for how he's making our players look. He really isn't shit. Bellingham is top level, elite class. No one can look good in a Southgate team. We don't have a problem with the players in the final third of the team, they are all good enough without question. They are being strangled by a manager who has swallowed a book on how to defend a 0-0.

The wrong change at this stage though, we need more width on the left and someone to commit their defenders, it's only bloody Slovenia.. We didn't need another CM to pass it backwards at this stage.

Oh good, so he's done just what he shouldn't have done. CM for a CM. We have one more game to endure after this as well, couldn't get any worse.

If he brings on a CM for a CM I think i'll scream. It's calling out for someone to be direct like Eze or Gordon (or Palmer)

One less player for Southgate to mismanage tbf.

I will honestly say we're the worst team alongside Scotland in the Euro's. Lucky to have 4 points at this stage. We should be going out for crimes against football.

He had a chance of going to Celtic, no chance he turns that down to sit on the bench here.

It's absolute garbage again. Dysfunctional, dull as dishwater bollocks with the most prolific attacking players on the planet. Issues point one way.

For me, Austria are so far the pick of this tournament. I think they're a cracking outfit. Really well coached.

I'd never wish an injury on a player, it was awful what happened to him - but as a club we should have took that as a blessing, admitted our mistake on the original recruitment and used the opportunity to sign a replacement. We didn't have to upset him as he was injured anyway, just make sure the replacement was better than him (i.e can make saves) and Bazunu then becomes backup when he's fit. McCarthy is as bog standard as you can get as a GK, but the fact that he looked more reliable, our expected xg against dropped massively and we kept a clean sheet in the biggest game of the season without Bazunu should scream enormous alarm bells for everyone associated with the club. I pray it does, but I fear it won't.

I think signing McCarthy to a deal will reduce our search for a GK, I don't think it should, but McCarthy wasn't going to hang around here again for more bench time. He's been given a contract with assurances to play imo. It's as bonkers as you can get, especially given that he wasn't even our bench keeper last season. But we're way too sentimental and short-sighted when it comes to our long-term players. Sometimes we just need to say thanks for the memories and move on. The club won't want to replace Bazunu as we have a hard-on over him, so it was only ever going to be a stop gap whilst he was injured. Step up McCarthy I guess.