Badger

England always play as if scared of the opposition, and are too slow and predictable in the build up. Don’t think that’s just a Southgate issue. It’s been the same for years.

I’m sure Semmens will include it in his negotiations.

Commentator and Jenas just talking about the fans of the tournament. Surprised they didn’t add ‘but no one parties like the Irish … ‘.

If only. It really is the ‘do you remember when you sold us those Exocet missiles?’ cosy friendly final.

Be good to bring off the bench for Saints at the end of his career. Wonder if he’d be interested?

If you were listening on radio I can see your point. But having seen Macron in the stands, with an off the scale look of smugness, it has to be the Argies for me ( as bitter as it is to say).

Perhapss Chelsea will offer us £35m for Che as his replacement now. Clouds, silver linings and all that.

for all the above reasons I hope Southgate continues with England. On top of which, for those saying he's taken England as far as he can, no one else of any note would want the England job and do better.

Better than some of the pundits ITV and BBC have desperately wheeled out.

I thought it was a case that Benfica didn't want to sell having reached the CL Group stages, and didn't need to having sold Nunez to LIverpool. Haven't read anything about agreeing terms or if he was even interested.

Which one ? The one at Braga, or at PSG (who we can probably forget about).

Fair enough. But a final involving Argentina, France, Richarlison is difficult to pick a preference from. Please spare us that England.

Difficult knowing who you'd want to lose. Normally I'd be rooting for Brazil, but with Richarlison playing for them it's questionable.

A loan might not be so bad. On another NUFC player I've seen mentioned on here, Wood, I saw an article over the weekend saying he was currently on £100,000 a week there. Even if available on loan, can't see us being in the market for him.

It has to be a bit of a balance though doesn't it ? Forest are a bit of an extreme signing 25 players and set to go again in January. That's not a model I'd want to see us follow either. Agree with your concluding statement, the players have to be good enough, but good enough to make a difference now, not one for future which was the point Fareham SJ was probably driving at. For the Lavia and ABK, you might want to balnce that with Mara and the 5' Spanish lad, who to date haven't looked up to scratch when their opportunities have arisen. (Mara's sub appearance v Leeds aside that is). This can cut both ways with experienced players as well, making a difference. As an older bastard I remember most thinking Peter Osgood would see us climb up the table when he signed in 1974, only for him to arrive out of shape, and see us fall deeper in the mire before relegation at the end of the season. Our first difficulty is likely to be attracting the players in our position.

Be surprised if Plod doesn't look for this to be addressed and one game rearranged.

Stands out a mile, but we know the club's policy (although they were prepared to spend £30m on Gakpo having chased his shadow for part of the summer). Not sure why MLG provides a 'confused' face. Come back and tell us why this confuses you MLG, you know you want to.

Southgate is holding him back in case needed to take a penalty in a shoot out

Heard them announce Sam Vokes coming on, but couldn't hear the 10,000 travelling army giving him abuse. Perhaps TCWAB and mates couldn't get a signal or they need to ad/ update Vokes page on Scummerpedia

Wasn't it his 'Beckenbauresque' style of bringing the ball out of defence that caught the eye (and imagination it seems) on here ?

Followed by someone digging out some posts on here from about 2015 that Stephens was a better than Maguire and should have been selected /would have handled Mbappe better...

Not sure I've seen anything in our performances to suggest we can though. Can we raise our game above the mediocrity we've seen ? Seems we're paralysed by this be clever slow build up, pass it round and try winning by a war of attrition sending the opposition to sleep. like Saints the possession seems to peter out when we get to the final third.

Good policy.

Might fund him for a week.

Trouble is there is such a bland and uninspiring batch of them now. I'm not sure I even know the names of the BBC main commentators, I know there is one cunt who forever tries desperately to drop a clever poetic reference or witticism in who irritates. From the BBC Jonathan Pearce probably grates my ears less than others, although I may be biased as a) he's been fairly complimentary towards Saints, and b) his voice was a regular feature when children were growing up with a Robot Wars obsession about 20 years ago. That said he can be a bit too much liking the sound of his own voice. Gone are the days of Wolstenholme, Coleman and Brian Moore etc Although Coleman liked throwing in a statistic from time to time, his generation realised that the viewer wanted to see the game, and their commentary was there to ease it along, rather than seeking 'celeb status'. Fed up of listening to their 'matey' in the workplace chat with the' co-commentator' as well.. That's without starting on the panels, all quota driven, in what seems a race to the bottom by the channels.