Saint Fan CaM

Excellent - USA getting Trumps just desserts. Hope it ends up an even more emphatic win just to prove cheats don’t prosper.

I’ve reminded myself of my thoughts that JWP was a ‘luxury’ player for us in our latter days in the Prem - great for free kicks on goal, but not really utilised in a manner that allowed a quick transition of the ball forward and not a player that could put in a crunching tackle to break up opposition play. Don’t think I’ve changed my position on that, so I’m of a mind to say no thanks.

I agree - at times he looked almost lazy, but in a moment exploded into action. Wonder if Dan Burn could do a specific, strict man-marking job on him? He’s certainly got the stature.

Is JWP a ‘journeyman’ footballer - a resounding no. Despite his Pompey connections, he was the definition of a loyal professional for Saints - I met him while he did some of the community/charity work he involved himself with. Is JWP a player we need right now - quite possibly, depending on whether Charles moves on (likely). The only issue is whether he’s kept himself fit enough to deal with the Championship, but I suspect he has.

We need to match their intensity and keep a higher backline if possible - play too deep and we’ll lose this…our defence is not good enough.

Can I sleep for an hour and an half and wake up in time for KO? 🤔😵‍💫😴

With all the shenanigans going on - all the shithousery - all the cheating and you just wonder what hope England have got tonight in Mexico. Reckon FIFA will make sure Mexico have every advantage they possibly can have - the narrative will not allow an England win. Will it?

Blimey - Norway playing like…well Brazil. Oh btw - never a pen on Neymar.

Absolute pleasure to watch that game. CV can walk away with their heads held high and in the knowledge that there are few teams that could have come away with that result. CV’s no.13 LB and keeper (at 40) are great players.

Bugger - that’s it then. 🥲

Best match of the tournament so far. Love it!

Superb goal and it seems it’s saped all the spirit out of Argentina.

ET for Capo Verde - excellent!

Come on Capo Verde - get the winner!

Messi dives just outside the box surprise surprise and the Ref buys it - watch them score now.

The Ref is not exactly giving Capo Verde their fair share of fouls - a few times he’s ignored minor trips in favour of Argentina.

Because as a midfielder you need a pair of decent legs to get you up and down the field? 😉

Capo Verde doing rather OK just as I predicted. 😂😉

Fair enough - to be fair I’ll probably nod off, but as it’s once every four years it’s rude not to!

So you’re not sat watching the Capo Verde game hoping that they can pull off a miracle? As was said in build up commentary, whatever happens, Capo Verde win. If they somehow get through what is probably their ‘final’ they’ll be celebs for life.

Thing is it’s difficult to determine exactly how a player will work out in this scenario. Putting on the Pompey rose tinted glasses, you could speculate he might have been surrounded by lesser players and so wasn’t able to reach his peak level. And that he might relish a second chance opportunity at a higher level club and perform out of his skin to prove his worth. Or he might just be a dog. Yeah, that’s more like it! 😂

Any further disruption to the start of the season is really not welcome - the FA are sp slow because they’re knee deep in shite themselves, particularly when it comes to dealing with the likes of,Man City. I really hope Solak has the balls to take legal action if they’re too harsh on Eckhert given the punishment already dished out by the EFL.

I thought we’d rejected £25m? Given his age he’s got to be worth at least that. I would think £25m + a decent sell-on fee would seal the deal.

Looks like they’ve sorted that out. Or rather Haaland did.

I understand your thoughts, however I’m not sure you’re comparing eggs with eggs. His role changed at Saints under Eckhert compared to his time with WBA, meaning he naturally had fewer opportunities to score. I don’t think you can judge the lad based just on his goal scoring ability. He was fulfilling almost a pseudo RB role using his dribbling skills to break through an opposition high press to move the ball forward and he did that very well. There are not too many others able to do that as well as him - not even Scienza did as well. I doubt very much that his instructions from Eckhert were “go out there and score me as many goals as you can”.