Smirking_Saint

Of course it does, the statement effectively suggested that, of the teams quoted, they are unlikely to reach a final without their best players, and of those teams their 'stars' are almost always foreign... not english

You've literally clipped half the sentence I really cannot be bothered with this level of pedantry England have a good side, but our quality isn't as good as we think it is, and it is compounded by an international manager that prioritises defensive play

You are doing your best pedantry to move the conversation away from what we were talking about in the first place City and Chelsea don't get to finals without their best players, that are arguably their foreigners If there was no domestic quota then the likes of City, liverpool and Chelsea are able to find better and probably cheaper alternatives in every position Kane and perhaps Trent aside their isn't any England player in the top 3 of their position IMO

JWP isn't as good as Rice or Phillips in the positions that they play, the fact that Southgate is still trying to play Phillips out of position is odd Rice is a better No.6 than anyone else in the squad, and as a pure defensive midfielder Phillips is better than JWP Prowse for me was the Henderson alternative, and once Jordan decided for himself he was fit enough then it ended JWPs chances of making the squad

wow 😅

Of course they played an important role, they are the best of our domestic cohort That said, very few of those are the best players in their individual teams though are they ?

Ive been in two minds about this, ultimately we haven't had the worst start, we've never really looked in any danger over the last 180 minutes, but then, arguably we never should be against the likes of Scotland or a poor Croatia Our weakness has always been defensively going into this, and Southgate has obviously accepted that and set up accordingly. You do, after all, win tournaments by not conceding. My issue is though, for such an array of attacking talent and flair we look so ordinary and devoid of ideas in the final third. I said it against the Croatians and Ill say it again.... Kane looks injured, slow and lethargic. Sterling flattered to deceive against the Croatians and I have no idea how he stayed on last night This tournament is set up to favour defensive action, thats why it has been relatively dull. If we are unable to find an attacking thrust I can't see us progressing past even Spain or Germany

They are probably picking them as they have to have a certain number of domestic bias though

Arsenal are a bit of a sleeping giant at the moment tbh, they are still 'arguably' the 2nd or 3rd biggest club in the prem from a history and commercial perspective. If they convince Kroenke to put his hand in his deep pockets then they will be a much larger option than Leicester That said, you are correct, if I was Maddison, short term I'm not sure I'd be moving anywhere like Arsenal

Unproven ? He was one of the only shining lights of that Norwich season I'm surprised they managed to keep hold of Aarons and Buendia for so long tbh

I'm starting to lose patience with the continuing of the lockdowns, but it feels like potentially it is a necessity IF the numbers quoted by whitty stack up. As we discussed before it does pose a risk to those waiting for treatment by the NHS What irks me however is how exempt for any form of long lived scrutiny these absolute c*nts in power are. Other than their vaccine gamble (which has turned out fantastically for them, but it felt like a gamble at the time) every way they have turned has been brought with an entourage of deceit or incompetence. They fucked the message to the masses when they failed to adequately address the DC barnard castle trip, and now have already shot themselves in the foot by having a party at the G7. I refuse to believe that this cabinet is genuinely this incompetent, which leads me to believe they are just happy to treat us with contempt safe in the knowledge that the opposition is non existent and they have a core following of idiots that would happily allow Boris to murder their nan.

Fair enough, didn’t know that, I suppose thats what happens when you show little faith in a player

Looks a good replacement for Haaland tbh

And yet theres still those that whitter on about untested poisons etc Which although isn’t as batshit, its equally as damaging and Ive not seen enough counter evidence from the wider medical community, other than just saying ‘don’t be stupid etc’ To be clear, I’m pro vaccine, but this feels like the brexit debate, where one side is pushing the agenda (anti-vax) and the other is basically just ignoring it and hopes it goes away (pro-vax)

You can also argue that the government have been wanker than wank at debunking the vaccine myths... similar to mask wearing etc There has been basically zero spend on an advertising info campaign on any of these things which is surely a bigger need than something as arbitrary as fucking brexit (I don't want to get involved in a brexit chat, just comparing the two)

If Firpo can recoup much of his Real Betis form then I'm all for it, he was fantastic... and I believe he is two footed and can play wide left if needed But Im not convinced. Its probably difficult assessing a difference between Perraud who has been in good form in a worse league over Firpo that has been in poor form for a better side with a hugely better LB infront of him Im genuinely not sure on this one, but on the balance of versatility I think Id go for Firpo Edit - The fact that I changed my mind halfway through this post probably says it all 😄

Our net spend has never been anything much over 30m for any of the past decade.... which sort of shows you where our finances sit Our biggest net spend was within the last 3 years

JWPs stats whilst operating at DM over the last two seasons completely disagree with your assessment that he is a luxury player tbh

Liked him for a couple of years, he always looked very bright in the Eiredivisie and carried it on at Sociadad Was the young player of the year in spain this year.... no chance he comes here.... 40m min I expect

To be fair, Walker is our best 1 on 1 defender, we'll be fine

Jesus Palace going into the season a tad light eh ?

Genuinely if we don't beat these two we are in all sorts of problems in the latter rounds

He's a young player thats technically proficient and isn't really there to provide attacking quality considering we play the double pivot I like him, has something about him and feel like he has plenty to offer. Of course he isn't a guaranteed starter right now, but he is good enough for back up

This is a fair point too Awful

Dykes could be the worst player Ive seen this tournament