sadoldgit

Just because Armstrong hasn’t been a success here doesn’t mean the next player we sign from the Championship won’t be.

I thought I had read that Kraft said we had agreed terms with two players (who were both involved in the CL) but both deals collapsed late on leaving no time to bring in anyone else?

Yet he agreed personal terms (apparently)?

No. Apparently the Delap deal was dead before they went for Ramos. He played well tonight but he won’t be up against defences as poor as Switzerland’s every week.

Probably because he is trying to work out which 5 year olds we have signed. If being under 20 is the new 5 it would appear that Gareth Southgate has thrown a 5 year old into the World Cup 😉

I received several emails from William Hill today thanking me for signing up to their online gambling site and offering some free bets. Only I didn’t sign up and I don’t gamble! They even quoted a user name which I am supposed to have chosen. Either it is a scam or some very dodgy marketing practice. F*ckers!

Gutted for Japan who played by far the better football. Croatia have been poor throughout and won’t go any further. You could tell that all of the Japanese players who missed their penalties didn’t fancy it. Minamino looked terrified. Even a seasoned pro like Yoshi fluffed his kick and didn’t look up for it.

If the USA could finish the result could have been very different. They missed some glorious chances.

Surely though if the ball isn’t 100% over the white line at that point it isn’t out of play? It’s the same with Hawkeye in tennis. It doesn’t matter what % of the ball is on or over the line, even if it is 0.1% it is in. That is the point of VAR isn’t it? To give the officials a better view of situations where it is difficult to judge it accurately in real time. In this instance technology has meant that a perfectly good goal stands. I speak as someone who was convinced it was out of play originally until I saw the various angles later.

Like you I am happy that Japan and Yoshi are doing well in the WC, but there is a reason why he doesn’t play for us any more. He is a great guy but he really wasn’t that good a player in the EPL.

She passed away today aged 79 after a short illness. I was never fortunate enough to see Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green but did see the Buckingham-Nicks incarnation several times and they always put on a great show. She wrote some of their biggest hits and was an integral part of that incredible sound. Going way back to my youth I remember her in a band called Chicken Shack. Very sad news. RIP

Keep off the weed Duckie, it really is addling your brain.

We look so much better when we play on the front foot and let teams worry about us. I worry that now that we are in the knockout stage that Southgate will revert to type and be more cautious when it is clear we have enough firepower to scare anyone in this competition. We also look far less potent when we sit back more. There is no stand out team so far. Several look good going forward but also look to be vulnerable at the back. I didn’t fancy our chances at the start but now think that it quite an open competition and we are in with a decent shout depending on how Southgate approaches the knock out rounds.

Cody Gakpo opens up on Louis van Gaal's role as his Man Utd transfer collapsed Manchester United were reportedly just one Premier League side who were chasing a deal for Cody Gakpo, but former United boss Louis van Gaal deterred him from moving to England Cody Gakpo has opened up on the collapse of his Man Utd transfer(YouTube/PSV) By Dan Marsh 13:50, 2 Sep 2022UPDATED14:14, 2 Sep 2022 Cody Gakpo has revealed that he decided against a move to Manchester United after speaking to their former manager, Louis van Gaal. Gakpo was in demand this summer after dazzling for PSV Eindhoven last year. The 23-year-old registered 36 goal contributions for the Dutch giants during the previous campaign and has already plundered six goals in just four Eredivisie games so far this term. Unsurprisingly, a whole host of Premier Leaguesides have been credited with an interest in Gakpo's services in recent months, including Arsenal, Southampton and Leeds. It was revealed that Manchester United were also keeping tabs on the Dutch forward in the wake of complications in their bid to prise Ajax forward Antony away from Amsterdam. READ MORE Bruno Fernandes denied his Man Utd midfield wish by deadline day transfer decision Erik ten Hag confirms Cristiano Ronaldo's worst fears with his plans for Man Utd A report from The Athletic last week even claimed that there was a slim chance that United could opt to pursue deals for both Gakpo and Antony if they were able to strike a deal with Ajax for the Brazilian before Thursday's transfer deadline. But Gakpo, who was presented with the opportunity to pursue a deadline day move to Southampton after the Saints tabled a last-gasp bid for his services, has now broken his silence on Premier League interest. And Gakpo has revealed that a conversation with former United boss Van Gaal, who is the current head coach of the Dutch national team, helped him decide against making a move overseas. Gakpo told PSV's official website: "I asked the national coach [Louis van Gaal] for advice. He thought I should follow my gut feeling, but also said that a transfer in a World Cup year would not really be ideal, also because of adjustment. I agreed with him."

I thought that the quality of the Korean crosses was excellent throughout the game. Probably should have done better with the first but the second was a superb cross for the guy to run on to.

Cracking win for Morocco this afternoon. Boufal looked lively. Belgium look like their golden generation is done.

The thing with narcissists is that all attention is good attention and he laps up both the good and the bad. He is loving this because, as usual, it is all about him. You will never win no matter what you post as every response feeds his need for attention. It doesn’t matter what the subject of the thread is, eventually it will become about him. For your own peace of mind you should let him find another target. Once you get him as a stalker he is like herpes, impossible to get rid of 😏

There are good, bad and indifferent games every week in the EPL just as there are in every World Cup. Teams just want to get out of the group stage. Things generally improve once the knockout stage kicks in and most of the chaff is sifted out.

The interview after the first game summed him up perfectly. Most managers would be delighted that they had just won 6-2 but his first thoughts were about the goals we conceded. Fair play to the USA tonight, they had a game plan and stuck to it and probably should have win the match.We had no ambition and no guile and were happy just not to lose. Southgate in a nutshell. You win World Cups by gambling and having balls. Southgate is a nice man but is not a gambler and doesn’t have any balls. We will get out of the group which he will see as job done, but what he has demonstrated yet again is that he can play safe and get the basics done but doesn’t have the nous to actually be a winner. He will never get a top job in the EPL when he leaves the England job.

Didn’t van Gaal advise him to stay put at the time in order not to jeopardise his chances of playing in the WC? Apparently he decided to stay and it wasn’t down to money.

This explains why you talk like you are still in the 20th century Duckie.

“Dopey bird” 😂

I guess that says it all. A Home Secretary who is clueless about “legal” routes and ways for people to apply for asylum here. And she has the brass neck for laying the blame for channel crossings at the feet of the migrants. Can you imagine being so ill informed and incompetent and keeping your own job? She has one sole purpose and that is to make it as difficult as possible for people to apply for asylum in this country but it is a strategy which is failing miserably.

He might find that an easier question to answer than if it had been posed to someone who made a living from manning a nuclear submarine.

FIFA didn’t have much of a reputation to trash in the first place, but you would assume that the purpose of hosting the WC for the Qatari’s was a giant PR exercise in convincing us they are good guys really. Within hours of the first ball being kicked FIFA’s reputation has sunk even lower and the Qatar’s have managed to confirm what most people thought about them in the first place. They have had 12 years to iron out any potential problems and yet here we have the hosts sticking two fingers up to all of the agreements that have been signed up to and we watch while FIFA collapse like a pack of cards. There has been a strange atmosphere around these games from the start which doesn’t look like it is going to evaporate now the football is under way. What was a dumb decision to start with now finds it’s chickens coming home to roost. Can’t see many upsides to this other than hopefully David Beckham’s grubby quest for a knighthood is finally buried for good beneath the Qatari sand along with his reputation.