Match kick off times are favourable for me so I'll probably watch a few games but won't go out of my way to make sure that I'm sat in front of a TV for any particular fixture. US TV is promoting it well but tickets sales are low. Add in the US government's declaration that immigration officers will be present to aid security at stadiums means that I doubt they'll sell what they projected.

I agree with you. If all 4 were fit, they were playing. Now we have no idea. Injuries have played such a big part in Tuchel's decisions. James, Stones, Shaw, Hall, Guehi, TAA, have all been out for varying periods. Would Tuchel have considered Shaw and Stones if they hadn't been injured? They played less than 20 games between them all season. Will either of them play for their clubs if fit next season? Hall was excellent until his season ending injury. He'll be back fit for August, and will have Champs League football to look forward to. Same with Lewis-Skelly. Availability questions aside it should be Reece James or Trent at right back. TAA playing in Spain will be interesting. Real have Alonso coming in, and Carvajal will be fit at some point.

I know you didn't. I was affirming Mercer's point that 5 games a week is not outlandish. It doesn't pay well either, adding to the lack of appeal.

That doesn't sound unreasonable. An acquaintance of mine was a scout for a Prem team. He was always somewhere, be it at home or abroad. Same with another pal. He scouted players 16 and under for a different club. He'd spend his weeknights travelling the length and breadth of northern England looking for players other clubs had missed. Then writing up reports on each player he liked.

I think Wharton's injuries cost him. He wasn't really fit all season and was out for Tuchel's first squad selection. As has been commented in his own thread a rest this summer will do him good as he hasn't had a break for a long time.

It's looking like Southgate's trusted back 4; Walker, Stones, Maguire, Shaw is no longer. Replacing them is no easy task. There is plenty of talent available at both full back positions so that should be easy to fill. It's central defence that needs solving. Guehi was excellent (1 slip aside) at the Euro's. Left footed Colwill looked like Maguire's long term successor not too long ago but seems to have plateaued. Konsa is steady away without being van Dijk. Branthwaite is "unproven" (i.e. not at a Champs League playing club). Who's left?

The game was meaningless as far as qualification goes but I hope that Tuchel learned from it. The crowd certainly let him know that it was unacceptable. He must know too. It's time for him to ditch his experimentation phase and start planning for WC 2026. Get rid of Walker, Henderson (J), Burn, Chalobah. I'd probably ditch Gallagher too. Play a left footer ant left back, a right footer at right back, and start thinking about a central partnership, All of us on here want Wharton to play. Kane was goosed at last year's Euro's but still has it. He'll score another hatful for Bayern next season. If he stays fit he'll be as effective as ever. It's what Tuchel does with Bellingham that will matter. He can be England's talisman but Tuchel needs to play him where he will be most effective and avoid a Gerrard-Lampard situation. If that means not playing a talented player (Palmer for example) who could get in his way, then so be it. There is summer, more qualifying games, and a long domestic season to go before the World Cup starts. Tuchel was hired to win. His ego is/was big enough for him to take the job. Roll on to September.

Piling into a random pub that was packed to the rafters with people who would usually never set foot in there to watch Rovers play on a dodgy feed. Those were the days.

I'll start worrying if England begin to lose qualifying games. Until then it's the old cliché of 3 points, job done, on to the next game. I'm not defending a moribund performance by England yet playing Andorra in no way resembles preparation for France or Spain. Andorra know what they can and can't do. They have only conceded 5 goals in 3 games. Terrible teams are able to better frustrate superior opposition in today's game due to them receiving more money witch leads to better coaching and organisation. Other results over the weekend had Bosnia beating San Marino 1-0 and Wales beating Lichtenstein 3-0, at home. England fans spent years and years deriding Southgate for his supposed lack of tactical acumen. Nobody is doubting Tuchel's talent (yet) so let's hope that in the next 12 months he gets England qualified easily and is able to form the players available to him into a unit capable of winning the World Cup.

I didn't know where to put this but it made me laugh. Woman complains about Corfu hotel with no English food available There are some classic lines. At first I thought it was written on 1st April.

To call the ref "as incompetent as our owners" and that "he should never be allowed to ref again" are orders of magnitude greater than the error. We all know that Venkys (our owners) are much much worse than a bad decision during a Premier league game with implications for 4th or 5th place. To say that an official should not referee a game again is yet another hyperbolic statement that I'd expect only a Villa fan to make. Referee's make mistakes weekly, why is the one he made deserving of him giving up his profession? There is still nothing on Martinez's idiocy, or Villa's 12 points from 33 to end 2024. Let's blame the referee instead. It's easy to do.

Rather harsh on both counts. He made a split-second decision and from where he was stood it looked like a foul. VAR rules prevented a review. Referees are easy targets. I've not seen one comment on the stupid decision Martinez made to get himself sent off. Hojlund wasn't going to score, he never does. Playing more than a half with 10 men cost them more than a refereeing error. In the wider picture Villa won a league game on October 19th. They then won 3 out of their next 11. Blame that drop in form, possibly because their squad was tired from weekly European games, for not qualifying for the Champs League, not a referee.

Amorim has been awful, so I hope Ratcliffe and his cronies do what they did with ten Hag and give him an extension. Not only are the players at his disposal not up to it he won't shift from playing an unworkable 3-4-3. Look what Moyes has done at Everton, or Pereira at Wolves. Adaptation is one key to being a good coach. His overall record is; P-40, W-15, D-10, L-15, giving him a 37.5% win rate. However, that is skewed by the Europa League. His Prem record is P-26, W-6, D-6, L-14, 23.08% win rate. Steve Kean's Rovers Premier League record; Overall; P-67, W-17, D-14, L-36, win rate 25.37%. 2010-11; P-29, W-9, D-7, L-13, win rate 31.03%. 2011-12; P-38, W-8, D-7, L-23, win rate 21.05%. I'd be worried if I was a Man U fan, but I'm not so I'll watch and laugh.

My guess is that Spurs fans won't care. They won a European trophy and have Wednesday night Champs League games to look forward to next year. As to the game, like most I wanted both teams to lose but I'll take Man U losing over Spurs. It wasn't a classic by any means but Spurs decided to park the bus which was a rare day for them. Man U needed 1 goal so took of 1 abysmal striker in Hojlund and replaced with with one just as ineffective in Zirkzee. Next up was a change at wing back. Man U have some massive problems. If their aim is the top 4 they need to replace the whole squad which will cost an utter fortune, which apparently they don't have.

It has been a drab season. There have been very few good games too. Spurs 3-6 Liverpool was good entertainment. I can't think of more at the moment though. Lots of breaks punctured any momentum, the main culprit being too many international breaks, especially early in the season. Oppositely, if top spot and the bottom 3 are ignored it's been a very competitive season.