Fear? Where do you get that one from? Foden is a class act but seems the opposite for me; he looks a bit scared playing for England. He has time on his side though.

I reckon that Southgate had a chat with Klopp beforehand. Klopp moving TAA into midfield coincided with an upturn in Liverpool's form. His defensively frailties are getting worse, Klopp needs midfielders. It's a win win for all. England have some real talent. Bringing on Grealish and Foden is a luxury prior England managers never had.

Maguire hasn't put a foot wrong for England in 2 World Cups and a Euro's. He wasn't worth the money Man U paid for him, but unlike many previous generations his performances improve in an England shirt.

He will be. He captained West Ham at 21. Is an ever present for club and country. He's strong, mobile, and has lots of composure. Oddly, I realised how good he was against some non-league team in the FA Cup. West Ham were struggling. He decided to take the game by himself and set up (or scored?) the winner late on. If he played for Blackburn Rovers we'd all be talking about how he is one of the best ever.

If the Saudi's want the 2030 World Cup they'll get it. FIFA like nothing more than lots of cash, and the Saudi's won't hesitate to provide enough. I was listening to one pundit on the radio the other day. He was speculating that one or more of the Saudi signings may end up at Newcastle for a loan spell next year. Newcastle will get Benzema for half a season and they won't have to pay a penny for him. Messi to Miami is a coup for MLS but he won't be there for long. Miami is a tough place to make football work. It is full of South Americans who tend to support Real and Barcelona but they'll flock to see him but will leave as soon as he does.

I always thought that there would be more golf talk on this board. Anyway, big news today in the professional world; LIV, the PGA, and the DP world tour are merging; BBC: golf merger happening. Saudi money proved to be too powerful.

I'll go with no. His first order of business, along with Levy, is to sort Kane out. He has 1 year left on his contract. They could get a fee for him now or he could go for nothing in 12 months. I have no idea if he wants to leave or not. Common wisdom says that players want to win trophies ergo Kane needs to leave. He might not care. He earns enough, scores plenty, and has a young family. In light of previous discussions regarding the Brendan Rodgers speculation. Spurs ended up a man who has had the same success in Scotland as him but without any of his Premier League experience.

An awful advert for football. Far too much play acting and histrionics. Anthony Taylor and Michael Oliver had their hands full, but did well. Mourinho pulled his usual. This time he threw his runners up medal into the crowd. I made this comment in the Champions League thread but it does seem odd to me having grown up with football Italia, Roberto Baggio, and the all-conquering AC Milan teams of the late 80's/early 90's to see Italian teams featuring Premier League also rans. Roma had Smalling, Matic, Abraham, Patricio, Wijnaldum, and apparently a former Rovers loanee playing. A far cry from the heady days when the Premier League got Serie A cast offs. Erik Lamela, Alex Telles, and Jesus Navas were ex-Prem players featuring for Seville.

I stand corrected. I thought Spurs were the first. I looked it up. PNE did it in 1888-89. Villa in 1896-97. No wonder I had no idea.

They did that in 1961. The first team to do it. Villa won the league in 1981. They won the European Cup the year after too.

FA Cup.

Spurs have finished higher than 4th only 3 times since the advent of the Premier League, They have only won 2 league titles - 1951 and 1961. They are Rodgers' level. Off the field is different. Spurs' new stadium has allowed them to crack into the Deloitte football money league top 10. Their commercial success outweighs their on pitch reality.

Conte summed Spurs up. They are a club happy with mediocrity. Levy has his marching orders from the owner and performs them admirably. They have a superb stadium and loyal support so as long as it looks like they are somewhere near silverware they carry on. I disagree with you on Rodgers. I think he is a good manager. Not top tier but is worthy of a Prem job.

I was agreeing with you. None of them have any confidence or idea of what to do which has resulted in 11 individuals, usually a different combo too, rather than a team playing every week. Mudryk came in on a massive fee. He looked decent in his first game but has looked completely lost since. Enzo Fernandez is another. £100m fee. World Cup winner. He looks like a deer in headlights. Pochettino needs to get rid of a lot of players. It will be interesting to see how he does it. Many of them are on big money so may be reluctant to leave as other clubs won't pay the same for players who have underperformed. They will be better next season, as will Liverpool. Until proven otherwise it's City's title to lose but they won't have it as easy.

They don't look talented at the moment, They look like a load of individuals waiting in limbo for next season. They've have learned first hand that Lampard isn't capable, know he won't be coming back, so have collectively decided to call it early for 2022-23. All whilst sitting on 7 year contracts. Why should they bother? Plus a decent manager, a coherent way of playing, a competent transfer strategy, and effective ownership. They have a good manager coming in in Pochettino which will fix 1 and 2, but 4 is a wild card that affects 3, which could then become a problem for 1 and 2. Chelsea have a long way to go. A goalscorer won't solve anything.

I agree with you. He is a good manager. He was a Gerrard slip away from a title with Liverpool. He did well with Leicester, this season notwithstanding. He didn't get to spend much, and I think the loss of Schmeichel really hurt them. He does struggle at the end of seasons and is not the most defensively savvy but it looks like no top tier manager wants to work with Levy so Spurs have to cut their cloth accordingly.

The 3 relegation threatened teams are at home on Sunday; Everton v. Bournemouth Leeds v. Spurs Leicester v. West Ham All look like winnable games, however, those teams are at the bottom for a reason so it's certainly not a forgone conclusion.

Unfortunately I can't argue with the fact that Rovers finished 1 point behind Coventry. But I can argue that Rovers were robbed against them at home. It was cruel. Although the self-inflicted cock up at PNE 4 days later was worse. If's and but's makes the game what it is.

Agree. His fitness record was known before he arrived and it carried on as per. 54 appearances over 3 Championship seasons (potentially 138 games). Not good enough.

City were superb last night. Unstoppable. Real could not cope with the intensity. Kroos and Modric looked their age. I heard a stat on the radio earlier. After 10 minutes City had completed almost 130 passes. Real Madrid had 13. City are strong favourites against Inter Milan, and they should be. I don't think that Inter will do anything other than defend like Italian teams and aim for a goal on the break.

He was cold yesterday. It may all have been a different outcome had Brahim Diaz had scored early. It was a golden chance. After that Inter did what they needed to do.

He is great. He does the weekly flagship games over here. NBC got him after Arlo White left for the LIV golf lucre. His partners are Le Saux or Lee Dixon, with both of them joining Drury quite often.

They were OK for the first 15. Liverpool struggle to break down teams who sit in. Leicester's plan was somewhat working with 2 midfielders covering, then Liverpool scored after an Alisson boot up field and it's been one way traffic ever since.

Martin Tyler is commenting the Leicester-Liverpool game on US TV. It's him and Jim Belgin. I've not noticed much. He is the same Martin Tyler I've been listening to since I was a kid. If anything he sounds a bit hoarse. Carragher does Champions League her with Thierry Henry and Micha Richards. Both he and Richards aren't shy about their club allegiances. They play if off well.

The semi final first legs are over. Real v. City was an interesting one. For the first half an hour Madrid let City have the ball and stuck 2 on Haaland. Then they scored, and were the better team until De Bruyne equalised. After that it was stalemate. Madrid don't seem to care what is thrown at them but if Guardiola doesn't do anything daft City should go through. In the other tie Inter blew AC away in the 30 minutes. It should have been 3 or 4 and over with by half time. I can't see Milan scoring 3, there will be lots of typical Italian defending and antics from Inter next week. There were a lot of ex Prem players on the pitch in Milan. It looks odd to me who grew up watching Football Italia on Channel 4. The best players used to leave Italy when they were past their peak. Now it seems to be the opposite. Dzeko and Mkhitaryan to name 2.