Dreams of 1995

You could say this about all posters

Turned out well for them And under Santos, it went excellently

I hope not Cooper played and was good in the Premier League. Batth was never trusted to play PL and instead loaned out or released as he fell down the pecking order Batth has been linked with the likes of Solihull Moors this year Not signing Batth was a good idea at the time. The fact we then signed McFadzean was a blow. He’s even worse than Batth Cooper is a better play than both. He will be our 2nd best defender….behind Carter

We came first in every group under Southgate. That isn’t luck. It is knowing what job you have to do and getting it done

Of course Carsley would come into consideration. He recently won the U21 European Championship Graham Potter may have prior to the Chelsea job. He had two excellent appointments in Sweden and then Brighton We seem to be the only major footballing nation who wants to take nationality out of the equation. All of the rest choose from the pool they have. I am not having this idea we can’t win it with an English manager. We need to improve our coach development for sure, but in Howe, Potter or Carsley, we have 3 good options to pick from. It would be Howe for me

It doesn’t come down to luck. I like how you shoe horned it in, but there’s nothing lucky about qualifying and then performing well at major tournaments But it is different from club football. You don’t get as long with players to mould the tactical shape you may want. It’s man management, maintaining harmony and playing the team in front of you rather than sticking to a specific philosophy And so history has shown, managing at club level and achieving success at club level is neither here nor there to making a success at international football Graham Potter had a very successful time at Brighton and before that in Sweden. Chelsea are a basket case - I will let him off. We could do a lot worse than Potter It is perhaps too early for Carsley. But having already won a tournament, you would say his destiny could be in the national job. I wouldn’t be against him, especially as a few of the players have already played under him and won I wouldn’t say that the best club managers are suited for international football. I would obviously back Pep if he was chosen, but there’s the argument that his methods require meticulous coaching. He will not get that time with a national team. You’d be a brave man to say he wouldn’t be successful, but that doubt would always be there. There’s countless examples of that - Flick, Trappatoni, Capello and most famous of all Don Revie. All very successful at club level and struggled for their national team

Au contraire Gav, I think entirely the opposite Transfer threads and rumours are driven by rumour. I first started reading this forum around a transfer window and was impressed at the amount of people who had 'inside knowledge'. Some didn't happen, some did, but you are infinitely more informed by reading this board than waiting for the LT But the mood in recent times has shifted. There's quite a degree of animosity shown for posters who post "what they hear". It has definitely trimmed down the genuine insider information whereas trolls seem to be increasing. They know they can spend a couple of weeks winding people up, who can't help but respond to "ITK bullshitters". They take the bait! That level of posting then stops people who actually may know something because they cba to get the responses back I don't know what the mods can do. Banning it is useless. If you believe it, good for you, if you don't, who cares. It really shouldn't be a big deal. Usually I believe it when it is announced...especially these days!

No "people" have said this The point being made was that international football is different. For every manager who has had international success only, there will also be a manager that has had success at club and international level. Some had success at club level before international level, some didn't, some had their breakthrough at international level You are creating an argument in order to argue against it Whereas your posts have been quite clear. You think that success at club level is precedent to a good appointment. Otherwise, they are "unproven or proven failures". But history in football tells you that this isn't entirely true. I won't be calling an appointment of Lee Carsley a disaster appointment because throughout the history of football managers have had great success in international football without ever really bothering with club football So the examples are important in this discussion. Not a "backwards argument" and certainly does not mean we should "look for failures" And for your last point, it is not like saying that. It is like saying that you should not start writing people off before they arrive. When people say they won't judge or that others shouldn't, it doesn't mean you can't have your moan about it. Feel free to. But there's a few posters here who clearly don't think success at club level is precedent to being a success as England manager. And I agree.

I’d like the idea of Ange tbf Jose Mourinho has a lot of friends in England but has unfortunately just taken the Fenerbache role To be honest, I’ll support whoever the FA puts in. Be it English or not. If it’s Lee Carsley I won’t bitch or moan about his lack of good club experience because it doesn’t matter. Southgate had next to none, de la Fuente had none. Go back years and Beckenbauer had none. Literally that blokes first job! Look up Alberto Parreira. Was an expert at international football. Had 0 club success. Joachim Low was managing at some terrible levels before joining the German national set up. Before him, Germany appointed Klinsmann who had a good World Cup, against all expectations Our very own Mark Hughes went to Wales first Point being, if the coach is good enough he will be a success. People seem to rubbish Lee Carsley. The man won the U21 European Championship. Maybe he was lucky too

Lee Carsley has been a successful youth coach and won the U21 Euros He has had a similar trajectory to de la Fuente For me, he needs longer in the U21s but he’s a potential future England manager for sure

It’s been reported today that the FA want Pep and are happy to wait a year. If Southgate didn’t get the level of vitriol he would be the perfect man to stay for 12 months to sort the transition. Such a shame it had to come to this English fans are some of the worst in Europe

Precisely. The measly fan nitpicking of who those knock out games included counts for nothing. The fact is, as manager he won them. We have only been knocked out / beaten by either finalists or winners of the tournaments he has been in charge in. That's impressive People slam him for losing to Croatia, as an example. They were bloody good in that tournament. They may not be football giants in the ilk of Brazil or Argentina, but relative to that specific tournament they were. They got to the final after all It's been the best time following England and unfortunately the highs have come with the lows. Really, we were beaten by better sides and in knock out football that's just the way it goes. I think this England side will win something soon and a lot of that groundwork has come from Southgate's work at St George's park. It's quite well known in the football world just how much of his brain power has gone into St George's and that legacy will not be forgotten. Amongst those in the game anyway Fans are fickle. Always will be. The same blokes screaming for Klopp now will be slamming him and calling him a failure if he didn't make it past his first quarter final. Such is life

Comes to something that when I saw Jack Barrett’s name, I instantly thought they misspelt Jake Garrett It just has such an amateur feel to the club at the moment

Rovers haven’t made back to back tournament finals….

I get that football is a game of opinions but this is a bad one There is zero argument for it being a foul by Kane. He was first to the ball and got 100% of it. His studs weren’t up. He used his laces Dumfries went studs up and was second to the ball. There’s no way what Kane did was worse or has more of an argument We can argue to the cows come home over whether Dumfries’ late challenge should have been given as a penalty. But that’s where it should end

Are you being serious about it being a foul on the defender lol? Kane got 100% of the ball…………………………

I thought the ref had a terrific game Tyrone. Best ref of the tournament I'd have him in the final 😁

Of course it is meaningless. Who we come up against is irrelevant. We only have to beat them. And we are doing that, regularly In Southgate's time, we have only ever been knocked out by either finalists or winners. WC vs Croatia; Euros we lost to Italy and the last WC we lost to France. So if we are giving managers like Sven credit for only being knocked out by top teams, you have to afford that same credit to Southgate To get so far in every tournament is testament to his management. I was as critical as the next man early on in this tournament but there comes a time when you have admit you got it wrong. I don't think English people like that, and so they start to double down on pointless bits of conversation about lucky draws, or comparing the teams Southgate has played vs other managers

The talk of 'lucky draws' is all pointless. Just meaningless, crap pub chat that looks to play down a very successful England manager. We have consistently made the knock out finals of every tournament he has been in, with now back to back Final games in the Euros. People shouting about lucky draws are just sucking the enjoyment out of it for themselves Southgate has managed to turn this tournament around. You'd have spent good money betting on England being knocked out earlier in the tournament. We were stinking the place out. But we improved against Switzerland and the first half of yesterday was as good as I have seen England play in a very long while. Foden looked dangerous and Bellingham looked like the player he sometimes promises to be Koeman wised up in the second half and packed that midfield out. He made it more difficult to play through the line and it choked Foden out of the game. Perhaps the change should have been made earlier - the game was crying for the directness of Palmer and Watkins. And what a finish by Watkins. Real old school striker - one touch, bang. Kane used to do that but he's 100% carrying some sort of injury. He's half a yard behind the rest of the players Some England fans have this habit of bigging up our opponents before we play them and then telling us how rubbish they were once we beat them. It must be an English thing - a bit of self deprecation. As though we can't just be better, we have to be lucky or they have to be rank poor. Not for me. That was a good Dutch side and we made minced meat of them. I had a feeling we would win because I think we are the best team in the tournament, even if we haven't been playing like it Spain are a different animal. Rodri is one of those players that just never loses. In a way, he's like Bellingham, who seems to just be a lucky talisman for wherever he goes. The game will be won or lost on moments of individual brilliance. I think Walker will have Williams in his pocket - his driving runs are pointless when Walker can match any man pace for pace in a 1 v 1. I'd be going for Trippier against Lamine Yamal again. The fact he's a right footer may actually benefit him for once defending against Yamal who wants to come in on his left all the time. Spain will let us play a bit more - they like to press really high and providing we have the ability to beat that press, which we do, we should have some success running at what is a back line that can be really "got at"

Another final. Sir Gareth We are class. Wasn’t even in doubt today. We were by far the better team We will win this one

Getting rid of players without any new lads coming in the door is worrying Say what you want about Telalovic - at least he was a body. Jack Vale probably replaces him

Aside from a fit and consistent left back, the only thing this squad is really missing is a world class centre back. If you had a centre half of the likes of Ferdinand, Terry or Campbell, you'd see a marked improvement in our midfield also I think this is the best England squad in my lifetime, even if the individual players from the Sven era were better. It wasn't so much a team then. The depth was also quite poor whereas now we have players that can come on and completely change the game. When injuries struck with Rooney and Beckham, it often marked the end of our chances. Now, you can be confident somebody else will step up

It being a cliche doesn’t make it any less right In order to earn that slice of fortune, we first had to win our group. In doing so, we created our own luck, as winning the group first entitles you to an easier knock out game but also gave us an easier route to the final Had we not won the group, our knock out route would have been much more difficult. We therefore created our own luck. What’s wrong with saying that? This argument just seems odd. Do posters just want to put all of this down to luck and be done with it? Should that make you feel better, then you’re free to make that claim

You make your own luck in football. We won the group, and that entitles you to an easier run in I don’t care much for the constant to critically analyse everything. It’s tournament football - you make yourself hard to beat and hope for moments of brilliance to see you over the line. Southgate has been wonderful at doing that for England. If people want to say it is down to luck then that’s okay. I don’t care. It’s another semi final, more than likely his last tournament, and I hope his luck gets us to the final again

The contempt that is shown on “The Rovers” FB page for the women’s team is just jaw dropping. Every club has them, doesn’t make it any easier though