RevidgeBlue

I guess you'd very much class me as a NN so for what It's worth here's my two pennorth. Theoretically these lads despite being relatively young are all top top players so I can't believe anyone didn't expect us to get out of a group containing Tunisia and Panama. If we go out against Sweden I'd describe it as an ok tournament but nothing particularly special bearing in mind Sweden are well below us in the world rankings and tbh if we were playing them in a friendly most people would expect us to win comfortably. Losing semi finalists: good effort, a lot better than expected pre tournament probably, but to play devil's advocate, how much of that would be down to luck of the draw and Germany and Spain unexpectedly going out? We would still also be going out to a team below us in the world rankings. Losing finalist: Extremely good effort, I'm 54 and first World Cup Final in my lifetime I remember so a very rare event. Likely to be a playing a real top side so likely to be no disgrace in losing. Winners: Arise Sir Gareth CBE MBE OBE and all round good egg. I say with a perfectly straight face I always knew he was a good 'un and the Country goes into absolute meltdown.

I didn't really expect much before the tournament started, I expected that if the tournament went to form we'd probably reach the quarter finals and get knocked out by Germany. The majority of my dissatisfaction against Southgate was down to in my view an unbelievably stupid decision to risk losing momentum and also play a much harder last 16 tie against Colombia than Japan. If he did the same thing again tomorrow I'd still say it was unbelievably stupid. For all his rhetoric that he was merely resting players, would he have done the same if for the sake of argument we needed to top the group to play Saudi Arabia in the last 16 and finish 2nd to play Brazil? I very much doubt it. However, that's water under the bridge now, we survived by the skin of our teeth and whilst I agree with you that Panama apart we haven't impressed in the slightest so far, we are only 2 winnable looking games and a difficult looking Brazil/Belgium/France/Uruguay Final away from lifting the trophy. I Don't rate Southgate but regardless of my views on him he will deserve the utmost credit if he becomes only the 2nd English manager apart from Sir Alf to do the business. We just need 3 results now, it doesn't matter if we are terrible in all of the remaining games but win them by a combination of penalties or an own goal or a fluke off someone's arse in the 90th minute. The history books in 50 years won't care we needed 94 mins to beat Tunisia, lost to Belgium's reserves or needed penalties to scrape past Colombia etc.

You're right, football is a wonderful game and it is odd how we often see the game completely differently. For me Kane had to try and drop deeper last night to try and pick up the ball because no-one behind him was doing their job and he did a sterling (pun intended) job of holding the ball up and drawing the odd foul with no support around him to take the pressure off us a bit. I see You're also bending over backwards to justify Sterling's contribution to the team. Whenever I'm watching him I'm thinking "He wasted that" or "gave that away" or 'no end product there" and one of the commentators on TV goes "Great piece of play by Sterling there!" For me if he was a woman you'd describe him as extremely high maintenance. He's always doing silly things off the pitch which draws the media spotlight onto him. No -one would give two hoots about that if he were our outstanding performer but he then backs that up with being arguably our worst performer whereas none of the other players seem to get themselves in situations off the pitch and most of them manage to perform far better than him in an England shirt on it. I feel It's got to the stage whereby Southgate feels he has to pick him to show the media and the world at large the player retains his public support which in my view is wrong. Not sure what the answer is as Rashford didn't exactly impress against Belgium when given his chance but I still feel we have to try something different.

I would love us to sign someone you've completely dismissed then watch you doing somersaults trying to claim how pleased you are with it and what a masterstroke it is by TM!

I think your argument completely collapses when you state that Samuel would look to move elsewhere if someone came in on higher wages!

Sorry, it was a joke. It seems to be a hanging offence to say anything vaguely critical of England on here at the moment. You should know that we're going to bring the trophy home under the sage auspices of soon to be canonized Sir Gareth of Southgate.

Surely not sir. Don't be so treasonous. To the Tower with you and off with your head!!

I wish people would take off their England tinted specs and give it a rest telling me to give it a rest. We were poor last night, didn't muster a shot on target in 120 mins and were the width of a crossbar in the penalties away from a tame exit. Still we got away with it and I'm as pleased as the next man. Kane and Maguire were awesome last night, proper players and real men as opposed to a lot of the others who look like silly little lads running about at times. Surely we have to lose Sterling out of the starting line up, he's atrocious.

Best thing about tonight is the penalty hoodoo has been buried and the players know they can go through that way if all else fails.

Why? He made a deliberate choice to avoid Brazil in the QF and took the risk of playing a much harder last 16 tie. If you gave me the same choice again I still Wouldn't do it. He got away with it just about but having gone down that route has to see the job through now

Gareth Southgate you lucky lucky man. No shot on target over 120 mins. Still his gamble has now paid off so good luck to him. Having put all his eggs in one basket of going down this side of the draw it would be a massive failure now if we fail to reach the semi final. Thereafter Croatia are a decent side so whilst it Wouldn't be failure to go out to them it would still be a massive disappointment to get so close and go out to a mid ranking sort of side. It's on. Somehow.

Don't deserve it but I fancy us to sneak it.

It's been all Colombia for the last ten minutes of normal time and the first 15 of extra time. Gareth "put a glass eye to sleep" Southgate's pep talk at full time must have put them to sleep. A mate just sent me a very funny What's App saying "England's 5 penalty takers" with a picture of Harry Kane in various corny disguises.

Just rewound and watched BBC news a 3rd time. They said he's "only fit enough to start on the bench". Maybe they're completely wrong.

I could have sworn it said on BBC news just now he was only available from the bench unless I misheard and they said he'd be watching from the bench. I even rewound and watched it twice.

He is on the bench

Damn you England. We've got the wrong bloke in charge but by a sheer accident of fate if Southgate's gamble doesn't backfire and we can somehow get past Columbia we only have to beat Sweden and Croatia to get to the World Cup Final. It's the hope wot kills you.

Agreed. Don't know anything about Bauer, I'd have said "experienced Championship Centre half" personally but on the plus side he does fit the Rothwell and Davenport model of being young with potential which is great as long as they're all good enough to keep us up next season. I'd be ecstatic with Chapman as one of the wide man and fairly happy with Armstrong as the "fast" striker. I'd also rather say "striker who can find the net at Championship level" as opposed to "big striker". That summons up visions of Chris Brown! Lol. Still think a new contract for Dack is an absolute priority, never mind who else might or might not be coming in as well.

That might be all well and good in normal circumstances but as JH says we are 110m + in debt already and still losing money at a rate of knots for every day we are out of the Premier League so it is somewhat risky taking a slowly slowly approach I case the owners lose interest at any point. I think we need to try and go up asap by whatever means possible. I know that you have to have one eye on FFP and that there are other Clubs with far greater income (if not richer owners) trying to do exactly the same but there will always be a question mark hanging over the long term future of the Club until the debts are either written off or brought down to manageable proportions.

Have you got all night? I'd take just about anyone ahead of Southgate. His managerial record at senior level prior to taking the job was roughly comparable to Steve Kean. Do you think a top Club side in the Premier League would employ him?

Well as this deal is only rumoured to be worth up to a maximum of 500k with add ins. We'll have to wait and see. If another eight or nine players come in at that sort of level and/ or we spend big on a striker you might be proved to be right.

Would you want Southgate in charge of Rovers? I Wouldn't. His only attribute is he is a bland FA yes man who will never say anything controversial or ruffle any feathers and from the FA's point of view was the ideal man to come in and pour oil on troubled waters after the big Sam scandal.

What are you on about? Because we spent an "undisclosed" fee? I.e. not very much? Might turn out to be a very good signing in the fullness of time but It's more a case of pulling a rabbit out of the hat on the cheap than evidence we have much to spend.

For me we have some very good young players but the wrong man in charge and that will continue to be the case should he still be in charge when most of this lot are at their peak in 4 years time.

I'm not a fan of 3-5-2 but that doesn't look bas at all considering Williams looks much more comfortable at CB than RB. I'd wager TM is looking more at keeping faith witb last year's squad something like Raya Nyambe Lenihan Mulgrew Williams Bennett Evans Smallwood Conway Dack Graham and putting the new lads on the bench though.