RevidgeBlue

I'm stating the bleeding obvious here but if there's a target you particularly want , and presumably you have already done your homework on what both Club and player want, you get it over the line. How can you plan anything when you've no idea whether some any or all of your targets will end up joining?

So they might end up here but they might not and we might be scrubbing around for replacements ar the last minute? I would have hoped our approach would have been a lot more organised and a lot less hit and miss than that.

Very reasonable response. The difference with resting players before a Cup Final though is that the opposition is fixed and doesn't become more difficult as a result of resting players for the other game. I'm surprised more posters Don't consider there to be a huge gulf in quality between Colombia and Japan.

if 3m p.a. for leading us through the formality of qualifying for a tournament every couple of years, earning plaudits for finishing second in a group containing Tunisia and Panama, then losing as soon as we come up against anyone half decent is "the impossible job" I'll have some of that!

Not really. You're the one clutching at straws saying bids might not have been rejected. All we know for certaint is that the players allegedly the subject of various bids have not signed on the dotted line for us. It might simply be because there is still time left in the window but in my view all the signs so far indicate that we Don't have much money to spend and are struggling a bit to bring the right calibre of player in.

Might have been. If we were to bid £1m for Messi then technically a bid would be "in" but I wouldn't have thought Barcelona would bother wasting their time formally rejecting it.

It must be just me then. For me you need to be to a few loaves short of a full basket to favour a game against a side ranked 16 in the world rather than one ranked 61. Plus you've killed off all the momentum by chopping and changing. We were absolutely flying but probably won't even reach the so called easier part of the draw now.

If that's true then they obviously haven't been accepted.

Wonder if that's partly because in the cases of players like Barrow and Chapman we tend to use players we loan from Clubs higher up than ourselves to fill spaces on the bench rather than giving them much game time?

Exactly that. Loans shouldn't be the core part of your business, they should be the cherry on top of the icing on the cake to put the finishing touches to a squad after your main business has been done. Unfortunately, certainly when Lambert and Coyle were here, short term ism and loan deals comprised the main part of our business and we saw how that ultimately ended.

It's funny how quick managers are to wheel out the "the players are low on confidence" excuse whenever things are going badly yet when the argument suits it appears that that isn't even a consideration!

It is a little bit similar but leaving the Checkatrade trophy aside the name of the game for Premier League Clubs in the early rounds of the FA Cup and League Cup is to balance the desire to make changes with the over-riding need to win the game and hopefully see a half decent performance from players who should be knocking on the door to break into the starting eleven. Southgate managed neither and in my view thereby made it far more likely that we'll go out earlier than if he hadn't made so many changes and/or attempted to get cute about who we may or may not play further down the line.

I accept Southgate won't be sacked regardless of results but shenanigans about trying to manipulate the draw aside, what actually qualifies Southgate to carry on IF we get knocked out by Colombia? We'll have played 2 games under tournament conditions against half decent oppositionand will have lost them both. Other than that his record at senior level consists of relegating Boro.

It's not the fact our reserves lost to the Belgian reserves per se, Southgate was probably entitled to make some changes but a modest 3 or 4 changes at most and giving Kane an hour to keep him revved up and hopefully scoring would have probably sufficed to enable us to get the minimum point we needed, top the group, keep the momentum going, and land Japan in the last 16. You seem to be completely incapable of grasping why I'm so hopping mad about this, for me we had every chance of reaching the quarter finals, now because of all the shenanigans and landing ourselves a far more difficult game in the last 16. I think It's far more likely than not we'll go out at that stage instead. I accept that if we do beat Colombia convincingly then navigate the quarter final then Southgate suddenly looks like a genius and I'd have to come on here and say it worked, but by the same token, will you come on and admit he made a catastrophic miscalculation if we get knocked out? Ironically one of the changes I would have made he didn't. I would definitely have given the back up keeper 90 minutes or even both of them 45 mins each. We Don't want another 1970 Banks/Bonetti type situation if anything happens to Pickford.

The fact we've signed Rothwell in itself is a sign that funds are very limited I'd say. If they weren't we'd be setting our sights considerably higher than an injury prone out of contract player who didn't really even set League 1 alight. It's certainly not a sign to the contrary that funds aren't an issue although I take your point that the Club kept the signing of Rothwell well under wraps so maybe there are one or two other deals imminently in the pipeline we Don't know about. I have to agree with another poster ( tom phil?) though who speculated that we are probably concentrating on cheaper options who are out of contract and many of them will only become free agents on July 1st which may partially explain the lack of obvious activity to date.

Maybe it's because he wasn't good enough at League 1 level so most people can't see how he'll be an asset one division higher? I wonder if the fact We're pouring time and effort into Samuel trying to get a tune of sorts out of him is another little indication there's a lot less money available than we all hoped. I didn't really expect us to spend £15m in transfer fees this summer but I had hoped around half that would be invested in the squad to try and make us competitive

I have to say I think you are in cloud cuckoo land. All this talk of last eight and semis is completely deluded imo. To get that far you have to win the last 16 game and if we'd won the group last night we'd have had a very winnable game against Japan. Instead by trying to be smart we've landed a very difficult tie against Colombia which I Don't expect us to win and I expect us to be coming home Tuesday night. We only needed a point to top the group and ensure Japan ffs. We couldn't even manage that against Belgium's reserve side who weren't particularly going for it themselves but who were still far too good for us on the night. If we do get knocked out Tuesday night I hope Southgate is sacked immediately upon his return. It's bad enough getting knocked out trying your best let alone being eliminated trying to be clever and falsely manipulate your route through the competition.

Rubbish. We're now likely to get knocked out by Colombia whereas we could have had a much easier game against Japan. I'm gutted with that display. Momentum killed stone dead, the suspicion the squad players aren't up for it if needed and every likelihood we'll now get knocked out in the last 16 as usual. well done Southgate you absolute Muppet.

Deliberately getting yourself booked to gain an advantage isn't just a bit of gamesmanship like walking off the pitch a bit slowly its downright cheating and I'm sure players have been fined and suspended in the PL or EFL for that. Martinez apparently said before the game the priority "was not to win the match." That can be taken either of 2 ways 1) The priority is to make sure we get beaten or 2 ) Whilst we want to win the game the main priority is not the result but giving everyone a game etc. If Martinez meant the first one he should be charged with bringing the game into disrepute and heavily fined. Either way If Belgium do finish second I now hope they get absolutely stuffed by Colombia and Don't even reach the perceived easier half of the draw. Going forward, if teams aren't going to play the game in the spirit it was intended I can't see any alternative to draw the names out of a hat after the group stages as Adam Rochina said.

There's varying degrees of bending the rules slightly and outright cheating. I Wouldn't particularly be too keen if we won the World Cup with a blatant dive in the last minute whereas someone feeling slight contact in the area and going down might be tolerable. It would stick out like a sore thumb if we started gratuitously kicking the ball away in the last few minutes for absolutely no reason. I suppose you were perfectly happy when Maradona punched the ball into the net in 1986 then?.

Lotus Cheek would probably edge ahead of Dele Alli as well if he has a stormer.

Very surprised by that. I would be keeping him happy at all costs and would have let him have at least an hour tonight.

Or perhaps he wants to win but wants to give everyone some game time in case they're needed later on in the competition!

Never read anything as ridiculous. Where's the satisfaction in winning by cheating? There isn't any.

I think the papers were predicting 8 changes with Kane being one of the three who retained his place. He'd go bananas if he were dropped with having a genuine chance of winning the golden boot. Not all bad news if Sterling is one of the changes.......