Big girl

Derby fans really rate him, not happy he's not going back there

Raya, Nyambe, Lenihan, Mulgrew, Bell, Bennett, Smallwood, Evans, Samuel, Dack, Graham. More or less exactly the same team that finished last season and likely to be the team that lines up against Ipswich. Not good.

Tommie Hoban makes his debut for Aberdeen tonight against some other club from this area. Good luck to him - looked a good player for us 2 years ago.

Newton has come up the hard way, without a doubt. But at 27 he is old in football terms to make such a leap and there have to be question marks over whether he can improve. The Championship is a big jump for a player who has had only one season in League 2. Vardy was 24 when he became a League footballer with Fleetwood (again old in football terms) but he was very much a one-off, and Leicester deserve credit for giving him a chance when other clubs hesitated.

I don't see the point of making a speculative unproven signing such as Fletcher when we already have 2 strikers who are probably not good enough for the Championship in Samuel and Nuttall. Time goes on and we badly need quality reinforcements. It's not looking good.

Ordinary Championship players are moving for fees seen in the Premier League not that many years ago. Mowbray's promised budget from his meeting in India clearly isn't enough - not by a long way.

No thanks. Poor player. If true, shows we're definitely shopping at Lidl rather than Waitrose.

Harrison looks an interesting player. Lancashire lad too, from Bolton. Would have to put him in the "unproven" category though, and not the sort of solid Championship performer we need more.

I would have hoped you would know the correct use of the present conditional tense. Disappointing.

Class player. Part of the great Leeds team.

Hear, hear.

I wouldn't spend £3m on Armstrong or even half that. He'll probably make a good career for himself in League One but I don't think her has the game to play at a higher level.

Maddison wears gloves in cold weather.... Avoid.

Dreadful Rovers kit, one of the worst I have seen, and not a good omen to what could be a difficult season. Note to the club / owners / PR dept: Rovers play in royal blue, not sky blue.

Fitness is a basic requirement of any professional footballer. Some people have problems controlling their weight but that's no excuse when diet and conditioning is so well understood these days. If Caddis has come back for pre-season training out of condition and overweight he is not fit (literally) to do his job. He should be fined.

And there's the rub. We've become flat track bullies who beat low-rated opposition but always come up short against the best teams. We lost to Belgium twice in Russia. Until we start to beat the likes of Spain, Belgium and Croatia the best we can ever hope for is quarter-finals. We need a creative central midfielder to play alongside Henderson. Shelvey's just about the only England-qualified player in the Premier League at the moment who could do the job.

Very strong language there Simon. Are you related to Jacob Rees-Mogg?

........but he still looked a good player, and the potential to get better, was obvious, if we'd had a manager able to exploit it and a more ambitious club. Still didn't make any sense when fans were glad to see him leave. He was always destined for the top.

"Average". Thanks for proving the point I was trying to make.

Fantastic scenes of celebration in Paris and across the whole of France. 1966 was the same and there was a chance until last week that it could happen again. Have to say I'm very envious.

Don't recall him "downing tools" but can't blame him with Kean in charge. "Fans" who thought he was a poor player and we could do better (and there were quite a number) don't know football and aren't fans.

So France have now won two World Cups, and been in the final 3 times. They have also won the Euros twice. England have won the WC once, and never made it to another final. For most of my life, France was always regarded as a bit of a joke as football nation, yet their record proves they are so much better than us Germany and Italy have also won the WC and Euros multiple times. We're supposed to be big football country but it just highlights how pathetic England are - and that includes in this tournament.

An enjoyable World Cup, similar to Italia 1990 Well done to Russia. 1970 still the best for the quality of the football, even though it was agony for England.

Realistic.