Eustace quoted in the Lancashire Telegraph as being open minded about McFadzean and Fleck and wanting the former to sign in particular. We should sign neither, so I question Eustace's judgement. But it is pretty indicative of our problems that we cant get either signed. The easiest deals ever to do and we could at least get them fit in pre season so it highlights the mess stemming from the owners.

Lets be honest, its unlikely that these changes will suddenly create an efficient recruitment structure especially on a Venkys "budget."

Holland arent one of the very elite teams but they are a strong side. If we beat them then although it wont change the fact that we have had favourable draws overall, it would change the narrative a bit that Southgate comes up short when he plays the better sides. They have been favourable draws. And id prefer favourable draws.

I havent had a shirt for a long while, no. The point isnt about me. A lot less than £48 for a shirt that will be outgrown before the season is out.

It could be perceived as lucky, yes. The draw has transpired to be less difficult than it potentially could have been. I know we dont control the draw, and thats why it is luck based. Factors out of our control determine who we get in each round. Ive said before, a league campaign is less reliant on luck because every team plays every other team home and away. There is no chance that you can have a favourable draw. The Worthington Cup was more comparable because again you are reliant on the draw. We played a non Premier League side in the Semi Finals, that helped for example. If you can win the cup then it doesnt make it any less enjoyable and you are muddying the water by suggesting that me saying hes had favourable draws would make it unenjoyable. Id rather have the easiest draw possible and I never said I wasnt happy.

Still crazy.

£48 for an infant shirt. Disgusting really.

Why do neither of you seem to grasp that results outside of our control falling in a way whereby the better sides have consistently ended up playing one another on the opposite side of the draw is lucky. France not winning their (much harder) group might be a failing on their part, but to England it is lucky. Its good for us, we would rather be lucky with draws than not. But equally, as much as Sven struggled, he got very difficult knockout draws and was unlucky to face Brazil and then Portugal twice. Colombia, Ukraine, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Slovakia, Senegal, they are some very favourable ties to get deep into knockout football. Obviously most of them are at least decent, and you still have to beat them, but there are no big hitters and when we did meet one, bar a Germany in transition, we came up short. The tactical plan was flawed. We had no balance on the left, we had no runners in behind, we again struggled to create chances and we again thankfully had a moment of individual quality to get us into extra time. We then struggled in extra time with Southgate not redressing the imbalances caused by the necessity to stick loads of attackers on to get the equaliser. I dont think the performance was good or the tactics were good, Southgate would say they are, but although we went through, there are some big concerns. Yes we won, and yes that is all that is important. And no one is saying dont enjoy it, we were all delighted when Trent scored the winning penalty. But this is a messageboard where we discuss beyond the binary win or lose outcome. Chaddy, I recall you showering Rovers with praise when we lost to Burnley but "played well." Surely all that mattered then was that we had lost? Lampard 😂 Lineker just bigging up his BBC mate. Do you agree with him?

We all enjoyed it, it was brilliant. But this is a forum where after the game you have more detailed discussions about the performance, and lets face it, it wasnt good. If it was purely to say whether we won or not, it wouldnt be much of a forum.

If that is immeasurable improvement then it merely shows how poor we were v Slovakia. We did not really create much. Of course it only matters who goes through but you surely cant disagree that today was anywhere near how you would want us to play, or that the draws we have had in tournaments under Southgate has been anything but extremely favourable.

Beside the last 16 game where winning the group deserves a favourable tie. It is total luck from there on in as to who you get. The only time we havent had a favourable tie at that point, it was the last world cup and we went out. You clearly are totally blinkered on England similar to how chaddy is with Rovers. Alcohol may play a part as you had us down to lose v Holland before a few drinks. We hardly had a shot on goal. We had more of the ball but it again was slow, meaningless passing that Switzerland were happy to defend. As extra time went on they looked most likely to win again down to the imbalances in our team.

Is it true that even a shirt for a baby/toddler is £48?

Vale wont be suited to playing Championship football. End of.

Switzerland were comfortably the better side, we were poor and again im not sure if we even had a shot on target before the goal. If that was considered a great improvement, and for me it wasnt. It only highlights how poor we were v Slovakia.

Although you cant argue with how far he has got in tournaments, as I have said before, its not as clear cut as say league football where everyone plays all teams home and away and you finish exactly where you deserve. There is a huge factor of luck in how the draws fall and in every tournament, things have fallen in our favour. Compare that to the teams that Sven played in early knockout games. As soon as we have played an elite side, we have fallen short. Lets see if he can change that in this tournament. Also, the balls to drop big names? Kane, Bellingham and Foden all play together as a non negotiable when none have the pace to balance what they bring to the side.

Another boring and poor performance and so lucky to go through although was a great feeling to see a penalty win. Holland are a step up in quality albeit not at the level of the big guns on the other side of the draw so if we play at a similar level with the same imbalance then we will be out. The left hand side is a huge issue with Trippier and bizarrely Bellingham offering nothing. Kane is clearly not fit and trying to put all the big names in the same team leaves us lacking pace and lacking excitement. We have struggled to create throughout the tournament and are reliant on occasional individual brilliance. We got the equaliser when we had thrown loads of attackers on the pitch and momentum swung back with us. Southgate naively left them all on and a lack of balance (Eze at left wing back for example) meant that Switzerland were able to be the better side in extra time and were very unfortunate not to win it. We were the poorer team across the 120 minutes.

Why people go asking Nixon on twitter as if he knows all is bizarre and just feeds his already astronomical ego. His answer is typically vague, alongside the irrelevant snippet about Wharton installments because any deals we would do would also be in installments, so its just offsetting a new smaller creditor against that considerable debtor. What happened to Tyjon getting a super agent to seal a move to United? The thing is with the amount of money we have received, Venkys defenders often mention the losses per year. Losses are unfortunately par for the course if you want to own a Championship club. But even if they were to put the whole club record Wharton sale aside to offset losses, which should then cover at least a full year of losses without investing a penny. And that goes against any drivel of a project. We should then have the Raya, Kaminski, Ennis and Phillips money that we havent spent a penny of (Wahlstedt went in and out) to then invest. So we could still have an 8 or 9 million budget without touching the Wharton proceeds to cover losses for over a year.

Exactly, we did sign 2 but one was Mola as a last gasp panic loan. The owners have history in doing this.

Surely if it was a simple case of Hyam becoming available last minute, then we wouldnt have offered him 1 year, the offer would have just been withdrawn totally. Its another example of us treating a player shoddily yet even now, people still give the benefit of the doubt and assume it was a reasonable strategic decision made in good faith. So what do you think of the previous assumption that a suggestion of funds being available suggests that the club had authorised and confirmed such news? Do you still expect a decent budget or has this changed?

I cannot access that article about Leicester as it is behind a paywall. But I am guessing that you have got your wires crossed and that is not a direct response to my point about your suggestion that a previous assumption made by Elliott Jackson that we have money to spend would have been authorised by the club. As this now doesnt seem likely.

The numerous games all at dinner time on the same day is an absolute joke by Sky. As much as having a few games moved around at different times was excessive, at least it was sort of understandable. But having more than 1 at the same time is unacceptable and again shows that all that stuff the commentators spouted during and after covid about football being nothing without fans was bullshit to them.

He really wont be. Hes shit.

@chaddyrovers you were insistent the other week that we must have money to spend based on an assumption by Elliott Jackson near the bottom of an irrelevant article that you claimed must have been club approved. Has that changed at all?

Of course, but its not much of a crumb if comfort to resort to the fact that other favourites have also failed to wipe the floor with teams. The concerns with England are seperate from any comparisons with other nations. I think pre tournament hopes came from a flurry of emerging talented players, you looked down the attacking list and we have a number of players that have either emerged since previous tournaments (Palmer, Eze, Gordon, Mainoo, Wharton etc) or ones that have thrived since the last tournament like Foden and Bellingham. But looking back, although previous teams perhaps didnt have the same talent on paper, its never been as disorganised and I dont know how that can be overcome. We literally dont have a left back and thats caused issues. There is no balance in the midfield and all of our attacking players seem to want to do the same thing. You look back, Shaw was fit for those tournaments. The likes of Henderson and Phillips were not stand out names but they at least provided balance and we had players running in behind Kane which we dont have now. Slovenia are reliant on Sesko but to the point where he has been taking shots from silly areas. But otherwise, and aside from a world class keeper, they are just a solid and well organised side full of players who are playing at lower levels. Switzerland have quality across the team. Defenders like Akanji and Schar are really good, Xhaka will fancy his chances of running the game against our midfield and unlike previous Swiss teams they have loads of pace across the whole attack.

If Leicester need to sell Dewsbury-Hall for FFP purposes then surely that would have had to happen before the end of June to ensure that the profit was included in the accounts to the June year end. That is why a number of clubs had to rush through deals in June. Newcastle sold Minteh and academy graduate Elliott Anderson on the last day of June for that very reason. Any team who were facing a breach of FFP and who failed to conclude sales prior to the end of June will now suffer potential deductions. The system is a joke. Youve got teams now essentially trading players at inflated values (often graduates whereby any proceeds are purely profit) to get around it.