roversfan99

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.

They have.

Everyone remembers how poor Portugal were. The fact that they won one game after 90 minutes is always mentioned. Would say a lot about the others. It seems remiss to write them off as bang average considering the respective performances especially in the last 16. They look more than merely organised, lots of pace and movement in attack and Xhaka can dictate the game.

Its down to Venkys. We had to sell because of them so we could never hold out for a good fer regardless of who was negotiating.

Does any other journalist tell everyone days in advance that he has a story on a certain team to the point that he has a cult following asking him for hints and more often than not it ends up being something really minor or baseless.

Mercer with his annual prediction that we are about to go under and how "the warning signs" are flashing. Chaddy with his annual analysis that we have a good squad, echoing the manager that it just needs a bit of help and predicting that money will be spent and we will have a play off push to look forward to. Likelihood is another summer of frugality and an underwhelming campaign again but one that will last a full course without the club ceasing to exist.

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No, Chaddy does. At this time of year, agents are busy linking their players here there and everywhere to get the best deal. Thats all it is.

Hes also named Gallagher and Leonard yet considers (rightly) a striker to be the priority. And also Sigurdsson who he thinks will be sold.

He is crap, he hasnt suddenly become a different player in 6 months. Obviously Eustace will decide, amidst various factors including budget. Doesnt mean that his decision will be right. If he plans to use him this season then its time to worry. The squad nearly went down, and would have comfortably without Szmodics. How can it be considered as good when it did so poorly? And you wouldnt want 7 or 8 players (basically a new team, which is correct) if you genuinely believed it was a good squad. If you think that the current squad is a good one then yes, your standards are too low.

Theyve maintained throughout that funding will be unaffected by the court case. So its clearly not true.

That first weekend of no Championship 3pm games and us on a Friday night is a depressing window into the farce that all these kick off changes will become.

You can get too focused down the rabbit hole of data and numbers when it comes to ticket sales and lose context. The club can massage them to prove a point that is slightly misleading. For example, and im not saying the case, what if weve gone from 8k adult season tickets and 2k kids season tickets to 7k adults and 3.5k kids. Ticket sales have gone up by 500 but revenue is down. You also stop thinking about the indirect consequences if you go along with the club narrative. Drop tickets by a decent chunk, sales go up and revenue might not change too much. But youve then got an increased bank of season ticket holders to grow the club longer term. You have more of a feel good atmosphere. You have more indirect sales of merchandice and food/drink. Are these considered publically by Waggott or ignored? I feel like those closest to the club in terms of communication clearly give so much time and effort that many including myself cant/wont give up themselves so fair play. But naturally conversing with Waggott who for all of his faults must have an ability to charm those who speak to him, you can start to lose any valid constructive criticisms and start to read from his script. People also want to think they are making a difference. Theres more chance that they are than the rest of us, so this isnt a criticism. But im not sure much if any difference is being made personally.

I saw him enough to know that he is nowhere near good enough and has nothing about him that suggests he can ever make it at this level. Maybe his 3 goal Motherwell spell saw him thrive, either way, get shut of him. Throw away comments as in not exactly 4 or 5, just as a figure of speech. Stuff about keeping the squad together, how we have a good squad that just needs tweaking, how he will look at players like Vale. Tomasson said similar, hopefully its just confidence building, saying what people want to hear. He isnt going to say that the squad is shit and needs loads of work. It could well be that he anticipates a low budget so hes having to big up what he has because hes stuck with them. The squad isnt very good, we nearly went down, take Szmodics away and its really poor. Its thin and has lots of deadwood that is not up to standard. Even you know we need more than that. Youve said we need 7 or 8 players, now Eustace said less you are going with 4 or 5. You correctly suggested we need to spend money, now you keep saying how we can do good business without spending much. Invariably, less money makes it harder and we should have money so no excuses. And you wanted players in by now. But seemingly you also understand why that isnt happening. Its just low standards, your initial suggestions of money needing to be spent, a good number of players are needed in and that a bit of proactivity is also needed were all bang on. Those expectations are dropping by the day.

If he has watched Vale and thought we could do with him here then I am concerned about his eyesight. Sounds like lots of cliches but if that 4 or 5 isnt a throw away comment, then thats not enough.

England are boring but the rest of the Euros provide much more entertainment than wannabee ITKs making up rumours.

Its not like hes a young player with loads of potential. Hes never scored at a serious level in his career so unless you mean scoring against kids and in the German pub league, how can you know he has the knack of scoring goals? The Venkys way.

Terrible performance yet again to limp into the knockouts. Absolutely no balance to the side again. The Trent experiment that Southgate stupidly thought best to trial mid tournament didnt work but Gallagher is an even worse option, not only is he not very good but hes not a holding midfielder. Rice has looked poor all tournament, hes not the best on the ball and he slows things down, he no longer plays as a sitting midfielder. We need someone to sit in next to him, Mainoo was an improvement, Wharton is the obvious choice to most albeit I dont think hes quite the missing piece of the jigsaw that others claim just yet. Left back is another big issue, stupidly we havent taken any fit ones but we cant persist with Trippier. In attack he is just trying to cram the best players in but they dont work together, its Lampard and Gerrard all over again. No one runs in behind and they all end up on top of each other. Kane doesnt look fit and Bellingham was an embarassment again. Foden is the one of the 3 that warrants his place the most even sidelined as a winger at the moment. Gordon needs to play and Palmer perhaps too. If Kane isnt fit then play Watkins.

Best squad weve ever had?

So a final is the minimum expectation baring in mind the draw? Thats fine, I was just checking what fucking it up entails. Rice has progressed to be much more of a box to box midfielder. We need someone who can sit in there, take the ball from the defence and help to cover that midfield area in which we often look empty in. The imbalances in the team are not anything to do with the overly simplistic "being negative" narrative. We have plenty of attackers in there. But most of the attackers want to play in the same areas, all of the defence are right footed including the left back and we have had no midfield to speak of with Rice left firefighting on his own and that wont improve with Gallagher against reasonable opposition.

So would fucking it up be anything prior to the final or anything but the trophy?

Gallagher isn't a holding midfielder, he is a runner who often plays for Chelsea as a number 10. Its quite the opposite. We need someone in there to sit in and dictate. A Michael Carrick type player. What does fucking it up entail? Not winning it? Not making the final?

Im not sure I would take a deal of arguably our most important player getting any kind of injury just to see Wharton.

Scotland are bad enough that theyd still manage to struggle to qualify even if all 4 teams went through.