Howay

I agree the target himself is underwhelming, I just mean if we are to go for him it’s pretty pathetic being outbid by Nice. Absolute fucking zombie club.

So Nice and Brentford are the teams to beat us to transfer targets so far, the list of clubs we can’t compete with continues to grow.

Spot on, the same people screaming sports washing at Saudi Arabia are helping Qatar with their own brand of it. They’re as bad as each other, do these people honestly think Qatar just sits on its hands doing fuck all to Saudi Arabia? As that’s the way it’s often portrayed which is exactly what Qatar wants. Saudi Arabia are probably the biggest and the baddest, but they’re kidding themselves if they honestly want to act like the ruling families in the other surrounding countries are shining beacons of humanity. Like you say, I’m all for a higher standard being applied but then we need to deal with the heavy ties to Qatar, UAE, and Russian mobsters at the top of the game just as much as blocking Saudi Arabia. We’re going to now act aghast at this type of phone hacking, yet when Liverpool did it to Manchester City’s scouting system it was largely met with a collective shrug. Of course there’s a part of me that would absolutely love this lot to come in and blow through fortunes getting NUFC to the top of the game, but more of me wants fucking rid of Mike Ashley and that’s what’s getting completely lost on a lot of these arseholes who constantly have pops at the fan base. Meanwhile we have to sit and watch Manchester United fans get applauded for storming their ground and getting a game cancelled before their owners buy Jadon Sancho and give Rafael Varane 500k a week. If these guys want to talk morals and fairness that’s fine, so let’s level the playing field and introduce hard caps on yearly salary and transfer spends, spread the TV money through the entire pyramid so that the lowest levels of the game don’t have to struggle financially all the time, that’s not what they want though they just want the current clubs at the top to remain there while they shrug and trot out lazy stereotypes about the rest of the teams. Until there’s some type of fair reporting on the fucking horrors committed by Qatar, and all the fucking shit that they do behind the curtain, it’s not fair of them to attack NUFC fans who want a deal with SA to happen.

Speaking of stupid cunts, Wraith has been on Simon Jordan’s talkSPORT show: What an absolute shoeing he gets by Jordan , claims to have contacts on both sides of the deal. What a throbber.

Exactly, the stupid cunts initial stance was that it was all bollocks and the Saudis weren’t for real, that is absolutely and very clearly not the case. At this point he’s just acting like he called it if it doesn’t happen, as if he knows the outcome of cases before they’ve even started. The very same bloke wrote an article about why it was all bollocks because he didn’t understand some of the filings with Companies house during the bid, he’s an absolute embarrassment tbh and would be better off just piping down rather than embarrassing himself further like he is with all this.

A thread on it by a serious journalist, rather than by a lazy wank like Edwards.

So another fucking pointless season under an owner that’s actively trying his hardest to sell the club. Left to watch Steve Bruce’s minging fucking tactics as well .

Just to remind us of what we were missing out on.

Pardew’s tenure was really big for me in that respect, I remember before him a 3-0 or 4-0 loss felt like a complete fucking hammering, I would be absolutely gutted and embarrassed we got smacked like that, but he seemed to lose matches by those score lines or worse regularly enough that they started to feel like a 2-0 or narrow loss. We’ve had some right plums as manager under Ashley mind

I think the Shaw goal was as excited as I’ve been for a goal in years tbh. I’ve always been a club before country type fan, but I did always watch England. I think it’s just that prior group of players was so immensely dislikable that it made it easy as fuck to shrug off their failures, Gerrard, Terry, Ferdinand, Owen, etc are just complete and utter insufferable up their own arse bellends who played international football purely for personal gain and let their club rivalry ruin what was on paper a good England side. In stark contrast it’s clear the current lot care, and they also seem a lot more conscious of their positions in society and the weight their word can carry when they speak up on behalf of people, so this one hurt and for me it still does. I think what makes it even harder is knowing in five or so weeks I have to also go back to watching Brucey and the boys, as much as I’ve criticized Southgate I like the bloke tbh I just want him to grow, I thoroughly dislike Bruce as a person and as a manager. I’d say somewhat similar to Gemmill I’ve almost switched to enjoying watching England more. Of course sections of the fan base are outright embarrassing fuckwits which can at times make it tough, and the bandwagon jumpers tend to be the brexit rugby crew in their relaxed fit jeans and Clarkson haircuts, but I honestly try to block all that out and just enjoy football for a change since Ashley and the Premier League as a whole has done about as much as they possibly can in 12 year to ruin it.

Yeah, I don’t think we should sack him or anything. I think like you say he deserves the 2022 WC, but I really think he has to show improvement as imo there’s some real issues with his game day team management that ultimately cost us after we got away with it a little earlier in the tournament through the strength of our players. Like KD just said I think this squad is becoming a premier side at the international level, with most of the squad playing at the highest levels of the club game and Southgate needs to grow with the side and allow them to start to assert pressure of their own rather than just backing off a shying a little from teams based upon name. I rate the Italian side, I did before the tournament but I don’t think they were some Goliath that we should have feared and respected them to the degree we seemed to in the second half, having so little possession against them and doing nothing to try and remedy it was my biggest complaint. I get the ‘he made the final doing it this way’ defence but I think we also have room to criticize him as I really do think we didn’t assert ourselves on the tournament like the squad likely can and relied on being hard to beat, I take your point regarding France but I’d also say that the players France have at their disposal lend better to that. Kante and Matuidi are/were the premier defensive mids in the game, Varane is arguably the best CB around, with Pavard, Hernandez etc all leading in their positions. On the flip side our strength is our attack and Southgate shied away from that to try and make us hard to break down, it’s a viable enough tactic and it’s admirable he stuck to his guns but he deserves criticism when it’s ultimately what cost us. I think ultimately I’m at the point where I commend him for everything he’s done, and I really do think he’s done a good job, but he also deserves criticism as we’re moving away from being an ‘underdog’ type team (I know we have the resources underdogs don’t but I mean more in terms of the ability of the players he had in 2018) into being a team that can genuinely challenge for tournaments, and with that transition he has to also grow and allow the team a platform to perform, having basically 1 shot and 29% possession over 90 minutes in what was really a home fixture isn’t the platform. Regarding Kalvin Phillips we’ll have to agree to disagree, I saw nothing to suggest he’s good enough in this tournament for him to be a starter in a squad pushing like we seem to want to do, I think he got in because Henderson was coming back from injury and he just did enough for Southgate to keep picking him but we absolutely need more there or we’re going to keep struggling when we come up against sides with better CM pairings like Italy had. Hopefully Bellingham keeps up his emergence and Southgate puts faith in him like he did with Saka, as Bellingham is by far and away a better player than Phillips.

He was fine in most games, I think he was one of the worst players on the pitch for a couple of the games but I saw people the love him just highlight that he ran 15km in those games. I don’t think he’s a completely shit player I just think he’s a very very average PL centre mid, Henderson is better in every aspect as a number 6. My confusion at him is the overrating of his games, every game was followed by pictures of him with “how good is this man!!! 😍” posts while all he did was break up play a bit and shift the ball 5 yards, which is his role but I don’t think he did anything impressive or above when compared to Rice. I see him as about the same as what Dier used to be, people overhype him as he does the basics fine, is pretty no nonsense but ultimately doesn’t add much to the team. Whenever Bellingham breaks into this England side the Phillips luvvies might get the point, as Bellingham does everything Phillips can do but he can also contribute to attacking phases regularly. Maybe I’m being harsh, I didn’t rate either him or Rice before the tournament but Rice has won me over whereas I’m still scratching my head at the hype Phillips gets.

I hope I’m wrong, I genuinely do but I’m not convinced his decisions and mistakes are ones he will learn from. He clearly favors Saka, Mount, Phillips to clearly better players (I think Saka and Mount are both good players fwiw, I just think he has more talented options, I also think Mount was poor all tournament but continued to be selected due to Southgates favoring of him as he supposedly tracks back more than Foden etc). I stand by that I think he’d be better suited as an assistant manager, I just think he tends to miss with a lot of his subs or team selections and criticism of it is being hushed since we reached the final, a final which was reached at times through brilliance from players he shunted to the side in favor of industry. My main worry is that it was similar to the Croatia SF loss in 2018, we went up early and progressively sat further and further back and rather than make changes to alleviate pressure he just waited. He didn’t learn from that to me, despite having a far more talented and deeper squad. I’m not saying he should have just thrown caution to the wind and threw on attackers but he had a ton of options like swap out Trippier for Henderson so we could have a midfield 3 and try to hold possession for a bit as we were continually out of sorts 30 yards from our goal all second half, or throw on Sancho/Rashford when Bonucci and Chiellini were camped out on halfway to stretch the field and alleviate the pressure that way. We can say it’s hindsight but honestly most people watching recognized changes had to be made and he sat on them. I’m more than willing to praise him btw, he’s done an excellent job getting the squad to where it is now, clearly his man management skills are brilliant as he’s keeping the squad happy despite the players noted above not playing much. I just see a manager that isn’t great at game day decisions and continually makes odd/overly conservative choices when he doesn’t need to and I really fear it’s not something he will learn from so we will waste chances for a genuinely talented and confident crop of players to fulfill their potential just to keep a nice bloke that has done very well but is arguably starting to hold back the squad a little. Hopefully it’s harsh and he goes on to win us things, not that it’s a must as I know it’s extremely hard to win but to have chances like this one and basically just whiff it and go out fairly meekly is utterly disappointing isn’t really good enough. It’s all moot anyway, he will be manager going forward I just personally have reservations about his ability to grow with this squad. I think he maximized the potential of the team in the WC but is holding back the potential of this current side. Want to add, I thought Declan Rice was quality yesterday but I absolutely don’t understand the plaudits Kalvin Phillips gets, hopefully Bellingham continues his trajectory and we see him take place over the severely limited Phillips.

Aye, he literally argued against signing him for us ffs.

Fair enough. For me I see a team in training wheels when they don’t need it. Some of the best chance creators in Europe in Grealish and Sancho barely see the pitch, even when we are screaming for technical players or goal threat. We played an Italian side who are technically sound, and comfortable in possession where I think the one avenue we could have really got at that was with pace, especially against their left back Emerson who is tragic tbh. Instead he did about as much as he could to remove pace from our side, even playing Walker at CB, Mount was another poor selection as he’s been poor all tournament and pace isn’t in his locker. What frustrates me with Southgate is all he does is look to not lose rather than ever look to win. His selections of players like Mount (supposedly tracks back more and is more solid defensively than players like Grealish and Foden), Phillips (basically a CB when compared to the vastly superior number 6 in Henderson), and for me glaringly Saka who is a player I rate but he’s just not in the same bracket as Grealish, Foden, Sancho, and Rashford currently but because he can play wing back Southgate knows he’s more defensive than the other options. The bloke has done a tremendous job in terms of man management, bringing a lot of these lads through and giving chances, but tactically he’s not up to this and it’s shone through in a lot of the games. Not that what I think matters as he’s been given a contract iirc but we won’t win with this bloke, he’s far too scared to allow talented players to perform their roles. He got it all wrong for me today, we barely touched the ball second half and as good as the Italians are their players absolutely aren’t that far ahead of ours that we should be having under 30% of the ball in what is basically a home fixture. We never caused them much worry, and when we have that much pace at our disposal against a team with so little pace that’s questionable especially when for a good 35 minutes Bonucci and Chiellini were sat on the half way line yet not once did Southgate think to make a change to pressure that. He’s an assistant manager imo.

Southgate is fucking shit man. They’ve got through nearly every round in spite of him, we’ve played weak opposition and managed to over come them due to pure talent. He’s played a back 7 because he’s fucking terrified of losing, despite having arguably more talent at his disposal. If the managers were swapped we’d have battered them.

I blame Southgate completely. Shit management that entire game, the formation and selections were wrong from the start and every single person other than that fucking TIT can see it. We’ve said over and over again every match that it was wrong just to hear “but he won” from the blowjob squad, but this is why I doubted him. He brought his best players on deep into injury time, Italy were the better side but we didn’t even fuckinv turn up as he plays the wrong players. Kalvin Phillips is FUCKING SHIT Henderson plays the same role and is better in every single way so why play him. I don’t blame the pen missers this fucking wanker barely played them then expected them to step on and win us the trophy . We have the best squad I’ve seen England have and have trusted it to this absolute fucking LOSER.

Fuck it. He’s the man and we will win

I keep trying to tell myself that but I worry we’ve made it due to the talent available rather than Southgates tactics. I think he does so much well in terms of man management, squad management, controlling the expectations and making sure we are focused on each game, but he makes some funny fucking decisions.

I’m worried about the team selection, I thought the way we could win is pace but he’s basically removed any pace from the side by playing Walker at CB and picking Mount over Saka for some fucking reason. I know his intention is to shithouse and keep it close until he can try and change the game with subs, but I thought he’d have at least allowed us to have a bit of a go from kick off.

Probably one of our better ones in a long time tbf. The purple one people were posting is the goalkeeper kit btw.

According to the slug himself we’d of course have won everything by now. 100% win record and don’t you forget it.

Aye it was soft, it’s sort of being swept under the rug how much of a bunch of shit houses the Danish were. Delaney had 6 fouls without a card, and they got away with a fucking ton of clear fouls. The ref must have thought Kjaer, Christensen, and Vestergaard can legitimately keep pace with Sterling and Saka when in actual fact the pair of them were checked or grabbed nearly everytime they touched the ball. I also don’t really see what was so absurdly egregious about the Sterling pen, it was soft but a lot of outlets are looking at the second contact rather than the initial one, it might have been soft but I can see why it was given as yet again the Danish players basically looked to block the player and not the ball as they had done all fucking game. Pens like that are given constantly in the league, I get the argument of feeling aggrieved if it happened against your side but I think the reverse applies that if that wasn’t given our side would have felt aggrieved. They also have a brass neck whinging about diving when their lot were going down like absolute fannies under any contact, the most egregious was Vestergaard acting like Tyson Fury smacked him after Sterlings hand grazed his cheek. The result was fair tbh, people can whinge about the penalty but it wasn’t some absurdly blatant dive under zero contact and the Danish absolutely didn’t deserve anything from the game.

Fucking unreal, never thought I’d see a final tbh. I was too young for any of Newcastle’s and England were always useless at tournaments. Fucking buzzing. I’m going to be a wreck on Sunday mind. Hopefully the takeover goes through and this is the first of many I get to watch.