Howay

Think this is an indicator of Manchester United being worried about us, they were demanding £40m from us and no offer of a loan - it’s possible it’s that “Newcastle tax” shite but they’ve also allegedly been one of the leaders in trying to oppose and blockade our owners.

Aye there’s no fucking way we should loan him to them.

He’s a man with miniature balls. I’m just glad I support a team with players like Trippier and Bruno who push theirs around in wheelbarrows, I used to see England as my only hope to see a team I support win something thank fuck that’s not the case anymore.

We’ve apparently received bids for a load of our players which totals £30m, Lascelles and Ritchie are in the group. Hopefully true as it’ll give us a boost with regard to what we can spend. Cornet is a decent player, I’d rather him over McNeil who managed 1 assist and no goals in 35 starts - I think what we already have is better than him.

I think club football is the main focus for managers nowadays. When you look at the standard of most the managers at the top national sides it’s not particularly high. So I think Howe would choose to stay. I hope you’re right btw Scoobos and I’m fully behind the team for the tournament - I wouldn’t be booing him if I was there. I’m pretty sure without looking back at my posts I’ve been fairly consistent with my opinion on Southgate, I acknowledge his positives but just think maybe it’s time to move on. It’s too late at this point though I agree with you both on that - and the Saka foul that was absolutely fucking ridiculous. I disagree that Croatia and Italy were better teams btw Gloomy. Very solid and have some brilliant players but also had some glaring areas to attack. Both CM’s were strong with fairly weak (in comparison) flanks, we changed tact after controlling the games early doors, and both sides were fairly old in key areas (Modric is immune to age but I more meant Mandzukic etc) Italy had lost probably their player of the tournament in Spinizzolla and the centre of Italys defence needed to be tested for pace far more than it was. Not saying we absolutely should have won both games but we should have looked more impressive than we did imo.

I know Foden was out but I’m speaking about this generally, he tends not to favor Foden and prefers Rice, Phillips, and Mount. You’re taking those two sentences out of context. My point was he should have tried all this over the time between the Euros and now, and now should be dialing in - we are regressing not improving. People can write off the games as meaningless but he doesn’t have many opportunities so he should have tried to improve the attack while he had the chance and be in a more settled tactical set up. The clear issue is our strength is the attacking players, yet we focus on defence and create next to nothing - the teams that win tournaments by defending and counter attacking have the players that suit that style and typically have world class defenders whereas we don’t. Despite that attacking strength we barely create and barely score from open play. We historically had a squad that all fucking hated each other, that’s not the case and I think that’s one of the areas Southgate deserves praise but I don’t think his prior tournaments makes him immune from criticism. He also isn’t the sole reason we made it this far in tournaments we have a brilliant crop of players, and depth, we don’t know if we could have made it just as far playing another way with them - again no way of knowing that so I’m not layering that on as a criticism just an observation. I agree we will make it to the QF, where we will likely meet France the first good opposition we play and be knocked out playing within ourselves. It’ll then be written off as an impossibility to beat France and he will carry on, totally agree that France would be favorites but we will have reached that point playing the same negative way against weak opponents. Again, if you’re enjoying it that’s great but I don’t and in my personal opinion we won’t win a tournament playing this way, it’s not to our strengths which is the way to win tournaments.

All fair points, as long as you’re enjoying it and see it that way. No piss taking here. I’ve shared my opinion on what I see as his failings so won’t rehash, but do you not think the reaching late stages of competitions is a bit overstated? We’ve really not faced much strong opposition in either tournament and when he did we were knocked out, there was the win over Germany which was great but I think we can all agree it was a German team in a bit of a rebuild rather than the one from previous tournaments. I don’t mean to take away from him, and I’ll always remember him favorably for those tournaments but I don’t think we should ignore the issues in them which have only gotten worse. He also gets a ton of the praise when things go well, while the players then take the flak when things or bad (until this recent round of things). I disagree that him taking the shackles off means we lose heavily, it’s not been given a fair shot and even when he apparently did it he had Bellingham in a deep role. He should have been trying to progress and improve the attack since the Euros imo as we don’t create enough chances. There’s a chasm between attack and defence, meaning Kane drops as far back as midfield to get the ball and when he does stay high Mount tries to occupy the same space as him.

Grealish is interesting, apparently he had the highest xA per 90 mins in the PL last season, I know xG is contentious on here never mind xA but I think it shows he is clearly a creative player and better than his goal involvements last season. Despite this Southgate rarely uses him and just throws his hands up when he can’t get anything out of him, it’s a similar story with Foden who is probably England’s most talented player. I’m at the point where I hope Man City do buy Phillips and he basically never plays a PL game so that Southgate is pretty much forced to stop playing this dreadful Rice - Phillips midfield which just kills our attack. I think my biggest annoyance with Southgate (and his absurdly over the top supporters) is he plays his system, and despite all the clear issues with it doesn’t change a thing - then once in a while he makes a change sort of like what people are asking for (but usually within the same framework of his system meaning players in roles they’re not used to, or not enough of the changes needed to actually be impactful), then when it’s not immediately a resounding success it’s basically held as proof he’s right and the players are incapable. He’s also had years to try things and figure out ways to improve since the Euros but hasn’t bothered, he’s just kept the same formation and players then tried a bunch of random last minute things immediately before the WC when he should really be simply fine tuning.

I can’t see the point in going for JWP, surely Southampton would demand a similar amount to the 58m Lyon are asking for Paqueta?

What a fucking wank opinion. He talks as if Southgate is a club manager with a 25 man squad, he doesn’t have to select that error prone keeper, and saying there’s no fit left back is ridiculous - he has other options besides Shaw and Chilwell there’s a load of PL or championship left backs that are English. Again flawed CBs is always a stretch to me if Stones is good enough for regular selection by the side that has won 4 of the last 5 PL titles, he’s good enough for England, the others are also better than what the vast majority of international sides can select. The creative midfielder bit is bullshit too, he doesn’t select any of them and whenever he does he chops and changes which one it is or throws them on late in the game, when they do come on they’re locked into his woeful formation that has zero fluidity or quick tempo about it. But aye, keep writing off the team of CL and title winners as “not good enough” in favor of the failed Boro manager which no decent club team will touch with a barge pole.

Love the move, don’t have a fucking clue who this player is but it pisses West Ham off and shows Lille we have alternative targets. It’ll irritate West Ham more given he’s halfway through his medical

The picture selection.

Agreed, honestly as with all the players we have bid on I’m not really bothered if we get them or walk away, I’m comfortable that they have a list of players all of which will improve us. As you say I think our defence, while it needs improved to compete for European spots, is good enough for next season.

I think he probably prefers Milan, but I don’t think it’s what is holding the deal up and the Italian medias constant assertion that he’s got zero interest in joining us is total bollocks. There’s no way someone like Ashworth is going to keep persisting with a deal if the player has zero interest in joining.

More agenda driven bullshit from the Italian media too.

Sounds like Ekitikes agent is the hold up in that deal, according to Hope.

“Trooo pryduh in a seyyson where lads fans turned up in lowah numbahs until layytah in the seyyson, weeeyah hounded out the manager, and gayyve the owners reyyyt abuse. Then when the new manager come in weeyah says he wasn’t a lads fan and wasn’t up to the job, then when he managed to squeak into playoffs we ripped the maggie coonts off. Reeeeyud nearly 150 pages of scrawl detailin the level of abuse we subjected all members of the club to, bits of threads claiming anyone and everyone is shite for hundred odd payyges until wuh decide their weeerld class. Now weeeyah back in the big leeeyugh, none of that premeeyah shite (unless wuh ever get back there), other teeeyums will see wuh as a trooo scalp after fowah seyyysons in leyyguh wun. FTM”

Now convinced we’re all right with this absolute helmet on the other side of the argument (FWIW I don’t think Southgate deserves abuse, but it’s clear from the rest of the tweet that Holt doesn’t have any issue with Southgate’s tenure).

I think the major thing is all of the top athletes are drawn to the sports most popular here, American Football, Basketball, Baseball, even track, before footy. It’s also a sport that you really need to start playing young (rare exceptions I’m sure), until that interest at a young age changes they’ll be what they are now - if it does they’ll have a Lebron James type athlete in nets, in which case aye we will be fucked.

I think he made a comment that basically all of Englands goals are Kane or Sterling, he said it as if it’s some mystery and nothing he can change. He’s a pathetic manager tbh, he’s a coach and is probably good at that but his game plans and tactical changes are poor. He plays an incredibly stifling way in tournaments and it basically relies on players like Kane, or Sterling to be clinical and finish the meager chances created - or just draw and claw through the group. As he’s got such a talented group it’s hard for most international sides to break them down, even though the players are clearly struggling with the formation. Your post mentioning how boxed in our attacking players are is spot on, there’s basically no movement, it’s so stagnant. He constantly brings up the defence basically being poor which annoys me too, firstly focus on your fucking strength rather than basing your entire plan around trying to lessen a perceived weak area, and secondly that weakness is massively overstated - Walker, TAA, James, Trippier, Stones, Guehi, Tomori, Chilwell, even fucking Maguire and then the avalanche of players he never gives a chance are perfectly fine and better than the vast majority of international sides have available to them.

I see his legion of defenders are blaming tiredness (as if the Hungarian players are immune to it) and that the game is meaningless. I’ve said for a while now he’s not a good enough manager to take the team forward. He played his role well (along with people like Ashworth), but it’s time for him to go as his tactics hold the side back. He’s got attacking weapons like Grealish, Kane, Abraham, Mount, Foden, Saka, TAA, Trippier, Reece James, Chilwell, Sterling, Sancho, etc and yet we don’t create any fucking chances and never have under him. At the WC basically all of the goals come from set pieces, the Euros we were again very low scoring, in both instances we didn’t exactly face the top sides until we were knocked out (and in those games we were absurdly negative). It’s also worth noting that shit managers like Di Matteo have won trophies like the CL, so I don’t understand why constantly bringing up where we finished in tournaments is seen as some bullet proof defence - he has a very high standard squad available to him. I think that’s now 6 games without a goal from open play, and we’ve not created many clear cut chances. I keep seeing comments like “maybe the players aren’t as good as people think” sorry but that’s bonkers, these are players managers like Tuchel, Guardiola, Mourinho, and Klopp play and aren’t looking to replace. I’m not suggesting we should win tournaments, or walk in as favorites, but have a fucking go man, and the team absolutely should be playing better football than this.

Trying to tempt him to reject West Ham it seems.

If Spurs added Eriksen and Bissouma to their midfield Chelsea and potentially Liverpool (without Mane, especially if Nunez doesn’t hit the ground running) probably should worry. Conte is such a quality manager and he’s still got a lot to spend this window after adding two quality players for a relatively small outlay.

Possibly, but it’s a bit early in the window for that surely? Our supposed back up options like Badashielle and N’Dicka haven’t moved, and it’s increasing the fee by 20%. It’s of course their prerogative, but it’s unprofessional and if true I kind of hope we just walk away, or just say (as it looks from the title of the article we have done) accept the offer you’d accepted already or we’re off. Plus the flip side of this is why bother increasing the bid and putting in more work when you already know their word isn’t worth much.