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I live here in the Tampa Bay Area and I put this on twitter if any of you care. Sad about Jonathan Rowe he will be out for a while with a foot injury he was walking around in a boot & crutches I asked him how it was and he said “Not good but didn’t have the results back yet” & I asked Tzolis if he was coming back in January and he said likely not. Also congratulated Kenny on his new contract which was announced on the website during the practice and when he came to say hello to the fans and he was like finally it’s been done for a while. It was good times wasn’t organized very well with it being Announced last minute and right before the England usa match and everyone including players wanted to leave pretty quickly to get back over the bridge to Tampa. Btw the heat here is almost like Qatar right now and these players were gasping after only a few mins. I can only imagine how the European teams are feeling over there playing in the heat.

Josh Sargent

Pfft...."I should be so lucky"....

I seem to recall that McLean is better than De Bruyne

And Nunez and Sara. No one's saying he's a shoe in. If you read the article where Smith reflects this, the squad have a leadership team that are voted in by the players. McLean is in it. It's a squad game and if he slowly fades to a bench role, or back up left back role over the next two seasons we know what he can deliver when called upon. Makes sense. His replacements could already be at the club. Sara, Nunez, Gibbs and poss Hayden. Oh and the argument that he was only good because he played alongside Skipp? Go home. Shut the door and stand in the corner. I suppose Grant Holt was only good because of Wes Hoolahan. Huckerby because of Adam Drury. Bellamy because of Roberts. Pukki because of Buendia. Footy is all about finding players that work well together. We have always relied upon that more than having a team burgeoning with individual tallent.

I go most England games, but not as many as 2 of our kids, one who has just returned from Qatar and the other still out there. It’s not those fans it’s mainly those that want England to fail. Those last games in the Euros Germany, Denmark, Italy ( especially the Germany game ) were the most amazing atmospheres I have ever been in. International football, qualifying then to manoeuvre through the finals, peaking at the right time is an art, you are playing against defenders, midfielders, goalkeepers and attackers that are mostly stand out players for top clubs. Unfortunately when you manage or play at that level, there are a huge number of fans that just want you to fail. I believe ( I maybe mistaken ) should we get to the quarters we play France, the disadvantage for both teams will be that they will both need to be at their optimum to get past that game, and the winners will need a massive effort to keep those levels up for 2 more games.

That's a mental image I'm...... struggling to process, to put it mildly!

Really comfortable performance by England. Just imagine how much better we'd look if Billy Gilmour walked into our midfield.

Good to see him back on form

I guess due to the lack of comments on the thread since we started tearing Wales apart most were on here hoping for a Wales win.

Rushford off, Grealish or Madders on for me.

Had anybody but Rashford been playing England would be winning 3-0 (Now watch rashford score in the second half to prove me wrong)

In the mid 1980s I visited Zimbabwe and went on what they used to call a "game drive" - wildlife spotting in other words. Along a narrow track we'd just parked up when a huge bull elephant appeared from the undergrowth about 50 yards ahead. Halfway across the track he stopped dead. Our guide thought he might be aware of us and told us not to move or make a sound in case he decided to charge. After three or four minutes he lumbered off into the bush. We like to imagine that the earth belongs to us, but in reality we were trespassing on his territory. An awesome and humbling experience.

I can accept that but what then follows is that they both suffered from a huge lack of professional judgement as to the real nature of GB News. Few of us outside the 'bubble' had any doubts as to it's true nature at the outset.

Peter Simpson from Gorleston?

I’m a Tory voter ( or at least was ), some superb Trumpism there, firstly I am a righty not a lefty and I think you mention 1 rule break by the BBC and they investigate themselves, whilst you don’t mention the numerous complaints re members and MPs of the Tory party and guess what they investigate themselves, so I guess that leaves you soaking up far more BS than anyone on here. Stick to Twitter you will get far more attention saddo.

The figure of 504,000 refers to net migration ie. the difference between the numbers arriving and leaving, not the total number of immigrants.

At least we won't fall into one of the 4000 holes.

I heard he had 'Smith Out' stitched to his underpants too.

For those that prefer objective data to gut reaction/ prejudice, this suggests KM is 118th out of 443 championship midfielders by their model which is around the top quarter, which sounds about right to me. Last Championship season he was in the top 10%, but was in the bottom 15% in the Premier league last year. Given that he will not require a fee and is seen as "an experienced head" it seems a pretty sensible decision to me. Good championship player who struggles at EPL level. The idea that we should replace all our midfield and only buy premier league standard players is a bit naive. https://footystats.org/players/scotland/kenny-mclean

Did Peter Crouch go on Strictly Come Dancing? It'd be a bit like that. But more....sensual

Would he walk into it like Billy Gilmour, or would he charge all over the place instead? 😉

You're giving the guy way too much credit. You say "from a perspective of someone that has seen the best of Gilmour" yet TDK says he hasn't seen enough of Gilmour to even know his best position. But that he knows he can walk into the England side. Square that circle. You say "I can objectively see that DK is not an idiot" I see him responding with things like this "What is your point? That Gilmour isn't eligible for play for England?" (you'd need to read more posts for wider context of this). And as for the Longstaff thing, it's not that he's a similar player to Gilmour, but that TDK seemingly believes England are "3 injuries away" from having to play him at CDM. Despite all the obvious logical reasons, many of which you highlight, as to why that clearly isn't the case. There's only so much nonsense someone can spout before people rightfully start calling a spade a spade.

Same old Southgate, Nations League S/F, WC S/F and Euro’s Final, let’s hope for at least the same s***. And that Jason Pickford he’s s*** to.

I said he would!🤣

At least they're not trying to bomb each other.

Stadium noise in Iran v USA is insane

Get the politics out of the way and just let's have some football Beeb.....

According to Alex Scott, Dan James is in the Wales team because of "his attackideness". Oh dear. She makes Roy Keane look intelligent.

You obviously have a deep understanding of the good people of Norfolk......

Good point, to be fair. Leitner was objectively better in the Prem for Norwich than Gilmour was.

Don’t be ridiculous.

GB News is a rea l oddball. Its owners or major shareholders do not appear to support candidates and it was rumoured that Soros was involved in the original funding. But from what I have seen, and its not regular, many of its journos seem to be right leaning. And its contributors seem to be even further dogmatic if not right leaning. Look, despite mty left leaning beliefs I do observe with an open mind. They all get one chance in my book. I see many things that many left wing people support and promote that I totally disagree with. I do not like to see abuse of privilege but neither the Welfare State either. As an ex Trade Union Secretary, members from the past did not fight for rights and conditions at personal cost to see them abused or taken for granted. But people didn't fight two world wars to return to a land fit for heroes and find the privileged were even deeper ensconced and not prepared to share the nation's wealth. So GB News must present a mix of news and opinion. As long as the opinion is balanced and not Fox News bias, I have no objections to a right leaning news channel. Nobody has to watch it.

Subsidised? I can’t afford to get a direct train from Liverpool to Watford and back, I have to get an off peak return which takes twice as long.

What they offered him was a massive pay-packet. Neil is far too canny not to have known what sort of "news" channel was being proposed. It was the sheer incompetence in production that drove him out, not objection to the project.

Maybe not, but saying he would walk into the England midfield is side-splittingly hilarious.

The current rail network is far too thinly spread to be of real use to those living outside the major towns and cities. Seventy years ago there was double the track length and three times the number of stations as now, but the nationalised railway was losing vast amounts of money due to inefficiencies and under-utilisation. The future of national transport was considered to be road, hence the big programme of motorway construction in the 1960s and the implementation of the Beeching reports to close thousands of stations and thousands of miles of track. Hindsight is something we’re all good at, but now those old routes have disappeared they won’t come back as the cost of reinstatement would be prohibitive and much of the land will subsequently have been built on. Also only about 40% of the network is electrified and the expense of converting the rest would be huge. Other than the frequently prohibitively expensive routes on the main lines connecting the major cities, the railways have probably had their day in this country which, given we’re supposed to be cutting down on fossil fuels and using public transport, is a bit of a shame.

It's a good piece of analysis of what should not have been done, but doesn't offer much in the way of advice on what to do now. And unusually for Wolf its perspective is a bit short-term: "Most alternatives to full membership — such as joining the single market, the customs union or both — would also restart the Brexit civil war, in both main parties." For now, yes, although comparing the differences in Labour to the wilfully self-destructive civil war in the Tory party is a real stretch. But apart from the Tories (as presently controlled by mad people) and the Unionists (ditto) even now all parties want at least a better Brexit deal than the worst possible one Johnson lumbered Britain with. Starmer has ruled out renegotiations with the EU but by definition his promise to fix the holes in the current deal will entail renegotiations. And once that starts then over time what in Vietnam was called mission creep is likely to occur, but in this case in a good way. If as I suspect there will be some kind of anti-Tory government in charge for at least eight years from 2024 then the chances are some kind of much closer relationship - at least being in a customs' union - will be forged.

Well it's been a tough round except for our leader Aggy who scored 9 out of 16 and has extended his lead to 4 points. Well done Aggy! Less success for the draw callers this time, but with so many upsets going for the favourites is not paying off either. Still to enter 3rd Round Tips for 3pm today - Elbrow, @hepphep, @NFN FC, @twidio and @shefcanary 22 Points - @Aggy 18 Points - @nutty nigel, @Branston Pickle 17 Points - @Peregrine Shorts - Excellent round 16 Points - @Keyneton Canary, @Elbrow 15 Points - @NFN FC, @KiwiScot 14 Points - @twidio 13 Points - @shefcanary 7 Points - @hepphep

Nearly ended up there for a half-marathon in October last year, but the pandemic put paid to it.

Anyone who questions this decision needs to watch the BBC documentary about Steve Thompson the rugby union player who was part of England’s World Cup winning team in 2003. He’s in his forties now, has no memory of the world cup winning match at all, and forgets his daughters’ names. While he was probably unlucky to come to his peak just as rugby went professional and the impacts on the body are clearly different, the programme is a difficult but necessary watch. His story is by no means unique. Repeated impacts to the head are clearly a cause of long-term brain damage and any movement in the rugby game to reduce the potential for injury seems to be driven largely by concerns about corporate liability rather than the health of players. This may well be what’s caused the action in Scotland. A class action lawsuit happened in the US for American football professionals recently and this seems to forced the rugby authorities into action.

More Trump fun...

Watch the blood pressure Shef. If you haven't got one of these portable ones, then get the wife to buy you one for Xmas 😀🤣

I'd imagine the feeling is fairly mutual from their side 😂

This is all the proof we need about wee Krankie. Hoggy, you as we know take a lot to criticise a player, we've often disagreed over the time I've been on here, McLean being the obvious example. So Dark Knight if Hoggy is criticising a player then you know that the player is no sodding good.

Just want to point out DK hasn’t insulted anyone. I completely disagree with him but look at his post history, one of the most respectful guys on here. Maybe some of the trolls can get back in their box and just agree to disagree. Edit: this doesn’t apply to all replies

And to think Mo Leitner got stick, Wee Bully as yet has shown nothing like what Mo had, sure he wore his shorts in a ridiculous fashion but he could set the tone and pick a pass.

Why does he want you to PM him?? Bit weird 🤷

That makes an assumption I support Labour, I don’t I have always been a Tory voter, however I should stress I will do anything possible to bring my Tory MP down in the next GE. I will support whoever will challenge my MP and hopefully remove her from Westminster. I can find no Labour donors going to prison in that period, however I can see lots of problems around MPs expenses, and at the time supported the jailing of anyone involved. Recently we had hundreds of offences committed by people connected to the Tories and the Tory supporters reckoned the one against Kier Starmer which he was cleared of, was worse than all those 100’s put together, so excuse my scepticism that there is a bit of Trumpism going on here.