kirku

What we've seen with France is how deep their squad is. International football is cyclical and hugely dependent on form, injuries, and truly elite players. England's record at major tournaments is clear - we're performing exponentially better under Southgate than any other manager. Talking of truly elite, who is England's Messi, Mbappe, or Modric? Funnily enough, they all finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd..

FWIW, here's a French 2nd string Maignan, Mendy, Kimpembe, Kounde, Pavard, Tchouameni, Camavinga, Coman, Diaby, Nkunku, Giroud

Firstly, I don't think you can reasonably include injured players given the proviso that Southgate "left them at home". But you surely can't believe that side is anything more than painfully average at international level? It's so far from the "brilliant" side it's being sold as.

Do you honestly think that's a "brilliant XI" for an international side? Smalling at CB (wasn't international standard in his prime, let alone at 34). A CM of JWP and Maddison? A French youth international (Olise)?

No, I can just see and appreciate the context. It starts with accepting the unbalanced squad and not vastly over-estimating the talents available. If we apply some of the injuries France had, what would an England team without Rice (Kante), Bellingham (Pogba), Kane (Benzema), and Rashford (Nkunku) look like? It's very hard to make a reasonable argument that England have, as you put it, "squad depth that's a joke". I'm interested in what this "brilliant XI out of players Southgate either left at home or didn't put on the pitch" consists of?

England aren't France (who got as far as they did without Benzema, Kante, and Pogba). CF, CM, CB and GK stick out as particular weaknesses.

Absolutely agree. It's not based on anything tangible, that's for sure

Billy Gilmour would walk into that midfield 😉

Out of reactions so 👍

I was just trying to make a snide joke about Smith! But you can't isolate endemic management issues from economic impacts. They're intrinsically linked. Interpersonal management is inseparable from economics and vice versa. Not sure how keeping birth rates low is going to help their pension/healthcare problems but I'm far from knowledgeable about Japan.

I hope I win the lottery every week but I don't base my financial plan on it. Sometimes, it's worth evaluating the likelihood of your hopes coming true based on the evidence available. The only evidence we have available for Smith at Norwich is failure and degradation.

So, we're in agreement that poor Japanese management has resulted in thousands of early deaths, is a contributing factor to their problematic birth rate and thus the looming demographic time bomb? I guess it was a good analogy for Smith's reign after all! 😉

You've spent the last few months defending Smith - so, yes, you have been talking much more "unsubstantiated bullocks" than those who haven't. That should be pretty obvious by this point.

Yeah, it's a big problem - I think largely borne from their cultural history. It's more than a bit cynical to laud Japanese productivity while turning a blind eye to these issues

Nobody is telling you what to think or say - just don't get upset when you're called out for talking unsubstantiated bullocks. Again.

Look up Karoshi. Japanese workplace culture isn't something that I think should be venerated

Gibbs is one of the few bright spots of this season so far

You never actually debate the points made or make reasoned points of your own; you just spout more subjective nonsense, edit in a few personal digs, and then get upset when called out on it. Or, in this thread, blaming other fans for wanting Norwich to lose. As if anyone wanted to go to CR in -5c weather to watch that dross, be told by the manager that it's all their fault and then to come on here and read the same from some dull blowhard who's spent the last few months loudly attacking people who can see the malady within the club. Grow up.

I think Rupp rejected a new contract? Not 100pc though. Leitner had to go, Trybull is worse than McLean, and Vrancic was too old and unsuited to the PL

Roughly how many supporters are in this "number" and, more importantly, is it representative of the tens of thousands of Norwich fans? It's a rhetorical question - of course it isn't. It's an absurd thing to say. Practically everyone on this board and in the stands wanted Dean Smith to be the next Pep. The only thing standing in the way of that is the objective reality of his tenure. That hopes did not match with evidence. Evidence of failure and fracture.

Dean Smith - "our fans want us to lose" Branston Pickle - "our fans want us to lose"

True, but it's hard to swallow people saying stuff like "he's the best manager we've had on paper" or trying to paint his time at Villa as hugely successful. He scraped up via the playoffs, spent a fortune, stayed up due to a VAR error and then got sacked.

It's just pure stubbornness - it's fine to say, "You know what, I got it wrong and couldn't see what many of you were saying. Smith is wrong for the club and the trajectory we're on is worrying." I wouldn't hold my breath though. There's a few willing to die on that "Deano" hill...

I was wrong to say that Grealish broke through under Smith, as TvB pointed out below. He'd already had numerous games in the PL and Champ before Smith arrived - so you'll have to try and find something else to give Smith credit for.