Dames

If you read my post before it, it definitely does not blame anyone else but English football. However lets not turn a blind eye to the blatant favouritism the Argentinians have got throughout the tournament against every opponent because of FIFAs devotion to Lionel Messi.

One other thing we have to account for in the Argentina game is that the ref was a huge Messi fanboy, its not an overall excuse but the modern game needs to adjust to these new cults that form around players rather than teams. In old terms the referee for that match would have essentially been a Leicester fan refereeing a Leicester game in an FA Cup semi final. You’d like to think a professional would remain professional but those unconscious biases are going to creep in especially when you’re sharing the pitch with your hero. This was evident when the Argentinians got away with foul after foul and had absolutely 0 VAR interventions against them all tournament. When you’re playing against that level of bias it affects you and again, what can the manager do in that situation? As an aside once everyone is clear and away from America UEFA need to have a strong response.

I personally don’t think the team hit the highs it could have done bar the Croatia game. That being said it was a good tournament for us and even at our floor we finished 3rd. I also think there has been a HUGE overreaction to the manager in the wake of the Argentina game, football fans are famously emotional rather than rational but even this has gone too far. Firstly the starting 11 picked matched Argentina and took the lead and were overall probably the better side slightly. A plus for the manager. I dont see how it is the managers fault that the minute England took the lead the players forgot how to pass the ball or control it. The age old English mentality of being scared to lose settled in and once it settled in it was terminal. Tuchel was right about retaining possession ‘not being in our DNA’. If anyone has played at any level during their youth they’ll remember that mistakes are frowned upon and are punished by managers. Fully grown men screaming at kids to clear the ball, ‘get it out’ and ‘dont piss about with it’. Those earliest lessons stick with you the longest and it was completely on show against Argentina where the English players completely fearful of losing or making a mistake just resorted to hitting the ball anywhere away from the box. What does the manager do in this situation? If he brings on an attacking player they are going to get crippled by this same fear? Chasing long hopeless balls into the middle of nowhere for 5 minutes before dropping back into the low block themselves. He gave them until the hydration break, tried to talk some sense into them and it didnt work so instead of banging his head against the wall he decided to help the players out and shore up the defence. It worked against Mexico and the only way forward we had was leaning into that backs against the wall mentality because does anyone really think that Kobbie Mainoo would have come on and instantly calmed 10 other players down and taken complete control of the game? Be serious. In hindsight going so defensive was probably a bad decision but the options were severely limited. The players had completely regressed and there was no helping it, not even Pep could have fixed that and those calling for Tuchels head are ridiculous. Again in hindsight the only mistake Tuchel made was not bringing wingers on but until the France game had any of Saka, Rashford or Madueke shown any consistency or ability to completely change the momentum of a game? Not really. On the other hand Dan Burn, Konsa etc had shown resilience and the ability to close games out. Tuchel isnt without fault but this reaction is blown out of proportion and fans are reluctant to blame players because or their prior ‘heroics’ in the tournament and likely a little racism comes into play too. When the pressure was off against France you could see the vision Tuchel had all tournament its just a shame that English players can only perform when they dont have that crippling fear of failure hanging over them and until thats changed and theres a real overhaul at youth and grassroots level, we will have the same issues we’ve had for 60 years.

Plenty of teams will be put off by his previous injury. This is a good move for him, he gets to play in the Premier League and if he stays fit and has a good season he’ll likely be moving on to bigger things.

Ive been against his appointment for some time but I will give him some credit in that he’s taking a proper look at our academy and he’s also making them put in a lot of fitness work which it feels like forever since we’ve had a manager do.

As for Fatawu, he will have a really good career, just a shame its not with us.

We‘ll yet again spend barely a penny and somehow post a huge loss.

In years past we would have pushed ahead regardless, dare i say lessons are finally being learned?

This is fantastic news. I was absolutely dreading the prospect of people on here going on like he was Maldini again after spraying some passes against League One teams. Along with Faes a signing that has summed up the past 5 years of this club, i really hope we can begin to move forward now.

Rudkin dined out on that Maguire deal for far too long and it gave him an arrogance which meant he thought he could hardball every outgoing transfer ever since. Great deal at the time but in the long run its cost us 100s of millions.

It wasnt unanimous, a lot of people on here at the time were chuffed because he had a half decent season in the Championship under Enzo.

I’d be extremely surprised if it doesnt happen, his agent has likely tapped us up and hes gunna get a wedge from us.

The difference having an elite winning manager cannot be understated.

With the money we’ve been spending? Absolutely it is.

I absolutely want egg on my face. But it wont be until the end of the 27/28 season if Russell gets us to the Premier League. Anything that happens this season doesnt count, winning the league is the bare minimum.

How many times in the past 4-5 years have we heard ‘they’ve got to get recruitment right’

Absolutely i am because with the resources we have, we shouldnt be where we are and its unforgivable. A few wins against tinpot teams isnt going to change that.

Because we shouldnt be where we are and certain sections of the fanbase use winning games as an excuse to silence any criticism of the ownership.

I’m going to absolutely hate being on here if we are romping the league and people are lauding Vestergaard as a world beater again and are being positive about the owners.

Again I would just like to remind people that for the past 18 months Winks agent has been working tirelessly to get him away for the club and no one wants him. We are stuck with him until his contract ends.

I want to be early in this thread. Unless he manages back to back promotions and a top 10 Prem finish in his 3 years here he’s not the man.

There are no positives. We will play the same brand of passive football with players who dont care and are not fit and we will be out ran by every team in the League. Can’t wait until Top catches some clips of a more recent Tournament and stops obsessing over 2008 Barcelona.

We knew this was coming. Will we survive it? Probably not, we would have in the Championship but not League One. He will be sacked by Christmas when we are in a relegation battle we will not likely escape. The club is doomed to make the same mistakes over and over and over and over.

I’d love to be wrong but the fans have had barely any influence for as long as i can remember, its just more noticeable now because things are awful.

It only didnt happen last summer because Martin went for the Rangers job because he viewed it as a bigger job. Make no mistake fan power played 0 part in that.