cityfanlee23

Yeah you make a fair point I haven’t really looked at past runs of other nations, I guess it’s just the typical tournament feeling we get where it feels like we go into a tournament thinking we can win, then falter at the first challenge. I think over the next few tournaments the hype will increase because we have got some real generational talents coming through now and we need to find a way to really utilise them.

Good point I had forgotten about that, thanks for the reminder.

So had a quick jot down of our tournaments under Southgate. WC 2018 Group was Belgium, Panama and Tunisia, knockouts Colombia, Sweden and lost to Croatia Euro 2021* was Croatia, Czechia and Scotland, knockouts Germany, Ukraine, Denmark and then lost the final to Italy WC 2022 was USA, Iran, Wales, knockouts Senegal then lost to France Euro 2024 we have Denmark, Slovenia and Serbia.

Is Southgate one of the luckiest tournament managers in the world in terms of groups/routes to later stages? Trying to think of a tournament where we didn't have a relatively easy route to the latter stages. We beat Germany in one of them but they were hardly the Germany of the early 10's.

I like bowen he's an honest player and works hard. Reminds me a bit of Marc Albrighton, not the best in the squad but he's as honest as they come.

Annoyingly it should be easier to score now, there are huge gaps all over the field and precisely zero white shirts occupying them.

Yep, we are at one of those moments in time where we genuinely have a new golden generation, at a time where most international teams such as Germany/France/Spain are also going through a transition to loads of young talents, and you could look at Bellingham/Foden/Saka/Rice/Kane and say yeah we have just as much top-class talent as our nearest rivals, then you watch us play and it just doesn't flow at all. Take the leash off and we bury this game in 10 minutes, but Southgate refuses.

Love Southgate as an ambassador for the country, he's a great guy, a proud Englishman and cares so much for our national team. But I've felt since day 1 that he just doesn't suit the national team given it's full of players who play quite aggressive, attacking football. Southgate's football is just too cautious, we are wasting real-world-class talent at the moment, we are winning, but this should be way more comfortable.

Bellingham is seriously special. His ceiling genuinely could be one of the greatest players in our history, as long as fans like me and the media don't hype him up too much

You could put us against Serbia under 15s and we would still play cautiously.

England have often suffered with the same issue Maresca ball had vs lower opposition. We switch the play so slowly the opponents have a lifetime to get into position. Can see this being 1-0 or 4-0.

The temptation to make a duplicate of this thread is so strong right now

The way he is currently misleading tens of millions of voters on the NHS reminds me of 2015/16 when on hundreds of occasions he celebrated the Norwegian model, telling us "how awful it would be to be rich and free like the Norwegians", there are so many clips of him planting the Norway deal seed in peoples minds, within days of Leave winning, he claimed he never wanted it, and that he wanted to force the government to take no deal because "no deal is better than a bad deal" (Norway) Frustratingly, he's a good orator, and he knows his voters won't research his claims.

One thing that is annoying me at the moment is the sheer amount of mistruths Nigel Farage is getting away with. He needs someone walking behind him at all times fact checking him. His latest being about the cost of the NHS vs French healthcare. Farage conveniently fails to tell gullible voters, that although it sounds somewhat sensible that we need to change the way we run the NHS because "we spend the same amount as France but get worse results" He fails to tell people that when you compare French Healthcare vs the NHS and adjust the costs for PPP (Purchase power parity) we would actually need to increase our healthcare spending by 20% or about £60bn to match French healthcare spending. On the one hand he's telling everyone you can't just keep throwing money at it, whilst on the other pushing for a system that is 20% more expensive than ours. He knows his voters won't fact-check him, so he's purposely not comparing us to France in relative terms because it's an easy way to convince people they are getting a raw deal to try to shoehorn more privatisation into it.

This, at the end of the day, right now our football club simply has to survive, staying up is part of that process. If Potter successfully uses us as a stepping stone, it more than likely means he kept us up and stabilised us, thus securing the future of the club (potentially). At that point he can give us all the V's as he leaves and will still get my blessing.

Well if we can’t sell players at a profit we might as well sell managers 😂

I get that position, but there is also an argument to say Potter is going to cost us far more than £4m both in the wages he will need over the course of a 3 year deal compared to Corberan, and the wages of his staff, and if we do go down it could cost us more in the long run. Corberan may cost us more upfront, but if we then get hammered by a 10 point deduction and go down, that £4m may end up saving us money. Considering we've just received £10m + compensation for 6 members of staff, I'd personally say go for it and get Corberan in.

Which is probably the area we are potentially weakest and need the most investment. So a manager who can shore up the defence may save us some precious money in the short term. I think with the right system, Kristiansen, Coady, Faes and Ricardo could form quite a solid defence.

Prediction: British public: Lose

Looking at the position we are in, I would doubt there is any manager available that wouldn't raise questions from fans, whether it's Cooper, Potter, Corberan or someone further afield like Hurzeler (will be a real coup for Brighton), all of them will come in with something to prove and a mountain to climb. I would rather we go for Corberan, but i'd be more than content with Potter providing he is fully up for the fight and accepts that he may have to have a season in the championship next year. If he doesn't give us 100% commitment to staying if we go down, then we should be going for Corberan or Cooper and getting this over the line, although there is no football going on, these weeks of freedom would be crucial to an incoming manager trying to prepare us for a points deduction and really analysing the club.

Locking potter is strange, but how has Ancelotti been given 10/3 when he's public rejected us and Reims? Bookies really do pray on the ignorant don't they.

Throw myself off

Do you still have those white trainers?

Ohhh what could have been. What a player he could have been.

Absolutely imperative that we bring in a coach with a track record of promoting young players.