fazzyfox

Many a time I’ve been fully engrossed in a premier league game but been interrupted by the nagging thought that I could instead be tucking into a Yorkshire pudding. Thank You.

Can I change my prediction please? I’d forgotten about Johnson being at Spurs too, forget 0-4, make it a round 5. They have Son, Solanke, Richarlison, Johnson and Madison whilst we’re debating whether to have Cannon or Mavididi up front!

They’ve found Tom Daleys natural replacement for the next Olympics there in Harry Maguire!

The Pleat Pot, a trophy moulded in the image of David Pleats face and a full set of pleated trousers for the winners

A loan rather than buy but Ryan Bennett, that performance away to Spurs in particular It seemed that if he needed to turn and change direction he had to stop and apply for planning permission from the council first. The Dog and Duck third team were missing a substitute as he was here with us trying to help us to qualify for Europe. Bertrand for effort (lack of), one of his away games in Europe for every goal conceded he’s either not in the TV picture at all or just on the edge, walking, jogging, trying to play offside yards out of synch with the rest of the defence. Just looked so casual as if every game was a friendly or a testimonial. Ward, still baffles me that someone on his money, elevated to being a premier league regular starter doesn’t have a grasp (even if he did he’d drop them) on the very basics of positioning, always showing the striker so much of the goal whilst offering secure covering of the side netting. He must have had it once but somehow the rudimental starting point of making it harder for the opponent to score eluded him and as if he was seeing double he covered some imaginary goal yards away from where the actual one was.

I could see two scenarios, firstly that both sides are a bit lukewarm, not quite sharp yet and it’s a gritty deadlock, 0-0. Or……Spurs’ cohesion, infinitely higher wage bill and transfer spend, a manager who has had a year to implement his ideas, the likes of Madison, Son, Solanke and Richarlison running at us for 90+ minutes…..it’ll be 0-4. I stop at 4 as I think they’ll make the full quota of subs to spread game time around and rest starters and lose a bit of momentum. If we had got through those friendlies looking tighter than tight at the back I’d have some hope for option 1 still but they really aren’t giving us much to build a case upon. If we sign a CF, CM/AM and Zaha by then I’ll re-assess . Think it’ll be:- Mads Justin (I’d prefer Ricardo) Faes Koli Kristiansen Ndidi Winks Buonanotte AM Fatawu RW Mavididi (False 9) DeCordova-Reid LW

The Water Polo, always reminds me of my college Leisure & Rec days. Our usual swim / lifeguard training session at St Margaret’s main pool had been cancelled due to an event, instead we lined up at the side of the smaller training pool. “Today we’ll be playing Water Polo” said the Lecturer. I took one look at the ladders down to the water and asked “How do we get the f***ing horses in” in a trigger-esque tone!

One every time Spurs get anywhere near our box. Oh “Shots”, sorry I misread.

He broke all the rules regarding cycling in Paris - no stripy shirt, onions round neck or baguette under arm, blatant disregard of etiquette and tradition, instant disqualification called for,

Declaring it “safe” and expecting people to swim in that river today is in-Seine

I can take some of the things, the tiredness, the problems at LB, the chance that elite opposition flair players may hurt you, that Spain could be better than us, but our own sloppiness, poor passing, poor movement, poor positioning and recovery and the general weirdness of Kanes contribution, not making the necessary forward runs but coming deep to get in the way of Bellingham and Foden (and at times even deeper) are harder to take. Southgates stubborn belief in Kane, Palmer not getting more of Fodens minutes and a reaction of surprise from the camp that we were complaining at a lack of cohesion and momentum make it even worse, we could be so much better.

Me!

Yes Gareth your safety first stuff gets you so far but we arrive at big games with no fluency or powerful momentum after submitting the inferior opposition in earlier rounds to death by suffocation, when your bar is set to doing just enough you can’t afford an off day against better opposition.If your standards are higher from day 1 it’s a bigger and unimaginable drop to collapse at the final hurdle, we didn’t do that as we had never reached full stride all tournament.

And it is not about this 1 game, we missed the opportunity to build momentum, fluidity, cohesion, confidence, partnerships, systems and more in the earlier games. We wasted friendlies and qualifiers not bedding in obvious talents earlier whilst calling up Jordan Henderson and Harry Maguire. The country cried out for a more mobile CF to start and it was ignored. Forget coping or not coping with Spains attacking threat why did Rices distribution go completely AWOL?

Why did we field an immobile CF for the first 60 minutes, waste of a shirt.

I’m not crying it’s hay fever

Get in there get in there Brilliant!

“Kane hasn’t been able to run in behind tonight”. He hasn’t all tournament!

Pint for Stones

Of course we’ll have to defend well too but if Bellingham, Saka and Foden are on top form we can do this . Foden due a massive moment, could it be his day?

Do you think they’ll let me join the trophy parade? I could go full John Terry FKW mode despite not being involved in the game. And the prize? Inflatable dinosaur? Season ticket card insurance (it’s worth £25 apparently)? £5 concourse voucher (A Bovril or half a sausage)? I’m on my way to food poison the Spain squad and let off fireworks outside their hotel in the early hours of Sunday. It’s coming home!

There will be no need for a settling in period, he knows us, we know him, he knows the league, we know what we're getting. Yes, you can expect him to miss a chunk of games each season and that is usually followed by a period of rustiness upon return but if we get a good 65%-70% of a season out of him each year and Hamza's around to cover then it's a position (presuming back to DM but ) that we don't have to worry about now.

We offered the midfielder a 3 year deal to sign. Ndidi? Yes he did! Welcome back Wilf, you were missed.