ClaphamFox

Gut-wrenching story. A rejected ex-boyfriend of one of the daughters...?

Because she is the Princess of Hearts and she watches over you every single moment of every day

Who's saying that? I'm not sure many people think we can beat Spain even if we get past the Netherlands...

We are not going to be hit with a 12-point deduction.

Apparently Trippier will be at LB.

Rodri, 34 Yamal, 76 Laporte, 89 (OG) Cucurella, 90+5 (OG) France win on penalties.

Doesn't look thrilled to be back. I'm sure he'll cheer up when Kristiansen returns, though

This remains my favourite night as an England fan. An incredible performance. Weirdly our 0-0 draw against the Netherlands was arguably our best performance of Italia ‘90. Everybody thought they were vastly superior to us but we went toe-to-toe with them. Our narrow wins against Egypt, Belgium and Cameroon were less impressive, I felt.

Oh give over. Sven’s ‘golden generation’ couldn’t get past a quarter final in three tournaments. They then contrived to fail to qualify for Euro 2008 and stunk the place out in South Africa in 2010. The current lot have got to three semi-finals in four tournaments and have a good chance of reaching a second consecutive Euro final. By any sane rationale, our current team is objectively better than the one of the 2000s.

The French are laughing at us, you say? The same French that haven't even scored a single goal from open play in five games? And the Dutch who came third in the group and easily could have gone out to Turkey on Saturday? Even Spain needed an own goal to beat a woeful Italy team. Let them laugh. Why should we give one solitary **** what any of them think?

But if sitting tight means he'd prefer to miss pre-season with us while he waits around for somebody else to come in for him, that should probably tell us something.

The sentence in the article reads: "Cooper and Glover are aiming to strike a balance between young talent and experience, with the emphasis more on signing players who already know the league." This seems totally sensible to me. If we went all in on youth from the lower divisions and PL under-23 squads, we'd be taking a massive risk that would likely end in failure. Surely it's better to strike a balance between promising young players and those who have already proven they can cut it in the PL and can show the younger players how it's done? They won't necessarily have to be 'journeymen' - sometimes you can pick up quality PL players from the bigger clubs who want a bit more first team action or just need a fresh start. Albrighton is a good example of this. Also Harry Winks. Re: wages, the club has worked hard to bring the wage bill down over the past few seasons. It may be easy to assume that they're going to make exactly the same mistakes all over again because, you know, Rudkin or something, but I suspect they won't. Either way, your response to a sentence which literally just said that we'll be trying to strike a blend between youth and experience (which nearly all successful teams do) seemed a little over-the-top

That's it, though. In those other cases, the fees paid for unproven youth players were clearly massively inflated. That's not the case with Golding, so I'm not convinced our purchase of him can be dismissed as a 'PSR fiddle', as claimed above. I also remember reading somewhere that we would have gone after Golding even if the KDH deal fell through, which implies our interest in him was genuine.

Weren't they separate deals though?

I think it means it was to help Chelsea meet their PSR target. But given the low fee involved, it's hard to imagine it helped them that much.

Chelsea fans seem to regard him as their brightest youth prospect and are gutted he's gone. That's also encouraging.

Other reports have suggested the same. I don't think we need to worry about a second breach now. It's just a matter of what we'll get for the 22-23 breach.

Where does it say that : a) we're targeting 'journeymen'; and b) that we're offering 'stupid wages'?

The article was encouraging. Not just because it seems there is definitely money to spend, but also with regards to Cooper's determination to understand the club and the city. Also good news that we're apparently not interested in O'Hare.

Good news.

A little bit more on Man City's challenge to the PL... https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jul/08/manchester-city-claim-premier-league-analysis-commercial-income-unfair

Toney is a better player. But it’s pretty academic as there is literally no chance Southgate will drop Kane.

Prior to playing us, Switzerland had been 1-0 up against Germany until injury time and had played Italy off the park. They’re a very good side. Although England weren’t very exciting to watch, I thought we were significantly better than in previous games. We looked a lot more comfortable with the new shape, which was a major positive. And as for your assertion that teams that are very underwhelming in the early rounds never go on to win those tournaments, I suggest you brush up on your tournament history. It happens all the time.

It’s impressive how many people know the club’s finances better than the club does, and are in a position to definitively state who we can and cannot afford. You lot should get on the phone to Top asap and let him know before it’s too late…