Dan

Wonder if this is our equivalent to say when Cooper signed Gibbs-White at Forest.

*laughs in Ruddish*

I did wonder if this summer was the time to shake hands but under Cooper, I can see him being more effective as I don't think he's going to play a style that stifles his game. But whether he can get anywhere close to the levels he was at in the early days under Rodgers remains to be seen. It's probably less about style and as much about fitness. I think you can pin our decline on the pitch around the time he declined. He was a brilliant holding midfielder a few years ago.

They're saving the announcement as a sweetener for the next time they piss us all off

We've made too many stupid moves for me to think we were a fully smart club. There are pitfalls that I think even amateurs could've avoided. The flip side is the ones we've gotten right, on occasion, we have gotten 'so' right beyond any logic. Vardy, Mahrez and Kante for me are three of the best signings in PL history, for the same club to make those all at the same time is something.

I spend a disgraceful amount of time on here and I cannot pay a bigger compliment

It's typical of the FA, bad message to send out again for me, the cycle is fully preserved if England lose the final.

Spain win secured then.

Playing Spanish sides doesn't end well for us, they just kick the shit out of you. Reckon we may do a home one in the run up to the first game but could be wrong.

Would be peak Kane to score a penalty in a 3-1 loss. Golden boot secured and the illusion that he had a good tournament strong as ever while winning no trophy. I've long thought he's a bit of a problem in this side and tonight only reinforces it, no amount of penalties will convince me otherwise. Start Watkins or Toney. Either is fine.

I've slammed us all tournament. We deserved that though 👍

He's gone far enough in this tournament for the case to be made for him to stay as well.

It's nice seeing a genuinely fun side rewarded.

I heard a stat earlier that England have created less this tournament than Georgia and Poland. That's despite Georgia playing 4 games, Poland playing 3, and England playing 5 with two extra times, so actually 5.67 games, nearly double what Poland have played, against weaker opposition than Poland - who are consistently bad in tournaments themselves. People are mistaking what we've been so far for pragmatism. I'd call what Southgate offered in 2018 and 2020 pragmatism. This tournament we've been frankly dire. I don't see what I said in that "England need to substantially improve to win this" was wrong at all. As it happens I fancy France to win the tournament - despite the fact I think Spain have been far better than them so far.

I would call France this time around underwhelming. I'd call England frankly awful. If England retained this level of performance and won the tournament I'd say it's the worst side I've ever seen win a Euros or a World Cup.

The last time we played them in a tournament if you don't include the nations league. Quite like it when you get a fixture like that where you'd expect it happened often but it hasn't. This probably applies to both semis.

I increasingly think Kane is very overrated and that his record of never winning a trophy is not some fluke anomaly.

For my strong scepticism of this ownership, I do find myself agreeing with this. But then who knows - it's not a guarantee. I think we're approaching a level of ineptness where rolling the dice wouldn't be that big a risk. The Vichai point is interesting. I agree with you and I think it's quite an unpopular view, but that being said, I do think he'd have made some sort of changes before now. Even if Rudkin and Whelan survived I fail to believe without his business sense he'd have tweaked something. Top looks very fish out of water to me. I could forgive it somewhat if there wasn't such a hypocritical tone about it all, shake your head at the banners (which were proven totally correct), put out a statement playing the victim after overseeing relegation, but happy to be front and centre of promotion. I don't think these issues are going away.

They got away with one but have they? I think if we stay up this season they have. But we are relegation favourites for pretty good reason.

Bizarrely I think I'm more up for this than 2022/23. I had a proper sense of doom in 2022/23. At least this time the manager is actually going to do his best - even if we are likely to drop.

Koeman at his heart is pragmatic himself. I think he'll not play as openly here as he has done against sides he'd have probably backed them to beat - Poland, Romania, Turkey, even Austria in a game that was a bit of a free hit because they were already through. They drew 0-0 with France in the groups. I'm still inclined to think a low scorer.

My faith has diminished basically beyond repair with this lot as its clear they hold zero standards that they claim to. The non-sacking of Rodgers at so many obvious points in 2022. The backing of him in January 2023 after serving up that he had done which have led to us breaking financial rules. The sacking of him coming at the most useless possible time. The fact those responsible were tasked with marking their own homework and telling us everything was fine. The breaking of financial rules by a mile. The fact you can oversee all of this and everybody responsible is still in place. This is without even mentioning the abysmal fan engagement. It's a badly run operation relying on overperformance from people like Cooper and Glover, and if they do it, those above will feel vindicated despite their blatant mismanagement.

It is quite funny isn't it but he's only a kid to be fair to him. He seems like a goodun.

He was 10 when we won the league

Southgate's strength lies in building a tight knit squad where the players get on, but I think that's simply way too limited to win a tournament. His way works better without expectation. Tactically it's been an absolute car crash, he doesn't carry the strength to make tougher decisions on who should and shouldn't be playing. It's quite clear to me at this point you can't play all of Saka, Foden, Bellingham and Kane - but he's fallen into the shoehorning pitfall that England managers of old have done. There's been little momentum here. It's a complete fluke he's in the semi final with this performance. I've never known luck like it and he's had enough in previous tournaments. 5 points in a weak group yet somehow ends up winning it because all three other games are draws landing us on the kind half of the draw, made even kinder by France blowing it against an already eliminated Poland. Somehow even dodges Holland in the round of 16 due to Georgia beating Portugal and ends up with Slovakia - who are seconds from knocking us out but for a genuinely iconic goal. Moment of magic saves him against Switzerland. I think most tournament winners have ups and downs, they survive their bad days and deliver on their good. England haven't turned in a performance better than 5/10 for me. Teams this bad don't win tournaments. We've got to drastically improve just to beat Holland, let alone France or Spain.