Dan

I think it's really stacked a bit against England in this tournament. We're not a bad team, but the circumstances are poor. Essentially two away games follow DR Congo (assume Norway get knocked out), and then likely a fresh Argentina, and probably France in the final who have come through an easier route to get there than we have. I think if we make the semis we have done very well. If we win it with that route it's a genuinely immense effort, and I think that'll be beyond us.

My god. Absolute brain rot.

Germany are pretty bad. The French should sail into the last 8.

Good of the BBC to release a 45 min video of our preseason training. Hopefully they'll show the Germany Paraguay game in the 2nd half.

Felt inevitable. Good signs for Brazil and deserved win. Japan have been pretty unlucky with their draw in this tournament. That's a 32 team style draw for that round. But history once again repeats itself.

When we were linked with Skipp I rolled my eyes and said "knowing us we'll go and hand them £10mil for him". No matter how bad you think it is, it's always worse.

More fool those who thought anything would change with McCarron there. McCarron was brought in to take the heat off Rudkin and nothing more. He would only have been brought in to enact what those above him want to do anyway rather than being given a chance to shape things his own way. Either that or he was specifically identified as somebody who fits in line with all their bullshit. This is yet another example of ensuring we ourselves take the hit. Rather than taking this rare, lucky opportunity to slightly recover one of their big ****ups, they will instead drag things out to ensure that we pay the full whack, we get a bad, on his way down player that wants to leave the club and recoup either nothing in three years, or a nominal fee in two. They'll never cut their cloth. This is just more of the same bullshit that has put us into this situation in the first place. Stupid decision after stupid decision after stupid decision. Do they ever at any point think that they might have to change their process? The one that has taken us from a top half Premier League club to League One in four years. Get these bums out of the club.

Thought this article was a brilliant read. You've touched on it a little here.

Overlooked because he isn't viewed as a ball player. He's miles better than the likes of Vestergaard and Faes.

Would be a great fit for them.

Had a pretty bad tournament on the whole. Totally summed up by putting money on Jorgen Larsen to score vs France at half time, hoping they would bring Haaland on for him, them not bringing Haaland on for him and then Larsen missing a penalty instantly.

2018/19 probably.

The more time goes on the more I think it is a bit murky.

No I probably would agree and it is mostly the last few months of the season gone where he went off the boil. What I sort of expect is he'll start slowly at his new club. Tielemans and Barnes both did this. Hermansen the same albeit Hermansen joined another bin fire.

I'm pretty convinced in six months time you'll be able to add him to the list of players who 'miraculously' improve after leaving us. It doesn't keep happening by accident.

Scotland surely need basically a miracle now. It was rated as a 50/50 on them qualifying before South Africa and Ecuador's games. Those two were both given about a 15% chance of a win.

Insanely good deal from Forest. Marinakis gets a lot of heat on here (sometimes understandable) but he's really made them a club people don't piss around with. The total opposite of our owner.

It's so hard to look at most of those fixtures and not think "comfortable win". I'm not adjusted to the point of thinking anything otherwise when it's Notts County and Burton. Our first three fixtures have been common pre-season fixtures for us over the years for god sake. Problem is, under Aiyawatt, the one constant is we will fall short of expectation. We've been humbled too many times to just assume we'll batter everyone.

Fallen pretty well for me personally and it often seems to. Only going to two games (Stevenage and Bradford) and both fall in the new year so no clashes. I know it'll be an echo chamber of people saying this but my god seeing some of those names are bleak.

as near to a 50/50 that they go through as possible and they won't know until 5am on Sunday. Amazing.

In all seriousness beyond the very obvious reason, it'd be better for England for Scotland to go out. Mexico will breeze past these. Mexico would go into that last 16 game as fresh as anybody in the tournament.

Complete disgrace of a decision.

It's unforgivable to me that Rudkin can be at the club during the 2013-2019 time and think that going through agents is the way to go in 2026. Like how?

I can't blame them. They were a real mess going into this tournament and have pretty much secured qualification with a game to spare, not conceding a goal. They did really well. I wasn't expecting them to be that well organised. Life under Queiroz for you I guess.

Wonder how many of the 2025/26 team will start the opening game. Kept saying the opener of 2025/26 would contain a minimum of 8 from the season before - think it was 10 out of 11. just double checked. 11 out of 11. It's pathetic. It doesn't keep happening by accident.