Your profile says you are 55.
Your profile says you are 55.
I never got the sense we would win it. We still hadn't qualified for a tournament in six years and everything was out of hope rather than expectation.
Yeah. I never thought we’d beat Germany. I was just ingrained to think they would always beat us.
The weight and timing on that pass from Bergkamp for the Dutch goal was incredible.
Messi Lingard > Messi.
I’m surprised he was able to turn on the camera, let alone multiply.
The smiley threw me off and it took me a minute to be sure the answer was actually correct. So the English Messi donned me too.
I've avoided spoilers in here to watch it this morning. Hoping we can win...
ince's pirouette for the penalty was lovely.
Filthy touch.
Sheringham controlling the play in the final third. Anderton looks out of his depth.
What games are scheduled today?
None of that midfield five including the wing backs seem great other than in flashes. In some cases that's people being played in wrong positions but none of them have looked consistently good in what I've seen.
@Manc Today it's Croatia / Portugal and Turkey / Denmark.
Looking through Euro 96 squads fairly regularly and spotted Moreno Torricelli was given the no.9. Italy got what they deserved. Arguably a ban of some description would have been apt.
When I found out about the old Argentina shirt numbering system for World Cup squads (expired in, I dunno, 1990?) I thought that we maybe didn't go far enough in the Falklands War and should have seized Patagonia for good measure. It was simply: alphabetical order for all squad members, except the designated 'maestro' would be given number 10 regardless of surname, and the starting striker would get 11.
1986 for example:
1 Almirón (a centre forward)
2 Batista
3 Bochini
...
8 Clausen (a full back)
9 Cuciuffo (reserve centre half)
10 Maradona
11 Valdano
12 Enrique
etc.
The three goalkeepers were 15, 18 and 22.
Bergkamp having a shocker.
Croatia v Portugal is a must.
Just don't let it happen again, okay?
Also I think I might just prefer that demented "numbering players in alphabetical order" thing than a religion-like devotion to what qualities a player should have.
1 - goalkeeper (fat, only saves and kicks)
2 - functional 5 ft 7 right back, preferably bald
3 - left back who gets forward and is an 'option from set pieces'
4 - rugged terrier at the back of midfield, often booked
5 - 6 ft 5 stopper with an IQ under 35
6 - the glamour defender, good-looking bull of a man, arguably with dark secrets. Captain
7 - whippy right footer with eccentric hairstyle and skills to burn
8 - the have a go hero of the team, with his 'engine' and his urge to shoot from range
9 - carthorse
10 - mercurial sub 6ft talent with deep, dark eyes
11 - fast winger who claims to be 'two-footed' but really always cuts onto his right
If all teams followed this then football would be much better.
I agree (with the exception of 11 because every player cutting inside is tedious) but less because I care about who has what number and more because I approve of 442 due to it being the objectively correct formation for anybody who isn't a wanker.
I'm just trying to be realistic. Ideally of course nobody would ever beat a defender on the inside, and every cross would be a raking outswinger from the by-line, powered home by the head of Les Ferdinand or Alan Shearer. But I don't think we can live in that world.
Fine, accept being in the darkest timeline then. Your choice.
Wow, Ally McCoist's goal is bloody good.
Speaking of Ferdinand, actually, I'd entirely forgotten him being in the France 98 squad until I looked it up earlier.
Scotland were genuinely brilliant. So bloody harsh to go out on GD.
In other news (that no one cares about, and I may have been through already, although there was a fresh statement today), League One is turning into a shitstorm. Obviously ideally the season will be finished behind closed doors, but many teams are now against completing it. Null and void seems to be a no-go, which means something in between is the only outcome.
The biggest issue is probably around promotion/play-offs, with so many teams separated by so few points. Recently, it seemed that a weighted points per game system could be used, but today it's emerged that the most likely outcome is a more simple points per game process. There was also a proposal that the eight teams tightly locked near the top (most of whom would like to continue the season) could form some kind of breakaway play-off structure, but that seems to have been more or less dismissed today.
The teams with nothing to play for don't seem to care, and the teams that could go up all want whatever suits their own club the best, as you can imagine. To put it into context, out of form Wycombe are currently eighth, yet one proposal would see them jump to third, and another would see them in fourth. Peterborough miss out on the top six in one scenario, Portsmouth miss out on the other.
None of it is really 'fair', but what can you do?
Nullify the league or wait until you can play safely in front of crowds.
Nullifying supposedly isn't being considered, and waiting until crowds can go back would potentially cripple clubs financially.
As a completely selfless and impartial fan of a League One Club they need to null and void the shit out of this season.
I don't think it'll be null and voided, nor will relegation be scrapped so I imagine Southend and Bolton will be relegated.
This throws up another clusterfuck when you consider Bolton's situation. First of all imagine they were deducted points but then allowed to survive. It was bad enough with the expulsion of Bury, but Bolton actually played the first couple of months with no players, conceding 20 in their first five games. That skewed things as it is, even more so now.
I don't think football realistically return until the numbers are way, way down. Autumn at best, basically.
How are league one and two teams planning on operating next season without any ticket money? Surely that's the bulk of income gone?
I think that's one of the issues with trying to draw this season out as long as possible too; the financial constraints are too much for some teams to cope. There's talk about a wage cap next season which could help, but to be honest there are lots of clubs in a bit of trouble.
Swindon have just been promoted and something has come out about their financial situation.
On a more important note, I think I'll watch Croatia - Portugal tonight and save the Turkey game for the morning.
I *think* it's an ownership issue, rather than financial. Supposedly Gareth Barry and Michael Standing have a 50% stake in the club but agents and players can't own clubs, raising the issue of have we broken any football league rules surrounding ownership. I personally think Lee Power is savvy enough to have covered his backside, especially as the term 'verbal agreements' has been bandied about. But you can guarantee if the league find we've broken or bent any rules there'll be a demotion coming our way. But I don't need to tell a Sunderland fan about that!
Loving the Figo goal within the first 2 minutes. Shabba.
Takeover looks complete. Hopefully there's an official announcement tomorrow.
Unlucky. Your club is dead.
I’d say they won’t have been as live in years as they’re going to be.
Newcastle. More like Newsandcastle. Yeah?
Now you're getting it.
Being owned by the Saudi's is awful.
Is that how it works?
United are owned by parasites but I doubt they've directly killed anyone.
I wish people would stop beating the Saudi murderers drum.
It’s gonna be fucking boss seeing Ronaldo in the black and white stripes.
I'm a twit
Go for it. Cheers on a murderous regime because football is more important.
Has to be deliberate because someone who I assume is of relatively high intelligence couldn’t be that blinkered.