Only in England could you see a comment like this.

Actor Ned Beatty of 'Deliverance' and 'Superman' dies at 83

https://us.cnn.com/2021/06/13/us/ned-be ... index.html

It's called schoolyard politics. What you'd expect from a 9 year old. Imo he's regressing and going back to his favourite I am 6.

Still think covid is a hoax and over reaction mr “get off my island” ?

Had your jab yet? Did you feel the irony as you were getting it?

It was an entertaining 2nd half, I agree with sourpuss Roy Keane that the Dutch won't be going far in the tournament with that defence though.
With England I was most happy with the clean sheet and lack of any clear cut chances or proper saves for Pickford. If England have ambitions on winning the Euro's is has to be based on defence. People talk about all the attacking talent we have (and that is true) but this is pretty much 7 games of knock out football. When Spain won the Euros or World Cup I think they won every knock out game 1-0. Even when teams are coming down the stretch in a tight title race the results turn in to 1-0 wins rather than anything too expansive.
Without getting too far ahead of ourselves England's route if they win the group looks to be
R2 Portugal/Germany
QF Spain
SF Netherlands/Turkey
F Italy/France

I don't think the dutch team will win it all - they lack firepower up front and without Van Dijk they'll get exposed defensively. But I have to give them credit; even now when they've had a downward trajectory for a number of years, they're still entertaining to watch. I've been following football since the early 90s and there have been very few international tournaments where the Netherlands haven't been one of the bright spots.

Who knocks Belgium out? You didn’t even mention them as possible opponents in any round?

I was born in Scotland to Scottish parents, although I’ve lived in England for over 50 years. That said, the excruciating bluster I’m hearing before the Czech game, over confidence and lack of respect for the opposition, is leading me to expect the usual letdown. We’ll see.

Thanks for sharing, Warrior. Quite a career, and that scene is a stone cold classic

Ned Beatty's defining scene in that movie is not quite as giddy though...

Oops. Horrible second goal to concede.

That was so typically Scotland. Great strike though.

Took it brilliantly. Shame that we don’t get to see Tierney. Injured again.

I suppose he must be. At this point, given that Scotland don't have a prayer, I'd like to see him resting up for next season.

That Schick guy for the Czechs looks handy.

Think that's pretty common for smaller nations to be honest, I see a lot of simliar talk about Sweden's game tonight where some seem to expect a win. To me this Swedish team has a couple of interesting young attacking players but a pretty terrible defense. And when the defense isn't good, it usually doesn't bode well.

We have Frank de Boer as manager, nuff said.

Although with that name Decaf might fancy us.

It was always going to end in tears for the jocks, sadly. Always has, and seemingly always will

The Scots really do take the biscuit, though.

Edit: it will be very very funny if they beat England, however.

Not a chance in hell of that happening I’m afraid. Could be a proper hiding if England are in the mood.

Potentially Italy knocking them out in the QF on that side of the draw. I'm not convinced by Belgium's defence - but if they player each other I can see that Belgium v Italy could go either way

Ive read Marcel Sabitzer could be available for as little as £15m from Leipzig because he has 1 year left on his deal. I don't think you could find a better value for money signing for the attacking midfield position for us in Europe. Buedia at £40m or Sabitzer at £15m. No comparison

I'd agree. If he is available for 15m.

Potentially Italy knocking them out in the QF on that side of the draw. I'm not convinced by Belgium's defence - but if they player each other I can see that Belgium v Italy could go either way[/quote]

All Martinez's teams were shaky at the back.

Can your boys hang on Haz?

I called the Netherlands a bright spot in the tournament, and whatever the opposite of that is it's Sweden. At least Isak looked good, but of course he was subbed off with 20 minutes to go for being way to good with the ball.

Absolutely dominating the clearance stat. Spain don't stand a chance.

The big yellow bus nearly there. I hope you get the point.

Was cheering for Spain at the end. We had one good player on the pitch, and he was subbed off for a player with worse technique than Igor Stepanovs, I hate those kind of subs that are supposedly tactical but are really just dumb.

Well you got a 0-0 that looked unlikely earlier on so it is not as dumb as you think. I thought Sweden's defensive performance was top notch. Danielson was excellent and Seb Larssson was everywhere.

Not sure how that relates to subbing off a striker who was the only player who can hold on to the ball and who created our only two scoring chances. It was 0-0 with him on the pitch as well.

Oi jolly trolly when did I say covid is a hoax?

Both thank you did you have one in your ass, did it hit your brain?

Is that why you keep playing the fool?

Reports in Belgium (and repeated by David Ornstein) that we have made a first offer for Belgian midfielder Sambi Lokonga. Don't know much about him other than the fact that he's 21, plays for Anderlecht and recieved his first call-up to the national team earlier this year. Looks interesting, but he's probably a bit of a project.

Hi Haz,

A few rumours of us making opening bids for players. Whether we are serious or just making a few lowish speculative offers to see if anything sticks is hard to tell.

With the euros and Copa America ongoing it may be weeks before we are able to close some of the deals we want.

Lokonga looks an interesting prospect and with the right age and enough experience to be worth a punt on.

The talk is the opening offer was 15m euros and Anderlecht want 20m euros. I know money is tight but if we're seriously after the player that isn't too big a gap to bridge.

Have many deals been done by anyone, full stop. Apart from a few free transfers. Even the Xhaka one seems to be stalling over the fee.

The Ajax keeper one has gone a bit quiet too.

This one was reported by the local press in Belgium I think, which makes me think it's more likely to be something in the reports. I do like Lokongas profile, if we add him and someone more established who can start right away to replace Xhaka we have some interesting midfield options going into the new season.

Would make sense, although you’d have to think Willock might be sacrificed. I think with his ability to score goals from central midfield (a rarely these days) he ought to be kept.

I'm very torn about Willock. On one hand, he's an academy product and you always want to see those players succeed at the club. His goalscoring record from midfield is hard to look past. On the other hand, I have a hard time seeing him in a midfield two, which seems to be the way we'll play for the forseeable future, and his value is probably at a peak right now. We did the right thing when we let Iwobi go, so maybe it's time to do the same with Willock.

I think there's a chance we might go big this summer. Before the season ended I firmly believed we wouldn't sign more than 2, maybe 3 players for the first team, but all the noises coming out from the more reliable sources (those who seem to have some connections with the club) I'm thinking we might see 5-6. Not all of them will be for big money, but there seems to be a big overhaul on the cards.