The Euro's 2020(21) Thread.

[Newmarket]

Say what you like about my opinions but fickle I ain’t.

OK, they are shite then

Did you forget the smilie on the end ?

[only1salty]

Your sunny disposition is like listening to someone who smoked far too much weed

If you accept defeat fine. Personally I prefer to look at the opportunity as a massive miss and for next time to be any better you need more than faith.

You need to remove those that have either reached their glass ceiling or focus too much on outside influences to really achieve the highest level. To be a top sportsperson your life has to be dedicated to it.

Ferguson was arguably the greatest manager in my lifetime. Any time a player, no matter how skillful, got ideas above his station - he dropped them

Lingard entered this tournament in the form of his life - Rashford certainly did not. We lack any form of creativity in midfield and yet we bring a half fit Henderson and tell Maddison to sit on his arse.

There are mistakes all round and these should be called out in order to improve.

Dont recall mentioning Lingard and that there was nothing wrong at all so maybe its you on the weed.

I am just realistic. They had a better team than us and we overachieved by reaching a final and taking them to pens. In 18 months time, we will be a better side. Maybe we will do better, maybe we won't but Germany and France recently proved that a near miss can be a foundation on which to build a trophy two years later.

Someone said Sancho was the best player in the Bundesliga through England tinted glasses...he wasn't of course (Haaland and Lewandowski might have something to say about that) but how do we know he would have been better than Sterling who was superb in the tournament and shit at Man City last season.

I did not say you spoke about Lingard. I was illustrating that Southgate made a mistake by taking a distracted and ineffective Rashford (who was also injured it now turns out) instead of an in-form Lingard who had something to prove. We also took an injured Henderson instead of a creative midfielder like Maddison or JWP who can actually make the unexpected pass that Rice, Phillips and Henderson don't.

They did not have the better team than us and the majority opinion is we had a piss easy draw and the final was actually expected - so not an over achievement. The continual commentary throughout the knock out stages was we will never get this easy a run again.

Croatia had a near miss at the World Cup and did fuck all 3 years later at the euros. The bottom line is I do not subscribe to the blind faith in Southgate who has been developing a young group of players for 5 years.

We might do well at the World Cup and I hope we do but in my opinion our focus is too much on stopping the opposition and not enough on beating them and until that balance shifts we will always be not quite there.

[Whiskyman]

OK so ficjkle may have been the wrong choice of words. But it does seem that you didn't fully enjoy last season because your perception was that our football was dull and uninspiring. Have I got that right ?

Fact is that Moyes does what Moyes does. I don't see that his style of play has changed much from his days at Everton. And of course there were days when the football was dire. Brighton at home for me being the day we really scraped the bottom of the barrel. But overall surely you can agree that in many of our games last season we played some very watchable stuff ?

I unreservedly apologise for calling you fickle. I will rephrase and say you are not fickle, but you are one curmudgeonly cunt.

Is that better ?

I had to google that .

Yeah I spose your right there
I agree with most of what you said tbf , there was some good stuff last season .
I only found some of it dull & uninspiring.

Moyes does my fucking head in when faced with the top 5 ie the Sky 6 minus you-know-who .

We lost most of em anyway so why not try to win em ?
I can’t be arsed tbh to go into each match but his approach to some of them , and of course the inexplicable Brighton shambles , was unforgivable to me .

That other cunt Sullivan must share the blame with his lack of quality recruitment though .

And finally …

We ain’t going to get better than Moyes at the minute , I know that much , but some of his in-game management and substations/tactics makes me want to stick cocktail sticks in my eyes.

Same with Southgate but he has No fucking excuses as the talent was there in that squad for all to see.

I don't think we're miles apart on this. As you say Moyes is our level. As good as we are likely to get under the present ownership. My main gripe is our game management. We have an alarming inability to retain posession when trying to see out the last 10/15 minutes or so. A massive hoof upfield and back it comes. I hate that because it simply invites more and more pressure. FFS even 15 year olds know that, never mind blokes who do it as a living and those who coach them.

Anyhow I think you will find there will be plenty of criticism of Moyes next season when, as I expect, the grounds are full again and the boo boys are back in town. I enjoyed last season but unfortunately think it may well prove to be a blip than a portent of better things over the horizon.

Time will tell I guess. And hopefully time will prove me wrong.

[hd1]

Did you forget the smilie on the end ?

It wasn't funny

[h69]

Dont recall mentioning Lingard and that there was nothing wrong at all so maybe its you on the weed.

I am just realistic. They had a better team than us and we overachieved by reaching a final and taking them to pens. In 18 months time, we will be a better side. Maybe we will do better, maybe we won't but Germany and France recently proved that a near miss can be a foundation on which to build a trophy two years later.

Someone said Sancho was the best player in the Bundesliga through England tinted glasses...he wasn't of course (Haaland and Lewandowski might have something to say about that) but how do we know he would have been better than Sterling who was superb in the tournament and shit at Man City last season.

I did not say you spoke about Lingard. I was illustrating that Southgate made a mistake by taking a distracted and ineffective Rashford (who was also injured it now turns out) instead of an in-form Lingard who had something to prove. We also took an injured Henderson instead of a creative midfielder like Maddison or JWP who can actually make the unexpected pass that Rice, Phillips and Henderson don't.

They did not have the better team than us and the majority opinion is we had a piss easy draw and the final was actually expected - so not an over achievement. The continual commentary throughout the knock out stages was we will never get this easy a run again.

Croatia had a near miss at the World Cup and did fuck all 3 years later at the euros. The bottom line is I do not subscribe to the blind faith in Southgate who has been developing a young group of players for 5 years.

We might do well at the World Cup and I hope we do but in my opinion our focus is too much on stopping the opposition and not enough on beating them and until that balance shifts we will always be not quite there.

Croatia did not have a young team like Germany, France and us though so that is not a correct analogy I am afraid. Their squad was aging at the World Cup and probably at the end of the journey, we are at the beginning of ours.

Love though the comments about 'we were expected to get to the final' like that means it was always going to happen. Shame you can't even give the squad credit for getting to the Final as France were expected to win but didnt manage it.

Its the age old story on this site in my opinion 'The West Ham Way' and all that bollocks trotted out by dinosaurs referring to a game that has changed and they have not changed with it. France had a gung ho approach like and went home early. Explain why they or Portugal did not win it with that approach.

Lingard was not really in form by the end of the season. I agree about Maddison though and I never said Rashford was worth his place but Foden, Sancho and Saka certainly were and all had parts to play. You can't pick everyone. Sterling was terrible for Man City last season yet delivered for us.

I dont expect people to necessarily agree with me but it is not blind faith. I appreciate the whole game including defensive play and the fact that we were strong at the back and there have been numerous managers over the years that always built successful teams on strong defences.

If you want to sit and whine about this for the next 2 years then go for it but so many people in the game now are encouraged by what we have. Shame you are not. Who would you have as manager then ?

By the way, Southgate has not been developing all of those players for 5 years. FFS, Bellingham and Saka were teenagers when he took over.

I am not saying we will win the World Cup but I do have faith in the only manager in my lifetime that has got us to a final and luckily it seems most of the country seems to be the same.

Italy had a team that have not been beaten in 34 matches with a world class defensive duo with over 200 caps and players in midfield that are quality......'but they were not better than us' Try and be gracious once in a while and credit Italy for playing well all through the tournament rather than assume it was because we were shit.

Lets hope James Ward-Prowse takes us to World Cup glory with a 1-5-4 formation for your sake or you have years of misery ahead watching us attack with no defensive acumen and lose games like we have for the last 55 years.

[Newmarket]

Did you forget the smilie on the end ?

It wasn't funny

Stop being a Cunt then .

It’s not as if I accused you of being a Sully Nosher or anything.

[JayK]

Initially I was surprised we even got out the group and just as surprised we beat Germany. Yeah Germany ain’t the force of old but we didn’t look like Italy in our group. More like we stumbled out of it in 1st place.

Thought we’d beat Ukraine and to a less extent Denmark and by then I thought the cunting thing was coming home having seen the Spanish show Italy were less immortal than I 1st thought.

I was with you Jay , until you mentioned Spain showing up Italy as being less immortal and thinking the cup was coming home , "Southgate" did not manage Spain in that match my friend .

No you are quite right Clay. Was just a case of me thinking Italy were invincible til they met Spain so I thought we had zero hope. Seeing Spain give them a game with a dogshit striker gave me false hope

[palerider]

The Holy waistcoat saw us go a goal up early doors and shat his frillies. That wasn't in the plan. His masterstroke was to 'grow into the game'.

Obviously not Italy's either as up until half time they were there for the taking if we'd have thrown caution to the wind and gone for broke. But not this boring cunt. Plan A's out of the window but who cares. Go over the top and charge naked at Gerry. Or Roberto in this case.

However, Roberto is a shrewd tactician who knew what changes to implement and when.

It's sickening the abuse that Rashford, Sancho and Saka have taken. I don't know if any of the senior players or Grealish said they didn't fancy taking a penalty or not. At least they stood up to be counted.

But it should never have got that far. Yet to me it almost seemed we were playing for them.

'Sir' Gareth Southgate ? For putting a smile back into the country ?

Fuck right off. I wasn't smiling. The best chance in 55 years against a bang average team without their best player and the cunt bottled it.

I was away for a few days on holiday. I'd found a pub in Cowes showing the game, managed to get a table and it was all set. A great crowd, no silly fuckers and jubilation awaited. I was even drinking shots with the youngsters ffs. I've not been as disappointed as the time they ran out brasso at Tesco.

At least the cabbie turned up and I was saved a four hour trek back in the rain when completely wankered.

The limp-wristed tosser should be shown the door not rewarded for failure. Second place means you lost. But the kow-towing old shitcunts afraid of being politically incorrect will extend the cunt's contract. And we'll be singing that fucking Coming Home song again in Qatar until the Quarter Finals when a team managed by a bloke without the tactical awareness of a clothes horse sends us packing.

[Brookbonds73]

The Holy waistcoat saw us go a goal up early doors and shat his frillies. That wasn't in the plan. His masterstroke was to 'grow into the game'.

Obviously not Italy's either as up until half time they were there for the taking if we'd have thrown caution to the wind and gone for broke. But not this boring cunt. Plan A's out of the window but who cares. Go over the top and charge naked at Gerry. Or Roberto in this case.

However, Roberto is a shrewd tactician who knew what changes to implement and when.

It's sickening the abuse that Rashford, Sancho and Saka have taken. I don't know if any of the senior players or Grealish said they didn't fancy taking a penalty or not. At least they stood up to be counted.

But it should never have got that far. Yet to me it almost seemed we were playing for them.

'Sir' Gareth Southgate ? For putting a smile back into the country ?

Fuck right off. I wasn't smiling. The best chance in 55 years against a bang average team without their best player and the cunt bottled it.

The limp-wristed tosser should be shown the door not rewarded for failure. Second place means you lost. But the kow-towing old shitcunts afraid of being politically incorrect will extend the cunt's contract. And we'll be singing that fucking Coming Home song again in Qatar until the Quarter Finals when a team managed by a bloke without the tactical awareness of a clothes horse sends us packing.

Now now my compadre, I suspect that the after effects of 6 quarts of brush cleaner and that box of rat repellent have hit you hard. I agree wholeheartedly that Princess Anne boxers were full of shat when the pizza molesters drew level, but fear not he will guide us forward in Qatar.
It's written in the stars. We shall pulverise Cambodia, Nepal and Chad in the group stages. And waltz our way to the final against Argentina where we will put that pygmy, Messi, firmly in his place.
Just remember those summer days we used to have in Broadmoor my dear friend and the daily ritual of setting fire to the illegals.
Chin up, Dunkirk n all that.

[palerider]

The Holy waistcoat saw us go a goal up early doors and shat his frillies. That wasn't in the plan. His masterstroke was to 'grow into the game'.

Obviously not Italy's either as up until half time they were there for the taking if we'd have thrown caution to the wind and gone for broke. But not this boring cunt. Plan A's out of the window but who cares. Go over the top and charge naked at Gerry. Or Roberto in this case.

However, Roberto is a shrewd tactician who knew what changes to implement and when.

It's sickening the abuse that Rashford, Sancho and Saka have taken. I don't know if any of the senior players or Grealish said they didn't fancy taking a penalty or not. At least they stood up to be counted.

But it should never have got that far. Yet to me it almost seemed we were playing for them.

'Sir' Gareth Southgate ? For putting a smile back into the country ?

Fuck right off. I wasn't smiling. The best chance in 55 years against a bang average team without their best player and the cunt bottled it.

The limp-wristed tosser should be shown the door not rewarded for failure. Second place means you lost. But the kow-towing old shitcunts afraid of being politically incorrect will extend the cunt's contract. And we'll be singing that fucking Coming Home song again in Qatar until the Quarter Finals when a team managed by a bloke without the tactical awareness of a clothes horse sends us packing.

Now now my compadre, I suspect that the after effects of 6 quarts of brush cleaner and that box of rat repellent have hit you hard. I agree wholeheartedly that Princess Anne boxers were full of shat when the pizza molesters drew level, but fear not he will guide us forward in Qatar.
It's written in the stars. We shall pulverise Cambodia, Nepal and Chad in the group stages. And waltz our way to the final against Argentina where we will put that pygmy, Messi, firmly in his place.
Just remember those summer days we used to have in Broadmoor my dear friend and the daily ritual of setting fire to the illegals.
Chin up, Dunkirk n all that.