Baba

Somebody must have spoken to the media for them to have known he'd handed in a request. It won't have been anybody from the club.

Looks like Belgium are starting to peak at just the right time. Lukaku had a decent game, did all of the stuff that most criticise him for not doing enough (hold up, link play, making runs and keeping busy) but didn't manage to do the thing that many rate him for by scoring. The service to him wasn't great and ironic that the one ball he'd been waiting all game for arrived a couple of minutes after he'd gone off and Batshuayi was the beneficiary instead! Seems cemented as first choice every game now though, so that will only push the price up. I was expecting some of the others to be sharing starts, Benteke, Batshuayi etc. but they've barely had a look in.

Joking aside, it's not inconceivable that a closer political/ economic alliance with USA might come out of this, though it's difficult to see what you might get from that in comparison with how we'd benefit. USA is fairly self sustaining in comparison to UK, so relies far less on imports than we do. As long as Trump was nowhere near DC then it wouldn't be a bad thing IMO. We'd have to negotiate our being the 1st state rather than 51st though...

To expand upon previous responses, EU and Europe are two entirely separate aspects, though it's easy to understand how those outside of Europe might not be clear on this. To leave Europe, and thus not be eligible for UEFA and CL participation, we'd have to literally remove our islands and physically relocate them to another continent. Even then we might still be eligible for CL, Israeli teams being an example of European Champs League not being entirely European. An analogy would be the USA leaving NATO. If they were to do so, it doesn't mean that they would be moving away from the North Atlantic....

He ignores the fact that two of the three that he's scored were huge goalkeeping errors. I've thought that Bale has been poor in this tournament. Rooney has been excellent however.

I think the stats just said that it was only one attempt actually on target. Henderson was poor I thought, and his last contribution when everyone was stood inside the Slovak box with 10 seconds left was a backpass. Sums England's creativity and urgency up. A half decent team will put them out of their misery in the first knock out round.

Agreed 100% and the sooner it happens the better. I fear that we'll be stuck with him for at least another season though with Barry replacement being deemed higher priority.

In fairness, and impartially, Wales lost over the course of the whole game on balance of play (not solely possession) and it was more a case of it taking England until the 92nd minute to make their superiority finally count on the scoresheet. I'd expect that they'll be disappointed that they didn't play as well as they can, and that they didn't really have the greater passion that they'd suggested they would have.

Head like a 50 pence piece again just now. He's not the only striker to have had a poor start to the tournament though, with Lukaku, Kane and many others being as bad/ worse. End of season effect perhaps - not so much for Rom and Giroud as Kane; those pair have been off since ~ March. Kane only more recently since Spurs meltdown against Chelsea.

He's a fairly prolific finisher though, and he didn't attempt to get into positions where he could get on the end of chances. The corners and free kicks thing is a Royism so Kane can't take any blame for that, but he could've tried harder to be the focal point in open play far more instead of Rooney having to do so. He links up well, out wide and with back to goal, agreed - far better than Lukaku, but that's nothing new.

Yep, 100%. At least he's showing for the ball, Kane appeared to be avoiding it. No touch in the opposition area in the entire 90 minutes must be rare, if not unheard of. Doesn't mean that Lukaku hasn't been poor though, but not Kane poor. Even Spurs fans were saying it, and they are notorious for not calling out their players - especially one of their own.

According to Shearer, Kane didn't have a single touch in the opposition area in the entire match against Russia so no, Lukaku hasn't been that bad. Belgium full backs haven't been fizzing balls in to and across the box like Walker and Rose etc. were either, yet at least.

Yes, that was a poor decision at a critical time. Rooney had worked very hard though, so maybe had recovery for the next game in mind, because we'll need him at his best then more than ever now.

Yes, he should have brought Vardy on. When the Spurs forums are slating Kane's performance throughout the game, you know it must be bad. He's one of their own.

Why are england happy to invite pressure onto their defence when not in possession instead of closing down, defending from the front. It's like watching us last season, though they are creating opportunity to counter with their pace by doing so, so maybe a tactic.

He does look hung over tonight, don't know what the problem is. Has seemed to have been missing for most of the game and hasn't even been in the box on most occasions when the ball has been played in, game does need an injection of urgency and Vardy could provide that. Rooney has been sitting in the midfield role and has been the one along with Sterling who has been showing in the box as well - he must be knackered!

On the evidence of this game, England won't need to worry too much about Wales or Slovakia, so maybe tonight's tie with Russia is the clincher. Tidy play from both teams at times, and Wales strength is that they play as a team, but neither side have got much.

The Slovakia keeper is either on Wales payroll or has taken a bung from a syndicate surely. That freekick was terrible wrt placement, but he did his best to avoid it - or at least that's what it looked like.

Intention was a more general reference to midfield than CM with that second statement mentioning Sheedy, and yes Bracewell is an unintentional omission but don't have the benefit of good first hand recollection of the early and mid 80s.

Off-piste comment but just noticed in the outro/ intro bit that they have either side of the adverts with the star players animated on a billboard, that Gareth Bale looks nothing like the Toby jug reality. I'd always considered that caricatures emphasise features whereas for him they've ignored his, ahem, awkward looks to the point that if his name wasn't there you'd never guess it was him.

Payet was going to be hard for West Ham to keep hold of before the tournament started but if he carries on scoring goals like that they've got no chance. He's wasted there, ought to be at a big club at his age/ stage in career. Mourinho in to take him to United when he gets rid of Mata again might be a possibility.

CM is such a key position in achieving success, Kante for Leicester this season, Alli, Dier for Tottenham have all been instrumental in their success. Our best teams of the late 60s where we had Ball, Harvey, Kendall, in the 80s with Reid and Sheedy also, and then the more recent heyday of United where they had Keane, Scholes etc. we're all driven to success by a strong and capable midfield. Our CM in contrast to all of those examples both recent and past is massively needing attention and has been as good as missing in many games, two top players needed there, keep Barry as 12 months more back up whilst Davies develops, get rid of McCarthy (part ex to Leicester for Kante if that might tempt them), possibly lose Besic as well. I'd spend £50M of that rumoured £100M on those two players, possibly recovering £8M - £10M back for McCarthy.

Too true, Niasse being a perfect example.

Pelle created 79 chances in 68 games in the last two seasons, Lukaku 88 in 73, assists is reliant upon the recipient doing their bit so can't fairly be compared. Lukaku, who we pretty much all agree needs to go, and asap, scores 20% more goals than Pelle in a team that creates 10% fewer chances. Without Naismith who used to chip in, I can't see how we could afford to replace Lukaku for Pelle unless it was replacement with two Pelle's. His replacement needs to be equivalent, but Pelle would be a good step up as a Kone or Naismith replacement.

If RK didn't approve this or wasn't consulted, then the alarm bells now ringing would have him walking away I'd imagine; it would be an Abramovich-esque type of an action from the owners. Can't see anybody being sold or bought (aside from U21's) without the new manager's agreement, so he must be okay with it. Strange though, if he hasn't yet studied a full medical appraisal of the renownedly injury prone lad. Can't see Gibson taking PAYP either, as he'd barely make minimum wage based on historical availability unless he doesn't need or care about the money now.