Steve_E

I agree. He just has to do a job defensively. Whether he wasn't given a job to do or whether he simply he didn't do what was asked of him, I don't know. I do know he's going to have to do better defensively next season (and not just defensively).

Whether you think Witsel has "proven" anything in his career, especially if you're likely to discount anything he's accomplished if he didn't do it in England (he does have 73 international caps and 80 European appearances, including several in the knockout stages of the Champions League), doesn't really matter: you pay for ability and he's a better player than Gibson, Besic, McCarthy and Barry. Zenit's manager has just said that he has recently asked his club to let him go, but that Zenit won't let him leave easily as he's a key player. I think I saw that posted somewhere in this very thread, so how do people still think he's kept Everton waiting for three weeks with everything but his signature still being required to get a deal through?

Davies has been very good with his forward passing. Would like to see him in Gibson's spot.

Don't know whether he'd be the best value for money, but he's a keeper I'd be happy with.

Fuck, Vertonghen out injured for the rest of the tournament. And Vermaelen will be suspended against Wales. Probably Denayer and Jordan Lukaku starting then. I'm getting scared now.

Ben Judah ‏@b_judah 6 u6 uur geleden Hackney, London France cynicallly intends to offer Britain an EEA- that excludes passporting, but givs them a migration cap, and single market access. Ben Judah ‏@b_judah 6 u6 uur geleden Hackney, London This is a brilliant move: "you get less Poles, but we want your banks." It would be in France's interests to encourage UK out to get banks. Ben Judah ‏@b_judah 6 u6 uur geleden Hackney, London This would leave some stuff shirt like Crabb in a disastrous position: Paris and Berlin would have handed him a deal only "bad for bankers." Ben Judah ‏@b_judah 6 u6 uur geleden Hackney, London But the cynical French deal would be exactly the kind of cap migration, free movement for us and single market deal that the public want.

He has a 7m euro buyout clause apparently.

Now apparently he's going to sign a 5-year deal with Chelsea.

Everton are in talks with Fulham over a 1m move for Maarten Stekelenburg according to the Daily Mail.

Ragnar Sigurdsson is quite good.

Thought Dier was the best Englishman this tournament. Don't get that sub.

According to L'Equipe, OM and Crystal Palace have reached a deal: Palace will pay 38 million euros, plus add-ons and OM will get a percentage if Palace sell him for a profit as well.

Apparently the per capita fee of Norway for single market access is about the same as the contribution of the UK to EU budget.

Shit, number three is in there twice. No idea which one I'd take out. Probably Phosphorescent.

Nice topic, I'm looking forward to checking out all of these songs. My top ten in no particular order: 1. Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees 2. The Knife - Heartbeats 3. Robyn - Dancing On My Own 3. Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On 4. Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin - Je t'aime... Moi non plus 5. My Bloody Valentine - Sometimes 6. Kanye West - Runaway 7. The Mountain Goats - The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton 8. Talking Heads - This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody) 9. Phosphorescent - Song for Zula 10. Pulp - Common People

That's the thing though. I'm not saying David Cameron is or ever was the saviour of the welfare state. It was UKIP and a majority of the Tory party campaigning for Brexit. Neither of them were realistically doing it to fund the NHS. If you do save money by exiting the EU, and seeing as the Tories are still in power, I think it's far more likely the money's going to tax cuts for the rich as surely it will eventually "trickle down".

It is in Belgium as well.

That's down to the failure of the mainstream political parties to offer an alternative though. Really all of the voters that voted out based on a fear of losing prosperity and of seeing their socio-economic position diminish or out of displeasure with the neoliberal agenda of the British governments of the last couple of decades (including Blair's New Labour) should have been Labour's voters or even the Green Party's voters.

Haha, wow, just saw Nigel Farage's comments about that 350m transfer from the EU to the NHS. He's not wasting time. Weren't the parties campaigning for a Brexit the neoliberal ones and did people actually believe they were advocating a Brexit to save publically funded healthcare? ​

Adding on to this, the Belgian party congratulating the British on this vote are Vlaams Belang, who were once forced to alter their party programme after being convicted of racism in court.

Had several howlers in the Belgian league. No thanks.

Slow news day at the Echo apparently.

I think the team needs a top left winger as well.

When they have two lines of four (or a line of four and a line of five or whatever) in front of the box, he's going to have to dribble past two or three players just to create an opening for a shot or a cross. Running at people works best when there's space to run at people. You have to rely on structure against a compact block. Hazard for example has the same problem playing for Belgium. Because we lack offensive structure, when he gets the ball he has two or three defenders on him, which just isn't manageable.

His direct running would work better against teams that don't park the bus. When teams have a compact and deep defensive block, the manager should be hammering home that the team positions itself well. Positioning and structure was a much bigger problem than a lack of direct running for England.