Duvel

Some good points on here. I'm excited at the prospect of signing a couple of South American youngsters, its certainly more interesting than shopping in the lower leagues for bargains. However, I do get the feeling that these aren't Warnock signings and might be some of Gibson's 'gifts'. We've got things wrong in the past when senior people in the club have been on different pages, I just hope we are trying to build something rather than having a one off season where we go for it.

Where did Woodgate fit into the longterm plan 😂

I might not be the brightest person but it felt like there were some really simple solutions that were not used before and after the virus started raging. We could have locked down quicker, we were allowing people to come into the country through busy airports with no testing or isolation required for foreign visitors, we were too slow to lockdown last autumn, we allowed thousands in from India when we knew about the delta variant, we've reopened society now without putting in place measures to control spread (masks/ social distancing, limiting crowd numbers). Maybe I'm oversimplif

Uche will win the Ballon D'or next season, you heard it here first.

Payero might take a while to get used to the English game, he might not settle here, he might hate England or he might be rubbish. But for someone that has criticised the club a lot on here in the last few years I'm glad we are thinking outside the box a bit.

He obviously didn't look great in training and I wouldn't read much into a game against a semi professional team. Its no great loss.

Nice colour but it looks like a training top. I never buy them anyway so it doesn't really matter to me what they look like.

I wouldn't really criticise anyone for missing one and I think you have to look at your more experienced players like Sterling and ask why they didn't take responsibility. Thats why I've never held a grudge against Southgate for missing one in 96, I admire him for having the balls to take one. Saying that I still don't think its down to luck at all, they held their nerve better than us and took better penalties. I don't feel robbed like I did in 90' and 96' either. In both of those games we were the better team over 120 minutes, that wasn't the case tonight, the best team won

I'm sure they tuck them away for fun in training, its a different ball game when the pressure is on! If we keep telling ourselves that we are unlucky then we'll never improve our shootout record. As a penalty taker you are in total control of the situation, strike the ball well and you'll score 9 times out of 10.

I don't buy the luck thing. Taking a penalty is a skill and more than anything a test of nerve. Hit the ball hard in the corner and no keeper will save it.

I was happy to hang on until extra time because we were getting totally overran. In extra time they sat off us a bit and I thought they started to look really tired. I thought we might have won the game in extra time if we'd been brave. As you said though the best team won.

Its easy in hindsight but I don't think the placed penalty was the right tactic against Donarumma. He's so big that I think you need to drill the ball past him.

Saka shouldn't have been taking a penalty in a million years, he looked like a bag of nerves since he came onto the pitch. Southgate will have to spend the rest of his life wondering what might have been if we hadn't tried to defend for 90 minutes and there's nothing worse than having regrets.

I haven't read all the chat about why we are defensive to be honest so sorry NB4 if I've missed the point. I just thought I'd look on the forum to see what people are saying about the match and saw someone post a picture of a bonfire in Ireland as one of the examples of why people don't like the English. Maybe I'm wrong but I can't imagine any English people were responsible for burning the tricolour in Belfast/Derry or wherever that is. I know 'our' history and that's why some of the Irish don't like us but I get defensive when its aimed at people of my generation. If anyone

I don't know what sort of response you expect to that really. The average British citizen had no influence on the occupation of Ireland and most of us want to live pretty peaceful lives. I've got friends in Belfast so I've spent a fair bit of time there and I know that I should feel no more guilty about what's happened there than you should. Its a game of football for gods sake, if you hate us that much maybe take the night off.