International Football

As above. FIFA's mission to completely ruin the World Cup continues. http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/38565246 On the plus side, we might qualify.

Well I got my tickets. Can't wait, even if it does mean a trip to the Netherlands. What you mean you're confused? It's the Women's Euros in 2017. Biggest game of the group stages! Oh you thought I meant the men........ Seriously, I got tickets for the Women's Euros Final next year. I couldn't say No to England vs Scotland either. 2 trips in the space of 3 weeks or so.

Our former manager seems to have been caught telling "businessmen" (in reality undercover reporters) how to circumvent rules on third-party ownership of players and using his status as England manager to enrich himself to the tune of 400k a year: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/sep/26/sam-allardyce-fa-newspaper-sting-england-manager Oh dear. England managers have been sacked for less.

Attendance last night for the Lionesses game. Did any one go, we couldn't make it? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

As some of you may know, I'm a bit obsessed with WC qualifiers. I'm going to post a few noteworthy results along the road to Russia. I'll start with Guatemala's 9-3 (you read that right nine-three) win over St Vincents last night. Both sides had nothing to play for but that didn't stop them going at it for 90 minutes. St Vincents scored the first and last goals of the game. Carlos Ruiz scored 5. He has scored an incredible 39 goals in qualifying games in his career and it has only taken him 50 games! There was a cracking game in Europe as well. Bulgaria beat Luxembourg 4-3 at home. It took a late winner to deny the plucky visitors. Luxembourg levelled it in the 90t…

Slovakia 0-1 England. Fantastic result, helped by yet another sending off for Martin Skertel. The guy is a red card waiting to happen. Scotland laboured but got there in the end away to Malta. Scotland are unconvincing IMO. They need to improve drastically to qualify.

I keep an eye on football in the Olympics because it can throw up some great games and unearth a few gems I've never heard of. The Men's tournament is U23 with a few overage players. It started yesterday. Hosts Brazil got off to a poor start with a 0-0 draw against South Africa. Neymar is in the Brazil team. SA were down to 10 men for the last 30 mins as well. The game of the day was Nigeria vs Japan. Nigeria lead 5-2 but the Japanese brought it back to 5-4. Nigeria arrived in Brazil hours before kick off. Etebo scored 4 of their goals. Asano, the young lad who joined Arsenal in the Summer, scored for Japan.

I'm not so sure. Messi has done everything in the game except and it's a big except, win an international tournament. Maradona was incredible when Argentina won the WC in 1986. His performance against England was both sublime and ridiculous. It could have been a summary of Maradona's career. He went on to beat Belgium on his own before requiring the help of his team mates to defeat the Germans. It will always be Maradona for me.....

As one of the THREE English managers in the Premier League, our ex-manager was always going to be in the running for the England job. But now the Graun is reporting that he's due to be interviewed this week: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jul/10/sam-allardyce-interview-england-job The article contains a truly Partridge-esque quote from Allardyce about when he was overlooked for the England job in 2006: “I wanted to do a real knock-your-socks-off interview for the FA, so I put together a PowerPoint which looked at every single detail,” he wrote in his autobiography. “There was nothing missing. Nobody but nobody was going to beat it. But then Brian…

I'm quite impressed by how so far all the teams that have featured have given their follow opposition a proper game, okay albeit Russia - who failed to really test England but yet managed to walk away with a point (hopefully they're disqualified before their final game, as I think if they lose the next game - we'll see hell let loose and them not caring about any repercussions). The Republic of Ireland v Sweden for me handed a welcoming surprise, Ireland played some good stuff and I felt they deserved to win. Despite media saying Germany played disappointingly after mustering a lacklustre performance - I felt until Italy played, they had been the best side so fa…

Wales were incredible tonight, a truly magical incredible performance. A team of players who in the main play for unglamorous clubs are a credit to their manager, their former sadly departed manager (Gary Speed) & yes, to the UK. I do hope the suits full of f**k all at the English FA take note while they quoff their Champers & think of another way to make the Premier League monster even bigger & more powerful, eating its way through the rest of English Football while they're at it......sorry, rant over, but congratulations to the Welsh FA, their brilliant players, manager, & supporters who also showed the English how to support their team!!

I stumbled across an excellent article by David Conn this morning. Recommended reading: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jun/28/england-football-team-we-deserve This isn't a new problem. We have competing in international tournaments for 66 years and have reached a grand total of one semi-final outside our own country. Our footballing achievements have been eclipsed by Turkey, Sweden, Croatia and Denmark. We used to go out honourably to the first genuinely world-class team we met; now we don't even make it that far. IMO we have a number of problems. One is the chronic short-termism throughout the English game. OK, if Joe Hart had saved the sec…

I have a feeling Iceland will entertain us, which should make this a good game overall. We need to press them, with their back line expected to be the same as prior games - we may find more space in the final third, provided we pressure and move quickly. I think England will be fine, I predict 2-0. Thoughts?

I thought it would be interesting to see who voted for who, so have your say on this. I'm seeing a lot of people suddenly back 'Belgium' however, they haven't performed that well against the stronger teams they've faced and for myself I think it will be between France, Germany or Italy (I have England as my outside favourites). Cast your vote!

Apparently Roy Hodgson is planning six changes to the team against Slovakia. I'm not happy about this - I can understand some changes (Sterling and Kane clearly need a rest), but to make so many when we still need a result is risky, and you could say it smacks of arrogance. Group games are a chance for the national team to gel and learn to play as a unit; chopping and changing really isn't going to help. Realistically, even a defeat would see us go through as one of the four best third-placed teams, but we could then easily find ourselves playing Spain or Germany in the next round. Thoughts? https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jun/19/england-roy-hodgson-wa…

This isn't a game that I believe the Three Lions will stumble on, I think our worries should be found in the final group game - Slovakia are a side that people write off and during my driving lesson yesterday, myself and @Drivingmenotts were taken a little back by seeing Russia 2-0 down (obviously I was pretty waving to them). It's important England actually attack with venom and avoid wasting chances. We'll also see if Bale can shine against a better side, as I think he may struggle to make the impact that the Welsh believe he can always bring to their national side. I think I predicted 2-1, what about you?

Despite all the reports, I'm pleased to see our fans in spirit in the stadium. I'm feel quite positive myself, an early goal would bring confidence for England - I'm surprised that Vardy hasn't started but considering pundits opinions regarding fatigue and space opening up, it does make sense to have him on the bench. How is everyone else feeling? Add your thoughts.

After a drab season Notts wise, I need some football to look forward to. A few songs to get you in the mood for England in the Euros.

Obviously pretty much all of us will be supporting England at Euro 2016, possibly with a couple of Irish exceptions. Will any of you be following anyone else in the tournament and why? I'll be crossing my fingers that Turkey have a good run for the missus, although I'd rather they didn't win it as Erdogan would milk it for all it's worth. I'd like Sweden to do well to keep my work colleagues in a good mood. I have a conflicted relationship with Germany - in a way it's nice when they go far because there's a great atmopshere around the place, but on the other hand they do tend to get arrogant very quickly so it'd be really funny if they fell flat on their faces. Prefe…

Sturridge and Wilshire over Danny Drinkwater is embarrassing to english football, here we have a guy who has just won the premier league playing more games than the two above players combined.. Not too mention the above two players failed to win anything. I can't help but feel sorry for players like Drinkwater, Noble (not our noble ????), Cresswell, Shawcross, I'll throw Defoe in too seen as Sturridge got a place in the squad. All of these players have had excellent seasons at their clubs whereas Wilshire and Sturridge play for 'bigger' teams automatically just get jumped to the front of the que, pick players on form/games played Roy not reputation! As for th…

Who do you think will win Euro 2016?

Thoughts?

I'm unsure if someone has made a topic on this before! But stickers! Who collects them ? There's something fun about getting the shinys and rubbing it in your friends face! Anyone for swapsies ? [emoji6]

I think the England national side is a complete shambles, Theo Walcott has had a terrible season and is still picked ahead of someone like Marc albrighton or Arron Lennon who's having a decent season. The same applies to Sterling, he is picked due to his reputation when Nathan Redmond has had an almost identical season to him, they have both played the same games and have the same assists and goals, but Sterling is picked ? Mark noble is having a good season and is the heart of West Ham but he doesn't get picked yet the second Jack Wiltshire is fit he will be straight on that plane to France, when will we start picking a team that works rather than one full of reputati…

Euro 2016 is coming up and I was curious as to everyone's opinions on who should play? I don't feel we know or best team and that doesn't give me hope since we keep chopping and changing, teams like Germany and Italy have been playing the same team for years. Would you go for youth or experience?