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Reply | Andy Burnham
at 17:18 20 Jul 2026
Today, Burnham says he's "bringing forward the biggest changes in the last 40 years: a new political model and a new economic model.”
It's one thing to have an unelected PM if the new guy's just carrying on what the old guy was doing. But to promise the biggest changes in 40 years with no mandate from the people to do that, is ridiculous. That's an abuse of our democratic system.
Fvck off, no one voted for you. |
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Reply | Andy Burnham
at 12:52 20 Jul 2026
What the private sector has to fear is that he raises both taxes and borrowing to pay for the issues you mention, plus all of his pet projects. He didn't have the authority to do that as a Mayor.
The tax burden is already at its highest since WWII and we already pay significantly higher interest rates than others such as France, Germany and the US. The risks around this already mean that businesses are afraid to invest in the UK. In contrast, investment in the US is going gangbusters. |
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Reply | Ross Stewart Not Completely Out Of The Picture Says Tonda Eckert
at 12:05 20 Jul 2026
"they still believe that Damion Downs has it in him to come good"
Do they? Who are "they"? I heard Dragan say he "hoped" Downs would come good, but I haven't heard anyone say they believe in Downs. Listen to what Tonda says. He talks about Larin and then emphasises the need to get a "second" striker. Downs doesn't get a mention. If Downs or any of the others were even in his mind, then Ross would be a third option, at least, not a second one. |
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Reply | Andy Burnham
at 11:28 20 Jul 2026
Burnham will make things worse. His big speech said that he wanted to return to the economic policies of the 1970s: more government, more taxes, more public spending, more nationalisation. The 1970s were an economic disaster for the UK. In the end we had to be bailed out by the IMF. The same basic rules of economics still apply. Kill the private sector and you kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.
Starmer and Reeves promised policies that would deliver economic growth and talked about its importance. But the policies they actually implemented were the opposite, because they had to work with the approval of the majority of Labour MPs, who are very left wing. Burnham will now pander to those MPs and make things worse. |
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Reply | World Cup final
at 22:19 19 Jul 2026
I'm still thinking it's the Argies on pens. They've won 6 out of 7 shoot outs. |
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Reply | World Cup final
at 21:18 19 Jul 2026
If the football ever starts again I can see the bloody Argies winning this on pens. Before each pen, the player will probably be obliged to look into the camera and say something like "Ford cars, where quality meets value". |
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Reply | The England squad - Keep or bin
at 21:04 19 Jul 2026
He's a good keeper but its OTT to say he's head and shoulders above the others. If he was injured, Henderson would be a perfectly good replacement, he's a good keeper too. You couldn't really say that the goals yesterday were his fault, or that Pickford would have stopped them. I doubt that Trafford is really ready yet. |
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Reply | World Cup final
at 20:56 19 Jul 2026
Yes, the Argies are a classless pantomime and the pre-game ceremony was the same. |
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Reply | New striker - Ivan Azon
at 21:54 17 Jul 2026
Tonda must think he has a decent chance of persuading Ross, or he wouldn't have brought it up in this interview.
Interesting choice of words about needing a "second" striker. That suggests he thinks he only has one at the moment. I wonder what Archer, Diaz and Downs think about that. Separately, Dobbin said that Tonda sees him playing "anywhere behind the striker" i.e. 10 or winger, which makes sense. |
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Reply | Tuchel
at 12:14 17 Jul 2026
What Tuchel said was: “I think ball possession plays a crucial role. It’s maybe not in our [England’s] DNA like it is in the Spanish DNA or Argentinian DNA or Brazilian DNA. To take the ball, control the game and the ball – which is a big problem.”
I don't blame him for speaking his mind. I like that about him and what he's saying here has an element of truth about it. How many tournaments have we gone out of by surrendering the ball and defending too deep? It's happened so many times it seems fair to say it's in our DNA.
But as others have said, he was brought in to change that and on this evidence he's not only failed, he's made it worse. It's hard to see how his substitutions were supposed to address the problem and clearly they had the opposite effect. We needed more energy in midfield and upfront so we could keep denying them space, not going to a back 5, which was always going to make us drop even deeper.
Overall I'd give Tuchel 5/10. We were never going to win this tournament and the semi finals is good by England's standards. The win in Mexico was one of our best ever. But the way we went out was really, really poor and he has to take a big chunk of the blame for that. |
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Reply | England V Argentina The Verdict
at 14:47 16 Jul 2026
How much more experienced than John Stones do you want? His CB partner Guehi also had plenty of experience. Not many have previously played a Euros through to the final. Those 2 had plenty of experienced players around them too. There was nothing wrong with the level of experience on the pitch. |
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Reply | New striker - Ivan Azon
at 13:18 16 Jul 2026
It looks to me like he is similar to Che Adams i.e. a central striker who's not the biggest, but strong enough and puts himself about. Struggles to find the net.
Key strengths:
- work rate, never stops
- mobile and finds space
- strong enough to hold the ball up and link play
- decent in the air, despite not being very tall
Weaknesses:
- not a natural goal scorer
- height disadvantage against CBs
All in all, he's the closest that we've seen so far to the profile of someone to plug the gap that Ross has left behind. He's a downgrade on Ross, but if it's a choice between someone like him and seeing Damion Downs back on the pitch, then we need him badly.
I'd also give a lot of weight to the fact that he played 40 times last year for a side that got automatic promotion from this league. He was consistently selected by Kieran McKenna who's no mug. |
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Reply | Southampton Have Werder Bremen Forward In Their Sights
at 17:31 13 Jul 2026
"...playing as a winger and a centre-forward." These words send a chill down my spine. Much of our success last year was due to getting rid of the utility forwards like Arma and Downs and instead playing with specialist centre forwards and specialist wingers (who could never play in each other's position). I fear the club have forgotten that lesson.
Utility forwards usually thrive in space out wide, but just aren't up to the physical challenge of playing against championship CBs. |
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Reply | Lewis Dobbin
at 16:01 13 Jul 2026
Depends which fans you're asking. By all accounts, he really struggled at West Brom....
https://www.westbromnews.co.uk
Quotes like "Dobbin really needs to work on his hold up play" and "Wallace isn't a CF and neither is Dobbin" confirm my view that if he's being bought as a Ross replacement then we're in big trouble.
If he's being bought as a winger/10, then fair enough, but I don't think the club will have spent £9m plus add-ons just for a reserve, so I wonder who he's replacing. |
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Reply | Boys From The Blackstuff
at 14:33 13 Jul 2026
"You're Graeme Souness. You look like me."
Half of Liverpool looked like that at the time. |
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Reply | Lewis Dobbin
at 12:27 13 Jul 2026
Will Dobbin do better? Archer's record at Saints is poor because he's been forced to play as a centre forward for most of his time, which isn't his natural position. If Dobbin is asked to play as a lone striker like Archer has been, he probably won't do any better.
Archer's best game for Saints came late last season when he played wide left in place of Leo for one game. He was named player of the match. He'd also play well if he played in a front 2, like Dobbin did last season. But we don't play with a front 2, so it's not clear that Dobbin will fit in any better than Archer. |
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Reply | Lewis Dobbin
at 10:33 13 Jul 2026
His breakout form was for Preston and there he mostly played centrally. The Lancashire Post says: "Dobbin is a winger by trade but was used centrally last season - mostly as a number ten but also in a front two." So, maybe he is the alternative no. 10 that Dragan has said we will sign.
Sounds to me (unfortunately) like another utility forward. Hopefully we're not going to try and make him a centre forward, as we have done with others, and hopefully he's good enough as either a winger or a no. 10 to justify a place in the team.
https://www.lep.co.uk/sport/fo
Maybe the only reason we signed him was to piss Boro off. |
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Reply | Lewis Dobbin
at 09:57 13 Jul 2026
He scored most of his goals when he was playing centrally. He played both left wing and centrally, so I'm not sure about this. Where is he going to play? I hope we haven't gone back to our old mistake of signing utility forwards who supposedly can play anywhere up front, but actually don't fit in anywhere.
Does he offer anything that Cameron Archer doesn't? Archer had a bigger reputation when he was at Villa. |
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Reply | What would be a good transfer window?
at 17:16 9 Jul 2026
Good shout. I would like that to be realistic but doubt it. Lankshear might be more likely as a loan than a buy. Spurs have turned down multiple offers (including from Sporting it's said). What happens at centre forward seems vital to me. Larin can't be expected to play the whole season. I remember Dragan saying that cover for Azaz was a priority, so I expect that'll be one of the buys. I'd keep Robinson and give him opportunities. |
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