I see Phil Hay has announced he's no longer covering Leeds UTD... really shocked at that news. He's Leeds twitter royalty. Will be hugely missed, very insightful and balanced with good inside knowledge. Strange career move given how big the Leeds following is and the media coverage it gets...

he mentioned a while back the athletic had him moving to another job. it was only time he stopped covering leeds.
sad but he's climbing the ladder as we all do

X is going into meltdown.. Graham Smyth getting lots of attention now

I might cancel my Athletic subscription on the back of this. He's why i signed up .

Well watching England so far has been like watching Leeds UTD over the last month of the season... deary me.. majority of players looked gassed and running in treacle. Unbalanced squad...

Can't for the life of me work out why Southgate has experimented with TAA in midfield at the Tournament... you could see against Serbia he was out of his depth there. Germany, Spain, France, Portugal would muller us in the midfield if this continues.. has to bring in Wharton / Mainoo (i don't think Gallagher is the answer) or put Bellingham to 8 and get Foden to 10. Then you can put Gordon on the left which would give you much more balance. And how Palmer is behind Bowen is laughable... Bowen is decent but he's limited against the better teams, Palmer has been one of the best players in the PL. Not taking Grealish is also a big mistake, he keeps the ball and can beat a man..

spot on. TAA is hugely overrated imo

I honestly don't think Southgate is a better manager than Farke.
Trent as a 6 is dreadful. Sure, his passing range is world class, but out of possession or with his back to goal, he's clueless. Mainoo or Wharton should be in there. They're young, but they're exactly the type of profile of midfielder you need next to rice.

One thing that hasn't been talked about enough, which I think is really harming England's build up is Pickford. He goes long 90% of the time and the ball just keeps coming back and England gradually drop deeper. He's never let England down, especially in big moments, but England need to move on from him if they want to be better when they have the ball.

Agree both. I said the same about Pickford last night, he goes long far too often. I do wonder though if that comes from the Manager.. can you imagine likes of Pep, Klopp, Bielsa, Howe, Deschamps etc and the great Spain mangers of the past standing for that from their keeper.. thought Kane's interview was interesting, said they couldn't work out during the game how to press effectivley... i mean what on earth has Soutgate been doing... you never see Stones bringing the ball out either which he does with City... that also must be manager instruction also.. madness.

Bellingham at 8 would give us some power in there too (he also looks leggy though), could have done with resting him for the last group game but no chance of that now.

sadly pickford is the best of a poor bunch of England keepers

Also said something similar about TAA who Roy Keane already said would be found out in midfield against the better teams.
Gallagher for me is not the answer and I too would play Bellingham in midfield with Fodon as the 10.
Palmer and Gordon both should be ahead of Bowen and whilst you cannot ignore Kane both Watkins and Toney would give defenders more trouble.
I was hoping Southgate would take over at MU.

When you have the likes of Kane, Bellingham Stones, Rice, and Saka, you build your system around them, not shoehorn them in. Let Kane do what he does and play wingers on both sides who can run in behind when Kane drops deep.
Bellingham has just won the champions league by playing as a 10 who makes late runs into the box, get him doing that and get another midfielder next to rice who can control possession. That would certainly not be Gallagher.

very strange rob price leaving. if he had stepped up fine but definitely taking a backwards step to go to Derby. wonder what's gone on there?

Given our injuries and fitness issues over the last few years, he's probably been given the boot

What do we reckon on the fixtures then chaps? Tough start imo, first 5 games not easy at all, Pompey will be riding high after promotion, will we have a play off final hangover?..

Tough being away twice in the xmas period too. Good run in though at season end.. important to start well this season, we need to be in the top 4 or so after first 6 games. can't have a repeat of last year with a big deficit.

need a good start this year

hopefully come july 1st there will start to be some transfer business, because it's the new financial year for football.