I used to work in the Department of Education. I know a lot has changed since then but it is my understanding that Colleges do still provide HE courses and receive funding from the HEFCE to cover this. I stand to be corrected of course.

Fear not this country will provide many worldwide opportunities for your children and grandchildren.

Surely you can come up with a better one than this after what you said. However when I first said we were the 5th largest we were, and I believe once calm returns after the panic in the markets we will the overtake France once again if not on the back of a rising pound it will be because of the trade we gain from the rest of the world. Chin up

They can do but have to get their degrees validated by Universities.

Hazard, Aguero, Silva, Ozil, Sanchez, Coutouis, De Gea, Fabregas, Toure, Coutinho, De Bruyne, Cech, Kompany to name a few. Others could be named but might be met with question marks so I won't bother.

Big thing is that the likes of Real, Barca, Bayern feature a lot of top players in the squads, but if you look past those couple of top teams towards the rest of their leagues then not so much.

So not that many really and how many of them are Suarez, Mesi, Ronaldo class i.e truly world class? About as many as Barca and Real Madrid combined?

Given as you say La Liga doesn't possess strength in depth it must have been a surprise that of the 4 teams that competed in the finals of the European competitions this season 3 were Spanish? The Spanish have won the Europa league 3 times out of the last 4 - not featuring either Barca or Real Madrid and the champions league the last 3 times. If the league doesn't have strength in depth but can compete at this level what does it really say the PL?

Last time I checked both leagues contained 20 teams so pointing out the strength of 4 top teams doesn't disprove anything about the strength in depth from top to BOTTOM. I don't think anyone would argue that Barca and Madrid are stronger than our strongest teams but that isn't the point.

Pointing to three players (Ronaldo, Messi, Suarez) from just two clubs again doesn't tell us anything about the leagues as a whole.

England football "oh we don't have a winter break so we're too tired"...."oh too many foreigners so we have too small a player pool to pick from"...."oh the grass roots at junior level is all wrong"

A Wales team made up from Premier League and quite a few Championship players barring Bale that has all the obstacles of above and they've made it to the Semi Finals unlike the bunch of excuse making prima donnas in the Emgland camp.

Yet England still beat them - bizarre.

Wales have great team spirit and Bale/Ramsey apart they don't seem so naturally talented as the English players so concentrate on keeping it simple. Oh they don't have manager who doesn't have a clue.

coleman failed as a manager elsewhere. in any team sport if you have a coach, who may not be top class, but who can organise and set out a hard to beat game plan, and a team who can follow that to the letter, you have a good chance. in RL I guess john kear would be colemans equivalant

Watched "Mike Bassett, England Manager" last night. I think England should definitely have adopted the Christmas Pudding formation against Iceland.

Excellent idea. Rooney can be the six pence, Sterling still has it "in his pocket", although Harry Kane couldn't hit the side door of a Renault espasse

Perhaps one of them has learned something from that experience and has improved as a manager from that set back and one of them - the less said the better would you not agree?

Quote: Charlie Sheen "Excellent idea. Rooney can be the six pence, Sterling still has it "in his pocket", although Harry Kane couldn't hit the side door of a Renault espasse I think Harry Kane's been overshadowed in the embarrassing set pieces stakes by Simone Zaza's penalty for Italy last night.....good god what was he thinking with that run up? He looked like a horse trotting in a dressage competition. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gAIM_zn_O84

Quote: Charlie Sheen "Excellent idea. Rooney can be the six pence, Sterling still has it "in his pocket", although Harry Kane couldn't hit the side door of a Renault espasse I think Harry Kane's been overshadowed in the embarrassing set pieces stakes by Simone Zaza's penalty for Italy last night.....good god what was he thinking with that run up? He looked like a horse trotting in a dressage competition. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gAIM_zn_O84