OxfordVillan

Well balanced post, well written. Far, far better than some of the adolescent responses. With regard to what you’ve written, and I’ve highlighted in bold, take a look at the following petition. I’ve signed it and would encourage everyone else to do so. https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/575833

Except I haven’t said that. That’s your interpretation. Carry on mate

I’m not sure how old you are, but I remember Southgate receiving dogs abuse for his penalty miss. I remember effigys of David Beckham being hung from bridges following his sending off and England’s resulting elimination from WC98. Social Media wasn’t “a thing” back then, had it been you can guarantee Beckham would have turned his phone off, ditto Southgate. So stop acting like the world started with social media, and that every piece of abuse received by a non white footballer is a racist attack. There is barely any part of this world we live on untouched by racism/prejudice/sexism etc. The UK is one of the most cosmopolitan and inclusive countries on the planet, not perfect, but one of the better examples. We have nowhere near the level of racism of the country that this movement was imported from, namely the USA. Do we have racists in the UK? Yes we do. As does every country on this planet.

That’s the spirit of inclusiveness, tell someone to agree with your opinion or **** off. Yes, that’ll win them over The funny thing is, you probably don’t see the utter hypocrisy of what you’ve written……..the same as many who bash away at their keyboards on social media whilst sat on their own throne of righteousness. The calamity kings and queens.

Good morning Mr Lange………….

Exactly this, spot on. England have just blown their best chance to win a major tournament, and most ppl this morning seem to be frothing at the mouth over who they think hasn’t got the cajones to take a penalty! Southgate tried to defend a 1-0 lead from the 2nd minute, and in doing so conceded every advantage and the initiative to Italy. He then subbed off an England captain and senior pro (champions league and premier league winner) and decided to leave the pressure situation to a raw 19yr old. People have lost sight over Southgates England, lost sight of the reality of how the games were actually won or lost, the performances. Croatia was a grind, acceptable because we didn’t look like conceding to what proved to be an ageing, past its best team. The Scotland game was abysmal and England could easily have lost that, never looked like winning. The Czech game was very similar to the Croatia game, but with the Czechs safe in the knowledge that they were through to KO stage regardless of result. The Germany game, England ended up fortunate. Fortunate that a German striker who would normally slot in the chance he had 99/100. Ukraine were a dreadful team, but at least England were encouraged enough to keep their foot on the gas and keep on the front foot, though it should be mentioned that we again encouraged them for the last 20mins of 1st half before the early 2nd half Maguire header that killed it for the Ukrainians. Denmark were the better team for an hour, but with them looking tired going into the last quarter of the game Southgate didn’t make the changes that could, perhaps should, have resulted in England not needing extra time to go through. And in extra time Denmark pretty much played with 9 men, and still we needed a dodgy penalty award to get us through. Then we have last night, the final. Apart from the opening 2mins England never looked like scoring, let alone winning. They gave Jorginho the freedom of midfield, barely getting close to him. He duly pretty much dictated play from there. Southgate just repeated the Croatia semifinal of 2018, and he’ll continue to do so if allowed. He’s not good enough. Wasn’t good enough for Middlesbrough ffs. He’s done OK transitioning from a very low point (Hodgson and then the Allydyce debacle), but England now need to get a next level manager in. I’ll tell you now that Dean Smith is twice the manager of Southgate, and if he has another step forward in terms of Villa’s league performance then I’d suggest he’ll be a front runner if people in charge want another Englishman for the top job. England would have won this tournament if Dean had been in charge of that group of players. You certainly wouldn’t have had to see the folly of England crowds getting excited at seeing pictures of a substitute (Grealish) warming up. End of rant.

You’re off your nut mate, go to bed.

Ask Gareth Southgate. And whilst you’re asking him about the penalty takers list, ask him why that same 19yr was brought on before Jack Grealish, and why he took off the senior pro and captain Jordan Henderson in preference to letting a 19yr old take a shot at goal. You might be cheeky and also ask why nobody was put on Jorginho for the entirety of the game, and why the manager decided to try and defend a 1-0 lead from the 2nd minute.

I think Phillips has looked good this Euros, but I’d also say that Declan Rice is a vital part of that midfield pairing who seems to have gone under the radar, and he does a hell of a lot of good work. What Villa should be encouraged with is that Smith wanted Phillips 2yrs ago, so he knows and sees a good DCM. That we didn’t get him is a shame, but at least we know the manager sees a very good DCM, and so hopefully we get that sorted this summer.

No, Southgate specifically gave an answer as to why he wasn’t selecting Grealish when just about everyone in media etc was calling for his inclusion…..that answer was that he couldn’t put championship players into the squad as they weren’t proven at the highest level possible. Southgate then went on to call up Leeds Utds championship player Kalvin Phillips whilst continuing not to include what was now the premier league player Jack Grealish. If memory serves me correctly Southgate then went on to cite players such as Sancho, Rashford, Sterling et al, as players in Jack’s position that were ahead of him. Now you could well be correct to say that Southgate didn’t rate Grealish good enough at the time, and that would be fair enough, but he didn’t say that, he gave other answers. To many looking at the situation it seems that Grealish has been held to a higher bar than others, and I would be sympathetic to that thought.

No, I’d say ppl have been pointing out how they see Jack Grealish being treated differently, and this can be partly backed up with fact. The easiest example of this being Southgates STATEMENT to media, when questioned on Grealish’s continued absence from the England squad, citing that he wasn’t being selected due to lack of being proven in the Premier League (he had previously said he couldn’t select players playing in the championship). He then selected the championship player Kalvin Phillips for the England squad. So things like that tend to sit on ppls minds, and understandably so. It’s fair for ppl to question certain decisions in the here and now in the absence of clarification of historic actions.

Next week the transfer market will resemble this

Was just a hunch. Seriously though, there was no moon landing. And there is no definitive explanation as to why Jack over Foden. It’s just “it was either jack or phil”…….and left there. So we make our own minds up based on previous things.

I’m assuming you’re American, Jonah?