RandoEFC

Kieran Maguire usually puts it better than I ever could.

Everton sold Tom Cannon to Leicester for £7.5m last summer. The Dobbin fee is inflated but only by maybe £5m tops. These deals are getting a lot of attention but if Everton and Aston Villa have both overpaid each other by £5m with the payments coming in installments, they're still going to have to count that in their future PSR calculations. It's not right morally perhaps, but it is within the rules as they stand and it's not even in the same stratosphere of dodginess as Boehly buying a hotel off Chelsea for £80m to generate profit for their calculations. No prizes for guessing which one the Premier League will put more effort into closing down. The Premier League will be opening a real can of worms if they start dictating what "market value" is for players. I just don't see how it's enforceable. Another reason to scrap these rules in their current form and introduce some sort of budget cap. The most important thing is that I hope these players who are arguably getting shifted around like pawns have their careers properly looked after wherever they end up. I'm confident that Iroegbanum is actually seen as a part of Everton's plans because he's apparently quite a long term target. It's hard to see Dobbin playing a major part for Villa in the near future though. The most inflated of these deals seems to be the Kellyman lad going for £18m if that goes through.

Very mid from me so far.

Yeah that's basically what I was trying to get at earlier. This Scotland side in terms of quality probably isn't much different to the Wales team that went on runs in major tournaments. The main difference is that Wales had their elite player in a "match-winning" position whereas Scotland's best player through this era has been a full-back and full-backs aren't really known for winning matches single-handedly.

I think he tried to buy it too much which seems to count against players but it doesn't change the fact of whether it's a foul or not. @Inverted is it time for Moyes? (Genuinely don't know if that's a reasonable question or a stupid one.)

Yeah I thought that was a penalty before for Scotland. Shame for them. Perpetual pain of just not having quite enough quality to compete at this level. Also feel like the quality they do produce is either in defence or out and out goalscorers. Lack of creativity really limits how you can hurt other teams at this level. Support was top notch though.

Somebody said Gunn caught his temple with his elbow. Didn't really see anything myself. Hope above all else that the guy is alright. It didn't sound good. Credit to the players carrying on the game so soon after because it sounded and looked quite traumatic.

@Pyfish @...Dan and @Lucas still to pick. Remember if you don't see this until Monday or Tuesday you can still choose from the fixtures that haven't been played.

I don't know if the strategy cost him either way. Getting stuck behind Russell for the first stint made it pretty much impossible to catch up.

George really fluffing for Max today the way this race has panned out.

Sunday 23rd June, 2024 Group A Switzerland 0-3 Germany, 20.00 Scotland 2-2 Hungary, 20.00 Monday 24th June, 2024 Group B Croatia 2-1 Italy, 20.00 Albania 0-2 Spain, 20.00 Tuesday 25th June, 2024 Group C England 2-1 Slovenia, 20.00 Denmark 2-1 Serbia, 20.00 Group D Netherlands 2-2 Austria, 17.00 France 3-0 Poland, 17.00 Wednesday 26th June, 2024 Group E Ukraine 0-2 Belgium, 17.00 Slovakia 1-1 Romania, 17.00 Group F Czech Republic 1-1 Turkey, 20.00 Georgia 0-4 Portugal, 20.00

Out: @RandoEFC, @Tommy, @MUFC, @Rick, @CaaC (John), @Redcanuck, @Viva la FCB, @Rucksackfranzose, @6666, @Michael, @Dan Through: @Pyfish, @...Dan, @Lucas, @The Palace Fan, @Bluewolf. Down to the last five after a selection of draws for Croatia, England and Switzerland! Belgium and Germany were the way to go. Please make your selections from the final set of group games.

My only hope is that English referees aren't invited to the next major tournament and that maybe then the penny will finally drop with PGMOL that they've got a problem. Lol, who am I kidding .

@nudge @Tommy @MUFC @The Palace Fan @DeadLinesman @Whiskey @Coma. 24 hours until qualifying. I'll be preoccupied from early on tomorrow morning so tagging you all now. Don't forget to predict!

Pole Position - Which driver will post the fastest lap in Q3 AFTER MAX VERSTAPPEN IS REMOVED FROM THE RESULTS? Norris Podium - Which drivers will finish the Grand Prix in the top three positions AFTER MAX VERSTAPPEN IS REMOVED FROM THE RESULTS? 1. Norris 2. Perez 3. Leclerc Random Driver - Predict the finishing position of this week's random driver, Logan Sargeant. 17th Bonus Question - Which team out of Haas, Alpine, Williams and Sauber will score the most points this weekend? Pick a team OR you can predict that none of these four teams will score any points. None will score!

Southgate mentioning Kalvin Phillips is revealing. Essentially confirms that he stumbled across something that vaguely worked 6 years ago when England made it the 2018 World Cup semi finals and hasn't had any fresh ideas since or any clue how to adapt his tactics to the forced changes in personnel. Euro 2020 was the best chance if we're being honest. Beating Germany in that tournament was the only time they've actually beaten a heavyweight on any of these runs. He should have gone after World Cup 2022 when there was no improvement and the run was entirely dependent on which round it was before England faced a genuine contender. Thankfully for England, Foden, Bellingham, Rice, Stones, Pickford, Guehi, Alexander-Arnold all have many tournaments ahead of them as do most of the bench and some very talented players who haven't established themselves in the squad yet. It will be hilarious if Man Utd do end up eventually going for Southgate. That would be all but confirmation that all of this talk of INEOS coming in with a bold new professional approach is a load of tripe.

To be clear, this isn't just a case of two clubs taking "creative accounting" to the extreme. Everton have a genuine interest in the player who is seen, presumably as a long-term replacement for Idrissa Gueye, mostly featuring from the bench next season and hopefully stepping up to the first team the year after. I can't speak about Aston Villa's interest in Dobbin. He's a player with potential, he probably suits the way they play more than us. He's more of a Leon Bailey type wide attacker than a workhorse with a decent cross on him like Harrison and McNeil. I don't personally think he's got the potential to become a starter for Aston Villa but they might disagree. This isn't just a cynical ploy to the extent that I may have made out, Everton are only paying about £9m for him. It's not like the two sides are just picking a random youth player each to swap over and paying each other £1m with £49m in add-ons over the next 20 years. The reason Everton fans, including myself, are framing this as us going "nyer nyer nyer nyerrrr nyer, can't punish us for this can you" to the Premier League is because, after those absolute fucking pricks asked two different commissions last season to dock us a total of SEVENTEEN POINTS. Just because we made a mockery of that relegation battle tag in the end doesn't mean that will be forgotten any time soon. I'd obviously love to think we were waving our dicks in their faces after what they did to them last season but realistically, we're not remotely in the same region as Chelsea and the way they've taken the piss out of the rules over the years. I don't know if you're getting at me becoming cynical and not holding my club to standards of "good behaviour" or something or whether you're just being light-hearted. To be clear, I would love the Premier League to be a place where well-behaved clubs could hold their heads high and clubs who bend the rules and dabble in financial dark arts to be caught out, and hopefully that will come with the independent regulator. But right now, the Premier League is the Wild West and it's every man for themselves. Last season, my club survived by decimating their youth team and substitutes bench, selling Iwobi, Gray, Simms, Samuels-Smith, Cannon on top of Gordon in January, all replaced by loans or free transfers. If they've found a more creative (but legal) way of keeping things afloat while new owners are found and the new stadium is finished off then good. Do I want to see us take the well-trodden, "legitimate" path of selling Branthwaite to Man Utd for £25m below our asking price instead? Of course not, because I'm not insane. There's plenty of examples of negative behaviour in the Premier League that span from "a bit cheeky" to "out and out corrupt". Everton and Villa structuring a couple of transfers to each other in a way that could shave a small sum that amounts to well under £10m off each of their respective PSR deficits isn't in the top 500.

Two teams clearly not in the same league, surprisingly. I think a lot of people have underrated Spain coming into this tournament on the evidence of their first two performances. Miles clear of both France and England who are favourites with the bookies.

In what sense?

Nothing new then. England will scrape past most teams, maybe win one match convincingly to give people hope, but lose as soon as they come up against France, Spain, Portugal or Germany.

They can't prove that's what we're doing. It's not for them to decide what two relatively inexperienced squad players might be worth based on their potential. If Chelsea are involved then it'll just be allowed to slide won't it.

Looks like we're doing a dirty deal with Aston Villa to help both clubs skirt the corrupt PSR rules. If you can't beat them, join them. Essentially, if you sell a player for a low initial fee with add-ons, you can count the full value of the sale toward your incomings, but the buying club only has to count the initial fee paid in their outgoings. So Aston Villa are selling us Tim Irogbaneam and we're selling them Lewis Dobbin. Both deals will have low down-payments and nice sized add-ons later. Both clubs have their PSR position improved by swapping a pair of squad players over. Looks like Chelsea and Aston Villa might actually be doing something similar with Maatsen and Duran. About time we started playing a bit dirty after last season instead of just accepting our fate and letting Man Utd low-ball us for Branthwaite.

I don't get it. I feel like any manager who has briefly managed in the Premier League nowadays is just automatically deemed a "safe pair of hands". Forest sacked this guy mid-season because he had them in a relegation scrap against Luton and Burnley. Nuno Espirito Santo was the one who actually succeeded in that relegation battle. I guess Cooper kept them up the year before but that relegation battle was bizarre all round with Leeds sacking a manager every two weeks and Leicester and Everton both trying desperately to get themselves relegated, Forest ended up getting away with it. We'll have to see what happens with their potential points deduction but this appointment doesn't strike fear into my heart as a potential relegation rival.

Well Croatia just single handedly butchered a lot of us.

Wednesday 19th June, 2024 Group A Germany 3-1 Hungary, 17.00 Scotland 2-2 Switzerland, 20.00 Group B Croatia 1-1 Albania, 14.00 Thursday 20th June, 2024 Group B Spain 3-0 Italy, 20.00 Group C Slovenia 2-1 Serbia, 14.00 Denmark 1-2 England, 17.00 Friday 21st June, 2024 Group D Poland 1-2 Austria, 17.00 Netherlands 1-3 France, 20.00 Group E Slovakia 1-1 Ukraine, 14.00 Saturday 22nd June, 2024 Group E Belgium 2-0 Romania, 20.00 Georgia 1-2 Czech Republic, 14.00 Turkey 0-3 Portugal, 20.00