Smiley Culture

Yeah, of course you can. There’s this sort of belief in England that you can’t change your team but I find that to be nonsense, really. Maybe it’s because the team of my birthplace have not played higher than the seventh tier of English football (now playing in the tenth tier alongside clubs called FC Baresi and AS London) plus it’s one of those 60’s “new towns” so is a mix of fans from probably three traditionally big clubs locally and the usual Liverpool’s, United’s and with the younger ages, City. Family ties are all a bit mixed up for me as well, with both halves of my family being from the opposite end of the country, with one half not really big football fans, so I’ve never been that close to a traditional familial relationship with football and a football team. Perhaps that makes it easier to see things a little differently and that ties can’t ever be that solid for me given the circumstances I’ve grown up with and around geographically. As some will know, I stepped away from supporting club. I didn’t do it as a complete severing of ties and always expected I’d get that “itch” within weeks or, worst case, months but I just never did and the feelings and connection just subsided completely to the point now where they’re just another club and I have no feelings either way. That’s not to say I’ve jumped to somebody else. I’ve not really been bothered, again, probably because there aren’t any particular links (birthplace, current location, familial etc) to any one club.

And now file for bankruptcy. Not nice to see at all. They’ve produced some talented players over the years.

People can still pose a threat on the floor. He moved after being told not to. Is that posing a threat? Perhaps not and possibly not worthy of the reaction but he simply wasn’t following orders, as many of the phone wavers weren’t.

I’m not the judge here so that’s not really any of my business but I’m not willing to make my judgement on the situation based off of a short clip of a video and I don’t think people should have been as quick to without the full facts and information. It’ll tell us whether “reasonable force” was used or not and the context behind it. Anyway, I see they’ve suspended the lad after “further investigation”. That’s fair enough. The social media vultures will be happy and onto the next thing now.

We don't know, that's my point. We've seen a heavily cropped video that perpetuates a narrative about the police. The referral and the outcome of said referral will, ultimately, tell us more but we live in a society that takes what they see on social media at face value.

A short video, which lacks context and the whole event, made to perpetuate a narrative against the emergency services.

Definitely is. As much as I’m a football fan, I do feel as though we are at that point of the David Mitchell “never ending Football” sketch, because it’s on so much and on pretty much every day and that’s increasing in a couple of weeks’ time when this new Football League deal kicks-off and we have Friday night entertainment of Harrogate Town vs Cheltenham Town to look forward to. I’m about to go off on a tangent but it’s making football harder to attend in person as well, with so many games moved and changed for the TV audience. It’s getting to the stage of being comparable to booking a weekend away. I think it’s why I’ll probably watch more non-league football this season because I can leave home at 2.00pm on a Saturday and theoretically pick a game at any one of probably 40 clubs, maybe more, that are within a 45-50 minute drive and just walk up, pay my money and go in. I won’t need to check if a game is a 12.30ko on a Sunday or if the game I fancy going to is at threat of being moved by Sky with a few weeks notice. I actually probably watch less and less live football on tele each season, so while there is more on, it’s not exactly going to effect my watching habits.

That would have been daft, IMO. If they want to make sure people are using a spread of players, all they need to do is say that you must have a minimum of 1x League One and 1x League Two players in your 7 man squad.

They could do that or a limit of 3 players from any one league so that there is a variety to it.

I quite like that it changes week by week as well and you’re not tied into a squad with only a couple of changes each week. Will give this a go, I think it will keep me more interested than the Premier League equivalent.

https://fantasy.efl.com/team It looks pretty good, actually. Quite like the club feature too.

Kane has always dropped deep, it was one of the (many) things he did well at when at Tottenham and previously for England, getting the ball and holding it up allowing others to advance. Between the fact that he could barely move and that Foden and Bellingham didn’t quite have the understanding with Kane and how he was playing in this tournament as he had with, say, Raheem Sterling in previous tournaments, it was quite the achievement to score as many as he did. I can only see Kane retiring from international duty, not being moved on by a manager.

No, I’m not suggesting that but off the back of one win in five, a quarter final defeat in the last major tournament and question marks over how the squad and coaching staff dealt with the 2021 final, expectation wasn’t that high. My take is that there certainly seemed to be many less convinced that England would win it this year compared to both the Euros in 2021 and the World Cup in 2022 and there was much more discontent and (undue) anger/frustation with Gareth Southgate before a ball was kicked and that the expectation was not as high as a result of this.

Were the expectations high for this tournament? England went in off the back of one win in five and a humbling performance and result against Iceland. I’d say 2021 and 22 there were more expectations than this time around.

Why would you want to carry on when you’re castigated and abused and have been for years despite your achievements on a larger scale than you would be at most domestic sides?

International tournaments are every two years, they’re hard to win. They’re not one of five competitions on offer year after year.

The England setup, of which Southgate has played a large part in overseeing, has caused a real change in the England setup and subsequent results. I don’t think any Premier League club gives a flying one about England and why should they? The Sweden shouts make no sense. The bizarre belief from the ale chucking, Sweet Caroline singing, Sports Direct retro shirt wearing balloon knots that the only way to define success is by winning a trophy is, frankly, lunacy. To suggest the only way Southgate’s tenure will be deemed a success is whether he wins a trophy or not is bizarre. He’s genuinely overhauled the England setup and has instilled a level of commitment that was not seen for decades, with a squad that man for man was not close to the supposed “golden generation”. England pre-Southgate lose to Colombia in 2018, the draw to Tunisia in 2018, they probably draw to the Czechs as well and definitely don’t score an equaliser against Slovakia or win on penalties against the Swiss or come from behind against Holland. I think the England bandwagon has become spoilt, for the most part. England also get an absolute humping if they suddenly decided to go gung-ho against Spain last night too.

I’m not sure what the leagues have to do with anything. Brazil, Argentina and France are perennial winners and achievers yet nobody across the planet panders to see Arsenal di Sarandi or Bordeaux. England have gone from Quarter Finals, if they’re lucky, to becoming a regular at tournaments at the back end of them. I’m not sure winning something is the decider between them and Southgate being deemed a success or not. Southgate’s tenure has been hugely successful, regardless of tournament wins, and should go down as such but there’s this weird God given right to win trophies that’s always been there regardless of how good England have been.

Do England need to win something? I’m not sure where this has come from but international football is different to club level and trophies are harder to come by.

I don’t watch a lot of football on the tele but from what I’ve seen, the best team overall won and certainly the best team on the night, won. England had their moments and tried to counter and for a short while, they looked as though they might take them to extra time, but ultimately England’s “moments” were not that long and you always felt like Spain could go up a gear. Jordan Pickford and Marc Guehi probably kept the scoreline respectable, at times and allowed England to stay in the game and I do feel a bit for Guehi getting caught the wrong side of Oyazarbal. As for Pickford, I’ll get tonnes of abuse from Evertonians on here I suspect but, he should be playing for a bigger club than Everton. He should be playing for a side in the Champions League. He’s criminally underrated and still gets a load of stick from people but his shot stopping is excellent and his destruction is usually very good. Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham are spent. They were three games ago but carrying an injury and playing nearly 70 games a piece in under twelve months is going to do that to you, I suppose. As for England, they’re in a good place. As much as they’ve not been aesthetically pleasing, many England sides over the years go out to Slovakia, they don’t equalise in the dying embers, they probably don’t beat Switzerland and they don’t come from behind against Netherlands either. They probably also lose that game tonight by three or four. There’s a change in mentality and application at International level, overseen by Southgate and he doesn’t get the credit he deserves. The problem with England is a warped expectation of them that they need to win a trophy. It’s not club football, lads. Trophies are hard to come by because they’re not a never ending cycle of trophies week after week for year after year, international tournaments are every two years and as such, they’re incredibly hard to win. I think people also demand to be entertained with England, too. Maybe because they care less than their club or they’re just out in a pub/overcharged in a bar/whatever but winning isn’t enough, they must be entertained in doing so and England need to be a reincarnation of Barcelona circa 2010. Sacking Southgate would be a ludicrous move.

There was definitely pressure from some angles of the media and football fans for others to get a game for England around the time Pickford's form for Everton dipped. Southgate stood by him quite possibly because "form is temporary, class is permanent" etc. He's probably had a couple of seasons now better than he's ever been and Everton and England are seeing the rewards.

First half, both teams got lucky with their goals and had good chances to score. An uncharacteristic error from Declan Rice, almost unseen from him in the past couple of seasons in a West Ham or Arsenal shirt, and a penalty that was one of those that looked soft as a penalty but had that happened anywhere else on the pitch, Denzel Dumfries would have been penalised for it. A couple of decent chances either way, Dumfries’ header off the crossbar and Foden’s shot that looked very similar to Yamal’s the evening before. Second half the quality dropped out of the game. Neither team wanting to commit too much and make an error and a lot of safe passes amongst back fours and holding midfields. I think many had read that sort of script before, England having more of the ball than their opponent but doing nothing with it and then getting hit against the run of play and being tactically devoid of a plan to equalise, and many probably feared it would come to fruition again. Gareth Southgate gets tonnes of stick, a lot unwarranted I feel, but he could quite easily be a bit of a dick this evening after two of his late subs, Palmer and Watkins, combined for the winner. I think Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham look knackered. That’s not a criticism of England or Southgate but more so football as a whole. Kane must be pushing 60 games for the 23/24 season and Bellingham not much further behind him. I get it, they were their respective clubs’ big money signings but they look fatigued and slower than they have done. But hey, we have more Champions League games, a World Club Cup that nobody wants and an expanded World Cup and group games against footballing luminaries like Burkino Faso and El Salvador to come, so that’s exactly what the footballing world needs. As for Southgate, I think he has strayed from what was so successful for him somewhat. There was a time when he’d get stick for picking certain players and allegedly having “favourites” but for a long time he had players playing a system that worked and he knew that Jordan Pickford, Harry Maguire and Raheem Sterling did a job regardless of how they did for their clubs. This now feels a bit like he’s learning again with a fresh crop what works and what doesn’t and who works together and who doesn’t but he’s now doing it to the backdrop of actual pressure and expectations, given his past results. Anyway, Spain should win but football is weird sometimes.

I’m really not an England fan at all but it was really nice to see Bukayo Saka score his penalty. The abuse he suffered in 2021 was a disgrace and he seems like a really sensible, likeable lad so seeing him do that was a nice moment.

That and the rise in data has made football far worse as a spectacle to watch.

I’ve watched bits and pieces of games, I’ve watched one full game in the whole tournament, and while the public opinion and media is going to be about Gareth Southgate and England, the entertainment value throughout the tournament has been virtually zero. Eighteen draws across the board, thirteen in the groups, seven 1-0’s and twenty-eight games with two or fewer goals scored. Football is very dull these days.