Lucas

I disagree. They have broken rules and shown disrespect to the manager. It's actually even worse the fact they are both in the squad for the first time. Imagine starting a new job somewhere in a higher position and fucking up in the first week? It's a bit embarrassing. Not only that, surely after what Maguire has just done there was an internal message to the squad to keep your nose clean for a bit. For two lads on their debut call up's to disrespect that is really dumb. Southgate has done the right thing. He's sent them home. He had a thinly veiled pop at Grealish for being foolish off the pitch and left him out the squad initially citing the behaviour as one of the reasons, and he has to be consistent here with these two. I would not be against him leaving them both out of the next call up's to teach them a lesson. It's not a lads on tour trip, they should be remaining professional. Really disappointed, especially in Foden as he had a decent game the other night but there you go.

I watched this ages ago for half an hour and switched it off. Bored me to tears when they were getting interviewed. Then funnily enough today, one of my girlfriend's mates said they watched it last night and liked it after the interviewing bit because that's when the film got going. Fair comment? If so, I might try again.

It would not surprise me if we went back for Benrahma if the Rodrigo de Paul deal doesn't go through. We've obviously targeted de Paul on the basis he is a higher calibre player but he's costlier and we need to fight off competition to get him. But its important to note our top journalist has said Leeds can afford him, so it's just about getting a fair price for everyone. If that fails and no one has snapped up Benrahma at that point, I think we'll swoop in. But I know when we initially made enquiries we were put off by the price tag. Certainly was the case for Watkins which was a shame but for an person that hasn't played top level, everyone has their price. I feel like Villa are probably reaching that point with him now before they go back in for Wilson at Bournemouth.

So he turned down Brentford but couldn't get the move he really wanted and his agent has gone crawling back? I wonder if that was linked to Celtic getting knocked out the Champions League? Surprised Brentford went through with it still if he mugged them off previously but there is no doubt he is a talent. The jump from League One to Championship is not enough IMO for him to be worried about not scoring. He should still bag in numbers. Brentford are quite savvy so I don't think they would have been prepared to let Watkins go without a replacement. Should set off a bit of a chain reaction now I'd have thought.

Now Maguire has been found guilty, Southgate has a big decision to make. If he remains consistent and drops him, I tip my hate and say fair play. If he keeps him in, he will lose the authority he was beginning to build in charge. Either way, he should really be issuing a statement soon as.

But as @Cicero alluded to, Grealish is competing for a wider role of the front 3. Phillips is a defensive midfielder. I did wonder if Grealish would get a chance in the 8 position, bit more central as a playmaker which I mentioned earlier, but Southgate has said he hasn't been playing there for Villa so makes sense why he wouldn't be playing there for England. Competition on the wings are fierce. Phillips has an opportunity in an area where no one has nailed down that role. Several have come and gone but no one have made it their own. It's up for grabs and he has a chance. And it's testament to Phillips that he has been called up because he's performed to a high standard consistently albeit a division below because not many Championship players are. But that shows how well coached he is in his position. Bielsa has transformed him and turned him into a top player, Southgate acknowledges that and hopefully many others will soon.

He had been playing as a wing back though for Arsenal. So much so, they pushed Kolasinac into central defence. So he obviously can play LB. And I'd have thought being left footed, he'd be the most comfortable doing it out of all those players too. I'm not saying he should start but he should be an option at least. He can feel robbed.

I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if he plays Mings there. Naturally left footed and has played LB for Ipswich and Bournemouth.

Yeah, very true. I wondered if Southgate would put him more central though in the 3 behind as opposed to LW but obviously not. I feel bad for Saka. We've not actually picked a specialist LB, bit of a slap in the face when we have 3 RB's picked. Someone's playing out of position.

I wonder what Jack Grealish thinks right now. Try as he might, he just can't get in there can he. Could he possibly have been ignored for his misdemeanor during lockdown or does Southgate just not fancy him?

Kalvin Phillips in the squad. Thoroughly deserved. I did say in February he was playing himself into the Euro's squad on one of the Leeds threads which I think got scoffed at, but he's had a monster season and has earned the right for a call up. Great to see Foden and Greenwood in for the first time too. Two players who hold a great future for this country and who could be massive wildcards for us next summer now the tournament has been postponed a year.

Has anyone else noticed he's picking up more and more of these injuries since he got together with Perrie from Little Mix. Just saying...

I haven't seen my boss since April due to Covid, and it's been brilliant working from home. They have hardly bothered me and I've hardly bothered them. I can do all the little jobs I want to get done whilst 'working', I can get workouts done in the garden and runs on the treadmill on my downtime, and best of all, it's amusing to get paid whilst banging your missus on duty. But above all else, and those that know will know, there is nothing like taking a trip to your own toilet when you need a bit of 'you' time and knowing what your walking into. No nasty surprises, no unwelcome visitors to disturb you. Bliss.

@Danny Sounds like you had a bid accepted by Peterborough for Ivan Toney and he has turned you down? Very well publicised it's been Brentford. Very strange. We're talking about a League One player here. He obviously thinks he can do much better and I can only imagine that means Premier League football. Maybe you've had a lucky escape.

34mins in the sun and De Bruyne has burnt to a crisp. It's definitely a ginger thing.

And in relation to that, if he's directly replaced Vorm, he would also count as a 'home grown' player and therefore wouldn't have to fill up a space in the Europa League squad so that would also give them greater flexibility of having another outfield player to select.

I know where @Rick is coming from and I do partly agree, at his age he ideally wants to be first choice somewhere. What we don't know is what offers he actually has/had. Imagine joining QPR for a season, 46 games and collect £15-20k, or back up at Spurs, play a few games and get £40k-50k? You could see why he'd choose the latter. Also on the flip side of that as @Stansaid, Spurs have so many games with Europa League and domestic cups, you'd think he would get a look in somewhere and whose to say it won't be at the expense of Gazzaniga? Did he really take his chance when Lloris was out for a while mid season? I'm not too sure Jose trusts him. Maybe he wants a bit more experience there. If for whatever reason Lloris got injured again, Jose has always preferred experience over youth, I could see him playing Hart over Gazzaniga. And for all we know, Jose may have brought him for reasons that aren't obvious. Vastly experienced, vocal in the dressing room, someone who can pass on knowledge and insight to the younger players, maybe just as a personality? I'm sure Mourinho alluded to his team as a good guys but they need to be more nasty or ruthless? Well, maybe Joe Hart has that personality, we know he's always been very confident in his ability. Either way, I don't think he has been brought in completely on a whim. It's been well thought out one way or another.

For me, Pep would only be sacked if they knew they could bring in another manager better than him. And the only person in the game currently that meets that criteria for me is Klopp. That is probably not going to happen so makes no sense to sack him I'd say.

When you're waiting all day for the Sun to go down till it's cool enough for walkies...

Put money on his first words being "Penalty Ref" followed by a debatable tumble in the box...

Haha you just have to wait like the rest of us then! Really good twists in that most recent series. It's rare a series gets better and better but that's what this does.

One from today in the Sussex countryside.

Greyhound I was really looking forward to this. Tom Hanks is usually a great marker for films and on paper the premise of the story sounded great. The film had some great action sequences and I did like the way some of it was shot, making you feel like you were on their eye level trying to spot these U boats under the sea. But aside from the action, it all felt a little bit meh really. Maybe that was one of the problems, there was so much action that it never really was able to build up tension. For an hour and a half, it is a short movie, very watchable and entertaining. I just think I expected to come out of it more satisfied but it felt a missed opportunity. I actually felt the movie could have been longer, that way they could have given us a better depiction of the enemy side to understand the details of strategy better. I didn't really feel any connection to the characters to really care for them which is unusual, even Tom Hanks came across pretty bland in this film. Nothing like on his past CV. And the climax of the film just fell well short. I don't think it built up enough emotion over the film for the audience to feel satisfied about it. The only thing I would say is that Netflix have been releasing some absolute bullshit films recently as their 'exclusives' that feel like proper B movies. As an exclusive to Apple TV, this had more of a hollywood feel to it and all in all wasn't a bad film at all, it just didn't meet my high expectations. 7/10

I bet someone like David Dein is looking on in horror at things like this now. He was Mr Arsenal and ran the club in it's most successful period. He'd never have allowed this to happen, let alone the bad publicity it is generating. Unfortunately, the people at the top don't give a fuck about the people at the bottom. They are just a number. And that is where there is a disconnect behind the scenes which evidently the players are kicking off about now. They probably know some of those hard working people losing their jobs as they see them on a daily basis. Makes you wonder how you can justify offering x amount of money to one player and naff all to Doris the cleaner.

I don't think there is another side in the Championship that he's really any better moving to? The three that came down are all smaller clubs, they may be financially better off to go back up but Brentford are a more settled team. I would stick with you if it was me unless say Fulham came in or maybe someone like Villa say. I think he'd go then.