Why are there only 18,189 "saleable" seats to home supporters? That shows a distinct lack of long term ambition in itself. Anyhow challenge to the Club, keep Szmodics and spend at least £1m on a player and I'll renew my lapsed ST despite my loathing of the CEO. In the absence of the above I'll assume that there is still no desire whatsoever to succeed on the pitch, another grim battle against relegation will ensue and I'll keep my money in my pocket.

That would be the dream but we never seem to get the best man for the job - the prime example being Brian Clough being shamefully overlooked by the FA in favour of the safe option "Uncle" Ron Greenwood. Far more likely to be another uninspiring appointment from within the system like Lee Carsley or heaven forbid a serial failure like Lampard on the sole basis they're English. Hypothetically Klopp would be a good choice as well to inject some tempo and passion into the side instead of this painfully slow sideways and backwards passing game we appear to have fallen into.

Why is that? We are ranked 5 in the World so reaching the semi finals of tournaments ought to be more or less par for the Course.

Definitely - if recent stories are true about an exit for Telalovic being negotiated then that will cement Broughton's reputation in the Hall of Shame as signing three strikers for Rovers who didn't register a single goal between them. Which is a record that is never likely to be bettered or worsened as it were.

All or nothing now - I personally don't rate Southgate in the slightest, or even like him, and think we're progressing despite rather than because of him and also think we've stunk the tournament out and been incredibly fortunate to reach this stage. That said if we can win the thing the history books will record the fact and in fifty years time, no-one will care less that we were crap or within 80 seconds of going out against Slovakia. If that happens Southgate will be entitled to put two fingers up at his critics and say "I told you you were over-reacting". On the other hand if we lose on Wednesday or Sunday without at least putting in a vastly improved performance I think his Critics will be justified in saying overall its been an absolutely abysmal showing on a par with anything served up by his recent predecessors. An incredibly fine line between hero and absolute zero.

On England I'm finding it extremely distasteful that Southgate has created the narrative that it's the fans fault the players aren't performing because they are putting them under too much pressure and making them perform in a "strange" environment. Nice guy my arse.

Predictable and depressing.

Really disappointed to hear Harry Kane's comments this morning about Shearer and Lineker, I previously had him down as being more grounded and a cut above the average modern day player. The latter two, apart from both being exceptional players in their pomp are paid football pundits. Are they only allowed to say how brilliant Harry and Co are even when that obviously hasn't been the case and it's not what they believe? Lineker's criticism of Kane's performances in particular was I thought very constructive and well argued. As a former striker of some repute he itemised the things Kane has been doing wrong and suggested tweaks he could bring to his game to rectify things. Grow up Harry and stop being a cry baby. And P.S. Shearer and Lineker "haven't won nothing" unlike yourself - they've won plenty.

Strange how almost every side at the Tournament, even the so called "minnows" have been playing some fabulous football apart from the two UK based participants who have both stunk the place out. Both sides seem to be lumbered with extremely negative if not downright cowardly managers. As for Scotland, I know Clarke has a limited pool from which to pick from yada yada but Scotland were absolutely dire. They didn't turn up against Germany, treated what effectively was a "must win" game against Switzerland as a "must not lose" game and in what was definitely "a must win" game last night by 90 minutes they hadn't registered a single effort on target and only registered 3 in total over the 3 games. Really poor, irrespective of their relative status and I didn't think it was a stonewall penalty either. Whilst you've seen them given, I thought that instead of concentrating on trying to score the Scottish play was certainly looking for the penalty and was waiting for contact and contributed to the tangle. Always refreshing to see them "home before the postcards" as the Doc used to say. That said had they played well and progressed I'd have been pleased for them.

Some rumours this morning that Harry Kane has held an emergency 26 man players meeting with no coaches present. That's the sort of drastic measure required because unless they get to the bottom of whatever issues they have and stop playing walking football and start putting a shift in - we'll be going home after the last 16.

To the naked eye the defender on the near side looked to be playing Lukaku well onside and if anything Debruyne looked off when he scored (which was allowed) The clip they showed of Lukaku allegedly having a toe nail offside is completely meaningless in isolation as there's no proof whatsoever it was frozen at exactly the same point that the ball was played. And even if he did, so what? That's neither looking to gain an advantage nor "a clear and obvious" error. VAR is completely ruining the game or at least the use of it in conjunction with the laws as they stand is. The offside law never anticipated this sort of minute forensic examination when it was drafted and clearly needs changing to require clear daylight. Ditto this "snicko" bollux trying to catch a ball brushing an attackers fingertips. That needs scrapping as well or they'll end up ruining the game.

As with Gutted, agree 100%. Halved kits should be the sole preserve of Blackburn Rovers.

Not rocket science is it - I used to make this point to John Williams and Tom Finn but it was poo poohed because the Marketing men apparently thought the strips would be too similar year on year and we wouldn't sell enough new kits etc.

Ditto, if they don't run out of stock before I can get down to the shop I might splash out now the vaping Sponsorship has been removed.

Listening to him pontificate on other players and their attitudes, you'd think he never put a foot wrong. I'd love a Rovers fan to ring Talksport and take him to task for his time at Ewood when he's on some time.

And by Venky's, Steve Waggott and Gregg Broughton virtually giving him away for £18m.

The English Coach v Foreign Coach conundrum should be a fairly simple one. You pick the one who you feel is the best person for the job. End of. In the unlikely event there were two candidates of equal calibre and stature, one foreign and one English you'd hope the powers that be would pick the English one. Whether umpteen English managers since Sir Alf, or Sven and Capello have failed is completely irrelevant. What's happened in the past has no bearing on matters going forward.

I disagree, if someone just happens to be stood in an offside position at the farside of the pitch then a 30 yard worldie shouldnt be ruled out on that basis. Common sense also has to be applied though, if as in the case of last night a shot flashes into the net and the keeper has no chance of getting it whatever happens it shouldn't matter someone is stood offside.

Backing him - but covering all bases at the same time! Don't get splinters you know where!

Can always rely on you for a quality post Wilsden! I'd say that the Dutch player's position had no impact whatsoever on the keepers ability to go for the ball as there was no chance whatsoever of him saving it in the first place. Seemingly not everyone agrees but to me it's an absolute no brainer I don't know why it would be even up for debate.

We all know he was stood in an offside position but he wasn't "interfering" according to the definition.

The keeper was getting nowhere near that shot whether the Dutch player was stood there or not. He barely had time to react let alone dive. Ridiculous decision, ruling out an excellent goal for the sake of it. And one that could have major implications for who plays who and as regards the eventual outcome of the tournament.

Absolutely Ludicrous decisich to disallow the Dutch goal,. The player wasnt in the keepers eyeliner and the keeper was never getting anywhere near the shot. That decision could have a major bearing on the eventual outcome of the competition. Should have been the most straightforward of decisions to over-rule the onfield officials. Slightly different technology in use but VAR still ruining the game.

That's absolute quality. (Although I don't even think Saka has been that good tbf)

Good post, totally agree his time is up; no-one apart from the FA really wanted him to carry on after relative failure in the Euro Final and he hummed and haa'd before eventually deciding to limp on and as you say things now look exceptionally stale as a result. Imo it looks like there's something seriously amiss within the camp, after sitting through two games of walking football from our point of view the one incident that annoyed me the most was last night when Pickford charged up to the half way line to demand the ball off one of the centre halves. At that point you naturally assume he's going to wave the defender forward and launch the ball himself. But no, he passed the ball three yards sideways to the CH and retreated back to his goal. I was left screaming at the screen "What's the point in that?" For me the players aren't buying into this at all so far and don't seem to have any belief or enthusiasm for what they're being asked to do or how they're being asked to play. The only hope imo is that there's a players revolt and they decide to completely ignore the wet one and go out and try and tear the opposition a new one and see where it takes us.