2 small cameos and 1 start after months off injured. He might be fit ie injury free. He cant be anywhere near match fit and totally sharp. Chilwell is shit and again, was injured.

And we will be packed full of attacking quality but with as poor/unfit a defence as ours is, we will always be vulnerable v top teams.

Why are you asking people what theyve heard about the budget. Only 2 days ago you were insistent that we do have a decent budget as theres no way the LT would suggest it without club approval.

He was sold late in January when many teams wouldnt have been in a position to bid. Its a different market in the summer, teams dont tend to have the same budget in January especially now with FFP. More teams bidding and after a further half a season of experience, and without the desperation to sell, we could receive much more. Regarding Scott, hes a different type of player.

Hyam made a massive mistake v Southampton which nearly cost us a point. I would stop listening to whoever told you that as its blatantly not true.

Chilwell is rubbish and Hall is a kid who has barely ever played so even mentioning him is premature. However good Shaw is, Euro 2024 Shaw wont be anywhere near those levels.

Im not sure we should considering the defensive issues. Southgate is not a good manager but I think our defensive problems are the biggest concern.

Yesterdays game was shocking although obviously you cant read too much into friendlies. But the issues we have are more prevalent against teams of a reasonable calibre, not 2 teams that couldnt even qualify in the extended current format of the Euros. The defence is a bomb scare. Trippier at left back is a liability, he is starting to look his age after an injury and some poor form in the last few months even in his natural position. Its all well and good saying Shaw is good when fit, he wont be fit throughout the Euros, hes been out for 4 months so he wont be able to get up to speed. Any half decent right winger will have a field day. Stones is seen as a given in terms of his quality but again hes barely played in months and isnt fit enough, plus picked up a knock last night. Next to him we have Guehi, again, not played in months. You cant carry 3 quarters of a defence carrying fitness issues. No one is any wiser as to who will play next to Rice. Looking at the squad numbers, that may be Trent who is a very good player but is a right back. Wharton has been given number 25 which might be meaningless but I dont think he will play much if at all, and as much as he possibly is our best hope, he has only played less than 20 Premier League games. Im not convinced by Mainoo who leaves big spaces as does the very limited Gallagher.

Stones off injured...

He scored a penalty in a friendly, hardly Miroslav Klose!

Not sure getting in the Iceland side necessarily means you are a good player.

There are still a number of players who are not in good form, but mainly ones that still had to be picked of course like Stones and Trippier, plus Guehi and Shaw. Then players like Toney who are lucky.

O'Hara is one of the worst and least intelligent pundits around. Must be a rare lapse to make a reasonable point.

Its literally a sentence at the bottom of a seperate article with a local journalist saying that we would expect some funds to be available. No specifics, nothing suggesting significant funds. Now thats a club endorsed guarantee.

Sadly true. He is arguably at least as good as anyone we have beside Rice in there, it would be a huge shame to see Gallagher ahead of him. Mainoo I would somewhat understand, Trent again as a bit of a curveball although that would be a risk.

Italy have quite a strong defence, Bastoni is a very good player at Inter and Mancini a regular at Roma. Although I would have them down as maybe 8th favourites. The problem is not necessarily Guehi's ability at full fitness but its how he is now having barely played since a long term injury. Add in Stones' lack of game time and the main issue at left back and we can certainly be got at. Such a shame that when we get such a plethora of attacking talent that we also have such issues in defence.

I look forward to a £7m bumper kitty pre Szmodics sale then if its happening 100% and the club have confirmed this to Jackson, especially if the 100% reliable Nixon has also confirmed the bumper kitty, if indeed he has. Especially after that £50m warchest he once promised was bang on.

There should, considering weve received so much in to the club. Whether there will or wont be a decent budget ultimately is still unknown but IMO it didnt read like a tip off, the club has been silent post season.

Talented yes, good yes outstanding no. Maybe a bit of English bias. He doesnt get close to the other big nations. But the main issue is his lack of fitness.

He didnt even say that there will be a reasonable budget, it was clearly his opinion, nor did he clarify what a decent budget is.

A nice hypothetical suggestion but unfortunately not anything like the reality. Shaw has not played for a long, long time. Even if he can "feature" as Southgate suggested in the second game he is going to be well off the pace. The alternative is Trippier who is aging, out of form, has been injured and will be on the wrong side. Guehi is a decent defender, certainly not close to being a top level one, and again has had a serious injury so will be rusty. He made a big mistake v Bosnia which you can maybe put down to that. Even beyond that, Stones has not played much and looked shaky in the cup final and even Walker has been below his usual standards. The issue is not predominantly down to the manager, he has made a huge error not taking Branthwaite over Dunk but even then, is Branthwaite a top level defender? We are starved of quality and crucially fully fit defenders and the key to winning a tournamrment is often a solid defence. Im guessing you are strongly against the squad picked considering that Grealish who you wanted to start and Maddison to be in the squad.

Not experience of the highest level though, not many caps and whenever hes played for England hes been really poor. The defence is a huge concern. The fear is that we have so much attacking talent that everyone will fear but its build on shoddy foundations.

Dunk over Branthwaite?

As expected, the final squad is a bit of a mixed bag in terms of decisions made. Brilliant to see Wharton make it, and fair play as it would have been easy to not take him. I don't think he will play with Rice, Mainoo, Trent and Southgate's bizarre love of Conor Gallagher, but I really hope he does get on the pitch. The defence is a real concern for a team with supposed ambitions of winning the tournament. Even a fit Maguire isn't a huge loss as he is not the best but how Dunk is going (carrying an injury himself too) is beyond me, not good enough whereas Branthwaite is for me the biggest exclusion. Not sure there is any need for Watkins and Toney either.

Grealish and Maguire are also being cut.