They lost 4-1. And have 2 players playing for top clubs. The problem is you struggle to approach conversations about England without it being covered in bias.

You are judging off pointless games against sides that didnt even qualify for a 24 team Euros. You also have history of bigging up players well beyond their capability due to being English. You once lauded our strength in depth a couple of years ago by saying how we had options like Harry Winks and Skipp. Take your shout of Madueke having done enough to compete with Saka. No he hasnt. A couple of promising performances where his end product was inconsistent doesnt create a dilemma when the alternative is someone who has repeatedly produced for a title challenger over a number of years. Lewis Hall is now being seen by you and chaddy as some sort of solution to our left back issues. He has made 24 league starts in his entire career, mainly for a side that played Dan Burn as a left back for most of that time. You say that Gallagher has massively improved since he joined Atletico. Has he? Is that based just on these 2 glorified friendlies against poor teams? Ultimately, many of these players would struggle to make the squad when a proper tournament comes around anyway, so its immaterial. Our best team looks nothing like the one that has played in the last couple of games. Those same issues at left back, centre back and central midfield still exist at the top level.

Greece couldnt qualify for a 24 team Euros, losing to the mighty Georgia in a play off. They arent, and some wouldnt be near the England squad if it wasnt for the fact that many of the first teamers couldnt be arsed with the nations league or play in positions of weakness.

The one under Lambert saw us sell our best player for a considerable sum and just patch the squad up with loans. The one in League 1 saw us bring in Armstrong on loan who obviously was good but also Payne on loan who was a squad filler and buy Bell who was crap. Some low standards there.

Dont know on Lewis Hall, he is just about cementing a start at Newcastle. Either way, its a problem position and one that half decent teams will fancy exploiting. Just scrap it entirely, no need for friendlies nearly 2 years before a tournament. Id have stuck to the 8 groups of 4 format. Not this 36 team league. Im not really sure that we have learnt much if at all from these 2 games. They were against 2 teams that couldnt even qualify for an expanded 24 team Euros that had the likes of Georgia and Albania there. The likes of Hall, Liveramento, Gibbs White, Solanke, Jones, Harwood Bellis and Gallagher are average Prem level players. (I know Gallagher has gone abroad where he is in and out for Atletico) They arent players that would compete against good teams, Ireland however have Championship players playing for them.

Supposedly, although like a few I suspect had it been a Premier League game rather than a non entity of a supposed competition, he would be playing.

They havent been putting money in for a long while, covering losses by raising shares is something they have to do if they for whatever reason want or need to keep the club going. We havent spent over £2m on a player in over 5 years. In which time we have sold a number of big money assets and been overreliant on promoting academy graduates. Of course the difference between the latter stages of the Walker Trust ownership was that even though it was frustrating, it was always at least the case that the club was run efficiently with good people on the ground and not a huge lag between Ewood and India as we see today.

They are bigger than the pointless nations league. I havent seen anyone suggest that they should get rid of World Cups and Euros.

But again wont it be just after the world cup so nearly 2 years before it? Pointless games that simply dont need to be in the packed calendar and ones that the players clearly arent fond of.

This defence of the nations league that it is better than friendlies is flawed. It doesnt need to be one or the other. We are over a year and a half from a tournament, we dont need to be creating mini tournaments to prepare for it. Greece like all 3 opponents in the group failed to qualify for an extended 24 team Euros, with Georgia knocking them out. They arent strong.

I dont get why anyone would ask for his opinion on articles he presumably didnt even write.

Im not sure its that competitive in that its just a made up competition that the players seem to see as a hindrance. But those friendlies didnt need replacing.

That would be a massive come down for both, Coventry replacing a good manager with a terrible one and Lampard having to work in the Championship despite chaddy calling for him to get the England job.

Even if Tuchel was in charge. The tournament is 19 months away, playing a few extra jazzed up friendlies in an already overcrowded schedule isnt going to make a difference.

The initial issue with Mcguire was that despite a record sale, the owners wouldnt authorise a buy for a couple of million. We then renegotiated a loan late in the day which obviously descended into chaos. Im not sure the recruitment this summer has been a lot better at all. But whoever is employed here has both arms tied behind their backs because we regularly sell and dont reinvest.

Doesnt really make any difference whether they succeed or fail in this case. The main barrier is and has been for a long while that they simply dont want to invest. The main thing that it proves is that they dont care about the club nor do they plan to put money into it. Waggott is their arse licking lap dog, Suhail is their sneaky snake, both are merely enabling symptoms of the real problem.

Watching Rovers often does lead to torment. Thats because it means something unlike the Nations league. 8 pull outs tells you everything you need to know. Interesting to see how many magically recover in a fortnight.

Just the 8 players pulling out for the pointless glorified friendlies.

The thing with Brown is in his day, he was a competent Championship striker. He turned up here with his knees knackered and he spent most of his time injured. Gueye is coming into his supposed prime.

As long as it suits you. Thats the main thing. A non public transport user, who sets off to away games earlier than necessary anyway, who doesnt have kids playing Saturday football and who likes to have the option to do half a match of pre Rovers scouting.

And sadly even though there are big question marks over Ohashi himself, the alternative is frightening.

If there is a manager who can be mainly accused of misusing and being a hindrance to Travis' career, it's undoubtedly Tomasson.

6 or 7 dinner time games at the same time felt like a step too far. Surely the viewing figures on the additional games are very small, predominantly just fans of the teams in question. Theres no question that it is an inconvenience for many. Public transport being unreliable at times doesnt mean that people wont use it, but wont be able to with these early kick offs. Driving/getting a coach means regular silly set off times to make kick off. Winning and playing well doesnt offset that inconvenience. It makes it worthwhile for those who did go at silly o clock, but im sure they would have preferrered to set off at a more reasonable time and would perhaps have been joined by more fans.

Even if we were having a real go at promotion. A laughable idea under Venkys as you say but lets run with it. It still wouldnt make sense to give up a guaranteed current shot at the Premier League for a potential one in the future, so he would still move.

Yes, its a really big issue. For away games, it means if you are driving you have to set off at a ridiciluous hour. Or if you get public transport, it can make it difficult or even impossible to travel. If its at home, it could very well cause issues if kids play morning/dinner time football, they may have to miss games. There is absolutely no justifiable reason to have 6 or 7 EFL games at half 12 on a Saturday at the same time.