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They’re clearly “good enough” because they play for elite level clubs and contribute to their successes. However, the England team as a collective is less than the sum of its parts and seems to me to have been such for a long time now. Why is that?
The English players play alongside other nationalities at all those clubs. As a collective they simply aren’t good enough. Does the England team have anyone in any position who is the best player in the world in that position? No. Closest you get is maybe Trent AA or Bellingham.
. As a collective they simply aren’t good enough. Does the England team have anyone in any position who is the best player in the world in that position? No. Closest you get is maybe Trent AA or Bellingham.
As we know, football is a team game. Take Clough & Taylor at Notts Forest. Yes they had a couple of world class players, such as Shilton & Francis, but most of the team were no more than average players. What Clough & Taylor did was to get them to play as a team.…. and a bloody good team it was too.
The FA have released the following dates to support club planning for its competitions in 2025/26:
On Friday 13 June 2025, we shall be releasing the below information;
Round dates for The Emirates FA Cup, The Isuzu FA Trophy, The Isuzu FA Vase and The FA Youth Cup.
On Friday 27 June 2025, we shall be releasing the below information for each Competition;
List of Clubs accepted into each Competition (Clubs not accepted into a Competition shall be notified separately regarding that Competition on the same date)
List of Clubs to receive exemption
Prize Fund
On Friday 4 July 2025, we shall be releasing the below information;
The Emirates FA Cup – Extra Preliminary Round & Preliminary Round draws
The Isuzu FA Trophy – Preliminary Round & First Round Qualifying draws
The Isuzu FA Vase – First Round Qualifying & Second Round Qualifying draws
The FA Youth Cup – Extra Preliminary Round & Preliminary Round draws
During the week commencing Monday 14 July 2025, Clubs shall receive the below;
Competition Rules (The Emirates FA Cup, The Isuzu FA Trophy, The Isuzu FA Vase and The FA Youth Cup) (by email)
Carbonated team sheets (by post)
FA wall planner (by post)
Carbonated team sheets in this day and age??
Surely the FA should have a computerized data base which would allow clubs to input squads electronically and flag any suspended players prior to kick off. That way we might avoid the farcical situation that clubs like Stockton, Jersey, Redhill, Whyteleafe, Brighouse and others found themselves in at the end of last season.
== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==
The National League and York City are campaigning vigorously for three up to the Football League. York finished 2nd, 23 points ahead of 5th placed Oldham who were promoted via the play-offs.
What York conveniently forget is they are only in the National League because they won the National League North play-offs in 2021/22 having finished 5th, 21 points behind second placed Brackley Town.
The three National League divisions allow 2nd to 7th to participate in their play-offs which is clearly far too many.
The real problem is that the FA and National League have imposed a 1-up (+ 1 play-off) 4-down structure on the non-league pyramid which has led to too much jeopardy at the bottom of leagues and huge bottle necks at the top. Brackley Town are an obvious example, making and failing in five successive play-offs before finally winning the NLN championship this season.
The pyramid is now far too flat. What was step 5 has morphed into step 4. Three leagues feeding into two makes sense. Four feeding into two is too many. Four down from leagues with 22 or fewer clubs is too many given the difficulty of getting back.
Not a lot can be done about 4 down from the National League itself (which has 24 not 22 clubs). But the structure lower down needs revisiting.
Meanwhile the number of teams allowed in the play-offs needs slashing. Long-established Football League clubs should not have to give up their places in League Two for the team finishing 7th in the National League.
Meanwhile the number of teams allowed in the play-offs needs slashing. Long-established Football League clubs should not have to give up their places in League Two for the team finishing 7th in the National League
I quite like the current playoff format. It rewards the top two of the six playoff teams, whereas the football league style playoffs don’t, other than the perceived benefit of the second leg at home
I quite like the current playoff format. It rewards the top two of the six playoff teams, whereas the football league style playoffs don’t, other than the perceived benefit of the second leg at home
League One and Two clubs probably aren't going to vote for another relegation place to the NL, it's like turkeys voting for Christmas. I do agree though, as a fan of the game, that a 3rd promotion place needs granting, got the good of the game.
The 3rd bottom place in L2 should go in to the play offs, win and they stay up, lose and they're relegated.
Germany led 4-1 at half time and added a fifth goal after 48 minutes to lead 5-1.
Good second half response by England, who scored four unanswered goals to equalise between the 52nd and 63rd minutes.
I’m happy with Everton at home for Leeds, although it is a Monday night fixture which feels ominous for how the season will progress. Manchester United at home evocatively, on 3rd of January- ‘Jermaine Beckford day’.
I’m happy with Everton at home for Leeds, although it is a Monday night fixture which feels ominous for how the season will progress. Manchester United at home evocatively, on 3rd of January- ‘Jermaine Beckford day’.
As a Villa fan, I'm fuming we've got one of the two Manchester teams away on the final day of the season, for the third season out of five.
Newcastle on the opening day will be tough, especially if the last time we played Newcastle on the opening day was anything to go by.
Aside from that, looking forward to getting down to B6 again next season and hoping for some success in terms of silverware this time round.
I'd be inclined to agree, I think it's just more the disheartening fact that for the 3rd time since 2022, we'll be travelling to Manchester on the last game of the season - where at both Old Trafford and the Etihad, we have a rubbish record.
Exactly!
I do agree, if you can't get "it" done in the 37 previous games, why should you deserve "it" in the 38th (whatever it may be!). However still, we've seen this script before, and we know how it ends. Hopefully this season it'll be 3rd time lucky!
Not one I had on my bingo card, but I don't have any severe reservations about him, unless any astute fans on here can give me some? I'd possibly go so far as to call him a coup, but we'll see how well he's backed...
Following a meeting with the DNCG, Lyon have been relegated to Ligue 2, the LFP have confirmed in an official statement. Les Gones were handed a provisional
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Following a meeting with the DNCG, Lyon have been relegated to Ligue 2, the LFP have confirmed in an official statement. Les Gones were handed a provisional relegation during the last meeting with the French football financial body on the basis that if their financial situation didn’t improve, they would be relegated to the French second tier.
Rob Edwards has been appointed as new head coach at Middlesbrough. He is said to be recruiting Adrian Viveash as his assistant - he was previously assistant to Mark Robins at Coventry.
My club, Heart of Midlothian, has confirmed today, that Tony Bloom of BHAFC has invested 10m in the club and placed his long-time associate James Frank on the board. Rumours have been rife for ages, but it's nice to see it confirmed today.
He will bring his player selection algorithms to Tynecastle, and he aims to challenge the dominance of the old firm.
Yeah, whatever....us Jambos have heard this before from a certain Mr Romanov, but Tony Bloom's credibility is incomparable with our russian submariner, so I'm reasonably hopeful.
Incidentally, if anyone would like to know a bit more about what having a complete fruit loop as a football club chairman is like, I'd recommend 'Romanov, Tsar of Hearts' on BBC sounds. You don't have to be a Hearts or a Scottish football fan to appreciate it, and it's actually hilarious. Tales of challenging our top striker Roman Bednar to a fist fight in the car park, deliberately sacking a successful manager because the crowd were singing their name instead of his, and appointing a convicted sex offender as our manager in his place (because no-one would sing his name) is just one hundredth of the nonsense that went on! Worth a listen!
My club, Heart of Midlothian, has confirmed today, that Tony Bloom of BHAFC has invested 10m in the club and placed his long-time associate James Frank on the board. Rumours have been rife for ages, but it's nice to see it confirmed today.
He will bring his player selection algorithms to Tynecastle, and he aims to challenge the dominance of the old firm.
Yeah, whatever....us Jambos have heard this before from a certain Mr Romanov, but Tony Bloom's credibility is incomparable with our russian submariner, so I'm reasonably hopeful.
Incidentally, if anyone would like to know a bit more about what having a complete fruit loop as a football club chairman is like, I'd recommend 'Romanov, Tsar of Hearts' on BBC sounds. You don't have to be a Hearts or a Scottish football fan to appreciate it, and it's actually hilarious. Tales of challenging our top striker Roman Bednar to a fist fight in the car park, deliberately sacking a successful manager because the crowd were singing their name instead of his, and appointing a convicted sex offender as our manager in his place (because no-one would sing his name) is just one hundredth of the nonsense that went on! Worth a listen!
My brother's a journalism student in Edinburgh at the moment and regularly covers Hearts. You lot seem to have had a rough ride with owners recently, and just when things start to look up, they do something incomprehensibly stupid to offset all that progress.
Though as you say, Brighton's success in a significantly stronger league gives reason for optimism. Here's to hoping!
My brother's a journalism student in Edinburgh at the moment and regularly covers Hearts. You lot seem to have had a rough ride with owners recently, and just when things start to look up, they do something incomprehensibly stupid to offset all that progress.
Though as you say, Brighton's success in a significantly stronger league gives reason for optimism. Here's to hoping!
Your poor brother only had doom and gloom to report on last year, as we were truly dreadful. Let's hope for better for both him and me next season, and that he's not reporting on doom, gloom and Bloom!
After the debacle that was last season at Old Trafford, someone should inform the supporters that the name of the deity whose name they chant has been proved to be a false God.
After the debacle that was last season at Old Trafford, someone should inform the supporters that the name of the deity whose name they chant has been proved to be a false God.
Diogo Jota killed along with his brother just 10 days after the Portugal forward got married. He had three children.
news.sky.com
Liverpool star Diogo Jota has died in a car crash, according to local reports in Spain.
The 28-year-old Portuguese forward died in a crash near Zamora, in northwestern Spain, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
The agency reports his brother, Andre, was also killed in the crash early on Thursday morning on the Rias Bajas Highway (A-52) near Palacios de Sanabria.
I remember when he signed for us over Werner and I was holding stick for backing him, turned out to be a sensational footballer and proved the doubters wrong. Loved Jota at Liverpool, truly shocking and sad news today. Only got married a few days ago, leaves behind 3 very young children, a young wife now widowed and lest not forget his parents who've lost both Andre and Jota. So sad how short life can be.
Yes very tragic, respectfully reported as a 'tyre blow out' when he was over taking in his Lamborghini at 00:30 in the morning.
This only months after another Portuguese player Yvann Martins also died in car crash.
Your poor brother only had doom and gloom to report on last year, as we were truly dreadful. Let's hope for better for both him and me next season, and that he's not reporting on doom, gloom and Bloom!
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