EURO 2020

[bodacious benny]

Yeah, I wasn't trying to say one was or wasn't worse than the other, just that we have issues just like Bulgaria (and every other country on earth do).

I've also heard Shola being called that at more than one of our games (always away, never at home) and at Wolves away last year one of our 'fans' was shouting about Wolverhampton being a town full of P***s.

[Colly]

I know our friendly crowd are always knobheads out for a cheap day out, but I heard some horrible stuff from toon fans in the city centre before York away a couple of seasons back. We are not without blame.

[Double Agent Bruce a.k.a DAB]

Pumping money into an economy in exchange for cheap alcohol is a voluntary exchange which has an overall benefit to Bulgaria - otherwise they’d try discourage it happening. Shouting racist abuse at people that are simply trying to entertain people isn’t voluntary for the people being abused. It’s really not that hard to distinguish between the two. And stretching to Nazi salutes before the major atrocities of the Nazi regime in 1938 as a comparison to make monkey chants seem reasonable is grasping at straws. There’s no need to defend clearly racist actions unless, for some reason, you sympathise with them.

I'm far from justifying any kind of racial abuse. I just show you that your press far to easily put us the label of "racist" and "animals".

As for "grasping straws". Fine. Don't want to accept my examples... Then take this. The whole Brexit thing is about taking control at emigration. Not the one coming from Bulgaria, Romania, Poland... You're fine with them because they work for pennies in the farms. Brexit was about not letting any emigrants from Middle East and Africa. Now tell me that this is not a racist.

In a way we're racist but give me a break. We're not the animals or nation of racist bastards.

I'm done with this matter.

Cheers.

[Colly]

Pumping money into an economy in exchange for cheap alcohol is a voluntary exchange which has an overall benefit to Bulgaria - otherwise they’d try discourage it happening. Shouting racist abuse at people that are simply trying to entertain people isn’t voluntary for the people being abused. It’s really not that hard to distinguish between the two. And stretching to Nazi salutes before the major atrocities of the Nazi regime in 1938 as a comparison to make monkey chants seem reasonable is grasping at straws. There’s no need to defend clearly racist actions unless, for some reason, you sympathise with them.

I'm far from justifying any kind of racial abuse. I just show you that your press far to easily put us the label of "racist" and "animals".

As for "grasping straws". Fine. Don't want to accept my examples... Then take this. The whole Brexit thing is about taking control at emigration. Not the one coming from Bulgaria, Romania, Poland... You're fine with them because they work for pennies in the farms. Brexit was about not letting any emigrants from Middle East and Africa. Now tell me that this is not a racist.

In a way we're racist but give me a break. We're not the animals or nation of racist bastards.

I'm done with this matter.

Cheers.

Actually it's the opposite, it's those farm workers we're going to lose.

Otherwise I do agree with you, the press coming up with headlines like that is pathetic, especially given the 6-0 result was against your football team, the captain of which actually went over to the twats in the crowd to try to stop them. Whether that's self serving to get the game going or not, you can't call him a racist, nor the rest of the team, nor the majority of the crowd. That doesn't detract from the fact that racism is abhorrent and needs to be dealt with, and just says a lot for our shitty press.

Sky now reporting the Bulgaria coach has resigned.

[Sir Bobby]

Yeah, I wasn't trying to say one was or wasn't worse than the other, just that we have issues just like Bulgaria (and every other country on earth do).

I've also heard Shola being called that at more than one of our games (always away, never at home) and at Wolves away last year one of our 'fans' was shouting about Wolverhampton being a town full of P***s.

I was actually going to add that I’m sure there are more frequent occasions of racism at away games than home games. The most notable difference between racism in England and what happened in Bulgaria the other night is the denial in the face of evidence from Bulgarian journalists in the press conference afterwards, from many online, from the manager and from others associated with the team. Muddying the waters and playing it down literally only benefits the racists, so I just do not understand why people do it.

And tabloids are tabloids. If you read them personally or as fact you’re gonna be offended on nearly every page. They play to the lowest emotions of people. If we were beaten by Belgium 6-0 then trashed the European Parliament and Belgian papers ran with Belgium 6-0 Bigots/Xenophobes would anyone be offended? I really don’t think so - it’s a simple way of tying the two stories together in one line. The people doing the trashing would have been stupid bigots, just like the people doing the monkey noises were stupid racists.

[UlversToon]

England squad for the upcoming qualifiers against Montenegro and Kosovo from which just 1 point is required to secure qualification.

Goalkeepers: Tom Heaton (Aston Villa), Jordan Pickford (Everton), Nick Pope (Burnley)

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Ben Chilwell (Leicester), Joe Gomez (Liverpool), Harry Maguire (Manchester United), Tyrone Mings (Aston Villa), Danny Rose (Tottenham), John Stones (Manchester City), Fikayo Tomori (Chelsea), Kieran Trippier (Atletico Madrid)

Midfielders: Ross Barkley (Chelsea), Fabian Delph (Everton), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), James Maddison (Leicester City), Mason Mount (Chelsea), Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain (Liverpool), Declan Rice (West Ham), Harry Winks (Tottenham)

Forwards: Tammy Abraham (Chelsea), Callum Hudson-Odoi (Chelsea), Harry Kane (Tottenham), Marcus Rashford (Manchester United), Jadon Sancho (Borussia Dortmund), Raheem Sterling (Manchester City), Callum Wilson (Bournemouth)

[bodacious benny]

Good to see the Ox back, been really impressed with his Liverpool form since his return from injury.

[Remember Colo]

I appreciate the move to younger faces, but a few, particularly in the midfield seem questionable to me. Mings, Tomori, Barkley, Rice and Winks are probably the 4 that trip me up

[TJR]

I appreciate the move to younger faces, but a few, particularly in the midfield seem questionable to me. Mings, Tomori, Barkley, Rice and Winks are probably the 4 that trip me up

Mings and Tomori are having good seasons and there arent really any English CB's not in the squad who are on better form. I agree with Barkley, Rice and Winks though. Rice is nowhere near England standard and the other two haven't exactly had seasons to shout about so far.

[Remember Colo]

I appreciate the move to younger faces, but a few, particularly in the midfield seem questionable to me. Mings, Tomori, Barkley, Rice and Winks are probably the 4 that trip me up

Mings and Tomori are having good seasons and there arent really any English CB's not in the squad who are on better form. I agree with Barkley, Rice and Winks though. Rice is nowhere near England standard and the other two haven't exactly had seasons to shout about so far.

Maybe I was being harsh on Mings, but despite the credit deserved for Tomori to be making the jump up to first-choice with Chelsea and playing in the Champions League, they're shipping goals by the buckets. His fault or not, seems to be giving him a bit of the benefit of the doubt that a team that porous doesn't yet deserve.

[bodacious benny]

Tomori is one for the future, if he wasn't playing for a top side he'd be nowhere near the national squad. He looks like he could be decent but I agree that it's a bit early for an England call-up.

[KetteringExile]

Barkley plays because he’s had a stellar qualifiers so far, 4 goals and 3 assists in 6 games so far .. I know he’s not been great for Chelsea but it would be unfair to drop him from England

[Remember Colo]

Barkley plays because he’s had a stellar qualifiers so far, 4 goals and 3 assists in 6 games so far .. I know he’s not been great for Chelsea but it would be unfair to drop him from England

That's fair then. I'll admit to not paying much attention to England's qualifier campaign, or I should say, the individual performances of players.

[originallad]

Finland through to their first ever major tournament! SUOMI! SUOMI! SUOMI!

[Don Sholeone]

Sterling gets booed... Just football, Joe Gomez gets booed... a National tragedy. Let's just hope the minutes silence for Gomez in the next round of games is observed and respected to the fullest.

[krully]

Declan Rice is a pillock

[ALF]

I appreciate the move to younger faces, but a few, particularly in the midfield seem questionable to me. Mings, Tomori, Barkley, Rice and Winks are probably the 4 that trip me up

Winks is probably our best midfielder.

[Remember Colo]

I appreciate the move to younger faces, but a few, particularly in the midfield seem questionable to me. Mings, Tomori, Barkley, Rice and Winks are probably the 4 that trip me up

Winks is probably our best midfielder.

Maybe he too's been playing well for England, but he like nearly every Tottenham player has looked really poor this season. I think he's talented, but they're in terrible form right now.

[beatski]

I appreciate the move to younger faces, but a few, particularly in the midfield seem questionable to me. Mings, Tomori, Barkley, Rice and Winks are probably the 4 that trip me up

That's 5

But yeah i agree that their inclusion is questionable. Rice and Winks arent helped by both being played at the same time, our midfield is flat and uninspired when we've got two deep lying mids playing together

[bodacious benny]

Whilst Rice, Winks etc. are perfectly good players domestically, you just know that as soon as England come up against a top class team like France, Belgium, Croatia etc. that they will walk all over them. England's issue has never been beating the lesser sides in qualifying, more often than not it's embarrassingly easy. It's taking the game to and beating the better sides when it matters. They had 3 tough games at the World Cup and lost them all (Belgium twice and Croatia), they couldn't even beat Colombia in open play.