Alex

Worst ever start to a Championship season by a newly relegated Premier League club according to the Beeb.

Other than that though... Sounds like turn at the social club

There's a clue on that site

Some fuckng comeback that like

Like Birmingham?

You don't say

If we're talking England and Wales it was, more or less, everywhere bar London and a few other cities

But we're set up to counter attack and spoil against the better sides so it's not quite as simple as that

He'd have struggled to get a game for France in that era let alone got 100 caps. Given the amount of caps he got (which was a lot) what makes you think he should've played more based on those England performances? He was a very good player but trying to elevate him to World class status and blaming the managers of that era (Greenwood and SBR never had an issue with good footballers) is just misty-eyed nostalgia tbh Edit: the point I'm trying to make is that, rather than the England managers of the era being suspicious of Hoddle as a footballer and preferring grafters (which is what I assume you mean by the English way) the opposite is true. They actually wanted Hoddle in the side because he offered something different and they kept giving him chances. But he never performed well enough often enough when he was picked to make himself a permanent fixture in the side

Like having a long term goal of becoming rich by putting the lottery on. Except there's a small chance you could win the lottery.

He got a canny few caps (especially for that era when 50+ was more like getting on for 100 now) and he was technically excellent but his athleticism and his ability to impose himself in games let him down at times and was why he was very good rather than great.

It was quite a subtle difference formation-wise though, it's not like England played two wide men in those first two group matches. They had Lineker and Hately upfront and Waddle played in a sort of free role taking up positions on either wing. It was actually quite similar to how he played at Newcastle when you had Beardsley and Keegan upfront and Waddle playing on whichever wing took his fancy. I suppose injury / suspension did force Bobby Robson's hand to make changes but Bryan Robson's injury undoutedly weakened the midfield (and him and Wilkins were replaced by similar types of central midfielders in Peter Reid and Steve Hodge). Waddle would've been dropped anyway because he'd been ineffectual and Trevor Steven came in for him. Steven was a different type of player but still arguably a 'winger' so you still had 3 central midfielders and a more natural wide man as with the first two games. The biggest impact on improving the side was definitely pairing Beardsley with Lineker which wasn't forced on Bobby Robson due to injury or suspension.

Tbf to Wilkins the improvement was all about playing Beardsley alongside Lineker (instead of Mark Hately). They still played more or less the same system (4-4-2).

In a World Cup

He was a better player four years earlier. That side was a bit underrated, exited Espana 82 without losing a game (not even on pens) and comfortably beat a good France side in their opening game. Scored a belta in the cup final against Brighton that I remember well.

Was more of a tongue-in-cheek dig at Ginger Jack but Wilkins was decent. He got about 80 ENgland caps back when that was actually a pretty impressive achievement, less games, less subs, more English players to choose from and so on.

That's a bit harsh, Wilkins was a good player.

Good spot

Pre-Pedro Pedro

Think I have to be out on Saturday afternoon so won't be able to catch it but that only increases our chances of winning

Aye, only 4 episodes in but it's great. Not a bad effort especially considering the hype this time round.

I bet Harvey Wankstain (sorry, couldn't resist) in particular is planning to take a few people down with him like

The OP

Tell you what like, that EST / PST patter is hilarious

What a fucking idiot