Alex

Tom Wolfe. Might have to re-read The Right Stuff.

Maybe he has but he's not some fanny who goes whingeing to the press about it straight away

Thing is, Walker is perfect as a RWB in that system. So he plays him at centre-back in a 3, where he can do a job but is no better than about 6 or 7 other players we have in that position

You laugh but he'll probably end up in central midfield.

Everton as well. Any club giving him £9m for 18 months deserves everything that's coming to them

We were lucky to get a draw at home against Derby as well

Sorry to hear that. Best of luck and all that, mate

That squad, man

I think the issue with Root at 3 was that he clearly doesn't want to play their so hopefully he'll get over that mentally as he's the best batsman we have.

Hameed's not made any scores for Lancs in the championship. Given his age and promise you'd hope he still has a bright future but his form doesn't warrant selection

It's weird though. According to the Beeb it looks like they've already picked the side (they've only announced 12 so they pretty much have) and Bairstow moving up to 5 as wk/batsman but Buttler at 7 as a specialist seems weird to me. To be honest I don't mind a bit of experimentation and there's not as much riding on these two tests as something like an Ashes series obviously but it just seems a bit all over the place. Bess has a pretty good first class record and I think with Leach out injured he's a good option on paper. I don't see the point in picking Moeen as a part-time bowler when you have all that batting in the side anyway. Especially when he's been struggling in the test side of late. Looks like Root at 3 which I think they've decided is worth a go since no one else has looked the part there. 1,2 and 3 are still the problem positions.

Sad news. Hope the other driver's ok

Also, Ed Smith's includied Jos Buttler in the test squad

I see Pakistan beat Ireland in the end. Fantastic achievement by Kevin O'Brien becoming the first player to score a test century for Ireland and doing it in their inaugural test. He also top scored with 40 in their first innings. He's the same player who scored a match winning 100 against England in the 2011 World Cup. It looked like Pakistan were going to murder Ireland but they did pretty well and only lost by 5 wickets in the end. Any gulf in quality will tend to be revealed more in a 5 day match so it was a pretty good effort.

100% record as England boss

His off the ball work has been amazing

I think it was just that - one game

Hopefully we can get someone along the lines of Pele or Maradona to play just behind him

I thought it was odd the Challenge Cup final wasn't being played at Wembley. It did originally say that, didn't it? Or am I losing the plot? The programme about the 1968 final is available on iPlayer for a while if you're interested btw. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0b3g9q1/rugby-leagues-legendary-watersplash-final

Good. All the talk was that, because the third keeper never gets used, he should go because he's good to have around the squad but the unliklihood of his playing meant that it should go to someone else who could benefit from the experience in future tournaments I reckon

It's looking increasingly likely imo

It's funny because if you go back to Joe Royle and his 'Dogs of War' when you had the Barry Horne in midfield and then more recently under Moyes where Everton were workmanlike it shows that Everton fans are prepared to accept a style of football which is effective rather than attractive and yet even they won't countenance the idea of watching more of the shit served up by Allardyce. Yet many Sunderland fans have absolutely mythologised him as being the best thing since sliced bread and his leaving for being pretty much the entire reason they are where they now.

That's spot on and especially relevant since it's one person, one vote rather than FPTP.

But it all went wrong after he left

The facts have been twisted though. There were loads of anecdotal things regarding giving the Tories / the Establishment a kicking at the time of the vote and you even had lots of the most prominient members of the Leave campaign either saying outright or inferring we'd stay in the Customs Union. Now everyone who voted leave absolutely demanded that meant a hard Brexit. What a load of shit Edit: In reply to Rayvin