menzinho

Just kind of following on from this, it’s funny when I hear a few opinions about Macca and they almost down play how good he is because he scores so many from close range and because we create good chances. I guess it generates a sort of illusion that anyone could do what he does. But he’s always in the right place, his ability to create half a yard and anticipate where the ball will land is no fluke. He’s just got it, it’s natural for him. We’ve had countless strikers over the years who you could spend ages and ages coaching and they still wouldn’t get the goals Macca can. I've seen a few more stories today, one saying Macca is "expected to leave before the window closes". Maybe he will but I wouldn't be as confident as some of these journalists are. No mention of Macca being asked of course, in the last actual interview with him he said how proud he was to be named captain and how he's looking forward to leading the team next season...

Minority spoil it for the majority, but sadly that’s the case for everything these days. I don’t think anyone would dispute that a small number of the fans from all nations who have gone are d’heads who will cause trouble and get into fights but the majority will just be there to support their team. I guess writing a piece about 90% of the fans just going to watch the football and behaving is what you’d expect so it's kind of pointless to do. But I get that it would be nice for these papers to report the good things about the fan experience too.

I don’t think we can really judge Richardson from his time with us! One game just isn’t enough to get a fair reflection of his ability. I don’t think we’ve signed any of the players we’ve been linked with so far, but if you throw enough names out there someone will get one right at some point! I can’t say I’ve seen much of him but he’s featured regularly for Gateshead and the fact he's linked with a host of clubs higher up is reassuring (assuming a few are true). But then all our defenders struggled with the step up from the NL, this would be my concern with Richardson too.

A chance of redemption, and hopefully not a repeat of the last match! Not exactly an exciting draw but it's a decent chance to get through, Shrewsbury were pretty poor against us, we basically gave them that FA Cup win.

I had a look on my phone earlier and a few bits and pieces were overlapping so you couldn't actually read them properly, but in terms of menu and overall layout I think it'll be easier to navigate round. I'm on the laptop now and the site looks absolutely fine for me, I'm sure they'll sort out these little issues in the coming weeks.

Even if they’ve made a bid (quite possible as Pete is a proper sports journalist, I think all these sports sites have just pinched his info) we’ve no idea on the amount. Are they going to come in with a massive bid first time? I doubt it. It could just be a bit cheeky bid in the vein of if you don’t ask you don’t get… Macauley is quite happy here, he's been interviewed plenty of times and wants to take this club into L1. Every player will have his price and if a club comes in with a huge offer and Macca is tempted to move up then it would be daft to turn it down. I’m pretty sure the club have said they have contingency plans if a key player is to move on. I'm not too worried about losing him right now, if I start to see reports on BBC, Sky Sports, The Athletic etc then I'll be worried...

@Chris sometimes I do have some topics for the forum but they can end up being a bit long winded and I think, who’s going to want to read all that! So I usually end changing quite a bit and cutting a lot of thoughts out just to make them snappy and more as a discussion starter! I’m probably suited to churning out a couple of articles every now and again, so yes I’d be more than happy to contribute.

He's pretty useful in terms of covering a number of positions, he can play anywhere across the front line and he's even played LWB for Newport too! Jodi's "supposedly" a target for some clubs too, he could be his replacement and Macca's as well. 2 for the price of 1, or is it 1 for the price of 2 in this case? ???? The sky and plants in bloom suggests it’s a current pic, even if he had visited at some point why would he just randomly post it now? There’s no way he’s travelled all the way from Newport to play padel for an hour, it’s a 7 hour journey there and back, that would be insane! He was probably told to delete the pic, I think there’s only one reason he’s here to be honest… And if he did sign, we'd be stacked with quality attackers.

I can't quite believe how England are now on the side of the draw that doesn't include Spain, France, Germany and Portugal. It's an amazing chance to get to the final but sadly given our group performances I'm not confident!

I know you can't judge anyone by their appearance alone but I agree the main photo of him doesn't make him look particularly imposing. If you asked 100 people what he does and gave them the choice of IT Technician and Professional Footballer, I can see one getting a lot more votes! He'll probably turn out to be one of the fittest players next season and be able to run for days!

I’d guess the main sticking point with the three transfer listed players are that they are on a good contract, wage wise most the teams in the NL would struggle to match us and I can’t imagine any L2 have them as top targets at the moment. They aren’t under any obligation to leave, they could just turn up next season, train and see out their contract. I don’t think this will be the case, I can imagine all three would want game time. The idea of a season of not even making the bench would be pretty awful and potentially set their careers back.

I like the choice of wording to describe him; cultured midfielder… Does that mean his interests are French cinema, Bauhaus architecture and poems by William Wordsworth? I wonder if Michael Doyle got the heads up from Ian Burchnall about him as they were both at Ostersunds at the same time, I can't imagine Doyle having many contacts in Scandinavia! He only had a short spell in the NL (in a poor team too by all accounts) but was clearly better than the level. I've cherry picked a few comments from the Woking Forum... He came into a struggling team heading for relegation, and became undoubtedly one of the biggest difference-makers in the last three months in terms of our survival. Yes, I saw him have a couple of quiet games as well (which player doesn't have quiet games?), but it must be remembered who he was playing in midfield with. Akinola really didn't help him at York, for example. If the season started in February he would likely have been Player of the Season, or very close to it. Good luck to him, he was very good for us and probably the most leftfield signing we have ever had. I think Curtis Edwards is better than Jack Roles, who has just signed a two year deal at a League One club. Football is weird. Ffs, they're going to be so good to watch. Not sure their entirely new defence will be everything they expect, but that team has some ridiculous attacking talent for Edwards to enable.

I think because we are so stacked with good technical players we need to be dominate, play high in the opposition’s half and try to pen teams in. The team just isn’t suited to sitting back. I don’t think the current starting 11 has that much pace going forward to cause teams trouble on the break. And Kane is not suited to battling for balls on the halfway line and holding play up, he needs to be in the box (and not our own)!

We’ve played with two supporting forwards/attacking midfielders behind a central striker before so I don’t see why we won’t, at times, do that next season. Scott played this deeper role as has Morias. Austin and Crowley are both natural there and Didzy featured there too. Jatta, Macca and Scott are more able to stretch a back line running in behind and I agree @Robbie that Didzy’s game is more suited to a deeper role now. I think he’s more effective as a supporting forward as he’s much better drifting into space and getting on the ball to create. So in terms of attacking options, assuming we are playing 3 at the back and wing-backs, we’re pretty stacked for attackers in central positions. The deeper sitting midfielders are where we need more additions as we’ve lost Bajrami, O’Brien and Bostock. I’d still say we need 2 more CMs. I know Austin can fill in there but I think he’s better further forward and this season could be too soon to expect much from Sanderson, I think a loan in either the National League or NL North would benefit him.

Given that I was a toddler in 97, I’d have questioned why they were asking me! But by all accounts, he did well at Blackpool before so I wouldn’t have been against the idea. That is nearly 30 years ago though and is he as good as he once was, that’s the real issue for me.

@Piethagoram I think we all know the answer to that! I don't think any of them would even know where Barrow is.

I think Wales have become a bit of a victim of their own success given they had a good spell for a few years. Prior to that they were rubbish and hadn't qualified for a major tournament since the 50s! Wales were fortunate to have a very talent group of core players a few years ago, when they got to the semis of Euro 2016. Wayne Hennessey, Ashley Williams, Ben Davies, James Collins and Joe Allen were all Prem regulars. And with Ramsey and Bale you had two incredibly good match winning players. Their squad isn’t as good now, that’s just how it goes in international football and I think whoever the manager is they'd do well to qualify for the World Cup. Would I pick Big Sam though, probably not by all accounts Rob Page was very defensive and I’m not sure that would change under Big Sam.

Anyone else expecting to see a picture of two dogs after reading the headline? ???? ????

A walk out song is something that seems to always get brought up in the fans forums. I don't know who is the go between for the fans and club but it would be good to get a few different songs (suggested by fans) which can then be played on matchdays to see what gets a good response. Here's my serious and definitely not a joke suggestion ???? get Jake Bugg to re-record this; the fart sounding trumpets must be kept, that's a deal breaker...

England's performance was really poor, it looked like a group of players that were playing together for the first time and hadn't really been given any instructions what to do when on the ball, other than have as many touches as you like. And Jordan Pickford continuously telling the players in front of him to calm down was odd, if they'd had played any slower they would've fallen asleep... Spain play like how I imagine England want to, they've just gone a goal up against Italy.

Always very promising when a player is described as a fans favourite too, as they are usually the biggest critics. From what I can gather most of their fans expected him to sign with another L1 club so it’s a great bit of business from us. I like the fact he can play on both wings, I wonder if we’ll go in for another wingback now? Chicksen can play at LWB, Austin has filled in at RWB and done well there, I think Macari albeit wouldn’t be as much of an attacking threat would be able to play there as well.

Well that one isn't getting ruled out for offside! Good job I'm not a betting man! Scored by a player making a run into the 6 yard box... ????

It was a cracking finish to give Czechia the lead, but not surprising that Portugal equalised given their dominance. Interesting they haven't taken Ronaldo though, I think they could benefit from a No.9 who actually tries to get into the 6 yard box more often. Not long to go now, I think this will finish 1-1...

Technically he's a very good player but I agree he did struggle with the physicality at times. I'm sure playing more regularly at Gateshead will have helped him improve. It didn't help he was a similar player to Matty Palmer, just not as good, and it never really made sense to play both of them. I always thought his positional awareness off the ball wasn't great either and to make it worse he was pretty slow so had a tendency to be caught out.

Sounds like I missed the game of the day between Turkey and Georgia, this game isn't the best. Czechia are definitely happy for this to finish 0-0. Portugal aren't short of attacking options though, I think they'll make some changes if they don't score soon.