DangerousSausage

Turkey look so nervous at the back. Anyone who likes direct, British-style football should watch this, there's no continental faffing about here! Cracking match.

I enjoyed the Italy match. They came back strongly after falling behind, but failed to finish Albania off and the second half was almost an exhibition of Ardleyball - they dominated possession, but nobody wanted to take a risk to score the decisive third goal. They nearly paid for it at the end. Looking at who else is in their group, Italy needed to win that one. Sounded like a brilliant atmosphere too.

What is the continental style? England won the World Cup nearly 60 years ago, when training consisted of players running laps of the pitch while the manager stood on the touchline smoking woodbines. The world has moved on and football has evolved, as it has done since its earliest days. We have won sod all since then because we insisted on playing kick and rush for decades and got left behind.

It's a good starting point, but we need more. We obviously need a new number one unless we're going to take the plunge and go with Brooks. At the back, I'm happy with our two new signings, although it remains to be seen either our style of play suits them. Since he's no longer captain, I'd expect Kyle Cameron not to be an automatic starter, we could even use him as a wing back. On the other side, Nemane is a good player but struggles against the better teams at this level, I'd like him to have some competition (which is what Randall was originally meant for). Maybe Chicksen could cover both sides. I'm looking forward to seeing Palmer and Robertson playing together, but a midfield all-rounder to push them would be good. The squad looks a bit light on competition in general, but it's early days.

I'll restrict this to the ones I can remember myself. Ramsay is revered now, but he came in for a lot of criticism during his time. The best is obviously Sam Allardyce as he won all his games (game). Gareth Southgate has taken us to a final and a semi-final, and but for a couple of penalties we'd have gone into this tournament as defending champions. That speaks for itself. We're in poor form and he might have outstayed his welcome by now, but the same was true in 1990 (and Bobby Robson was much less successful in the years prior to that). We'll have to see how it pans out. Calling Taylor a "yes man" is cruel. He was out of his depth in the top job, but had shown himself to be a hugely successful manager in the years prior and deserved his chance. No one knew he'd mess it up so badly at the time. Terry Venables was the right man for 1996 and really brought the team together, but wasn't interested in staying longer. We played some brilliant football under Glenn Hoddle too but fluffed it in 1998. His replacement, Keegan, was one-dimensional and a big step back. However, he - and Taylor - at least qualified for a major tournament, something Steve McClaren never managed.

I disagree that Dortmund were the better side @Robbie, Real are masters at cranking up the pressure at just the right time and Dortmund didn't have an answer to it. You sensed they needed to score at least one of those chances in the first half, as you just knew that Madrid would turn it on when it mattered. Unfortunately this season Dortmund have shown themselves to be prone at the back, and Real are ruthlessly effective. About the Champions League, I think UEFA have managed to turn their premier competition into a version of the UEFA Cup, and the next changes will make it even more bloated. It's all about guaranteeing that the biggest clubs don't miss out and get as many games as possible.

I won't claim to be a clairvoyant with my prediction earlier, you could see it coming a mile off. Real struggled to deal with Dortmund's attacking threat in the first half, but BVB failed to take advantage. Real are dangerous because they can always move up a gear or two, and usually do. It's a shame, but worse things happen at sea. Bring on the proper football in August!

BVB have already had two fantastic chances to take the lead, Real look vulnerable. The cup's got Real's name on it, hasn't it?

To be fair Dortmund could quite easily have come into this season's CL as champions, they only missed out on goal difference last season. I agree that only champions should be taking part though. Now we've had what looks like influencers on the pitch taking selfies. This is too modern for me, I'll just shake my head along with the boomers!

Is anyone else watching this? It's ten minutes till kick-off and there's a pensioner on a stage singing. Methinks UEFA want to emulate the World Series. It's killed the atmosphere if nothing else. Hope BVB deliver today.

I don't think anyone really had them down as contenders this season, so to do the double in such style is all the more amazing. Sadly, they reserved their worst game for the Europa League final. They didn't deal with Atalanta's high pressing at all and were second to every ball. They were down to ten men for the majority of the cup final. With Bayern appointing a manager untested at the highest level, next season may be a chance for Alonso to emulate Klopp and hold onto the title.

This is a good start to the summer's business, and it's also interesting from the point of view that Bradford have replaced him with Baldwin! He sounds very promising, but many Bradford fans have remarked that passing is not his strong suit. I hope we don't expect him to play in a way he's not comfortable with.

This was genuinely bonkers - Düsseldorf won their away leg 3-0 and must have thought they were all but promoted, only to throw it away. Must be so bitter for them.

My gran had a caravan there too, maybe they were neighbours! Great memories of the slot machines and arcades. Surveys like this often say more about the people taking them. Skeggy is a fun little seaside resort that has become fashionable to sneer at. If you want peace a quiet, just don't go to the busy areas. The worst thing about it is that it feels like it takes forever to get there - the next government should pledge to move Skeggy closer to civilisation.

Hmmm... I wonder if they'll be following in FGR's footsteps?

I'm sceptical about rumours like this. Is the club genuinely interested or is his agent trying to drum up some bids? I'd prefer a keeper in the twilight of his career, who's played higher, can organise the defence and give it composure. That doesn't mean a young keeper can't be our man, but as Super Dan says our success rate hasn't been brilliant in that area.

Good luck to him! He'll be linking up with Neil Warnock as well then.

Baldwin was a bit of a strange one, at times he looked outstanding, but as Stallard said he always had a mistake in him, and often an infuriating one too. And he definitely needed new boots! I'm glad he's staying in League Two, but maybe he can gift us a goal or two for old time's sake

I loved the Pie. At the time, pretty much all writing about the club came from the club or from professional journalists anxious to keep good relations, so any criticism was muted. Fanzines were a breath of fresh air. Ours was very funny and superbly written. If you want some entertainment during the summer, all copies of the Pie can be found here: https://piefanzine.com/

This appointment is totally out of leftfield. Kompany played in the Bundesliga for several years and was well known as a player, but so too were many others. I know they'd been knocked back by many candidates, but I expected them to give someone like Sebastian Hoeness a go, or maybe someone from the merry-go-round like Pocchetino. Good luck to the bloke, but there is zero tolerance of failure at Bayern. Lose two games and your job is on the line. They're becoming more and more like Chelsea.

Is that a drone? I was looking for the selfie stick but couldn't see it! Rodders deserves his success after helping drag us out of the NL. He was always far too good for that level. Hope he can keep on living the dream next season.

I'm still around, kind of. I've just had a bout of German relegation battle panic to deal with (thankfully averted), plus an upcoming job change and other stress. There are one or two things I want to post though!

Thanks for the updates. I'm having a nice, relaxing afternoon not really caring who wins (although I'd prefer Solihull). What a contrast to last season!

We were owned by Albert Scardino after Derek Pavis, he was a prize-winning journalist who'd been based in London. You might remember his henchman Peter Storrie. The funding he was relying on (from GM I think) eventuality fell through and we ended up in administration, so he was only chairman for a matter of months. I remember him talking about the English league system, and the ability to go from the bottom right to the very top, in glowing terms. Many of the current breed in the PL have a different attitude, they'd scrap relegation in a heartbeat if they could get away with it.

I haven't seen this bloke play, but I disagree with your point. We've signed loads of good players from relegated teams in the past, Jeff Hughes springs to mind. Dan Crowley was also relegated with Morecambe. Scott Robertson had been frozen out at Fleetwood, who have since been relegated, was he a poor signing? JOB was relegated out of the Football League with us, I don't think anyone questions his mentality. Going back further, pretty much the whole of Sam Allardyce's championship-winning team had been relegated with us the season before. If he's good enough, he deserves a chance!