Paul Tisdale, who was Ampadu’s coach at Exeter said on radio 5 live last night that he personally rung up England to tell them about how good the player was, but they told Tisdale they have 12 young players who are better and that Ampadu isn’t good enough for England because he took “too few touches”. I find it astonishing that taking too few touches can be seen as a criticism.
Genuinely think Ampadu, if he carries on as he is, is the type of player England could do with. Of course, he may not have wanted to play for England anyway, but it’s still a baffling reason to not try and convince him. “Nah mate, you’re too good at your job, we prefer time wasters.”
Bit of a tug of war going on between England and Ireland for Declan Rice. He’s not in the Ireland squad and Sky Sports are reporting that he has chosen England, but MON says he hasn’t yet made his mind up
I know he has played for Ireland at youth level but he was born in England to English parents, so…
He’s still not the guy to take them forward, even though the talent has been a lot better in the past he’s simply not impressive as a tactician. One of his go to subs is taking off Henderson for bloody Dier.
Practically every time England faces a team on par or better they are well beaten, it will continue to be the trend under him.
It was a very good run at the WC but there were more than a few caveats especially the draw, additionally the fact the majority of the goals came from set pieces is very telling.
Dele Ali should not be a mainstay in that team and there just isn’t enough nous and ability in the midfield.
It’s a tough one. I agree that theoretically we could get someone better, but the idea that we can get someone better has existed for years and that’s never gone well. He’s a likeable chap, the squad and nation are broadly behind him, and even with all the caveats in the world taken into account, we still had a better tournament than I’ve seen since I was a wee nipper. We’ve had more favourable draws than that in the past and gone out to teams like bloody Iceland, only just about beaten Trinidad and Tobago cos Crouchie tugged at some guys braids lol.
So I’m at least happy to at least give him the next tournament, he’s earned that much imo.