Right - forgetting the bent bidding process and the conditions of the migrant workers building the stadiums - does anybody else agree that a Nov/Dec competition has the potential to be ace?

 

Firstly because it will take up most of the traditional Christmas bullshit season so we'll all be talking about football and not festivities. Secondly just for the novelty factor. And thirdly because we can see whether or not our well worn excuse about our players being tired stands up to scrutiny.

3 minutes ago, Horwich said:

Still not played anyone and we will go out on Saturday

Fortunately, you have history at being shit at predictions.

Virtue signaling manager with the only clean sheet in the last 16 so far

29 minutes ago, Johnnyrotten said:

If we beat Shrewsbury and lose to France, is that a bad Saturday? Could be a strange set of emotions at the weekend.

Personally I celebrated our goals tonight about a quarter of celebrating a Bolton league goal, but I think that may change a bit v France.  I think if England win it will be huge but if France win I will have forgotten about it by Sunday lunchtime.  If Shrewsbury win I'll still be thinking about what went wrong on Sunday night.

I’m always Bolton 1st, England 2nd. Never though have 2 games that I’m passionately looking forward to with this much enthusiasm landed on the same day. Going to have to pace myself with an 8.50 train Saturday morning. 

Thing is, Englands game is all or nothing, so on this occasion a win or defeat will be greeted with equal ecstasy or disappointment.

Cant wait! Bring it on!

COYW 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

Edited December 4, 20223 yr by desperado

2 minutes ago, desperado said:

I’m always Bolton 1st, England 2nd. Never though have 2 games that I’m passionately looking forward to with this much enthusiasm landed on the same day. Going to have to pace myself with an 8.50 train Saturday morning. 

Thing is, Englands game is all or nothing, so on this occasion a win or defeat will be greeted with equal ecstasy or disappointment.

Cant wait! Bring it on!

COYW 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

I'm not greedy, I'll settle for 2 wins......

3 minutes ago, jeep said:

I'm not greedy, I'll settle for 2 wins......

That would make it a really special day . Bolton establishing themselves as a promotion contender with a fine away win and England reaching a semi-final after beating the world champions. 
 

Wow

3 minutes ago, desperado said:

That would make it a really special day . Bolton establishing themselves as a promotion contender with a fine away win and England reaching a semi-final after beating the world champions. 
 

Wow

Now that will be pleasant.   It’s gonna be a rush to get back to my local, but fingers crossed the police down there don’t fanny around

13 minutes ago, Breightmet Boy said:

Now that will be pleasant.   It’s gonna be a rush to get back to my local, but fingers crossed the police down there don’t fanny around

Where is your local; in France? Piss it getting back anywhere near Bolton 

Ok they’ve got MMM’Bop and that wily old fox Giroud, but after that i’m not seeing too much to worry about in that France team.

We’ve got match winners all over the park, we’ve also got pace to burn.

We underestimate ourselves sometimes.

Bring it on!

3-1 In ger lund.

Edited December 4, 20223 yr by Burndens Bogs

I think the attacking options of the French shade ours but our midfield and defence is better than theirs 

Either 0-0 and penalties or first goal goes on to win by a couple 

1 minute ago, Burndens Bogs said:

Ok they’ve got M’Bop and wily old fox Giroud, but after that i’m not seeing too much to worry about in that France team.

We’ve got match winners all over the park, we’ve also got pace to burn.

We underestimate ourselves sometimes.

Bring it on!

3-1 In ger lund.

Just about to post the same pretty much

Reckon France will worry more more about us than us bout them 

Keep Mbappe quiet who do we really worry about? Who do they need to worry about?

It could be an all-time classic with the amount of talent on the pitch, but with both managers preferring a safety-first approach it'll probably be a one-goal thriller 

1 minute ago, MancWanderer said:

Just about to post the same pretty much

Reckon France will worry more more about us than us bout them 

Keep Mbappe quiet who do we really worry about? Who do they need to worry about?

Bellingham

Foden

Kane

Rashford

Saka

any one of them can hurt any team in the world.

1 minute ago, Burndens Bogs said:

Bellingham

Foden

Kane

Rashford

Saka

any one of them can hurt any team in the world.

Add in Grealish as well

I’m saying we are favourites here

Not seeing France as a team we should be worried about. Obvs it’s tournament footy and can go tits up very quickly but I’m confident that we are better than France

Leading up to the World Cup I thought we had no chance but now we do anything can happen in a 1 off game ! 

France are favourites with the bookies

We have been the best team in the World Cup so far. You'd think we'd lost every game the way some folk go on.

42 minutes ago, RUREADY2ROLL said:

Where is your local; in France? Piss it getting back anywhere near Bolton 

Just been on to a pal who’s a Shrewsbury fan, reckons they’ll let us out at the final whistle 

16 hours ago, perth_white said:

Oh they're definitely nerds, they're my tribe. The 'wog' thing is something I don't think I'll ever get used to.

I don't think it football will ever win over die hard fans of the oval ball codes and unlikely to capture the imagination of the country fully until they believe Aus can compete for the trophy, lots of talk of brave efforts, etc but they're really only interested in winners.

Spot on.

1 hour ago, MancWanderer said:

Just about to post the same pretty much

Reckon France will worry more more about us than us bout them 

Keep Mbappe quiet who do we really worry about? Who do they need to worry about?

We need to worry about winning the midfield battle against the 2 beasts plus Griezman who needs to be kept quiet (could go either way) and Dembele who will have Shaw on toast for pace - and then there's Mbappe who I think Walker will struggle with and could even get himself sent off in the process as he's reckless when folk go past him. Win the midfield and it will help keep their forwards in check. Up front we'll have to be razor sharp against their ruthless back 4 as we'll probably need 3 goals to do it.

Genuinely think we're in with a chance but unless Southgate produces a genius game plan and the team play at the top of their game, France  have the power and the talent to destroy us. And there'll be no room for the type of kamikase passes we saw in the first half hour tonight.

We can only hope they have an off day and our lads are at it.

Spain and Brazil to follow IMO.

 

14 hours ago, jmjhb said:

Why would he leave Newcastle at the moment?

No reason at all. But in 2-3 years time, who knows?

Edited December 5, 20223 yr by bolty58

5 hours ago, globaldiver said:

Bellingham has been outstanding 

Spot on this. If I were asked to put together a world XI from what we have seen in Qatar so far, the first name on the team sheet would be Mbappe, the second would be Bellingham.

4 hours ago, L/H White said:

Still virtue signaling

Still taking the knee 

Still doing puffery 

Still unbeaten 

Played no one yet. Beat France, then crow.

4 hours ago, jeep said:

He'll be on soon saying he was joking all along....

Skippy loves being on his knees....

Do fuck off Sheep, you are becoming as irritating as the ginger ninja.

Not joking all along - I have been an England fan all my life and want the best for the nation - just not for the current management set up who I believe to be full of their own self importance. If they are so passionate about inequalities, let's start to see documentary evidence of all the charitable donations they make from their obscenely inflated pay packets.

If England go the whole way and win it (which I very much doubt) I will be delighted for the country. If they fail, I will be waiting. You can be sure of that.

Southgate (and Bullingham) out.

4 hours ago, Casino said:

France will be our biggest test so far

As we will be theirs

I just cant see how we beat them. They seem streets ahead of us, to me

This agreeing lark is becoming a habit. We may be proved wrong but, as is usual with England fans, the rose tinted specs go on after a couple of fairly simple wins.

3 hours ago, Offshore said:

Quality that. Teams will be very apprehensive about playing us. France have a great attack, so do we. Rabiot won't be able to cope with our movement up front, but I worry Stones and Maguire will be the same with the French front line. Three clean sheets says a lot.  Just waiting for lots of usual media bollox about Agincourt and Waterloo etc. We beat France, we win the world cup! 

Might be worth calming down if we do beat France. Brazil and Argentina should never be taken lightly in World Cup finals tournaments.