Leaderboard

We can't really get much out of a World Cup in terms of signings. We have to do it before they get to that stage. That brings you to a scouting network and/or contacts. We can't cover the globe, so better IMO to concentrate efforts in certain areas.

Messi is a wee prick. I'd be looking at 6 points if it wasn't for his pointless wee dribble. 🤬

I hope the other new contract is Ryan Jack. Still the best midfielder at the club.

Beale speaks spanish and gets on well with Morelos. The lazy wee shit should be punted forthwith.

I think you, I and the BBC differ on the definition of an underrated footballer.

Probably find that some good performance’s in this tournament will add a few million to all players value

Argentina's tactical set-up is remarkable. Ostensibly, it's a 4-4-2 in defence, but they have what are two central midfielders (Mac Allister and De Paul) playing in the wide midfield spots. However, building on my 'formations are largely meaningless in the modern game' rank from yesterday, in possession it morphs into more of a 3-5-2, with one central midfielder (Fernandez) dropping in-between the CBs, and those wide midfielders move inside to create a three. Then it morphs again into a 3-2-5, with Mac Allister moving up into the left half-space. The tactical flexibility is astounding. The Argentina manager, Lionel Scaloni (he played for Deportivo during their glory years), has no managerial experience. It's only when I dug a little deeper that I learned that he had been an assistant to one of my favourite managers, Jorge Sampaoli. It just goes to show that you don't necessarily need experience, just a solid playing philosophy and the tools to implement it. Of course, it helps when you've got a plethora of top-class players - although, I wouldn't say they are a better group than Brazil, for example; A 'keeper from Aston Villa vs one from Liverpool; a CB from Benfica vs ones from PSG and Chelsea; a midfielder from Brighton vs one from Real Madrid!

Getting closer now. Tomorrow is a non-negotiable win and three points, with a very reasonable demand that the attacking style of the team resemble Brazil 1970. I am actually confident that we will scud them 😱 I can remember we took seven off them one December back in the 90's.

The French are sending you a bottle over from Épernay !!

Doesn’t play enough games to merit a new contract in my opinion

And IIRC it was absolutely baltic that day.

Toby Young is a good bloke. His best asset is the ease with which he triggers leftist foot soldiers but his intervention in the sad underwhelming world of QPR is best ignored.

Toby Young is the arsehole's arsehole.

The greatest player of all time? Every generation seems to have had its Messi and they were all claimed to be the greatest player ever to play the game. The truth of course is that none of them were. They were all just great players of their time, nothing more, all comparisons utterly meaningless. The fact that the usual suspects are always prolific goal scorers and that great defenders or goalkeepers are never seen as contenders should confirm the utter futility of the notion of the greatest-ever player. I'm fairly sure Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, Messi or Mbappe wouldn't be lauded if they weren't goal scoring forwards.

Jordan Campbell reported Beale specifically said it wasn’t Kent. My guess is Jack (why tho)

From the other side of the fence. An Article by Toby Young in a recent Spectator. “Most football fans have had their attention riveted on Qatar for the past couple of weeks, but for those of us who support Queens Park Rangers there’s been an unwelcome distraction at home. Our manager Michael Beale, who’s only been in charge for 21 league games, announced on Monday that he’s leaving us for Rangers, the Glaswegian football club. Having spent a huge amount of time and effort recruiting a manager in the summer – and seemingly picking a winner – QPR’s top brass will have to start again. Beale was one of the few people in authority (me included) who hadn’t disappointed my children Such behaviour isn’t particularly unusual in the modern game. Nathan Jones, who steered Luton to a top six finish in the Championship last season, left the Hatters in November to become the manager of Southampton. Another second-tier manager, Neil Critchley, was tempted away from Blackpool in June to become a mere assistant at Aston Villa, which must have been a kick in the teeth for the fans. At least our manager has been lured away by a proper job. True, Beale was only at QPR for five and a half months, when you’d expect a manager to stay for at least a season before making eyes at a more glamorous club. But that isn’t what makes his departure so annoying. No, the really irritating thing about this is that in October another club came for Beale – Wolverhampton Wanderers – and he turned them down, explaining that he was too honourable to leave QPR so soon after being appointed. ‘Integrity and loyalty are big things for me, and if they are the values you live by you have to be strong,’ he told the press. ‘I have been all-in here and I have asked other people to be all-in so I can’t be the first person to run away from the ship.’ In case he hadn’t portrayed himself as saintly enough, he added: ‘The only reasons for leaving QPR right now would be selfish ones around ego, status or finance. And that’s not really me.’ This was music to the ears of QPR fans – finally, a football manager with a moral compass! – and we let Beale into our hearts. At every home game since, including the two we’ve lost, I’ve stood on the terraces chanting ‘Micky Beale’s blue army’ at the top of my lungs. I even travelled to Birmingham to watch the team lose 2-0 and looked on admiringly as a visiting fan hung up a banner that read: ‘Loyalty will always be rewarded.’ My four children, who are all avid QPR supporters, were also impressed by Beale. He was one of the few people in authority in their short lives (including their dad) who hadn’t disappointed them. Now what are we to think? Beale ditching us this week, having announced he was far too noble to do anything so mercenary, is worse than if he’d gone in October. He hasn’t merely disappointed us; he’s broken our hearts. We’re left with the suspicion that the reason he didn’t take the Wolves job was nothing to do with loyalty and integrity, but because he suspected the Rangers job was about to become available and knew he was in with a shout. (Beale worked as an assistant coach at Ibrox for three years.) To quote Sam Jolliffe, a fellow QPR fan: ‘The Mick Beale situation in non-football terms: you’re in a relationship that you think is going really well and then you see their screen time stats and the most used app on their phone is Tinder.’ How catastrophic is this for the Hoops? Pretty bad. Not because Beale is an incredible, irreplaceable talent – QPR has lost four of the last five matches under his stewardship – but because he brought in seven decent players since his arrival and most of them came to the club to work with him. Beale has a good reputation for player development and has coached many of these footballers before, some of them when they were kids. In the case of one – a very promising Dutch left-back called Kenneth Paal – Beale persuaded him to leave behind his pregnant girlfriend in Holland to join our squad. How’s Paal going to feel now that his paterfamilias has hotfooted it to Glasgow? Hard to see him sticking around. Indeed, I wouldn’t be surprised if Beale tries to poach him for Rangers in the January transfer window, along with some of the other players he brought in. That would be the icing on the snake. Modern football is such a moral cesspit, it takes a great deal to shock me. But I confess to being completely poleaxed by Beale’s duplicity. I really thought we’d found a good’un. Turns out, he’s just like all the rest.”

King we knew about. I would guess Kent to be the other.

Aye, because other clubs with far more money won't be looking at him. The time to "scout" these players is before a major tournament, not whilst they have had a great tournament taking their nation to the semi finals of it.

The biggest surprise for me has been realising how good an idea it is to hold the WC tournament in December or possibly January. We were all told this WC would be a moral and organisational disaster, how wrong they were. Also, having heard that not a single England supporter was arrested in Qatar, perhaps we should hold every WC in a country with authoritarian regimes 😄

I hope you actually mean 1970.

What is more surprising is that the Kent Express is so busy 😁

They are more important in allowing Messi to do what he does. Alvarez is more important to actually winning matches because he is in goal scoring form. Really, you have to look at the whole thing together and it has fell nicely in place at the right time. Fair play to Morocco but hoping for a France v Argentina Final (football reasons) It would be the first time Messi&Co have played a top team

We all get that. But Alvarez is the vital cog in that support mechanism. The one that is on a role and adds the important stat of goals scored.

Could we afford him

Professional

To be fair, this is the age we should be taking risks on players who have had injuries, not at senior level...

Time Gentlemen ! Third Player was Tery Butcher with 32 caps whilst at Ibrox. Club Nation Player Caps (total) First cap – Last cap Atlético Madrid Kieran Trippier 19 (40) 7 September 2019 – 9 October 2021 Barcelona Gary Lineker 24 (80) 15 October 1986 – 7 June 1989 Bari David Platt 10 (62) 11 September 1991 – 17 June 1992 Bayern Munich Owen Hargreaves 39 (42) 15 August 2001 – 28 Mar 2007[note 50] Borussia Dortmund Jadon Sancho 22 (23) 12 October 2018 – 11 July 2021 Jude Bellingham 22 12 November 2020 – 10 December 2022 Bursaspor Scott Carson 1 (4) 15 November 2011 Cardiff City Jay Bothroyd 1 17 November 2010 Celtic Fraser Forster 2 (6) 15 November 2013 – 7 June 2014 D.C. United Wayne Rooney 1 (120) 15 November 2018 1. FC Köln Tony Woodcock 18 (42) 22 November 1979 – 5 July 1982 Hamburger SV Kevin Keegan 25 (63) 8 June 1977 – 18 June 1980[note 51] Hibernian Joe Baker 5 (8) 18 November 1959 – 22 May 1960[note 52] Inter Milan Paul Ince 17 (53) 27 March 1996 – 10 June 1997 Juventus David Platt 10 (62) 9 September 1992 – 19 June 1993 Lazio Paul Gascoigne 12 (57) 14 October 1992 – 11 June 1995 LA Galaxy David Beckham 14 (115) 22 August 2007 – 14 October 2009[note 53] Marseille Chris Waddle 18 (62) 6 September 1989 – 16 October 1991 Milan Ray Wilkins 22 (84) 12 September 1984 – 12 November 1986 Monaco Glenn Hoddle 9 (53) 9 September 1987 – 18 June 1988 Rangers Terry Butcher 32 (77) 10 September 1986 – 4 July 1990 Real Madrid David Beckham 36 (115) 20 August 2003 – 6 June 2007 Roma Tammy Abraham 5 (11) 17 August 2021 – 11 June 2022 Sampdoria Trevor Francis 20 (52) 22 September 1982 – 23 April 1986 Swansea City Jonjo Shelvey 5 (6) 5 September 2015 – 17 November 2015 Torino Joe Hart 5 (75) 4 September 2016 – 15 November 2016 Werder Bremen Dave Watson 2 (65) 12 September 1979 – 17 October 1979

Should we get him to takeover from the current club doctor ? Couldn't do much worse ! Well done Steve ! British record for International caps is quite something. No-one is getting close to it for a good few years. Quick Quiz Question (No Google Allowed) Name the three England Internationalists to have won the most caps whilst playing outwith England. Edit. Answers at end of page 2. ps. tonight will see Modric win cap 161 and Messi, 171.

At last, our guarding of old Delhi's walls has been recognised. We should celebrate on Thursday against Hibs by singing, 'On the Green Grassy slopes of the Ganges'.

Can't blame folk for that. Starting on Thursday, the team need to give the support a good reason to look forward.

Have we not already had a big five weeks and made a horlicks of it?