Harry Kane is England’s President Biden as Euro 2024 final ‘is not a testimonial’

Harry Kane should be dropped for anyone else as he’s lost the plot like President Biden. The Euro 2024 final is not his testimonial.

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Southgate and the lads have done us proud
I have had occasions when I’ve skipped the mailbox for periods or skipped big chunks usually when the woke brigade try to tell me what my opinion shoild be, or VAR gets over boiled, or FFP, or Greenwood,  basically when people get overly negative, increasingly stupid and just toxic. However, currently the mailbox is painful to get through for the negativity of England “supporters”. No wonder no one likes us. Stop this shit and get behind the team.

We are in a final. Again.

Despite some uninspiring football, the team has undoubtedly been improving as the tournament progresses. Not just a little, we’ve improved massively, players are starting to fit their chosen positions better and the bench is making a difference.

We dominated the Dutch for 45 mins to the point they had to take drastic measures to be more defensive just to thwart our threat. We were still the better side in the next 45. Penalty or not, we would have won inside 90 mins.

We have gone behind in some knockout games and unlike in years gone by, we have bounced back and found a way to win. Heads did not go down, we didn’t get desperate, the team just found a way.

We have not lost a single game.

Despite all the negativity of the fans and the press, the squad and manager seem very happy, focused and determined.

We have one of the worlds best strikers AND some excellent options off the bench. Whoever is on the pitch, I support them. Ditto for the rest of the team whether they are on the field or ready to help later on. Foden has had his fair share of stick somehow yet he has inproved as we progress, was outstanding against the Dutch and unlucky not to get a goal or two. Get behind him and the rest of the team.

Greece and Denmark have won this tournament with much worse squads and performances than England. But like England, they had squads that were all pulling in the same direction and a determination to succeed. Things that are more important than your opta stats for the past season.

Sure, you can criticise certain players for some bad showings, but every player that has been criticised has also had some great moments in the tournament. Every player in this squad is capable of helping us to glory. Back them.

If this England team just had the full support of its fanbase inside and outside the stadium on Sunday then maybe that could be the difference that helps them through. I will be standing before the match screaming the national anthem and then shouting on our boys for the full 90 mins and then some.

I trust Gareth and any England player chosen to step onto the pitch on Sunday. Win or lose they’ve done their country proud this tournament.

We are in a final. One more win needed.

Come on England!
Jon, Cape Town (I’ll take a 2-0 win for England with Foden and Mainoo to score please)

Harry Kane is our President Biden
No, it was NOT a penalty. If it had happened the other way round, we would be OUTRAGED! However, more important issues to consider here…

I think the mistake is starting Kane in the first place, not his changing after 75 minutes.. that would be the brave call! It is obvious to all and sundry that we play better when Kane is not playing. With Kane in the team, it’s like playing with 10 men. Harry Kane has gone the way of Wayne Rooney at the tail end of his career. He is lazy and slow, or perhaps just unaware of the world around him? (Biden?)

Ollie Watkins or Ivan Toney deserves to be first choice. We will see if Watkins/Toney starts in the final or whether Southgate lets Kane amble around for 75 or 80 minutes.

We are not going to be able to carry anyone against Spain! Here are some facts I gleaned:

Trippier has scored one goal in over 30 Odd appearances for England.

Trippier only scored one goal in the Premier League last season.

Palmer has scored 22 goals for Chelsea with 11 assists…

Who would I put on the left wing at half time. …….

Giving credit to Southgate for any element of that victory is a bit like praising a drunk driver for getting his Jaguar home without crashing. The Ferrari of Spain has a more astute, knowledgeable and sober driver on the wheel!

The stats will show the team he plays is turgid resulting is stalemate against teams we should really be beating easily. Only when he changes to what the ‘armchair experts’ in our ‘local’ have been crying out to do we actually dominate and win. In my local footie pub last Wednesday night were all calling out for Kane to be replaced at half time by Watkins or Toney, for Trippier to be replaced by Palmer or Gordon. Certainly the replacement of Trippier by Luke Shaw was an improvement even though we appeared to have run out of the inspired performance of the first half, and the Dutch were better than us up till Ollie Watkin’s superb goal.

I do genuinely believe that Gareth Southgate is inclusive, and very empathetic, protective and supportive of his players, and prepared to take the flack when the chips are down.  However, I think the TV and Press pundits should rethink their wording! It should be: “Despite Southgate, England are in the final”!

Kind Regards,
Andy Husain

This isn’t a Kane testimonial
Dave Tickner starts an article headed “Ok, Gareth, we’ll trust you”, which, as England fan who doesn’t like Southgate’s management at all, thinks he is reactive rather than proactive, is too late to make obvious substitutions and has been very lucky with the quality of opposition, again, I actually fully back. We are in the final, let’s bloody well band together and do this!

But wait, it is so typical of his work, and actually all Spurs fans in my life (ps – he doesn’t play for you anymore!), that the article very quickly reveals itself to really be about why England should not drop Kane. Which as he well knows is the only thing (bar maybe Shaw for Trippier which I would wholly support but is far far far less important) that England fans almost entirely agree on, which is that we look sooooo much more dynamic when Kane is not on the pitch. Dave says that Kane is “clearly not fully fit” (I actually think he is, it’s just that he’s old and slow now, that’s what happens when you get older). He acknowledges Kane’s massive fail in the CL final as evidence that he should not have played. Ok. So we’re agreed that the quick darting play of Palmer or Watkins, or even Toney should start right Dave?? Wrong apparently…

Dave’s real point if that “even in this tournament where he has been so far short of his best, there is not one man with more goals than England’s captain.”. Err, ok. We said that about Rooney 2 years after he should have stopped playing for England, when he was inexplicably playing center midfield for the national team, which weirdly, seems to be where Kane is now playing, or is he, no one really knows. This isn’t a testimonial. It’s the bleeding Euros Final man. As for the pointed mention of “captain” (brings a tear to the eye doesn’t it…) the irrelevance of that point has been acknowledged and rightly ridiculed on these pages for many years (would we be worse with Rice as “captain”? Really? How?).

As for his comment about Kane’s penalties in key knock out competitions for England, ummmm…..

Dave’s hilarious closing comment is that Gareth has earned our trust “unless Trent’s in midfield again”. Hmm. How about let’s trust Gareth to make the right decision and get Kane out of there. It’s the only chance we have of winning this game. This is NOT about Spurs Dave.

Enjoy the game everyone. We’re in the bloody final!!! Omg!!!! Good luck lads.
Mike “Come on England, pleeeaase” WHU

Kane out
No way should Harry play. It shouldn’t be about Southgates loyalty to certain players including Trippier holding up our overlap opportunities on the left. This is about the people who spend a fortune supporting and the aspirations of others. It’s a plain as day that Harry fits into the Bayern roll with their record of having a central striker . But he isn’t playing like a central striker for England. Perhaps if Grealish had gone and played on the left supplying Harry like he always has done then it would be different. I have a very low opinion of Southgate as a tactician.
Daz Bristow

Against the Dutch the 3-4-3 was working exactly as it should but was a bit lopsided due to Trippiers inability to use both feet – and that is his fault as he is a pro footballer – it always spins my head when people say that’s okay when it certainly is not.

In the second half very early on we reverted to a 4-3-3 and was crap for the rest of the game – luckily though Holland are currently toothless especially without depay so yet again we were lucky.

Gareth stumbles across the first half formation in the last game and bins it even though it was working – for instance Saka was great in the first half but second was unemployed due to the formation change. BTW kane was rubbish no matter the formation – have to start someone else as we cant afford any passengers.

if we play 3-4-3 replacing trippier with shaw and kane with anyone – would also  get into carvahal if he plays as that dude is so easy to wind up – the 16 year old in front of him won’t defend if he is pressured and foden can do that wind up/press/pressure game really well – remember in the CL semi at athletico when he literally got picked up and thrown from the pitch while laughing at the big idiot who did it – we need to disturb them mentally as they are weaker than this team in that area – and that will be our advantage.
Michael Mooney

Winning isn’t all that matters
It was interesting reading robs “I want the trophy” letter where he basically said he doesn’t care if it’s cheating as long as they win.

Would rob support the UK government just bribing everyone to win it? What about the players using performance enhancing drugs to win it?

I always thought one of the more unique things about England is it’s affinity for fair play. He’s right that no Argentinian gives a poptart about maradona handling the ball. Nay a Spaniard cares about Spain’s rampant doping program for their trophy wins in the 00s (there’s honestly tons of evidence, including Spanish courts ordering evidence destroyed)

For those countries winning is the only thing that matters, how they win is a distant second. Personally I wouldn’t ever want to win that way. That’s a hollow victory. Even if it means never winning. This largely stems from being a kid where my dad would teach me patience by playing chess with me, he beat me time after time after time. Maybe hundreds of games from ages 5 and on.
Eventually I got upset at hundreds of defeats and asked why he couldn’t just let me win and he told me by not letting me win the day when I do win I’ll know it’s because I was 100% the better player in that game.
I did eventually win one game at age 20 (he’s really very good at chess) and it’s a very positive memory. Had he let me win more games I’m not sure it would be. Like how people will (if not already) lose respect for city if they’re found guilty of financially cheating.

How you win matters. It’s sad to see people think it doesn’t.
Lee