swansongs

He was transferred over in the database but if his new Southampton role is limited to the u16s and earlier academy age groups then he won't appear in FM.

It does, yes.

I agree but rivalries are not something we have any control over this year. The clubs themselves dictate that information as part of the EFL licensing agreement.

Thanks for flagging this. Everything looks fine in the DB, he's set as a non-player with a non-player contract and jobs. I assume the future date is causing some sort of confusion in the game. He's an annoying one because he was only appointed Swans u18s manager like 6 weeks before he jumped ship, so he's got two contract start dates that occur after the game start date. I wouldn't have bothered making his profile if I'd known. More work for the Soton researcher instead.

He doesn't have a value set for Determination in the database, so that 4 is just an unfortunate random result in your save.

I actually changed his strongest foot to right based on how he's played this season. Despite playing mostly on the left side he's tended to come back on his right more often than not. It's been marginal as he's obviously good with both, but he hasn't looked confidently left-footed so far (perhaps in large part due to being a centre half asked to play as a left back). His weaker foot did get an upgrade even though there was a change in which one that is. Maybe he'll change his mind himself soon? His variable PA range was set by the German research team based on last season's performances. I agree that it could be a little bit low given his profile but not massively so, and I haven't seen him play enough to think it's an obvious error that needs fixing. He's struggled quite a bit in his early appearances for us (as Marc Guehi did to be fair). His CA is certainly high enough to be involved in the England u20/21 sides in-game.

Luke Harris also doesn't look quite that tall to me, but he does need a height entered in the db.

Bale definitely there on merit. There must have been worse keepers than Hennessey, surely, but he did have one very funny moment.

There was a point a couple of years ago where it felt like we'd moved past the "wait for magic" stage. The stars had faded, post-2016 results showed that we couldn't just be difficult to beat any more, but then we'd seen new players come in and win games for us. Moore, James, Ampadu, Neco, Wilson, Brooks all adding positively to the limited options we had. Qualified for the 2020 Euros and won promotion in the Nations League playing well and being decent to watch. Giggs was no genius but there were promising signs in what was being built in attack post-Coleman. I think that promotion has had an impact. Getting beat by vastly superior teams on a regular basis isn't great preparation, and the "just happy to be here, look at what little old Wales has accomplished (past tense)" feeling grew. Perhaps we were fortunate that Bale and Ramsey were never fit at the same time. Page isn't a good manager to begin with (his u21s were rubbish despite having a decent group of players) and he made it very clear that he was picking squads based on sentiment not ability or form. England are the worst possible matchup for us, last night was always going to be a near impossible task so no complaints there really . A vastly superior player pool all schooled in the exact same systems, even when we had a prime-ish Bale that was asking too much. But we were poor in the other two games, and previously as you say. Quite a few of the "next generation" already look shadows of what they were in a Wales shirt.

We have the S4C Welsh language programmes. Osian Roberts was on as an expert pundit, that's a man who knows his stuff and really should have been given the job instead of Giggs. The media haven't moved on from the "Bale+10" narratives that were accurate back in 2016 qualifying. Neither has Rob Page unfortunately, the whole tournament has been treated like a thank you present to those players who have clung on to places (either starting or filling some hotel rooms). It don't think it's worse than any other situation where TV/radio people have to suddenly talk about teams they don't watch, really. There's not much research or expertise on offer when it comes to teams outside the top 6 and England men's national team (even then...) Pick a simple story then tell it over and over. That's how pundits/commentators are trained. Wales are a small nation and Bale used to be a world class player. Script writes itself (or does Super Gareth Bale?!?!).

In any normal team he'd have a midfield partner to help out. Our biggest problem under Page is how he puts just 1 in there to be overrun. Almost satisfying to see it cost us. Almost.

Wrong selection, wrong shape, another Page "masterclass" if he fixes this shambles?

Osian Roberts is doing S4C punditry, get him in as manager for the second half.

We played with a handicap of having Rob Page as manager. Completely fair.

This is Gareth Bale. It's how he's played for years now. Ramsey is capable of better but I've only seen it when Bale was out, and we had pace to run ahead of him.