Boltman

Always been the way that, generally speaking, Scottish clubs have a totally unrealistic amount of money in the game. Understandable from a playability perspective, but it's in no way reflective of reality. Finish top 6 with any middling Premiership club, sell a couple of players, and boom.... you're handed a couple of million £'s transfer budget. Very rare that any club outside of the OF spend 100k+ on a player any more in Scotland, yet for years in FM Scots clubs throw around money like confetti.

Boring = Ireland. Typical Martin O'neill team. If it's spherical, hoof it down the middle of the park. If it's got legs, hoof it up in the air. Portugal are like watching dog ***** going hard as well.

That was 1974

1978 World Cup was crap.

Iceland v's England. Kept having spontaneous outbursts of laughter for days afterwards.

Germany or France. Pity Wales and Portugal can't both lose in the Semis.

People were just put off by his Gingervitis and watched him through their fingers.

Lack of Nandos in Spain/Italy/Germany and they all talk funny, innit? Oh, and Chantelle can't bear to be further than 30 mins drive from 'er maaaaaaaaaaaaaaam...... In essence, raving Chavdom.

Yeah, Walesshire can gtf.

Make a change from a dull as ditchwater Spain side one-nilling everything into oblivion.

It's not the sole excuse. Irrespective of what England players are or are not, it's clear that as a nation they should have the depth and quality to see off the likes of Iceland, perform better than they have in the groups stage of this tournament. It's self-evident the manager, and his selections and tactics in this tournament have been found lacking. Whether or not you think they then underperform once they get into knock-out rounds and meet the likes of Germany, Italy, Argentina and such is a matter of opinion. Frankly, I don't think they do, I think they achieve roughly what I personally would expect them to. Some people think differently, which is fair enough, but the point about truly top players becomes evident when England have historically played these sides. Not every team has a Messi level talent, but these nations still tend to put out players who would frighten me far more than anything England can line up. I totally accept your point about Rooney, Kane, Vardy, but as a non-Englishman there's absolutely nothing that would frighten me about the prospect of facing Jamie Vardy or Harry Kane irrespective of their club success or importance to their respective sides. Aguero, Suarez, yeah, definitely, but not Vardy or Kane. Hell, even Arjen Robben, and his team didn't qualify for this tourney! The English players are still quality players, they're just not on a par with the better players most of the other 'top' nations can turn to.

'Mon Belgium.

I didn't really interpret what Shearer was saying as implying there's a lack of talent or ability. Personally I've always felt the expectation on the England side is unrealistically high because the squad consists of players from the 'greatest league in the world' despite many of them being the squad players and 'guys' at their respective clubs. The pundits were talking about the players on the pitch tonight all standing around waiting for someone else to do something, and to me that's symptomatic of the fact that in their club sides they have some truly top class foreign players who can be relied upon to produce a moment of genius and turn a match with some regularity. It's not a lack of ability as such, just that they're not really used to being the 'main man' and often get carried a bit despite playing in a top league and against top players in continental competitions. How many of those players out there tonight would really be considered the top player at their club sides? The first name on the team sheet, the one guy the manager will depend on time after time? I think that was more the point Shearer was trying to get at. The league is a rich league, the big teams attract all the best players, but not many, if any of them, are actually English. It's a problem I think England have suffered from for years and years, not just this squad.

Brilliant! Second funniest moment of the day.

Hoddle. Get back to the halcyon days of having nobody to play left midfield and insulting disabled people