enigmatic

Plus if you look at the history of recent England captains, Beckham didn't exactly sound like a natural leader but he didn't half pick his performances up when he got the armband whereas John Terry was every inch the theoretical ideal of a natural leader directing his team from the back, but his affair with one of his England teammates' girlfriends and racial abuse of another of their brothers didn't exactly make him a positive influence in the dressing room. Might as well continue the general tradition of giving the armband to the player we're most hoping can carry the team and who the press will try to destroy if he fires blanks regardless of whether he's supposed to be a leader or not.

Most people plead not guilty to most things regardless of whether they are or not. Think the reason this guy's getting more sympathy than usual is that the substance in question is neither potential performance enhancing nor illegal where he consumed it and anyone casually familiar with Andes culture knows you're going to have to be very careful which cups of tea you accept to never test positive. That and the whole saga of his ban being halved by FIFA accepting the circumstances allowing him to play in the World Cup, then WADA wading in where they hadn't bothered wading in before and demanding he got a longer than average ban instead.

Happy with Kane being involved everywhere except corner taking duties tbf

I assume he was drinking Mate de Coca, which happens to be Peruvians' national drink as well as something footballers wishing to pass drugs tests should definitely avoid

I think Sport Bible would have done better defending the actual [silly] formation (Walker easily covers the wide spaces, Dier could in theory make up for Maguire's lack of comfort defending against wingers on the left, England's best attacking midfielders aren't exactly touchline-huggers anyway) than suggesting we ought to talk about black managers being cruelly denied opportunities instead But also, they'd have had fewer clicks... Can't wait for LAD Bible's take now.

Yeah, if you've told a player that they can achieve success staying put because you've got some great young players, the number of players that would consider leaving because you win the league without enough young players is zero. You could fix it by making winning stuff a player would be happy with cancel out most of the "sign more players/play young players" type promises. Or better still, you could just delete the young players promise for other players, because only boards care about whether you're bringing valuable young players through the youth system they've invested in...

The claim is they rigged it to not face them before the final. Whether you choose to believe Platini is actually telling the truth or making eye-catching claims to take attention away from his more bog standard embezzling, and incidentally tarnish the other tournament-winning French national side by association with him... If ever someone deserve a headbutt from Zidane...

Shame he's not a regular left back really. If he was, then given the dubious form of our left backs there'd be a good case for him to start rather than a questionable case for him being in the squad. I did think Walker at centre back was an experiment to get two good right backs in the starting lineup (with possible tactical usefulness against Panama if they're so defensive you might as well have the central defenders overlapping) rather than the way England must play, regardless of who's available. But maybe not given this squad...

I know in theory he covers basically every position on the pitch and got seriously talked about as a midfield option when Liverpool were desperately short in the centre, but has he actually played anywhere except right back above youth team level? Big ask if his first game of senior football in midfield is a first cap for the national side in a World Cup, especially when there's a couple of decent midfielders being left out for him. Feels like he's in as the "wild card". If you want more flexibility you usually don't take a fourth choice right back! Especially not when the first two are some of the few players whose fitness and quality isn't in doubt. Gotta love the irony that Walcott, who once went to a World Cup despite being a young teenager even Arsene "I love young players" Wenger wouldn't give minutes off the bench to, now can't get into this England squad as one of the few experienced forward options whose fitness isn't a worry.

See, now I felt the opposite about cancelling transfers. Second choice left back signed on a cheap loan, played superbly when needed so I agreed to sign him on a free at the end of the season on massively increased wages even though I'm not guaranteed European football next season and the position is now well covered by a new versatile DM and my right back who has a lot of youngsters starting to compete for his place. Gets injured for a few months, which I use as an excuse to walk away from that contract. Felt really harsh doing it. That's a weird save where I don't actually dislike any of my players, and almost feel sentimental about the no-longer-a-star defender who came up with me through the divisions and used to send transfer requests every window. Although the idiot that requested that I allow him to talk to a "bigger" second tier club after I was virtually guaranteed promotion got loaned out when the transfer bid never came in and never played top division football.

van Gaal actually tried that squad building approach with Man Utd. Di Maria didn't really take to centre mid. The real problem is surely Chelsea not being extremely keen to fire Conte...

You had one save and something happened. Then you posted in a forum asking "do Man Utd win a lot" and some people said yes, which is hardly surprising because the game would have been very poorly implemented if nobody had a save where Man Utd won a lot. What it is about Man Utd that makes them very consistent in some saves is they have a good squad and a lot of money, which makes it very easy in a football simulation to acquire a better squad and more money. FM18 engine might favour Mourinho's directness too, but I'm sure you'll find people who have very successful Man Utd teams without him. I love this forum, but people have complained every year about Man Utd winning the title, and in more than half of those years Man Utd have actually won the title, and it really isn't "getting defensive" to point this out.

Man Utd have dominated over a 30 year period IRL. City literally just finished with 19 points more than second place. Neither really strike me as unusual outcomes.

Unmarked winger on back post goals sound a lot more realistic than the unmarked shadow strikers exchange passes with an unmarked playmaker until there's a defensive hole to play a through ball into, probably as a backheel in FM17 tbf...

It's assumed and (historically at least) not massively accurate. The equivalent of saying "ignore anyone in higher divisions or better leagues overseas and the first teamers at much bigger clubs in your own division, except this one who's transfer listed, this one who used to play for you and loves the club and this one who might fancy returning to his home country, maybe"