Manchester United have a rare chance to end a \u2018vicious cycle\u2019 with their transfers, while there is praise for Sir Lee Carsley and his \u2018mustard\u2019 England U21s.<\/p>\n
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Start the Cars \u00a0<\/p>\n Two massive standouts from our U21 glory:<\/p>\n 1) I\u2019m not that surprised an England junior team won an international trophy. (This is an amazing state of affairs historically!)<\/p>\n 2) We won the trophy with what looked like a relatively weak team on paper. (This is an amazing state of affairs historically!).<\/p>\n Strong footballing nations win with weak teams. Weak footballing nations lose with strong teams.<\/p>\n In 2011 an England U21 side was knocked out of the U21 Euros group stage after drawing with Ukraine then losing to Czech Rep in the final game. They scored 2 goals and got 2 points in the whole tournament. That team contained future winners of 3 different champions league finals and a striker who scored 16 goals at senior level:<\/p>\n (Fielding, Walker, Jones, Smalling, Bertrand, Cleverley, Henderson, Muamba, Sinclair, Sturridge, Wellbeck)<\/p>\n Why was the 2025 team so good with apparantly much weaker players and why was the 2011 team so crap? I\u2019m sure Lee Carsley knows the answer to that. I wish I did too. \u00a0<\/p>\n Champions of Europe Liverpool are gonna regret not giving Harvey Elliott more minutes<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Newcastle are already regretting letting Anderson go<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n Quansah somehow looked like prime Ferdinand rampaging forward out of defence.<\/p>\n Egan-Riley, Cresswell, and Hinshelwood were incredible.<\/p>\n What a game. What a team. What a manager. Sir David \u2018Qatar payroll\u2019 Beckham? Pfffft. Arise Sir Carsley. Two on the spin!! \u00a0<\/p>\n The overpaying cycle A case in point is United signing Jadon Sancho for \u00a373M and now seeking a sale price of a mere \u00a325M. In addition, Hojlund was bought for \u00a372M and they are struggling to offload him for \u00a340M. Many more cases can be identified and cited. The most undeserving example is Brentford rejecting an overpriced offer in excess of \u00a362M for Bryan Mbeumo<\/strong><\/a>, a player they acquired for just \u00a34M.<\/p>\n The overcharging is now manifesting itself so much so that we can conclude that it has become endemic. It appears increasingly imperative for United to end the practice and I urge them to do so. . They should walk away from the Mbeumo deal if Brentford persist with their desire to overprice the player albeit Mbeumo is a good player. United has the prerogative and power to stop clubs overcharging them. MORE ON MANCHESTER UNITED TRANSFERS<\/strong> \u00a0<\/p>\n DCL for AFC? We\u2019ll get this one over the line in no time at all.<\/p>\n I wrote last week that Arsenal were posturing with no real intention to spend out on an expensive striker.<\/p>\n This is their dream come true.<\/p>\n DCL. Prem experience, can take the physicality. Goals? Oh, don\u2019t worry about those \u2026.<\/p>\n Look at the savings!<\/p>\n God, I hope I\u2019m wrong\u2026 \u00a0<\/p>\n Ahem So your 7th place in 2010 crisis really cannot be compared to Newcastle.<\/p>\n Others will rip this apart far better than I. \u00a0<\/p>\n How to reformat the World Cup But rather than just moaning, I\u2019ve come up with an alternative format that should make things more interesting.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what I\u2019d do<\/p>\n 1. Restrict the World Cup to 32 teams.\u00a0 48 is too many.\u00a0 24 or 16 doesn\u2019t feel like enough these days.<\/p>\n 2. Do away with the group stage.\u00a0 It\u2019s all far too cagey with sides wanting to avoid defeat and\/or the embarrassment of being knocked out with a game still to play.\u00a0 With 32 teams, we can go for a straight knockout, just like they did in the (16 country) World Cups of 1934 and 1938.<\/p>\n 3. Make those 32 teams the best 32 in the world.\u00a0 The only way to do this is to put teams from different federations against each other in qualification.\u00a0 But it feels wrong to just mix all the sides together right from the start.\u00a0 Marshall Islands would probably withdraw without playing if drawn against England, Turkey, Honduras, Iraq and Gabon.\u00a0 It\u2019s not worth the cost of the plane tickets.\u00a0 So, instead, how about two rounds of qualifiers?\u00a0 Start with matches within each federation, with a certain number of teams from each going through, then have a second round of qualifiers, putting teams from different confederations against each other, competing for the 32 places in the finals.<\/p>\n Wouldn\u2019t that be great?\u00a0 A 32 team World Cup, a straight knockout with, say 14-16 European sides, 5-6 South American, Mexico & USA, Japan or South Korea or both and the rest African.<\/p>\n Never going to happen though.\u00a0 I expect next year I\u2019ll watch all the knockout games and skip all the group games apart from England\u2019s. READ MORE<\/strong>:\u00a0How the 48-team 2026 World Cup works: 104 games, 39 days, 16 venues, three host nations<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n The Club World Cup, anyone?<\/strong> Just because he had access to The Coutinho Billions and could spend as he wished, is he now so out of touch with modern football that he doesn\u2019t realise the \u00a350m bag is actually pretty handy for City and Chelsea<\/strong><\/a>? Stick to Pickleball, Jurgs. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Lee Carsley for the England first team<\/a><\/strong>. That is all!
Dan, London\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n
Anon<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/strong>The U21s are mustard.<\/p>\n
RHT\/TS x<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Selling clubs have developed a profitable practice of overcharging Manchester United. This practice has become so rife that it is now turning into a vicious cycle. \u00a0A cycle which involves United overpaying for players only to sell them at huge losses later and add to the proceeds to sign more overvalued players.<\/p>\n
Professor (Dr) David Achanfuo Yeboah<\/strong><\/p>\n
\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Man Utd \u2018ready to seal Rashford agreement\u2019 with PL rivals as Flick tells Red Devils star \u2018weight loss\u2019 required<\/strong><\/a>
\ud83d\udc49\u00a0Man Utd make shock \u00a330m \u2018offer\u2019 for England star as Red Devils walk away from \u2018excessive\u2019 Mbeumo<\/a>
<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Calvert-Lewin now available on a free transfer? Just wait for Arsenal\u2019s \u2018big name\u2019 striker announcement this week\u2026.<\/p>\n
Stu \u2013 Just watch Arsenal become the Lidl of the Premier League \u2013 AFC in France <\/strong><\/p>\n
Awful nonsense there from Gab YNWA that really needs calling out<\/a><\/strong>. The most perfunctory check on Wikipedia shows that Liverpool have spent a grand total of 8 seasons, including the season after promotion, outside of the top six since that promotion.\u00a0And about 44 in the top 4, although I may have lost count because there were so many.<\/p>\n
Dave AVFC
<\/strong><\/p>\n
<\/strong>Look, let\u2019s face it, the World Cup is too long and has too many places for weak countries, all in the name of spreading the game across the world.<\/p>\n
Steve<\/strong><\/p>\n
I think we can all agree that Jurgen Klopp\u2019s continued comments on the CWC are starting to get embarrassing.<\/p>\n
Cal Loftus<\/strong><\/p>\n