May Contain Nuts

I'll be honest, I disagree with almost every word of that.

Judging by the OTT, inescapable, unbearably smug, excessively saccharine media response to them finally not ducking up a semi final or earlier round at a major tournament I'd say the fear is very justified.
You'd think we were a country on the level of Estonia and it's some sort of miraculous achievement against all odds and expectations for us to even be in the competition. The hype is absolutely ducking unbelievable.
Then there's the whole patriotic overload, the insinuation that "the whole nation" was sat there a nervous wreck throughout the match and a blubbering mess after it, all waving their flags and singing along to "Sweet Caroline" (I mean ducking hell, really?) while they hug their mates; that they'll be marking it down on the calendar as the greatest day of their lives, or soon to be the second greatest day of their lives, all because England have finally done something they should have been able to do years ago and done repeatedly, but kept ducking it up.
I'm surprised there aren't calls for 7th July itself to be made a public holiday, never mind the 11th!
Supporting England feels the same to me as the idea of dancing at a wedding reception, or clapping along and raising lighters at a gig but only when the band says so; an audience swaying their arms on X-Factor because there's a light above stage telling the it's their time to do so... and everyone bloody does it. Probably in time to Sweet Caroline. Kill me.
A total cringefest of enforced togetherness and mandated enjoyment. "If you're not full of joyous emotion right now there's something wrong with you!I" - not said directly, but heavily implied when listening to Sam Matterface's overbearing commentary.  The last thing it did was make me feel involved, if anything it's pushed me further away.
Can't even have a little smirk of schadenfreude at England losing to an inferior team anymore, it's been written that they've already achieved greatness by getting to a final and, because it's against Italy in a sick twist of fate England are the underdog, and I've sworn to support the bloody underdog, haven't I? duck.
I can only imagine how bad it'll get, and for how long, if they actually win it. Maybe all channels broadcasting any content involving an English football fan will go off air as the sight of everyone disappearing up each other's arses is seen as obscene material? Oh poo, just remembered it'll be after the watershed so anything goes, and maybe everyone will just spontaneously combust so there's nobody to turn off the feed.
God it's going to be unwatchable.

About as cryptic as
4 down: "A popular household pet, man's best friend"
3 letters, middle letter o.

About as cryptic as
4 down: "A popular household pet, man's best friend"
3 letters, middle letter o.

About as cryptic as
4 down: "A popular household pet, man's best friend"
3 letters, middle letter o.

Judging by the OTT, inescapable, unbearably smug, excessively saccharine media response to them finally not ducking up a semi final or earlier round at a major tournament I'd say the fear is very justified.
You'd think we were a country on the level of Estonia and it's some sort of miraculous achievement against all odds and expectations for us to even be in the competition. The hype is absolutely ducking unbelievable.
Then there's the whole patriotic overload, the insinuation that "the whole nation" was sat there a nervous wreck throughout the match and a blubbering mess after it, all waving their flags and singing along to "Sweet Caroline" (I mean ducking hell, really?) while they hug their mates; that they'll be marking it down on the calendar as the greatest day of their lives, or soon to be the second greatest day of their lives, all because England have finally done something they should have been able to do years ago and done repeatedly, but kept ducking it up.
I'm surprised there aren't calls for 7th July itself to be made a public holiday, never mind the 11th!
Supporting England feels the same to me as the idea of dancing at a wedding reception, or clapping along and raising lighters at a gig but only when the band says so; an audience swaying their arms on X-Factor because there's a light above stage telling the it's their time to do so... and everyone bloody does it. Probably in time to Sweet Caroline. Kill me.
A total cringefest of enforced togetherness and mandated enjoyment. "If you're not full of joyous emotion right now there's something wrong with you!I" - not said directly, but heavily implied when listening to Sam Matterface's overbearing commentary.  The last thing it did was make me feel involved, if anything it's pushed me further away.
Can't even have a little smirk of schadenfreude at England losing to an inferior team anymore, it's been written that they've already achieved greatness by getting to a final and, because it's against Italy in a sick twist of fate England are the underdog, and I've sworn to support the bloody underdog, haven't I? duck.
I can only imagine how bad it'll get, and for how long, if they actually win it. Maybe all channels broadcasting any content involving an English football fan will go off air as the sight of everyone disappearing up each other's arses is seen as obscene material? Oh poo, just remembered it'll be after the watershed so anything goes, and maybe everyone will just spontaneously combust so there's nobody to turn off the feed.
God it's going to be unwatchable.

It's the Italian cbs who are ancient, the full backs are young. 
It's quite an even match I think. 
For me, it's never been about England definitely won't win it etc....it's our national obsession with blowing smoke up their collective bottoms if they do. 
We've got a solid system that broadly works, we've had factors in our favour that are unique to this tournament. We're solid, relatively unspectacular and got a couple of breaks last night. 
All fine. But to listen to some, a win makes the team superior to the great Brazilian 1970 team with 1986 Maradona on the bench. 
We seem incapable of appreciating the success for what it is..... Hard working, bits of skill, togetherness and teamwork. Playing to our strengths and using our advantages we'll - and recognising that we've been close enough often enough to be due a bit of fortune. 

Isn’t this forum all about debate and differing opinions? Surely when we are linked with players the idea is to express your view, positive or negative. Or would you rather we all just said yep that will be a good signing regardless? It makes no difference once the player puts on the shirt, would get my 100 % support ?

If we were looking at players of the standard of Chiellini & Bonucci you might have a point!  If we were looking at lesser players who've grown older but have still managed 30/40 full games over the course of the past few seasons, sure.
Jagielka has only played 1,635 minutes (18 full games) over the course of 3 seasons. Stearman was never particularly good and Huddersfield fans think he's past it and Davies is coming off the back of his second serious Achilles injury with us.
Their age isn't the issue.

Regulation 16.2 - Failure to provide audited annual accounts
Regulation 16.3 - Annual Accounts not filed with Companies House
 
...misdemeanours caused by the EFL's drawn-out case against us.
 

Has anyone ever had as much smoke blown up their arse as that cheating Bamford Grealish?
Nauseating commentary.

Regulation 16.2 - Failure to provide audited annual accounts
Regulation 16.3 - Annual Accounts not filed with Companies House
 
...misdemeanours caused by the EFL's drawn-out case against us.
 

Regulation 16.2 - Failure to provide audited annual accounts
Regulation 16.3 - Annual Accounts not filed with Companies House
 
...misdemeanours caused by the EFL's drawn-out case against us.
 

Regulation 16.2 - Failure to provide audited annual accounts
Regulation 16.3 - Annual Accounts not filed with Companies House
 
...misdemeanours caused by the EFL's drawn-out case against us.
 

If we sign Richard Stearman I think I might just burst into tears, and no, not happy tears. Godawful player.

If England win the Euros it will be right up there with the greatest footballing achievements of all time only bettered by Forest winning the European Cup by beating Liverpool, AEK Athens, Grasshopper Zurich, Koln & Malmö and Oster, Arges Pitesti, Dynamo Berlin, Ajax & Hamburg. ?

If England win the Euros it will be right up there with the greatest footballing achievements of all time only bettered by Forest winning the European Cup by beating Liverpool, AEK Athens, Grasshopper Zurich, Koln & Malmö and Oster, Arges Pitesti, Dynamo Berlin, Ajax & Hamburg. ?

Until the appeal deadline passes there's still time for the EFL to change their minds.
Would you put it past them to release a statement 10 minutes before the deadline saying "on further discussion with our legal representatives we believe, contrary to our earlier statement...  blah blah blah" ?
I mean, it's not going to happen, but it could happen.

If England win the Euros it will be right up there with the greatest footballing achievements of all time only bettered by Forest winning the European Cup by beating Liverpool, AEK Athens, Grasshopper Zurich, Koln & Malmö and Oster, Arges Pitesti, Dynamo Berlin, Ajax & Hamburg. ?

It really isn't. Tribalism is a stain on football.
I used to think it's what football was about, but then I grew up. 
Tribalism leads to hate, leads to violence, leads to sad old men shouting disgusting things at other people.
Enjoy the game, enjoy supporting your team, enjoy cheering them on, but not at the expense of daft "anti-the other" sentiment.
I want England to win, sure, but if they don't, it's no matter. Other things are more important. Representing your nation well, respecting the game, the opposition, the officials, other supporters.
One love.

Really.
The intense tribalism I felt as a kid has definitely waned. It's a sport to be enjoyed now rather than any extension of me. 
I love the Olympics and watching a Usain Bolt win gives me pleasure even if he's not English. Same with the Tour de France, great when Froome was winning (even though he himself never felt British) but I still watch and enjoy it regardless. 
So..yes it adds spice if they are English but it's not the be all anymore. 
My kids are also much less bothered than I am...they like watching Mbappe or Neymar do tricks, they love Juventus kits...the world seems a smaller place to them. 

Sheik Khaled, Henry Gabay, Surviving on the final day.
Erik Alonso, Points deduction? Steve Gibson's self-combustion.
EFL hate us, Rotherham too, Wycombe might even try to sue.
In the Championship we will play, only fined a hundred k.
We didn't start the fire...

Unless that advantage was being one of the top 3 spenders on wages in each of the seasons being looked at we haven’t pished it anywhere.
We’ve ran an (unsustainable) wage bill that has probably ranged from top 4 to top 10 in the division and have more often than not been a top 6 team in that time period. Few unlucky defeats in play off games to teams that have spent more than us / have gamed the system to a greater extent than we have (delete as appropriate) has meant we haven’t gone up, so be it. When football comes down to one off games it can at times be luck based and that’s why we all love it. We’ve now tightened that wage bill, understandably, but I get the feeling that won’t or indeed hasn’t stopped you moaning that we will be less competitive in the league now.
Don’t think we are “victims” as such but it is curious that just winning one of those set of play offs would see our strategy highlighted as a great success story and have fans of other clubs saying “wow look how well Derby are run” like you see from some on here re. Leeds, Villa, Wolves, Bournemouth and so on.
Unfortunately by not going up due to these fine margins we have found ourselves in the cross hairs of the EFL who’s rules are so clear that they are now seeking to change or clarify the rules that supposedly found us guilty. We are not victims of other teams cheating, in my opinion, but we have been victim of the EFL going on a crusade after the football club and creating a narrative that we are the villains of football with their vindictive, unclear statements and obvious leaks to the press.
Yesterday’s news should have been celebrated across football, that no precedent was set to retrospectively relegate a team for off field matters that were signed off for three years by an organisation that didn’t understand their own rules. I get the feeling it wasn’t though, because a narrative has been created that if you push spending limits and do not get promoted, you are worse than those who push limits and do.

Or ask Gibson if he wants decking 

Should’ve told him to make sure he amortises his pint in a straight line. No sipping at the start and downing the last half at the end.