The PC and Perpetually Offended Brigade

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

He did, however, succeed in pushing the conversation he wanted to have with the fan community in general front and centre. Maybe he, and maybe also the likes of Gary Neville and Rio Ferdinand who have spoken up on it since, even deem that to be of more longer-lasting importance than taking the cup.

For an intelligent lad, you are an absolute prize cabbage if you genuinely believe that anyone remotely connected to English football deemed it more important to have some kind of conversation about racism, either in football or in a general context, than winning the actual competition. Like, you come out with some absolute dross, are you really suggesting that Southgate is sat somewhere, smiling contently and thinking to himself "yeah, it would have been nice to be that manager that won England their first major international trophy in football since 66 but, sure fuck it, at least I did my bit to further inclusiveness by letting the young, inexperienced black lad take a peno, incurring the wrath of the fans and calling my judgement as a manager into question, because ultimately as a manager, my job is to win games etc etc...

I don't genuinely believe it. I said it's possible. But, now that you mention it, what you describe is actually pretty typical of how the human psyche justifies bad decisions to itself after the fact. Because, in football terms, it was definitely a bad decision.

[Nixer]

When did BSC turn into such a big baby lads?

[Kurt Cocaine]

Thirty odd years ago...

[astfgyl]

It never even dawned on me that Southgate might have picked the young lad to take the peno based on the statement of inclusivity it would make. I don't even know what to think of that. At the time I'd thought the lad just wanted to take one and it was his turn and no one stepped up in front of him. Hopefully that's what it was.

Edit:  https://twitter.com/ThorDeplorable/status/1414963964249886732

Racism is bad, folks.

[ldj]

It's hard to say, on one hand, he surely wouldn't purposefully risk the only final England have played in nearly 60 years on a 19 year old who has never even taken a penalty in his career before, but on the other, for a person that has a certain political leaning I can only imagine a young black lad winning England's first trophy in nearly 60 years would have been the dream outcome, it would have been the perfect result after the last year with all of the BLM/take the knee debates.

[John Kimble]

It defies logic on all levels, but in the unlikely event that Southgate chose him based on some misguided sense of inclusivity, he should hang his head in shame and resign. Fuck that. His job is to manage the team with the aim of winning trophies. Not to make some kind of political or social statement. Especially with what's at stake with the England job. Like it's a massive fucking gig. The biggest domestic league in the entire world, they should be better than this. Think of how big a scandal Saipan was for us, then consider that regardless of that, we had no right to even think for two seconds that we stood a chance. England were in the final. With a home advantage. Against a beatable Italian team. The mind boggles.

[Black Shepherd Carnage]

But sure part of the reason such a mad idea is even conceivable is that every sensible mind was already boggling at the choice of Saka for the decisive penalty! Is there any conceivable game-strategic reason for it?? Personally I can't think of one, but I know far less than most of ye about football tactics.

[Ollkiller]

Didn't Southgate say he picked the ones who were performing best in training. Like isn't that what a manager should do. Problem with penalties nowadays is theyre all looking to see where the keeper is going so they don't have enough power in the shot. Maguires was a proper penalty. Picked his spot and whacked it home. Keeper ain't ever saving that.

[pete]

Didn't Southgate say he picked the ones who were performing best in training.

Yeah he said:

"Penalties are my call. We worked in training. It's not down to the players. Tonight it hasn't gone for us. We know they were the best takers we had left on the pitch. "

I imagine he picked them cause he thought they'd score. Same way he didn't pick Sterling cause he didn't think he'd score.

And they were brought in cold cause he is quite conservative and didn't want many attacking players on.

"To get all those attacking players on you have to do it late. It was a gamble but if you gamble earlier you maybe lose in extra time anyway."

Probably not much more to it.

[open face surgery]

Maguires was a proper penalty. Picked his spot and whacked it home. Keeper ain't ever saving that.

Hate the miserable, ugly head on that cunt (imagine I said that about a black player?) but it was a screamer alright.

[John Kimble]

Didn't Southgate say he picked the ones who were performing best in training. Like isn't that what a manager should do.

Of course he's going to say that. And he might even believe it to be true, but I doubt it. There's no conceivable way that Saka was the next best option to take a penalty, no fucking way, regardless of how he performed in training. Being a competent manager would suggest knowing that the mentality to perform in penalties would be another level above that which is required in a training scenario. Although now the likes of Grealish is saying that he offered to step up and was overruled by Southgate, so who knows. Either way I can't get my head around it and I can rightly understand why any England fan would be miffed. Thankfully they are all notorious cunts so sympathy is in short supply. Still though, I don't see them having a similar chance for a loooooong time.

[ldj]

Didn't Southgate say he picked the ones who were performing best in training. Like isn't that what a manager should do. Problem with penalties nowadays is theyre all looking to see where the keeper is going so they don't have enough power in the shot. Maguires was a proper penalty. Picked his spot and whacked it home. Keeper ain't ever saving that.

I don't know what this run, skip and a hop bollocks players are doing with penalties now is about, seems like they miss more often than not doing it.

[ldj]

Didn't Southgate say he picked the ones who were performing best in training. Like isn't that what a manager should do. Problem with penalties nowadays is theyre all looking to see where the keeper is going so they don't have enough power in the shot. Maguires was a proper penalty. Picked his spot and whacked it home. Keeper ain't ever saving that.

I don't know what this hop, skip and jump bollocks players are doing with penalties now is about, seems like they miss more often than not doing it.

[Caomhaoin]

Used to love Aldridge's technique , annoying as fuck for the opposition.

Southgate got the best out of what he had, and has done since he was appointed, you have to hand it to him, even though I vehemently hate his never ending inclusivity bollocks and knee bending shite. As has been mentioned, and keep in mind this is a conservative coach who plays two holding midfielders, there is no way he considered Saka the best purely footballing  option for that penalty. I'd speculate he was on some level inspired by watching a black lad captain South Africa to a rugby World Cup two years ago, not that it's doing the gaff any good now. He gambled, a fools bet, and he lost. He won't admit it but he'll have to live with his decision. We'll have to see what effect it has on the teams performance going forward. Hopefully a very, very bad one.

[stearl]

Ah jaysus. Can't even have a laugh these days without having to apologise for it.

https://www.the42.ie/bernard-obyrne-apology-raheem-sterling-penalty-euro-2020-5490284-Jul2021/

I suppose his white privilege ran out 

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/othersport/arid-40336421.html