Euro 2016 thread

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Cannot wait for the Brexit/Woyxit puns from the tabloids.

 

So there's a reason I started this thread (other than the obvious) and that's because Belgium have announced their squad for the tournament - Spurs players in bold, and players we've been linked to in italics

Goalkeepers
Thibaut Courtois, Jean-Francois Gillett, Simon Mignolet

Defenders
Toby Alderweireld, Dedryck Boyata, Jason Denayer, Bjorn Engels, Nicolas Lombaerts, Jordan Lukaku, Thomas Meunier, Thomas Vermaelen, Jan Vertonghen

Midfielders
Moussa Dembele, Marouane Fellaini, Radja Nainggolan, Axel Witsel

Forwards
Michy Batshauyi, Christian Benteke, Yannick Carrasco, Kevin de Bruyne, Eden Hazard, Romelu Lukaku, Dries Mertens, Divock Origi

Chadli is notable by his absence

 

Poor Nacer.
Not really enough opportunity to prove he merited a place (at least we now understand why
Hazard has got his finger out this month) .

 

I feel really sorry for Chadli.
I thought that he was going to get an opportunity when Alli got banned, too.
Still didn't get a start when Dembele followed him.

 

Iceland have announced their squad

Goalkeepers
Hannes Halldórsson, Ögmundur Kristinsson, Ingvar Jónsson

Defenders
Ari Skúlason, Hordur Magnússon, Hjörtur Hermannsson, Ragnar Sigurdsson, Kári Árnason, Sverrir Ingi Ingason, Birkir Sævarsson, Haukur Heidar Hauksson

Midfielders
Emil Hallfredsson, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Aron Gunnarsson, Theódór Elmar Bjarnason, Arnór Ingvi Traustason, Birkir Bjarnason, Johann Gudmundsson, Eidur Gudjohnsen, Rúnar Már Sigurjónsson

Forwards
Kolbeinn Sigthórsson, Alfred Finnbogason, Jón Dadi Bödvarsson

Stand-by: Gunnleifur Gunnleifsson (goalkeeper, Breidablik), Hallgrímur Jónasson (defender, OB), Hólmar Örn Eyjólfsson (midfielder, Rosenborg), Rúrik Gíslason (midfielder, Nürnberg), Ólafur Ingi Skúlason (midfielder, Gençlerbirliği), Vidar Örn Kjartansson (forward, Jiangsu Suning)

There's a few provisional squads too...

AUSTRIA

Goalkeepers
Robert Almer, Heinz Lindner, Ramazan Özcan

Defenders
Aleksandar Dragovic, Christian Fuchs, György Garics, Martin Hinteregger, Florian Klein, Sebastian Prödl, Markus Suttner, Kevin Wimmer

Midfielders
David Alaba, Marko Arnautović, Julian Baumgartlinger, Martin Harnik, Stefan Ilsanker, Jakob Jantscher, Zlatko Junuzović, Marcel Sabitzer, Alessandro Schöpf, Valentino Lazaro

Forwards
Lukas Hinterseer, Rubin Okotie, Marc Janko

ROMANIA

Goalkeepers
Ciprian Tătăruşanu, Costel Pantilimon, Silviu Lung

Defenders
Cristian Săpunaru, Alexandru Matel, Vlad Chiricheş, Valerică Găman, Cosmin Moţi, Dragoş Grigore, Răzvan Raţ, Steliano Filip, Alin Toşca

Midfielders
Mihai Pintilii, Ovidiu Hoban, Adrian Ropotan, Andrei Prepeliţă, Adrian Popa, Gabriel Torje, Alexandru Chipciu, Alexandru Maxim, Nicolae Stanciu, Lucian Sânmărtean

Forwards
Claudiu Keșerü, Bogdan Stancu, Florin Andone, Denis Alibec, Ioan Hora, Andrei Ivan

REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

Goalkeepers
Shay Given, Darren Randolph, David Forde, Keiren Westwood

Defenders
Seamus Coleman, Cyrus Christie, Paul McShane, Ciaran Clark, Richard Keogh, John O'Shea, Alex Pearce, Shane Duffy, Marc Wilson, Stephen Ward

Midfielders
Aiden McGeady, James McClean, Glenn Whelan, James McCarthy, Jeff Hendrick, David Meyler, Stephen Quinn, Darron Gibson, Harry Arter, Wes Hoolahan, Eunan O'Kane, Anthony Pilkington, Robbie Brady, Jonathan Walters, Jonathan Hayes, Callum O'Dowda

Forwards
Robbie Keane, Shane Long, David McGoldrick, Kevin Doyle, Daryl Murphy

 

Good to see Wimmer getting in the Austrian squad. He deputised brilliantly for Vertonghen and was unlucky to lose his place.

Also nice to see a few of our ex-players making their squads, though their qualities at the Lane differ quite a bit.
Hallfredson, Siggurdson, Gudjohnson, Chiriches and Keane, for those that can't be bothered to check.

 

Three former players in the Iceland squad Mad. I also enjoy how every single member of their squad's name ends with 'son'.

 

Their surnames are just their father's name with son on the end, IIRC.
Your son's would become WanderingYidson, for example.

 

Gutted for Nacer, despite being injured and then losing his place due to the form of Alli he's still a top player and better than Carrasco in my opinion, not sure what Benteke has done to warrant a place either. Sounds bad but I hope one or two get injured (non-Spurs obviously) so he steps in, especially as they've gone way OTT on the CB's selection.

Congrats to Big Kev on getting in the Austria squad, I think his run of games really helped him cement that.

 

You learn something new every day. I mostly thought it was odd because it signified not a single player of non-Icelandic ancestry, but I suppose even immigrants follow the established naming conventions...?

 

Could be worse: their entire women's team have names that end with dottir - for pretty much the same reason.

 

Iceland doesn't have very many immigrants and none of them appear to be in the national side, I'm afraid.
That's only about 10,000 people to choose from, though. Overall population of a little over 332,00.
Pretty unbelievable that they qualified for the Euros and the Dutch didn't.

 

If you type Krakhorson into Google translate with Icelandic to English settings, you get ...

Wilshere.

 

Do you think Wimmer is more solid than Vertonghen?

 

Not really, given the KNVB's post mortem pinpointed the exact problem: the lost generation of Dutch players.

Looking at any of their squads from the past few years you'll find they have various players over thirty such as van Persie, Robben, Huntelaar and Sneijder, and you'll find plenty of players aged 18-22 like Depay, El Ghazi, Clasie, Willems and van Ginkel - but there was an almost complete lack of players aged 25-9, which given it is accepted those are the prime years of a footballer's career that is a worrying gap, and the obvious question is whether there was a four year period where Dutch footballers were suddenly crap, or whether the period after the 2010 World Cup final saw Bert van Marwijk and Louis van Gaalling made the same mistake the Germans made in the late 90s where they relied on the same faces for too long when they should have been preparing the next generation of internationals.

 

Hard to tell, really. Vertonghen and Alderweireld have a long-established partnership, so the comparison's difficult.
I certainly didn't feel that we were any worse when Wimmer was playing, though.
He seemed to fit in very well, even when we switched our fullbacks.
The whole side struggled when we made too many changes, but I don't think that he was particularly poor in any games.

 

On me 'ead son

 

Yes.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36300164

Discuss(t) ??