England and international football

Yep. Got it thanks.

Generally I'm a big fan of The Athletic's writing, but this piece is impressive gibberish.

theathletic.com/4665181/2023/07/05/england-under21s-euros-what-is-success/

Poses an interesting initial question, then regurgitates all sorts of stats and theories into a lengthy article without actually coming close to answering it.

So Gibbs-White (along with other, less important, footballers) is playing tonight in the under 21 thingy and, presumably, playing again at the weekend if they win. Obviously our internationals didn't start pre-season with the other players but will come in over the next few weeks. Do we think MGW gets a holiday after the tounament finishes or has he already had one and this is regarded as pre-pre-season?

Morgan misses a penalty. Pretty soft dive by Gordon to win it in the first place.

Then he atones with a magnificent headed goal.

Heavily involved in the second goal too. May have got MOTM (I didn't check).

Certainly a deserving candidate. We worry about offers coming on for Johnson but I've no doubt that GW will have a few suitors before the window closes.

I guess Brennan's more likely to prompt cheeky bids, though, because he theoretically cost us nothing, whereas MGW has a theoretical value of £45m+.

I think he almost certainly has a release clause too.

Why do you think that?

Yes, but it doesn't necessarily follow that there's a release clause in it. I feel like they're generally inserted when a player is concerned that a team will hold out for stupid money and prevent him a dream move, and the club gives him a release clause to reassure him that it won't happen. In this case Morgan was desperate to leave Wolves and come to Forest, so I doubt he demanded or was granted a release clause. It's obviously possible but I don't think it's anything like an almost certainty.

Not to mention, he seems incredibly happy here at the moment. Even if he does have such a clause, other clubs will only know about it if his agent is touting him around and I really don't think that that's happening.

Isn’t it Brennan who’s likely to have the release clause?

That's who I was referring too.

Brennan is a fine player with bags of potential - lightning quick (provably - that stat that showed he had the second fastest top speed in the division), quality finisher (almost always hits the target, even when running at pace) and getting better at finding space.

However, he didn't make the team for the Chelsea or Arsenal games and his lack of physical strength (especially his reluctance/refusal to challenge for headers) means you need another striker alongside him. Awoniyi has looked poor on the left, when we've played split strikers with MGW behind and MGW is wasted on the left when we've played more of a front three. I can see why, if you are taking a hard-headed decision, Johnson would have a price for the club and why they might not want to push his pay up to the levels of some of the top earners if he's not a must pick.

Hopefully, he and Cooper can find a way to make it work as it seems like a massive shame if he does leave.