England World Cup squad reaction lands as three genuine Arsenal objections aired | OneFootball

The early reaction to the England World Cup squad is largely just a massive shrug, beyond one ‘main omission’. And it isn’t Harry Maguire.

We also have lots more Arsenal discourse.

England’s World Cup squad

I’ve been watching football longer than most of England’s players have been alive. All of them actually. I’ve seen it all: Ferguson’s hair dryer, Wenger’s coat, Keane’s thousand yard stare  So when people ask me who should be in England’s World Cup squad for 2026 I trust my gut. And my gut has never been wrong, except for that time I said Tom Cleverley would win the Ballon d’Or.

Now, I know the modern analysts — the laptop lads — will tell you it’s all about “expected goals” and “progressive carries” and “heat maps”. but the only heat map you need is whether the players are sweating enough.

Anyway, here’s the squad Thomas Tuchel should take. And if he doesn’t, well, don’t blame me when England go out in the quarters again.

Before we begin, let me say this: Twenty-six players is a disgrace. Mexico ’86 had 22. Proper football. Proper men. Proper perms and tight shorts. Twenty-six is too many. It’s not a squad — it’s a coach tour. But FIFA insists, so fine. I’ll pick 26. Just know I’m doing it under protest.

GOALKEEPERS (3) (“Three is too many. One should be enough if he’s any good.”)

1. Jordan Pickford People say he’s erratic. I say he’s passionate. People say he shouts too much. I say he’s communicating. People say he’s unpredictable. I say: good. Keep the opposition guessing. Keep me guessing. .

2. Nick Pope Big lad. Good lad. Looks like he could lift a tractor. That’s what you want in a keeper.

3. A Third One Doesn’t matter who. They never play. Waste of time.

DEFENDERS (8) (“If they can’t tackle, they can’t come.”)

4. John Stones Rolls-Royce defender. I don’t know what that means but everyone says it, so I say it too.

5. Harry Maguire People say he’s past it. People say he’s got the turning circle of the Exxon Valdez.  Both are true, but he’s got a head the size of a satellite dish and a lack of respect for foreigners so he’s in.

6. Kyle Walker Still fast. Still reliable. Still looks like he could outrun a cheetah on a treadmill. Get him out of international retirement whatever it costs.

7. Dan Burn Six foot seven. Built like a wardrobe. Looks like he might lose his rag at any moment. Exactly what you want in a defender.

8. Trent Alexander-Arnold Every team needs a luxury player and he’s mine.  Don’t buy a Ferrari and complain it can’t go upstairs.

9. Marc Guehi Modern defender. Calm. Composed. Slightly too composed for my liking — I prefer defenders who look like they’re one bad pass away from a fistfight.

10. Ezri Konsa Reliable. Steady. The kind of lad who’d help you fix a fence.

11. Reece James (Injured) Yes, he’s injured but he’s always injured so I’m picking him anyway. Injuries are a mindset.

MIDFIELDERS (8) (“Games are won in midfield. Unless you lose, then it’s the defence’s fault.”)

12. Declan Rice Solid. Dependable Good looking lad. The kind of midfielder you wouldn’t mind your daughter bringing home before realising too late that your wife is having an affair with him thus destroying a previously happy family.. But he scored two free kicks a year ago so he’s in.

13. Jude Bellingham Now, I like the lad. Good feet. Good engine. Good attitude. But he needs to show a bit more confidence. Bit more swagger. Bit more “I’m the main man”, He’s too modest. Too humble. Maybe throw in a messianic goal celebration once in a while. Needs to believe in himself.  Like I do.

14. Jordan Henderson Yes, he’s older now. Yes, he got in a pickle with the rainbow brigade a while back. But he’s a leader. A talker. A shouter. A pointer. And England need pointers more than they need rainbows.

15. Phil Foden Silky. Stylish. Form is temporary. He’s been out of form for the last four years but class is permanent. Looks like he’d be happier in a boyband, but I won’t hold that against him.

16. Cole Palmer Creative. Elegant. Slightly smug which is perfect for tournament football.

17. Kobbie Mainoo Young. Composed. Plays like he’s 28. Looks like he’s 28.

18. James Maddison (Injured) Yes, he’s been injured. Yes, he’s always injured. But his new hair style reminds me of the 90s and I like that.

19. A Creative Midfielder Preferably someone with the ability of Paul Gascoigne. Tuchel will have to pretend Elliot Anderson is that man.

FORWARDS (7) (“Strikers win you games. Defenders win you tournaments. Midfielders win you arguments.”)

20. Harry Kane Takes penalties. Scores goals. Takes penalties. Drops deep. Takes penalties. Does everything except run. Captain.

21. Bukayo Saka Brilliant player. Lovely lad. Smiles too much for my liking which makes me wonder if he doesn’t always quite understand what’s going on, but I’ll allow it.

22. Phil Foden Silky. Stylish. Form is temporary. He’s been out of form for the last four years but class is permanent. Looks like he’d be happier in a boyband, but I won’t hold that against him. I know he’s in the squad twice but that’s an indication of just how much blind faith I have in him.

23. Marcus Rashford .People say he’s just Danny Welbeck without the goals. I say why not give it one last try?

24. Jarrod Bowen Direct. Determined. Looks like he’d chase a balloon in a hurricane.

25. Erling Haaland I know he plays for Norway. But I don’t care, he was born in Leeds which last time I looked at a map was in Lancashire. Get the Legal guys and girls on it. Find a loophole. Get him in.

26. A Wildcard Every squad needs one. Someone unpredictable. Someone who might score a worldy or get sent off in 12 minutes. Preferably both. If I’d had my way in 98 it would’ve been Le Tiss, but this year it’s Anthony Gordon. He dribbles the ball like he’s being chased by a wasp. I like that in a wide player.

FINAL THOUGHTS Twenty-six players is too many. It’s bloated. It’s unnecessary. It’s modern football gone mad. But if Tuchel takes these 26, England might get past the quarters. Rocky Foreshore

Why on earth after the announcement of every England squad do people cry that the manager isn’t picking the team based on form?! Of course he’s not picking it on form, that would be idiotic. You can have a balance of it for sure but you need some cohesion within the team.

I would’ve thought one of Foden or Palmer would go but fair enough. Gibbs White has done well the last 2/3 months too. I swear the public opinion of Eze has dropped since he signed for Arsenal. He still has the same qualities he had this time a year ago when everyone loved him. He can change games.

Maguire not being called up is hardly that shocking? He’s been fine for United but anyone who plays well for 3 games at that club is the best thing since sliced bread. Madueke is sh*t for Arsenal but does well for England. Would probably suit playing with Kane more than Foden or Palmer would on the wing. It’s obvious from the last Euros they needed direct runners on each side of Kane (Rashford & Gordon / Saka & Madueke).

The squad is fine. You don’t need 26 players anyways. Like I’m seeing people say you could need Maguire for scoring from a corner? Is this for real? Nearly as bad as when people were suggesting to call Ward Prowse up a few years back for free kicks. The main omission to me is Lewis Hall. Nico O Reilly and Livramento seem to be the options at left back with perhaps Dan Burn too. It’ll probably suffice. Anon

It was a beautiful day

For years, so many years, we have had to put up with the sheer vitriol online and from sites like this, ridiculously biased and downright obscene, click hungry, hitpieces on the manager (Ford and Nicholson, looking at you in particular!), mudslinging from certain bridge-dwelling creatures in BTL bearing the guise of several alts that try and back themselves up in order “to win” at the comment-jousting, mailbox contributions from know-nothing, pot-stirring gobshites, hell, even the editor was writing us off at the very beginning (“Not Arsenal. Not having that. Also just can’t see Liverpool retaining it despite all that money spent; retaining it is something only Man City have done in recent times. So I am plumping for City”) *ahem*. To be fair, Tickner was the only one who called it, kudos to him.

Even the S. Griffin character, long-suspected as a writer vehicle used on this site to farm attention, was summoned like Candyman through mailbox incantation – promptly donated their slice of grumble pie to try and smack a hornets’ nest. FAIL.

As predicted, complete dingbats write in labelling the team as “the worst” and whatever other mumbo-jumbo they read on Twitter and parrot out, because… that’s all they have left. Sad.

If that is the case, then what does that say about your team? So dumb and desperate these people are.

Watching them all tie themselves in knots and re-write history with lies and excuses has been nothing short of hilarious, because we know, deep down, they are absolutely seething.

Arsenal Derangement Syndrome to the extreme.

We won. And we adjusted to a difficult, physical league.

Arteta is an absolute f**king legend who proved you ALL wrong.

The best team in the country will only get better, and to see all of your utter nonsense, petty jibes and bile drown in slow motion in the process as a result of it, has been absolutely priceless 😀

COYG Cpt. Cucumber, Timbucku [Pep leaves and the #115+ iceberg hits, wait and see!]

It’s not all about transfer spend

Here they come, everyone’s list of excuses as to why Arsenal don’t deserve it, or excuses why or how they won it. Keep it going everyone, I will lap each and every one up with the massive grin on my face that I haven’t been able to drop yet.

Today though I will respond to Theo in Liverpool and his mail about the sustainability of Arsenals finances.

Lets start with “The sustainability comes from being owned by hypercapitalist Kroenke and friends”. Let’s compare with Liverpool, City, Chelsea and United.

Now data isn’t perfect here for obvious reasons. It is estimated that the Kroenkes have put in around £500m into Arsenal over the last 5 years (including £200m for the stadium debts). For comparison’s sake, Chelsea is near £3bn and United over 1bn. Liverpool and City come in around $150m which is impressive but lets not pretend we are spending billions we don’t earn

Let’s look at Arsenal as a business. They have gone from £328m in revenue in 20/21 to an estimated £770m for 25/26. This is a significant increase so the investment is supported by business growth. In fact, i would argue that it’s a decent return on investment so far

In terms of wages, Arsenal currently has one of the lowest wages to revenue, with 48% being beaten by Manchester United with 47%. Chelsea are rocking 68% and your self-sustaining Liverpool are 63%. So in terms of the financial day to day health of Arsenal, we are miles ahead of you. In fact, over the last 5 years Arsenal only broke into the top 3 for total spent on wages this season. And we have had players like Jesus on £250k that don’t even play!

But! But! They signed players! Their transfer spend is ridiculous!

Gyokeres Total Cost – £116m (52m wages) Isak Total Cost – £223m (93m wages)

Nearly half of Gyokeres cost is in wages. This applies to the vast majority of players. This is why transfer spend, net spend debates are so futile. The cost of a player is over their total contract, so let’s look at the finances that way too. Rice, our biggest transfer at £105 “only” costs an estimated £70m in wages. So let’s start looking at both shall we?

So in summary, Arsenal is an extremely healthy business. Money coming in is up, its liabilities are a small part of their annual turnover and the owners aren’t pumping billions into the club.

Sounds pretty healthy and sustainable to me! Rob A (spreadsheet winners too) AFC

What will this Arsenal team’s legacy be?

The reaction to Arsenal winning the league has been fun to read. To have a single mailbox featuring successive letters highlighting them as both the worst and best PL champs ever is a decent barometer for the reaction.

I personally didn’t mind seeing them win it. Arsenal are much less popular than Liverpool here in Ireland, so as a United fan I can go about my summer without real fear of knuckle draggers flogging schadenfreude till it’s dead. Fair to say that Arsenal were objectively the best side over the 38 games, so congrats. Well deserved.

But the question of how they’ll be viewed over time will become pertinent as this season fades into memory, won’t it? Pretty much every sentence about them winning the title this week has come with the footnote that their last team of champions were The Invincibles, which should tell you all you need to know about that particular side’s legacy.

This Arsenal side are far from the worst team to win the PL, but surely even their own fans recognise how dull a lot of their games have been? They’ve scored from set pieces in 19 out of 37 games, have generally relied on a stingy defence, and play a “safety first” brand of football that fails to stir neutrals. That puts them squarely in the territory of George Graham’s Arsenal – almost like a super-effective evolution of a David Moyes template.

The level of opposition they’ve seen off hasn’t been vintage either (sorry H, but you were talking gibberish there mate). Just as Liverpool’s win last season was painted as a golden opportunity being taken advantage of, Arsenal have finished top of the pile when the other favourites at the start of the season have floundered. Finishing ahead of City when they’ve been significantly below their past standards is not the same as beating a team that’s running up totals of 90+ points. That task is significantly tougher, and requires a better team to achieve it. The “yeah but 115 charges” argument is null if City drop their standards in spite of the cheating, and they did precisely that.

So yeah, the details of this win probably won’t live too long in the memory banks for neutrals. It’s hard to imagine fans regaling each other in 20 years with recollections of Rice/Gabriel/Raya/Saka in the same way we now talk about Henry/Pires/Vieira/Bergkamp. But that’s just football, everything is relative. I can’t muster too much nostalgic enthusiasm about United’s title wins in 1997/2000/2001/2009/2011 to be honest, they just weren’t all that memorable.

None of the above is to denigrate any celebrations by Arsenal fans – league titles are hard earned so they have every right to enjoy it. It’ll be interesting to see if Arteta now has it in his wheelhouse to evolve the side, having very consciously devolved their style to squeeze every marginal gain and eventually get over the line. Or maybe he just keeps things as they are, and we can do this same dance again next season. Keith Reilly  

A tale of dates

At the start of April, while Arsenal embarked on a wobble and Citeh started firing all cylinders, everyone zeroed in on one date/clash as the decider in the Premier League race, 19th April 2026. This was the return match between Arsenal and Citeh at the Etihad Stadium. Citeh won, and everyone, bar hardcore Arsenal fans, wrote them off. Declan Rice rallied the boys and issued a rallying cry that ‘It ain’t done yet.’

Fast forward to 19th May 2026, and the mighty Bournemouth deflated the tyres of the Citeh jet.  What do all the super pundits and super computer have to say now that they were all proved wrong! Who will believe these comedians in the future? Yiembe (Mombasa, Kenya)

Three genuine Arsenal objections

Loads of predictable to and fro over the Gooners finally winning a biggie again, including the obligatory (Northern) Irish plastic trying harder in a desperate bid to legitimise their ultimately meaningless zealotry. But now the dust has settled a little, and putting to one side for a moment the fact Arteta is undeniably a fanny, the three things that I genuinely object to are inextricably linked:

Firstly, the incessant diving. And it IS incessant. Yeah other teams indulge in it, but Arteta’s Arsenal are waaay out on their own in this regard. It makes their games largely unwatchable, with the Burnley game being the latest egregious example. Burnley!!! Arteta isn’t obligated to entertain, and hardcore Gooners won’t care, but they are a tiny proportion of the global PL audience – the PL itself ought to be accountable for providing entertainment via appropriate direction of the officials and governance of the game. Yes Salah had the most enduring case of labrynthitis on record, but he, and Klopp’s Liverpool, regularly delivered entertainment by the truckload. Rodri, like Fernandinho before him, indulged in “tactical fouls” week in and week out, but they played great football alongside the moody stuff. Arteta has diving as his central theme, and it’s not only horrible/deeply embarrassing to watch, but a scandalous waste of talent. Arsenal have the players to do what Klopp and Pep have done, but don’t have a manager capable of coaching them properly at the pointy end of the pitch. Perhaps most concerning of all though is the damage it will do to the PL when Mikel’s depressingly cynical “process” is inevitably copied.

Which brings me to point two – Arsenal’s cheating is only possible because refs in this country allow and indulge it. Why? In my view, VAR as a safety net carries a lot of the blame. Problem being that the mopes at Stockley Park are just as inept and gutless as the on field officials from whom the buck is passed to them. It desperately needs sorting in the summer.

Thirdly, there are managers in the PL who are undeniably better than Arteta in terms of coaching attacking football, but who are financially hamstrung by the rules. Iraola, for example, would wipe the floor with Arteta in this regard given the same resources (and arguably does already on a relative shoestring in the entertainment stakes in fairness). There HAS to be a rethink of the FFP rules that isn’t just a very slightly less unfair version (like UEFA’s squad cost ratio fudge). It won’t happen because money, but that in and of itself is a sad indictment of the state of the flagship league in world football, because legacy big club hegemony preservation IS ultimately just about money. Don’t want to lose ground to better run “smaller” clubs big six? Then organise yourselves better. If you can’t, then suffer the consequences.

All of which brings me neatly to Emery’s Villa. Why should they have to potentially lose their manager prematurely because they are artificially held back in order to sate shareholders and egos? Their excellent Europa League win (and performance – take note Mikel) should be a springboard for them challenging for the league. But obviously it is highly unlikely that it will be.

I’m serious here folks, I know I give Arteta and his team grief on the wind up a lot of the time here, but I think the PL is in real danger of shafting itself unless changes are made. RHT/TS x (Martin O’Neill is an absolute whopper these days, a 74 year old man acting like a 7 year old with green brigade posters on his bedroom wall is highly irresponsible, not to mention excruciatingly embarrassing)

Euro-pah!

Hello, Happy to see the Villa doing well in Europe. When I lived in Birmingham I always preferred City but went to a fair few Villa games** and it was always a good day out.

So not wanting to p*ss on anyone’s chips but I think that they need to revisit the idea of having champions league teams dropping down into the competition. Based on some lovely AI analysis I can see that the average Uefa coefficient of the last 16 in the 5 years before the format change was around 90, compared with roughly 75 in the two seasons since. This means there is a decline in ‘team strength’ (or at least pedigree in last few years) of something like 15-20%. This trend continues into quarters and semis.

Accepting that Uefa coefficient is limited more anecdotally looking at the last 16’s in the last 2 years it feels that there is a lack of ‘big fish’ in the mix. And in the history of the competition those big fish did go on to have a fairly good hit rate in the competition winning about one in every three of the Europa titles before the change.

In my opinion they should either have changed the name of the competition or continued to have the CL teams drop down. As the titles of Tottenham and Villa are not directly comparable in terms of opposition strength to those won by Atalanta, Sevilla, Frankfurt in the preceding years.

In terms of how it could work to have CL teams drop down in new format I think I would have top 12 teams in CL, Europa and Conference leagues go through automatically to Ro16. The teams in 13-20 of CL play off to fill remaining 4 places. The losers of that CL play off will go onto play teams 13-16 in Europa league before Europa Ro16. Similarly 17-20 of Europa can play 13-16 of Conference.

Happy for Villa and don’t begrudge their celebrations one bit, they can only beat who is in front of them.

Nice one, James (In the mid 00’s the club used to give students like me free tickets to Villa park for standing on the turnstile and tallying the number of non-white people who came in – no idea where this data went.)

A few thoughts on Manchester City and the 115 charges

I would like to start off by saying it is a bit iffy that Guardiola is leaving before the end of his contract without any real reason as to why. They’re still a top team and have bought well and will be stronger next season, so why leave now? Are managerial contracts really that meaningless, that a manager can just decide at any point to leave? Does he have to pay compensation to Man City? They would certainly pay him compensation for sacking him.

I think there is something big coming their way and Guardiola wants out before it lands. Maybe they were stringing him along with lies about their innocence but now something different has come to light.

On the subject of financial doping, let’s not pretend this is actual cheating. Cheating is the use of performance enhancing drugs, bribing officials, illegal recognisance of other teams training/planning, using illegal methods to hinder the other team’s performance (lasagne gate) etc. You get the picture. We all know that these financial fair play rules are just to maintain the current hierarchy and to stop smaller clubs taking from the bigger clubs. If these financial restriction applied to all clubs from the dawn of the professional game, then fair enough but it didn’t. The big clubs already had massive revenues that dwarfed most other clubs when it came to fruition and it has allowed them to have an unfair advantage (allowed them to cheat) ever since.

In my opinion the only way to have an even playing field is to get rid of these financial restrictions and give all football clubs the freedom to invest whatever they deem necessary. You’d think with all the commentary I have read on this, Man City had a squad full of ‘roided’ up cyborgs, and every match official was on the take. Man City won a lot of trophies because they had a squad full of athletes that were largely better at football than most teams they met. Even as an Arsenal fan, I can see that this is not cheating. Seamus, Sweden

The C word

I don’t entirely disagree with Disgruntled, RSA’s general point about glaring issues in the governance of the game, but to say that the club as a manifestation of a community’s interest in their local team is gone is just not true.

As an Arsenal fan transplanted to Macclesfield, I’ve seen the complete opposite this season –  Macclesfield basically ground to a halt during the tie against Crystal Palace, and the celebration was enormous. There are plenty of Manchester City, Liverpool and Manchester United supporters round here, but since the club was resurrected the town is proud of them again, and were rewarded with a famous cup run.

And then on Tuesday, within minutes of the Premier League title being decided, thousands of people had flooded into the streets in Islington, and they just kept coming, flocking to the stadium to celebrate with their neighbours.

Arsenal is not a perfect institution – as people have pointed out, they’re owned by an American billionaire, have only just ditched one of their dodgy sponsors, and the less said about the Partey situation the better. However, over the last half decade, the club has made a conscious effort to integrate the local community in so much of what they do.

So yes, by all means bemoan modern football. But I’d argue that clubs can still matter to communities – maybe your club just doesn’t make the effort.