UEFA Euro 2024: Mod Note Added 2/7/24

Aye, though those cheap cans of cider just hit different at 16.

GAA is a lot more physical than football. That's also a very recent rule change.

I don't see anything wrong with a 16 year old playing for Spain. He's good enough. He needs to be managed properly at Barca and not played week in week out or he'll suffer physically and likely mentally as well.

The alternative to not playing at the top level is to leave him at underage where he will struggle to develop any further.

Pele scored a hat trick at 17 in a World Cup final didn’t he?

It’s not exactly the Eastern European gymnasts from the 80s

Yeah I'd be very wary of Yamal playing so much at a young age. Barcelona have very recent history with playing young players too much too soon, and breaking their very talented kids. They do not mind the kids, it's actually the opposite.

In 2021, Gavi made his senior debut for Barcelona just after his 17th birthday becoming and almost guaranteed started for the senior team that season playing 3090 minutes (over 34 full games) for the club and also played another 800 minutes Internationally bringing him up to over 43 games in a full season aged 17. In 2022, this increased to 3527 minutes for club and 490 minutes for country totaling nearly 45 full games. He only missed 4 games in the entirety of the full season (3 were suspensions and 1 was a rest) The 2023 season continued on the same way and he was playing nearly every minute of the season until he broke down with an ACL injury.

Pedri is the same way, after he was signed at a young age. He made his debut for Barcelona aged 18 and played the full season there - 3529 minutes for Barcelona and a further 842 minutes for Spain's senior squad with the Euros being played that summer, except he then also played the Olympics that year which added a further 392 minutes which came to a total of 53 games in his first season at the club as an 18 year old. There is a very famous picture of the kid looking incredibly drained before the start of one of the matches that season, but he was continually picked to start. The following season start nearly every game again, but breaking down twice with hamstring injuries, and this has continued on in the following 2 seasons after that again, before he suffered a ligament injury during the Euros this summer.

Remember Ansu Fati? Burst onto the scene aged 17, and was overplayed by Barcelona too much too soon and started to break down and missed most of the seasons in 2020 & 2021 as a result. It took Barcelona until 2022 to realize that they could play him less and they did this, meaning he stayed fit for the full season but he was shipped out on loan to Brighton and he broke down again after a couple months.

The over-playing of Fati, Gavi & Pedri by Barcelona at a very young age has let to all 3 having big injury problems. I wouldn't have much faith in them holding back Yamal going by how much football he played in the season just gone aged 16 - 3556 minutes for club & country (almost 40 full senior games).

Was going to post something similar. It actually makes me angry.

Konsa out and Guehi back in. Can see more of the same from England again tonight.

Not sure that the Netherlands have enough of a cutting edge but are probably a step up compared to other teams the English have played so far.

Holland aren't anything special, but hopefully they beat England.

Rooney made is England and Everton debut at 17 and he was a fat kid with nowhere near the profesional conditioning this guy would be getting

Boom cracker

Simple Simons,cracker

Belter of a goal

Brexit means Brexit.

Bellingham is very dislikeable

Rice was fouled in the lead up

Anyone else's RTE Player having a hissy fit when trying to watch the match in 1080p?

Stuttering on both PC and phone

Massive dive

Never a pen

not a pen for me

FFS how is that a pen?!!! Bellingham in the refs head?