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Possibly as early as next week, the full extent of Manuel Pellegrin's disastrous spell in the east end will be coming to a conclusion, the club have already jettisoned Jack Wilshere, Sebastien Haller, Felipe Anderson, Albion Ajeti, not forgetting Roberto, the final departee scheduled is Andriy Yarmolenko.

When Christiano Ronaldo was at the height of his pomp during his time at Manchester United, their then manager, Alex Ferguson had a running battle with Real Madrid over their 'tapping up' of the Portuguese maestro. Ferguson famously described the Real Madrid board as "gangsters" and that he would not countenance doing any business with them, however they eventually got their man, despite Manchester United's enormous financial resources.

Firstly we would churlish to criticise Gareth Southgate's management of an England team that nearly won their first International tournament final for 55 years, the team, the coaching staff and the manager took their country to within touching distance of greatness only to fall at the last hurdle on penalties.