Lee

This doesn't even sound like a conspiracy anymore. Something clearly happened behind the scenes before the World Cup Final. Too many things don't add up. • Scaloni arrived at the stadium and got off the team bus in tears. • Messi "missed" every shot in the warm-up. In over 20 years, I genuinely can't remember ever seeing that. Was he doing it deliberately, or was his mind somewhere else? • Messi's family didn't even come to the stadium despite living in Miami. • The entire squad walked out of the dressing room with their heads down, completely shaken up. Enzo and Licha were both seen crying. • Messi was heard saying: "Let's forget about everything. Let's just play. Forget about everything." Everyone around him looked devastated. • Scaloni completely abandoned the tactical approach that had worked throughout the tournament, leaving the midfield exposed against a team whose biggest strength is midfield control. Messi and Julián were isolated all game. • Argentina had 0 shots on target in 90 minutes, yet Lautaro, one of their biggest attacking weapons, never came on. • Both Cuti Romero and Lisandro Martínez asked to be substituted because of "injuries", yet neither looked to be in obvious pain. These are arguably the two toughest players in the squad. Interestingly, both also ignored Trump during the trophy presentation. • Spain committed over 20 fouls without receiving a single card. Oyarzabal's challenge on Messi's knee and Cucurella's foul on Simeone were both obvious booking opportunities. • Cucurella also somehow escaped a red after covering his mouth during a confrontation with Messi. • Even Spain's celebrations felt strangely subdued. From a neutral perspective, that's understandable given Argentina never really put on a fight. This isn't meant to take anything away from Spain. They were World Cup favourites for a reason and fully deserved the title based on what happened on the pitch. But I've watched this Argentina team since 2021, and I've never seen anything remotely like Sunday. This team's identity has always been its passion, intensity and willingness to fight for every ball. None of that was there. I'm not claiming to know what happened. Maybe it was connected to the Malvinas incident. Maybe there was pressure from someone powerful. Maybe it involved their families. Maybe it was something else entirely. But I refuse to believe that what we watched was simply Argentina having an off day. Too many signs pointed to a squad that looked emotionally broken before the match had even kicked off. I just hope that one day we find out what really happened behind the scenes.

Tariq Lamptey is back in west London 💙

🥺🇦🇷 Dibu Martínez after the game.

"What did you think of the World Cup final half-time show?" Wayne Rooney:

🚨 ÚLTIMA HORA: Acaban de filtrar un vídeo de 5 minutos sobre todos los robos de Argentina a Inglaterra. Esto es un escándalo Mundial.

Scousers that support England are genuine mugs, I’ll never understand it

Unlucky England, but well done on reaching the semi final after playing, Panama, Ghana, Croatia, Congo, Mexico and Norway after qualifying from a group with Albania, Serbia, Latvia and Andorra 👏

🚨🔥 Lionel Messi: “We have earned this status with our own hard work. No one gives us anything”.