BBC Radio 5 Live

More from grassroots coach Andy on why he is against a blue card trial: "In my experience it can work as a deterrent [sin bins]. But I think in other games, players have to take responsibility and coaches have to take responsibility.

"If that happens then great. But as I say, my experience is that on occasions that will happen and that's all good and the game continues. But when referees have used the sin bin, it has been a real problem in terms of just encouraging further time wasting. I heard Arsene Wenger is looking at stopping the clock and what have you.

"Well that's okay at high levels of the game, because you can't really do that at grassroots level, that would just cause chaos. So I'm not saying it's a bad idea, I just think there are problems with it. And yeah, like as Andrew said, if you've got pleasant coaches that take responsibility, that's great.

"But unfortunately that isn't always the case. And where it's not the case it can just cause further problems."

BBC Radio 5 Live

Grassroots coach Andy in Nottingham has spoken to BBC Radio 5 Live on why he is against a blue card trial: "Well, in my experience, I'm a coach and I'm also on the committee at a local football club. When it was first introduced, sin bins at the grassroots level a couple of years ago, they initially had a positive impact. Players were taking charge of games themselves, really, and talking to teammates, asking them to calm down.

"But we found that as the season ran on, referees were giving sin bins, putting players in the sin bin. So you got your ten minutes, but coaches weren't taking responsibility. What they were doing was just encouraging their own players then to time waste, see out the ten minutes to kick the ball as far as they could into touch and all that sort of thing, which in all honesty just raised tensions on the pitch further and caused more problems for the referee.

"Coaches [were asking] 'how long to go?' And all that sort of thing. And in the end, I think what we found over, certainly the course of this season and towards the end of last season, referees were actually being dissuaded from giving out sin bins.

"It's just another thing for referees at grassroots level to have to deal with. And I honestly think that they've sort of come away from the thought of giving sin bins because of the extra hassle it gives them during the course of trying to manage a game. It can be difficult anyway without them."

Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher has picked up the most bookings for what Opta deems to be tactical fouls since the beginning of last season.

Gallagher has been booked nine times since August 2022 for cynical fouls, such as deliberately stopping an opposition counter-attack.

His Chelsea team mate Moises Caicedo has picked up eight over the same time frame, as has Manchester City midfielder Rodri (unsurprisingly). Alexis Mac Allister, Boubacar Kamara and Ibrahima Konate have all been booked seven times for cynical fouls.

Image source, Getty Images

Image source, Getty Images

Opta have recorded yellow card stats since the start of the 2008-09 Premier League season, including those specifically for dissent.

One man is untouchable at the top of those standings - Manchester United legend Wayne Rooney, with 15 bookings. Which is particularly impressive given Wazza hasn't played in the Prem since 2018.

Rooney's successor as United captain, Bruno Fernandes, is quickly catching on 13 yellows. The next highest number accrued by an active Premier League player, perhaps surprisingly, is Arsenal forward Gabriel Jesus on 11.

Image source, Getty Images

Bournemouth goalkeeper and captain Neto can take the title of gobbiest gloveman, having been booked six times for dissent since the start of 2022-23.

The Brazilian was carded three times for backchat last season, the joint most alongside Ruben Neves, Pascal Gross, Aleksander Mitrovic and Rodrigo Bentancur.

Neto has already equalled that mark this campaign, while Andreas Pereira, Bruno Fernandes and Nicolas Jackson are the joint league leaders on four apiece.

Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes must hope that blue cards never get brought in at Premier League level.

Fernandes has been booked six times for dissent since the start of the 2022-23 season, including four this campaign already. That would be a full hour of time spent kicking his heels on the touchline.

During his time in the Premier League since joining United in January 2020, Fernandes has been booked 13 times for offences which would be covered by blue cards.

Image source, Getty Images

It must be made clear that there are no immediate plans to introduce sin-bins at elite level football, following IFAB's announcement that they will be trialled in the coming months.

But what if blue cards had been part of the Premier League in recent seasons - who would have been most effected? Our friends at Opta have provided the stats, and they make fascinating reading...

Thank you, Eddie. More managers on the way later.

Blue cards, eh? Imagine if they were brought in...

*Cue a Wayne's World doodley do doodley do dissolve effect*

Image source, Getty Images

Newcastle United

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe on blue cards introduction: "I’m not a big fan to be honest, that’s what yellow cards are for. The system works but just needs to be refined. Blue cards would just add confusion so I’m against it."

BBC Sport has a dedicated Newcastle page packed with news, analysis and fan views - get it here

Newcastle United

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe on Callum Wilson: "He’s trained well this week, we’ve been really pleased with him and he did well last week when he was thrust back into action. He’s getting his sharpness back so I would say he is.

On Harvey Barnes: "He’s worked incredibly hard and it’s been frustrating for him as he was feeling some sensations in his foot."

Newcastle United

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe on Nottingham Forest beating his side 3-1 in December: "It was a game that got away from us that we didn’t see coming when 1-0 up. We got some key details wrong and conceded some poor goals and overall, it was a disappointing day."

BBC Sport has a dedicated Newcastle page packed with news, analysis and fan views - get it here

Newcastle United

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe on Fabian Schar being one booking away from ban: "He has to play in that line. He has to be emotional and committed to produce his best performance. He’ll be frustrated with some of his bookings, we don’t want to lose him and we’re desperate for him to stay available. He’s such a vital player."

Newcastle United

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe on Dan Burn criticism: "I understand as it’s football and everyone has an opinion, Dan has been such a big player for us in many ways.

"He is pivotal to how we play without giving too many tactical things away. He was such a big miss, he’s such a huge leader, huge presence physically and in leadership. He’s been an incredible signing for me and much better than I had hopes.

"He helped galvanise the players and I can’t speak highly enough of him. He’s been a huge player for us. He's never lost the love and enthusiasm for the club, he’s Newcastle through and through."

Newcastle United

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe on team news: "[Anthony Gordon] hasn’t trained this week, we don’t think it’s serious, hopeful to be back sooner rather than later. Not at this moment, it’s unclear.

"[Alexander Isak] won’t make this game. Hopefully he won’t be too far away, but he doesn’t have a fixed return date. His injury is not as serious as we first feared.

On Joe Willock and Elliot Anderson: "They’re doing well. Joe is working really hard, he's not trained with the group yet and he’s in that final stage of rehab. Elliott isn’t far away either, good news on scan so he’s kicked up on his running."

BBC Sport has a dedicated Newcastle page packed with news, analysis and fan views - get it here

Bingo! The introduction of blue cards in football gets put to Eddie Howe in his news conference.

I lost track of how many questions it took, but if you guessed somewhere in the region of 7-8, pat yourself on the back.

Howe said he feels like it would just add more confusion to the game.

"I'm against it," he added.

Quotes on Newcastle's trip to Nottingham Forest coming up...

England

More from England manager Gareth Southgate, who spoke to BBC Sport's John Murray following the Uefa Nations League draw yesterday.

On his contract, which expires this summer: "This is football, we need to win football matches then decisions can be made. I know we are here for the Nations League draw but my entire focus is trying to attack this European Championship, and I am hugely excited about it. Everything after that is still to be excited really."

On whether young English talent coming through, such as Jude Bellingham, will influence his decision whether to stay: "No, we are in a position where we have the contract in place then focus on it after the tournament. My focus is on having a successful tournament, then everything can take place after that. I don't think there is any benefit in talking about anything before that, because we should be getting on with the tournament."

England

England manager Gareth Southgate spoke to BBC Sport's John Murray following the Uefa Nations League draw yesterday: "Obviously there's still a bit of a hangover for us from being in this league, we have to try to get ourselves back up into League A. There are some good quality games, a couple of teams we have not played for quite a while and there have been some memorable games against those teams as well in the past."

On Republic of Ireland being linked with England Under 21 coach Lee Carsley as they search for a new manager: "He's very happy with the job he is doing with our U21s and we are extremely happy with him. From my perspective, Lee is great to work with, we have an excellent link with our junior teams and he really understands the importance of players getting their opportunity with us. So we are always taking his best players, which makes his job harder, but they won the European Championships. He is doing an excellent job."

On Jordan Henderson and Marcus Rashford's places in the England squad: "We are still five weeks away [from picking the next England squad], we are still assessing all our players at this time, we have a lot of players who have missed a lot of football, we have quite a few players out injured at the moment. All of those things will play out over the next few weeks, then we have two really exciting games [friendlies] against Brazil and Belgium."

Image source, Getty Images

England dropped down to League B after finishing bottom of Group A3 in the previous edition of the Nations League and last played the Republic of Ireland in a competitive game in 1991 when they drew 1-1 in a Euro 92 qualifier.

A friendly at Lansdowne Road in 1995 had to be abandoned because of major crowd trouble, while the most recent meeting between the two sides was a friendly in 2020 which England won 3-0.

"There's some teams we haven't played for a while, there's going to be some difficult games for us," said England manager Gareth Southgate.

"I think everybody in England will think it was a big disappointment to drop down to League B but you still have difficult games.

"Obviously, our objective will be we have to try to win the group to get back up into League A."

Right, the summer is over, autumn is creeping up, when does the Nations League get going?

Each team in Leagues A, B and C will play two group games in September, two in October and two in November 2024.

League A quarter-finals and promotion/relegation play-offs take place in March 2025, before single-leg semi-finals and a final in June 2025.

Spain are the trophy holders after they beat Croatia on penalties last June.