Finals are still there to be won

I AM thoroughly enjoying the World Cup and I’m still in the dark about who the eventual winners are going to be.

As the group stages come to a close this week it remains a wide open competition.

No one team has really looked head and shoulders above the rest.

A few have struggled but even the likes of Germany have found a way to win and, for all they have been disappointing, could still go a long way.

Among the teams that have looked good are England but I’m not yet getting too worried they will go all the way.

I expect them to lose narrowly to one of the big guns during the knockout stages.

There would be no disgrace in that and, for the sake of Gareth Southgate (above) and his young team, I hope the punters down south realise that.

For England, these finals are about gaining good experience and they’re getting that.

In the next two or three major finals they could be a real force.

I WAS sad to hear Dundee legend Alan Gilzean is unwell. I don’t know him personally but like anyone who has played for the Dark Blues, from the minute I joined up at Dens Park I knew what a massive figure in the club’s history he is. My thoughts are with him.