Euro 2008: Will England still qualify?

[stavros]

I almost don't want England to qualify, for two reasons. Firstly it might mean the FA, the manager and the egotistical players grow some balls and realise that none of them are "great" yet. And secondly, I think I might enjoy watching the tournament more if I don't have a subjective view of the games, siding for one team in particular.

 

[Leeloks]

I almost don't want England to qualify, for two reasons. Firstly it might mean the FA, the manager and the egotistical players grow some balls and realise that none of them are "great" yet. And secondly, I think I might enjoy watching the tournament more if I don't have a subjective view of the games, siding for one team in particular.

I like more going to my mates and getting lashed than watching most of the game. At least i dont remember most if we mess up.

 

[Augie March]

Love the fact Heskey is back in the team.

Great scott! What year is this again?

 

[alexjames]

john terry said gerrard managed to get through full-training well without an injection which is good news. im going to miss the match at work so ill have to watch the highlights. not really looking forward to it though.. cant help thinking itll be a 1-1 draw, with england having no hope of qualifying

 

[maximilian ping]

Gareth Barry will score

 

[Jambooboo]

Heskey sends it over the bar from close range just ten minutes in - it's like the old days.

Barn door etc.

 

[stupid kid]

Richards is looking a handful on the right, Israel just look shit. I know their top scorer is out but if this is the best they can produce then their international record is fucking astounding.

 

[big eejit]

Owen still shit shocker.

 

[maximilian ping]

England look loads better than in the World Cup, and the opposition is no worse than it was then

 

[big eejit]

<eats hats>

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Owen still shit shocker.

 

[marksims68]

Michael Owen has just scored a belter........

England are back!!! </premature>

 

[maximilian ping]

Barry is class

 

[Monkeygrinder's Organ]

Good performance.

Surely if he's to have any pretence to not picking players on reputation McClaren can't put Lampard or Beckham straight back in now.

 

[Leeloks]

I'd like to see SWP on the right as i think he gives us real genuine pace to attack full backs and commit them. Also a crowd lifter.

<smug> .

Also how can anyone slam Owen with his great goalscoring record for club and country, you have to be a bit thick not to realise that. Any doubters check http://soccerbase.com and see his record.

I'd keep with exactly the same side, as i said previously i thought it would benefit us with a few regulars not in as we have more desire now. Heskey led the line superbly.

 

[Sunray]

If any team gives Hesky that much room they deserve to lose.

If he starts against Russia expect him to spend 45min on the deck.

 

[Gingerman]

How did Isreal manage to compile a fairly decent international record? Once England scored it was game over,Isreal offered fuck all up front.

 

[Meltingpot]

I think you're bang on the money mate. We've had two semi-final appearances in the two major tournaments in the last 40 years. We never seem to stop and ask why. Players come and go, managers come and go. Often those players are very good for their clubs, and certainly know how to pass a ball. Often the managers come with more than acceptable credentials, and as we well know sometimes they come with almost none.

The only constant in all these years of non-success, and apparent underperforming is the media. The way they bang on about the players and team humiliating themselves, and the way they bang on about players for any perceived failure.

Our players take the field in a psychologically negative frame of mind. You could probably say it is a fear of the reaction to losing that is the force, albeit one that is in the subconscious.

But where you might be wrong mate is that if we fail to qualify the media will never blame themselves, they will simply cause the conditions that will lead weakminded FA officials to bring in quotas for foreign players in premiership teams.

Then we'll lose out two ways!!

I see the likes of pleat and brooking are calling for quotas. Their memories appear to be smaller than a bloody pea. We've done nothing for 40 years, it's not that we've suddenly become unable to pass or win important games in tournaments since the success of the premiership. I can recall not even qualifying for tournaments when barely a foreign player was in our land.

I agree about the "negative frame of mind". I remember one of the Brazil players in the 2002 World Cup saying, after they knocked us out of the tournament, "you had too much respect for us".

I think Duleep Allirajah's right about us here, though I wish he wasn't;

http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/3831/

 

[Harold Hill]

I can't believe people still do these threads. We always get to September with backs against the wall then normally end up winning the group. Doubt you'll find anyone in Europe that doesn't think we wouldn't.