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What's Really wrong with English Football?

EddyBlack said:
They embarresed the fuck out of England in that friendly a while back though didn't they? England couldn't get the ball if I remember correctly.

Then again I think everyone is agreed England are rubbish anyway, we wher outclassed by Croatia is the point.
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I know - my point was that they genuinely do have, in each and every tournament, an absolutely (and genuinely - unlike ours) first rate batch of players, yet each and every time they fail to get even past the quarters (and often don't even get as far as that).
 
Maurice Picarda said:
:eek:

The man is an absolute knob, and a persistent overuser of the perpendicular pronoun. All he ever does is take a current story and twist it into a reminiscence about his own glorious career.

This reached its height when the pope croaked and Cascarino gave the Times a tearful piece recalling the day when John Paul II had been granted an audience with Cascarino, which was both a spiritual and humbling moment for the pontiff.
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I always thought he was pretty frank and forthright, never really noticed the ego... duly enlightened, I might see things in a different light now!
 
Reading loads of the stuff on the net, it seems that most if not all the blame is being laid on the manager or the players.

The managers we've had over the last couple of decades are arguably not up to the mark. The players we've had have always been able to pass the ball for their own clubs, but in a white shirt this ability always lessens. They look good and confident for their clubs, but not their country.

So, what is role in this collective fiasco of the fans and the media?

After one game we can read about our world-beaters. Just one game later, the players can be described as having humiliated the nation.

This appallingly unrealistic reporting must surely go a long way towards explaining the worries playing on players' minds when they go out onto the pitch.

In my mind the media are the single most responsible grouping for our demise. We've actually done fuck all in over 30 years. Only one world cup semi and one euros semi in all that time. The players and managers come and go.

But the media and the fans are constant....
 
RenegadeDog said:
I dunno... Spain have absolutely superb players, generally, yet generally manage to make as big a hash of it as we do at tournaments, arguably a bigger hash when they generally genuinely DO have a batch of world class players, each and every time.

If they don't make at least the semis in 2008 I would be a very very angry Spaniard...
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Not really...Castillians care more when team has more Madrid-based players, many catalans don't bother watching unless there's some Barca players. Fickle bunch Spain fans...very fairweather and hugely divided.

Which is to be expected when you consider they're essentially separate nations playing together.

As for our team...well I think we might actually have a chance! Arguably the best midfield and attack in Europe. Slightly dodgy defence.
 
maximilian ping said:
makes perfect sense to me.
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Yeah, but that article assumes that children in brazil, germany, italy, argentina, spain and so on all play on small kid-sized pitches. Do they?
 
fela fan said:
Yeah, but that article assumes that children in brazil, germany, italy, argentina, spain and so on all play on small kid-sized pitches. Do they?
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brazilian kids play on very small beaches. haven't you been paying attention?
 
Here's a hint to the answer to the OP. And it's from the times, which was put forward as a great source of football comment...

Judging by this piece, english football needs less media bullshit. I can see, they're just looking desperately for any new angle. This female reporter is so far off the mark it's untrue...

"The rest of Europe has come to count on England as a genuine power, an inextricable part of the framework of the game."

:D :D :D

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/euro_2008/article2918370.ece
 
Here's more from the timesonline. And it perfectly illustrates the deep arrogance that underlies the english media, and probably more than a few fans too.

"Vent your spleen and let us know what you'll be doing next summer while the likes of Turkey and Romania are competing in the European Championships."

http://timesonline.typepad.com/thegame/2007/11/england-fans-le.html

And so, obviously, england belong at the euros more than do turkey or romania...
 
RenegadeDog said:
Mind you, Spain were utterly ROBBED in the 2002 world cup, the korea game was a fucking scandal... if i'd been a supporter i would have been seething
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Before the last World Cup I saw a front page of Marca which took care to go through every Finals for the last thirty years and explain exactly how the referee had put them out. I'm not sure whether or not they were sending themselves up.
 
Spion said:
Interesting you identify that time frame. End of empire, deindustrialisation, the end of the post war consensus - what might that do to the human material that makes an English footballer and his drives, his worldview? Britain and its constituent nations aren't what they were only a few decades ago
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What about improved diet, tactics, learning from foreign players, greater protection for forwards, more incentive financially etc? Fact is, the team of 1966 would be lucky to even qualify for the World Cup nowadays imo
 
pagan said:
What about improved diet, tactics, learning from foreign players, greater protection for forwards, more incentive financially etc? Fact is, the team of 1966 would be lucky to even qualify for the World Cup nowadays imo
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it's all comparative innit.
 
Donna Ferentes said:
It's not the main problem, but I think it is a problem. The players spend insufficient time together, and that's likely to get worse.
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But club football is the primary driver, always was, always will be. I for one would be well pissed off if our players spent mor etime on international duty
 
El Sueno said:
Read that article in yesterday's Times and I thought it was spot on.

btw, between Martin Samuels, Tony Cascarino and the ever excellent Simon Barnes, The Times really has got the sports pages sewn up.
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Fucking right. Cascarino may be a knob but he's an astute observer. Chuck in Giles Smith who always makes me laugh and Hugh Mac and you have the five best sports writers in the English language imo.

Anyway, all suggestions about too much internet and arrogance and limiting foreign players are all things that nothing can or will be done about. Giving young players small pitches is an easy solution. Simple and acheivable.

How many of France or Brazil's team grew up playing on full size muddy pitches with a regulation ball? Skill is something that can be learned but the next generation have to be given a chance.
 
Agree with the others, Samuels' article in The Times basically sums it up. His articles are like the Football bible, he sure does know his beans.
 
I forgot to add......:D

coach_wenger.jpg
 
Whats wrong? Here is one possible answer.
All the home nations are out of Euro 2008 so there is an Idea to bring back the home nations for 1 season in feb next year.
Ireland Wales and Scotland are all for it!
Guess what....England....not interested!

New manager with new ideas having a chance to bed in new players and new ideas for next Septembers World Cup groups and hey-ho!

Why? Cuz all the big knobs at the FA are set in the Premier League!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7107705.stm

THAT is whats wrong!
 
jiggajagga said:
Whats wrong? Here is one possible answer.
All the home nations are out of Euro 2008 so there is an Idea to bring back the home nations for 1 season in feb next year.
Ireland Wales and Scotland are all for it!
Guess what....England....not interested!

New manager with new ideas having a chance to bed in new players and new ideas for next Septembers World Cup groups and hey-ho!

Why? Cuz all the big knobs at the FA are set in the Premier League!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7107705.stm

THAT is whats wrong!
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They've got a week to decide.

If England do not join in then we deserve all the comtempt we get.
 
jiggajagga said:
Whats wrong? Here is one possible answer.
All the home nations are out of Euro 2008 so there is an Idea to bring back the home nations for 1 season in feb next year.
Ireland Wales and Scotland are all for it!
Guess what....England....not interested!

New manager with new ideas having a chance to bed in new players and new ideas for next Septembers World Cup groups and hey-ho!

Why? Cuz all the big knobs at the FA are set in the Premier League!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/7107705.stm

THAT is whats wrong!
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I'd be well up for that...

Yet on the other thread, people were saying that it should be the 'other' home nations who oppose it not the english:confused:
 
I can see why England are bottling it though tbf..

I mean, what new manager would fancy playing 3 (or 4.. are RoI invited?) derbys against teams who he'll be expected to beat, but who will be busting a gut to put one over them, and who certainly have engough about them to do exactly that.

Anything other than winning the 'home nations' and they'll be calling for his resignation before he's really begun.
 
No future in 'Home' Internationals at all, makes no sense at all in the modern era.

I also can't bear that SmallNationitis. I get embarassed for them, whoever it is.
 
What's really wrong with it?

Clueless fucking pricks in charge of it. That's what.

They sit on their fat arses, doing fuck all for the game, running up huge expenses etc.

Employing yes men.

What needs to happen. More structure at grass roots level. More skill. Teach the kids the game. Teach them how to kick the fucking ball with TWO FUCKING FEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Teach them positional sense. Teach them how to defend. Teach them how to pass. Teach them how to dribble. Teach them how to head a ball - in defence and attack. Teach them how to shoot, how to support the player with the ball, how to create space.............

It's not fucking difficult!

Sack these cunts at teh FA - get football people in who know the game and let's start with a blank canvas - addressing problems.
 
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