Well said Harry... “I think England comes before anything. It comes before club and it is the most important thing you play as a professional footballer. Gareth was on hot on that and he wasn’t afraid and he wasn’t afraid to make decisions if that started to drift from certain players," he told ITV. "It’s a shame this week obviously. Yeah, I think it’s a tough period of the season and maybe that’s been taken advantage of a little bit. I don’t really like it if I’m totally honest. I think as I just said there England comes before before anything, any club situation. "The joy to play for England. I think Gareth brought that back. Every camp, people were excited to come, every camp people wanted to play for England and, yeah, that’s the most important thing.”
Of the nine players who've withdrawn from the squad, Rice, Saka and Alexander-Arnold all had to be subbed off at the weekend due to injury and Ramsdale has had surgery on his finger, so all look to have genuine reasons for being absent. Grealish, Foden, Palmer, Colwill and Branthwaite are the others that have withdrawn, all with vague 'picked up a knock' type excuses. Though on the positive side, Bowen's been called up and should have been there in the first place.
There's a growing narrative that these three international breaks before Christmas is too much, but it's been the case for years. Not even sure when it started but it isn't a recent thing. I don't like this increasingly popular anti-international football outlook. It's led by casual fans of big PL teams who have been convinced that the Premier League is the be all and end all and anything else is a nuisance. And the managers of those big PL clubs seem to pressurise their players to pull out of internationals. I think it's great that Kane is making a clear point that he doesn't like it. It's good to see our captain showing such loyalty to the national team. All that said, the England manager situation has been a right shambles, and it's clearly undermined this international break leading to even more suspicious withdrawals than usual.
I havent watched a prem game for ages He gets almost a month off soon I dont feel sorry for players But there is too many games, players could play 5 games a week But the soft tissues dont cope with football Its harsh on the body
Ferguson was the biggest problem and actively discouraged and even told them they weren’t going on England duty. The **** him. And of course as you said the ****er Man U fans loved that as tho Man U were bigger than England The ****s them
No disputing that part. But I don't agree that international football should take all the brunt of it. Maybe there is an argument for less games, or maybe squads could be rotated more - after all just because a game is happening doesn't mean any particular player is forced to play in it, and the clubs who moan about this most are the ones who have the squads to be able to cope with it. If we really do need less games, why should it be internationals that go? The only notable increases in games recently are the Club World Cup (which nobody seems to want) and the new Champions League format. So if anything should go it's those extra games. I don't like that it's become so popular to complain about the existence of international football and/or to imply that it is to blame for players' workloads and injuries. I think it's a flawed argument and it's only popular because of the powerful voices of the parties that it suits.
I havent watched an international since the euro 2024 final And i wont watch another until game 1 of the world cup Its annoying it means weeks without hull city playing though The players dislike the new champions league format too Its just more and more games But you cant try and sympathise with players becasue they earn obscene amounts etc
There's money in football and they all want a piece of the cake. The FA, the Premier league,, Uefa, Fifa. By getting games on the telly they can sell the rights and get more.
Bumped in to an old work mate on the train to London yesterday, him and his pal heading down to fly over to Athens to watch the match, his comment summed up the situation nicely, 'never thought i'd be spending this much money to go watch the U21s....' Waste of time international football for me, lost love for England somewhere around 2010 under Capello, just means another week with no city matches, would like to see it reduced but that would mean the FA losing some of their precious money so it's not in their interest. All money grabbing bastards whether its them, FIFA, UEFA, prem or whoever
We were allocated 3,500 tickets for this game, but there were 10,229 ticket applications, so to be guaranteed a ticket you needed to have attended at least 13 previous games, with fans who'd attended at least 12 previous games going into a ballot for the remaining tickets. Clearly still plenty of demand for tickets.
The FA don't decide when international breaks happen. It's a UEFA competition and the calendar is dictated by FIFA.
