http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18619259 - read the full report Former captain Alan Shearer believes England have no chance of winning the 2014 World Cup and are "a million miles away" from the top international sides. "I don't attach any blame to Roy Hodgson," Shearer told BBC Sport. "But I don't go along with the idea England go home with their heads held high. It's no good sitting here saying we will win the World Cup in two years' time. The reality is we will not." But Shearer sees a vast gulf in quality between England and the likes of Spain and Loew's Germany side. "The big thing people have spoken about is the togetherness and work ethic but if you just want 11 guys to go out and work hard, I can find you 11 men from Newcastle city centre who will work their socks off," he said. "That has to be a given, whether at a club or even more so for an international team. We are a million miles away from the top sides. Heads held high? Do you think France will go home to that reception? "It's a sign of how far behind we are now that we can go home and say we can hold our heads up high for getting into the quarter finals." At last an ex-England great tells it like it is. I wasn't a big fan of Shearer's before, i thought he was a total bore, but now i have a new found respect. Unless we go to the root of the problem, will we ever hope to solve it.
I do think in the circumstances we did as well as we could expect to do. There is a certain amount of holding there heads high that the players can do. However i agree with Shearer - we are miles off actually winning a World Cup. We need to change the way we approach football in this country - from kids coaching upwards. The whole attitude towards football needs to change so we can start to nurture some top quality players. We need a team of oxo/wilshere type players with technical SKILL!
He is spot on. However we do have youngsters coming through who have the ball control and skills. Oxo, Wilshere, Cleverley, Sturridge Richards, Walker etc all give us hope. Even though we lost to the Netherlands in a friendly, some of the stuff those kids played was immense. Pass, move, beating players etc. There is a bright future IF we play them. 2014 is too close by sadly. I am usually incredibly pessimistic over our chances at any tournament but our youth do impress me.
We do have some talented players coming through that have good ball control and skills. We should build around the new crop of players and just discard the "golden generation". The team should be built around players like Wilshere, OXO, Welbeck, Sturridge etc. There is talent there, we just need to make the changes...
There is not a hope in hell that these players listed will do any more than the current lot, they are not good enough. All you have done is list some young mediocrity. If you think these players will be able to come close to the cream of Spain, Italy, Portugal and Germany .. not to mention the cream of Argentina and Brazil you are sadly mistaken !! The players that "might" be able to compete would need to be some of the best kids in the WORLD !! the only player from the list that I think could play for any team in world football is Wilshere. If teams with Shearer, Beckham, Gerrard, Neville, Ferdinand, Terry, Cole, Rooney and Scholes who, lets be honest, were top class players for their clubs, did F'all internationally ... these kids need to be on another level ... which they are not - bar Wilshere.
Despite having an awesome avatar (I like adventure time) You spout ALOT of bullshit. The Italy side that last won the world cup was nothing special, The Greece side that last won the European Championship didnt contain a single 'world class player'. It's SIX games to win the European Championship - THAT'S IT. (8 for the World Cup) Englands lack of trophies is not purely down to a lack of quality players. The ones you just listed were all TOP CLASS. Bad coaching, fatigue, the tabloid press, and awful management and tactical naevity have all played a part. With a TOP coach Wellbeck, Wilshere, Oxo and co may just be good enough. (but its still too early to tell)
What we have to ask is why the young kids of other countries develop better than our kids do. We need academy set-ups, less money at the higher levels and more distributed to grass roots. Above all we need top coaches at these levels that can develop the kids properly. The tabloid press to report less sensationally and more realisticly and supportive (like, yeah, that will happen!)
I love Adventure Time, Regular Show and ... Gumball (although I am marginally embarrassed to admit Gumball). The Italy side that won the 2006 World Cup was not a bad side at all. the only weak link in defence was Materazzi, Grosso, Cannavaro, Zambrotta and Buffon were fantastic. Totti and Toni up front, Pirlo running midfield with Gattuso/De Rossi/Perrotta. Its more functional than flair, better than this Italy side !! But if you look at the technical ability this is what had the England team running around chasing shadows. Greece won because they were very organised and not ambitious at all. They only one one game in their group, they beat a crap France in the Quarters, they beat the Czechs in the Semis and fluked a win against Portugal who hammered them. Chelsea did the same in the CL this season. The England players I listed are not world class, they are not good at international football, they look like fishes out of water. They can only play one way, the English way, no amount of coaching will fix it. FFS, they couldn't even get Gerrard to play with Lampard !!
Shearer is right,we won't win until the youth coaching is completely overhauled and we start bringing young players through instead of buying abroad
Shearer was a fantastic striker who scared most if not all premiership defenders...yet apart from playing well in Euro 96 he didn't really set the world alight as an international player but doesn't try to explain why. The truth is that we are so scared of losing that we don't try the things necessary to win. Kids are taught that winning is everything from a very young age rather than self expression is everything. We tend to beat it out of players. How many caps did Hoddle, Le Tissier, Stan Bowles, Graham Rix etc etc win? Other countries would have built teams around these players but we complained cos they didn't 'track back'. Look at France... they pissed Ginola and Cantona up the wall cos they tried something that didn't come off when Gerrard Holier (sp) was their manager. When they got rid of him they gave players like Anelka, Henry, Zidane etc. the freedom to try and fail in a match and ended up with the best team in the world. Brendan Rodgers of Liverpool has shown the way... when his player gave a goal away by playing the ball out of defence instead of hoofing it he told the press to blame him and not the player as that is how he demands his players play. Compare that to the reports that the current England boss fined liverpool defenders if they went over the half way line.
People hate on Arsenal for supposedly hurting England, but if anything, Arsenal are the most probable key to England's success. Everyone is calling Wilshere the Pirlo of England, which is true, Wilshere is a very sound technical player, but why is that? It's because of the Arsenal philosophy that is put into our players from the academy all the way to the top.
No. Walker has terrible technique for a start. And other countries have 5 times those players and they are better. Richards is only slightly young than messi ffs! And he cant even get in the city side over an average argentian.
I love italian footie so may be biassed. By that italian team was exceptional. Totti was fantastic, del perio off the bench,. Buffon could be the best keeper ever. Cannavaro one of the best defenders ever. Zambrotta class. Pirlo is just.....pirlo. Gattuso/de rossi also are great players. Honestly people just overrate english players. Gerrard/lampard/rooney are just not in the same league as xavi, zidane or pirlo. Its not even close. But I suppose people can keep lying to themselves about england. There is always some excuse. Thats why the manager gets hounded out inevitably after a while. Anything to blame before admitting the players arent good. Alot of people only watch their club or only their league at most. So that is why people dont respect other countries players. They dont watch palermo vs udinese so they dont realise there are some fantastic players in those games. Every 2 years england and their fans find out how good some of these players are but usually they just blame the heat, the pitch, the coach or the build up. England's last and only major final: 1966. England arent a major nation. Italy and germany get to finals and semi finals almost every year.
The problem is indeed the ideology which exists in English football from grass roots level. Scouts are impressed by players that 'get up his arse' or ''step on his toes' and 'stay tight' tracking back is indeed more revered than actually being able to keep the ball. It's this impression that technical ability is for soft players who don't like a good tackle from the North Eastern teams. The Stokes of this world are held in high esteem by the media in this country and they get such joy from seeing technical teams like Arsenal get kicked off the park when they visit. I remember when Ryan Shawcross was called up to the England squad (even after he broke Ramsey's leg) which baffled the hell out of me. Watching the likes of Rooney try his best to be anonymous in a game where he was needed most summed up his attitude. He was just trying to survive this Euro's and was not up for the responsibility. Look what happend when he scored a tap in header. I saw his ugly mug n the front and back page of a daily national! WTF! I mean are you fooking serious! The likes of Oxo and Wilshere will get their chance but I can see why Roy kept Oxo on the bench as he would have made some of his selections look completely ****e had he been given the opportunity to shine. England are literally a million miles away from winning anything. Put 10 Jacks on the pitch with a Joe Hart in goal and we might have a chance. Until then we can always dream.
