As disappointing results go I thought we played okay. Bearing in mind that we have 18 months until the next tournament, the style of play was promising. If the young players who missed good chances had another three or four competitive England games under their belts, one of them would almost certainly have converted: Cleverley and Welbeck's were the sort of chances that a club manager would go crazy at you for missing. The decision to disallow Defoe's goal was a bit soft, but in fairness the referee was consistently strict throughout the game. And heck, Gerrard and Lampard actually looked like a unit! One plus point was how positive the crowd was, and one negative was the 20,000 empty seats. I put both of those things down to the Olympics. But those that made the journey were fantastic, very vocally getting behind the team even when we were a goal down with 10 minutes to go, and keeping frustrations to a minimum at the final whistle. I'm guessing there were a few boos at half time (I was under very strict instructions to get some bits from Sainsbury's before it closed, so I missed the last 5 minutes of the first half and first 5 of the second half), but as England crowds go they were damn good overall.
Probably less of the fairweather types who wonder why England aren't 5-0 by half time and more realistic supporters ready to maybe accept we won't be perfect. Its work in progress really but the media will hype them up each game and hardly give the youngsters a chance meaning Hodgson will throw the experience guys in...same for club level footbal ofcourse hence the lack of youth players at the big clubs. The Olympics was a great success etc but we must remember we actually had a lot of real world class athletes proven on the biggest stages who won medals whereas the england team despite our ranking isn't...
It's the perennial debate. I look through England's pool of players, and would say that only the following have EVER been regarded as world class: Joe Hart (right now) Ashley Cole (for about ten years) John Terry (during the Mourinho years) Rio Ferdinand (debatably in the past, definitely not now) Steven Gerrard (roughly 2004-2010) Paul Scholes (for most of his career, but he retired from England duty ages ago) Wayne Rooney (has always been seen as being world class material even outside England, and at his best is incredible, but has never quite lived up to it on the biggest stage) So, right now, you're looking at a goalkeeper, a left back who is coming to the last couple of years of his peak, and Rooney on a good day.
So more unknown Italians could be taking over the Championship. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19567592
Eiður Smári Guðjohnsen has stopped his trial with Seattle Sounders as they can not pay his required wages. They did take Marcus Hahnemann.
AFC Wimbledon manager Terry Brown is sacked after five years in charge. He led them from the Isthmian League to the Football League and was the seventh longest serving manager in England.
Wonder if Dyche will get a job there? Still fairly local if he doesn't want to move from Northampton.
Udinese - Anzhi Makhachkala 1:1 (0:1) Daniele Padelli 45mÃn. 0:1 Antonio di Natale 90+4mÃn. 1:1 Shots 13 (5):7 (4) Yellow cards 3:2
call me petty, but i couldn't help posting this...it made me nod lots! http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/sport/football/brendan-rodgers-has-to-stop-being-such-a-big-1350099
