I thought Gary Monk (whether Pratley was captain is irrelevant anyway, provided Monk had been captain on at least one occasion in the past 3 years). It now appears he never captained them in League Two.
After the play-off final, it was definitely reported that Monk would join Ash as being someone who'd captain the same club through all four divisions. Though he wasn't the regular captain in League Two, maybe he captained them for a couple of games to qualify?
Exactly, even if it was one game it still counts (which is a shame, as Ash was permanent captain in all 4 divisions).
Controversial view for some probably but I think the likes of Man Utd and Chelsea can beat any team in the world other than Barcelona and that English teams are in good condition, apart from the obvious lack of English players. Barcelona are a bit of a freak team in my view, they might be the best team ever but they are one of a kind with Xabi, Iniesta, Messi and Villa who could probably be seen as the best four players in the world. I saw Man Utd play some amazing football towards the end of the season but I think Fergie took the wrong approach in the final by opting for Park ahead of a passing,creative player, Park ran like crazy but Barca swatted him off like a fly.
I think the top Premier teams can pass the ball when they are playing lesser domestic opposition, but their confidence seems to disappear when they come up against good passing continental teams. Then they seem to revert back to plan B. But even if the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Man U are successful, how much of that is down to their foreign players? All in all I can't see a positive future for England when our players are scared to pass the ball properly.
I think the actual England team's problems lie with the fact that nearly all of them play in England, how many of the other top national teams have all their players playing in their own domestic league? We need a few players playing abroad to get them used to different footballing styles.
Only three of the current Spain squad don't play in Spain(Torres, Reina and Silva) and most of them are not in the starting XI. Ozil is the only German player in the entire squad who doesn't play in the Bundesliga. Rossi is the only Italian player in the entire squad who doesn't play in Serie A. Only the South Americans come here, because the money's better in Europe, it's quite clearly not a factor at all.
Lol, I was about to say I agreed with TWF's comment but then I see he's been shot down already. I don't think the problem is that we don't have the players. If that was the case then it'd wouldn't be a failure that we get knocked out in the quarter finals, it'd be an honour like it is for Australia or other smaller footballing nations. The fact is, we do have the players and that is why we should be doing better in big competitions. Whether it's down to the manager, the hectic league schedule or what, it's not a lack of personnel.
The current problem with our players are that they are paid far too well, which leads inevitably to a bunch of young lads with far too much money who when in a pack mentality (team mates) are vying to be one of the lads which leads to them living a very unprofessional lifestyle going out getting pissed and shagging everything that moves (not blaming them, its natural we would all do the same). It’s not playing in our country that’s the problem it’s that our country as a league pays far too high wages too young. It’s the clubs which pay these wages not the national side which is why the players are more motivated by the club scene. So frustrating as im sure we woudl all agree that we would take City finishing and having a midtable boring season for England to win the European Championships next year.
Is that based just on the latest squads? Because there's some obvious players you've missed there. Italy were ****e at the last World Cup, maybe they need more players playing outside of Italy. The Spanish league have a different style of football to the PL league too, arguably a better one, so they don't need to play anywhere else, remember we want their style of football, they don't want ours. Germany are about as successful as us really, sure they played us off the park, but it's not like they're dominating the international football scene. Quite clearly could be a factor, I'm keeping an open mind.
I meant recently... I'd imagine German fans are similar to us in that they go into tournaments thinking they could win, but knowing secretly that they probably won't.
Yeah i see your point, squad wise man for man i think there is only Argentina and Spain with better squads than us which is why its so frustrating we dont win more.
Actually he's captained AND scored for the same team in all four divisions. Don't think thats gonna get beaten for a few decades imo.
They were based on the latest 22 man squad, if you take the full Spain squad(32 players) then Fabregas joins the list, the other nine all play in Spain, who are obviously currently ranked the world No.1. Ranked second are the Netherlands, the majority of their players play in either the Dutch or German leagues, with the odd one or two in Spain and England. Third are Brazil, who's players are all over the place, about a third still play in Brazil, the rest are spread through Italy, Spain, France, Portugal and England. Fourth are Germany, who you don't rate. Fifth are Argentina, who have roughly the same breakdown as Brazil. We're sixth. Not only do the Spanish national team almost all play their football in Spain, but the vast majority of them do it at just two clubs. So, not only are they national team mates, most of them are also club team mates and probably know more about each other than any other national team in history. I'd say that was a far more important factor in their success, that and the fact that their youth system is in a different class to ours.
Dont agree with the leagues point your making but the point above is the reason Spain are best in the world. fact.
The majority of the Dutch team play outside Holland, others can use Wikipedia too. I think we're in agreement then that apart from the anomaly of Spain, the top international teams have players playing all over the world. The question is would it help if English players played abroad?
English players with a few exceptions can't play like Spain, Portugal, Brazil etc because they don't have the technical qualities to do so.
Not very well apparently, half the Dutch squad currently play in Holland, I thought a numbers man like you would know that doesn't make a majority. The best leagues in the world are in England, Spain, Italy and Germany, so it makes sense that the majority of the best players from other countries will also be playing in these leagues. I'm not sure that tells us anything other than the better players end up at the better clubs, which is hardly a revelation, I can't see any evidence that it impacts at all on any of their national teams.
