The first World Cup I remember watching was Italia 90 I was 10 and really believed England could win it I remember watching Gazza cry and Pierce and Waddle being sh*t at penalties - I'm sure I remember some kid on TV AM who caught the ball Waddle used for his penalty, he was sitting in row double Z or something. That England was great and apart from Euro 96 I don't think I've seen England play as well.... ....but then the Premier League showed up, and apart from Euro 96 things seem to have been going backwards tournament to tournament for England. However since the Premier League chipped up on the block many of the nations who turned up to World Cup's and Euro's to pretty much make up the numbers have gone in the opposite direction to England - with many of their players getting paid a good wedge to play in England. If players like Gazza, Platt, Seaman, Waddle ect ect were coming into the game now as youngsters would they get a chance or would they be overlooked by overseas players with exotic names? Will we ever have a meaningful debate on the impact the EPL has had on the English national game or is it simply England's loss is the world's gain?
England could have won the '90 WC definitely. We had some great players. You left out Lineker who was as good a poacher as anyone and Beardsley was class too.
whats englands excuse for failure in all the time before the premier league? excluding 1966? too many are too quick to jump on the bandwagon, that the epl is ruining the england team
Maybe it's because we're the only team who go into tournaments not knowing our best team, formation or style of play, and think we can just make it click on the day.
We are the biggest footballing superpower. International football is funny, the dominant crown changes hands, and there's only a handful of nations at a time have a truly great side. We'll be back one day, just have to wait our turn.
More standard column filling trash on the Not606 board to avoid turning attention to the real issues at hand.
Why was it never called 'The Sky League'? That's what it really is. The whole 'Premiership' thing was just rebranding what is actually still Division 1 (while there is still promotion/relegation). The 1990 World Cup was when I still had a big interest in football. I actually didn't have a TV where I was at university and I heard the semi on the radio. It was before the Sky overhyping that apparently made football hip for the wealthier and shot the prices high.
its all this making kids play on small pitches n teams we were better when they grew up on playing on big 11v 11 pitches imho :]
Maybe the problem is the FA. No matter who is the manager they always pick players from the top 6 or 8 teams not based on form. When Capello was appointed all the news was about how he was a disiplinarian ( cue school teacher with cane joke in the red tops ) he would sort out the star players huge ego's etc etc. Then after a couple of experiments with new players it went back to same old stalwarts.
I think it's more to do with how our young kids are trained. Football style has changed and we really haven't. Our players just aren't that good anymore.
Perhaps all these renowned managers know a little bit more than your average fan does about football and picked the same old stalwarts because they were the best players?
Our players aren't disciplined enough, Rooney will have a tantrum if he doesn't get a new contract, I lost a lot of respect for Ferguson and Moyes when they caved in to his demands. Don't say it doesn't transfer over to the national team as well, I can imagine a few players complaining if they got dropped after a ****ty performance. English footballers behave like celebrities, German footballers just do their job.
Portugal didn't get past the group and Uruguay were well beaten because their star player was absent, their actions reflect on their team, you've just proved my point.
but ronaldos actions didnt cost Portugal qualifying and suarez well he's unique he's almost banned as much as he plays
Erm... how? An anyway, this got me to reading some articles trying to find the one I was looking for (to no avail), but it was interesting nevertheless. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/7137071.stm http://www1.skysports.com/football/...d-cup-england-hampered-by-poor-youth-coaching http://www.insideworldfootball.com/...truggle-to-get-rid-of-dreadful-coaching-ideas The main article I was looking for stresses further on how youth teams are focusing too strongly on winning games, rather than how they win. Youth coaches focus more on the physically stronger/larger players at a very young age rather than the technically gifted. This means that when they grow to full sized adults and everyone else is as fast/strong/big as they are, we find they are not technically good enough to be the stars we thought. You see it time and time again, that kid in under 12's who was 6'9 and ran through everyone, tipped for stardom. What happened to him? Well, everyone else caught up and now he's been caught out. But that little kid who got bullied about, but had an eye for a stellar pass when he had the chance is now playing sunday league because he's now too old to start for a professional youth team setup.
So it's the FA's fault, that doesn't take away the blame from the big time Charlies in the England team.