I think as a nation we delude ourselves into thinking we are better than what we actually are, certainly during the 70's and 80's when English teams, although far from being totally English players, dominated Europe through the likes of Liverpool, Notts Forrest, and Manchester United, Celtic did their bit for Scotland. But although our World Cup performances in the years 1966, 70 and 74 were quite reasonable, the players were growing old and no reasonable replacements were coming along. We also got carried away with the Lineker/Gascoigne era and again we failed miserably, penalty shoot out or not, the plain fact was we were not good enough. But this superior thing runs into other sports, cricket being one, overall we are hopeless, yes we do well on the odd occasion but certain countries wallop us year after year, Australia for one in both Rugby Union and Cricket, notwithstanding one memorable year of Ian Botham. And this year in the World Cup, players who earn more in a week that takes most of us many years to earn turn out, yet again, to be utterly hopeless, and that situation is not going to change any time soon, no matter what the sport.
I know but the football we played at the time wasn't bad, but still. I believe it was the year Cloughie called the Polish goalkeeper a clown, he wasn't that daft he kept us from qualifying.
I believe we have a serious mentality problem at the moment and a few others have alluded to it. We seem quite happy to look for excuses in not being successful in all levels. Take the lack of quality English premiership players, we just seem to blame the amount of non English all the time. Maybe some of it is a factor, but we just seem to lie down and make it an excuse as it's easier. What about those same imported players, did they sit back and moan there's too many other good players to be able to make it? No they knuckle down and ensure they make it, believe in theirselves and work hard. Did Gary Neville give in when confronted by others in his way? No he tried harder, something I think is lacking. We give in too easy and I think it's this that has taken our stock to where it is. I believe our new youth coach said as much when he first came. Said how the academy has a lot of players with a lot of skills and such, but very few with the mental drive/ toughness to succeed.
It's an exaggeration but the premise is true. England and Germany are both countries with a lot of migrants who make up part of the population, but very few of ours are eligible to play for England, whereas Germany have loads of 'ethnic Germans' or whatever you want to call them. Maybe it's cos our immigrants came more recently and there's a good reason for it, I don't know, but the fact remains it restricts our selectable population which is already just over half the size of Germany's. As for Costa Rica - I didn't say it was the only factor, I think there's probably several that have an effect. Costa Rica (and Uruguay) are overachieving with a small population. China and India obviously don't play football anywhere near as seriously as most European and South American countries do, which affects it more than their population. If in the future we're as good as Germany, then either we'll be overachieving or they'll be underachieving. Expectation has to be influenced by population. I didn't say anything about being born in England. Sterling is English even if he wasn't born here. The point was about selectable population being affected by foreigners in England who aren't eligible for the national team in contrast to Germany's migrants. I didn't say it was all about the population, I said "what's Germany's population compared to England? Can we really expect to be as good as them all the time?" It was a question if anything, and I didn't even begin to suggest it was the only or even biggest factor. Again the two of you are extending my argument to ridiculous lengths to make it seem stupid. I mentioned luck in the noughties in relation to getting knocked out in shoot-outs several times, along with some very poor refereeing decisions going against us in the big games at tournaments during that period. And again, I didn't say luck was the only or even the biggest factor. But there's a clear difference between the failures of the last two tournaments and the failures before that where we were a lot better and with better luck could have at least reached a couple of semis. There's various problems with England's national game and domestic set-up, but we need to have a proper debate about it nationally and not just stick to one closed-minded "this is the problem right here" attitude. I think in truth a lot of people don't want to move forward but enjoy the despair of saying we'll never win anything again and seem genuinely quite upset when someone doesn't share their negativity. One thing in relation to this which never seems to get mentioned is how we compete at every single sport, which I think I'm right in saying no other country does. Our talent pool of athletes is diluted between more sports than anyone else. It's part of the English ethos of 'it's the taking part that counts'.
We aren't being negative, we're suggesting solutions to the many problems the England national team face. You just think the sun shines out of their arses even when they play ****e. We expect better, we shouldn't settle for mediocrity.
Can we really be expected to be as good as them all the time? Is that a wind up? I'm 42 and in all my years we've never been anywhere near them. To go out in the quarters is not good enough for the Germans, for us qualifying is good enough. I'm a proud Englishman and have been known to kick off when people slag off the England team but even I can see it for what it is. Woy isn't up to it, neither are our players.
Was it the season before last when lowly Bradford city knocked out 3 premier league out of the league cup to reach the final when they lost to Swansea ? No star players, no ego's, no big salaries, only passion, desire, determination, and a lot of hard work. The same applies on the world stage, Greece winning the Euro's a few years ago, Costa Rica and Uruguay doing better than England and Italy.
You need to stop putting words in my mouth, that's about 4 times today now. Maybe we should have a grown up conversation without extending an argument to ridiculous extremes to take the piss? Another standard Chazz response. I put effort into explaining in detail what I meant to avoid confusion and I just get the usual "You're stupid." You're such a weird poster the way you keep starting debates but then just getting insulting when someone disagrees. Why not try and debate it with me? To clarify in case it was necessary, I wasn't inferring we've necessarily been as good as them at any other time. I was questioning whether it's realistic to compare ourselves to a country with much greater resources in terms of potential players. And just because I've defended specific performances in matches previously, that doesn't mean I'm constantly optimistic about England. Read the post for what it is and you'll see I'm trying to discuss the problems that exist. I'm not denying they exist at all.
He reminds me of myself 20 years ago when it comes to defending the realm. In time the truth will dawn on him and he'll mellow. Trust me.
Who are these immigrants who arent allowed to play for us? Are they great at football? where are they playing and why cant they play for England? You're digging yourself a very big hole here.
