Following on from the Hodgson vs Rodgers spat now Roberto Martinez says he doesn't want Ross Barkley tiring himself out playing for England. The English international scene is going more tits up than ever!
Some managers just need to deal with it. Have we complained that Mane went all the way to Africa 3 days before a PL game? No.
Just listened to Martinez and he isn't saying that at all. Talking about value of rest, but then says it is important to players to get called up.
but then again he said this: "If the tournament was now it would be a good opportunity for him to get some playing time but if it is at the end of a season where he has played consistently for 10 months then he needs to have a break."
FIFA are largely to blame. Qualification goes on too long. It's a massive waste of time for countries like England to play the likes of San Marino, Andorra, etc.
Managers have to understand that it is an honour for an individual to represent his country, no matter how small and it should be the player's sole decision. There is one Manager in particular who took the piss when it came to his players playing for their country, Sir Alex Ferguson. I think it is a disgrace that Ryan Giggs only played 67 times for Wales, he should be their record caps holder with well over 100 caps. Paul Scholes was another who should have many more caps. I can guarantee that SAF would never have turned down a chance to play for Scotland, but he was never good enough.
Ferguson may very well have interfered with Scholes international career, but Scholes also has health problems (being asthmatic) and had a knee condition (very long medical term with hyphens ).
To be fair club managers responsibility is to their club who are their employers so it probably a continual source of frustration that players come back from international duty injured making them unavailable for possibly months. However, I think this shows that in this country a successful national team is not the priority for English football. None of the top teams in this country see it as kudos in having England internationals on their book anymore and see it as a sign of success. It is all about Champions League and players going on International duty means they are not fresh for the Premier League or Champions League.
In the battle of club vs country, I 'd currently sum things up thus; Saints 7 - 0 England. So it's hard to complain when club managers do the same.
Exactly right. It seems to me to be a uniquely English thing were representing your country is seen as a burden rather than a privilege. This shows an extent of the pressure/demand put on the players and coaches in English football because i really cant think of any other country that has people hate or try to refuse a chance to represent the national team.
The problem isn't centred on the coaches, or the players, it comes directly from the Premier League and the TV companies which finance it. That is what has led to the high transfer fees demanded for English players, which comes from the league being flooded by cheaper imports from other countries. The ridiculous wages paid to players by their clubs offsets any vestiges of national pride which the players have left. In the days when footballers didn't get paid millions per year, and there were more English players in the top league to provide competition, getting picked for your country was among the highest honours a player could receive. Now, most of them couldn't care less, because they are complacent, knowing that the national coach just doesn't have that many, if any, truly world-class players to choose from.
It is not just the managers, I remember a quote from Stuart Pearce about when he was manager at Man City, he asked his youth players, what would they prefer, an England Cap, or a Ferrari? the Ferrari won hands down. But we are also guilty as fans, our national team has been underachieving for so long, that England losing doesn't bother me at all, a debut goal for Rickie got me briefly excited, but that was more about Southampton than England. There is also such a big club bias (and the big club players are inevitably the ones that underperform on the national stage) that I find it hard to express anything more than a passing interest.
The problem isn't helped by so many managers being foreign...why would they care about England or any of the home nations for that matter. I am shocked that young players would rather have a Ferrari than an England cap...anyone can buy a car (if they earn as much as PL players do), but you can't buy an international cap. I am more shocked by a youngster feeling that than I would be for an older player who has been there and done it....don't they remember playing football in the park/street and pretending to be playing for their country. Perhaps sadly they'd rather pretend to be drug dealers.
I may have slightly misquoted, but here is the article:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-429841/Pearce-wages-war-modern-game.html
Lambert would rather play for Liverpool than England. Has to be true, otherwise why would he have left Saints? Certainly was never going to help his international career.
To be fair to Rickie, playing for Liverpool is another box ticked for him in his life's ambitions, he is never going to be first choice striker for England anyway.
