Question: Do the coaches always pick the same players because they are the best of a bad bunch, or because there is some illicit sponsorship or otherwise commitment that requires certain players are selected? Really, your answer to that dictates whether you think we have little talent, or whether there is a deeper problem within the FA. Either way, Fat Sham has got himself a cushy retirement plan here. Worth ****ing off at half time during a pre-season game when thousands turned up to wish him well Best chance England have for me, is to drop anyone over 30, especially Rooney, and hire a young coach who can be allowed multiple failures whilst building an actual ethic and style of play. Hiring someone every four years when you have such little time with those available means you will rely on those "with experience" over those without, hence same players get picked. Wayne Rooney is probably the biggest skid mark on English football since he fell off the cliff in 2005.
More than anything else, unless he plays up front then I don't think Rooney fits into the team as other players are preferable in deeper positions. Allardyce doesn't have the nuts to drop Rooney. Is Rooney the best captain also? Probably not but Fat Sam dare not drop him from that position either.
two things I found amusing re Rooney. Big Sam said he can play how/where he wants and he has announced his own retirement date. FFS he would not even be in my side. (however I know nothing and those who get paid millions do)
See that the new FA chairman has decided we were being a bit overambitious and has lowered our goal for Qatar 2022 from "expecting to win" to "being ready to win". I mean WTF. Can you imagine that as the plan by any other of the national FA's involved. He should maybe clarify some of the scenarios where we may need to be ready to win - I can only think of two: 1) all the other teams decide to boycott the competition due to the corrupt nature of FIFA but we then lose to Qatar in the final 2) all the other teams get kidnapped by ISIS and ransomed for cash. The Germans are all beheaded, as Angela Merkel refuses to pay up, but still beat us on penalties in the final - Sun leads with the headline Headless 2 Chickens 0 Apparently the FA had set up a clock at St Georges Park counting down to the 2022 final so all involved can work towards that date. They have decided to set it forward by 4 weeks now to the date of the first group game (and then set it back another 4years). http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/37293275
That would be stupid. Our goal is only to be nearly ready to qualify for that one so no point putting too much pressure on the players.
England won the game. Results business. Was it entertaining? Yes, but only if you care for your national team as you do your club team. If not, then No, it wasn't a good game of football and not a great deal seems to have changed. England won an away fixture, kept a clean sheet and bagged 3 points.
I realise I am a minority of one but I don't buy into the idea that England doesn't produce talented players the way other countries do. The under 21's are thrashing all and sundry which wouldn't be possible if there was a shortage of talent coming through. The senior side has as much talent as most international squads - - look how the Euro 2016 finalists did this week. The standard of competition is not that high. There is: a. a problem that talented youngsters end up sitting on "elite" premiership benches rather than playing on muddy pitches; and b. a parlysing fear of failure combined with a near certainty that it will occur. The "brexit" solution for the first problem is to pull up the drawbridge becase the only way that england can succeed is to protect it from competition, the poor wee dear. The other solution is for the players to decide they'd rather play in Bournemouth or Bari than sit on a bench in Manchester. The answer to the second is an injection of backbone. One possible injection method would be to start picking some players with grit even if they lack a bit of talent. Players who haven't been stars their hwole careers. Drinkwater over Wilshire, for example and anyone who has had to fight their way up from the lower leagues. This
Nobble agents, that's an answer right there. They are NEVER in it for the player. If they had a flat fee/salary from a central agency, instead of this make-a-buck mentality and unmoderated ability to do what they want, then players wouldn't be sold up the river.
Nobbling agents won't stop clubs from warehousing young players, it will just let them buy them cheaper
General level of our player has maybe not plummeted. I don't think there is any doubt though we are not producing many stand out world class level players. We have gone backwards in that regard. Gerrard, Beckham, Scholes, Campbell, Cole, Neville, Terry, Ferdinand, Seaman, Shearer, J Cole, Sheringham, Ince, Batty, Adams, Gascoigne - just a smattering of the players we were producing in the early days of the PL or just before - some of them were world class at their best. How many, hand on heart, would walk into our team now? Probably all of them. Maybe Shaw would keep Ashley Cole out, and some would rather the attacking prowess of Walker. Butland may have the potential to be better than Seaman if you are really kind to the current lot. Dier is canny player but would he get in ahead of a Batty or Ince? There were average to good players in that era involved too of course, but far less. I mean at one point you had Fowler, Shearer, Cole, Ferdinand, Sheringham, Le Tissier all vying for a striker spot. The mackems still whinge that their golden boot winner couldn't get a look in. Now they'd all start. Every single one. That is scary. Centre half wise there are gulfs between now and the born leaders we produced and nearly always had done. Ferdinand, Campbell, Terry, Adams would all walk into the current team and be named captain. Carragher couldn't get a game then, he'd start now. The only thing we have slightly more of now is midfielders of the ilk of Sterling, Lallana, Ox, Walcott - small slight framed tricky players. We could have done with a few back then but we are missing much more now. Probably what made those players better even more so than technique which was superior was the mental aspect. The fear factor wasn't as high. Why is that? The answer simply must lie in the changes that have come with the advent of the money, PL and new modern coaching. We are doing something wrong, plain and simple. We are producing wimps mentally - anyone who thinks otherwise is not watching the same England I am. That lot gave far better showings in major tournaments like Euro 96, France 98. They had their disappointments too but it seems inevitable now. I look round the other top nations and they are producing mentally tougher footballers, and more talented players. Look at Germany, Brazil, Spain, Argentina - how many of our players would even get in their 23 for a major tournament? I don't think we should kid ourselves how far we are off these nations or we'll never solve the problems. Its all very well to say look its a results business, we won. We often scrape through these "easy" groups, it means **** all. The longer term needs to be the focus now. We need a defined way of playing in place for 2 years. We need a manager in control not saying players are playing where they want. Otherwise we will flop again. The mental aspect may be difficult to actually sort out because of where the issue comes from. I'm not sure you can reverse the money corrupting our game, its too far gone. The best you can hope is that you get a plan in place and rehearse it enough times so that when the tough times come you have something to revert back to as players. Train the brain. We'll probably still fall short on quality and mental toughness but at least we won't have the farce of the summer.
They were better players and they still won **** all. Just shows how far away we are from winning anything now.
Agree with most of what you've said. One huge difference now is that the likes of Shearer et al got game time in their formative years. Modern players get loaned out to Coventry and Barnsley. One way to address this issue would be to ban premier league teams from loaning players out. This would stop the stockpiling of young talent by premier league teams who only ever get loaned out and play occasionally at lower levels. In conjunction with this there needs to be a higher level required before foreign players are allowed to play in England which action can also be helped by Brexit. This would also hopefully also reduce the number of foreign mercenaries coming into the English game. This would then give the young English players a chance to play and learn.
Good post ..and spot on for me that said, the one thing that France & Germany did (maybe spain too??) Is they fundamentally reformed from the grass roots up 10 -15 ish years ago With all the Wealth that has poured into the PL ...feck all has trickled down ..and the FA stands by and churns out the same old bollox For me its less about a 2 year plan..more about the country needs a grass roots UP complete overhaul. (not sure of the legality etc ..but grab annually 1% of the PL cash) and dedicate to a 10 -15 year vision of reform Otherwise we will be singing the same old song in the same old way as our national team(s)/players keep on ..keeping on. Soley being make weights at the competitions.
The Premier League is ruining the England team. I remember when it was set up and one of the arguments was that it would produce a strong national side. Really? All the PL has produced is an overrated brand played by a bunch of foreign mercenaries with a few overpaid English ponces parading around as the country's best. I may be old fashioned but it's time that the national side was put first as is the case in many of the major nations. Brexit has opened the possibility of enforcing a quota. Clubs should be forced to have matchday squads of no less than say 11-12 British players. Bring back the three foreigner rule. That way we would get true marquee signings that will actually bring something to our game. You are not going to have a healthy national side when your best players are passed over for 'names.' Sitting on the bench or being loaned out to say Shrewsbury Town is not going to develop you properly in the long run.
If we had the 3 foreigner rule we would probably be having a debate about why English Clubs never do well in the Champions League and why La Liga has taken over from the EPL as the most popular and rich league in the world, and why our football is so boring. I think a quota may help the national side but there should be a balance and something like half your squad (yes I know that would be 11.5 players!) should be English and Welsh - and not British as we don't have British national side (even though we should IMHO). I actually think the Championship and below should have similar rules as what are all these small clubs doing signing players from the continent? I wonder how much of the problem actually originates from the English Player food chain not happening from the bottom up.
I think that we should follow the example of Italy. There are limits from Serie B down as to the number of non Italians that clubs can play. Our lower leagues should be rife with future English stars. Instead you get clubs signing Players from nations like the Faroes, Lithuania etc not because they are good but because they are cheap. The bottom two divisions should have a blanket ban on non-English/ Welsh players.
English players cost more but who cares if the trickling down effect from the Premier League is set up right? I don't even know what state it is in right now but it's probably not generous enough. Players in the premier league get more than enough now so any increases in TV money needs to be disproportionately filter down the leagues.
