gdnac......Going back to old times, there were also the home Internationals which was a shame that they stopped those, but I do understand why- M O N E Y FOOTBALL has moved on to fulfil the greed of the few at the expense of the many... for a number of years in the 70's our skittle team used to do a football match and a show in London ... Chelsea was the main place we went, stand seat not far short of the halfway line and invariably a draw, Leicester was one game, think we saw them twice? ... a little bit more expensive than city but GVFM ...... GATES WERE NEARLY ALWAYS FULL ... NOW THE SEATS ARE SKY HIGH goodness knows where you would be seated and putting a tenner in your pocket for out of pocket expenses for the whole day would likely only get you a cup of tea and a pie! internationals took/take up valuable game time look at Euro's and World cup 3 0r 4 weeks in both halves of the season .. chuck in the homes and many opportunities to make money are lost for the top end clubs .. so they need to swallow up the smaller competitions like the JPT by playing their fringe players eventually taking over everything... out side of football the average top professionals working a 30+ hour week could expect £175 - £250 per hour .. £8000 per week .. that's why a solictors letter is £25 upwards or answering an email or phone call is charged at £5 or so a minute! on top of your agreed hourly rate for a job! footballers bleeding the sport to ...!!! get £***,*** per week a vicious circle that hopefully one day may collapse! 0.25% bankrate we are all well off inflation at less than 2.5% lets go for 7% bank rate and inflation at 3.5%... sky packages will drop and TV rights will be a trickle ...........
putting a tenner in your pocket for out of pocket expenses for the whole day would likely only get you a cup of tea and a pie! Probably without either the pie or the tea at Chelsea !
Home internationals were abandoned because of the hooliganism around England Scotland. the drunkeness of the Scotland fans was something else. few English firms got together in the early eighties at wembley and then Hampden and thats was it. England Wales game was not so friendly either and had very low gates so it was easy for the internationals to be binned.
Didn't the home internationals stop because England was crap and took their ball home No I don't know why other than the fans, but it was always great as they were at the time the live matches other than just the cup finals. But now even the FA cup has just melted into any old game. When we was kids it was a whole days event with it's a knockout etc. Feel sorry for the younger ones not to have seen what it was like pre 1992
Last was won by Northern Ireland. Scotland last place. The numbers of fans turning up to watch Wales wouldn't pay for a light bulb. Favorite memory was Swindon Towns Trevor Anderson playing for Northern Ireland losing control of his limbs in front of goal v England.
I think we'd best agree to disagree on this. I see the Premiership for exactly what it is, but what i'm saying is what is the point of trying to slag off the rich and famous. It merely cheapens the people doing it. Wouldn't it be better to GET IN the Premiership and do what Leicester did rather than sit in the Championship and moan about how unfair it all is. I want the club I have supported since god knows when to be playing the hoi paloi of this country's footballers, and standing toe to toe with the best. I want the name Bristol City to be something to be feared across the nation, not laughed about in Newcastle, Manchester etc. That means GETTING IN the Premiership and kicking their Arse, and to hell with the injustice of it all. Sorry if this all makes me a little unpopular but then its not the first time on this board where people have shown a disliking, and i guess it won't be the last But I did prefer the atmosphere before the internet took over and its easy to see why
I don't think we're disagreeing at all on this. You're putting words in my mouth mate. I'm not slagging off the rich and famous and I've said it would be great to get in there. I just don't like what it's become in terms of entertainment (it's pretty rubbish) and in terms of inhibiting the national side's prospects.
Nothing wrong with that. all real football fans should want to see massive changes to the greed is good Premiership.
The national side's prospects are being inhibited by a combination of chronic mismanagement by the FA (Hodgson/Southgate) and uninspired management of the England team (Hodgson/Southgate). The proof is our under 18 side, which says that the raw talent is still available. I don't believe the Premiership is a factor, unless it is a factor for good. How much more inspiration does a kid on the terraces need than to watch Sanchez or Aguero every week. How much of a kick does a youngster need than the thrill of watching Pogba score that fabulous goal for United last week, and if the money issue has an upside this is where it lies. Those players are not playing in the sun in Portugal, or France of Italy because the cash is currently in England. Yes its harder to get in the side, but then if you're good enough… Who would bet against Tammy Abraham leading the attack for England one day, although I would personally rather see young players sent abroad to learn aspects of their game that we don't seem too clever at coaching into them, things like self expression, technique, flair and ball retention/off the ball movement etc. The art of dribbling for example, which does seem to have vanished from much of England's game when Gascoigne and McManaman gave it up. The art of game management by the players, short passes TO FEET, the art of street fighting savvy, the art of beating world class teams and players with average players like the Germans have been doing since they outclassed us at Wembley in 1973. We are not Brazil, but England has always developed a class of player until now and I think, perversely, that if the Prem does have a problem its not sending the kids out to play in Spain, France, Germany and Italy enough. The best of a lousy bunch last summer for me was Dier (irony ?), and he learned his trade in Portugal. As for greed, i'm afraid its an integral part of the darkening times in which we live http://news.sky.com/story/sky-views-armageddon-isnt-coming-its-already-upon-us-10649641
Hang on a minute. We are successful, until they start reaching the age of being able to play in the Prem, and yet you don't think the Prem is a factor? It's single-handedly stopping our youngsters from getting a chance. But that's the point, you don't become good enough unless you play games. Kids don't get to play games, because the Prem's foreign influx means they get chosen ahead of them. Your points completely contradict common sense. Yes, the thrill is great, but you're making an argument about motivation, which is irrelevant. Me, I'm afraid. There's no chance of him playing at Chelsea next season and he will end up at a mid to low end Prem side. We all thought Steven Caulker was the bees knees and now he's a Prem joke to some fans.
"Your points completely contradict common sense. Yes, the thrill is great, but you're making an argument about motivation, which is irrelevant." No, I'm making an DISCUSSION about inspiration, and how stretching the imagination to show what is possible is what the foreign money brings, and how that part of our national game which is so inept is actually quite important when it comes to high level football - self expression as an art form rather than treating the game as a piece of cow to be booted 40 yards into a space where the players can all go charging after it like school kids (which it seems is the natural destination for our football if we are left to our own devices). "But that's the point, you don't become good enough unless you play games. Kids don't get to play games, because the Prem's foreign influx means they get chosen ahead of them." And like I said, if the kids were sent out to the continent to learn their football they would come back better players than sending them to learn the sophistications and intricacies of the Championship. I presume you did read my thread ? .
You're absolutely right about inspiration, and I can understand you saying that having the best in the world here increases that, but you can't deny that having all of these players here is stopping our players improving and producing/ Even if the players are good enough (which, as you say, we know they are in cases as our youth teams to very well), it's the Prem which is stopping them fulfilling that potential. It's nothing personal at all mate, and I'm sorry if I've offended you, I just completely disagree in this instance (i.e. that the money and foreign players in the Prem are good for the game). I think sending players to the continent would be a great idea, but they have no motivation to do so given that they can stay here, earn an absolute fortune and never have to put any effort in. I do think the attitude of many players stinks to be fair.
The well thought recent restructuring of the FA coaching pathways will lead to improvement but the national side's prospects are being inhibited by the EPL. The FA cannot adopt development strategies of successful national FA's international due to the EPL. The EPL will not allow a unified national approach to youth development. Will not allow, unless it favours first and foremost EPL clubs and their academies and allows those academies to train kids as they fit rather than adhering to a national concept /syllabus, which occurs in other nations - Nations like Spain where technique and the methods of coever etc are the norm. . You are talking about technical aspects the FA including local FA's sincerely want to implement nationally for all but due to the EPL syphoning up all the cash and donating peanuts to youth development we as a nation cannot even equal the coaching hours per kid per capita Iceland can. Forget about the Spanish, Germans England is a decade behind at the present rates it is training coaches.
But if the Abrahams etc, the kids, were farmed out to continental clubs, even if they got few games at least they would soak up the psychology, the dynamic, the culture of clubs and their training, their club atmosphere and that whole shooting match. And it would do them the world of good, and give those clubs an opportunity to discover and develop the diamonds if they got lucky and found one. It would complete the educations of these kids in a way that they are not being catered for here. If it wasn't completely crazy I would suggest we sent them to south American clubs, but I fear they might not return. Like I said, Dier was one of the best in an England shirt this summer (which isn't saying much) and he developed in Portugal. Of course, you are right about the grown up players, which has long been a problem with the English game (particularly after Abramovich et al). England have not been resurgent since the last English players featured for a European club. But like you say, its all too easy for them here. We now have a generation of cosy, comfortable, stay-at-homes with little or no international presence. When you think of the number of French or Spanish playing here and in Italy etc, the amount of notable Englishmen playing abroad has been lamentable. It serves to make our players one-dimensional, and the result is our national side. Its just that I remember what it was like in 1992. Hoof it Wimbledon and Graham Taylor reduced our national game to a global laughing stock, and the standards in the Premiership then were dreadful PS None taken mate !
I agree with you about shipping players out to the continent, but the problem is, for whatever reason, it's not happening. Probably not helping that we're pretty useless at languages.
But don't Man U and Chelsea already loan their young players to clubs in Belgium? I think you will find its happening more than we know already.
Chelsea and Vitesse in the Netherlands in particular. But ultimately Chelsea are stockpiling kids and loaning them out v playing them in the EPL. That is a number of players exceeding 30. That is entirely different to the commitment of La Liga, its clubs and the Spanish FA. The fidelity concept sees La Liga having 70% of its players being homegrown, and above 70%, well above at some clubs. The word there is commitment. A national commitment to the national team and youth development that would be impossible in England due to the omnipotence of the EPL.
