According to reports today from Daniel Taylor in the Guardian, after a mere 647 days in the job, England manager Roy Hodgson has remembered that England, as well as London, has a north east. Apparently, Adam Johnson's scintillating form of late has prompted Hodgson into the startling admission that English football extends beyond Watford and the stretch of road between Manchester and Liverpool - and it only took him one year, nine months, and six days to do it. I, for one, feel deeply honoured to welcome the imperious Tom Cleverley enthusiast to our alien little world, and feel the 15,528 hours it took his holy headbangerness to consider our Premier League hosting city worthy of acknowledgement to be utterly justified. I mean, we have to be reasonable here. The poor man has only had a meager 931,680 minutes in the job, and there are just so many London reserve squads and benches to get through before our modest little backwater can be considered for a look-in. I hope no one feels I am being deliberately facetious here and failing to display the proper gratitude. It has only, after all, taken a football manager paid to represent our national game 394 more days to consider a trip to Sunderland than it took the Curiosity Rover to actually travel to Mars. I feel genuinely privileged. I can't wait for the street parties and commemorative mugs. In all seriousness, if the report is true then I am delighted for Adam Johnson. He deserves a chance to show what he can do. No one can say he hasn't earned it. But Hodgson can get f**cked. The very fact that the England manager watching in-form Premier League English players in our region is considered 'news' at all tells you how shamefully misrepresented the country is as a whole by the insidious FA. By our reckoning, this would be the first time an England manager has visited the Stadium of Light in 14 years. Enough said. From RR
14 years?! dear me Especially with Us and the dirty cousins spitting out Henderson/Carroll/Colback/Dummet and more coming through such as Laing/Campbell Just seems ridiculous
Got to say i laughed at the roker report like, very good! Does seem ridiculous, makes skp and mickey gray seem a long time ago
Not sure I've ever seen a comment like this in print before - nearly brought a tear to my eye! I'm all for encouraging youth, but his inclusion in the England squad has always baffled me, and smacked of "if Alex thinks he's good then he must be". No excuses now. Would pop Huddlestone in his position in a heartbeat.
You are aware that he is 24? he is one year younger than Lee Cattermole and 3 years younger than Huddlestone... He is not youth, he is ****, he is purely even looked at for England due to playing for Utd
I am, but I was talking about his senior England debut a few years ago, when the likes of Parker were on fire yet not getting the games (because of age/Harry/Alex/whatever), and players were supposedly being played because of form. I think the lad is over hyped and the pressure got to him. Plus, I'm ancient, and everybody is young - even you.
Pisses me off that Johnson has had to play this well for quite a while that he's only just been 'considered' to be a contender. There are so many hardworking good English players that should go over the like of Milner and cleverly etc who have been pretty ****. I just hate the whole way the England team is set up, it's a load of ****
not sure, i know they both played for the u21s at norwich against romania a while back,all the talk was of phil jones and wiltshire but on the night jordan was the mon and ran the game from start to finish with a midfield master class he overshadowed wiltshire completely
Jeez....last time Hodgson came to one of our matches (Saints away), we were 3 down in half an hour and Hudds played crap.
cant think of anybody else ,can you, anyway i hope jordon goes to the wc ,very good player and a model pro imo, and dare i say it i think jack wouldnt let anybody down either if he got a call
In my opinion the England manager should be looking at players who aren't already 'names' and planning for the future. It's been really annoying, for years, when Sunderland players get the odd game, or none at all, then find themselves in the England team as soon as they leave. Dave Watson is a typical example but there are others. No big deal though, players like Cattermole could've done better but let themselves down.
