Mortgaged the house

[gillsfan1066]

Just re mortgaged the house and put just about all of it on Brazil to win the next World Cup, I know it was only a friendly yesterday but with all due respect to Hodgson England looked awful. Kept a few buck aside to put on England...................not getting out of the first round.
When I sit and listen to the expert English commentators talking about the difficulty England will have even qualifying for the next World Cup it makes me feel gutted to think we worry about beating the likes of Montenegro Ukraine and Poland ?
I assume most of the players who are eligible to play for England play in the Championship Division not the Premier Division, and the few that do play in the Prem. just get recycled game in game out, because they are Prem. players and therefor must be good ?
I don't think any of the starting 11 on yesterdays England roster play abroad, yet I think 9 out of the 11 players starting for Brazil all play for top teams in Europe, makes me feel sad the three lions seem to be unable to roar as they did in '66.

[CadburyMan]

Interesting observations but I'm not sure if your final point is entirely correct ; majority of the Germany squad play in the Bundesliga but I do have a lot of sympathy with your views on England and the expectation/ambition (or lack of)

[mark8364]

Belgium will win the world cup next year

[gillsfan1066]

Belgium it is then, I'll have a few bucks on that. I would think you could get 30/40 to 1 today on Belgium winning, even though they have some good players on the squad, but can not see them beating Brazil at home.
Think the WC rules should be changed, any non English born player who has played in the English Leagues for more than 3 seasons should become available for England selection, that way we might even win the dam thing more than once every 50 years, lol.

[Garawa]

You joke that but I can see a time when it becomes "discriminatory" to only be allowed to play for certain countries. International competition would be dead in the water then. I think managers should be from the country they are employed for which is bad enough.

As for beating Brazil, I see the FIFA rankings have gone bonkers again. England drop to 9th (ok) but are now placed 13 places higher than Brazil ! I know they have gone off a bit but 22nd? Really?

[Robpthegills]

Thing is Gary that is Brazil's own fault, they play millions of friendlies every year, often without most of there best players available to raise revenue for their football association.
Nearly all there internationals are played abroad, and they will often choose a foreign location as a Home game.

I agree 22nd rating is ridiculous but they have done it too themselves.

TBH I think Englands ranking of 9th in the world is a complete joke. How many times have we made the semi finals of the Euro's or the World Cup in the last 12 years. Not too often.
We regularly drop points against very very poor football teams, I believe because of a combination of reasons.

1. We dont have that many good players as they cannot break into the premiership
2. We let clubs dictate to us, telling us certain players can only play for 45 minutes etc etc
3. We are a small country that still holds an Empire attitude.
4. Kids in england today still expect everything for nothing (Huge generalisation obviously does not include all hard working teens). But as someone said this week, our kids get
amazing salaries at just 17, 18 or 19 so they think they have made it, not realising the hard work actually starts there.
5. English clubs do not know how to keep hold of the ball. We are pants, we just pass it along the back four thinking thats total football.

[Garawa]

We have said for a long time that we should strip away the old players and replace with hungry young players that desire to play. Before the Under-21 tournament started, I thought what an England side featuring the likes of Ince, Zaha, Walcott and maybe Rooney might achieve. After the tournament started I quickly changed my mind again!

[Rimshot]

We don't have a chance of producing a tournament-winning side with the current set up in English football; we can't even run the game with a single, unified organisation.

The commercial interests of the Premiership clubs rule and where is the English international side's vested interest in that ? There isn't one. The top tier of the game is dominated by foreign owners, managers, players and the highly principled Murdoch media empire. Add to that the powerhouse for change that is Trevor Brooking, about as flaccid a specimen as you're likely to meet, and it's no wonder our international game is bereft of success.

It's not even as if we have any strong voice in Government. Who is the Minister for Sport ? Nice chaps like Seb Coe get top appointments but there is no-one championing our national sport. Can you imagine Cameron, Johnson, Gove, May, et al discussing the relative merits of 4-4-2 against other formations ?

I admire the success of our Olympians but football gets naff all interest from the same influential crew who were queueing up to bask in the reflected glory of the Games. When was the last time any of these benighted VIPS showed any interest in Football, other than to wheel out the standard criticisms when the game has a problem with crowds or racism.

If you don't care about Olympic football, Under-21 football, club vs country, foreign ownership or insane admission prices then don't expect a national side that's worthy of the shirt.

[CadburyMan]

Read an interview with the flaccid Mr Brooking (and I bet he's got a wet handshake too) a week or two back; he said Germany introduced their youth set-up/school of excellence well over ten years ago and is something we should copy.

Exactly how long has he held the position of Director of Development within the FA - let me think - could it be 10 years and he has only just realised