McClaren Out !!!

[Batman]

is that cos that chap at the front is you?

[Batman]

made me larf

everyone on the pitch getting stuck in

mcclaren on the side with a brolly up, trying not to get wet

[Bruce Rioja]

is that cos that chap at the front is you?

No, that's David McHasselhoff, silly!

[Batman]

hoots mon!

[hisroyalgingerness]

made me larf

everyone on the pitch getting stuck in

mcclaren on the side with a brolly up, trying not to get wet

his teeth hadn't dried

[Batman]

made me larf

everyone on the pitch getting stuck in

mcclaren on the side with a brolly up, trying not to get wet

his teeth hadn't dried

FA Board meeting for the morning.

Steve Bruce in? Hence the delay in the Pies job?

[Little Green Man]

made me larf

everyone on the pitch getting stuck in

mcclaren on the side with a brolly up, trying not to get wet

How much water did he guzzle throughout that game? He must have had incontinence pants on (which would have seemed like a really good move after he shat himself when the third goal went in) otherwise you'd have thought he'd have been down the tunnel every ten minutes for a slash.

[CrazyHorse]

I've a feeling those water bottles were full of vodka.

[Batman]

or beckhams piss

[officer_dibble]

FA Board meeting for the morning.

Steve Bruce in? Hence the delay in the Pies job?

Narr man, he'd of signed up with wiggin and walked out on 'em again in a few weeks

infact.....

[fatshaft]

Even Mourinho can only pick from a squad of shite though. Look how well Ericksson has done now he doesn't have to pick England players.

Oh for goodness sake. England have an absolutely quality squad, but the manager doesn't know how to use them. He's scared to drop one of Lampard/Gerrard who simply can't play together (shades of Campo/Speed/McCann/Nolan anyone?). That still leaves Cole, Becks, Wright-Philips, Hargreaves, Barry, Lennon to quote a few to pick from. Up front you've been unlucky with Owen's continual injuries, but there's still Defoe, Bent, Crouch, AJ (LOL) to pick from. The only area you're light is goalkeeper, but again the best English keeper in the country at the moment isn't even in the squad, so manager's fault again.

From that group, there is no way England don;t qualify, in fact as a top seed with two going through it should have been impossible to miss out, the best of the rest outiside the top two pots was Ulkraine, and they're not as good as Croatia anyway.

Listening to 5 live last night was unbelievable, you even had one guy claiming if the squad was all fit, England would have won Euro 2008, it's that sort of arrogance that has lead to the current underperforming heap of shit that portrays itself as an England national team.


And don't even start on the foreigners in English football stifling development and chances for youngsters, does Gareth Bale get a game for Wales? Walcott at Arsenal? How many Croats play in the Croat league? Fletcher is by far the player with the biggest club for Scotland, but once again on Saturday he was outshone by all four of his midfield colleagues, the Premier League argument is a red herring as Liam Brady so eloquently put it last week.

[BWFC_Insane]

Even Mourinho can only pick from a squad of shite though. Look how well Ericksson has done now he doesn't have to pick England players.

Oh for goodness sake. England have an absolutely quality squad, but the manager doesn't know how to use them. He's scared to drop one of Lampard/Gerrard who simply can't play together (shades of Campo/Speed/McCann/Nolan anyone?). That still leaves Cole, Becks, Wright-Philips, Hargreaves, Barry, Lennon to quote a few to pick from. Up front you've been unlucky with Owen's continual injuries, but there's still Defoe, Bent, Crouch, AJ (LOL) to pick from. The only area you're light is goalkeeper, but again the best English keeper in the country at the moment isn't even in the squad, so manager's fault again.

From that group, there is no way England don;t qualify, in fact as a top seed with two going through it should have been impossible to miss out, the best of the rest outiside the top two pots was Ulkraine, and they're not as good as Croatia anyway.

Listening to 5 live last night was unbelievable, you even had one guy claiming if the squad was all fit, England would have won Euro 2008, it's that sort of arrogance that has lead to the current underperforming heap of shit that portrays itself as an England national team.


And don't even start on the foreigners in English football stifling development and chances for youngsters, does Gareth Bale get a game for Wales? Walcott at Arsenal? How many Croats play in the Croat league? Fletcher is by far the player with the biggest club for Scotland, but once again on Saturday he was outshone by all four of his midfield colleagues, the Premier League argument is a red herring as Liam Brady so eloquently put it last week.

Sort of agree but then IF these players we have are so good why do they never perform?

Ok Lampard and Gerrard don't work together, so we play Barry to help Gerrard out, but Gerrard is still shi.te compared to the way the Croatian midfield played.

Lescott? Campbell? Bridge? These aren't "international quality" players.

We need to realise that we aren't that good and that to get anywhere we have to be organised, disciplined, play with heart, spirit and desire and have a strong unit that perhaps doesn't think it can "outplay" teams, but perhaps outthinks and outfights them. Bit like Greece, or dare I say Scotland.

[CrazyHorse]

Listening to 5 live last night was unbelievable, you even had one guy claiming if the squad was all fit, England would have won Euro 2008, it's that sort of arrogance that has lead to the current underperforming heap of shit that portrays itself as an England national team.

Nail on the head.

[fatshaft]

Even Mourinho can only pick from a squad of shite though. Look how well Ericksson has done now he doesn't have to pick England players.

Oh for goodness sake. England have an absolutely quality squad, but the manager doesn't know how to use them. He's scared to drop one of Lampard/Gerrard who simply can't play together (shades of Campo/Speed/McCann/Nolan anyone?). That still leaves Cole, Becks, Wright-Philips, Hargreaves, Barry, Lennon to quote a few to pick from. Up front you've been unlucky with Owen's continual injuries, but there's still Defoe, Bent, Crouch, AJ (LOL) to pick from. The only area you're light is goalkeeper, but again the best English keeper in the country at the moment isn't even in the squad, so manager's fault again.

From that group, there is no way England don;t qualify, in fact as a top seed with two going through it should have been impossible to miss out, the best of the rest outiside the top two pots was Ulkraine, and they're not as good as Croatia anyway.

Listening to 5 live last night was unbelievable, you even had one guy claiming if the squad was all fit, England would have won Euro 2008, it's that sort of arrogance that has lead to the current underperforming heap of shit that portrays itself as an England national team.


And don't even start on the foreigners in English football stifling development and chances for youngsters, does Gareth Bale get a game for Wales? Walcott at Arsenal? How many Croats play in the Croat league? Fletcher is by far the player with the biggest club for Scotland, but once again on Saturday he was outshone by all four of his midfield colleagues, the Premier League argument is a red herring as Liam Brady so eloquently put it last week.

Sort of agree but then IF these players we have are so good why do they never perform?

Ok Lampard and Gerrard don't work together, so we play Barry to help Gerrard out, but Gerrard is still shi.te compared to the way the Croatian midfield played.

Lescott? Campbell? Bridge? These aren't "international quality" players.

We need to realise that we aren't that good and that to get anywhere we have to be organised, disciplined, play with heart, spirit and desire and have a strong unit that perhaps doesn't think it can "outplay" teams, but perhaps outthinks and outfights them. Bit like Greece, or dare I say Scotland.

Fair enough BWFCI, but then that's not your first choice defence, and Lescott last season was being raved about. Consider also that all 3 would walk into the Scotland back line, a Scotland back line that has done considerably better in a much tougher group, and then decide if they should be good enough to get through.

I think a large part of England's problems are actually the seedings themselves, by continually finding themselves top seeded, this leads to essentially easier games every tournament, eventually a team that can't step up a gear - like Germany or Italy can do when the chips are down - will get found out. England believe the hype, whereas in Scotland we get genuine amusement at your over hyped hopes every finals, because no-one can genuinely give England a chance, there are just never any grounds for the outpouring of optimism when you look at it from a detached point of view.

The best thing that could happen to England would be to drop about 4 places in the rankings, so they become second seeds, then they realise a slip up against a smaller team may not be recoverable.

[BWFC_Insane]

Even Mourinho can only pick from a squad of shite though. Look how well Ericksson has done now he doesn't have to pick England players.

Oh for goodness sake. England have an absolutely quality squad, but the manager doesn't know how to use them. He's scared to drop one of Lampard/Gerrard who simply can't play together (shades of Campo/Speed/McCann/Nolan anyone?). That still leaves Cole, Becks, Wright-Philips, Hargreaves, Barry, Lennon to quote a few to pick from. Up front you've been unlucky with Owen's continual injuries, but there's still Defoe, Bent, Crouch, AJ (LOL) to pick from. The only area you're light is goalkeeper, but again the best English keeper in the country at the moment isn't even in the squad, so manager's fault again.

From that group, there is no way England don;t qualify, in fact as a top seed with two going through it should have been impossible to miss out, the best of the rest outiside the top two pots was Ulkraine, and they're not as good as Croatia anyway.

Listening to 5 live last night was unbelievable, you even had one guy claiming if the squad was all fit, England would have won Euro 2008, it's that sort of arrogance that has lead to the current underperforming heap of shit that portrays itself as an England national team.


And don't even start on the foreigners in English football stifling development and chances for youngsters, does Gareth Bale get a game for Wales? Walcott at Arsenal? How many Croats play in the Croat league? Fletcher is by far the player with the biggest club for Scotland, but once again on Saturday he was outshone by all four of his midfield colleagues, the Premier League argument is a red herring as Liam Brady so eloquently put it last week.

Sort of agree but then IF these players we have are so good why do they never perform?

Ok Lampard and Gerrard don't work together, so we play Barry to help Gerrard out, but Gerrard is still shi.te compared to the way the Croatian midfield played.

Lescott? Campbell? Bridge? These aren't "international quality" players.

We need to realise that we aren't that good and that to get anywhere we have to be organised, disciplined, play with heart, spirit and desire and have a strong unit that perhaps doesn't think it can "outplay" teams, but perhaps outthinks and outfights them. Bit like Greece, or dare I say Scotland.

Fair enough BWFCI, but then that's not your first choice defence, and Lescott last season was being raved about. Consider also that all 3 would walk into the Scotland back line, a Scotland back line that has done considerably better in a much tougher group, and then decide if they should be good enough to get through.

I think a large part of England's problems are actually the seedings themselves, by continually finding themselves top seeded, this leads to essentially easier games every tournament, eventually a team that can't step up a gear - like Germany or Italy can do when the chips are down - will get found out. England believe the hype, whereas in Scotland we get genuine amusement at your over hyped hopes every finals, because no-one can genuinely give England a chance, there are just never any grounds for the outpouring of optimism when you look at it from a detached point of view.

The best thing that could happen to England would be to drop about 4 places in the rankings, so they become second seeds, then they realise a slip up against a smaller team may not be recoverable.

Fatshaft its a whole mentality thing. The players believe they are "the best in the world". But they aren't. Not by a long shot.

I hear what you're saying about those players getting into Scotlands backline, and maybe they would but there they'd play for their lives. And probably be protected as Scotland would defend as a team.

The mentality of England is all wrong. It can only be fixed with the right man in charge.

[General Mannerheim]

classic bit of BEN Journalism...

http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/wanderer ... sports.php

priceless!

[enrdentw]

Even Mourinho can only pick from a squad of shite though. Look how well Ericksson has done now he doesn't have to pick England players.

Oh for goodness sake. England have an absolutely quality squad, but the manager doesn't know how to use them. He's scared to drop one of Lampard/Gerrard who simply can't play together (shades of Campo/Speed/McCann/Nolan anyone?). That still leaves Cole, Becks, Wright-Philips, Hargreaves, Barry, Lennon to quote a few to pick from. Up front you've been unlucky with Owen's continual injuries, but there's still Defoe, Bent, Crouch, AJ (LOL) to pick from. The only area you're light is goalkeeper, but again the best English keeper in the country at the moment isn't even in the squad, so manager's fault again.

From that group, there is no way England don;t qualify, in fact as a top seed with two going through it should have been impossible to miss out, the best of the rest outiside the top two pots was Ulkraine, and they're not as good as Croatia anyway.

Listening to 5 live last night was unbelievable, you even had one guy claiming if the squad was all fit, England would have won Euro 2008, it's that sort of arrogance that has lead to the current underperforming heap of shit that portrays itself as an England national team.


And don't even start on the foreigners in English football stifling development and chances for youngsters, does Gareth Bale get a game for Wales? Walcott at Arsenal? How many Croats play in the Croat league? Fletcher is by far the player with the biggest club for Scotland, but once again on Saturday he was outshone by all four of his midfield colleagues, the Premier League argument is a red herring as Liam Brady so eloquently put it last week.

Sort of agree but then IF these players we have are so good why do they never perform?

Ok Lampard and Gerrard don't work together, so we play Barry to help Gerrard out, but Gerrard is still shi.te compared to the way the Croatian midfield played.

Lescott? Campbell? Bridge? These aren't "international quality" players.

We need to realise that we aren't that good and that to get anywhere we have to be organised, disciplined, play with heart, spirit and desire and have a strong unit that perhaps doesn't think it can "outplay" teams, but perhaps outthinks and outfights them. Bit like Greece, or dare I say Scotland.

Fair enough BWFCI, but then that's not your first choice defence, and Lescott last season was being raved about. Consider also that all 3 would walk into the Scotland back line, a Scotland back line that has done considerably better in a much tougher group, and then decide if they should be good enough to get through.

I think a large part of England's problems are actually the seedings themselves, by continually finding themselves top seeded, this leads to essentially easier games every tournament, eventually a team that can't step up a gear - like Germany or Italy can do when the chips are down - will get found out. England believe the hype, whereas in Scotland we get genuine amusement at your over hyped hopes every finals, because no-one can genuinely give England a chance, there are just never any grounds for the outpouring of optimism when you look at it from a detached point of view.

The best thing that could happen to England would be to drop about 4 places in the rankings, so they become second seeds, then they realise a slip up against a smaller team may not be recoverable.

Fatshaft its a whole mentality thing. The players believe they are "the best in the world". But they aren't. Not by a long shot.

I hear what you're saying about those players getting into Scotlands backline, and maybe they would but there they'd play for their lives. And probably be protected as Scotland would defend as a team.

The mentality of England is all wrong. It can only be fixed with the right man in charge.

To sum it all up... the fact of the matter is we are not good enough! the team to the manager, right through to the infrastructure of the F.A. The media put a perception on the public leading us to believe we are better than we actually are.

Excuses like, there are too many foriegners in the Premiership, is utter rubbish. look at the main core of 3 current successful English teams:

Man Utd- Ferdinand, carrick/hargreaves, Rooney
Liverpool- Carragher, Gerrard
Chelsea- Terry, Lampard

All these players will walk into the England team.

however, the rest of the English team in my book is mediocre and lack world class quality: cole x 2, owen, robinson/carson, iit doesnt help that all our fringe players are sub-standard too.

WE are not as good as we think we are!

[norm the jedi]

Excuses like, there are too many foriegners in the Premiership, is utter rubbish. look at the main core of 3 current successful English teams:

Man Utd- Ferdinand, carrick/hargreaves, Rooney
Liverpool- Carragher, Gerrard
Chelsea- Terry, Lampard

All these players will walk into the England team.

however, the rest of the English team in my book is mediocre and lack world class quality: cole x 2, owen, robinson/carson, iit doesnt help that all our fringe players are sub-standard too.

WE are not as good as we think we are!

So if you pop in Arsenal currently top team - who you avoid for obvious reasons and allowing for 25 players per squad
7% of the top four are eligible for England selection..

Fully agree we are never as good or as bad as the Media paint it or we think we are -
but denying the possibility that the structure of our premier competition has no influence on International performance or home grown player development is just daft..
No idea what the answer is but the lack of depth in the England squad must be connected either that or we can really only produce one top class left back and Wayne Bridge... and if that's the case San Marino will be a tough clash in 10 years.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

i reckon he'll play crouch on his own, and Gerrard as the 'support striker'

5 in midfield

boring or what

Can't see it. Trying a new formation against Croatia didn't work out too well last time, he's at home in front of a newly-expectant audience, we need to win (although a draw would do, playing for draws isn't England's strong suit), Darren Bent has been called up and I can't think of a single game where Gerrard, who loves coming on to the game like Captain Hollywood rather than playing with his back to goal, has ever played well in that role.

i was riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

You were very right. He was very wrong. My reasons for us not to play that system seem to stand up to hindsight far better than his reasons for playing it, or indeed the FA's reasons for employing him at all.

[BWFC_Insane]

i reckon he'll play crouch on his own, and Gerrard as the 'support striker'

5 in midfield

boring or what

Can't see it. Trying a new formation against Croatia didn't work out too well last time, he's at home in front of a newly-expectant audience, we need to win (although a draw would do, playing for draws isn't England's strong suit), Darren Bent has been called up and I can't think of a single game where Gerrard, who loves coming on to the game like Captain Hollywood rather than playing with his back to goal, has ever played well in that role.

i was riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

You were very right. He was very wrong. My reasons for us not to play that system seem to stand up to hindsight far better than his reasons for playing it, or indeed the FA's reasons for employing him at all.

Aye but the 4-4-2 hardly did any better second half. When you've got a one paced lumbering midfield and a completely useless back four where Sol Campbell is supposedly "the rock who will hold it together" I think systems go out the window.