Fabio has faced the press and said he wants to stay as England manager because "I like-a this-a job-a". Well that's alright then Fabio! You like-a the job, so far be it from any mere mortals to point out that you are shit-a at it.
I like-a Kiera Knightly-a, does that-a mean I get-a to shag-a her I wonder?
Fabio likes the job does he? I wonder why? Maybe it has something to do with the £6million per annum pay packet. "I like-a the lucra!"
Give him credit. He has put his finger on the reason why we were shit - we were tired. Genius!
ReplyDeleteDon't think YOU can comment CAN you Hammersfan? Put it this way - IF West Ham WON us the Cup in '66? Then they've just gone a LONG damn way to repaying the favour by most DEFINITELY LOSING us it in 2010!!! First? Green Chucks a tame shot past him STOPPING us from winning the group and eventually ensuring we MUST face the Germans. Then as if that's not enough and on the strength of ONE half-decent performance against a pub-side in Slovenia - Capello trusts Upson Who? Promptly has a HUGE part to play in GIFTING Germany FOUR goals!!! ESPecially the first two which were UTTERLY ridiculous. Don't think you can EVER use the ''We won the World Cup'' Line re West Ham AGAIN mate with ANY credibility because even IF West Ham won us it in that far off summer of '66? They most CLEARLY lost us it THIS time............
ReplyDeleteNB It's NOT Capello whose at fault by the way. It's the WHOLE English Game - Our CONTINUALLY preventing our young players learning a touch/possession based and skilful game in favour of 'Pace'/'power' and other such crap thanks to? The Premiership for years plays a HUGE part in our players NOT BEING GOOD ENOUGH!!! You could take ANY set of players under Eriksson, Capello, Robson, Venables - In fact ANY half decent England manager of the past 20 years and you'd get similar results sooner or later - Our BASIC skill levels AREN'T HIGH ENOUGH and THAT is to do with our football culture and the almighty 'Premiership' monster that is Bleeding the England team to death.
One more point BTW; The Premier League is also to blame for our attachment to 'names' and certain particular 'Stars' with NO replacements/talent pool in case of injury or suspension (we may have had Gerrard, Cole and Lampard? But Germany? Had at least EIGHT players of that ability and more in THEIR midfield). However the League's BIGGEST crime, the thing it is MOST of all responsible for is the fact that the aforementioned Premier League IS responsible for our youngsters NOT getting anything LIKE enough top-flight/CL experience AND us having rules that are frankly pathetic to protect our nation's young footballers in place and you wonder WHY we failed? It's no bloody wonder. OUR lads were babes in arms when it came to skill, touch, footballing ability AND intelligence and the basic SKILLS of the game - compared to even ALGERIA we were bloody babies!!! THEY were passing round us much better than we were them, playing 1-2's, triangles the lot -
ReplyDeleteAnd then? We decide to try and OUTPASS the Germans - who had 40 years practice at dealing with 'passing' sides and (You'll LOVE this one) were hoist by our own petard with a Big man upfront, a sitting midfield and electric counterattacks from?.....GERMANY. The ONE time 'traditional' English tactics WOULD have worked? And Fabio abandons them. It doesn't help that he accomodated that lump Lampard either at the expense of our team being built around our TWO best players in the Scousers Rooney and Gerrard but THAT is another story. On THIS subject though?
I've always said (even MORE so after the Euro 2008 Debacle and STILL more so NOW) that the power of the Premier League will HAVE to be restricted if not Destroyed for our National Team to flourish - Given how quickly the PL rushed to say it's ''not OUR fault guv, oh no, no'' after the Euro 2008 Disaster and how quickly they'll no doubt do the same here along with how regular these utter, utter footballing disasters for England are becoming?
I think with all that, I can safely say that recent footballing events have PROVED me right. Destroy or cut down the Premier League and we WILL raise up again (oh so slowly) the chance of the England team being once again decent, but who would DARE do THAT? Put simply? We can have a GREAT National League that is rich, successful, cash rich, the envy of Europe etc OR we can plough ALL our energies into supporting the National Team (as it SHOULD be), our money and income into the league WILL suffer but our youngster's skill levels will gradually grow from all the extra training and coaching eventually.
In addition? We can BUILD the National Football Centre to rival Clairefontaine and Coverciano and train our OWN coaches to STOP eventually this embarrassing procession of foreigners into our TOP footballing job and we can FINALLY come out of the 'pace/power' world that Alf Ramsey brought us into with his 'wingless wonders' in 1966 and the 'Premiership' reinforced - I.e. we can CATCH up with the rest of Europe and the world in schooling our own on AND off the pitch but? We CANNOT now have BOTH of these things ...................
THIS I read elsewhere pretty much says it ALL about England;
ReplyDelete"How quickly people seem to forget that England failed to even qualify for EURO 2008. There was no detailed analysis of what went wrong or alteration in approach or philosophy from those in charge, the media nor the majority of the supporting public.
Instead the FA spent a huge amount of money in bringing in a top class coach to cover for their own failings. The expectations from the media and the public remaining totally out of sync with the realities.
By the start of this World Cup all England could boast was a squad littered with average players, the spine of yesterdays team featuring a very average goalkeeper, a very average centre back and a very ordinary holding midfielder. There were no strengths to play to, no platform to build from, no organisation or tactical restructuring could compensate for the lack of options at Capello's disposal. In reality he had a group of egos all pulling in different directions, a team with no sense of identity or direction
Without any real pool of talent to dip into it becomes almost impossible for a manager to effect the team positively. There was no plan B to alter the state of things. He couldn't compensate for the loss of Ferdinand or the absence of a quality holding player like Hargreaves.
How does any manager compensate for the fact that England have not produced a top class goalkeeper or a decent left sided midfielder in years, or compensate for the lack of a quality playmaker, a quality passer of the ball able to control midfield? There was no evidence of that 'bulldog spirit' to call upon, no leader at the back, no bite in midfield, no number 9 to spearhead the attack.
All those virtues the England side possessed back in 1990 have long since disappeared. English football is in an identity crisis. There is a way forward but how willing are those in charge to make the necessary changes? How willing are those in the media to finally provide the indepth analysis that is needed or even begin to accept the realities they are faced with? How patient are the expectant public willing to be?
I can see this vicious cycle of mediocrity lasting for a while yet."
All so, so true and Pretty much sums it up better than I ever could...........
Capello is not the kind of manager a new England team needs to make it succussful. All Capello knows is to get successful players and hope they perform. And sometimes not even that!
ReplyDeleteRedshadow, your logic is fundamentally flawed. Apply your logic and because Liverpool had a crap season last season, it means that have never won a league title. Now I know Liverpool have never won a Premiership title, thus your hatred of the Premiership, but your club clearly has a great an indisputable past! Just because Green and Upson were shite, that does not mean that the efforts of Moore, Hurst and Peters are in any way diminished does it?
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I have ALWAYS said that Green is not good enough for England and that Upson, at his very best, is / was barely so. This World Cup simply confirmed what I have been saying for a long time. And for the record, I didn't think Parker should be in the squad either. I support West Ham but I try not to allow that to cloud my judgement!
As a loyal Deby County fan can I say that West Spam let my country down with your useless players.
ReplyDeleteRoy Keane, top bloke!
ReplyDeletehttp://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8773716.stm
The hypocritical twat. This is the guy who flounced out of a World Cup! Top bloke my arse!
ReplyDeleteCareful HF, he may be our manager one day.
ReplyDeleteNo he will not!
ReplyDeleteOof, temper temper. You never know. Not under Dave and Dave obviously, but they've not exactly got long to go before they opt to go for cryopreservation have they? Maybe after that.
ReplyDeleteReally? My logic is flawed HOW exactly? I never said ANYTHING about Liverpool here as believe it or not I was not THINKING of Liverpool when I wrote (incidentally you KNOW how many titles we’ve won and it’s rather more than ALL others bar one) – What I WAS thinking of was the Premier League and how it is ONLY set up to benefit two things and two things ONLY – Itself and it’s Member Clubs. The whole ETHOS of the Premiership is inherently Wrong IF we want a successful national side. It NEEDS to sell itself to be successful, ergo it NEEDS to have the COMPLETE product which ATM means buying Foreign players and if the English Lads DON’T get the coaching they need OR when they DO get that coaching DON’T get to play in their OWN league because of that?
ReplyDeleteWell, to hell with them – they were never good enough anyway in the Premier Leauge’s jaundiced view. Also, the “Pace, Power, Strength” ethos so Prized and marketed by the Premiership has become SO ingrained in our country’s football culture that NOW? It is almost PART of said culture, we have Youth Team Coaches and Sunday League Coaches where kids start (in both types of team) SCREAMING at their young charges things like “Boot the ball! DON’T keep it, DON’T pass from the back, Never mind that passing crap type thing”.
We have our young children being taught on pitches FAR to large for them with the result that ALL bar the most athletic children REGARDLESS of skill/ability levels are rejected/ignored – where was OUR Mehmet Ozil? OUR Lionel Messi? OUR tricky LITTLE playmaker? Oh yes and we also have our TV football presenters AND Coahes/Managers talking on Television of the “Special Qualities” (i.e. Pace/Power etc) NEEDED to play in our league and at EVERY World Cup/European Championship?
Well, now we get the same – Asking IF our “Special Qualities” would be good enough to overcome REAL footballing sides as if OUR way of playing is some sort of ACCEPTABLE substitute for REAL footballing ability which we patently LACK in spades at the Highest level at the moment. In reality? It’s a FRAUD – we were NEVER like this before the Prmeiership were we? We may not have been the world’s best but we DID produce skilful, PASSING, technically adept, even BRILLIANT players and GREAT goalkeepers like Lineker, Beardsley, Waddle, Barnes, Moore, Hurst, Charlton, Peters, Banks, Shilton, Clemence, Gascoigne and Robson.
That little lot between 1966 and 1992 got us to a World Cup FINAL, a European Championship Semi-Final (1968) and another 2 World Cup Quarter Finals (1970 and 1986) AND a World Cup Semi-Final (1990) which whilst not THE best record in the world was CLEARLY better than the shower we have now in our national colours. My question to you? WHERE are all their replacements NOW?
By the Way, WHAT was the Common denominator in ALL of this sad decline of our national side from HALFWAY decent to less than NOTHING? LOOK at it – It STARTED in 1992 – the YEAR the Premiership started and has gone on until it’s absolute nadir in both 2007 when we FAILED to qualify for Euro 2008 and THAT debacle on Sunday – It CAN’T go on that way and what’s more? It clearly SHOWS that the Premiership is hindering the National Sides development. At EVERY turn the two clash – on player availability, English Kids getting experience and CHANCES, The pace & power fraud that we now use INSTEAD of footballing ability and most of all the ridiculous use of money ONLY to promote the Premiership instead of ‘watering’ the grassroots with it to help DEVELOP our younger players and BUILD the National Coaching Centre that would have our kids Taught how to Play and our Coaches taught how to Coach PROPERLY?
ReplyDeleteInstead of this – the Premier League BLOCKS English Youngsters advancement by INSISTING on bringing in Foreign Youngsters at EVERY turn (even Naturalising them where necessary) AND it blocks the building of a National Football Academy at EVERY turn – INSISTING on delays and reasons to STOP it being built by the FA – THAT is why I hate the Premier League Hammersfan – It is blocking (and deliberately so) at EVERY turn the development of English players and the England National side and why? Because our FA FAILED in its duty on FORCING the Premier League to help develop the National Side instead accepting a vague ‘commitment’ that was soon shelved by the cash greedy Premier League – Incidentally THAT is the main reason the Premier League does ALL it does – most of all stopping England from being advanced – Naked Self Interest and MONEY – The “Greed Is Good” league is the Premier League’s unofficial nickname and NEVER was a name more apt than THAT......
Basically, the England side when Division 1 was THE top league was around was THE main concern of ALL Englishmen AND clubs and EVERY effort was made to develop talent for it and care for its future but now? Now it’s reversed – ALL we seem to care about is our national LEAGUE (which isn’t even OUR league anymore – our stadiums are now naught but a series of theatres for foreigners to perform in) Our national team is left to go hang, ALL development and rule changes that MIGHT help are DELIBERATELY blocked, NO-ONE seems to care and then we MOAN when we do terribly? Are you surprised when things have come to THIS? And WHY has it happened? This sudden tipping of the balance and consigning of the FA and our National Side to that of understudies to an all-singing, all-dancing ‘Great’ National League?
I’ll tell you just Why it happened – It happened in the name of Money or more specifically in the name of Premiership MONEY. I think when you take THAT into account, how the Premier League very FAR from it’s original pledge - to HELP our National Side - has actually systematically dismantled ANYTHING that can help it, undermined it and seeks CONSTANTLY to sideline it in favour of it's OWN Aggrandisment regardless of the results? When you take all THAT into account – I think you’ll see just WHY I hate the Premier League now yes?
Ask yourself this Hammersfan – Is it right that even the likes of Algeria, Japan, Mexico, even Egypt can outpass us when WE invented the game? Is it right that EVERY other country doesn’t seem to have such a HUGE Club v Country row as us with the Clubs ALWAYS winning as ours do? Is ANY other national team SO sabotaged by it’s own league as OURS? Then you’ll understand just WHY I hate the Premier League that is responsible for ALL this yes? And I’ll tell you something else – I THINK judging by what I’m beginning to hear amongst MANY others who I know and have read on the ‘net that MANY normal people in England are starting to share my view and HATE their own league for just what it’s done to our side and in the end? I say again that it will come down to ONE Question – Do we want THE “Best League in the World” (Which it’s NOT) OR a successful (FINALLY) National Side with a CHANCE of winning things? Do we want to hold our head high as a Nation or just as a series of Clubs? Because in the end there is only ONE answer and NOW? The protestations from the Premier League (“Not OUR fault Gov”/”Don’t Blame Us” etc) will become EVER louder as FINALLY we are close to reaching it since it’s NOT an answer that favours them. You CAN’T sustain a nation’s footballing culture ONLY on Club success indefinitely – You NEED a good national side to back it up and produce National players to play IN that league – WE are finding this out the hard way and the Premier League will now be RIGHTLY worried for itself as now?
ReplyDeleteOur National Side MUST take precedence to finally STOP this series of disasters on the pitch. It will take YEARS of effort and LOTS of money POURED into Youth Development, coaching our youngsters PROPERLY, training our coaches up and FINALLY building a National Football Centre to continue this process once started– And? It will probably cause LOADS of damage to the Premier League in the process as we lose lots of foreign stars, multi-million pound contracts, and the Premier League becomes ‘Slower’ as English players FINALLY learn to pass but? It’s been put off years and NEEDS doing now – this bringing England ‘Up to Speed’ With WORLD Football in which EVERY nation is currently Miles ahead of us and there can only be ONE reply to the Premier League’s complaints – The Same one they’ve given to the National Side as it has BEGGED them for help for nearly 20 years. That answer? “Tought – We NEED to look after ourselves”.
And just to clear something up for the record? I was NOT denigrating the contributions of Hurst, Moore OR Peters in view of the diabolical errors of Green and Upson – I was being SARCASTIC about it. I’ve seen you refer to how West Ham “Won the World Cup” SO Much on these pages in the past that I thought it was time to hit you with the other side of the coin. And I quite agree with you that NEITHER was remotely good enough – Where we DISagree funnily enough is regarding Parker – I think HE might have done FAR more to stop the White Shirted Tide on Sunday as the Germans POURED forward than the lumbering Carthorse that was Barry. You see, what that England team lacked was a TRUE Holding Midfielder – NOT a passer masquerading as one which is what Barry is essentially. We REALLY felt the loss of Hargreaves on Sunday and our lack of a quality pool of players nationally was yet AGAIN brutally exposed on the world stage......
I’ll conclude with this; There’s PLENTY wrong with our national side and nearly ALL of it traces back to the Premier League in summary – THAT is why I hate that League – Liverpool’s underachievement during the Premier League Era didn’t help matters no but I am thinking of England here when I speak of WHY I dislike the PL NOT of Liverpool – Besides given the way the game’s going in this league – Everyone KNOWS that sooner or later, My Club WILL be bought by someone VERY powerful and rich – Possibly as rich as the owners of City and then? I don’t think adding league titles to our historical haul will be a problem then so I’m prepared to wait on that score – Patience ALWAYS brings rewards in the end and Liverpool WILL be no different on that score.
ReplyDeleteBut no – It’s the fact that the PL has effectively declared WAR on our National Side and it’s taken SO long for anyone English to notice it (never mind CONDEMN it) that is the REAL reason I hate this fraudulent excuse for a league that is currently sadly the Highest League in our National Football Pyramid. Also, yet again I will maintain, that UNTIL the Premier League’s Power over the FA AND basically FOOTBALL in this country as a whole is destroyed? Well, Until THAT happens? We’ll continue having this debate as our National Side WON’T get better until the Premier League’s current level of power and influence is gone......
NB: By the way did you know there IS a precedent/blueprint for what we NEED to do with our National Game as a whole to revive it and MAKE us into CONSISTENT challengers at International Level? Funnily enough that blueprint comes from……..You guessed it – Germany our opponents on Sunday. Have you ever wondered just WHY they have been so good and WHY they got so good from about 1970 onwards? Well IF you read the book called “England and Germany, The Best of Enemies” which is specifically ABOUT England v Germany and BOTH our footballing Cultures up until about 10 years ago in 2000? You’ll FIND the answer – I think THESE passages in particular tell the whole story about what our National Side NEEDS to do but as yet has either not had the COURAGE to do or has been BLOCKED from doing.
Don’t forget to, that at first – Germany as a NATIONAL side were VERY like England up to the beginning of the 1970’s – THEY had inconsistent results, mystifying defeats AND a reliance on pace, power and strength but in the ‘70’s? THAT all changed dramatically and seemingly suddenly. After we lost to probably THE finest West German Team of them all 1 – 3 at Wembley in 1972 in a European Championship Qualifier, this book said “The West German Triumph in April 1972 was a real watershed for both the English National Team itself and the expectations which surrounded it” and the book later asked “How had England been so utterly outclassed by a nation who traditionally played English-style football? How had this happened? How had the Germans suddenly become so good?” The answer might surprise you.
Indeed, IF You consider the state of the German side just before this World Cup when they were NOT seen as a great side and then? the terrible battering they handed out to us on Sunday, you could ALMOST be speaking of TODAY’S England and Germany no? Well, personally I think the answer to WHY Germany became so good then is one that England NEED to follow now. That answer? Was explained in the book as follows; Whilst commenting on how the Germans had “thrust swiftly through sudden gaps, mounting their sharp breaks from defence on the subtle mobility of three fine ball players” (sound familiar again? COULD have been Sunday couldn’t it? England meandering with the ball as Germany counter
ReplyDeleteattack…..Electrically and FAR to fast for England to cope with).
The book explained how the German Ball Players were “So much better than England’s” With “technique, positioning, awareness and understanding” that were ALL far superior to our own (again, a VERY familiar state of affairs if you look at Sunday’s footballing lesson from them no?). Anyway, in answering HOW this happened, the book detailed just HOW “our ball-players have for years been discouraged, both by harsh treatment on the field and by being snubbed and ignored by managers and selectors” (again, sound familiar?
The harsh treatment on the field=the roughness/toughness of our own beloved Premier League and
Good ball players being ignored by managers? Theo Walcott? Paul Gascoigne? Steve Mcmanaman? A whole LINE of players that HAVE footballing ability are STILL ignored and have been for 2 decades now by England managers). The book ends this bit with the line that “even admist victory in 1966, the shortcomings of our players in the matter of personal skill were evident” And the rest?
Anyway – the book then states how “The Germans had noticed the same thing about their own players, but they had acted to put matters right and to raise the technical level of their own players” and to do this? The book detailed how “The game in West Germany had been overhauled from top to bottom with everything geared to the discovery and nuturing of talent from an early age” and told how Helmut Schoen the German National Coach of that time said ‘It was the mood of the country – The Coaches, The Players, The Spectators, All wanted this’ and how “England, bathing in the glow of their 1966 triumph and their supposed ‘near-miss’ of 1970” had “not addressed the problem” leaving Schoen to observe of England that “they seem to have stood still in time” after the April 1972 game “of course they gave us a fight, but we were far superior technically”.
Schoen was basically saying that the least you could expect of an England team is for it to fight and show ‘Bulldog’ spirit but that technical ability is at least as important and England then? As ever had TOTALLY neglected that side of the game when building their side.......
Finally, the match report from Brian Glanville summed up the German Style of play that was developed in the early 70’s, used that day at Wembley and which they STILL use now as we found out on Sunday. It was described as “a wonderfully flexible formation that made one think of just how remarkably Latin the nature of German football has become”. Glanville described it as a style that used “a high level of technique to lift the traditional north-European game to a higher level, one in which flair and imagination could not only survive but could also make all the difference”.
ReplyDeleteThe book states (and it is so CLEARLY true) how this COULD “have been the blueprint for the transformation of English football” but how despite a little progress in that direction “the English National Team has never taken that leap forward that West German football as a whole took between 1966-72” and how those problems have included “negative/naïve tactical approaches, selfish club managers and national league” and England Managers being FORCED thanks to our lack of a national game producing technically adept players to pick “defenders with inadequate technique” and how when we DO produce Flair players, we NEVER trust them leading to “a long procession of ‘flair’ players” that have “first been lauded as saviours and then condemned for their inconsistency and lack of commitment”.
Does any of THAT sound familiar Hammersfan? It SHOULD – the problems surrounding our club managers and league, our lack of technically adept players/defenders AND our hatred of flair players are ALL still true 40 odd years on and DESPITE the blueprint for what we SHOULD do as a national side being there in front of us the WHOLE time if we simply looked at what Germany did? We NEVER took the leap forward THEY did to marry the ‘Spirit/Power/Strength’ North European Game AND the Technique levels required to WIN at the highest level.
Basically? Until we DO take that leap as described above that Germany took 40 odd years ago now in the 1970’s (FFS!!)? Until we DO take that leap – we WILL continue failing and embarrassing ourselves on the International stage – English grit and bulldog spirit has got us SO far now – It WON’T get us any further – It’s day SHOULD have passed LONG ago now (in the 1960’s – we SHOULD have gone forward alongside Germany but never did). Now? It’s time we consigned our uniquely ‘English’ way of playing the game to the dustbin where it belongs – Sunday was just the final fall in a LONG descent – The only good thing? We’ve fallen as far as we’ll EVER go, the only way now is back up. But it will be a LONG climb on Sunday’s Evidence......
There's a lot there Redshadow.
ReplyDeleteTo begin, when did Liverpool win all those titles? Through the 70s and 80s, when you say we failed to move forward as a footballing nation. Well clubs follow the example of the team at the top, so we know who to blame there!
You go on about foreigners blocking the development of English talent, but didn't Liverpool win an English league title and a European Cup with only one English player in the team? So who started this business of chasing success at the expense of the English national team? That would be Liverpool again wouldn't it?
Whilst Liverpool chased club glory at the expense of the national team, other clubs, like West Ham and Manchester United, ironically, focused on developing young English players. You miss out Beckham, Scholes, Gary Neville and Ryan Giggs (English born), when you catalogue English greats. I wonder why?
Your analysis also falls down when you fail to acknowledge reaching the semifinal of Euro 96 and unlucky defeats to Argentina, Brazil and Portugal in successive World Cups. Players sent off, disallowed goals, atypical keeper errors and penalty shoot out misses are not evidence of poor technique or a failing league.
Goodness me, HAD that Lampard goal stood, we might now be saying something very different. 2-2 at halftime would have made for a tasty second half andd a lot of soul searching in the German dressing room. The second half goals were because we were pressing for an equaliser. It happens. Remember Liverpool beating Man Utd 4-1 the season before last? That didn't mean that Liverpool were the superior team in the longer term did it?
Remember Germany's first goal was out of the Wimbledon Crazy Gang textbook. Great German technique? Modern football? Do me a favour! And their 3rd and 4th goals were "hit them on the break" affairs, and even then it took a keeper error for them to get the third!
We played poorly in this tournament but that doesn't mean everything is wrong with our game. Tevez is playing in the Premier League and he looks tasty at this World Cup! The Premier League didn't damage Ronaldo did it?
What about Italy? How do you account for their inept showing? Have the New Zealand FA got a superior blueprint to the Italian FA?
Hysterical over reaction my friend. I blame Capello's inept tactics and team selection, not the Premier League. I also think Barry and Rooney were unfit.
If it wasn't for West Ham half of the English players wouldn't have got a game when they were learning to be shit.
ReplyDelete