The English Football Thread

[Mojo]

I haven't checked the newspaper headlines on the back pages yet today, but you just know it can only go one of two ways. The first option is that they are too positive and read too much into this victory. The other is they will still find something to complain about, to turn a positive into a negative.

Beating Spain is a positive, but it's a small one. It's a friendly and means nothing. Doesn't mean we shouldn't enjoy it, of course.

Did anyone hear Adrian Chiles just after full time? "If you can beat the world champions, that makes you world champions." What an absolutely useless prick that man is.

[Unknown Soldier]

Originally Posted by mojopinuk

Did anyone hear Adrian Chiles just after full time? "If you can beat the world champions, that makes you world champions." What an absolutely useless prick that man is.

Its comments like that, that always builds up expectations within the country and usually ends up putting more and more pressure on the England team, who deep down know their limitations.

Also, ITV has always had some really crap football presenters ever since I can remember and they`re always been second rate to the BBC presenters.

[Bulldog]

What'll be even funnier is if the Swedes beat us tonight and everyone U-turns saying we're shit all over again.

Looking forward to tonight, purely for curiosity's sake again. It'll be interesting to see what Jack Rodwell, Danny Wellbeck and Kyle Walker can do in the starting lineup for us.

[Mojo]

Last I heard Welbeck was out. If so, thats a real shame.

[evi1gun]

So the mighty England beat the World Champions and then they beat Sweden for the first time in about 40 years!

Woo Hoo!

Pity we didn't have a decent manager and then maybe we could play decent football and who knows, maybe....... win something????

[Unknown Soldier]

Originally Posted by evi1gun

So the mighty England beat the World Champions and then they beat Sweden for the first time in about 40 years!

Woo Hoo!

Pity we didn't have a decent manager and then maybe we could play decent football and who knows, maybe....... win something????

England have this bad habit of nearly always playing their friendly matches at Wembley, which gives them a huge home advantage and no matter who the opposition is seldom lose at home, this always gives a false indication of the true level of the side, so when travel off to the major tournaments and don`t get to the semis at least, everybody is deflated and disappointed.

I can`t believe how somebody with such poor English like Capello and after some of the perfomances the team have put out along with the inflated salary he is paid, is still in a job. If we got rid of Capello though, I see no obvious choice for the England job and I really can`t see the team playing much better than now also. The last time I ever really saw England play both attacking and efficient football was probably in Italia 90 and of course they had home adavantage at EC 1996, so that doesn`t really count.

[evi1gun]

And yet Fabio said the players would rather play away (well JT would).

I enjoyed the period when England played around the country.
I think Wembley was getting built??

I'd like to see Harry get the poisoned chalice myself,
Still dont think we'd win anything though.

Agree about the '90 and '96 sides as well.

Shame it didn't happen for this crop, the so-called experts said a few yrs ago that this was the best group for a long time.

And the same will be getting said about Witshire, Barkley, Jones ETC.

btw check out Everton's 15 yr old, George Green, goal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEBExK9UMz0

[Sneer]

Gary Speed passes away

Really tragic, I liked him a a player and as a manager I thought he was on to something good with the Welsh national team.

RIP.

[jackhammer]

Originally Posted by Stu

Gary Speed passes away

Really tragic, I liked him a a player and as a manager I thought he was on to something good with the Welsh national team.

RIP.

This shocked the hell out of me especially as he was on TV yesterday too. When I hear the word suicide It really gets to me. As if you could have done something even though you never knew them. Just a few words may have just put them back onto the bottom step of the ladder away from the precipice or something.

[MoonlitSunshine]

Personally I find it more shocking than usual in situations like this. I don't mean to degrade anyone's death, but for some suicides, the reason is obvious: either something happened, or they were just obviously depressed. It's still tragic, but you can see the reason. With someone like Speed... There was absolutely nothing in the way he went about his life that seemed to even hint at the idea that he was suicidal. He had family, a (pretty damn good) job, Wales were on the up, and judging by the reactions of everyone yesterday he was well loved, by everyone.

It just shows how fragile anyone can be beneath the surface, I guess...