Archive for the ‘England’ Category

More On The International Break, Luke Shaw And Business As Usual For England

Posted: September 10, 2018 in Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, The Nations League, Tottenham Hotspur
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Well, that’s the first week out of the way. Only another five days to go before the return of Premier League football.

This is good news for lovers of the game, avid supporters and masochists as every form of satisfaction will be delivered or denied over the coming weekend.

Why is it that, when the Premier League has been absent since May, we get four games into the new season and have to have an international injury window?

Is this just because the powers-that-be are a bunch of sadists? We are not thinking necessarily of just the effect on the fans here. They will tune in to the meaningless rubbish served up as top quality international football because they have nothing else to watch, that’s just the way it is and is why England, for example, will always attract a decent sized crowd at Wembley despite being rubbish. (more…)

More On Why England Are Still Rubbish And JosĂ©’s New Approach To Life

Posted: September 6, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Tottenham Hotspur
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England’s superiority complex is what had held them back over the years. They have actually had some half-decent teams since winning the World Cup in 1966 but have usually gone out of tournaments meekly every time.

It is fair to say that this complex has become inverted and England have gone into most competitions expecting to be leaving for home early. They had, for many years, an inferiority complex, despite their supporters expecting them to win everything in which they have been involved for the last 52 years.

Now it is becoming clear as to why this has been happening. Using completely irrational logic they now think that LOSING a World Cup semi-final to a team ranked eight places below them in the world order is a successful tournament. (more…)

More On Raheem Sterling, Not-Ready-Lane And A Change Of Mood At Old Trafford

Posted: September 5, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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The impending international injury window has already seen Raheem Sterling pull out of the England team for the two utterly meaningless games against Spain and Switzerland.

It shows a little forethought from a player not deemed to be blessed with one of the higher IQs in the game because he obviously knows that he is not really good enough to play for Manchester City so, the last thing he wants, is to be injured whilst with England and then fail to get his place back in the City team.

In our book he would be behind Bernardo Silva, David Silva, Leroy SanĂ©, Ilkay Gundogan, Riyad Mahrez, Pep Guardiola, Mike Summerbee and uncle Tom Cobbley in the pecking order. Yes he really is that average. (more…)

More On Anthony Martial’s New Contract, Mesut Ă–zil Falling Out With Everybody And Another International Injury Window

Posted: August 31, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur
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So the board at Manchester United which, effectively, appears to be Ed Woodward, have decided to reward Anthony Martial’s poor performances, petulance and disobedience by offering him a new contract until 2023 with the usual raise in pay.

This is despite manager José Mourinho wishing to sell him and the player expressing a desire to leave the club.

Either Ed Woodward himself or the Glazers seem to have bestowed upon the diminutive marketing man from Chelmsford, a power of attorney which gives him the final say over everything at the club. He has proven on several occasions that his knowledge of football is, at best, dodgy, when he has preferred to look at transfer targets with a high marketing value rather than their potential benefit to the team. (more…)

More On That Nomination, JosĂ©’s Woes And Chelsea’s Dodgy Dealings

Posted: July 26, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur
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So Gareth Southgate is up for a gong. Having taken his mediocre team, which would struggle in the Premier League, to a World Cup semi-final he is now being tipped to be given the FIFA Coach of the Year award.

So what are the qualifications for this nomination? Well, apparently, not very many. He only beat teams who are ranked below his team except one. It was, unfortunately for Gawpy Gareth, the important one which prevented England undeservedly reaching their first World Cup final for 52 years. He didn’t beat a nation ranked above his team even after having been given two bites at the cherry, one of which was against their reserves.

So naturally, he should be given an award for his achievement. (more…)

More From England’s World Cup Viewpoint And Corruption At Stamford Bridge Is Alive And Well (Allegedly)

Posted: July 16, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers
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(England supporters strike a pose which has become all-too familiar over the last 50-odd years)

Now that the dust has settled on England’s World Cup success/failure, do we really have a team capable of winning a future tournament?

On the evidence of this one the answer has to be a pretty emphatic NO.

Even the “experts” are finally starting to come round to our way of thinking which, all along, has been that this was an average England team and they put in some very poor performances on their way to fourth place. (more…)

More On England’s “Successful” World Cup, A Couple Of Transfers + Chelsea Have Found Another Mug To Manage Their Team

Posted: July 15, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Transfers
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After tomorrow there will probably be very few articles on the subject of the World Cup. The winner will have been decided and, hopefully, Croatia will have collected the trophy for the first time ever. The alternative is another four years of French strutting and preening which, while not unusual, would definitely be more annoying.

Today, England met Belgium in the meaningless third placed play-off game. A game into which the England manager was trying to inject some life. He was doing so by trying to convince a very dubious public and an even more dubious WSA, that the game was not meaningless. (more…)

More On England’s Next, (And Last), World Cup Game And Manchester United Should Forget About Willian

Posted: July 14, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers
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It doesn’t really matter whether England finish third or fourth. For them, the World Cup is over. FIFA prolonging their stay in Russia is more like a punishment rather than any prestigious ending to the competition.

On the positive side, the game on Saturday gives England’s reserves a chance for some revenge on Belgium’s reserves for the 1-0 beating they handed out in the group stage. On the negative side, nobody cares.

The result of that game, which decided who won the group and who finished second, was the biggest mistake made by the two teams. Had they contrived to let England win the group then the team would probably have lost in the quarter-final to Brazil. (more…)

More From England’s Loss And An Unexpected Twist In The Transfer Window

Posted: July 13, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers
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England finally reverted to type. Having beaten the team four places below them in the world rankings to reach the semi-final they then went out, quite tamely, to the team eight places below them.

In fairness, they have made massive strides forward by getting this far in a World Cup but, also in fairness, they came a cropper as soon as they met a decent team.

Forget Belgium in the group stage. That wasn’t a competitive game. It was a game between two reserve teams who had seen their senior players already qualify for the next stage. So the first real test was against Sweden and they passed with flying colours. They passed mainly because Sweden failed to work out the English system. (more…)

More On England’s Immediate Future And Less On The Transfer Window With Nothing Much Happening!

Posted: July 10, 2018 in Arsenal, Chelsea, England, Football, International Football, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Opinion, Premier League, The World Cup, Tottenham Hotspur, Transfers
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Win one more game and England are there! They will be participating in their first World Cup final since 1966.

Why is that? Do they suddenly have a team better than the one which included Gary Lineker and Paul Gascoigne? Are they a notch up from the Alan Shearer generation which included the likes of Paul Scholes and David Beckham? How about the team of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard? (more…)

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