Archive for the ‘England’ Category

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The FA is, once again, trying to redeem itself over the pathetic way it managed to massively overpay for the “new” Wembley.

As usual, the way it chooses to redeem itself involves ripping off supporters, this time those of Chelsea and Manchester United who are, totally unfairly, expected to pay back some of the lost revenue.

They have increased ticket prices at Wembley by up to 35% from the semi-finals. Why? Other than blatant profiteering, (which we thought was illegal), there is no other excuse for it. (more…)

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So that’s the end of the international injury windows for this season. The next friendlies on the horizon are in June after the proper football has finished.

England signed off with a draw, at home, against Italy who couldn’t even qualify for this year’s World Cup. Quite why this gives the so-called experts such optimism for the tournament itself is a little baffling.

Our playground logic suggests to us that, if they can’t beat a team which DIDN’T qualify for the finals in Russia, at home, then what chance do they have of beating any of the ones who DID qualify and beat them on foreign soil to boot! (more…)

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Stubborn Old Man has now decided he is having to endure criticism because he is 68 years old! By attempting to apportion blame to absolutely anything as long as it isn’t himself he is displaying perfectly the detrimental aspect of ageing.

Honestly, the man is becoming a joke and the sooner he leaves Arsenal to be replaced by another manager the better! Not because of his age but because of his attitude and poor recent record!

He is being criticised because his team is rubbish. His team has been rubbish for the last few years and, as far as the Champion’s League goes, has been rubbish for the last twenty!

Arsenal fans are now fed up with his refusal to accept the obvious and take an executive role at the club. They are not bothered about his age. (more…)

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So what did we learn about England’s World Cup chances from their win against The Netherlands? Not a lot that we haven’t known for the last fifty years or so, that’s what!

The fact that Gareth Southgate’s men managed to scrape a 0-1 win at the home of a team who couldn’t even qualify for this year’s tournament says more about the Dutch than it does about England.

Holland is a team in transition. Having reached the semi-final of the last World Cup and the final of the one prior to that, their fall from grace has been quite spectacular.

Now, with new manager Ronald Koeman in charge, the onus is on youth and the need to provide experience to some of the lesser known players so they can become the greats of the future. (more…)

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With two more meaningless friendlies on the horizon for a very average England team, the Premier League has, once again and for the third time already this season, ground to a shuddering halt.

These two games are against Germany and Brazil and withdrawals through injury mean that England go into the games with an even greater paucity of talent than usual.

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Mauricio Pochettino has decided that Harry Kane, Harry Winks and Dele Alli are not fit enough to even travel with the squad, never mind take part in the games. He has, as a token gesture, left Kieran Trippier who he thinks could benefit from the game time. (more…)

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As regular readers will no doubt be aware, we cannot be numbered among Wayne Rooney’s greatest fans. With this in mind we had decided, a while ago, not to give him any more press having concluded that he was already one of the most talked about footballers in existence and a lot of what was being said about him was, in our opinion, overrating him far more than was necessary and even more than he was overrating himself!

His latest act of unwarranted petulance has, however, forced us temporarily out of retirement on the subject of the hard-to-like scouser. Just as one of his chapters comes to an end, we begin a new one.

As we have said all along, he has been a good footballer in his two short spells at Everton and his thirteen years at Manchester United, but he never achieved the greatness many misguided people thought he would. (more…)

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Unless England get another chance to play every game at Wembley, which nowadays certainly wouldn’t guarantee them anything, they will be nowhere near winning another World Cup.

Considering that they haven’t come close to winning anything in all that time, this is a very sad indictment of the nation who like to keep reminding the world that they invented football. (more…)

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Is scouting the most difficult job in the Premier League? We suppose it depends on what your brief is. If, for example, we had been sent to watch Glasgow Celtic three or four years ago, we would have noticed two standout players who we would recommend be playing at a top six club. (more…)

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Just as the Premier League season nears it’s pulsating climax it happens. What happens, (we don’t hear you ask)?  What happens is one of those pesky international breaks.

It is called a break because the players, particularly the English ones, can have a rest. All of the ones not included in their national team squad can sit, feet up, and watch the dross churned out by their so-called “betters“.

All of the players selected by their national team manager can also have a rest as the pace of the games, at least those involving England, will border somewhere between snail and tortoise. (more…)

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Czechoslovakia, Greece, Denmark and Portugal spring to mind as relatively recent winners of the European Championships. None of the four could be considered as serial winners of competitions.

Wales also stayed in the last competition for longer than England and even managed a 3-1 win over Belgium while England couldn’t even scrape a draw with Iceland and exited the tournament in their usual fashion, ie when there was still plenty of it left! (more…)