As I said, if the Costa Ricans and Uruguayans were that talented, the top Prem teams would be stuffed with them. England's essential problem is getting their team to play as a great team, not just a collection of talented individuals. France have been looking pretty tasty, but their players are no more distinguished than ours. The top teams make the best of what they have rather than focusing totally on individuals. England has also had a bit of bad luck. I reckon that the 3 greatest talents the UK has produced in my lifetime are probably Gareth Bale, George Best and Paul Gascoigne. Unfortunately, the first is Welsh, the second was Northern Irish. That's statistically unlikely, but that's the luck of the draw. If we had Bale in the English team, the results would probably be different - he's a goal-scorer.
Arrogant twats more like. The cult of the celebrity is alive and well in the UK. I am a bigger celeb than you. I earn £300k per week, you only earn £250k. You make a very good point though.
It was a shame. There were some real sparks of pretty decent football, and it was nice to see the young lads having a go. However most of it was just plainly frustrating to watch, the defence in particular. It's all good and well with young players, but with Terry and Cole shoring up the backline I think we(use this term loosely as I'm not really an England fan) would have had more games ahead of us.
Chris Waddle recently had a melt-down over the England side but actually, he made a little sense. He appeared to be saying (when he was lucid) that the England manager is always forced to pick *star players* instead of picking the best *side* available. A couple of World Cups ago, I suggested that the English manager should be prepared to ignore the Premier League when picking his team. He should work his way down the leagues, as far as was necessary, until he was able to find *groups* of players who work well together. So, for example, rather than picking the two "best" centre-backs - players who may or may not be compatible - from two different Premier sides (or foreign equivalent) instead pick two of the best centre-backs who normally play together that he can find. Repeat for other positions - midfield, forwards, etc. Pick teams for their synergies, not for their individual newspaper column inches. This happens every competition. "Stars", with their fixed agenda of being "stars", are picked in preference to "team players" who would work for each other, not for themselves. We fail to get anywhere in the finals virtually every competition ... after twenty or thirty years, you'd think this would have occurred to someone but of course, the all-powerful media would go crazy over it (in a negative way).
I wrote some more unqualified pundit's analysis here if anyone is remotely interested: The England football team - is it really a question of talent? - The Glidd of Glood Blog
just checked, not on me 501s well they might of been once, i is a mingin bastid. will check my wranglers when i get home. if i ever get home. got to get some work done.
