38 replies to this topic

[just]

.... retire gracefully from international football!

Last night you were left out of a European qualifier against Bulgaria. Capello the Clown picked Scott Parker and Gareth Barry over you. Now don't get me wrong Frankie, Parker and Barry are good players. Decent solid pros, but let's face it, compared to you when you were in your prime, neither are fit to lace your boots. And let's be honest, when Stevie Me is back fully fit you are likely to slip even further under Capello's radar.

I beg you not to take the path of David "desperate" Beckham and end up schlepping half way round the world hoping for five minutes at the end of a friendly against the like of San Marino just so you can pick up another cap to jump over someone on the all-time appearance list. Forget how Beckham has tried to spin it. It isn't being super patriotic. That isn't being a good professional. A bit sad and embarrassing is what it actually is. And it just gives the "Fat Frank Brigade", those numpty, arsehole fans from other clubs who love to get on your back, more ammunition to throw at you.

All good things come to end Frank. Nothing lasts forever and at 33 years of age you should now do the decent thing and call time on your international career and focus solely on your time left with us, the fans at Chelsea who love you.

[dkw]

I would love to see him retire also, but I cant see it. He and JT love playing for England and Ive a feeling they will always make themselves available. The hypocrisy around Lampard is sickening at times, he gets slated for only playing one way and meaning the sainted Stevie has to play out of position, yet for the past 2 or 3 years Lamps has played much deeper and has never been able to play to his strengths. Then we get yesterday, we get told we played brilliant without him so he should never play again, yet we also played brilliantly without the sainted Stevie but hes expected to walk straight back into the team. How Lampard hasnt tole them to shove it over the past few years is beyond me.

[maddoo]

That bar steward Durham on Talksh*te almost creamed his pants yesterday when Stan c**tymore announced the Eng team.No Lampard he screamed,at last someone has the guts to drop him,lets face it folks he is finished as an Eng player,the writing has been on the wall for too long now,he then whined on that Lampard had curtailed Stevie Me Eng career.What a tosser Durham is.

[Englishman]

The funny thing is if Lamps retires from international football the same cretins who wanted him dropped will be slagging him off for walking out on his country. I hope he does, because frankly the England boo boys don't deserve him and it might extend his career with us by a few years. It's also tiresome to see him continually get the blame for Gerrard being crap. The irony is that some of England's worst performances in recent years have come when Frank was dropped to make way for Gerrard (Russia away the prime example). He was our best player for the 20 minutes we were in the game against Germany with Gerrard once again MIA and but for a crap decision would have made it 2-2.

[chelseablueboy]

just, on 03 September 2011 - 08:13 AM, said:

.... retire gracefully from international football!

Last night you were left out of a European qualifier against Bulgaria. Capello the Clown picked Scott Parker and Gareth Barry over you. Now don't get me wrong Frankie, Parker and Barry are good players. Decent solid pros, but let's face it, compared to you when you were in your prime, neither are fit to lace your boots. And let's be honest, when Stevie Me is back fully fit you are likely to slip even further under Capello's radar.

I beg you not to take the path of David "desperate" Beckham and end up schlepping half way round the world hoping for five minutes at the end of a friendly against the like of San Marino just so you can pick up another cap to jump over someone on the all-time appearance list. Forget how Beckham has tried to spin it. It isn't being super patriotic. That isn't being a good professional. A bit sad and embarrassing is what it actually is. And it just gives the "Fat Frank Brigade", those numpty, arsehole fans from other clubs who love to get on your back, more ammunition to throw at you.

All good things come to end Frank. Nothing lasts forever and at 33 years of age you should now do the decent thing and call time on your international career and focus solely on your time left with us, the fans at Chelsea who love you.

Really well put.
I too would be happy to see Frank retire from England duty, but, if he still loves it and wants to continue who am i  (or anybody else come to that) to begrudge him as long a time at the top level as HE feels he wants.
Alan

[Nibs]

Don't know why players feel the need to retire these days. It seems to have become in vogue - probably because they want to save pride and retire before they stopped getting selected anyway?

But Lamps got left out and fair enough - his form has been poor and he's on the verge of being left out of our starting 11. But if his form picks up and the likes of Barry and Parker start to struggle, then I'm sure he'll be back in the frame and that's exactly the way it should be.

[Phillip]

I know this is not the place for it, but the Spanish player's clear dive in injury time to allow them to get a penalty and score against Chile was embarrasing to say the least.  Chile deserved a draw, and I like it that they scuffled with the Spanish players at the end of the game.  Good for them!

[goose]

I don't think there is a chance of Lampard retiring from the International scene until this Championship is over and I wouldn't expect him to
as an Injury picked up by someone means he will be straight back in. I would think he will probably call it a day after the finals next summer.

[PloKoon13]

I have no love for this English national team whatsoever - frankly I find patriotism (or jingoism - thank you very much Daily Mail) to be an entirely counterproductive, outdated and irrational feeling which has no place in modern society. It makes the likes of the BNP all the worse for being a one-trick pony, when the one trick itself is nothing but ignorance and crowd-baiting.

Thus, of course I think Lampard should retire from international football, same goes for Cole and JT. They get nothing but grief from the vast majority of the fans, despite years of good performances (certainly more so than that mincing twat Gerrard who still manages to be surrounded by hoardes of sycophantic red-top readers) and should concentrate on winning the league with a proper team which appreciates their genius.

But then again I may be just a little biased...

[german-blue]

PloKoon13, on 03 September 2011 - 05:22 PM, said:

I have no love for this English national team whatsoever - frankly I find patriotism (or jingoism - thank you very much Daily Mail) to be an entirely counterproductive, outdated and irrational feeling which has no place in modern society. It makes the likes of the BNP all the worse for being a one-trick pony, when the one trick itself is nothing but ignorance and crowd-baiting.

My feelings exactly. I was never able to develop something like patriotism for my own country´s sport teams, even if I would try hard I just cant get behind a team just because it consists of people of my nationality.

[dkw]

Just out of interest, is this something that only happens in England or is it fairly common, the way fans take their club allegiances into international games? The "Ingerland" fans really hold pathetic grudges and seem to take great delight in booing and abusing players who dare not be from their own beloved club, without realising just how stupid they are being by creating such a vitriolic atmosphere that has players scared to make a mistake.

[LuisSuarez7]

I remember that age old debate. Can Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard play together?

[ace]

dkw - To add to your question, I'd be curious if the press in other countries feel the need to dig up dirt on their own players during a World Cup year, then bitch and moan when the team underperforms at said World Cup?

[dkw]

ace, on 03 September 2011 - 06:24 PM, said:

dkw - To add to your question, I'd be curious if the press in other countries feel the need to dig up dirt on their own players during a World Cup year, then bitch and moan when the team underperforms at said World Cup?

I think we all know the answer to that one, I seem to remember one countries journalists (may have been portugal) who had dirt on a player and the coach at the last world cup who sat on stories until it was over. Ours relish destroying players before a major tournament, then profess to be right behind "our boys".

[charierre]

This attitude to England players seems to have got worse since the premier league was founded. Maybe this is increased media coverage especially of top 4 clubs. I can't remember many players getting sustained vitriol from the fans during the 70s (when we were crap) and into the 80s. There were always players who we thought were undeserving of internation recognition but once the shirt was on the fans got behind the team.

[german-blue]

dkw, on 03 September 2011 - 05:41 PM, said:

Just out of interest, is this something that only happens in England or is it fairly common, the way fans take their club allegiances into international games? The "Ingerland" fans really hold pathetic grudges and seem to take great delight in booing and abusing players who dare not be from their own beloved club, without realising just how stupid they are being by creating such a vitriolic atmosphere that has players scared to make a mistake.

DKW to be fair you cant really compare English fans to the rest of the world. After all there is only one Liverpool in the world and its really unfortunate that its located in England.

Edited by german-blue, 03 September 2011 - 08:33 PM.

[Wolfy]

dkw, on 03 September 2011 - 06:27 PM, said:

I think we all know the answer to that one, I seem to remember one countries journalists (may have been portugal) who had dirt on a player and the coach at the last world cup who sat on stories until it was over. Ours relish destroying players before a major tournament, then profess to be right behind "our boys".

Before hosting the 2006 world cup the German Government stopped the press from reporting anything negative about any of the German players apparently. Would be nice if ours would do the same. I'd like to see if it made a difference to performance

[Spiller86]

dkw, on 03 September 2011 - 05:41 PM, said:

Just out of interest, is this something that only happens in England or is it fairly common, the way fans take their club allegiances into international games? The "Ingerland" fans really hold pathetic grudges and seem to take great delight in booing and abusing players who dare not be from their own beloved club, without realising just how stupid they are being by creating such a vitriolic atmosphere that has players scared to make a mistake.

Scotland would be the most obvious example I could think of, given that a section of one of the big two clubs generally support another country, and you have the McGeady types who played for Ireland despite being born in Glasgow. But apart from that it is difficult to think of any.

I think that is what kills England at tournaments. England will never win a major trophy while the boo boys persist. Most supporters I feel don't mind the concept of failure as long as they can blame it on players from a club they don't like. I must admit myself when England went out in the shootout in 2006, my one great relief was that Gerrard missed his penalty as well as Frank.

It's no surprise that England's best performances over the past decade or so have all come away from home. There you can build up and play well without the prospect of being hooted at for giving the ball away, or booed off at halftime if the score isn't 3-0. I mentioned this in the Rugby WC thread in reference to the All Blacks because I feel they have the same issue, the pressure is so great and the recriminations so brutal, that players are focused on not failing rather than succeeding. Instead of having the courage to make an ambitious play, players worry what happens if I turn the ball over, I'll just play it safe and I won't get booed. I feel at times and perhaps to a lesser extent we have that problem at Chelsea when playing at home.

Until the culture of fear is lifted from among the players they can't win. If Redknapp is the next coach of England after EURO as many suggest he will be, I feel he has to have the balls to come out and say, 'if you don't want to support the team, don't come. I don't mind if we only play in front of a half full Wembley, but if you want to boo stay the f**k home and boo at your TV.' Someone simply must tell England to wake the f**k up and realise that the rubbish they go on with is self perpetuating.

Edited by Spiller86, 04 September 2011 - 12:40 AM.

[ace]

Wolfy, on 03 September 2011 - 08:38 PM, said:

Before hosting the 2006 world cup the German Government stopped the press from reporting anything negative about any of the German players apparently. Would be nice if ours would do the same. I'd like to see if it made a difference to performance

Hey! Well that makes sense, because since 2006, Germany has been goddamn garbage!!

I'm an American.  I have always supported the USMNT, and I hope they make a huge run sometime in the near future.  However, I also always root for Chelsea boys, which usually entails the England squad.  Even as an American, it is beyond frustrating to watch any English game on television and hear the crowd boo the players.  Since I'm not English (In America people love talking about our ancestry. I'm apparently 1/4 English, 1/4 Irish, 1/4 Scottish, 1/4 German....too much diversity :(  I can't do much besides root for Chelsea boys through the TV, but it still bugs the sh*t out of me.

Edited by ace, 04 September 2011 - 05:51 AM.

[Pride of London]

It's really strange as a supporter of the ROI team seeing English players get the treatment they do. Even though we have club allegiances here they don't really matter at all to the supporters when the national team plays , we don't have anywhere near the talent pool to pick and choose players who we'll hate wearing the green jersey no matter what they do. I mean Robbie Keane played for Spurs but  I'd support him until the end wearing the green jersey.

I just think it's a different mindset, especially being such a small country where football is about the 4th most popular sport to play  the same players stay in the team not based on reputation but on the fact that we simply can't produce anyone better. I mean the huge problem with the team currently is that we haven't got a single central midfielder of any real quality to replace Roy Keane

Edited by Pride of London, 04 September 2011 - 08:12 AM.