Figo has now withdrawn from the election to be the next president of FIFA. One only one person up against Blatter now

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32826308

 

England squad announced:

 

Goalkeepers:

Robert Green (Queens Park Rangers), Joe Hart (Manchester City), Tom Heaton (Burnley)

 

Defenders:

Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Nathaniel Clyne (Southampton), Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Chris Smalling (Manchester United)

 

Midfielders:

Ross Barkley (Everton), Fabian Delph (Aston Villa), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Liverpool), Ryan Mason (Tottenham Hotspur), James Milner (Manchester City), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Andros Townsend (Tottenham Hotspur), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)

 

Forwards:

Charlie Austin (Queens Park Rangers), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City), Danny Welbeck (Arsenal).

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry but that's an awful looking squad, what would be the league position of side if you took an average of where their respective clubs finished, 12th? Maybe lower? 

 

Shocking. 

 

 

I know a lot of our so called golden generation never really performed in the international competitions but look how far we have fallen since we had those players. That squad is pretty average.

 

We once had, Gary Neville, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, Ashley Cole, Frank Lampard, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, David Beckham, Michael Owen, Wayne Rooney (at his best) Even the players that weren't rated as high as these are better than today's England squad. The likes of Owen Hargreaves, Scott Parker, Michael Carrick, Sol Campbell, Jamie Carragher and Wayne Bridge would get ahead of pretty much all of today's England players.

 

Compare todays squad to that one, the only position we can say we are better equiped in is the Striker position because we have more of them now. I can't believe how quickly the quality of England's CB position has dipped over the last few years. We used to have plenty of really good CB's, now we have 1.

Edited May 21, 201511 yr by Scott Harris

I'm actually quite happy for Vardy, he's done well and to get called up is a great achievement.

No idea how Gibbs gets selected, he's been benched by Monreal for what feels like the majority of the season.

Vardy works extremely hard and runs himself into the ground every time he plays but it's shocking that he is apparently one of the best available players for England.

When you think the Spain World Cup winning side was effectively a Barca/Madrid dream team, a side consisting of players who consistently challenged for domestic and European trophies and we're picking a whole bunch of players more familiar with relegation battles it just highlights how mediocre England are nowadays.

The fact that players of Vardy and Austin's profile are called up is depressing.

Figo has now withdrawn from the election to be the next president of FIFA. One only one person up against Blatter now

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32826308

 

FIFA is a disaster, have we all got to wait for Blatter to kick the bucket before we get some integrity there?

Figo has now withdrawn from the election to be the next president of FIFA. One only one person up against Blatter now

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32826308

Which is what is should have been in the first place. Spreading all the anti Blatter votes out among 4 other candidates was never going to have much of an impact. 

FIFA is a disaster, have we all got to wait for Blatter to kick the bucket before we get some integrity there?

Completely agree, Carrickblue, Wouldn't surprise me if the other person up against Blatter drops out. And FIFA will carry on as a disaster and corrupt.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32825171

 

Harry Kane seems like a laugh. Unintended dig at Spurs at the end.

Haha, well done Rodgers (sarcastic  ) 

 

Haha, well done Rodgers (sarcastic  )

 

Funny how that is genuinely no different to my classroom in year 8.

Steady on.

An absolute legend, I even remember watching him at the Bridge back in 2000. I don't have a lot of time for Barcelona as a club but he's been not only a terrific player for years but also a great ambassador for the game. IIRC he's hardly ever said or done anything controversial either on or off the field.

 

From memory he has frequently complained every time Barca get knocked out of the CL, about other teams playing styles and even about the quality of pitches.

 

A sore loser and a sh*t person, but a great player.

The tables have turned now haha rodgers needs him.

 

England squad announced:

 

Goalkeepers:

Robert Green (Queens Park Rangers), Joe Hart (Manchester City), Tom Heaton (Burnley)

 

Defenders:

Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Nathaniel Clyne (Southampton), Kieran Gibbs (Arsenal), Phil Jagielka (Everton), Phil Jones (Manchester United), Chris Smalling (Manchester United)

 

Midfielders:

Ross Barkley (Everton), Fabian Delph (Aston Villa), Jordan Henderson (Liverpool), Adam Lallana (Liverpool), Ryan Mason (Tottenham Hotspur), James Milner (Manchester City), Raheem Sterling (Liverpool), Andros Townsend (Tottenham Hotspur), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Jack Wilshere (Arsenal)

 

Forwards:

Charlie Austin (Queens Park Rangers), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United), Jamie Vardy (Leicester City), Danny Welbeck (Arsenal).

 

 

 

 

 

I'm sorry but that's an awful looking squad, what would be the league position of side if you took an average of where their respective clubs finished, 12th? Maybe lower? 

 

Shocking. 

 

 

Hart

 

Clyne - Cahill - Jagielka - Bertrand

 

Henderson - Wilshere

 

Sterling - Barkley - Walcott

 

Rooney

 

Depressing that that is our strongest XI.

 

edit: And can someone please tell me how Andros Townsend is STILL an England player?

Edited May 22, 201511 yr by Jonty

Press conference - Rodgers on Sterling "Raheem has the opportunity to play for one of the greatest clubs in the world".  

 

Yeah but which one is it going to be?  

Hart

 

Clyne - Cahill - Jagielka - Bertrand

 

Henderson - Wilshere

 

Sterling - Barkley - Walcott

 

Rooney

 

Depressing that that is our strongest XI.

 

edit: And can someone please tell me how Andros Townsend is STILL an England player?

 

When you think that of that team less than half of them have played in the Champions League for more than one season it really highlights the general quality being picked. 

 

As for Townsend, it would Hodgson likes and he's going to be a bit of a Phil Neville type player where he keeps getting called up despite better players being available. 

 

Ashley Young has had a decent season for United but he's being overlooked for Townsend and a barely fit Walcott. 

On a more respectful note, today would have been George Best's 69th birthday, the best player to grace these shores?

 

How bizarre!!

 

Luiz dismisses virgin reports

Football

Posted at10:25

AFP

In more bizarre news, Paris St-Germain defender David Luiz has dismissed reports in the press that he is a virgin.

The former Chelsea star told BBC's Football Focus: "People are saying things everywhere about whether I'm a virgin or not. I'm not a virgin."

"Some people in the press don't respect people in life. I can put my head on my pillow and sleep great because I respect everyone."

Well now I have an image of David Luiz being like this

 

Funny how that is genuinely no different to my classroom in year 8.

The entire club operates at that intellectual level, so we need not expect more. It did raise the cringe-level to new heights, though.

How bizarre!!

Luiz dismisses virgin reports

Football

Posted at10:25

AFP

In more bizarre news, Paris St-Germain defender David Luiz has dismissed reports in the press that he is a virgin.

The former Chelsea star told BBC's Football Focus: "People are saying things everywhere about whether I'm a virgin or not. I'm not a virgin."

"Some people in the press don't respect people in life. I can put my head on my pillow and sleep great because I respect everyone."

Surprised at this. Thought everyone knew that 11 Germans had their way with him last summer.

Opened up his legs for Suarez too.

What do you expect ? The guy has shown no respect towards Chelsea or our style of football throughout the years. Why should we give him any respect if he can't show any respect to us ?

 

He is also one of the worst for running up to the ref and shouting for a red card when one of the Barcelona players would dive. The guy has been a great player, but he has been as much of a prick as any of the other Barcelona players over the years.

 

Lets not forget the whole Fabregas at Arsenal fiasco aswell. As much as I hate Arsenal and Wenger what Xavi was doing was out of order, showing no respect for the English league or another club in another country. 

Am I the only one who is actually relieved about this England squad? For years we picked players on reputation only, even when they couldn't play together, the Lampard and Gerrard midfield for starters was an absolute disaster in the big games and every competition we played in. Yet we still persisted with it. 

 

Finally we aren't doing that anymore. Fair enough we don't have players of that caliber anymore, but we have a lot of youth in that side, time to actually for once mold an England side and get them used to playing together. That's what every national side used to do except for us. 

 

I don't rate Wilshere a great deal or Jordan Henderson but keep them playing in the England squad and I bet they'll do a lot better than Gerrard or Lampard ever did. 

Am I the only one who is actually relieved about this England squad? For years we picked players on reputation only, even when they couldn't play together, the Lampard and Gerrard midfield for starters was an absolute disaster in the big games and every competition we played in. Yet we still persisted with it. 

 

But who else is Hodgson going pick? 

 

There isn't a spine of a team playing in the top 4/6 teams like there was previously. 

 

When you consider that at one point the centre back options included Terry, Ferdinand, Carjacker, Campbell.. any one of those players would walk into the current England set up. 

 

Same goes for midfield, the Gerrard/Lampard combo never worked because the managers archaic insistence on shoehorning them both into a 4-4-2 rather than a 4-3-3 or even a 4-3-2-1 which could have better utilised them both. 

 

There is absolutely no quality in that current England squad. 

But who else is Hodgson going pick? 

 

There isn't a spine of a team playing in the top 4/6 teams like there was previously. 

 

When you consider that at one point the centre back options included Terry, Ferdinand, Carjacker, Campbell.. any one of those players would walk into the current England set up. 

 

Same goes for midfield, the Gerrard/Lampard combo never worked because the managers archaic insistence on shoehorning them both into a 4-4-2 rather than a 4-3-3 or even a 4-3-2-1 which could have better utilised them both. 

 

There is absolutely no quality in that current England squad. 

 

And still with all that quality we never amounted to anything.

 

Wilshere is overrated but he is a talented player, as is Jordan Henderson. Delph is limited but still an asset to the side should England keep the faith with him. Which it looks like they are doing. All the big stars we had only cared about club football and little for the England side. Do you think Fabian Delph would choose England over Villa? I think he would. 

 

I think it is good we get players committed to the side rather than players that are always in the spotlight. We do have flair in the side, Ross Barkley and Raheem Sterling and perhaps more support players than once that give a lot of influence but I think the whole sides mentality has changed a lot. 

 

At the end of the day we don't exactly have the luxury of world beaters but I think the route the F.A. are taking is the best one, I think people should think a little first about what's best rather than just straight up criticizing as soon as we see the team sheet.