By: Arabella-Cox - 18th June 2003 at 21:29
Originally posted by ageorge
Bloody hell Steve , look at the Premiership , it’s the best League in Europe by far and there is plenty of young talent coming through , England has a wealth of riches when it comes to footballers , be optimistic !!!! .
Compared to some nations, yes, I’d agree. But good enough to challenge for European or World honours? Not a hope.
Originally posted by ageorge
What domestic team do you follow ??? , I’m a Motherwell supporter , we finished bottom of the Premier and we were only saved from relegation due to the fact that the team who won the 1st Division ( Falkirk) don’t have a stadium which meets the Premier regulations , watch our young centre-forward James McFadden – he’s bound to get snapped up by a big club shortly. Look out for Kenny Miller down at Wolves – he’s a quality striker – he should be a permanent fixture up front with Mc Fadden in the future .
Yeah, I know about Kenny Miller – he helped muller us at Hillsborough – I’m a Sheffield Wednesday fan. Although to his credit, he did also help to keep the Blades out of the Premiership in the play off final, which had me grinning for weeks on end… 😀
To be honest, and this might sound a bit odd seeing as we’ve just been relegated to Division Two, I’d much rather watch Wednesday than England at the moment. At least there’s some passion and teamwork going on, and the kids we’ve got coming through at Hillsborough are starting to believe that our stay in Division Two will be a brief one. I’m actually very optimistic about our chances for next season.
By: Arabella-Cox - 18th June 2003 at 21:21
Originally posted by mongu
Steve, why is Owen a liability? He single handedly rescued England last Wednesday against the Slovaks.
True enough, but for a striker whose name always seems to be the first on the teamsheet, his contribution to the England side between his hat-trick in Munich and his brace last Wednesday has been negligible. He was largely anonymous during the World Cup; okay, he scored against Denmark and Brazil, but can you honestly say he made any other contribution during the tournament? His off the ball work was lacklustre at best. And during the Euro 2004 campaign so far it’s been much the same story.
In the last two years the only noteworthy contributions he has made have been a) being in the right place at the right time three times during a match which England utterly dominated, and b) turning on the style for 45 minutes against a team which seemed intent on coming to stifle us. No matter what gloss anyone puts on it, that’s just not good enough.
By: Hand87_5 - 18th June 2003 at 19:19
Originally posted by ageorge
Bloody hell Steve , look at the Premiership , it’s the best League in Europe by far and there is plenty of young talent coming through , England has a wealth of riches when it comes to footballers , be optimistic !!!! .
Alastair , I don’t agree about your vision of the premiership.
However I think if it is not the best one in europe, it’s the most interesting , by far.
By: ageorge - 18th June 2003 at 18:46
Bloody hell Steve , look at the Premiership , it’s the best League in Europe by far and there is plenty of young talent coming through , England has a wealth of riches when it comes to footballers , be optimistic !!!! .
What domestic team do you follow ??? , I’m a Motherwell supporter , we finished bottom of the Premier and we were only saved from relegation due to the fact that the team who won the 1st Division ( Falkirk) don’t have a stadium which meets the Premier regulations , watch our young centre-forward James McFadden – he’s bound to get snapped up by a big club shortly. Look out for Kenny Miller down at Wolves – he’s a quality striker – he should be a permanent fixture up front with Mc Fadden in the future .
By: mongu - 18th June 2003 at 18:38
Steve, why is Owen a liability? He single handedly rescued England last Wednesday against the Slovaks.
By: Hand87_5 - 18th June 2003 at 09:08
Right , this looks like the dream team right now.
However I do believe that they had much better to hire a good defender: Hierro is a shame !!!
By: Arabella-Cox - 17th June 2003 at 23:14
Talking of Beckham, for those who are interested (I’m not), BBC are reporting he’s signed for Real Madrid tonight.
By: EGNM - 17th June 2003 at 23:13
interesting topic – first of all we have to go through Englands real worry – QUALIFICATION!!!!!
By: Arabella-Cox - 17th June 2003 at 23:04
Originally posted by mongu
I don’t know Steve – Beckham will still be OK at 30 or 31. Owen will be at his peak and Rooney will have matured a bit.Gerrard will be in his peak also.
The only areas of doubt are at the back – especially between the sticks.
The only two sides which we should fear are Brazil and Italy – the German and Argy complexes have been well and truly exorcised by Sven.
I’m quite happy with how the back will look in three years time – Robinson between the stick, if not him then Chris Kirkland. Brown, Ferdinand, Southgate will still be there, Mills, Cole. That’s off the top of my head.
Midfield’s a big problem. Gerrard will be world class if only he can remain clear of injury. The current English domestic season won’t help. Scholes and Beckham… not sure if they’ll still be up to it. Bearing in mind Shearer called it a day at 30 to prolong the pound signs at club level… Where are the talented early twenties that we need to have breaking through about now?
Up front, I have very little confidence. Owen’s a liability even now. Rooney shows good promise, but so did Owen at that age. Let’s not pin all our hopes on Rooney just yet, he’s still only a kid. Vassell’s a passing phase, Heskey’s, well, Heskey. The only English striker I see at the moment who I think will be good enough in three years time is James Beattie. But he won’t get picked for England because he doesn’t play for Liverpool or Man Yoo. :rolleyes:
By: ageorge - 17th June 2003 at 23:00
Originally posted by mongu
Alastair, it’s a pleasure to meet a decent Scot!
Hoi , I’m bloody BRITISH , I didn’t vote for devolution , Scottish Parliament – look at the costs now – bloody scandal.
By: mongu - 17th June 2003 at 22:53
Alastair, it’s a pleasure to meet a decent Scot!
By: ageorge - 17th June 2003 at 22:49
Originally posted by SteveYoung
Can’t see it happening – the best chance we have had for years was last year, but England were scuppered by a freak goal against Brazil. Bearing in mind we’d lost Neville and Gerrard to injury before the tournament, Beckham and Owen were off form, and the squad included such world beaters as Heskey (insert irony smiley here), getting to the World Cup Quarter Finals was a fantastic achievement, and as I say it was only that Ronaldinho goal which put us out. If we’d beaten Brazil, I could see us winning the whole thing. Thing is, in three years time, a lot of England’s key players will be past their prime, or their clubs will contrive to scupper their international careers.
5hit , best chance we ever have of even getting to the second stage was in 1978 , 50,000 fans turned up at Hampden to wave the team goodbye , they came home on the next plane , Wullie Johnston flew home by himself !!!! .
England has a wealth of talent and a decent manager , however freak goals are a thing of luck , one day that luck has to turn !!! .
By: mongu - 17th June 2003 at 22:46
I don’t know Steve – Beckham will still be OK at 30 or 31. Owen will be at his peak and Rooney will have matured a bit.
Gerrard will be in his peak also.
The only areas of doubt are at the back – especially between the sticks.
The only two sides which we should fear are Brazil and Italy – the German and Argy complexes have been well and truly exorcised by Sven.
By: Arabella-Cox - 17th June 2003 at 22:40
Can’t see it happening – the best chance we have had for years was last year, but England were scuppered by a freak goal against Brazil. Bearing in mind we’d lost Neville and Gerrard to injury before the tournament, Beckham and Owen were off form, and the squad included such world beaters as Heskey (insert irony smiley here), getting to the World Cup Quarter Finals was a fantastic achievement, and as I say it was only that Ronaldinho goal which put us out. If we’d beaten Brazil, I could see us winning the whole thing. Thing is, in three years time, a lot of England’s key players will be past their prime, or their clubs will contrive to scupper their international careers.
By: ageorge - 17th June 2003 at 22:34
As a Brit first and a Scot second , I sincerely hope so – there’s bugger all chance of the Scot’s getting there so I would like to see England do well.
And while I’m ranting Alex Ferguson should kiss Beckham’s arse , make up and keep him , if Beckham doesn’t want to go why should he .
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June 17, 2003 at 10:30 pm