I can not believe its 16 years since Freddie left us, A true legend and a fine showman, I only wish i had seen him live.
As to Paul Rodgers is a fine showman too but the i personally feel its a shame that Brian May and Rodger Taylor still try to cling on the the Queen name instead of moving on under a different name with Paul on lead vocals, I have no problem with the guys touring with Paul and doing the classics and i am quiet pleased to hear they are to do a new album, But for me its not Queen without Freddie.

Its a bit of a debate really but for me you can replace almost anybody in a band but for the lead singer/frontman(Genesis excepted as they did ok with Phil Collins replaceing Peter Gabriel), I agree a band is the sum of its parts but most bands are reconised by the singer.
Imagine bands like “The Who” without Rodger Daltrey, “The Rolling Stones” without Mick Jagger or “U2” without Bono, I can’t.

It looks like both Martin O’Neill and Jose Mourhino have ruled themselves out of the England job(although some places say Jose was very intrested that the fans wanted him), And that to the fact that both Sam Allardyce and Alan Curbishley have already said they do not want the job the list is getting smaller.
I think its a shame that its like this with good managers not wanting to be connected with the job but you can see why they feel that way with the way the press rip into you in that role.

I tried to get a ticket for the match and fortunately failed, if I had, and saw that team selection, I wouldn’t have bothered going anyway, it was doomed to fail.
I’ve been following football for 50 years, and at one time played myself in a top amature league, but recently the whole state of the game, the money issue, the excessive number of foreign players, etc etc has caused me to lose interest, my missus was even surprised that I bothered watching wednesdays joke on the TV.
So who takes over now, it has to be a Nottingham Forest connection, either Pierce, who at least has passion and an England background, or O’Neill, who is at least British and has a brain, which is what didn’t endear him to the awesome Mr Clough, Englands greatest loss as a manager, the FA could well be frightened of O’Neills intellect, he was studying law when Forest signed him in the 70’s, he won’t be manipulated, thats for sure.
On another note, I couldn’t get a ticket because areas are left unsold due to segregation issues, why wasn’t this considered when the stadium was designed, it’s bloody ridiculous.
Similarly I was under the understanding that the place had a sliding roof, if so why wasn’t it closed before the match, multi-million pound stadium with a crap pitch, what a joke, why didn’t they save a few quid and used the Cardiff Millenium stadium design, looks awesome to me, but just typical of the FA to get it wrong, the place should have been built well away from it’s current site anyway, trying to get through that area of London is not worth thinking about, made worse by the nearby location of IKEA, ever tried to get there on a match day.

What you have wrote just makes me think more are the FA really fit for purpose, The Wembley Stadium saga showed how inept they can be and the fact that you point out there are segreration issue’s with the stadium, How pathetic, How can this not have been part of the design process?.We are a laughing stock. The choice of Steve McClaren as manager was a bodge up job from the start and the fact we did not qualify lies in the FA hands more than in McClarens in my view, The whole thing leaves a bad taste really.

Its a difficult one but let me see if i can explain how i see it without confusing anybody including myself.
For me i would term a preserved aircraft as one that has been maintained in a stable condition, It may have been restored to get it to its current condition but there after i has been kept in that order, It must represent as close as possible to how the aircraft would have been in service and where possible contain as much of the original airframe as is available. A airframe is not being preserved if its condition is not kept stable and its detorating or rotting.

Quiet often a museum airframe maybe more original than a flightworthy one but both are preserved, The difference being the flying one is lightly to be a representation of the type where its not always feasable to use all the original airframe, But it still is being preserved in that condition.

Putting it another way over the years buildings like the Tower of London have been repaired and had restoration done to them but they are still being preserved, I don’t see Aircraft as much different.

But I dont think they are ashamed they still get paid 1000’s per week,all it is to them is a summer of to go shopping or Marbella for the hols,if they wanted it that much they would of split blood to win that match (Remmember Terry Butcher).Like I have said before under Sven and the muppet you did not need to be a good player or even be playiing well ,you just needed to be there
Maybe its time for a UK team ?

Paul

I would think a UK team would cause too many problems, Mainly on what nationalities get into the side etc, And really it would still end up with the same over paid players with no passion or pride unless of course we can turn out the Scots side in UK colours.

I feel honestly the Money and the foreign players in the premiership is ruining the game totally, I think each team in the premier should be forced to play a minimum of 7 English born players per game, Maybe this would give home grown talent a time to shine, There also should be a upper limit on transfer fee’s and wages, Its discusting the amount they get paid for what is just sport.

Reports are saying both Jose Mourinho and Martin O’Neil are not intrested in the job, To be fair you can understand many reasons why anybody would not want to do the job its a poisoned chalice for sure but going by the £2.5Million that Steve McClaren was given for doing absolutley s*d all its a fine tasting poison.
Its very fair to say that we did not deserve to qualify and we were poor through and through, But it is a dissapointment to see that none of our nations teams will be there next year, To be honest it will in the long term probably be a good thing where the England side is concerned, Maybe the FA will pull its finger out and make the decisions it needs to turn things around, The lack of passion in the team was pathetic and so unlike the Scots side who showed pride to wear there nations colours, The England players should be ashamed.

Just like everybody else here i can not say that was unexpected and i am glad to say Terry Venables has been sacked too, Which i think is a positive move.
Steve McClaren just was never good enough, But i don’t fully blame him for this failure though, Some of the blame should go to the team, It should be a honour to walk out wearing the England shirt and a matter of pride to try and achieve for the country but all these guys play much better for the club sides. The FA need to shoulder some of the blame too for not having the balls to make changes that will improve things for the national side, McClaren was a make do manager and that shows more than ever now.

The FA needs to be brave now and put things into place to limit the amount of foriegn players in Premier sides, Allow the England side to spend more time together team building, Play less money making friendlies(we all know this is just trying to recoup losses from the Wembley mess up), They also need to look at a inspirational manager for the team instead of a make do one, Trouble is that job is poisoned chalice and i don’t eny anybody who gets that role.
If the FA bodge this again we will just go from one losing streak to another, There is time until we need qualify for the world cup this time needs to be used to rebuild.

Happy Birthday mate.