nasirkasmani
Sergeant Major
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2007
- Messages
- 1,872
Talking about England,
here's a a great point read from an England fan -
" Okay, so you're an England fan and you've been watching all the Euro 2008 games. Have you done what I've been doing? No, not that thing with the velvet gloves and baby oil, I mean the one where you sit there after the game and say, "Christ, England couldn't have beaten either of them."
I have. Every **** game.
Watching Euro 2008 should have been an eye opener for all England fans not yet convinced of our sub-standard national team. I don't recall a time when England's national side has been so adrift from the rest of Europe's standards.
If anyone thought our failure to qualify was some sort of fluke or just because Steve McClaren was rubbish then the last three weeks should have made everyone realise that England's playing standards are a long way behind the European par.
Side after side has played the kind of flowing, controlled football that has been beyond England for years. Side after side has shown the kind of grit and bottle that has deserted England for years. Even in the games that were a bit boring, such as Italy v Spain, the Italian defence was wonderfully hard-faced and resolute even when under-strength. It's impossible to imagine England defending like that or anywhere near it. Sides such as Russia and Turkey even look much fitter than England ever do at a tournament.
While England's absence has allowed us to enjoy the tournament without tension, it may have also allowed to us to more impartially and accurately judge the form of other countries without pride, false confidence or bitter cynicism clouding our judgement.
And that should be a sobering experience for all the people both inside and outside the English game that pump up the top English players as 'world class' throughout the Premier League season.
It seems that alongside the stars of Europe there are also plenty of other un-glamorous, relatively obscure players like CSKA's Yuri Zhirkov. No hype, no bombast, no unbearable egos, just a top-quality player doing his job. We have few who can measure up to that standard on any level.
I wonder if there's there a chance that having seen Europe's finest this month that both England fans and media stop so highly rating England's so-called 'stars.'
It would certainly be healthy if we could.
Sadly, the majority still buys the hype about England players. The majority thinks England has 'world class' players and a bit of extra passion is all that's needed for us to win something. We won't be long into the new season before we'll hear people saying 'England should be beating shortly before we lose to them or scratch an awful draw. Some people can't quite come to terms with the idea that England is at best an average, limited side.
But surely it's never been more obvious that our finest players look like second rate, crude imitations of world-class players compared to so many on display this month. Even sides such as Holland and Portugal and Croatia that have already gone out have all actually played a couple of great games, some great football and utterly thrilled us. England just can't do that.
Ironically, though full of talent, the French actually performed very like England; listless, more concerned about their own reputations than team-work, poorly managed and poorly motivated. But at least France has a record of winning things.
People from outside England don't rate our players as highly as some fans and our media do. They know England don't actually under-perform as such, rather the way they perform most of the time is actually how good or more accurately bad they really are.
I live in Edinburgh and I can tell you that the Scots certainly know this. They can see how over-rated England's players are and also how deluded England fans are about the quality of the side and it's genuinely not just Auld Enemy rivalry. I think all across Europe we have been rumbled. Look at Slaven Bilic, he knows. Maybe the only people who don't accept the truth are those who rely on brown-nosing the England players for a living.
While Euro 2008 has been a thrilling, magnificent festival of football, it has only served to prove how far England have slipped behind the rest even in just the last two years in terms of quality of individual players and more importantly still, team work and team ethic.
It's to be hoped that this is obvious to CFabio apello and that as a consequence he starts picking teams that can work together first and foremost, and abandons picking the same old squads of highly-paid, high-profile individuals who have proven to be inadequate time and again. We need something nearer to revolution than evolution.
Had England qualified for this tournament, it's quite likely we'd have been embarrassingly poor. It's not hard to imagine us losing all three games just as we did in 1988.
But here's a glimmer of hope. After that 1988 debacle, two years later we got to a World Cup semi-final. Significantly though, 50% of the 1988 squad had been replaced by 1990. We need a similar wholesale clearout if England is to even qualify in two years' time.
I just hope Capello as an outsider and with no vested interest in stroking the players' egos sees this clearly because if he doesn't, we'll be enjoying the 2010 World Cup without England."
here's a a great point read from an England fan -
" Okay, so you're an England fan and you've been watching all the Euro 2008 games. Have you done what I've been doing? No, not that thing with the velvet gloves and baby oil, I mean the one where you sit there after the game and say, "Christ, England couldn't have beaten either of them."
I have. Every **** game.
Watching Euro 2008 should have been an eye opener for all England fans not yet convinced of our sub-standard national team. I don't recall a time when England's national side has been so adrift from the rest of Europe's standards.
If anyone thought our failure to qualify was some sort of fluke or just because Steve McClaren was rubbish then the last three weeks should have made everyone realise that England's playing standards are a long way behind the European par.
Side after side has played the kind of flowing, controlled football that has been beyond England for years. Side after side has shown the kind of grit and bottle that has deserted England for years. Even in the games that were a bit boring, such as Italy v Spain, the Italian defence was wonderfully hard-faced and resolute even when under-strength. It's impossible to imagine England defending like that or anywhere near it. Sides such as Russia and Turkey even look much fitter than England ever do at a tournament.
While England's absence has allowed us to enjoy the tournament without tension, it may have also allowed to us to more impartially and accurately judge the form of other countries without pride, false confidence or bitter cynicism clouding our judgement.
And that should be a sobering experience for all the people both inside and outside the English game that pump up the top English players as 'world class' throughout the Premier League season.
It seems that alongside the stars of Europe there are also plenty of other un-glamorous, relatively obscure players like CSKA's Yuri Zhirkov. No hype, no bombast, no unbearable egos, just a top-quality player doing his job. We have few who can measure up to that standard on any level.
I wonder if there's there a chance that having seen Europe's finest this month that both England fans and media stop so highly rating England's so-called 'stars.'
It would certainly be healthy if we could.
Sadly, the majority still buys the hype about England players. The majority thinks England has 'world class' players and a bit of extra passion is all that's needed for us to win something. We won't be long into the new season before we'll hear people saying 'England should be beating shortly before we lose to them or scratch an awful draw. Some people can't quite come to terms with the idea that England is at best an average, limited side.
But surely it's never been more obvious that our finest players look like second rate, crude imitations of world-class players compared to so many on display this month. Even sides such as Holland and Portugal and Croatia that have already gone out have all actually played a couple of great games, some great football and utterly thrilled us. England just can't do that.
Ironically, though full of talent, the French actually performed very like England; listless, more concerned about their own reputations than team-work, poorly managed and poorly motivated. But at least France has a record of winning things.
People from outside England don't rate our players as highly as some fans and our media do. They know England don't actually under-perform as such, rather the way they perform most of the time is actually how good or more accurately bad they really are.
I live in Edinburgh and I can tell you that the Scots certainly know this. They can see how over-rated England's players are and also how deluded England fans are about the quality of the side and it's genuinely not just Auld Enemy rivalry. I think all across Europe we have been rumbled. Look at Slaven Bilic, he knows. Maybe the only people who don't accept the truth are those who rely on brown-nosing the England players for a living.
While Euro 2008 has been a thrilling, magnificent festival of football, it has only served to prove how far England have slipped behind the rest even in just the last two years in terms of quality of individual players and more importantly still, team work and team ethic.
It's to be hoped that this is obvious to CFabio apello and that as a consequence he starts picking teams that can work together first and foremost, and abandons picking the same old squads of highly-paid, high-profile individuals who have proven to be inadequate time and again. We need something nearer to revolution than evolution.
Had England qualified for this tournament, it's quite likely we'd have been embarrassingly poor. It's not hard to imagine us losing all three games just as we did in 1988.
But here's a glimmer of hope. After that 1988 debacle, two years later we got to a World Cup semi-final. Significantly though, 50% of the 1988 squad had been replaced by 1990. We need a similar wholesale clearout if England is to even qualify in two years' time.
I just hope Capello as an outsider and with no vested interest in stroking the players' egos sees this clearly because if he doesn't, we'll be enjoying the 2010 World Cup without England."
