England fans need to stop believing the press hype and accept that we are average on the world, and even European, stage
But its nice to believe. Don't you remember how let down you were when knew there wasn't a Father Christmas? Or even when your own kids stopped believing in him?
If you lose hope, what is left. England's football supporters certainly have lost all hope at the moment - if something isn't done soon, we'll be floundering in the same depths as our neighbours.
If you lose hope, what is left. England's football supporters certainly have lost all hope at the moment - if something isn't done soon, we'll be floundering in the same depths as our neighbours.
Bloody stupid if you ask me the lot of em. They have been CRAP for ages and ages and ages, always hyping themselves up. The fans are fecking daft to believe that shite. They are only an average team, have been for donkeys years and by the looks of it will be for many more donkeys, in fact talking of donkeys They are donkeys! Slainte
Buck up boys!
nil-nil against Israel...at least they didn't lose!
The big test comes Wednesday against mighty Andorra!
Kick it up in the air and hope Rooney can come up with it. 555!
Some on here say that English 'top' players won't play well for England because they are worried about injuries and are not being paid by the country but by their club - I think this may be true in the odd isolated case (e.g. Lampard), but in general I don't agree with that idea. If the England manager even suspects this is true of a player or group of players, firstly he should say so to the press and public, and secondly drop said players immediately. I believe previous England managers have adopted this approach if players have become too big for their boots, and I am sure the potential loss of sponsor money and the reaction of their own fans would give them something to think about, let alone their loss of face and prestige. One thing you can say about Beckham was that he always gave it his all, to the point (under Eriksson in the WC) where he was vomiting on the pitch; I think there are a number of other players with that committment, namely Terry, Carragher, Hargreaves and Rooney in particular, so I think directing the criticism at the players is wrong; with the last two England managers (at least) it has been the lack of man management and motivational skills, combined with poor tactical choices and team selection. I agree with Jockey in that the people who choose the managers are to blame, and they should be rightly villified by everyone as well. I doubt he would take the job even if he was offered it, but how about Sir Trevor Brooking? I know I am biased as a West Ham fan, but I think the man has been class in everything he has done before, although he has never managed a club (for more than a few games), but that hasn't seemed to really help the last few incumbents. I believe he would tell the FA, press, players and the club managers where to go if they messed him about, much like Sir Alf Ramsey did all those years ago. I don't really believe that McLaren will be sacked, and even if he were, that they would pick the right man next so it is just wishful thinking, but if the right man were in place, I do believe that England could win another major honour.
To be a good international team you either need lots of world class players or a manager who can turn the team into something that is more than the sum of its parts.
Rehagel did it with Greece, Bilic is doing it with Croatia this time round.
I don't think we've got that many world class players so we need a good manager to get them playing as a team, breaking opponents down and getting the job done. Scolari would do it for us and Hiddink's track record is unbelievable at getting teams playing well above their standard.
McClaren on the other hand, is, I think, well out of his depth.
What about peter wythe thailand have done buggerall since he left them he has a track record with NO wold class players in his team and he has experience
The job of England manager is a poisoned chalice the English gutter press see to that.How anyone can keep their mind on the job whilst the media are scrutunising their every move beggars belief.
Remember Brian Barwick going to Lisbon last year to talk to Scholari about the England job?The media made sure "Big Phil" knew what he was letting himself in for by camping outside his hotel and visiting his home and whilst they were there printed reports about his wife and even compared them to Sven and Nancy!
Scolari would have made a good England manager in my opinion,he has been there and done it,won the World Cup with Brazil and is now threatening to do the same with Portugal.
I loved it when he turned the job down in public citing the media as the main reason.
Unfortunately,there are very few sports journalists with regular columns who are worth reading as sensationalism is far more lucrative than the truth.One exception to this is the doyen of British sports writers Hugh Mcilvanney whose column I always read.
I have thought about other suitable candidates and subscribe to the popular view that he should be English but so far none have come to mind.
Let us hope that McClaren can turn things around.
sargeant wrote:What about peter wythe thailand have done buggerall since he left them he has a track record with NO wold class players in his team and he has experience
just a non football fanatics silly idea
Well Withe learned alot whilst working with one of the greats who new all about team work and not letting so called super stars get the limelight. Brian Clough
(from wilkpedia)
Mike Bassett: England Manager is a 2001 satirical comedy film directed by Steve Barron, following the fortunes of the manager of Division One football club Norwich City F.C., Mike Bassett, who having led his side to the 'Mr Clutch Cup', is appointed England manager.
The film takes the form of a fly-on-the-wall fictional documentary (mockumentary) following Bassett (played by Ricky Tomlinson) as he starts his international management career. Martin Bashir, well known as a journalist and presenter in real life, plays the interviewer and provides the voice-over, and the film features cameo appearances from Pelé and Ronaldo. The film satirises many targets, such as the mysterious figures who run the Football Association, the stereotypical view of an old-fashioned manager, and the tabloid press's unfailing habit of building the England team up so they can knock them down hard.
The film was followed by a TV series, Mike Bassett: Manager in 2006.
England manager Phil Cope suffers a heart attack during qualification for the World Cup, which started out well but has gone badly wrong of late. The FA heads meet to decide who should be the new England manager, but soon run into trouble. The most successful Premiership manager is Scottish (probably inspired by Sir Alex Ferguson), the second most successful is a former England captain and interested in the job, but the FA consider him too much of a "loudmouth" and refuse to consider him (a reference to the numerous times Brian Clough was refused the England job), while none of the other English managers in the Premiership are interested. They are forced to look to Division One, and Bassett.
Bassett takes over the England team and appoints his assistant manager Lonnie Urquart, who is very old fashioned in his beliefs, and Dave Dodds, an interesting character who once managed with Mike at Colchester United. The team need one win from three world cup qualifiers to get to the World Cup Finals in Brazil. With a squad featuring a pony-tailed goalkeeper, an alcoholic Geordie, a playboy midfielder and an extremely aggressive centre-back, he plays an old-fashioned 4-4-2 formation and attempts to bring football back to where it belongs. Unfortunately, he loses his first two games in charge and his managerial career is already on the rocks. Needing to beat Slovenia in the final qualifier to make it to Brazil, England can only manage a draw. However, a shock win by Luxembourg over Turkey sees them go through on goal difference. He and his team record the official England World Cup song with band Atomic Kitten, with compositions by "hellraiser" Keith Allen.
So England are on their way to Brazil. When they arrive, progress is not smooth as they start their tour by brawling with the Scottish and Irish teams. A difficult group stage sees them on the verge of heading home after they can only manage a goalless draw with unfancied Egypt before losing heavily to Mexico. Captain Gary Wackett is jailed for taking part in hooliganism, star striker Tonkinson accidentally gets involved in a drunken tryst with a transsexual, and when Mike mixes flaming sambucas with anti-depressants, it seems things can get no worse. To turn it around and get through to the second round, all England have to do is beat the old enemy, Argentina...
While Mike Bassett is an amalgam of all the worst characteristics of football managers, his style is probably most directly inspired by Kevin Keegan, who was generally seen as desperately short of tactical acumen during his tenure as England manager. Lonnie Urquart could have been inspired by Ron Atkinson, however the inspiration behind the character of Dave Dodds could well have come from the depiction of Phil Neal, one of the assistant coaches during Graham Taylor's spell as England manager. In a Channel 4 documentary about Taylor's spell in charge (itself a clear inspiration for this movie), Neal was portrayed as always sitting next to Taylor on the bench and just repeating many of his tactical instructions. This characteristic is shared by Dave Dodds.
Many of the players are clearly inspired by real life characters. Gary Wackett is inspired by two footballing hard men, Stuart Pearce and Terry Butcher. Harpsie, supposedly with a glamorous wife and a playboy lifestyle, seems to be inspired by David Beckham. More obviously, Kevin Tonkinson, the Geordie footballing genius who's not renowned for his intelligence and has an unfortunate fondness for drink, owes his existence to Paul Gascoigne. The team's goalkeeper does not have a speaking role in the film, but bears a striking resemblance to David Seaman. Smallsy, seems to have a resemblance to Emile Heskey, as his fondness to score seems to have dried up.
Trivia...
* At the end of the film, England progress through the group stage thanks to an unexpected victory over Argentina, before losing in the semi-finals to Brazil, who go on to win the World Cup. This actually happened in the real 2002 World Cup, though England made their exit a round earlier in the quarter finals.
* One of the England players is portrayed by former professional footballer Scott Mean, who played for Bournemouth and West Ham before becoming an actor. He has appeared in Dream Team as well as a number of commercials.
* Early in the film, a very brief football action clip is shown, supposedly of Mike Bassett playing in goal, where he fails to connect with a backpass which goes into his own net for an own goal. This was a real clip from a Football League match in the early 1990s, featuring Barnet goalkeeper Gary Phillips. Like Bassett, Phillips was portly and sported a moustache.
[quote="Jockey"]If anyone gets the sack, surely the first people should be the men or man who appointed McLaren. I believe Sven was paid millions AFTER he left. Was it the same man (or people who appointed Sven, AND Taylor AND Keegan?) The best boss you've ever had I can think of is Bobby Robson. That's going back a bit. The men who appointed McLaren haven't got an excuse. They pay off a failed manager of whom they paid millions and then appoint his second in command! Come on! Martin O'Neill applied for the job. Somehow you can imagine a combination of Martin and the England players lifting a major trophy. All you can imagine from McLaren is poor excuses. Why can't the people in the "ivory towers" see that. (On saying that I still think England will qualify).[/quote]
Hey Jockey
Somehow Maclaren gets the same salary almost as Sven as his agent was a good negotiator and as FA had egg on their faces over Scholari they went for it.Golden rule in SPORT never appoint 2nd in command or coach as their real purpose is the liason between manager and players.Remember Andy Robinson in Rugby.
I emailed my son after first game of preceding double header which I think was Macedonia and Croatia and said we should play under 21s after their draw against West Germany.Youth plays for everything.You only have to look at first Carling cup game Spurs Arsenal.Much as I hated watching it,Arsenal youth came back from 2 nil down to draw and they deserved it.Sorry Jimmy Greaves but its a fact.
But hey dont I remember all those press reports a while back.WE MUST HAVE AN ENGLISH MANAGER.Well we have got one .Who got Nancy
Well........................Half Time against the might of Andorra. Just 3 shots on target. The players are definitely better than that - it has to be the way they're being directed to play by McLaren!
Where do they go from here?
In an earlier post I said:
if something isn't done soon, we'll be floundering in the same depths as our neighbours
We are there. This must be worse than the Scotland/Faroe Islands result. McLaren should be renamed Jack Russell - can't stoop any lower!
Where do they go from here? 
555!
How about Mike Bassett?