petef
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Post by petef on Sept 16, 2012 13:58:10 GMT
Yesterdya Paul Scholes scored against Wigan on what was his 700th appearance for Man Utd, an amazing feat at any level of the game. Well done to Paul and indeed to the other greying old man of football Ryan Giggs bit isn't this a sad reflection on the culture of the English game at the highest level ? Where are the "World class"young players challenging for their shirts? Personally and for all of the euphoria surrounding this incredible feat I believe to be a sad reflection on the state of our game, particularly at International level. To be competitive or stand any chance of winning any international tournament we need clubs like Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal etc bringing on our own talent and eventually producing those World class players. The money involved at the top of the game and the desire for instant success coupled with a fear of failure has bred this culture and the longer it continues the weaker we will become as a top footballing nation. The odd good or very good international player will no doubt emerge from this muddle but the chances are we will just continue to produce more Andy Carroll's and Tom Cleverlie's and the demise of our game and quality at International level will continue. Paul Scholes 37 years old and plays his 700th game for Man Utd . Something to celebrate or mourn?
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on Sept 16, 2012 14:51:32 GMT
England got very lucky in stumbling on a very talented generation of players - the likes of Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Owen and others. For one reason or another, it never came together for them at major tournaments, but they retained their place in the team for years, and now that they're getting on, the youngsters coming behind (who aren't quite as gifted) haven't had their chance
The other problem is all the way from junior levels to the top level, physicality has been prided over technical ability and intelligence - it's why Scott Parker was in the England team ahead of Michael Carrick. Gerrard too is a bit like that - too many glory balls, not enough intelligence. There was one article I read recently (I think it was in The Blizzard) that suggested Roy of the Rovers was to blame, because it told a whole generation that it didn't matter how you played for 89 minutes because it would all come good in the last minute with a bit of luck - which is of course ridiculous
There has, to a certain extent, also been a lack of coherence and consistency in the tactics the various England coaches have employed - too many shifts in style. The lack of time players get together at international level these days doesn't help - hence why a Spain side built around Real Madrid and Barcelona players works, because most of the players play together anyway. If I was England coach now, I would look at Manchester United very closely, and build the team around those players (Rooney, Cleverley, Carrick, Young, Smalling, Jones etc), with a few others thrown in from Man City, Chelsea and elsewhere. But Roy Hodgson is doing a decent job at the moment
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2012 6:54:50 GMT
When Man City last won the League in 1969 their default team was as follows:
Mulhearn: Book Pardoe: Doyle Heslop Oakes: Summerbee Bell Lee Young Coleman.
Everyone of that XI was English but such was the depth of talent available to Alf Ramsey that only Bell and Lee became regular members of the international squad. Summerbee managed a couple of games but that fine defender Mick Doyle only, if memory serves, gained one cap and the rest of them none at all. Compare the forward line of Lee, Summerbee and Young with the 2012 Champions' choices: Aguero, Dzeko, Tevez and we clearly see why England's international prospects are so poor. And it's not looking good for the boys in red, green or navy blue either.
The steamrolling Leeds side of the same era:
Sprake: Reaney Cooper: Bremner Charlton Hunter: Lorimer Clarke Jones Giles Gray. Sub: Madeley.
Every player an international for either England, Wales, Scotland or the Republic of Ireland.
In the late sixties and early seventies there were some players who would, I reckon, walk into the England side now and be greeted as gods but were rarely, if ever, seen at international level such was the extent of the competition for places. Charlie George, Tony Currie, Alan Hudson, Billy Bonds are obvious examples but it wouldn't take long to think of more. Eddie Gray was by no means a certainty to get into the Scotland side while Wales had some brilliant talent to choose from including Ron and Wyn Davies, Toshack, Terry Hennessey and Mike England. Northern Ireland, currently so rubbish they can't even beat Luxembourg at home, had such geniuses as George Best, Derek Dougan and Pat Jennings in their side.
Rather than looking to South America for talent Liverpool picked up Kevin Keegan and Ray Clemence from Scunthorpe and Ian Rush from Chester. Gordon Banks started out at Chesterfield, Denis Law at Huddersfield, Archie Gemmill at Preston and Roy McFarland at Tranmere. These days, of all the superclubs whose antics bore us to death in the damn Premiership, it's very rare that any acknowledge that there is talent in the lower divisions of the League which might be worth tapping into, instead or as well as the stars from overseas who hog the headlines every week on Match of the Day.
The England World Cup winning side all worked their way up after being signed from less glamorous sides or via their youth teams but none ever had to sit on the bench for 90 minutes while the latest import from Uruguay or Argentina took their place on the field. Apart from Banks, the Charltons and Bobby Moore I reckon that none of that winning XI would be guaranteed a regular place at the weekend if they were playing in the modern day Premiership, and therein, in my opinion anyway, lies the problem for England, Scotland, Wales and the two Irelands alike.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2012 10:15:17 GMT
I can't say I really follow the England team too closely these days. Nor have I done so for the last fifteen years.
But it does seem there is the opportunity for younger players to play for the full international side much sooner than in the past. There's also the chance for them to play more international football than their predecessors because of the large number of qualifying games and the wider deployment of substitutes. To this effect I was taken by Wildebeeste's reference to how rarely Mike Summerbee played for England. Checking the facts, Summerbee appeared eight times for England. That's less than Danny Welbeck and only once more than Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain. On the surface that strikes me as something positive.
The downside is that, even after being capped by England, players are not automatically first choices for their club teams. That would have been wholly and utterly unthinkable back in the mists of time when a young Wildebeeste was able to recite complete team line-ups. The reason, of course, is to do with the multi-nationalism of the game - it really is a classic example of an international free-market economy - linked with squad systems and team rotation.
So you get a situation where it's possible for a player on loan to play for England. That might not be a bad thing if it's a young player gaining regular experience at the same level of his parent club. In fact it may be a mightily good thing. But,in the historical context, it's an amazing thought.
Then you have examples of players not making it at the largest clubs, being moved on and still being part of the England squad. Andy Carroll didn't crack it at Liverpool and is now with a more modest club by Premier League standards. But will that blitz his England prospects? There's no reason why it should, I suppose, but - again - that's an indication of change within the Premier League.
Indeed, it's worth asking how England would do in the Premier League these days. Actually that's always been a tempting question. Would, for example, England's 1966 World Cup team have performed better over forty-two games than the Liverpool team that won the league in 1965/66? Or the Leeds side that finished second? Or Manchester United in fourth place? It's not automatically true they would have done and, besides, it's always a moot point as to how international teams compare to the best club sides (Spain and Barcelona anybody?). Yet, even from my detached and half-interested perspective, I wouldn't imagine the present England team would do particularly well in the Premier League. Maybe that talks in equal measures about the strength of the league and the internationalisation of the clubs as well as structural weaknesses. I don't know enough to really argue it further.
Yet I'm struck by the strange case of Jack Butland who played in the Olympics and gained a full cap at the start of the season. Last year Butland didn't play a single game for his Championship parent club. Indeed, he only made his league debut for Birmingham this season. Last season, as we know, he played in our division. And, after keeping a clean sheet on his Cheltenham debut, I believe I'm right in saying he conceded his first goal in league football to Billy Bodin of Torquay United. Now Butland is a full-international. I'm not sure if that's due to him being a future superstar - which he may well be - enlightened selection and youth development policies (which I'd like to think is true) or a drastic weakness in a playing position where the English once considered themselves so strong. As usual, I guess it's a mixture but it's a telling story. The biggest certainty is that Butland needs as much first team football from now on - including the right move at the right time. It'll be interesting to see what happens next to Jack Butland.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2012 10:50:14 GMT
I'll immediately add to my previous posting with one further thought.
That is, to reflect back to Wildebeeste's post, to say that it's almost an essential truth of football that players once served a sort of lengthy apprenticeship before they played for England. They had to clock up a fair number of games for their club side and prove themselves to be better than the rest before they got the proverbial "nod". The set-up was different and under 23 international football - as opposed to under 21 - created a quite different development structure. Equally, with fewer substitutions - together with the policy of picking the best XI for the biggest friendlies and ones only just short of that for the others - international caps were at a premium. The best left-back of the time would win loads of caps; the second-best nine or ten if he was lucky; the third two or three; the fourth maybe none. Thus you could compile excellent XIs of uncapped players and many a championship-winning team - as Wildebeeste has illustrated - would have non-capped English players of considerable repute. The few players capped before the age of twenty-one were invariably exceptional.
But things have changed and maybe it's more enlightened. It's not so much a case of serving an apprenticeship but parallel development. So, I guess, if a young player is capable of playing in the Premier League - and is sufficiently more promising than his peers - then he's also ready to make the odd appearance for England on the basis that it is broadly the same standard. In this way we shouldn't be surprised if so-and-so only starts half-a-dozen times for Arsenal in the year when he wins three caps. And, if he by-passes the under 21s to win a full cap before later playing for the under 21s, then so be it. That lack of first-team football may still seem strange for a full international but it makes sense in the developmental phase. It becomes a different issue later.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2012 13:50:01 GMT
Indeed, it's worth asking how England would do in the Premier League these days. Actually that's always been a tempting question. Would, for example, England's 1966 World Cup team have performed better over forty-two games than the Liverpool team that won the league in 1965/66? Or the Leeds side that finished second? Or Manchester United in fourth place? It's not automatically true they would have done and, besides, it's always a moot point as to how international teams compare to the best club sides (Spain and Barcelona anybody?). Yet, even from my detached and half-interested perspective, I wouldn't imagine the present England team would do particularly well in the Premier League. Maybe that talks in equal measures about the strength of the league and the internationalisation of the clubs as well as structural weaknesses. I don't know enough to really argue it further. I'd guess that if Scotland FC were in the English League they would hovering around the in the relegation zone in the second tier these days, and yet the great Celtic side of 1967 won the European Cup with a team who were all born in the West of Scotland. Where did all the talent go? A vegetarian haggis to anyone who comes up with the answer but somehow it seems that, like West Indian youngsters and cricket, Scottish lads are no longer captivated by football. Maybe the fact that the Scottish League is full of second rate players from exotic lands rather than Glaswegians has something to do with it. Plus the loss of the Home International Championship, when the match against England was the one occasion guaranteed to galvanise the Scots. Wales would possibly be Third Division play off material but Northern Ireland would struggle to take a point away from Plainmoor or Home Park at the moment.
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JamesB
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Post by JamesB on Sept 21, 2012 16:13:16 GMT
The things I would add that have been hinted at already:
- England play a lot more internationals that they used to, as well as the fact that international squads are bigger and more substitutes can be used (especially for friendlies). Friendlies see more experimentation and more "injuries" beforehand. Hence why Gareth Barry has picked up 53 caps despite only ever being a semi-regular in the first XI
- Conversely, England managers over the last decade have stuck with the same bunch of core players - Lampard and Gerrard are, bafflingly, still the first choice centre-midfielders, while Terry still holds the fort at the back and until recently was joined by Rio Ferdinand. Up front it's usually Rooney + AN Other. Beckham and Ashley Cole have picked up over 100 caps as well. So a lot of the caps players like Barry, Wright-Phillips, Peter "He Who Only Score Against Awful National Teams But Still Amass 22 Goals For His Country" Crouch and other relatively mediocre players have had have come through friendlies and sub appearances, and the same is going for many of the younger players. A whole generation has lost its chance to regularly appear for England because of reliance on the same old (gifted) faces and inconsistent selection policy
So I don't think those players in the 60s would jump straight in the side. They would end up like the likes of Carrick and Parker - occasionally getting a sub appearance against Liechtenstein or maybe a start in a friendly against Trinidad & Tobago. They'd have more caps than they actually did but only by default
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2012 16:24:10 GMT
I reckon Wales and Northern Ireland are slightly better than Wildebeeste suggests. But not by a great deal.
Running a Northern Ireland team, in particular, seems an uphill struggle these days. Not only is it susceptible to its best players increasingly playing lower down the English leagues but it's a small place anyway: 1.8 m people which isn't too much more than Devon and Cornwall combined. Then it has the problem that its' footballers are also qualified to play for the neighbours. Look at the demography and you suspect that around 40% of the population may seriously consider that option if it was available to them as footballers. I know I would, because political considerations aside, playing for or supporting the Republic of Ireland strikes me as fun compared to the dourness of being associated with Norn Iron. I can see why players such as Eunan O'Kane have followed that path especially since their communities would have been caught up in the craic of Ireland getting to those World Cup and European Championship finals. I'm almost tempted to enquire as to why Northern Ireland doesn't just pack it in - in both football and all aspects of life - but I know carrying on is important to a million of those 1.8 million people. And some of them carry umbrellas which may give me a nasty prod. If you follow my drift.
Scotland may not be Championship relegation material but they're definitely Championship level. You only have to see where their players play and to which size of club they migrate, even from Rangers and Celtic. I love Scottish football but what a bloody mess. I don't think it's been quite the same since that day a few years back when they went in to an international match with an Argyle player wearing the number nine shirt. At least it was Plymouth Argyle rather than Argyll.
All of which suggests that international football is often very ordinary football that shouldn't be portrayed as something that's on another plane. That's fair enough, surely. It doesn't have to be good; it's just two countries putting out representative teams to play each other.
But the question remains about our own international football policy following the forthcoming international recognition of the People's Republic of South Devon. I'm arguing for this to be based on the TQ postcode area which, I think, brings in South Brent and Chagford. Stefano is over the border in Ivybridge, so we'll need him to move so he can head up the disciplinary apparatus.
Now, by my reckoning, that gives us at least 250,000 people which is enough to give the likes of Andorra, the Faroes and San Marino a good stuffing. I'm sure Mervyn Benney will happily take on the role of president of the PRSDFA and there's some excellent talent around the Devon FA and SDL who can administer at international level. Playing wise we've got Dan Gosling and we can easily naturalise Garry Monk and Mike Williamson even if they weren't born in our democratic republic. Mark Ellis likewise will qualify by residence and education although he was born in Plymouth. He'll be the People's Captain naturally. Ashley Yeoman will fit nicely alongside Gosling in midfield and we can use Kettering's Ben Gerring and Ed Palmer in defence. Also, with Truro struggling, some of the PRSD lads down there might be moving back to more local clubs. Admittedly we're a bit short on numbers so we'd probably have to draw on a few Bastows with Mark Loram lining up as the oldest player ever to appear in a World Cup qualifier. Robbie Herrera has agreed to be the international team manager so we're sorted there.
I'm anticipating Plainmoor becoming the national stadium but politics are likely to intervene. As we aim to be an ecofriendly, broadly socialist republic there's a strong case for making Totnes the capital. That may point to a national stadium in TQ9. Equally there's an argument for a Brasilia or Canberra-style purpose-built capital city on a greenfield site near somewhere like Broadhempston or Ipplepen. I guess that would be the perfect opportunity for a wholly new stadium.
But, on balance, I believe Newton Abbot should be our capital because - as we all know - it's the beating heart of South Devon in reach of moor, sea, towns and countryside. Forde House would be my parliament building and Coach Road the national stadium.
Torquay United could be a thorny issue. Would they remain in English football or join the FIFA-recognised Trago Mills South Devon National Football League which claims heritage back to 1902. Or 1903. Make that 1903 so we can have a 110th anniversary match against Brazil next year. It's too late for this.
Get Torquay United on board and we can bring Champions League football to Plainmoor. I'm sure we can see off teams from Latvia , Iceland or wherever in those July and August qualifiers. Group stages - here we come! That means leaving the Europa League to Buckland Athletic with them benefitting from a Thursday night football deal with PRSDTV.
As for the wider political dimension I favour the idea of a figure head presidency style. There don't appear to be many outstanding candidates I'm afraid. How about Jack Critchlow who has written so many good letters to the Herald Express over the years? Alpine Joe can be our honorary consul in Cornwall. As for the London embassy, we may have to settle for somewhere like Holloway or elsewhere in north London rather than Mayfair. I'm sure there are a few of our citizens in those parts with the diplomatic skills to successfully represent our interests.
Ruritania? Yep, we can beat them too.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2012 0:32:10 GMT
An interesting analysis of how things have developed on the International scene from our northern friends Barton Downes and Wilderbeeste. The short answer to the reason behind the poor supply of English talent in our top division can be provided in one word: socialism. However, I will expand on things a little further as well as delving into my old scrapbook so that Big Jack can give us his mid 1970's Sheffield perspective on the crisis he so prophetically foresaw. What a fine team Manchester City had in the late 1960's. With good English players whose names we have no trouble recalling even now. Yet, as today, it was horses for courses back then, and to be first past the championship winning post in 1967/68 required a very different breed of 'horse' to the one that crossed the line first in the same colours in 2011/12. If we look back to that first era it was a time when pitches were heavy mud heaps for months on end. On other occasions the ground was so hard that the ball would bounce over your head. It was a long physical battle to the extent that you could half murder an opponent before thoughts of issuing a yellow card would be considered. Only one substitution allowed, so you had to field warhorses who could battle through 90 minutes every time; no squad rotation or bringing your delicate foreign flower off after the hour mark. It was no place for foreign talent. Chopped in half by Tommy Smith or Peter Storey, Pukka pie and yorkshire pudding as the staple diet, no skype to chat to the family, and a three week journey on a boat made it impossible to go home to South America for your Mum's birthday. Therefore it was teams such as the bunch of nasty thuggish bast*rds assembled by Revie that spent season after season near the top of the table. The insular approach prevailed and the 1970's saw us continue as 'Team GB' in the English leagues as we steadily started slipping backwards. England not even managing to qualify for the world cup finals of 1974 or '78. The big name players from our leagues who were scottish and did get there were shown to be severely lagging behind the quality that leagues in other parts of the world were producing for their national teams. The game of course changed considerably and left us behind. Wonderful playing surfaces became commonplace on which skilful players could thrive. Those players also benefitted enormously from the clamp down on foul play and aggressive challenges. Our ability to produce players who could plow their way through mud for 60 games a season was now proving to be no advantage whatsoever. Big Jack alerted us to the warning signs as far back as the mid 1970's, but it was at the very time when Britain's state schooling system was taking it's early steps towards it's 'all must have prizes' philosophy, or shunning competition all together. As we headed into the 1980's the 'competition is bad' dogma gained ground, health and safety grew more tenticles, the playing fields were being sold off, the NUT was frowning on teachers giving their time free of charge on Saturday mornings to organise sport, yes the rot had well and truly set in. By the mid 1980's it seemed that every school teacher at primary or secondary level was female - a football was a foreign object to them and the game not surprisingly suffered as a result at schoolboy level. If you were allowed a game of football it would be 'mixed' with the girls and more often than not a tennis ball would be used to ensure that no one got hurt. Naturally you were never going to produce a new generation of Summerbee's, Bell's, and Lee's in that environment. Kicking the foreign players out of British football would have rectified nothing; it was the left wing teachers and their politically correct agendas that we should have been getting rid of. If by some miracle Summerbee, Lee and Bell did turn up in today's game it is true that there may well not be room for them in the current Manchester City team. So let them join Bolton instead (doesn't Kevin Davies bear some resemblance to Franny Lee anyway ? and he's enjoyed plenty of years of premier league football). Would they not have got into the Norwich team or the Wigan team, or they could have joined Blackpool and kept them in the Premier League if they particularly wanted to remain in Lancashire. Alternatively, if players from other countries can travel to play their football then so can ours. Let our players dominate the Portugese, German or Italian leagues if they are the budding stars they claim, but just aren't getting a look in at the Premier League. 'Man of the Moment' Andy Murray's parents accepted that the coaching and opportunities were rubbish in Britain, and so packed him off at age 15 to Spain in order to reach the right level in his sport.Travel has never been easier (if it wasn't for those Government imposed airport checks) so if our talented young players don't see opportunities opening in Premier League football, go and show you are better than the Italian youngsters in Serie A or the Spanish youngsters in La Liga. If we're searching for the root causes of the poorly performing England team, I'd suggest the problem is not so much with the number of foreigners in the Premier League but more to do with the number of copies of The Guardian found in British school staffrooms
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2012 6:15:22 GMT
You've brightened up my morning, Joe! Ironically, though, Jack Charlton, like Brian Clough, Alex Ferguson and Bill Shankly, went through his managerial career claiming to be a Socialist. He also spent his time as a player kicking lumps out of the likes of Lee and Summerbee. Do you remember his little black book? Watching the 1970 Cup Final replay it's a fair guess that the talented but arrogant Peter Osgood was one of the names in it. Tennis, of course, is a middle class game for middle class kids. Kevin Davies's mam and dad were not in a position to send Kevin to the USA for training in the finer points. Mind you, having had the pleasure of regularly watching Davies when he was a teenager at Chesterfield I can confirm that, far from the big battering ram created (very successfully it must be said) by Sam Allardyce, he actually possesses some very silky skills. It was his creative and intelligent use of the ball that persuaded Blackburn to pay that big fee to Southampton. I don't believe that there are no undiscovered Messis or Ronaldos out there in our cities. When I lived in Nottingham and occasionlayy wandered down to the Forest Recreation Ground there were always lads from Hyson Green kicking a ball about and some of them were geniuses. There was no chance of any of them making it professionally because they were too alienated (and also too cool, preferring to wear their shorts over trackie bottoms and pose rather than to run) although St Ann's did provide the game with Jermaine Pennant, who was snapped up by Notts County. What we need, of course, is a system which provides equal opportunities for the lads from Hyson Green and the Manor, with money spent on providing them with the coaching and facilities they need in their schools and communities. In other words, the only answer to the football skill shortage is Socialism! And with that, I am off back to bed with a cup of coffee and today's Guardian.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2012 7:56:07 GMT
Joe is spot on yet again.
It wasn't Thatcher and her gang running the country in the 1980s.
It was Them.
Lefty teachers, bearded welfare rights advisers, feminist civil servants.
In short, the enemy within.
Mind you, I did spend a lot of time in school staff rooms myself during the 1980s. Not as a teacher, I hasten to add, but as a public sector LEA-employed fellow-traveller. This wasn't in the area covered by ILEA so I can't comment as an expert witness. Nor can I rely on the reportage of the Times Educational Supplement because, as we know, it was the Communist-funded house journal of Trotskyist nursery teachers.
But, in those provincial staffrooms, I do have a hazy memory of plenty of Daily Mail readers discussing buying and selling their gas and telecom shares.
Not unlike Joe.
Possibly.
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Post by lambethgull on Sept 22, 2012 10:19:18 GMT
Yeah, reckon the playing fields sell offs and centrally set targets might have had more to do with it than Guardian-toting teachers.
Oddly enough, I've always found teachers to be a pretty conservative bunch too. I guess the "teachers as communists" line fits neatly into the "zionists"/reds under the bed narrative though.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 22, 2012 11:44:36 GMT
bearded welfare rights advisers Excuse me? To be fair to Alpine Joe, I think he is just having a good-natured dig, and he writes with a good deal more wit than you'd find in the Mail or the Express, for sure! A shame he has that strange admiration for Sheffield Wednesday but I guess he was captivated as a lad by the initiative and enterprise demonstrated by Messrs Swan, Layne & Kay!
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Jon
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Post by Jon on Sept 22, 2012 11:47:44 GMT
bearded welfare rights advisers . You were meant to say: "I resemble that remark".
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Post by familystander on Sept 22, 2012 19:24:15 GMT
England got very lucky in stumbling on a very talented generation of players - the likes of Beckham, Gerrard, Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, Ashley Cole, Owen and others. For one reason or another, it never came together for them at major tournaments, but they retained their place in the team for years, and now that they're getting on, the youngsters coming behind (who aren't quite as gifted) haven't had their chance The other problem is all the way from junior levels to the top level, physicality has been prided over technical ability and intelligence - it's why Scott Parker was in the England team ahead of Michael Carrick. Gerrard too is a bit like that - too many glory balls, not enough intelligence. There was one article I read recently (I think it was in The Blizzard) that suggested Roy of the Rovers was to blame, because it told a whole generation that it didn't matter how you played for 89 minutes because it would all come good in the last minute with a bit of luck - which is of course ridiculous There has, to a certain extent, also been a lack of coherence and consistency in the tactics the various England coaches have employed - too many shifts in style. The lack of time players get together at international level these days doesn't help - hence why a Spain side built around Real Madrid and Barcelona players works, because most of the players play together anyway. If I was England coach now, I would look at Manchester United very closely, and build the team around those players (Rooney, Cleverley, Carrick, Young, Smalling, Jones etc), with a few others thrown in from Man City, Chelsea and elsewhere. But Roy Hodgson is doing a decent job at the moment Gerrard was, in my opinion at least, the finest of all midfielders over the last 3 decades or so. Repeated niggling injury and, finally, age seem to have caught up with him. No one has provided more assists, nor scored such wonderful goals for their club as Stevie G. He is as perplexed as anyone that the England game time hasn't live up to the same billing (we could say the same for all of them, no?), but please, "glory balls"? No other Englishman since Bryan Robson bears comparison.
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