England Team Thread

[gizmo1990]

Well I'll be on the fence on Wednesday.

If we can't qualify after the MASSIVE good fortune (Macadonia beating Croatia for goodness sake!) we've had, well we deserve everything we get.

And if we do get in then we'll be in for another summer of letdown tbh.

The only winner out of all of this, if we do qualify, will be the fat cat advertising industry. They must have been having kittens at the thought of their biggest revenue earners (the UK) missing the Euro's and not being able to wheel out their wares to the public.

I never thought I'd say this but the Scots deserved to be there more than we did. After their performances I really feel sorry for them. And if you knew how little I care for the scots then you'll understand how odd it is for me to admit that!

[On The Edge of Insanity]

I personally feel the that the success of the u21 will have little impact on the national side. You look at the u21's and wonder how many of them will make the next step.

Ashley Young and David Bentley have already made the step up to the full squad recently and I could certainly see players like Agbonlahor, Derbyshire, Walcott, Noble and Joe Hart featuring in the full squad in the future. The 17 year old who played left back did well also.

You are never going to get the whole squad coming through, but there is certainly enough players in this generation capable of making the step-up to the full squad.

[ShadowDancer]

Is this any chance that we qualify and still get rid of that prick Mcclaren?

[Kongster]

Should England qualify, McClaren will still be in charge until Euro 2008 at least.

[saif]

PHEW!
He deserves it, he has done really well in the England job, rarely putting a foot wrong and stamping his authority on the team. Look at the position we find ourselves in, we might even qualify!

[ShadowDancer]

Was reading in the Times this morning that he has had the worst start to a England mangerial career in the history of England. 3 wins in 8 competitive games. Get Wenger in.

[rmoxon]

To be honest if he was a club manager after 8 games everyone would be saying he needs time to shape the squad how he wants. International management MUST be harder still becuase he isnt restricted by who he can buy and whos in his squad he has to get the best english squad out of all the players avaliable to him and make them play well, its not like it would be an easy task for any manager.

Still, again, he keeps playing Gerrard so I say sack him.

[On The Edge of Insanity]

Whilst I think McLaren isn't up for the job, some of the names that get thrown around to replace him seem to lack any forethought.

Wenger's main ability is spotting young talent and nuturing them to become great players. He has a very particular way that his teams play and he makes sure to buy people that he can mold into this system. His style would not translate well to international management where he is limited to the players who can represent the nation and only gets to spend a week or so with the squad every couple of months.

We should be looking for someone who has proved their ability to work at International level already or has done an outstanding job at various club sides.

[Nu-Eclipse]

PHEW!
He deserves it, he has done really well in the England job, rarely putting a foot wrong and stamping his authority on the team.

That's a joke, right?

I take it you didn't see the home draw with Macedonia, the match against Croatia in Zagreb, the draw with Israel in Tel-Aviv, the first half away to Andorra and the match in Moscow against Russia then?

Israel have done Steve McClaren and England a MASSIVE favour, let's not try to pretend otherwise. Once Croatia knew Israel had beaten the Russians (guaranteeing them qualification in the process), they simply stopped trying against Macedonia. I find it mind-blowing that England could yet finish at the top of this group come Wednesday night when they haven't been the best team in it at all.

I still personally believe that McClaren isn't the right man for the England job, but (fortunately for him - once again) there appears to be no outstandings candidates around.

[saif]

Do I need a smiley?

Two names, for me, sum up this England set up:

Phil Neville and Wes Brown.

[Malavon]

Nu-Eclipse - how could you miss this bit?

Look at the position we find ourselves in, we might even qualify!

I thought he was serious at first too though, but after reading that sentence theres no way he could be

Anyway, as much as I love Wenger (arsenal fan), as On The Edge of Insanity said, his main strengths aren't really suited towards managing an international team. Would be ironic though, as everyone (particularly when Arsenal beat them) complains about them not having any English players, so for him to manage the England team aswell would be amusing

[fatbatch]

How do people see Wednesday's game?

A deadly dull draw, with no tackles, fouls, goals or passion. Anyone more optimistic, or would you be happy with that?

[toythatkills]

How do people see Wednesday's game?

A deadly dull draw, with no tackles, fouls, goals or passion. Anyone more optimistic, or would you be happy with that?

We'll score first after 16 minutes and then sit back for 74. Croatia will come at us with everything, surely, since they'd love to a) be the team that knock England out and b) would much rather have Russia in the finals than us. I'd have thought.

I find it mind-blowing that England could yet finish at the top of this group come Wednesday night when they haven't been the best team in it at all.

If we finish top then clearly we have been the best team. A rubbish team, sure, but everyone else must have been more rubbish. I can't imagine you've seen every minute of football that's been played in that group so you're not really qualified to make such claims.

So, we sack McClaren, what then? It's obvious he's not the man for the job (barring miracles) so who would you replace him with? Is there anyone available that's better qualified?

And what do we know anyway? Remember all the calls for Sam Allardyce last time out for example? Look at the job he's doing at Newcastle, imagine him as England manager. LOL.

[Baseley09]

Allardyce's Newcastle team looks pretty horrible, great cast with wrong direction and production.

[toythatkills]

Allardyce's Newcastle team looks pretty horrible, great cast with wrong direction and production.

Exactly. The guy was brilliant at Bolton, and everyone just assumed that with much better resources he'd obviously have a much better team, but it doesn't work that way. He'd be getting the same from an England team as he is from Newcastle right now and we'd all be demading he was fired.