England Team Thread

[teddymeow]

I agree that Lampard and Gerrard didn't work. No great fan of Barry particularly. I wouldn't mind seeing Carrick and Milner being given a run in the middle, Carrick for his distribution and Milner for his work rate and shooting ability.

Quoted for truth.

[abigsmurf]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/2884762/Capello-hit-by-bugging-shock.html

Utterly pathetic. It's crap like this that has stopped me supporting England.

[nakamura]

No its crap players who care more about money than the pride of winning.

[Kieran76]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage...ing-shock.html

Utterly pathetic. It's crap like this that has stopped me supporting England.

I don't understand, why has any of this stopped you supporting England?

[fallenangle]

I don't understand, why has any of this stopped you supporting England?

Yes, I was wondering that too. Just why should the England team being illegally bugged make you decide to stop supporting them?

As far as I'm concerned anybody who is born in England is, by default, an England supporter anyway, whether they like it or not it's their team. You can't just opt out and go around changing your international allegiance as if it were a club side however you feel about team members' behaviour or anything else.

Unless you have dual nationality, have taken up citzenship in another country or have a parent or a grandparent with another nationality the only international team you could play for is England. Same thing must apply to who you support internationally.

My father was as English as they come and spent his entire life living here but always supported Scotland primarily because his mother, my grandmother was Glaswegian. But he'd always support England when the Scottish team weren't in or had been knocked out of a tournament. He was at the 1966 WC Finals cheering on England with the rest of country.

As long as it is consistent it is perfectly reasonable behaviour for a football (or whatever sport) supporter in my book.

I suppose I could do the same thing. But I feel no allegiance to Scotland at all ergo I'm an England supporter, for better or for worse.

[abigsmurf]

Supporting is a concious action. You're not supporting a team by default. I doubt there are many people here who would consider them supporters of England's polo team for example.

This bugging thing is an example of what has caused me to turn my back on the national team. I was ashamed of fellow 'supporters'.

We've got supporters who boo their own players whilst we're playing. Not even for performance reasons either. In between games the personal attacks start ("overpaid", "Selfish", "lacking in national pride"). Our tabloids pick a player, stick a reporter on him 24 hours a day and go all out to drag their name through the mud. Whether it's "sting" operations where they try to entrap the players, take pictures of them tipsy or classiest of all, go after family members.

Look at that bugging. Bugging is something you do to countries you're at war (or in danger of going to war with). If they didn't think there was a chance they'd go to jail for it, the papers would pay a fortune to print transcripts of that tape.

It's not enjoyable seeing a team you care for being attacked like this and it's made many times worse by the fact that almost all the venom that gets directed at England comes from their own fans. I'm embarassed to be counted among these 'fans'.

[EJG1980]

I don't understand, why has any of this stopped you supporting England?

I would have thought that if someone is of the opinion that the newspapers are unfairly trying to scupper England's chances with non-stories that aren't worthy of being printed, it would make you rally around and want to support England more, not less.

Edit: I can see why the stuff mentioned in his post above would get on Smufy's tits though, if it's nearly all you ever see / hear when you read / watch something about England.

[Kieran76]

The way I get around that is but not reading the tabloids. I know that sounds like a snotty thing to say but I really never read them as I hate the idea of giving them any of my cash.

[JU!]

Beckham snaps achilles!!! No go World Cup!?!?! Thread made

here

http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showthread.php?t=102307

[yesteryeargames]

damm im gutted

[fallenangle]

With Lennon probably (but not for certain) out that makes the right wing choices very easy: Arsenal's Walcott who, and as a Spurs fan I hate say this, is starting to play really well and AV's Sean Wright-Phillips.

I think the latter isn't quite in the same class as either Walcott or Lennon in terms of speed, crossing quality and consistency but I think he's more flexible ie. a very good sub bench choice to have available.

[Flabio]

Milner has to go to South Africa now. We need a utility man who can cover the kids if they bottle under pressure.

[fallenangle]

I thought Milner was a certainty with his recent form anyway.

[Number45]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8784093.stm

Capello is confirmed to remain in the post. So, with that in mind, what changes do you want to see in the squad?

Personally I think now is the PERFECT time to really rebuild the squad from the ground up. Hart has to get the number one shirt, and I really want to see the likes of Adam Johnson and Ashley Young brought into the squad to PLAY.

If we don't start looking to the future right now, I don't see how anything is going to change.

[abigsmurf]

He's not going to change ****.

He'll probably drop lampard, may drop Terry then he'll pretend that's all England need.

Meanwhile we'll beat rubbish teams in the qualifiers then have a similarly poor European cup