aintforever

Saints fans, Arsenal fans, the media. If you get in the World cup squad aged 17 then don't make a weaker one aged 21 you havn't developed as well as thought. I still think he will go on to be a top player. All youngsters go through a dodgy patch (like Bale did) but I think Theo has suffered through the weight of expectation at Arsenal and lack of first team action.

Neither selection was well thought out, Sven should never had taken Theo to Germany. But it illustrates perfectly how he has not developed as well as he was expected to, my Arsenal supporting mates agree - he can be frustrating.

The article also said they have still not aid any charity, including that cancer one. Also the Fulham players donated their fee for the Primus friendly but the Skates just pocketed it. Filthy cheating scum.

The fact that Theo made the England team for Germany 2006 and not for a weaker side in South Africa shows how little he has progressed.

Totally unworkable, if you had a two week break in January you could very well get two weeks of severe snow the following weeks and up with a month of no football.

Im sorry, but to say it's easier playing against better players is nonsense. Oxo looks class but Theo was outstanding at a younger age and higher level than him. I think many Saints fans forget the utter garbage we play against week in week out in League 1.

I think he might have developed better playing more first team football.

Walcott has not fulfilled his potential, would have been better off with a season or two more at Siants before being stuck in Arsenal reserves. Might have even made the plane to the last World Cup if he had IMO, instead we had one of England's most talented players sat at home watching the World Cup on TV.

You can guarantee the Israeli supporters will be there in numbers if they do qualify - could be fun.

If you're a football fan going to Qatar for the World Cup for four weeks what exactly is there to do between games? From their website it appears to be just a bunch of expensive hotels and shopping centres in a desert. You can't even sit on the beach with a beer FFS. I suppose you could pop into Saudi Arabia for some duty free, or nip over to Iraq for some sight seeing. You could charter a Yacht, might be fun playing cat n mouse with the local pirates or Iranian navy. There is probably only a handful of countries on the planet less suited to host a major football tournament.

I guess the reason Milton Keynes, Bristol and Plymouth were included was because FIFA obviously like shiny new stadiums and put alot of value on the "legacy". The bid team would have wanted some flash architects plans to show. FIFA also seem to like white elephants - Russia's top league has an average attendance of about 12,500, there no demand there at all for twelve 40,000 seater stadiums. As for Qatar...

The more you read about the Qatar thing the more nuts it sounds, 50 degree heat, can't drink in public - that's gonna be a right laff. One of the venues, Ash Shamal with a population 5,400 is getting a stadium with a capacity of 45,330! Qatar is the most environmentally unfriendly country on the planet with CO2 emissions per head more than 3 x worse than the next worse - and FIFA plan to build twelve 40,000 seater air conditioned stadiums! Crazy

Looking at the winning bids it appears all FIFA care about is how much cash is spent on shiny new stadiums... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-z2jtUS9-Y&feature=related Qatar are supposed to be spending 40billion on transport links alone, what's a few mill in the back pocket of the odd FIFA rep?

To be fair, if a new boss comes in and they are completely ****e they are also very unpopular.

I seriously doubt that was the case, strange tactics if it was. The Panaorama show would have had two effects, the corrupt FIFA people featured would be annoyed but, more importantly, the decent FIFA reps would be even more annoyed at their organisation being branded corrupt.

It's not really that hard to understand, our chances of hosting an event worth millions of pounds rested in the hands of 22 men - best not **** them off. There is no reason why they couldn't have aired the programme next week to give England (the people who pay their wages) the best chance possible.

To be fair, if that was Cortese's response it would be classed as "good business sense" on here.

My point was that the other FIFA reps don't like us because they are jealous of the money and success in our game not that the 12 stadia for the bid were the best.

Because there is no problem in Russia...

I'm talking about within the game, of course USA have excellent stadia in other sports but I don't think the 3rd teir of USA, Spain or Russian football could boast stadia like SMS, Hillsborough or The Valley.

The other countries hate us because we have the best league, best stadia, best support and most money.

Kind of appropriate for FIFA to hand it to one of the most corrupt countries on the planet and some middle eastern **** hole. You don't need a good bid when you have some dodgy oligarch or arab with some brown paper bags.

I think it's more than likely that this info was released on purpose by the US anyway, it's all handy propaganda for their campaign against North Korea and Iran.

Nothing wrong with the truth coming out, even if it annoys a few Yanks.

What park of the leaks justify going to war with Iran?