hypochondriac

Wtf has SFC got to do with England? Why do you keep bringing it up? Gerrard isn't anything to do with SFC and how he does for his club is irrelevant. I would have said this a year or two ago, absolutely nothing at all to do with them amassing saints players. I'm sure not everyone within football respect him but of course when a player bigged up in the media retires they will get quotes to support their viewpoint. Many England fans have said words to the effect of good riddance and I agree with them.

Well supposedly respected Gerrard has presided over dismal failure so I reckon pretty much anyone would be fine as captain (not rooney).

I would have played the likes of huddlestone over Gerrard in DM at the world cup. Even cork would have been better.

Disagree. I think in almost every England game and tournament Ashley was good or decent. Unlike almost all the others in the team who were underwhelming. Gerrard had very few decent games for england from what I remember.

Agree. As well as being a good signing, we need it for pr reasons as well.

Loads of them contributed very little and been able to amass loads of caps based on their reputation and not much else. It's a big part of the problem and one reason we have been so poor.

So he did 'perform' then?

Exactly. You summed it up well.

Since euro 2004.

Yep. We need to start showing some balls and not be held to ransom.

Bit worried about the fact we are offering low fees along with the quote from Koeman about vlaar being expensive. Hopefully we will up our bid and offer something sensible.

Ashley Cole was great for england.

So he gets credit for being around a long time? I would prefer to judge him on his contribution in games. I think the fact he played so much says more about the judgement of the managers than his quality for england.

It's typical of England fans and pundits to call a player an England legend just because he was good for his club. Why does anyone other than Liverpool fans care how he performs for Liverpool?

Predictably awful.

What has that got to do with his performances for england? He isn't an England legend he was a load of rubbish. I don't give a toss about his Liverpool performances as I don't support them.

Yes we can get a better 4th choice. We sign a first choice cb and then yoshida becomes 4th choice.

He clearly means the keepers at the top end that we are in for like Marshall ruddy and forster.

Disagree with that. Would be quite happy with him as a first teamer and thought he did very well.

Have to agree to disagree there on both counts. Rooney especially has been a major factor in England being poor.

Rubbish. Fonte is much better than the other two and put in some great performances last year. Is more than good enough to be part of our team next year and make up one of the three.

We currently have two good and two poor centre backs. It's not about improving 4th choice, it's about improving the overall quality of the position.

Providing proper competition for fonte and giving us three top centre backs is a priority yes.

We should sign someone who is first choice and everyone moves down a spot (and we get rid of jos.) jos was absolutely terrible last year and cost us points. We should never be in a position to play him.

Well frankly saying there is no need to hurry is rubbish. There is a clear need to get as many in and settled ASAP. The last thing I want is us scraping a team together for the first two games and then dropping a load of points because we haven't had time together as a unit.