benjii

Ta.

Did Vassell sign for anyone?

It's too much to expect something decent to come out of the FA.

Crouch always scores for England!

I think Huddlestone and Wilshere are injured but I agree with the sentiment. The fact is, we are weak at the moment. Ferdinand and Terry are going downhill. We have one decent keeper. Our best striker looks like an angry thumb and is a cockle. Our wingers can't get regular starts for their clubs. We still haven't sorted out the balance or pattern of play of our midfield. With that in mind, we should be thinking ahead. I don't doubt we will limp into the Euros but will, in most likelihood, then see a repeat of the embarrassing world cup. We should be looking four years ahead and concentrating on identifying players with the technical aptitude to develop into an international side. If we lose a few matches on the way then so be it because the current governance and structure of the English game gives us virtually no chance of ever achieving anything unless we take some radical action.

And best of all, it's offshore so you don't need to pay VAT on your nipper's subs!

Having said that, some of the selections confuse me too. Lescott is not good enough to play in internationals. Simple as that. A youngster who might turn out to be good enough should be playing instead. Likewise Jagielka - right back? FFS.

I'm not dismayed at the tactics, the formation, the fact we're losing when we have a weakened team out... none of that. It's the sheer lack of quality of our players. No touch, no intelligence, no clue.

Yes, maybe. That doesn't contradict anything I've said.

Good post.

Embarrassing.

The problem is that there is obviously the risk of slipping stuff in purely for mischief amongst the "true" bits and so people will always be wary of that. Also, people that turn up on these boards dropping little bits of info and turning the running of a football club into some sort of Bond-villain plot usually turn out to be ****s.

Exactly. And whilst not wishing to be a pedant, if someone has the writing standard of a ten year old it is hard to take them seriously.

100 is much more noteworthy (if equally arbitrary). 125 - meh.

Exactly. Good management can get you into the middle of the Premiership; you don't need world beaters (viz Stoke, Blackpool, West Brom, us when we were good). It helps if you can sign players of proven quality along the way but there's no point if you don't have a unified group with a strong leader and a direction that everyone has bought into.

Oakley? WTF? He was always class for us. Anyone who thought otherwise was just showing themselves to be clueless.

Yes, there has to be some sort of selection criteria! I take it Fattima has passed then?

It will be really lame with her doing it actually. Mind you, it would probably be really lame regardless.

Poll: Does Phil give a **** who the sexiest woman in sport is or was he just looking for an excuse to have an internet **** over himself?

Jancker, de Pedro, Matty Holland.

What utter rubbish.

Chaplow is on big wages. Guly was signed from a club going into Serie A. Butterfield was signed from a club in a higher division. Richardson was signed from one of the "big" recently relegated clubs in our division and would've been on top League One or Championship wages. Dickson was signed for about half a million. I see no evidence thay we aren't willing to sign players like Fonte anymore but it's not easy getting players to drop down a level unless you are prepared to spunk silly money like Notts County did and I think most of us would hope we don't go down the route of offering the likes of Casper Schmeichel £20k a week (or whatever it was). Most League One players are not worth £1m, which is why we haven't been spending that sort of money on players.

Well no, they're not using a "loophole" at all. They're using the time they have to seek investment. Of course they should not be docked points. You would hope that Lowe would've done that too but **** knows what his real motivation was.