sadoldgit

Costa Rica, Chile and Greece are not going to win the World Cup.

We were woeful in 2010. I wouldnt say we are light years ahead now but certainly moving in the right direction. Need to sort out a decent defence and improve the finishing. We werent too bad against Italy and played well in patches against Uruguay. I agree with Roy that after the first 10 mins we had hold of the game against CR but again, failed to put our chances away. There is some good young talent coming through but where are the young Michael Owens, John Terrys and Rio Ferdinands?

Eek!!!

I am with you on this. Even by the end of the season I kept thinking of Liverpool instead of Saints. I am not from Southampton and started supporting Saints because the first match I saw was against Palace and I liked the red and white stripes better than Palace's kit (1966). I want my team to do well but I want to see them doing well in their traditional kit. Call me old fashioned but there you go.

If Sturridge and Rooney had finished better we could have won all three games. I am not saying we were brilliant but we were hardly played off the park and certainly better than 2010. Realistic expectations? Many people were saying we woul struggle to get out of that group and it proved to be so. Lets face it, we were never going to win it and even semi or quarter finals looked highly unlikely. He has been in post for 2 years in which time he has lost for one reason or another quality centre backs and we dont have anyone else coming through. The likes of Barkley, Sterling and Lallana are relatively recent additions. Shaw is new. He could have kept the old guard but is bringing in youth - the pundits seemed to accept that the WC would be a time of gaining experience and that we would see more in 2016. There are other tough groups and I am not saying we would have done any better in another group - but Uruguay and Italy were favourites in our group and that was before CR showed they were no mugs. So what that there are better teams than England going home? Just goes to show that it isnt a cake walk and if the likes of Spain, Italy and Portugal struggle what do you expect of us when we are in a transitional process? There is no shame in going out early although there is clearly a huge amount of disappointment. Suarez was well up for beating Engalnd because he feels hard done by by the media. Perhaps we should get the redtops to wind up our players more? The squard were good enough o get out of the group? No they werent as it transpired. Forget tactics etc. We had the chances to win all three matcheds which were missed and the B list defence (as pointed out by most pundits before the WC) made some basic errors. If you are good enough you take your chances and you dont make schoolboy errors. The squad needs more work. As for Roy's comments - we all see things through our own filters. He has worked with these players on the training ground and he knows what was exxpeted of them. I dont know why he didnt use Lallana more for example but he is more knowlegeable about football than I am and has seen the players close up day in day out. He made some decisions and for all we know they were the right decisions and we did the best we could with what we had. With a Lineker and a Terry or a Ferdinand it could well have been very different but we dont have a world class finisher or centre half so we are where we are.

As you say, you have to take whatever chance comes your way and two tap-ins wasnt good enough. We also went into the comepetion with a B List defence meaning that we had to score 2 or 3 to be sure of something from the matches.

We were favourites above Uruguay and Italy??? Both are above us in the World rankings. This was a tough group and both Uruguay and Italy struggled. It wasnt Hodgson's falut that Sturridge and Rooney missed their chances. With better finishing we would have gone through.

All English managers have been losers except Alf Ramsey. Do we sack a manager every time they lose? Roy (not Woy) Hodgson is presiding over a period of change and I dont think anyone thought it would be a cake walk to get out of this group. Did anyone foresee Costa Rica heading the group? Better teams are also going home at this stage. He has a lot of work to do and I am sure he knows that. Who should we have instead? Redknapp? Pochettino?

We could have won all three games with some luck and better finishing. We were much better than 2010 but then this doesnt suit your agenda as you are trying to prove that Roy Hodgson is an "idiot." We were in a very difficult group and are not alone in going home early as Italy and Spain are also out and are supposed to be much better than us.

If Coulson is the only one who goes down for this it is a complete joke. It takes more than one person to arrange such a high level of phone taps.

I really dont know why you have it in for Adkins. He did a brilliant job for us and I am sure he will do well in the future. Mind you, you are now trying to tell us what a great manager Sven was for England so I guess that says it all.

That would include several senior people in the football world. Before he was sacked by us his name was in the frame as an up and coming manager. That was before Cortese had other ideas though.

Really? Tell that to Matthew Le Tissier.

Gerrard is still a force in the Premiership. He hasnt had a good WC but does that mean he still cant do a job. Senior pros reckon he can do it at this level for another 2 years. If there was someone knocking at the door dont you think he would be there?

Gerrard is still 2 to 3 years younger than Pirlo though I grant you that he plays harder than Pirlo. Gerrad wasnt the only England playr suffering from the conditions and the strain after a long season at home.

So Pirlo needs to stand down too? Their stil being around doesnt stop others coming through. Who do you suggest takes over from Gerrard though? Hoddle has just said that Gerrard is still the best short/long passer of the ball we have. Who takes his place?

"But hopefully we give it a good try." You really dont have a very high regard for those running the club do you?

Interesting that Luke's value seems to have increased since his attempt at a menage a trois. Perhaps Adam should be encourage to start stalking Playboy Bunnies too and then maybe we could afford a bid for Suarez?

Cant believe the prosecution didnt bring that up!

I am not saying he is not good. I am saying he isnt great (yet). There is no way he is worth upwards of £30m and there are better young full backs out there for less. Clyne has scored more goals than Shaw. Do you remember David Peach? He scored plenty of goals from open play as well as pens. Luke has a long way to go.

28, but then I am 60! Its all downhill now

Gerrard scored 21 goals in 113 games and Lampard 29 from 105 games from midfield. Not too shabby. Why wouldnt you want that experience around the squad? How many players is it stopping coming through? We have Barkley, Lallana, Wilshire, Stirling and Shaw. I am sure they all benefit for being around players of the calibre of Gerrard and Lampard. Out of 23 players in a squad how many play? Shaw was clearly preferred over Cole to give him the experience. Part of the experience is being around senior pros.

He becomes great when he achieves something at a higher leevel. For all his potentail he still has little end product in the last third. If he adds that to his game consistantly and wins things then we can start calling him great.

I am surprised that Brooks has walked away scot free.

Lampard and Gerrard in their prime were quaility and I am sure most Prem managers would hve loved them in their squad and would have found a way to play them togther. Many teams would love to pair Rooney and Sturridge too. How many International teams leave out their best players? There has been a lot of talk about playing Ronney "out of position" on the left. He has played their plenty of times for his club so it is not exactly new to him. Roy also made the point that he wanted players to interchange. We are all deeply disappointed (apart from Alpine of course) but the fact is that we didnt play badly against Italy and played well in patches against Uruguay. Both of these are quality teams and very experienced in tournaments. This has been a very tough group and we were told at the start that with no chance of winning the WC we should use this as a stepping stone for the European Championship. Roy has started to bring through youth but not as quickly as some would have wanted. If he had of played more of them from the start would we have been any better off now? We will never know but lets not kid ourselves that it was going to be a cake walk getting out of the group stage with the quality of opposition we faced no matter what team we put out. Italy and Uruguay have both put in a poor performance each and I would argue that England have at least put in two performances that with a bit more luck would have gone our way. You are 100% right to be worried about our seeding and we are clearly slipping back further. To end up in groups with two stronger teams each time is a problem as we have found this time round.