Comments on: England to World: Can We Have Our Ball Back, Please?

By: Pitch Invasion · Foreign Quotas, Could They Happen Legally?

Pitch Invasion · Foreign Quotas, Could They Happen Legally? — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 16:36:20 +0000

[...] at Pitch Invasion, we think limiting the number of foreigners on Premiership teams would do nothing to help England, and quite possibly would make us even worse (if that’s possible). But the debate over quotas [...]

By: Pitch Invasion · Thaksin Shinawatra, Man City and Politics in Thailand

Pitch Invasion · Thaksin Shinawatra, Man City and Politics in Thailand — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 04:24:04 +0000

[...] it matters that Shinawatra is foreign in itself, and the last part is something we do believe, as we’ve argued recently , though if this insidious affair reaches the stage that Micah Richards is dropped just so that [...]

By: Online Betting King

Online Betting King — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 14:42:10 +0000

The FA don’t want a man in charge of the playing side of the game in this country because they know he might actually break tradition with simply calling up the bigger names in the game.
If the press hadn’t have hounded down Philipe Scolari in the build-up to Sven’s replacement, the game England play would have been a lot more solid yet attack minded side than it is now but sadly we missed out on that opportunity.
What is clear but yet to be proven is that there is a ‘boy’s’ club at the top of the FA and until a higher power become involved to shake-up the game in England nothing will change.

By: Thomas Dunmore

Thomas Dunmore — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:55:08 +0000

Hudsonland, I agree about the F.A. and second choice Steve. That’s what I was getting at (though wasn’t very clear about) in bringing up Clough — the F.A. have never had the balls to appoint someone who’d actually say what’s what.

Alex, it’s depressing, isn’t it? To know that actually going to Euro 2008 is probably worse for us in the longrun. Rather spoils the fun.

By: alex

alex — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 17:50:00 +0000

Israel’s win, of course, means that there’s nothing wrong with English football and we don’t need a period of soul searching and reflection.

Which is, on the whole, bad for the game. Nothing ever changes.

By: Brian

Brian — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 13:03:21 +0000

Hudsonland, I think you’re right that few people in the media have embraced the idea of a foreign-players quota. But enough prominent windbags in football and politics have been going on about it recently (Sir Alex, Steven Gerrard, Gerry Sutcliffe, Gordon Brown) that it seems worth articulating the reasons to oppose it.

That said, I agree with you about McClaren and have been amazed by the (obviously coordinated) groundswell of support for him among England players, FA types, and legends of bygone days. I don’t think he’s a terrible manager, but what single thing has he done to impress? Even playing Barry in midfield was forced on him by injury, and now it looks like a return to “Can Lampard play with Gerrard?” editorials for the dreary forseeable future.

By: Hudsonland

Hudsonland — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 02:19:57 +0000

“Then we’ll lose on penalty kicks in the Semi-Finals”

You mean the quarters, surely.

Also, I don’t think anyone in the media or elsewhere is taking the ‘foreigners ruined our footballers’ line seriously.

The blame for England’s current problems lies squarely with Second-Choice Steve and the FA big-wigs who put him in charge. England needs a manager with the balls to drop players who are in the squad purely on the basis of the size of the salary they receive from their club and fail to perform every single freaking time they pull on a white jersey.