bathpilgrim":dj9aaen2 said:I'm sorry that England are a world footballing force, I know it hurts you, but we have a real chance in the summer. If I would you I would sit back, swallow your pride, get behind England (where you live after all) and enjoy some decent football
Actually, whether you believe this or not, I would be delighted to see England do well this summer.
And yes, I will be watching the England games with my mates and wishing them well.
The major difference between you and me is that I don't agree England are a major footballing force, I don't believe they have a realistic chance of success, and am pretty sure we will see a repeat of past tournament failures..... and that's not Welsh wishful thinking, that's impartial angered conviction.
The England team set-up, and indeed the whole organisation of the English game, is horrendous, shot through with major problems, and makes the chances of success very slim indeed.
For starters, look at who you've got running the game! The f**king English FA! A bunch of effete ars*holes who couldn't organise a bonk in a brothel! And they've just surpassed themselves with the Terry/Capello debacle. A fine way to prepare for a major tournament a few months away!
The list of other problems is endless, (and there is insufficent room to list them all here; it needs a thread of it's own) but the combined effect is to send an England team time after time to tournaments in a woeful condition. And then people wonder why they fail! :furious:
It's like a stuck record, there's been over forty years over it now, and yet nothing gets done! All we get is the same ridiculous and groundless optimism before each tournament, and the same shattering let-down.
Chr*st, I'm Welsh, and it makes me angry enough! If I was English I would be incandescent with rage by now.
And that is why I don't understand people like you, bathpilgrim. Your attitude lets the b*stards responsible off the hook. If we go along happily believing that England are still a major contender, and that everything is the garden is just fine, there will NEVER be the necessary changes made. The "Suits" who run (and ruin) the game will go on trotting out the old excuses; "Oh we were unlucky", "oh we were tired after a long hard season", "oh, we were cheated", etc, etc. When the truth is they sent an England team out there to compete in a shooting war with a peashooter in their hand! :furious:
When other nations became frustrated at their lack of success, in particular the French and the Spanish, they launched a root and branch re-organisation of their entire game, including a clear stategy, precise delineation of powers (ie lets get Ferguson and the clubs put in their place :thumbs: ), selection policies, training and coaching windows and tactical set-ups. THAT IS WHAT THE ENGLISH GAME NEEDS TO DO!
If the English game continues the way it has, bathpilgrim, you will never see any different result. And eventually you will be talking of eighty years of hurt, and worse.
That wouldn't please me, that should make you English fans HOWL with rage. So when are you going to start applying the heat where it is required? :roll: