Football 2011-2012

[LondonTom]

Its more scary the thought of englands front 6 players having 4 liverpool players in there.

[kaosmark2]

I am starting to think the bet on no points is looking good!

[Kyelo]

I got 40-1 on it without shopping around.

[kaosmark2]

I put an accumulator on for England and Portugal to get 0 points...put a fiver on, get £2500 back!

[eFestivals]

Isn't it cute how everyone is having to make sure they say Rodgers was the first choice... LMAO...

They couldn't say anything else tho.

In this case, it might even be true. While there were all those rumours of people they were going to approach, it appears to be the case that many of them were never approached - while Rodgers defo was (and initially knocked it back).

[pryce]

Denmark-Portugal? Hard to see a Danish win, although a draw is quite plausible...

[eFestivals]

So ... will England beat the might Belgiums () tomorrow then?

[kaosmark2]

We were talking a few pages back about the number of quality players Belgium has at the moment. They've certainly got a better defense and midfield. Fellaini, Defour, Dembele and Hazard? Every one of them would get into the England team.

[LondonTom]

So ... will England beat the might Belgiums ( ) tomorrow then?

[jump]

^{I've just spotted a list of all the free agents...}

^{Arsenal: Almunia, Manuel; Brislen-Hall, George; Hoyte, Gavin; McDermott, Sean; Murphy, Rhys; Philip Elliot}

^{Aston Villa: Caira Reece; Cuellar, Carlos; Heskey, Emile; Nelson-Addy, Ebby; Taylor, Connor; Ward Charles}

^{Blackburn Rovers: Aley, Zachery; Goulon, Herold; Grella, Vincenzo; Knowles, James; Salgado, Miguel}

^{Bolton Wanderers: Bennett, Rhys; Blake, Robert; Connolly, Mark; Davis, Sean Eckersley, Thomas; Fazlic, Dino; Gardner, Ricardo; Jaaskelainen, Jussi; Klasnic, Ivan; Knight, Zatyiah; Obadeyi, Temitope; Robinson, Paul; Steinsson, Gretar Rafn}

^{Chelsea: Bosingwa, Jose; Drogba, Didier; Kalou, Salomon; Mitrovic, Marko; Taylor, Rhys}

^{Everton: Davies, Adam; Hahnemann, Marcus; McFadden, James; Nsiala, Aristote Orenuga, Femi; Roberts, Connor}

^{Fulham: Barroilhet, Richard; Cosgrove, Jonathan; Grygera, Zdenek; Harris, Courtney; Johnson, Andrew; Murphy, Daniel; Pogrebnyak, Pavel; Riise, Bjorn}

^{Liverpool: Amoo, David; Aurelio, Fabio; Darby, Stephen; Emilsson, Kristjan; Gomis, Mendy; McGiveron, Matthew; Roberts, Michael}

^{Manchester City: Assulin, Gai; Benali, Ahmed; Hargreaves, Owen; Mancini, Andreas; Nielsen, Gunnar; Taylor, Stuart; Tse, Sean}

^{Manchester United: Kuszczak, Tomasz; Owen, Michael}

^{Newcastle United: Adjei, Samuel; Airey, Philip; Donaldson, Ryan; Folan, Stephen; Guthrie, Danny; Henderson, Jeffrey; Kadar, Tamas; Lovenkrands, Peter; McDermott, Greg; Nzuzi, Patrick; Smith, Alan}

^{Norwich City: Ball, Matthew; Dawkin, Joshua; Whitbread, Zak; Wilbraham, Aaron}

^{Queens Park Rangers: Agyemang, Patrick; Borrowdale, Gary; Buzsaky, Akos; Cerny, Radek; Cook, Lee; Gabbidon, Daniel; Hall Fitz; Hill, Clinton; Olley, Luke; Ramage, Peter; Shittu, Daniel; Vine, Rowan}

^{Stoke City: Davies, Andrew; Diao, Salif; Fuller, Ricardo; Moult, Louis; Soares, Thomas}

^{Sunderland: Bagnall, Liam; Carson, Trevor; Cook, Jordan; Elliott, Brett; Gordon, Craig; King, Lewis; Tounkara, Oumare;}

^{Swansea City: Bodde, Ferrie; Smith, Jordan; Thomas, Casey; Walsh, Joseph}

^{Tottenham Hotspur: Alnwick, Ben; Jansson, Oscar; King, Ledley; Lassen, Jesse; Nelsen, Ryan; Oyenuga, Kudus; Ranieri, Mirko; Saha, Louis}

^{West Bromwich Albion: Andrews, Keith; Downing, Paul; Edge, James; Elford-Alliyu, Lateef; Fulop, Marton; Mattock, Joseph; Scharner, Paul; Shorey, Nicholas; Tchoyi, Somen}

^{Wigan Athletic: Breeze, Jonathan; Diame, Mohamed; Girvan, Michael; Gohouri, Steve; Kirkland, Christopher; Myler, Sean; Pollitt, Michael; Robinson, Jordan; Rodallega, Hugo; Rugg, Jordan; Thomas, Hendry}

^{Wolverhampton Wanderers: Craddock, Jody; Harris, Louis; Hemmings, Ashley; Spray, James}

[kaosmark2]

Didn't realise Rodellaga was out of contract. He's been out of form for 18 months or so but still talented.

Maybe I'm biased, but Chelsea aside, Guthrie looks the pick of the bunch there. Certainly one of the few in form.

Be interesting what happens with Kirkland.

[pink_triangle]

Didn't realise ledley king was out of contract either. Wonder if spurs will offer pay as you play.

[luckysalt]

Lambert is confirmed as Villa manager. Very Happy!

Great appointment, exactly the type of manager needed, only thing that worries me is his scouting, seems to just want UK based players, O'Neill did that, and ended up paying a lot for players and giving us the massive wage bill too.

I trust the same won't happen again.

Wonder who will leave and who will come in, can he get Gabby back to his best, can he get Albrighton crossing well again, can he get Nzog back to his Wigan form, can he do something with Delph instead of wasting £8mil, will he use Makoun instead of another wasted £8mil, can he sort of the defence, can he establish the youth as first team players?

He's got a HUGE task infront of him, O'Neill left this club is a huge mess with loads of players on huge money that couldn't cut the first team, most have left, but theres still a whole lot of work to be done,

[pink_triangle]

I think in modern day football you can't focus on just British players as even average ones tend to be 10-20 million.

[thetime]

I think in modern day football you can't focus on just British players as even average ones tend to be 10-20 million.

[thetime]

cahill out of euros

[kaosmark2]

cahill out of euros

[thetime]

And Martin Kelly as his replacement. Unusual choice to say the least. Amazing how quickly our overcrowded positions have emptied.

[The Nal]

How many liverpool players are there now? 6?

[lharris92]

hodgson is bringing in players who will ultimately fail him, reason: they didn't perform when he was their manager at liverpool, same will happen again.

although saying that its a good way to start preseason in europe for liverpool

Edited June 3, 2012 by lharris92

[pink_triangle]

Looking at things from the outside Roys selections baffle me. RIchards may not be the perfect player but the vast majority of the England squad have significant flaws. As for Rio the argument he is a crock just doesnt hold up when you compare him with the England captain. I just had a check online and he played 30 league games out of 38, which in a world of rotation is pretty decent. Also so what if he cant play 6 full games in 3 weeks, England took Dawson to the last world cup and he played 0 minutes.

Also why does it matter if he doesnt get on with JT, Cole and Sheringham hated each other and played effectively together. These are professionals who should get on with things.

Saw this on another web site

snubbed/retired XI: Foster; Richards, Ferdinand, King, Gibbs; Lennon, Carrick, Scholes, A Johnson; Sturridge, Crouch

Im not convinced who would win if this team played the current england first team.

Edited June 3, 2012 by pink_triangle

[LondonTom]

Pure madness with regards to selection!!

[kaosmark2]

snubbed/retired XI: Foster; Richards, Ferdinand, King, Gibbs; Lennon, Carrick, Scholes, A Johnson; Sturridge, Crouch

Im not convinced who would win if this team played the current england first team.

[pink_triangle]

Depends if you count Rooney in the selected or not. If he's in, then the current would win. And for all the fact Lennon and Adam Johnson are decent, the wingers in the squad are a LOT better. King's a complete crock now, he's looked past it for Spurs the few times he's got a chance this season. Scholes was NEVER going to play for England this tournament, regardless of media hype.

Foster's situ is understandable, and I genuinely believe that Hodgson with the WBA connection had a better chance than any other manager possible of getting him to be the back-up to Hart. Gibbs is decent, but he's not really been snubbed. Baines and Cole have been the league's 2 best left-backs this year, let alone English ones. Sturridge is a bit hot and cold, he has some very poor games while he has decent ones. I think Holt deserved more of a chance than Crouch, who has never performed against the big teams for England.

Which ultimately, leaves Rio and Michah. Micah is a strange one, he's seemed in great form when he's got chances this season, but I understand Rio being left out initially. I doubt he'd have been prepared to be called up now after being left out of the first set.

I don't think the selection has been high quality by any means, but Richards is the only one that I don't understand.

[kaosmark2]

No I dont think Rooney was included as they were looking at players who could play the first game. I agree with you that Englands selected team should win, however the difference in quality is far less than it should be, so I certainly dont think anyone would bet their life saving on it.

As for the rest agree with most of it but not necesarily about the wingers. I think they are all of a similar ability and none really have much of a track record of consistent high perfomance at the top level. Its hard to compare them with the Ox as a lot of his hype is built on potential which sometimes comes through and sometimes does not.

The retirements are a funny thing, I always have got the impression that England suffer far more from early retirmenents than other countries but maybe I just notice them more living here. I mean the amount of keepers ruling themselves out is ridiciulous. I understand reserve keepers rarely play but when I look at the other squads I have never noticed them throwing their toys out of the pram because they arent first choice. Possibly because of the physicality of the league, fear of losing out financially from a shorter career, morale in tournament camps not good enough for someone to want to be part of but not play, I really am not sure.

As for Crouch not having perfomed against the big teams, if you only included people on that basis England would probably line up against france with just ashley cole on his own. A lot of people have pointed to the likes of Sturridge and Johnson not playing enough but I remember in euro 2004 one of the main advantages the greeks had were that many of them were reserves at their clubs and were therefore far fresher than everyone else.

As for Rio, it didnt seem a silly omission at first because I heard so many people call him a crock that I persuased myself it was true. However theres no doubt in my mind he is one of the top 4 centre backs in England. As I have said previously I dont think the crock argument holds when you pick Gerrard as captain. Its clearly down to the JT case but I think these players should just get on with it.