Euro 2008 - Last roll of the dice...

[devilsadvocate]

He's GAWN !!

Yup, first of a few heads to roll IMO. Still gets his £2.5m payout though.

[devilsadvocate]

What's the difference between Lewis Hamilton and the English Football Team?

Lewis Hamilton will still have a McLaren in the morning.
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What are the similarities between a 3 prong electrical plug and the English Football Team?

They're both useless in Europe.


P.S. Sorry JTC, gotta have a laugh mate, otherwise you'd cry!

[johntheclaret]

Bollocks, Bollocks, Bollocks.

Sh1t. McClaren is a wanker. End of story. I want to say he is a f$%king wanker, but I'm a moderator so I won't say it on here that he is a f$%king wanker.

Question. Englands biggest game in two years. Do or die and all that, so who does he put in goal. A complete international novice. Don't blame Carson. The pressure on him was unbelievable.

Question. Is Sol Campbell really the best we have available at centre back. A player who was past it 3 years ago. Two goals were directly responsible to him. Too slow.

Question. We are at home and we play 4 5 1. WTF is that all about. We have a shit defence with so called key players missing i.e. Ferdinand and Terry, so what do we do. Play 4 5 1 and invite the Croats on to us. WAFDH. WAFDH.

Question. Who the f45k would want the England jhob. A bunch of overpaid pussies with no pride. An FA set up that doesn't work, run by a bunch of out of touch stuffed shirts who sit there pontificating.

Whilst we are talking of pride, where was McClarens. He has been the most unsuccessful manager in Englands history, and does he do the decent thing and re-sign. Does he f$%k. He has no pride in himself and forces the "board" to sack him, invoking a £2.5m pay off. What a moneygrabbing wanker. Whatever happened to performance related pay. If you or I underperformed to level he did, we would get the bullit.

McClarens attitude is endemid of the England set up as a whole. Everything is dominated by money. They talk about English players not coming through the ranks because of the foriegn imports that dominate the league but it has far more to do with it, than that.

1) We have no pride in playing for your country. When you earn £5 - £10m a year and ponce around like a f$%king celebrity, there is very little to excite you in playing fro England for next to bugger all.
2) Success at league level is so important to the EPL clubs that they are reluctant to release players for the squad, quite often claiming a player is injusred only to see him play the followinig weekend. The league clubs don't give a rats arse for England. Most of the clubs are foreign owned anyway.
3) We talk about over expectation from the fans. Bollocks. England invented the f45king game, it has the premier football league in the world and the deepest pyramid system and the 2nd largest population in Europe, with Football as our national game. We expect to at least qualify. Just the same as Brazil, Italy, Germany expect to qualify for the big tournaments. It's not being a big head, and is no different than Aussies expecting their Rugby team to qualify for the world cup.

McClaren was givcen the boot 9 hours after this shit result. I think we need to look alot further than just blaming McClaren. He should never have been manager in the first place.

THis is a real shit day. Bollocks, Bollocks, Bollocks

[johntheclaret]

What's the difference between Lewis Hamilton and the English Football Team?

Lewis Hamilton will still have a McLaren in the morning.
---------
What are the similarities between a 3 prong electrical plug and the English Football Team?

They're both useless in Europe.


P.S. Sorry JTC, gotta have a laugh mate, otherwise you'd cry!

Don't feel like either mate. Just f45king mad.

[Dirko]

Hey John, are you sure you're not holding back there ?

Made me laugh though...

Ohh well the next World Cup qualifying must start soon over there....

Just don't play Croatia at Wembley to get in

[JK]

And yes English fans can be fickle, but I think sport fans the world over are fickle.

Look at the way so many turned on the Aus cricket team in '03 when we didn't make the finals of our own one-day series.
Look at the killing of Pablo Escobar after scoring an own goal in the '94 World Cup.

No question it's not just limited to English fans DA .. But you have to admit they are a pretty special lot.

Who's your $$ on to replace McLaren, or will it take some time? (I guess they don't really have to rush)

[johntheclaret]

And yes English fans can be fickle, but I think sport fans the world over are fickle.

Look at the way so many turned on the Aus cricket team in '03 when we didn't make the finals of our own one-day series.
Look at the killing of Pablo Escobar after scoring an own goal in the '94 World Cup.

No question it's not just limited to English fans DA .. But you have to admit they are a pretty special lot.

Who's your $$ on to replace McLaren, or will it take some time? (I guess they don't really have to rush)

They say they are takinig their time. Mouriniho is bookies fav at 7/2.
Other names, Milan coach and Poruguese Scilatchi, who we tried to get before McClaren, also Harry Redknapp.

Definitely a no no Allardyce and Martin O'Neill

[johntheclaret]

Hey John, are you sure you're not holding back there ?

Made me laugh though...

Ohh well the next World Cup qualifying must start soon over there....

Just don't play Croatia at Wembley to get in

Sorry SJABC. Did go as bit overboard. My mum could do a better job at running the FA than this bunch of clowns. No wonder we are a laughing stock

[Dirko]

They say they are takinig their time. Mouriniho is bookies fav at 7/2.
Other names, Milan coach and Poruguese Scilatchi, who we tried to get before McClaren, also Harry Redknapp.

Definitely a no no Allardyce and Martin O'Neill

JTC no-ones laughing (much )!

The FFA are looking at Mourinho too

They are also looking at Barca assistant Johan Neeskens, Jurgen Klinsmann and Gerard Houllier.

IMO I'd take Johan, as I prefer the Dutch style of football.

[JK]

Who was the bloke dumped at Real after taking them to last seasons title, is he still available?

[devilsadvocate]

No question it's not just limited to English fans DA .. But you have to admit they are a pretty special lot.

Who's your $$ on to replace McLaren, or will it take some time? (I guess they don't really have to rush)

Yeah, agreed. A mate at work was at the game and his attitude is that you should support your side 100% no matter what and is definitely not a one-eyed supporter, however even he felt compelled to boo the team off the pitch on Wednesday and pretty much has the exact same sentiment as JTC above.

In this case I don't actually think the English fans are being fickle, I think that them turning on the English side and manager is well, well justified. Further, while England qualifying for major comps is not their divine right, it should be expected as they invented the game. Agree with JTC too, that us Aussies expect the Wallabies to qualify for the world cup and if we didn't there would a Royal Commission into it.

As for who's next in the hot seat, I'd say Jose is the best choice, but I also think he's too smart to take the role. All the candidates seem to be distancing themselves and ruling themselves out. There's a bit of talk of Alan Shearer, but why would they pick him? No managerial experience whatsoever. What about Lippi? The Real Madrid manager was Fabio Capello and as it turns out is the only current applican for the job apparently. Not sure that he's the best choice, but may at least have the balls to make some big decisions and drop some prima donnas from the squad.

This all makes their decision to sack Sven and his overall treatment on the whole look appauling. The problem is higher up than the manager.

On a side note, before the game on Wednesday, Gordon Strachan was asked if he was the English Manager, what formation would he play? His reply - "If I was the English Manager, I'd top myself".

Also - Sat-nav owners are reporting trouble with their devices this morning as apprently England is nowhere to be found in Europe.

[devilsadvocate]

I should add too that I feel for English fans having to put up with the bumbling that goes on with their side that goes on at all levels.

[johntheclaret]

Factiod

Wednesday’s defeat by Croatia was the first England team, including substitutes, not to feature a United player in 115 games since they played Morocco in a friendly in May 1998.

[johntheclaret]

Not saying that England were p1ssed at going out of Euro 08 at the hands of Croatia but.......

Croatia football chief arrested and then freed
21/11/2007 16:11

LONDON (Reuters) - Police briefly arrested Croatia's football chief Zorislav Srebric on suspicion of shoplifting at Gatwick airport, but the Croatian Football Association said the incident was a misunderstanding.
"We released without charge a 67-year-old man who was arrested at Gatwick yesterday on suspicion of shoplifting. No further action will be taken," a Sussex Police spokesman said on Wednesday.
Srebric had gone to buy a newspaper while waiting for the team on the eve of Wednesday's European championship qualifier. When he saw the team arrive he went to assist them before paying, the Croatian Football Federation said in a statement.
"A London policeman thought he was trying to avoid paying for the newspaper, which is nonsense," said the statement, reported by Croatia's state news agency Hina.
The situation got even more absurd as he was taken to a police station where the situation was clarified, but due to a lengthy procedure Srebric had to spend some time there, instead of just several minutes.
"According to Srebric, policemen behaved in a correct manner," the statement added.