World Cup

[Sparko]

Well I had hoped we would at least get to the last 16 as I'm sure a lot of people did but at the end of the day we got beat by 2 better teams, it's as simple as that. I get a little annoyed when people say "we are rubbish"  or " we put no effort in" and "the players don't care" etc etc, believe me they worked their bottoms off, they do care and I can imagine how utterly gutted the England players are. It's just we don't have the level of class that a lot of other countries do and we have to make do with the players we have, which compared to the players out there today are just average.

Also it's not like we got "hammered" by either Italy or Uruguay, at the end of the day we lasted longer than Spain

Bring on the euros and hopefully we can develop the team more

[smilodon]

What confuses me is how a country with a population that's less than a third of the size of London and a GDP of less than one fortieth of the UK can effectively knock us out of the World Cup?

There are teams and their fans that come to the World Cup and have no expectation of winning. They come for the honour of playing, of competing against the very best and of being part of a great celebration of football.

There are teams who come with a real expectation of winning. They're world class and they know it. All but one of them will come away disappointed. But they all come determined and realistically optimistic about their real chance of winning. And sooner or later they do win. And then they get the joy and celebration that goes with it.

And then there are a very few teams that fall between the two. They will never realistically become the world's cup holders but they hover on the edge and convince themselves that if they play really well, have a little luck go their way then who knows they might just do it. And for them every world cup will be a disappointment, they'll never win but they'll also never be able to just go and enjoy the experience. And that's a shame. England should either get better or get worse. 50 years of hovering in the shadows is just depressing.

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[Sparko]

What confuses me is how a country with a population that's less than a third of the size of London and a GDP of less than one fortieth of the UK can effectively knock us out of the World Cup?

But how much of that population in England would be eligible to play for us? This is the problem, the Premiership is by no doubt the best league in the world and I'm proud to be living in a country where we can say that, but it's the best in the world because it attracts the best players from around the world, unfortunately, from an England national team point of view, those players at the top of the ladder in English football are from over seas.

I think the fact that the premiership is so successful makes the English public expect the same kind of class and expectation from their national team, which won't happen unless we have a 'star' like Suarez, Neymar, Messi etc etc....

[BrotherTobious]

I think tut is right we need more grass roots investment but the fat cats don't want to do it and don't have the need to. Someone else problem

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[Blunt]

The Premier League/Sky Sports/FA are to blame.

I'd love to know the % of UK/GB players playing at top level abroad.

It's not in our favour having the best league in the world.

Youth policies, training, school football, coaching etc. all need to be looked at.

Home before the postcards again.

[Sparko]

The trouble is though the big clubs in England sign young players at a ridiculously  young age and then they are coached by our coaches, but then , quite rightly, play for their national team. Big clubs like Man City, Chelsea and Arsenal, to name a few,  scout the whole world for players at age 14+ then they bring them here! we train/coach them and then they play internationally for their own country (which they should)

So I'm not sure even the coaching is an issue!

[Milli]

The Premier League/Sky Sports/FA are to blame.

I'd love to know the % of UK/GB players playing at top level abroad.

It's not in our favour having the best league in the world.

Youth policies, training, school football, coaching etc. all need to be looked at.

Home before the postcards again.

this I agree with as 60% of players playing in English premier league are foreign.
But also have to look at the team that's being picked - England have a strong forward line in Rooney, wellbeck, Sturbridge, sterling.  
Henderson I thought tried his hardest in the two games but Gerrard has done nothing both games (coming from a Liverpool fan), I thought Barkley and lallana showed great drive when they came on first game.
and then to back line - jagielka has cost england 2 crucial goals by letting his marker peel off him for two headed goals.

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[BrotherTobious]

Milli in your role in your local youth team do you think there is enough done to encourage young talent

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[Milli]

Don't get me started with grassroots pal - Scotland only concentrate on the central belt area (Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling).  There's very little funding for teams elsewhere.
Recently a long standing Saturday amateur league has folded due to lack of teams...ridiculous.
But again back to your question (no longer involved with a youth setup BTW - committee had a change of heart and didn't take on the youths due to their management) - I remember playing in a tournament in Holland and travelling to the destination via rail every few miles there would be training facilities/club developments.  All geared towards bringing though the next talent.

For young players to develop into the best they can be they need to be exposed to the highest level of football they can play at.  This just isn't happening in our domestic game and especially not in our area.

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[TheDvEight]

It's a shame, I'd of like us to reach at least the 2nd rounds and thought this was possible even given the group we were in.

So far this world cup I've seen the "under dogs" play with heart,guts,courage and desire to win the game at all costs not once in the two games I felt England were doing this, it just felt that we were always second best chasing the game.

Right decision to retain/keep Woy if that does happen, he's a good honest manager.

The two games we have played more so the first were the best I've seen England play in a long while.

[Gone_Away]

Go usa!!

[TeaLeaf]

Go usa!!

That's a first!

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[suicidal_monkey]

The 5 live commentator is hilarious. He doesn't think much of England's performance :-)

[OldBloke]

The 5 live commentator is hilarious. He doesn't think much of England's performance :-)

Nor did I. Switched over to the Uruguay v Italy game. Brilliant theatre

[Tutonic]

Have just read that he's been munching people again. What a berk...

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