D___C » Tue May 08, 2012 2:37 am wrote:ycsatbjywtbiastkamb » Mon May 07, 2012 7:21 pm wrote:burjennio » Mon May 07, 2012 6:57 pm wrote:
Personally I think its poor for a side that goes into every tournament with a large section of their fanbase and media expecting to win it.
Also, QF or better sounds good until you look at it from the point of view that they have only made 2 semis, one of which was with home advantage.
Also during that time Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Greece and, God forbid, THE FRENCH have all won major tournaments
but to be fair the cold facts dont tell the full story.
in 82 (and throughout the 70`s) there was a wierd system in place with group stages that led straight to semi finals, it wasnt a knock out type system so there were no QF`s etc, in 82 the england side did well, they never lost a game, they comfortably beat eventual semi finalists france (platini et al) 2-0, drew with eventual finalists west germany and drew with hosts spain but went out on some strange co-efficient thing.
in 70 they lost in the QF`s to west germany but were many peoples favourites to win the tournament after their performance against brazil, england were a bit unlucky, first just before the QF they lost their keeper gordon banks to food poisoning but despite that they dominated germany and cruised to a 2-0 lead. with 10 minutes left ramsey decided to save bobby charltons legs (charlton was giving beckenbauer the run around) because the game was played in a mexican heatwave and took him off.
with charlton off the pitch germany gained momentum and got a couple of soft goals that chelsea keeper peter bonetti took the blame for, they eventually won in extra time, it was germanys first ever win against england.
that england side was brilliant and pele himself said in his autobiography that the sense of relief that went right through the brazil camp when england went out was palpable.
england have genuinely been unlucky in a few tournaments, 86 was another one.
Of course there are (and have been) quality English/British players.. but the problem is the very top nations produce far more top players than here which means there are very few worth buying, hence the need to look abroad for better.
If we are to buy English/British players then they have to be the best.. and given that there are so few that means the pool is very very small. Man U gobbled up the two quality players in the market last year in Young and Jones.
There are no English/British players on the market, bar Gareth Bale, who would make us better/challenge top 4. Therefore we have to look beyond. The mistake Comolli (and Kenny) made was not doing so, and as a result they expanded the average load on the squad and made us worse. From Torres to Carroll, from Meireles to Henderson/Adam. Inspite of some dodgy buys themselves (Rafa with Keane, Houllier with Heskey, Diouf, Diao, Cheyrou) they have been in a different league to Kenny as regards bringing quality players in. No manager in our history has squandered so much as Kenny and in record time. His one true class signing is Suarez, and the one decent signing is Enrique. He (and Comolli) made a huge error in bringing in players to cater to Carroll, ripping up the progress he had made in his first six months. This season has been a direct result of his (and Comolli's) bizarre strategy. He failed massively and at huge cost.
i just think there`s a general lack of respect for not just english players but british and irish players in general and whenever i hear that disrespect the phrase that springs to mind is `sky generation`.
in the 70`s and 80`s english teams dominated europe with sides made up almost entirely of british and irish players, and it wasnt just one club having a good run, it wasnt just liverpool (infact we were quite late to the european party, british sides like chelsea, newcastle, leeds, man united, man city, celtic, spurs, arsenal and even west ham all won a european trophy before we did).
it wasnt just in the 70`s and 80`s either, the actual idea of a european cup came about in the 50`s when a french journalist watched the english champions wolves beat european superpowers honved (puskas et al) and real madrid and he asked `is there any club in europe that could defeat wolves?`
the reason british players dont look as effective these days is that the game has changed, for over 100 years the game was a physical sport but now its not, the british have been slow in adapting to the change in the rules but that doesnt mean they wont get there eventually.
i remember seeing a manchester united side when they were in their wilderness years knock barcelona with maradona in their side out of europe, in the past continental sides found it very hard to deal with the power and aggressiveness of even average british teams.
i dont think there`s another nation that has achieved so much in the game but their players get so little respect.
by