Re: Euro 2012
 

:cleader::cleader::cleader:

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**Waits for Authur's post about how England are going to win it all**

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My granny could have scored that...use scoring, granny and rooney and make up a headline :D

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Are France going to finish in second place.:D

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Lucky...

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a let off there even with the official behind the goal? hahahahahaha up yours UEFA FIFA stick technology up your arse now

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I wouldn't like to be an England fan on the streets of Ukraine tonight after that over the line incident..

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l wonder if Mr Blatter was watching.

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Why would Blatter be watching? i thought he doesn't like football :D

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Suddenly England fans weren't really fussed about goal-line technology.

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Welbeck off for Caroll. Milner off for Theo or Ox should surely be upcoming

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More of, two wrongs make a right england goal :D

---------- Post added at 21:15 ---------- Previous post was at 21:13 ----------

I see Arthurs on twitter

from BBC text commentary
Arthur on Twitter: "I feel bad for Ukraine. They've been robbed. It was a definite goal, terrible refereeing. Why have a man behind the goal?

Re: Euro 2012
 

Come on Clive, we didn't need to make use of your "Video Analysis Boys" to know he was offside.

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turns out it was offside anyway ?

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Wow just seen Ibra's goal. What a hit.

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No excuse...it wasn't disallowed for offside

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try explaining to UEFA and Fifa

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Yes it was a brilliant goal.:tu:

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I'd have more joy explaining offside rule to the gf :D

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The mind boggles.:naughty::naughty::D

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That's easy... :D

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can you make bets on subs? i couldnt find them on bet365. im having more luck with subs than results

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France losing 2-0 to Sweden.:shocked:

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Another goal for Sweden, so that's a definite Italy game for England then even if Ukraine scores.. and poor France gets Spain

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:D

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Not a surprise, would you like to lose all three games at a tournament or would you fight like crazy in the last game with nothing to lose..

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Spain didn't look that impressive last night.

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Neither did we tonight.!:erm:

---------- Post added at 21:50 ---------- Previous post was at 21:46 ----------

Just remember it works both ways mate. ;)

We played crap tonight and we were lucky.

Re: Euro 2012
 

Like in the last world cup where we were robbed of Lampard's goal
Although, some might say that was karma for our '66 world cup winning goal

I wouldn't say we played crap tongiht, although both Gerrard and Johnson were doing Milner's job,.
Why he was even brought to the Euro's instead of Aaron Lennon is a mystery, let alone being on the pitch

Re: Euro 2012
 

Totally agree with you mate. James Milners performance`s have been less than average and Rooney, although he scored the goal, is well past his sell by date.!
Gerrard has played a blinder in all of the games so far, such a commited played.

---------- Post added at 22:02 ---------- Previous post was at 22:00 ----------

I get so frustrated with the England team as they don`t seem to be able to get stuck in and tackle an opposing player with the ball. Very frustrating to watch.

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Rooney well past his sell by date at 26? Righto :confused:

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we're going to win it!!!!!!

engerlandddd!!!

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Utter moron of the tournament award goes to Clive Tyldesley for his reference to the "partisan" Ukrainian fans. He is either a geniune moron (most likely) or partial to the odd politically sensitive innuendo like his oppo: the other moron Champion.

Re: Euro 2012
 

Just heard some breaking news:

Apparently Wayne Rooney has tested positive for a performance enhancing rug.... :D

Yet another on and off performance by England. As for the goal that wasn't well it clearly was over the line. Had new goaline technology been employed the goal would no doubt have been awarded even though it resulted directly from an offside that was missed by the officials. If this goal had been given it would have been a bad decision so where will the use of any new technololgy in reviewing contentious decisions start and stop I wonder? Odd, too, that the extra official was located the same side of the goal as the linesman. Surely it'd have been better if he'd been the other side of the goal and possibly not quite as close to the post.

I think England have done well to get this far can't see them beating Italy but I hope they go out in the spirit that led to their comeback against Sweden. Far too often over the years when the writing's been on the wall, our negative tactics and lack of fighting spirit have carried on regardless and led to us going out with a whimper rather than a fight. I'd really rather see England go out having played well than win due to a lucky goal or whatever but having played poorly.

---------- Post added at 09:40 ---------- Previous post was at 09:23 ----------

I suspect commentators from all nations find themselves talking rubbish from time to time. Remember this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqZTP8-8wIs

:D

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I'd rather play Spain than Italy. England can physically boss the Spanish players and would be favourites at set pieces. Italy will be a much harder game in my opinion.

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I'm England-neutral so whether they win or lose I'm not bothered but I'm amazed that now England have a goal disallowed against them, Blatter wastes no time in singing the praises of goal-line technology. He really does have it in for you lot doesn't he?

Re: Euro 2012
 

Blatter is a supreme WUM

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Not really. It just so happens that, unlike two years ago, FIFA are very likely to vote for goal line technology in a couple of weeks time. It been planned for a while, the testing and trials have been completed, and it all seems to have gone well.

In fact it was the goal line incident two years ago that changed Blatter's mind on the issue and helped start the process which, entirely coincidentally, comes to it's conclusion in less than a months time. It just wasn't really widely reported at the time because of the paranoid victim complex we seem to have. Here is the story from two years ago: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2010/0...65S1O320100629

and then one year ago:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9415682.stm

So Blatter has actually been quite consistent on this since that England vs Germany goal line incident. Only now his comments last night have been portrayed as a sudden U-Turn motivated by anti-English sentiment. may not like him but fair is fair. We're really not as disliked as we like to think but we have to start performing on the pitch rather than whine in the papers.

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Not at all - I doubt he would have made such a statement so soon had it been a disallowed goal for England.

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But he has, many times, for the last two years. He did so after the England vs Germany game two years ago and started the process to actually get it done. The vote is early next month.

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This has to be the best picture from the tournament so far...

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/06/20.jpg

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https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/06/18.jpg

:)

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He could at least pretend he had a girlfriend.

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LOL, Greece just equalises

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A interesting last half hour.:D

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I can not believe it.

I had 2-1 on my predictions, but changed it to 2-0 just before the game started.

And to be honest, i never seen that coming

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You should never change your predictions young Colin.:D

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Yes, i know..but Germany seemed so good, and Greece seemed so bad

That said, it is 3-1 now so immaterial.

And i want it to be 5-1..if I'm wrong, i want everyone to be wrong, selfish that way :D

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lovely bullet!

why is this ref not giving out cards?!

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Commentary watch - a new low tonight. Could the Greece economy jibes have been any more embarrassing. Every single commentator on both BBC and ITV involved in this tournament up to now needs to be put out to grass with immediate effect.

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l know its absolutely shocking but what can you expect from third rate commentators.:td::(

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Wholly agree. Why can't they just concentrate on the football.

No, I don't need mood music, I like hearing the crowd

No, i don't want to know whether the players like cats, or dogs. I just want them to show fighting spirit (they can fight like a cat or dog, their choice)

And i don't need inane commentators, keep the jokes and the condescending remarks for your wife (or husband), I want to know who is getting the ball, as i actually don't memorise every player, that is your job, not mine :D

Re: Euro 2012
 

Maloudas such a frustrating player to watch!

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Very lazy and not a team player.:td:

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theres options for France. Id take him off now rather than leaving it too late.

watch him stay on and score now lol

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Looking at it l think France need another five players on the pitch to cope with the elusive Spanish.

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no but right there was a prime example. France not putting pressure on Spain, standing still?

---------- Post added at 21:33 ---------- Previous post was at 20:50 ----------

commentary is soo poor its embarassing. soft peno? the attacker had that before being man handled!

Re: Euro 2012
 

That was so boring. We're on this earth for such little time and then you waste a couple of hours on that.

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Well lads not long to go now so l have prepared this speech for us supporting England tonight.

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leave it yeah! :D

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Passion is very important when you play for your country because at the end of the day money should not come into it.:)

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Time to hear the Italian national anthem for the second time today :D

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lets hope

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Italy looking very falliable in defence here.

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Bloody Dreadful performance from us!!!!!!!!!!

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Pirlo :nworthy:

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unlucky. real unlucky.

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Can't say I'm shocked we lost on penalties, but still think England did well to get to the Quarters. I saw loads of comments online when Hodgson was appointed saying we would be out at group stages, everyone was going to murder us. Yet I think that England did very well.

No shame in losing to Italy, hope they go on and win it now.

Re: Euro 2012
 

So, time to place your bets on who The Sun will be blaming this time? :D

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Shame to add to the penalty trauma, but I'm not sure I'd want to see this England up against Germany in the semis.

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I am so damn angry at the fact that our performance was poor, and why, why was Rooney playing when you had Carroll and Defoe on the bench. Yes Carroll came on and we had two inexperienced players came on and Defoe was left on the bench, it does not make any sense.

It beggars belief that Hodgson has relied on Rooney, his performance tonight was terrible.

What we needed was players that were prepared to play, and they all fell short of that, Italy were running rings round us and dominated the second half.

What we have to do now is get rid of the dead wood and bring in new blood for the World Cup.

There maybe fans who might disgree with my comments, but the team does not run out Rooney. Terrible performance.:mad:

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not me. Roy tactically got it spot on. its then up to the players to pull something out the bag attacking. hats off to Roy.

****. utter ****. i think they had their slice fun with the pee take out of the speech thing. pricks.

---------- Post added at 22:38 ---------- Previous post was at 22:35 ----------

I would of. all it took was for the attack to click.

Italy will get murdered. I dont buy into Germany wanting England instead of Italy.

Caroll was poor. So too was Rooney. The sucker punch was Parker being forced off or Ox could of been thrown on.

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Expected. We've only beaten Ukraine and Sweden and even then not convincingly. People got ahead of themselves if they thought we should have won this game and the only surprise is we kept it at 0 - 0. Credit to the defence.

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Let's all blame Jimmy Carr :D

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Apart from the first half England showed just how far they are behind the top nations of the world and that gap is light years behind.

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And Italy aren't even one of the top nations, I think Germany may well be ending their hoodoo against them soon

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It didn't take the Euros to prove that. For years everyone has known that England are a sub-standard team made up of world-class players.

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If England have so many world-class players, why do they give the ball away so much? Surely keeping the ball is a basic skill

Re: Euro 2012
 

Agree. Came up short but did better than I expected and the best team won last night. There was some terrific commitment in defence which was nice to see and - very different from the famous Germany game which saw our defence so badly exposed. So well done England on that score! :tu:

There certainly is a big problem holding onto the ball and giving away possession and this so often puts the team under pressure unnecessarily and leads to conceding goals. I have no idea why this is, do the likes of Spain, Portugal, Germany etc. get more time together at a national level? Is it some sort of collective psychological shortcoming? If England are ever going to progress further then they need to address this because IMHO it's their main problem and if the could sort it they'd not need to suffer the inevitable penalty shoot out agony. lol

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We don't have the technical skill. What with technique being so often overlooked for so long in favour of physical strength, size, and speed across all levels of English football.

The need to win at every level has meant that at the younger ages, where the differences between sizes is much more evident, the stronger players get to play a lot more football and get a headstart. The fact they are stronger, taller and/or faster means they can depend on these skills to win games and 'play well' and this is at a cost to their technical development. This is really quite evident at international youth level where the younger the age group the better England do because we placed winning over development even at that age.

Then of course they reach late teens and suddenly their advantage is gone. All the nations where their players are picked on technical ability rather than 'heart' or physical strength can suddenly move better than us, pass better than us and control the ball better than us. They spent their development playing on smaller pitches, more time on the ball, with a focus on getting better rather than winning the under-9s league or what have you.

So then England are left to hoofing the ball up to the 'big man' up front, maybe hoping to expose their full backs with pace, and our defenders throwing themselves in front of the ball rather than anticipating the play to avoid the need to do that in the first place.

Re: Euro 2012
 

Better than expected???!!!!

Come on guys, whether its Jose Morinho, Capello, Hodgson or my mum managing the team, getting out of that group would have been a given.

Hodgeson didn't do anything radically differerent - remeber if Lampard hadn't been injured he would have played Gerrard and Lamps together.

I thinking Rooney's inclusion was a turning point. Bowing to public pressure and picking a striker who was unfit and out of form didn't contribute to the team in my opinion.

Same old England, same old result.

Come on Portugal!

Re: Euro 2012
 

^^

Yes. Beating Sweden and Ukraine isn't enough to warrant us saying there is an improvement over our World Cup campaign. We were hard to beat and put in better defence performances against France and Italy but only because we gave up any ambition in attack.

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With all the foreigners in the Premier League, do they get a chance to find out how to play the 'English' way and who can't keep it up for a full match? As none of the English talent goes abroad, they never learn anything different

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l agree bowing to public pressure is no way to run any football side and every time we do that it gets us nowhere and with regards to Rooney when was the last time he ever performed for England as to me he is the most vastly over-rated player l have seen for the last 20 years.

Re: Euro 2012
 

This is another issue. Although I think it's less about 'playing another way', there is only so much an already established player can do about their game, it's more about a lack of playing talent.

Fabregas couldn't break into the Barcelona squad when he was young. He could have sat at Barcelona getting cameo roles when Xavi or Iniesta were injured and awaited his turn until 24/25 to replace them. He didn't. Instead to went to Arsenal were he played in the first team for years and years and became a better player as a result of actually playing football.

This is the thing with European footballers. They, as a whole, take it seriously and don't sit and whine about 'foreigners' they compete for their place and if they can't get into the side they don't want to sit on the bench collecting their salaries, going to clubs, and living the life. They go where they can to play football.

Here the vast majority of English players don't leave the country. There was not a single man in that 23 man squad who didn't play in England. Problem with this is there are only so many top teams in England and even fewer that play in the Champions League.

In summary: It's not so much a different way of playing but being more motivated in playing at all. You get the feeling a lot of English players don't actually like football sometimes.

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Well there is one thing they actually learn and that is the celebrity football lifestyle without actually doing anything to justify their huge wages.

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Maybe there is a need to bring back 'B' internationals to try and find some England players who can play international football. I now footballers play a lot of games but it would still give them a chance to play for their country, though it might need to make sure that the opposition is of sufficient calibre

Re: Euro 2012
 

Your biggest problem there Chris is even though its a good idea that old chestnut of fixture congestion is likely to rear its ugly head again and l suspect many clubs would pull their players out.

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That was the main downer I saw as well but if they were played on similar dates then it might make it possible either that or next time just put out a squad of Championship players just to compare the quality level

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Only 3 of the Italian squad play outside Italy.

As much as I hate the whole “everyone is a winner no one loses” mentality, you simply have to stop having young kids playing in competitive leagues.

Re: Euro 2012
 

They don't quite as much much competition for places either however. It's not a hard and fast rule anyway. Spain don't have many players who play outside Spain, although quite a few did previously, but it's more about the drive and ambition to play football. If you can't play football then go where you can play football at the highest level possible. It's indicative of an attitude that is only part of what is costing us.

---------- Post added at 11:52 ---------- Previous post was at 11:49 ----------

Club level is a fine place for players to learn. I don't really see the need to increase the internationals, we know the quality of the players as they play every week.

We need better players. Everything else will have only a minor impact at best.

Re: Euro 2012
 

Perhaps a limit on the number of foreign players club teams can field would help. Personally, I think it might be good for football as a whole, as it would level the playing field between poor and rich leagues a bit.

Re: Euro 2012
 

Well we have limits on who you can name in a 25 man team, the homegrown rule but EU regulations mean you can't make them be English.

I think that isn't the problem however. Increased competitiveness is good. It's just England players need to go to these other leagues to get experience. Artificially reducing the quality required to break into EPL Champions League teams will just hurt the squad imo.

Re: Euro 2012
 

What England need to do is to ensure all their competitive matches are held on a cold wet Tuesday night in Stoke. ;)

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Hmm, so we do. Eight out of 25 isn't exactly encouraging home-grown talents though, is it?

Isn't the reality though that wages are so high in England that players are virtually guaranteed to stay?

Re: Euro 2012
 

Yeah, that doesn't help.

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I agree with the comments that were made on Sky Sports News today, we had the best players out there that perform each week in the PL and yet are lousy when they put the coveted English Shirt on.

Rooney should not have played at all due to his injury and Hodgson should have allowed Defoe, Carroll more time on the pitch.

Be honest, we have to select a team that will go forward and threaten the goal, last night we didn't do that.

I have said before we now have to select new blood in prep for the next World Cup and not stick to the old guard.

Will have players like Rooney, Gerrard and Terry saying that it has been a good tournament, BUT they should have performed on the night, and for me they didn't, same old England, same old excuses.

Re: Euro 2012
 

I agree with a lot you are saying their Arthur - we might have good players week in week out in the PL however they do have the advantage of creative outlets such as Aguero, Balotelli, Silva, Suarez, Ba, Cisse etc etc to help them.

Bringing Carroll on did just upped the hoof it up teh pitch attitude - slightly unfair to him as I think he is a better player than that.

Defoe? - Unfortunately Harry didn't think he was good enough for a regular start for Spurs so can't really blame Roy for not picking him. Although would have been tempted to bring him on for Rooney who was poor in both games and hasn't done it for England since Euro 2004 in my opinion

Re: Euro 2012
 

Ashley Young should not have been on the pitch to take a penalty. He should have been replaced with Walcott at half time because he was so poor.

People might be saying it'#s easy for me to say that now - but even Stevie Wonder would have seen how crap he was in the first half!

Re: Euro 2012
 

England have some great young players in the making, and this is where the new blood comes in, we have to start now.

Its no good having players in there such as Gerrard, Terry etc (and l am not having a dig) but England always select the same 'old' players. Rooney for example should have been sent home as he was totally unfit, and should not have been on the pitch.

We were not playing a championship side, we were playing the 'gold' of football, and therefore should have had the players there suitable for the challenge.

I was saying to my son, What was the point of having Defoe (yes l am a Spurs fan) on the tour and not play him, he has the experience of big matches. At least he could have taken over from Rooney.