England were poor. McClaren got it all wrong. And England are out. What else is there to say? Was there any positives? Yes. The only positive is that missing out on Euro 2008 will make the country stonger and will make the F.A realise they made a big mistake in appointing McClaren. It’s better for the F.A to realise they were wrong now and miss out on the Euro’s than realise after the Euro’s and potentially miss out on the World Cup.
I listened to SSN this morning and heard different statements:
Motson : ‘England need to take a long hard look at themselves and ask themselves why they did not qualify through an easy group’
Shearer : ‘The manager got it all wrong and now the nation has to suffer for his decisions’
Mourinho : ‘It is sad to see England not qualify… the Euro’s will not be the same without England’
Hansen : ‘Poor quality, poor defending and poor team effort’
Wright : ‘England are a shambles. Absolutely shocking’
McClaren overcomplicated the tactics; England should have come out of the tunnel playing a 4-4-2 with Gerrard and Barry together, and Crouch up front with Defoe. Defoe looked lively, he came on and was sharp, Bent looked good as well but England missed the extra layer of quality when attacking. Our defense was poor but our keeper was even worse. Will quota’s on English football help? No.
England are producing the talent, just look at the U21’s who are top of their group and cruising the groups, the problem is not in producing the talent, the problem lies in giving them regular football when top teams prefer to spend money on proven talent. All apart from Wenger of course who likes to buy unknown stars. But then again, Wenger hates English players. But he has every right to. English players like to booze, go clubbing and have sex. Foreigners don’t drink as much, don’t go clubbing as much and don’t have sex every night. Would Toure go out on a bender? No he probably wouldn’t. He is religious and his beliefs restrict him from doing so. So it’s a catch 22 situation.
Did England disrespect the other teams in the group? Were they too confident? No-one knows. We can all judge but nobody knows the truth. Only the 24 man squad and the England national team staff know. But it seems like they were too confident. But confident needs to be distingished from disrespect because players disrespected McClaren. They didn’t listen to Steve, players didn’t respond to Steve because he was not a man with high status or calibre. Gerrard is used to listening to Rafa every week, someone with high credibility in English football, Lampard used to take orders from the legend that was Mourinho and Campbell played under one of the greatest managers ever, better known as Wenger. Therefore, when they see Steve ‘the clown’ McClaren standing in front of them, they don’t take him as seriously as they would with their club managers. If Jose said, ‘Listen, we are playing 4-5-1 with the wingers getting in as many crosses as possible’, then we would have won last night. But instead it was McClaren who said it, a person with little respect or achievement in terms of what’s needed to be a good successful England manager.
Who will take over? Not Mourinho. Not Sam. Not Hiddink. Roman won’t let Hiddink leave, he will double whatever England offer him. Russia without Hiddink are nothing. It will either be Harry or O’Neill. Harry won’t be allowed to leave, so it looks like it’s Martin, skybet have him at 3/1 so he looks like the safe option.
I’m happy with Martin; Martin knows his tactics, he knows the strengths of players and he knows how to make our over-congested midfield work together. I’ve always wanted Scolari, because his record is outstanding, but if Scolari doesn’t get the job it would please me because I want him in charge of Arsenal when Arsene leaves. I walked into Ladbrokes at 4pm today and said, ‘Manny, has the idiot been sacked yet? I’ve been busy with work so haven’t been able to check for updates.‘ Manny, my friend who works behind the counter at Ladbrokes responded with ‘yes, the wankers gone.’ I felt relieved.
But players and fans aren’t the only ones suffering. The economy will suffer significantly; the English GDP will be affected by around £2bn due to England not qualifying. Why? Because merchandise, tv revenue and pubs will suffer. The costs are estimated to be £2bn. Does it matter? Yes it does. ‘But what will you do next summer’ I hear you ask? I just checked Virgin and flights to America are at £1200 per person, I think I’ve just answered your question !
I received an email this morning from a reader called Chris, he told me he was ‘intrigued’ to hear my views about England this weekend, especially after Israel beat Russia to gift England a chance of going through. Well, I was going to write about the circus that England found themselves this morning anyway so no worries Chris.
I don’t like talking much about the England national team. Why? Because half of England don’t like talking about the England national team. I listened to a number of radio phone ins yesterday, and die hard English fans wanted Russia to win. You know when football has gone mad when fans want their own national team to lose. The main reasons were because England are ‘over paid and overhyped compared to other nations’ said Mark from Exeter. The rugby world cup team had the whole of the nation backing them, the football team hasn’t. Fact is, football has become such as dominant sport people are starting to hate it. Women hate it more than ever and fans outside the top 10 are going off the sport because the top teams are strengthening with such power that lower teams might as well not bother as they know they won’t mount a good run in the league.
Footballers are seen as selfish, over paid and arrogant these days. All of which are true, but if you were paid £40,000+ a week then I’m certain you would be as well. I wanted Israel to win more than ever, and when Elyaniv Barda scored on the 10 minute mark, England qualifying seemed a reality. A good pass from Andrei Arshavin saw Bilyaletdinov strike the ball past the Israel keepers legs and Russia were back in the match. In the 90th minute, the clock suddenly stopped, the players suddenly stopped, because Sychev took a shot that clipped the outside of the post. My heart was beating, my legs felt restless and my brain was throbbing with pain. Funnily enough Israel went and scored straight from Russia’s attack and won.
England have been gifted a chance to qualify for Euro 2008. Hiddink will be fuming, I’m certain Roman Abramovich sat down with the Russia players before the match and said,
‘Listen guys, I don’t like England, I want Russia to win more than ever so don’t let me and all the Russian fans down. I will give you each £25,000 if you win. Simple. Now piss off and win. Or else ! ‘
Roman would have been fuming with the players, he will be talking to Guus this morning and demanding an answer for their poor performance. They were miles behind Israel in terms of quality which left me and millions of others in bewilderment, especially after their good performance against England. Roman is an influential character in Russia, he is respected and seen as a legend over there. He has done a lot for Russian football, and if he said he wanted Guus sacked then the Russian Football Union, better known as their F.A, would seriously consider his request. But he won’t want him sacked. Roman loves Guus and Guus loves Roman. Roman wants Guus in charge of Chelsea but he also wants Guus to stay in charge of the Russian national team because Guus has improved the Russians immensely since he took over. Guus goes back to the roots, he goes to the youth of football and looks for long term success.
On the other hand, McClaren is still a hopeless idiot. Just as he has the balls to drop Lampard for Barry and England finally see an excellent partnership in midfield, he decides to bring Lampard back in for Wednesday. Is he deluded ? Lampard and Gerrard won’t work in McClarens tactics. When something is working you don’t change it. This is why we need someone with half a brain to manage England. We all know what will happen; we will qualify, the F.A will say ‘Told you all he was the right man for England’ and in the Euro’s we will lose in the quarters, then Brian Barwick, Geoff Thompson and co will sack him and look for another manager. This happens for every tournament. Now it’s becoming a bit of a joke.
Will we win on Wednesday? Of course. Skybet had us at 14/1 to win the Euro’s before Israels match yesterday, if England qualify, that will go down to 4/1. Therefore, for all the betting men out there, 14/1 would have been an excellent bet. Shame you’ve missed out on it now though.
This weekend was eventful. Very eventful. England lost to South Africa, but winning the World Cup would have truly been undeserved. The Springboks deserved their victory, but we all saw the passion the rugby team give compared to the football team. The country is proud of England for what they showed last night after their embaressing start to the World Cup. They were not at their best, but still managed to get to the final. Was it due to poor opponents, or luck? Both. But England weren’t complaining. I’m not in the mood to debate ‘England vs Rugby’ at the moment, I want to talk about something more important, so I will leave that for my next article.
Wenger has changed. Wenger done something we’ve never seen him do before; he made exceptional tactical subsitutions which changed the game for us. After 60 minutes, Wenger thought to himself, ‘Bolton are here for the taking. They have no manager and we are all over them!’. Then he told Pat Rice, ‘Time to bring Walcott on’. Pat replied, ‘Yes Sir, your wish is my command…. OI THEO GET WARMED UP YOU’RE COMING ON!’. What I just wrote is effectively not true, but something along those lines happened.
Wenger has never been a manager to make effective subsitutions; during the champions league final we had 8 whole minutes to throw the kitchen sink at Barcelona, but we did not. Wenger should have added an extra dimension to our attack and switched from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2. We had nothing to lose. We were a goal down, either two things were going to happen if he changed the tactics a. We would have scored or b. Barcelona would have scored. Losing 3-1 and giving everything to try and grab a goal would have pleased me more than sitting down the packed pub with my friends and seeing the most gruelling 8 minutes of football I’v seen as an Arsenal fan. Those 8 minutes seemed to last forever.
Walcott changed the game yesterday. He came on and we all saw his pace outlined on MOTD. Wenger must be applauded for that, because 1 year ago he would not have made that substitution. He would have sat there and remained stubborn on his tactics, opting to hold out and wait for a goal. This year Wenger has been more brutal then ever; he is dropping players that aren’t performing, he is selling players that are deemed surplus to requirements, and he is buying players to raise the competition levels for starting places.
Wenger reminds me of Oscar Wilde. Wenger has the class and wit of Oscar Wilde. He stood at the AGM meeting and made a remarkable speech without looking at his notes once. He answered all our questions without us needing to ask questions, because he knew what we wanted to hear and delivered it. Football has never seen a manager like Wenger, when he leaves I will cry and sob like a two year old because Wenger has given us the best football anyone has ever seen.
Arsenal compared to last season are a step above. When we miss a chance, we smile. When we mess up a pass, we smile. When we go 1-0 down, we smile. Why? Because we are enjoying our football. Arsenal play best when underdogs. When pressure is on Arsenal, Arsenal find it hard to perform. We were written off this season. We were told we would never win anything until Wenger bought experience. Thank fuck Wenger is in charge and not some idiot who believed all that.
However, all of what I’ve said is irrelavant when compared to my next point. It doesn’t matter how much of a genius Wenger was on Saturday with his substitutions, or how well we played. Arsenal needed a win after their two week international break to keep momentum going. A 1-0 win would have been enough. Why? Because after a break, the most important thing is to pick up where you left off. I said this in my article written just before the international break. I was right.
If Arsenal lost to Bolton, it would have changed our season. Momentum is a strong force which should not be messed with. We have now won 11 in a row in the league, even if we lose our game in hand, we have a 2 point league. That is a brilliant back up to have. I keep saying this, but this year we will win the league. We really will, and when we do, I will take a sip of my fine Chilean wine and laugh at all those who wrote me off.
Until that point, I will sit and write articles as if my life depended on it. Furthermore, you will read them as if you’re life depended on it.
Missus: ‘Ramin! Stop Jumping Up And Down Like A Clown!’
Me: ‘But darling we’ve just lost to the bloody Russians!’
Missus: ‘I don’t care, I’m trying to read Heat!’
Me: ‘FUCKS SAKE I CAN’T BELIEVE WE LOST!’
She storms out.
Oh well, nevermind. My outburst made in severe unhappiness was worth pissing my other half off. Fact is, England are second in the table with only a 2 point lead over Russia, even more worryingly, Russia have a game in hand. Croatia only need 1 point, and they have 2 games to get it from. They will get this 1 point and go through at the top of the table. Therefore, England need Russia to slip up. Which they will do. They will draw their next game against Israel because Israel away for Russia is hard. England will beat Austria away on November 19th. England will beat Croatia at Wembley, because England always perform in the group stages right at the death - this year will be no different.
McClaren will get England through by a whisker, then the F.A will sit on their throne and say, ‘He got us to the tournament therefore he will not get sacked’. Then when Euro 2008 comes along England will get to the quarters, lose (probably to Portugal) and McClaren will then get sacked. This happens every tournament, the F.A back the manager but the manager is sacked after major tournaments, it’s a sisyphean task that happens between the F.A and the England manager.
Then Scolari or O’Neill will take over but we’ll leave that for 1st September 2008 when McClaren will be sacked, and I write an article saying ‘Another Disaster For England’. Watch out for it, we all know it is bound to happen. I listened to FiveLive on Wednesday night and the presenter blamed the plastic pitch. Get over it. The F.A should have done something about it when they knew England were playing their most important match on a plastic pitch 2 months ago, they didn’t, so stop moaning about it now. If we would have won the media would have said ‘Plastic Pitch Done Us Wonders!’. We all know it.
Pitch aside, England were poor. Gerrard isn’t motivated to play for England anymore, Robinson is just shocking at the moment, and the flair and passion we once saw in England was non existent. Pearcy would never have let it get to this, Tony Adams would have berated Gerrard for that open goal miss until he made up for it by scoring a 35 yard cracker to win the game for England, but football has changed and money is on players’ mind now. We have the best individual players in the world, but as a team we are shit.
I came past this last night which made me laugh. This is what football is about, passion and enjoyment. Take a look and leave a comment; ‘10 German Bombers’ in WC 06 Germany:
