England Out. Economy Will Suffer.

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 !

Ramin