Caporegime
- Joined
- 18 Oct 2002
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- 37,804
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did you really just say that beating "Almunia that really improves our players"???
did you really just say that beating "Almunia that really improves our players"???
did you really just say that beating "Almunia that really improves our players"???
Afraid that I have to agree with this.Keane Blames England Egos
Sunderland manager Roy Keane has accused England's players of allowing their egos to get in the way of success as a team.
The 36-year-old former Republic of Ireland captain, who famously missed the 2002 World Cup finals in the Far East after a major bust-up with then manager Mick McCarthy, has more than once voiced his opinions about the current crop of Barclays Premier League stars.
Keane fears some are more interested in their pay packets, fast cars and WAGS than winning trophies and playing international football, and he believes England's demise is symptomatic of that.
As the post-mortem which saw England boss Steve McClaren lose his job in the wake of last night's 3-2 defeat by Croatia got underway, Keane insisted England have the players to compete, but blamed some of the egos within the camp for their failure to qualify.
He said: "You look at the talent and the technique of the players, and England have that - they have that in abundance.
"To say Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Wayne Rooney are not as talented and technical as the other players is wrong.
"But I do believe there are too many egos about in the England set-up and that has cost them dear."
Asked if he feels current players lack the hunger to succeed at international level, he said: "Without a doubt, and I believe you could see that with England.
"The players could talk all day and say, 'No', but you judge them by their actions.
"With the top players nowadays, the clubs would be the priority, without a doubt.
"I have to be careful about what I say about international football, but in the modern day, clubs will be the priority.
"I am sure they do love playing for their countries, but I watched some of them being interviewed after the game and you could see in their attitude, players are losing the love of playing for their countries.
"There is only Scotland where they all seem to want to turn up."
However, Keane admitted his surprise at the ferocity of the reaction to England's exit and told the nation to take it on the chin.
He said: "Everyone seems to be panicking. They are nearly a good team. The England players are quality players.
"There is a fine line. You can analyse this and analyse that, but there is a big danger of over-analysing things.
"That may sound ridiculous, but they haven't qualified and they will get over it. They didn't qualify in '94. That's life.
"You look at the English players they have got at this moment in time and they are good enough.
"It is not a case of everyone saying they are not good enough - but good players don't make good teams.
"Everyone needs to keep their heads. Everyone is panicking.
"Scotland haven't qualified, Northern Ireland haven't qualified, the Republic haven't qualified, Wales haven't qualified."
However, Keane did have sympathy for McClaren, with whom the Irishman worked during his time as Sir Alex Ferguson's number two at Manchester United.
He said: "He's an absolutely fantastic coach.
"I didn't play under him as a manager, and there's big difference between coach and manager.
"But if you don't qualify for a major tournament, you are going to suffer the consequences.
"As an Irishman, I am not going to lose too much sleep over it. You always hope the home nations will qualify and for none to qualify is major shock.
"The manager takes the brunt, but I believe players have to take the responsibility. If you look at the talent they have got, it is unbelievable they have not qualified.
"I have sympathy with every manager out there, especially if you are the manager of a national team.
"If you are not doing well, you have the whole country on the your back.
"But Steve, no doubt, is a quality coach and he will bounce back from that."
Waves at cheets64Actually there were four of last Saturday's team against Italy who play in the EPL
Scotland's team against Itlay last Saturday:
Gordon, Hutton, Weir, McManus, Naysmith, Brown (Miller 74), Fletcher, Hartley, Ferguson, McCulloch (Boyd 90), McFadden
Only one of those (Fletcher) is playing for a top team and even then is not a regular starter. Miller plays for Derby, McFadden can't get a game - enough said.
Now here's an interesting one, at the last round of Champions' LEague games here were the teams:
Rangers:
McGregor, Hutton, Cuellar, Weir, Papac, Hemdani, Beasley (Novo 69), Ferguson, Adam (Darcheville 62), McCulloch, Cousin (Naismith 78)
7 Scots
Celtic:
Boruc, Naylor, Caldwell, Kennedy, McManus, Scott Brown (Sno 89), Hartley, Jarosik (Donati 66), McGeady, Vennegoor of Hesselink (Killen 66), McDonald
5 Scots
Manchester Untd:
Van der Sar (Kuszczak 46), Simpson, Vidic, Pique (Evans 72), Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Nani, Fletcher, Rooney, Tevez (Saha 67).
3 Englanders?
Arsenal:
Almunia, Diarra, Gallas, Song Billong, Clichy, Walcott, Silva, Denilson, Diaby, Eduardo (Eboue 81), Bendtner (Adebayor 77).
1 Englander?
Liverpool:
Reina, Aurelio (Babel 63), Hyypia, Carragher, Arbeloa, Riise, Mascherano, Gerrard (Lucas 72), Benayoun, Voronin (Kewell 72), Crouch.
3 Englanders?
Chelsea:
Cech (Cudicini 46), Belletti (Obi 64), Alex, Carvalho, Bridge, Essien, Makelele, Lampard, Joe Cole, Malouda (Wright-Phillips 78), Drogba
3 Englanders?
So there we have it. 12 Scottish players (and only one of them in EPL) and 10 English players. This despite there being twice as many EPL sides in the competition than SPL sides.
Now, my point is this (please don't assume that all Scots are here just to have a go at you, it's not the case) - and you probably know this already - there are too many foreigners in your top clubs. The Scotland team has benefitted from having so many players involved in CL games playing against teams like Barcelona, Milan, Lyon, Stuttgart and so on. SPL has far more Scotish players than say seven years ago because there's no big money to pay the foreigners, many of whom were crap anyway and only looking for a Scottish club because they weren't good enough for the EPL.
and that's me sussed![]()
hmm dont worry Ben Foster will be back from Injury eventually...
I'm sorry to be a bit off topic here but Craig Johnston's main point seems to be improving the technical ability of the players at the lowest levels. I don't see how the FA can force those kids to improve their technical ability. How the kids are coached is down to the people coaching them. It's not like the FA are forcing the kids to learn the long ball game. If its the clubs teaching them that then its up to the clubs to change.
It seems a lot of people assume the FA == Premier League/Football League, they are not the same thing. The FA, Premier League and the Football League are all separate organisations. The FA is I believe the richest FA (they're getting £425M for next 4 yr deal) but its a drop in the ocean compared to the premier league (they got roughly £2.7 billion for last 4 year deal). The FA also has to spread that money around whereas the premier league money rarely leaves the premier league.
The FA have no control over who is picked, how those players are coached or what clubs they play for. They already try and encourage grass roots level football by providing funding for teams. They can't control a clubs academy and who they have in them or how they are coached.
The FA is responsible for the appointment of the management of the England men's and women's national teams (all levels) and the organisation of the FA Cup. They cocked up the first part.
i don't rate hargreaves, i'm not completely sure on carrick, he's defensive-ish, but he's not really a gilberto/makelele, he gets forward a lot, hit a bunch of nice goals last year. i'm not really sure if he is even classes as a defensive midfielder. maybe he's the answer.
Hit the nail on the head thereIt's everything to do with foreigners, and hype.
The Premiership has a number of extremely good foreign players. These players help make their team mates look quite a bit better than they really are. The less capable foreigners, picking up undeserved salaries, simply push out your home grown talent and leave them unable to develop to be top quality players. Yes, you'll always get one or two coming through, but that's the problem, you've only really got one or two, and it showed last night. You can blame injuries if you wish but a country like England really should have strength in depth for all positions. Right now you don't.
The question really should have been "In a league awash with money how many over rated £30million players are there".
When you look at the likes of Gerrad, Lampard for example, they're average players who are paid world class wages..
One of the problems I see is that English players at all levels are too highly paid so this puts top flight clubs (home and abroad) off. When you see a Championship player on x pounds a week, is he really going to want to move elsewhere for less? When you look at the likes of Gerrad, Lampard for example, they're average players who are paid world class wages.. which they are not and this was demonstrated last night.