A Bit Of Fun..

[jimmy ateyo]

Ok, now that that England failed to get to grips with Oldhams cast off pitch I offer you a (potential) moral dilemma..

You get to choose just one of the following..in the next few months you can have..

6 wins on the bounce for city

Israel to beat Russia

To me there is no choice really, 6 on the bounce for City every time. I hardly ever enjoy watching England get done in a a quarter final by a group of players that probably include next years UK plumbers, whereas getting City in a strong league position would really float my red boat!

Over to you..

I'd take a win against norwich over it

England really p*ss me off, no pride or passion. Get elliott in the middle instead of over rated gerrard, he will show you passion

We are nowhere near as good as everyone thinks. All our so called world class players are not world class

Rooney, Gerrard, Terry etc.... Actually Terry is a 110%er - but when was the last time gerrard played well against good opposition, he doesn't command international games like top players should. Where was the beckham like (4-8 years ago) performance when someone drags the team through sticky situations

Club over country for me... CITY TILL I DIE

All city players love the club and have excellent attitude

Nearly all the england squad are over paid tarts where to be honest playing for england is a chore.

McClaren isnt the answer but at the end of the day the players should be able to qualify from that group without a manager.

[Portland Bill]

How does that work?

I fail to see how the number of foreign players can affect the quality of the home-grown players.

There would be fewer foreign players in the Premiership if English players were better but I fail to see how it can work the other way around. Arsene Wenger doesn't sign foreign players because he doesn't like English ones, it's because the foreign players are better at football.

If anything, our young players might learn a thing or two from the foreigners.

63% of the players in the premier are foreign . The facts are that English players are just not good enough. Take Gerrard for example, we all get told how good he is but 90% of foreign players would have converted the chance he had against Russia. They would have controlled the ball had a touch and put it away in the corner. We seem to develop players who charge around the pitch, knock 60 yard balls etc etc, when are we going to get some that will play the ball to feet ,play one two's etc. Over the years any English player who has shown skillfull football and a bit of trickery always gets labelled as a lazy or not a team player, we need to encourage skillfull English players, or we will always be second best.

[samo]

63% of the players in the premier are foreign . The facts are that English players are just not good enough. Take Gerrard for example, we all get told how good he is but 90% of foreign players would have converted the chance he had against Russia. They would have controlled the ball had a touch and put it away in the corner. We seem to develop players who charge around the pitch, knock 60 yard balls etc etc, when are we going to get some that will play the ball to feet ,play one two's etc. Over the years any English player who has shown skillfull football and a bit of trickery always gets labelled as a lazy or not a team player, we need to encourage skillfull English players, or we will always be second best.

I agree, but if you look at the academy system in England and that of France we are a good few years behnd the times. The concentration and centralisation of youth development started in the late eighties and sped up in the early nineties. They missed international championships (both world cup and euros) in the 70s, which prompted a long term view on youth development. Their has never been that pressure on our systems, thus we consider it not broken and don't fix it. Believe me; I hate to say the French nd other european nations have the drop on us in terms of yoth development, but they do. Pulling up the drawbridge to talented and inspiring overseas players is a rectionary and negative measure. Walcott at Arsenal has said repeatedly just how much he has leant from the internationals at Arsenal, and he's not the only youngster to benifit from playing with the very best.

[Nibor]

Pulling up the drawbridge to talented and inspiring overseas players is a rectionary and negative measure. Walcott at Arsenal has said repeatedly just how much he has leant from the internationals at Arsenal, and he's not the only youngster to benifit from playing with the very best.

But he learnt sod all from playing with the mediocre and in fact one could argue that his development stifled by someone like Hleb being chosen ahead of him.

Why not have a middle ground? A more limited number of places for foreigners so that they are filled by the very best like Henry, not the mediocre but a bit cheaper?

[WTFiGO!?!]

Bang on there, samo.

Until the F.A. wake up and address the problem at grass route level, and do it properly then we will always live on false hope rather than realistic expectation.

There is far too much emphasis on the entertainment and the image of the English Premier League, essentially inspired by financial gain. The gutter Press, as Nibor reiterates should also be heald accountable for their irresponsible behaviour.

FA - WAKE THE ##### UP!

I for one am beyond the point of sympathy and will be indifferent to the prospect of not watching my Mother Land's National Footbal side packing their bags and heading home at the quater Final stage after a run of unconvincing performances and results in the group stages.