The Road to Russia 2018

[Johnny75]

I was referring to the front three collectively.

Still talking shit.

 

[Alan]

Still talking $#@!.

Fuck off.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I was referring to the front three collectively.

They played Nani and Quaresma in the Euros, I would not say either of those two are particularly good.

 

[Johnny75]

Fuck off.

Now now petal. You're talking absolute shite. The English front 3 are all top class players.

The manager sadly isn't. Pep and Poch do fine with those players.

 

[Alan]

They played Nani and Quaresma in the Euros, I would not say either of those two are particularly good.

We'll have to disagree, then. They're good for what Portugal wanted to do, whether it was aesthetically pleasing or not, and at least for now I'd probably expect a relatively consistent performance out of Nani-Ronaldo-Quaresma as compared to Sterling-Kane-Alli.

Raheem and Dele are too inconsistent at the mo for me. Mercurial as Quaresma and Nani have been in the past, their sheer footballing skill puts them ahead for me, especially if it's Ronaldo playing the third man.

 

[Alan]

FWIW I have no argument against Kane, he is incredible.

 

[Trips]

Sterling has been one of the best players in the Prem this season, certainly one of the top 2 English players

 

[Alan]

I agree, just need to see him to do it for England now.

 

[Nando]

Nani and Quaresma are done. It's all about Guedes now! The guy is a freak.

 

[Alan]

Nani and Quaresma are done. It's all about Guedes now! The guy is a freak.

I guess I should clarify I mean strictly the Portuguese front as they were in the Euros.

Guedes has gone off the boil a bit I thought? Bruma and Gelson, though... Ballers.

 

[Nando]

I guess I should clarify I mean strictly the Portuguese front as they were in the Euros.

Guedes has gone off the boil a bit I thought? Bruma and Gelson, though... Ballers.

He's been pretty much the standard player in La Liga behind Messi. He's an obscene talent.

Gelson is a hell of a player too. They've got some very good young players breaking through.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

So a really average England side are the only representatives from the UK and Ireland at the world cup. Nobody tell me that the local talent is really getting the chance or experience. Sorry , but if brexit means more home grown players from the UK playing in premier sides then its an unexpected positive hi product!

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

No way the Premier League are going to dilute their own product and without wishing to take this political, there's also no way the Exchequer will want to see top end footballers moving elsewhere because of the tax take.

The Football League might introduce their own rules, maybe, but that will have negligible impact on national teams.

None of the Home Nations other than Northern Ireland have good managers, that is the issue. Iceland and Poland aren't currently experiencing the success they are because the domestic league is stocked with home-grown players, it's got nothing to do with that.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

No way the Premier League are going to dilute their own product and without wishing to take this political, there's also no way the Exchequer will want to see top end footballers moving elsewhere because of the tax take.

The Football League might introduce their own rules, maybe, but that will have negligible impact on national teams.

None of the Home Nations other than Northern Ireland have good managers, that is the issue. Iceland and Poland aren't currently experiencing the success they are because the domestic league is stocked with home-grown players, it's got nothing to do with that.

Nah. Can't agree. The fact that few UK based players can't get into our top sides cannot help any of the UK sides internationally. England is basically spurs light. They have won fuck all for a while! Like it or not it is relative.

 

[Langers]

Cyber might have a point - we don't produce enough quality. When was the last time a former England player scored against England?

I rest my case.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Cyber might have a point - we don't produce enough quality. When was the last time a former England player scored against England?

I rest my case.

If we ever play Ivory Coast then Zaha is definitely going to score.

Cyber: we regularly played both Nevilles, Ferdinand, Butt, Scholes and Beckham when United were winning everything (including the Champions League), got us nowhere. We have some good players now, but there aren't legions of class English central midfielders being kept out by foreigners and our principal issue is that we have a shit manager.

 

[Donegal Wolf]

Dunphy is the junkie. Or maybe he's just a piss head. Slurring his head off, shockingly bad pundit and a bitter man. Was amusing a few years ago but it's wearing very thin nowadays.

Completely agree with you on this, apart from the amusing bit never found him funny in anyway whatsoever, 3rd division footballer who never managed a team, makes a living for the last 30 years by acting the cunt*

Weird thing is for the first time ever I actually agreed with a lot him and Brady was saying (old Dieter does talk a lot of sense anyway), we were dis-organised first half and that turned into a complete shapeless mess after the substitutions MON made at half time, reminded me of the second half of Micks last game against the Albion. He was right that no-one knew what position McClean or a few others were playing second half or leaving Eriksen completely unmarked for 45 minutes would be a good idea.

*Dont know why but for some reason find Ronnie Whelan far more annoying then Dunphy, bad enough at the best of times but today completely unbearable.

 

[Deleted Cyber]

Just a pointer. Barcelona have 9 Spanish players in their 22
Bayern Munich 13 Germans in 26
Man city 6 UK in 30
Chelsea 3 in 23
Man UTC 9 in 27
Don't be surprised if Spain or Germany do better than us in the world cup finals. Just saying. You can take the piss all you like and while I agree , the uk and eire national managers are by and large, shit , I can't get past the fact that so few UK players play for the top 6 sides.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

Just a pointer. Barcelona have 9 Spanish players in their 22
Bayern Munich 13 Germans in 26
Man city 6 UK in 30

Bit misleading with Barca just for a kickoff, those 9 include Pique, Busquets, Iniesta and Alba who are all late 20s/early 30s, and also Deulofeu and Denis Suarez who they sold before buying back. They haven't brought through many graduates at all lately.

Of the top nine goalscorers in the Bundesliga last season, only three were German (and none of the top three were German).

I wouldn't pretend there is no issue with youth development in England - Chelsea in particular are scandalously poor for it - but it's not that much of a driver. As I say Iceland and Poland are riding as high as they have in decades (well, ever in Iceland's case) - both their domestic leagues are appalling so it's irrelevant who plays for who there. All their best players play overseas.

As Johnny has said, we currently have two of Spurs' top players for us, they're in with a chance of winning a Champions League group containing Real Madrid and Dortmund. Do we make the best of them for the national team? Not even close. And that's because the manager isn't good enough.

 

[Trips]

The quality English players will always come through, and get the opportunity. You can't just pin it on foreigners playing instead of our young lads. If our kids were good enough to be in their club side, they would be.