Sunday, November 25, 2007
Thank god he's gone
The last few days have been the worst as an England fan since we missed out on USA 94 under Graham Taylor. As many of us returned home from the friendly in Vienna (very nice city but a pointless game), our eyes turned to Russia's match in Tel Aviv. A Russian victory would have knocked us out of Euro 2008 before out final game against Croatia. Any other result would give us a great chance to take 2nd place in the group.
The Israeli's have an excellent home record and despite having nothing to play for, they did everything we could have asked for. Their early lead was cancelled out in the 2nd half by Russia who grew stronger and in the last minute, the Russias hit the post. Had that gone in, we were out but we were still in it. Then it got better, with seconds left, Israel sprang the Russia offside trap and won the game. This meant we only needed a point at home to Croatia who were already through. 11 times in the past, England have needed a point in the final game and they have always got it. Croatia had already qualified so what could go wrong?
Quite simply, nothing more could go wrong. The biggest problem was imposed on us in May 2006 when the Ginger Sven took over. So at 'Fortress' Wembley needing a point what does he do? Play 4-5-1 and drop Beckham who is the only player in the squad who can cross a ball. Within 15 minutes we are 2-0 down and looking down and out. It must be time to change it as its all or nothing. No, the clown waits until half time and by now, the natives were restless. Beckham and Defoe came on as we went back to 4-4-2 and somehow, we got the score back to 2-2. Time to shut up shop and keep the point we need - get Hargreaves on. The clock ticked on and still no Hargreaves. Then the killer blow as Croatia score a third and our campaign ends with a whimper from the players and abuse from the crowd.
The next day, Barwick and co. rectify the mistake of last year and the Ginger Sven is history although he did walk away with a cheque for £2.5m - not bad for being a failure. The next few days saw the media circus concentrate on the identity of the new manager with the usual suspects all getting a mention. As the weekend approached, more bad news came from FIFA. England's defeat meant we dropped far enough in world rankings to drop into Pot 2 of seeds for the World Cup 2010 qualifiers. This meant we could end up in a qualifying group with a team such as Germany or Italy...not good !!!
Come Sunday, the managerial speculation was on hold and eyes switched to Durban for the World Cup 2010 Qualifying draw. It was quite a drawn out process with groups for Asia, North America and Africa also being drawn along with Europe. Thankfully, the draw was kind although it got many people scrambling for their atlas to see where these places where. The big story was drawing Croatia as the top seed which not only gave us a chance for revenge, it meant we avoided one of the really big nations. The other teams in the group were Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Andorra.
Suddenly the world doesn't seem so bad after all. Now we just need a decent manager and the players to have their egos surgically removed and things will be good again.
Thats probably it for the year now. The next game will be a home fixture on 6th Feb following by a trip to gay Paris for a friendly against France at the end of March. While we look forward to a summer off, the FA will be trying to repair the damage the Ginger Sven inflicted upon us over the last year or so - he couldn't have done a worse job if he was a jock !!!
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
And now the end is near;
And so I face the final curtain......
Actually, as we face the very real possibility that England will fail to qualify for a tournament for the first time for 14 years (and don't forget, there are more teams at the finals now - increased from 8 to 16 for the 1996 finals), all that the Ginger Sven faces is a massive pay cheque for 12 months pay when he gets sacked while us fans have to actually think about a holiday destination that doesn't involve mountains, cuckoo clocks and yodelling.
There are combinations of results that will see England through but lets be honest, Group E was not exactly difficult for us as top seeds. We had everything in our favour and we've blown it big time. When the draw was made for the 2006 World Cup, we were ranked as 2nd seeds for the draw and now were can't even claim to be one of the top 16 teams in Europe. Yet if you believe the FA, the team is progressing !!!!!!
In my opinion, qualification from this position will actually be a bad thing. The politicians at the FA (thats what they are, not football men) will say the important thing is getting there but it will only be papering over the cracks. There are major problems with the national team and these problems must be addressed regardless of whether or not England qualify for the finals.
Football men must run the game in England not idiots like Brian Barwick. People like Bobby Charlton and Trevor Brooking need to be involved. They have played football at the highest level and understand what is needed. You could even take this a step further. Why not involve coaches like Mourinho to give their opinions on coaching techniques. Part of the Euro 2008 failure has been the appalling lack of tactics on the part of the management and possible on the inflexibility of the players.
Sadly for the national team, club football is a priority. Closing the FA school of excellence and letting each Premiership club develop their own talent has been a bad move as the clubs will pick players of any nationality whereas the FA school would concentrate on developing English youngsters.
We also need to develop more English managers. Its a disgrace that the last English manager to win the league title was that dinosaur Howard Wilkinson and the last English manager to win the FA Cup was Joe Royle. Supporters will have more pride in the team if it led by an Englishman but at present, suitable replacements for the Ginger Sven are scarce. The long term aim must be to unearth the next Bobby Robson or Brian Clough but in the short term, England must appoint the best man for the job, regardless of nationality. Failure to do so could see us drop into the footballing wilderness at international level.
So what will happen next Wednesday? A Russian victory in Israel will see the match as a dead rubber in terms of qualification and that will not make for a comfortable time for the management. But it could be worse, if Russia slip up and give us a chance which we subsequently fail to take, the atmosphere will be far more hostile. After this, the FA have to think about the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign and more importantly, they need full houses at Wembley to help pay the massive £900m bill for the stadium.
But lets wait until next week before discussing all that. As for qualification, there is not doubt in my mind that Russia are a much better team than Israel. Although Tel Aviv is a difficult place for visiting teams, I just can't see Russia not getting the 3 points they need. I hope I'm wrong but if Russia get the points, they will deserve to be in the finals instead of us - the league tables don't lie !!!!
