An England fans view

Time flies far too quickly as 3 months without an update will indicate. A lot has happened in that time so I've got a lot to rant about but lets start with Don Fabio. His first game against Switzerland last month saw him get off to a winning start. He fielded a formation which saw Rooney up front on his own and he put in a excellent display something which the Swede or Ginger Sven couldn't seem to get from him when asked to play up front by himself.

The holding midfield ahead of 2 attacking central midfielders could also suggest that Capello may also be able to be the man who can actually get Gerrard and Lampard to play together. One of the biggest talking points was the omission of Beckham (currently on 99 caps) but there is no way he could have been considered as at the time, he hadn't played a game for 3 months.

The result was a cautious 2-1 win. Thankfully, Capello gave a sensible assessment stating the players were nervous and there was far more to come. Prior to the game, there had been a lot of discussion about the ground rules he had laid down at the squads training camp. Among the rules were things like players would have to wear blazers, room service was not allowed, mobile phones were not allowed and no WAGS were allowed to visit. To my mind it was unbelieveable that these sort of things were allowed to go on and when you hear such a lack of discipline was in place, the failings of the last few years is not really a surprise.

So we move on to Capello's second game away to France (Stade de France, pictured). Today, he named a 30 man squad and Beckham was included. Although the squad will be trimmed to 22 over the weekend, much of the sensationalist, half-wit media seem to think Beckham already has his cap awarded. I sometimes wonder who is more stupid - the people who write this rubbish or the people who buy the papers to read this rubbish.

The game itself will be a useful test for Capello to judge his team. However, the French themselves are likely to field an experimental side. The summer's fixture list was completed today with the announcement of 3 further friendlies. Wembley will host two matches as they continue to pay off the outrageous stadium bill. On 28 May, the United States will travel to England and 2 weeks before the World Cup 2010 campaign starts, a sterner test will be on offer with the Czech Republic providing the opposition.

In between these 2 matches is one of the most embarrassing fixtures I can remember us being involved in. England will take a team over to........wait for it.........Trinidad & Tobago. I'll repeat that.....England will take a team over to play Trinidad & Tobago. Obviously there is zero footballing value in a game like this and I can't imagine for a moment that Don Fabio is too impressed. The reasons for the game are, of course, political. The president of T&T's Football Association is Jack Warner who is at best a ticket tout and at worst, more corrupt than Sepp Blatter. In the past Warner has produced wonderful statements like "England invented the sport but has never made any impact on world football", "England is an irritant" and "Nobody likes England".

According to an article in The Sunday Herald after Scotland had played host to T&T in 2004, Warner had ask the SFA President if the cheque for the game could be made out to himself rather than the FA of Trinidad and Tobago. No further comment is necessary.

So why the hell are we massaging this morons ego? The reason is that the FA want to host the 2018 World Cup and Warner controls a large number of votes. He is one of the key figures who is needed to be 'onside' (a little footballing pun there) if our bid is to be successful. However, there is obviously no guarantee that when it comes to voting in 4 years time that Warner will actually back our bid.

Surprisingly, this wasn't the most stupid idea of the year. Weeks earlier, Richard Scudamore and his Premier League parasites has unveiled plans for the Premier League to have a 39th game. The really idiotic part of this idea was that the 39th game would be played in another city. No stupid, not another city in England, another city in the world such as Melbourne or Shanghai. The backlash from fans was immediate and vicious. Even Sepp Blatter thought it was a ridiculous idea which gives an indication of just how stupid it was. Thankfully, down to the efforts of organisations like the FSF (Football Supporters Federation), the idea looks to be dead.

A couple of weeks ago, we witnessed the terrible injury suffered by Eduardo following a tackle by Martin Taylor. Since the game, the comments by Wenger and Fabregas were nothing short of a disgrace. They basically accused Taylor of deliberately trying to injure Eduardo and called for a much longer ban to be given than the 3 matches Taylor was given for the red card. In my opinion, the red card was actually a little harsh. It was his first foul and the ref seemed to give it as a result of the injury rather than the tackle itself. The problem was that at the point of contact, Eduardo's foot was planted on the ground which meant the leg was more vunerable to injury. Had his foot been off the ground, it would have been bruising at worst and he would have probably continued to play.

What made the comments from the Arsenal camp even more disgraceful was the fact that just a week earlier, there players had been trying to kick Nani up in the air during an FA Cup match at Old Trafford but as the player wasn't injured, I guess it soon slipped their minds.

Player conduct continues to be an issue. Just last night, Ashley Cole threw his toys around after he clattered Alan Hutton in a league match at White Hart Lane. It really is about time the FA started docking clubs points for failing to control their players. Banning players doesn't do anything. If Cole got banned, Chelsea could replace him with another international. Fines are just pointless - West Ham have barely noticed the £5.5m fine imposed on them last season for cheating to avoid relegation. The only suitable sanction left is to deduct points but sadly, the FA are spineless so it won't happen. As a result, we will have to continue to endure over-paid, under talented players behave like spoilt 4 year olds.

Next update when I get back from France