An England fans view

The Capello Era

2008-03-20T19:15:00.002Z

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

Barwick finally makes a good decision

2007-12-18T07:56:00.000Z

Its been a long time but once again, I feel positive about the English national teams prospects. The appointment of Fabio Capello means that maybe at long last, we have a manager who can get the best from our players. There is no doubting Capello's CV. He played international football for his country and won 4 league titles. As a manager, he has won a further 9 league titles in Italy and Spain as well as the Champions League when his AC Milan side demolished Barcelona 4-0 in the final.

However, the main discussion has been about his nationality and whether England should be appointing another foreign coach. As with most football debates everyone is having their say and there is a huge range of opinion. My personal opinion is that ideally, an Englishman should be managing the national side and there is always an amount of concern that a foreign manager may not have the same passion as an Englishman. That said, the players are all English and their lack of passion over the last few years has also be brought into question.

The big problem is that there is not a single English candidate who is vaguely good enough so if we go 'English' we certainly won't be getting anything like the best. The last English manager to win the Premier League is Howard Wilkinson and the last English manager to win the FA Cup is Joe Royle. 18 months ago, Sam Allardyce and Alan Curbishley were amount the leading English candidates for the vacancy. This time round we are talking about Harry Redknapp and Alan Shearer. Have Allardyce and Curbishley suddenly lost the ability to manage at that level or have Redknapp and Shearer suddenly learned something that makes them suitable candidates? Of course nothing has really changed, we are just scrapping the barrel for English candidates - class is permanent.

So if we did appoint an Englishman, would they do any better or worse than the Ginger Sven? We'll never know but the FA have a tricky situation. They have a nice new stadium which needs to be paid for. Rubbish football will mean drop in attendences and not qualifying for tournaments severely reduces the income for the FA. It also has a knock-on effect as our world ranking will suffer meaning have already lost our position as a top seed when it comes to qualifying tournaments. Thankfully, we got lucky and avoided the big guns for the 2010 World Cup.

So if we don't go English, we go foreign and if we do that, we have to have the best available. Some people touted Martin O'Neill but when you compare his acheivements to Capello's - there is only one winner. The FA didn't need to appoint someone so quickly but managers like Capello aren't available every day so they have quite rightly taken the plunge and appointed him. A big factor is that from day 1, Capello has expressed an interest in the job which is also handy.

Now we have one of the worlds best coaches, we have to get the best out of him. That doesn't just mean results for the senior side. The FA have to spend the next 2 or 4 years wringing every last bit of knowledge and experience out of Capello. Although there are a lack of good English candidates, I do believe there are a lot of excellent younger managers and in 5-10 years time, we could well be spoiled for choice - Boothroyd, Jewell, Curbishley, Ince, Pearce to name 5. The FA need to find a way to get Capello's knowledge into these (and other) managers heads so when Capello leaves, we will have a number of good English candidates to chose from.

The foreign appointment should be viewed as a means to an end and not a regular thing. In addition, its good to see the FA haven't swept the "Root and Branch investigation of football" under the carpet. It is also vitally important the Centre of Excellence at Burton. Its beyond comprehension that England does not have an overall headquarters for the development of the game we gave the world.

As with everything, there is far too much discussion. The site at Burton has been there for years but everyone is too scared to make a decision. In an ideal world, perhaps it would be better if our Centre of Excellence was nearer London, Wembley and FA headquarters but the cost of this much land in the south would be outrageous. Far better the centre is in Burton and is used than messing around and never having it. The centre originally got the green light back in 2001 and nothing has happen.

So what for 2008. Well, primarily, Burton must get the go-ahead as a matter of urgency. I also expect to see a far more positive and focused England team under Capello. His first game is against Switzerland on 6th Feb and I'm actually looking forward to an England game.

Merry Christmas and all the best for 2008.

Thank god he's gone

2007-11-25T20:44:00.000Z

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 !!!

And now the end is near;

2007-11-13T20:22:00.000Z

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 !!!!

"Steve is doing a bloody good job" ????

2007-10-21T19:08:00.000Z

Moscow will be remembered by England fans for a number of reasons. The saga of visa applications, the over booked hotels, the fights in the city centre and if not the final nail, definitely, the last but one in the coffin of England’s hopes of qualifying for the Euro 2008 finals next summer.

The autumn had started well for England with excellent 3-0 wins against Israel and Russia within the space of a few days. A third ‘job done’ 3-0 win against Estonia saw England travel to Moscow 5 points ahead of their rivals although Russia having played one game less. A point would have been good with a win securing a place in the finals.

There was talk about the plastic pitch at the Luzhniki giving the Russian’s an advantage…it seems that home advantage is something that is no longer allowed !! My opinion is that it was laying the foundations for later excuses…and that wouldn’t be a first offence.

So onto the game. 4,000 fans had travelled from England into the Moscow cauldron of 80,000. The first half was fairly even and a bit of brilliance from Rooney, who seems to have regained a bit of form for his country, saw England leading at half time. All was good and England were just 45 minutes from a ticket to the finals.

However, nothing is that simple. Russia couldn’t afford to lose, they were in front of their own hungry fans and the coach is a brilliant Dutchman who in their wisdom, the FA didn’t think was a suitable replacement for Eriksson. The tactical battle started – Hiddink v McLaren – oh dear !!!

England with one of the meaniest defences in world football had to keep a clean sheet for 45 minutes. Was it really such a problem? Big Sol was his normal reliable self in the absence of John Terry although Lescott once again didn’t convince on the international stage. Hiddink made his change and Russia were causing England problems. Gerrard missed an excellent chance to make the game safe and then disaster. For some reason, Rooney needed to make a challenge on the edge of our box (where were the defence and midfield) and the home side were awarded a bit of a dodgy penalty. However, as they had a perfectly good goal ruled out at Wembley when the score was 1-0, it was hard to complain too much. Hiddink’s substitute hit a low shot into the corner past Robinson and the Luzhniki came to life. Now was the time for the spirit of Butcher, Pearce and Robson to be shown by the current players wearing the 3 Lions.

The goal brought the Russian’s to life. They wanted more than a point and they smelt blood. Some sustained pressure and a couple of failed clearances saw Robinson drop a shot on the edge of the 6 yard box and despite being behind Lescott, the Russian striker muscled in to knock the ball into the net and the unthinkable was being thought. The tactical battle took another twist – Crouch came on up front to give away free kicks, Lampard came on for Wright-Phillips and one of the most bizarre moves I’ve ever seen was to bring on Stewart Downing at left back for Lescott. Not surprisingly, this triple substitution had no positive effect and England’s challenge petered out.

This result left qualification looking bad for England. England are 2 points ahead of Russia with a home game against group leaders, Croatia left. The day after our friendly in Vienna, Russia travel to Israel to play their game in hand. A victory there will see them move ahead of England with an away game in Andorra left to play and lets be under no illusions – Andorra are a pub team. Victory for Russia is not going to be an issue.

So where has it all gone wrong? After the qualification groups were drawn, a Scots friend of mine was insisting they were rigged as we couldn’t possible have such an easy group. Add to that, as top seeds, we dictated the fixture list so absolutely everything was in our favour in terms of opponents and when we played them.

Clearly, McClaren isn’t up to the job. He shows little passion, tactical knowledge, understanding of players etc etc. But should you blame the man who isn’t good enough, or the man who employed him? That man is Brian Barwick. Barwick was also the man who oversaw the collapse of ITV Digital and caused financial hardship for many lower league clubs. Phil Scolari and Guus Hiddink (pictured) were both available at the same time there was a vacancy for England position yet we end up with the Ginger Sven. Our (almost certain) failure to qualify started with McClaren’s appointment. The problems have been obvious from day 1 of his reign and now we find ourselves on the brink of failing to qualify for a major tournament for the first time since 1994…and this is from a group, we should have won at a canter.

Ginger Sven gets a lifeline

2007-09-09T07:10:00.000Z

As we walked down Wembley Way, we passed a group of middle class idiots who were naivly trying to get us to boycott the game as we were playing (and I quote) "the most racist country in the world" (obviously they've never heard of places like Zimbabwe. It was the "Free Palestine" brigade. The were screeching at us in embarrassing mid pitch, middle class voices, trying to hand out Palestinian flags and telling us how evil and dangerous a place Israel is. I can only assume it was a different Israel to the one I went to back in March. Still, that is the beauty of living in a (semi) free country. Everyone has freedom of speech.

I didn't actually get into the stadium built on the site of the old Wembley until about 15 minutes. A had one of my friends tickets and the engine on his bus had blown up on the way down to London so I thought "If I've got to watch this garbage, so has he" and waited until he arrived.

Thankfully, the escalators were working today and we soon got to our seats. We'd barely sat down when Joe Cole floated a cross to the fair post and Sean Wright-Phillips volleyed home from close range. As the half continued, this was an England performance that we'd waited a long time to see. We were 1-0 up and not just sitting back. The team looked balanced, we had a target man in Heskey who was causing problems and by half-time, we were reasonably happy.

As the 2nd half kicked off, we realised that during half time, we had discussed how early we'd leave the game which itself says something about the performance. Owen hit a stunning goal to make up for his first half miss and still we didn't sit back. Israel looked very average but in fairness, England made them look bad. They are a decent side who have a history before being difficult to break down, especially away from home. The 3rd goal came from Micah Richards who I think will go on to get a lot of caps for England. He is a very good defender and his attitude towards international is excellent.

So after 70 minutes, its looking very good. 3-0 up and playing well.....then the Ginger Sven decides to break what isn't broken. Off somes Heskey and Gerrard, on come Johnson and Neville. It killed the game stone dead. The performance went back to the level of pretty much every other game we've seen since the last good performance (2-1 at home to Poland in Oct 2005).

Then just as we thought things couldn't get worse, David Bentley came on. This clown turned down the opportunity to play for England U21s in the Euro Championships in the summer which itself is bad enough but he also did it once he'd been named in the squad meaning it was too late to call up a replacement. He was booed as he came and and apparently it continued every time he touched the ball. I don't know for sure as I'd walked out. I'm not watching a player who let his country down so badly just a few months earlier.

The game on Wednesday is still vital but confidence will be boosted after this 3-0 win. Common sense would dictate the Ginger clown picks the same starting line up but god knows what he will do as Fatty Lampard is available again.

A very important week

2007-09-02T19:50:00.000Z

Its like rudderless ship plough slowly towards an ice-berg. We can all see the crash is coming but what can be done to prevent it. The first friendly of the season at Wembley saw a German team (minus Ballack, Podolski and Klose among others) take on......well......we know the sort of performance England generally put on.

Lampard found space in the box (more through poor German marking than anything else) to give us an early lead and thoughts of Munich and 5-1 were in the air......you know....the home team took the lead and then got battered. By half time, the Jerries were 2-1 up, just as we were on that wonderful September night in Munich but for some reason, there were no more goals in the 2nd half.

So now we move to September and 2 vital games against Israel and Russia in Group E of the Euro 2008 qualifying campaign. We have been told that its not a concern that we are falling behind the leaders as we have 4 of the last 5 games at home. However, when you realise that England's last home victory was against Andorra, exactly 12 months ago to the day of this post, you will understand why I don't share some of optimism.

Realistically, we will probably have to win all 4 home games and get a point in Russia to qualify. Anything less and we have to rely on other teams slipping up. I'm planning my summer 08 trips for Africa or America rather than Austria. Anyway, we get to go to Austria again as a friendly has been arranged in Vienna for November. Luckily, I managed to get a cheap flight and hotel otherwise I would have been very tempted to miss that game.

Midweek home games are becoming a definite candidate for watching on TV. I live less than 100 miles from London but its just so much effort to get over to Wembley and back again in mid-week to see more and more pathetic, feeble, passionless, inept performances. I know for a fact, a growing number of regulars are no longer going to mid-week games, friendly or competitive. I just wonder how long it will be until I join their numbers.

A one man team

2007-06-08T21:04:00.000Z

Finally after being left out of the England squad since the Ginger Retard took over, David Beckham returned to help save the managerial career of the fool who tried to end Beckham's international career.

The absence of Beckham's creativity has been one of a number of factors which have contributed to the absolutely pathetic performances and results since the World Cup. Goals have been hard to come by but in less than 2 full games against Brazil and Estonia, Beckham set up 3 of England's 4 goals to highlight just how one dimensional England are and how much we have missed him.

The friendly against Brazil saw the opening of the new Wembley stadium and the game ended 1-1 with Brazil scoring late on to cancel out John Terry's header. A far more crucial game followed in Tallinn in the Euro 2008 Group E match against Estonia. Anything but a win was unthinkable as it would almost certainly spell the end of hopes of qualifying or the finals next summer. As it is, sitting in 4th place is far from comfortable and the next 2 games at home to Israel and Russia are very, very important.

Before then, a friendly against our old 'friends', ze Germans has been announced. The game will be played at Wembley on 22nd August. The FA will be hoping for another full house to help pay for the stadium but unless performances improve, its going to be a huge concern for future revenue.

Finally, I can't finish without mentioning David Bently. The Blackburn midfielder was named in the squads for the Brazil and Estonia match but didn't play. In the next few days, the U21s kick-off in a tournament in Holland. Since the Estonia match just a few hours ago, poor David has decided he is far too tired to actually represent his country in such a tournament and instead has chosen to withdraw from the squad because he is tired. I'm not sure what he has done to get so tired as he wasn't tired when he was in the squad to face Brazil. England U21 boss, Stuart Pearce is less than impressed. Physco puts it much better than I can...

"I don't agree with it. I told him last night I don't agree with it in any way, shape or form"

"I feel as though I've been supportive to him. He wasn't in the under-21 side for whatever reason when I took over the job. I put him in, I thought he was arguably one of our best players in the two matches we had him. With that in mind, I rang Steve [McClaren] and said `what I've got to report is I think this kid's doing quite well. Keep an eye on him'"

"I spoke with David last night. He said to me on the back of a long season, and possible burn-out next season, that he'd like to pull himself out of the tournament."

"It means everything to play to play for England - when it suits. For me, representing your country is not about what suits you, it's about what suits your country, whether it be on the sporting field, whether it be in the armed forces. When your country comes calling, you put them first and yourself second. I come from a couple of generations away from David's age. I did try to explain the situation: 'Where does that leave you next summer if you get in the full squad and have a full season? Do you say I'm going to be fatigued for the next season?'"

Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Brazil and the Chosen One

2007-04-20T17:07:00.000Z

Israel - what a great place. I really wish I'd been there longer. The international airport is very modern an despite all the security, is pretty efficient at moving passenger through....and I'd got a business class upgrade on the way over.

Our hotel was near the sea front, next to the US Embassy. As with all away games, it's best to avoid the regular Irish/English bar gathering points. Instead, we went off to find a place called the MASH bar located a short taxi ride away. A 10 beer discount card was the sensible approach and we just got drunk for the whole day. Such a shame the trip was over so quickly

Oh, I nearly forgot. We drew 0-0. The game was so crap, we left at half-time and went back to the pub. Still, it was a point more than I expected.

Next it was on to Barcelona and the dirty gypsy pickpocket haven if Las Ramblas. After signing in, it was again, move back a street to a quiet little boozer and pay half the price for beer than it cost on Las Ramblas. For some reason, the games in Spain always seems to kick off really late. Due to Andorra have a stadium capacity on a par with my living room, the game was moved to the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona. It was here that Sally Gunnel won the 400m hurdles and Linford Christie won the mens 100m spirity in the 1992 Olympics. Sadly, heroics from the modern sports 'stars' were sadly lacking....apart from Steve Gerrard.

The exact reasons for fatty Frank's exclusion are a point of discussion but what is not in doubt is that moving Gerrard to the centre won the game for England. The anger of England fans has been building for a while. Just look back at his blog to see my opinions on the level of performances we have been subject to. Days earlier, the Israel game was another pathetic performance with ridiculous tactics so when we hadn't scored or even looked like causing Andorra problems, the booing starting building to a crescendo of anger directed mainly at the manager. At half time, we were being held 0-0 by Andorra who are essentially a ski-resort.

In the 2nd half, Gerrard, as he has done for Liverpool so many times in the past, took control and scored 2 tremendous goals. It showed exactly why he has to play in midfield and that he is the player we must build the England team around. The final score was 3-0 with David Nugent scoring on his debut. Yes, we got the 3 points but there were plenty of negatives from the game. Israel's 4-0 win against Estonia saw us drop to 4th place in the group. The performance was pathetic and now the knives really are out for McLaren who stormed out of the press conference. In addition, Rooney got booked and will miss the Estonia game. However, based on recent performances, he hardly warrants a place in the side. A quick look at the fixtures and tables shows how perilous England's position is. Failing to qualify for the Euro 2008 finals is a real posibility.
Euro 2008 Group E results, fixtures and table

In the meantime, Wembley is open for business and the first opposition for England will be Brazil. God, we are going to get hammered !!!! The game is scheduled for Friday 1st June, just 5 days before the crucial away match in Estonia. Tickets went on sale today and there was a massive scramble. I managed to get us some nice cheap tickets up in the gods for just £25 (including my £5 members discount).

However, an embarrassing defeat could be just what we need. Due to the massive cost of the stadium, the FA need plenty of sold out matches to help pay or it. I can't see us having another away friendly for about 5 years. However, the way the team is going, who is going to want to go. The novelty will soon wear off so it could prompt a change of manager. But who is available ?? Well, if rumours from Stamford Bridge are to be believed, the Chosen One, Jose Mourinho could soon be on the dole. He is one of the few people in world football with both the knowledge and personality to deal with the pressures of managing England and if he is available, the FA should do anything they have to in order to secure his services.

Sadly, the FA is run by idiots so it will never happen.

We could be out of Euro 2008 inside 2 weeks

2007-03-18T09:28:00.000Z

A belated Happy New Year although as the Ginger Sven is still in charge, it can't be that happy. The less said about last months friendly at home to Spain, the better. All I'll say is that I wasn't surprised by anything with the possible exception of Ferdinand claiming we lost to a wonder goal. No it wasn't a wonder goal. It was a decent strike but the lad was 16 yards out with no defenders anywhere near him. Pathetic excuses trying to justify under performances that we've heard so many times in the past.

On 24th March, England travel to Tel Aviv to take on Israel in a Euro 2008 qualifier. Before we look at the current Group E table, I should just mention that Israel have only lost 1 home qualifier in the last 7 years. That was to Croatia recently when they went down 4-3. They scored 3 more goals than we had shots against Croatia in Zagreb. So lets look at the table with the top 4 teams all having played 4 matches.

Croatia, 10 points
Russia, 8 points
England, 7 points
Israel, 7 points

Macedonia also have 7 points but have played 5 games. The fixtures on 24th March are

Israel v England
Croatia v Macedonia
Estonia v Russia

Croatia and Russia should both win so defeat in Israel will be a serious set back to England's chances. It's true that all 3 teams would still have to come to England at the new Wembley but playing at a stadium like that can often act as a boost to the visiting side to plus these would be games that Israel, Russia and Croatia would be looking to make sure they don't lose.

The injuries are mounting already with Owen, Ashton, Crouch (hurrah), J Cole, Beckham (not that he would have been picked by the Ginger clown) and now Gary Neville are all definitely out. There are also FA Cup replays tomorrow night involving a lot of the remaining players. So it looks like an experimentatl line up for us. There is talk of Lennon playing left. Now, if the Ginger Sven had done his job properly and tried different players in their natural positions in the friendlies instead of the same old crap, we'd be in a position to handle this situation a lot more comfortably.

The following Wednesday, we all head off to the away game against Andorra which is being played in Espanyols stadium in Barcelona. Andorra aren't any better than a pub team. They are probably worse than San Marino and even Graham Taylor's no-hopers managed to score 7 away to San Marino in the 1994 World Cup qualifiers. Now we have a team packed with superstars so anything less than 6-0 is totally unacceptable but I won't hold my breath.

Next posting will be after the Israel and Andorra games.

2006: The year without a single decent performance

2006-11-21T20:40:00.000Z

Thank god 2006 is finally over as far as watching England is concerned. It's been absolutely pathetic and this was meant to be the year David Beckham lifted the World Cup in Germany. Our national team can be compared to the US Ryder Cup team. As individuals, the players are fantastic and turn in world class performances on a regular basis yet as soon as they have the ultimate honour of representing their country, they turn into the equivalent of Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards although at least Eddie had the good grace not to attempt to convince anyone he was actually any good.

The last game of the year saw us hike over to Amsterdam for a friendly match and a new record was set. We managed to leave the game after just 25 minutes of slow, boring, passionless, lack of quality, diving (you get the idea) "football". The bars were a fair more attractive proposition. Apparently, the best player on display was Micah Richards who was making his debut at right back. Joe Cole was back (more on him later) and it was also good to see Rooney get an international goal after going without for a year. We couldn't hang onto the lead and the Dutch, who were equally dire (and a few players under-strength) scored late on so the game finished 1-1.

Overall, this year has been very disappointing to say the least in terms of results and also attitude and performance. The last time we played really well was 13 months ago against Poland at Old Trafford and for the players at our disposal, it's simply not good enough. I believe there are a number of problems:

1. The manager (past and present) has his favourites, usually at 'big', fashionable clubs and seems reluctant to give other players a chance. If Peter Crouch was at Charlton and Darren Bent was at Liverpool, does anyone seriously believe Crouch would have played so often ??

2. This in turn puts the players either in a comfort zone or a no hope zone. The regulars get picked regardless and the fringe players just don't get a decent chance. This is a serious problem and will harm our chances.

3. Players are more interested in their club careers than representing their country. Many of them see international caps as a bargaining tool for higher wages. They get pushed around by their clubs. If Wenger had told Terry Butcher or Stuart Pearce they couldn't play 90 mins for their country in a friendly, they'd have knocked him out.

4. We are turning into poofy foreigners. Too much diving and gamesmanship is infecting our game and it's just not English. Joe Cole is the biggest offender, he has so much skill and ability yet falls over like a 3 year old every time anyone goes near him. It wouldn't be so bad if we actually benefited from this gayness. Win at all costs is one thing but quarter-final failures at all costs isn't good enough. I'd sooner see us have less skill and getting stuck in, giving 150% effort.

Next up is Spain at Old Trafford (surprise, surprise). This will be a major shitefest. Dodgy latinos in a Manchester winter, it's a friendly against 2 of the biggest under acheivers in world football. Get your money on 0-0 now.....with an entertainment value of 0/10.

So thats it from me now for 2006. We can turn our attentions to the Barmy Army as they attempt to bring the Ashes back from the Convict Coloney. The lucky lads out there will get sunshine AND entertainment !!!!

The Ginger Sven

2006-10-16T17:22:00.000Z

Just a few weeks ago, I warned of a false dawn under McClaren. The 2 qualifying matches in October at home to Macedonia and away at Croatia seem to have re-enforced my claims.

Macedonia came to what is hopefully the last match at Old Trafford for a while and set out their stall to work hard and catch us on the break. The line-up was familiar although Rio was out so Ledley King came in. I like King, he has never let England down and once again, he was one of the better players on view. Sadly, that wasn't much of a statement as we had to endure another 55 minutes of pure crap. England look slow, lethargic and void of ideas. Their keeper made a couple of saves and Gerrard hit the bar but that was really it. Macedonia had pace and worked hard.

Now you may have noticed I said "endure 55 minutes of pure crap". Thats because we left after 55 minutes. We'd had enough. It was another woeful performance, not really that different from the previous 3 matches. The problem was this time the opposition look determined and more importantly, we didn't win. It seems that so long as we win, a number of people don't want to look any further. 2 dropped points at home meant the honeymoon period for the Ginger Sven was over.

Afterwards, we were promised a better, more passionate performance in Zagreb in his first real test. Croatia are no mugs and while we struggled against Macedonia, they were busy sticking 7 past Andorra. Remember what I said last time about putting down a marker in the group in my previous entry !!!!

Anyway, so off we all went to Zagreb. Now this was Eastern Europe and watching football here is very different to places like Germany, Sweden, Holland etc. Violent fans and even more violent police are very much the order of the day. You have to have your wits about you. We arrived about 45 mins before kick-off and just got in before the police decided to close the gates. It has been documented about the trouble this cause with the police over-reacting to the extent the FA have filed a report with UEFA over the treatment of England supporters.

Personally, I felt one of the biggest crimes by the police was locking us in so we had to see all 90 minutes of the worst England performance I can remember for about....well, 4 days. Firstly, the formation changed and Downing was out....the one one bright spot. Now, I believe too much is written about formations. These players are top class and if they can't adapt to different formations, then they are even more stupid than I originally thought. We were subject to another substandard performance devoid of invention, pace, passion...all the ingredients you need for success. Croatia were hungry for the points and got them, the 2-0 scoreline condeming England to their worst qualifying defeat for 13 years. The players were booed off....and rightly so. We applauded the Croatia players as they left the field. They showed all the attributes our so called highly paid, world stars what it means to play for their country.

The police kept us locked in for an hour. Over the back of the stand, we could look down and see the players boarding the coach for their hasty escape. They can't have failed to hear the cries of "You're not fit to wear the shirt" and they aren't. Since we lost at home to Australia in 2002, we get about 1 decent performance every 12 months. That is unacceptable. Players are more concerned with their new cars, Champions League bonuses or royalties from their new books. Give me 22 players from Division 2 (The Championship) any day.

I don't actually mind if we lose but I do want to walk out of the stadium thinking we gave it everything. That feeling is something I experience far too infrequently. It will be interesting to see the response in Amsterdam against Holland in 4 weeks time.

Are you Svennis in disguise ??

2006-09-17T08:28:00.000Z

3 games in charge.....3 wins.....10 goals......3 clean sheets

Sounds great doesn't it ??

But lets not forget, the Swede had a very good record in qualifying as well yet when it came to the tournaments, he was found sadly lacking.

Worryingly enough, the signs are there that not a great deal has changed.

McClaren's first match was against reigning European Champions, Greece at Old Trafford. A tough test, you may think. No chance. Greece were awful....and I know awful football when I see it. I can't remember the last time I saw defenders with such a lack of position sense or purpose. Next up were Andorra, who are the worst international side I have ever seen in my life. They dived nearly as much as the Portuguese which takes some doing. Robinson didn't touch the ball for 42 minutes and then it was only a back-pass. They didn't manage a single shot or corner.....yet we can only put 5 past them. A few days later, Germany showed how teams like this should be dealt with by putting 13 past San Marino. Anyone who says there are no easy games in international football clearly haven't seen Andorra play.

When we play teams who are clearly weaker than us, we should be laying down a marker to other teams in the group. The lack of application against Andorra was a concern. Being ruthless is a good habit to get into we consistently lose at crucial stages of tournaments and I don't believe it's a conincidence that we also fail to perform to our levels when playing weaker sides. If you look at the goal times in the San Marino v Germany match, they were scored at regular intervals over the entire 90 minutes which suggest they applied themselves the same way for the whole match. Against Andorra, England only had 10 shots on target and their keeper only made one serious save. We just did enough to beat them. Scoring 10 or so goals against them would send out a message to Russia, Croatia and Israel saying when you play us, if you are even 10% under par, you will lose badly. 5-0 against Andorra was a barely adequate score and will do nothing to scare the other teams in our group.

The circus moved on to Skopje where we played Andorra. This is where Wayne Rooney became England's youngest ever scored with another laboured win. There was no Rooney this time but we did get another laboured win with Crouch continuing his impressive scoring record against the minnows of world football to give us a 1-0 win. It was yet another unconvincing performance where there could have been no complaints if Andorra had snatched a point. There were no obvious signs that Eriksson wasn't still calling the shots.

After the game all the old comments came out about "a win is a win", "no easy games" blah blah blah. These comments are made by staff and players to justify their own under perfomance. It's been nearly 12 months since England last put in a decent performance against Poland at Old Trafford and against the Argies in Geneva. Both games were on the backlash of dreadful results in Copenhagen and Belfast. Going back before then, I can't remember the last decent performance.

Of course, it's not possible to play well in every game but we rarely put on any sort of performance and until this changes, we will remain what we currently are, a top 8-10 team in the world. Nothing more, nothing less.

Will it be different with McClaren ?

2006-08-13T18:32:00.000Z

One of the big concerns being voiced when the FA named McClaren as successor to the Swede (who still hasn't been linked with any sort of decent job...not that he needs the cash) was that things may not change too much. In their announcement, FA chief, Brian Barwick said one of the reasons for appointing McClaren was because they wanted continuity after the Swede......oh no we don't cried the supporters !!

McClaren's first game is on Wednesday against European Champions Greece at Old Trafford. He's already named John Terry as captain to succeed Beckham who stepped down last month. Lets hope the extra responsibility makes Terry cut out the stupid mistakes he makes with far too much regularity (I write this hours after he gave Crouch a free header in the Charity Shield as Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1).

When the squad was named last Friday, there were a few surprises, not least the omission of David Beckham. Now if McClaren thinks the way forward is without Beckham then far enough. However, he has also chosen to recall Phil Neville. I hope it's not the sign of things to come. Beckham still has a lot of offer England. His legs may not be what they used to be but he did score 1 and was involved directly in 3 other of our goals in the World Cup. I think it may just be a statement by McClaren to say "I'm my own man and not afraid to drop anyone". I expect to see him back in the squad for Andorra.

Another senior player who was left out was David James. Unlike Beckham, I really can't see a way back for him. Robinson is clearly first choice and long-term rivals need to be found. Chris Kirkland is a decent keeper but has been plagued by injuries and now fit again, he has been given his chance. The 3rd keeper is Ben Watson who was on-loan with Watford all last season from Man U.

Up front Dean Ashton and Darren Bent are given the opportunity to reform their U21 partnership. Rooney is suspended for the next 2 competitive matches so has been left out of the squad. Crouch and Defoe are the other forwards as Owen is also unavailable through injury.

Overall, the squad isn't too bad and ultimately, the style of play and approach to matches will be far more important than the individual players. Parts of Steve Gerrards new book were published today in a Sunday paper and he, like other players, raised points that showed all was not well in the England camp over in Germany. He has admitted the players were over-confident, thinking they just had to turn up to win it. He also disagreed with the striker selections. 5 strikers should have been taken and Walcott, however promising a player he is, had no right to be at the World Cup. None of this is any consolation. Lets just hope that the players and coaching staff have learned from these mistakes and we go into the Euro 2008 campaign with a clear message about our intent to win the tournament.

Next post will be after the Greece match.

The end of an error

2006-07-30T21:09:00.000Z

I've just about got over the World Cup. Not the disappointment of not winning, I'd fully accepted we had no chance pretty much as soon as the squad was named. I'm still angry about the wasted chance given the talent available and comments by players since the tournament finished give more evidence that things were not as they should have been. Still, the useless Swede has gone, albeit with a huge pile of cash....at least Dick Turpin wore a mask !!!

So now we move into the Steve McClaren era. I suppose at one stage, it would have been hoped that the first game would be at the new Wembley but incompetence at various levels of the project have made the opening game for the new managers reign seem a more realistic proposition.

The first opposition for McClaren will be Greece at Old Trafford (so much of taking the team around the country). A few weeks ago, there were some doubts about the game going ahead as FIFA decided to suspend Greece from international football due to political interference. Of course, governments getting too involved in the running of football happens in plenty of other countries around the world but as Greece are not known to be a supporter of Blatter, they were fair game. FIFA can be seen to be clamping down and they aren't upsetting any of Blatters precious voters. Since then, the suspension has been lifted and the game will go ahead as planned on 16th August.

The main talking point will be the squad and the tactics employed. A major concern amongst supporters is that things will continue as before as McClaren was part of the Eriksson regime. I think most people will give him time but he doesn't have long to convince people the negative, boring dross we had to endure for the last few years has been left behind.

The biggest area of intrigue will revolve around the choice of strikers. First to consider is Rooney. Normally an automatic choice but he will be suspended for the first 2 Euro 2008 Group E matches so should McClaren include him. It would make more sense to give more match time to the players who will come in but who will these players be. Owen is out injured and personally, I don't believe Crouch is good enough to play international football. Players like Darren Bent, Jermaine Defoe and Andy Johnson will be desperate to prove they are the right players as well as others like James Beattie and Dean Ashton.

Whoever is selected, I don't imagine it will be pretty viewing. Greece are current European Champions and will be coming to England determined not to get a hiding. At least the FA have had the decency to make sure the Andorra and Macedonia games at home have been moved to 17:00 kick-offs which means 2 more hours drinking to help numb the experience.

The dream dies...........again

2006-07-04T17:28:00.000Z

For the 5th time in 7 tournaments, England went out on penalties. Sadly, the prediction (actually, it was more of a rant) about not having enough strikers came true. In 5 games, England scored just 6 goals. Compare that to Germany and Argentina with 11 or even 'boring, negative' Italy who scored 9 and it's easy to see why we failed. The man who has to take the blame for this is Eriksson. He picked the wrong players and employed the wrong tactics. No amount of apologising will ever change that and our best chance to win the World Cup since 1990 and maybe 1996 has gone.

Last 16 - Ecuador
The inquests have been covered in depth elsewhere, this blog is about my experiences so lets move on to them. The last 16 match was played against Stuttgart (pictured) against Ecuador. Back in December, I had been confident enough to book travel for the last 16. I flew into Munich on the Friday and caught a train to Stuttgart on the Sunday. Munich is great. I worked there many moons ago and I met up with some friends from Sunderland and basically we got drunk for 2 days. Making the 9:39am Intercity to Stuttgart on Sunday morning was a struggle !!!

We found a nice beergarden to watch the Germany v Sweden match which was being played in Munich. It was a good friendly atmosphere with German, Swedish and a few English fans drinking together. The weather was fantastic as it had been for the entire tournament. After the game, we made our way back to the area around the station for some food and more beer. One of the waiters at the bar we were looked just like Rod Stewart and seemed to enjoy the attention. We also met some German fans from Kiel which is in the north. They were just like us. They support a rubbish club side and travel everywhere watching Germany home and away. Hopefully, we'll be able to meet up again after the World Cup. Cheap airlines, email and the internet mean it's very cheap and easy to keep in touch with and meet up with people anywhere in Europe.

The nights in Munich meant very little sleep and the train journey to Stuttgart was only 2 hours so I wasn't going to get much rest on that either. I arrived in Stuttgart at noon, 5 hours before kick-off so there was time to check-in to my hotel and get over to the stadium to collect my ticket. The first part wasn't as simple as planned. To cut a long story short, my hotel reservation didn't exist and a 98 Euro hotel bill ballooned into a 300 Euro bill.....not a good start. Next thing was to pick up my ticket so I got a taxi over to the stadium. The temperature gauge in the car showed it was 34 degrees celcius, it was going to be another hot, sweatty day in the stadium.

The ticket office was right at the far end of the biggest car park in the world and I spent more time walking to the office than queuing for my ticket. While I was there, I got a call from another friend who was over with his family. He was also in the vast car park so we met up and wandered over to see his wife and girls before walking over to the stadium together. Over the years, I've made a lot of friends through supporting England and it's just not possible to see everyone all the time so it's always good to take these opportunities to catch up.

On the way to the stadium, we met up with my drinking mates from Munich who were laying into the beer again. I was too hot, too thirsty and too hungover to have any more beer so I went off in search of some water/juice/cola. It was very hard to find something to drink and almost impossible to find something cold. We found some at a petrol station near the stadium. I had one of the famous wurst in bread and a horrible weak, fizzy apple juice which was truely disgusting.

Now it was time to move on to the stadium and we passed countless touts who clearly weren't making the money they had hoped for from the England fans. It wasn't difficult to find tickets for 250 Euros or less. When you consider tickets for the Sweden matches had been sold on Ebay for well over 1,000 Euros it's easy to see how far prices had fallen. I think there are a few reasons for this. Firstly, there is an increase in the number of fake tickets as well as used tickets. What some people were doing was after they got into the stadium, they passed tickets back out so they were sold again. Unfortunately for the new holder, the ticket showed it had already been used and they were refused entry. The other main reason was the Fan Fests. These were massive parks capable of holding 20,000+ (depending on the venue) where you could watch the games on giant screens. I didn't go to any Fan Fests but I understand the atmosphere was fantastic. If I didn't have tickets for games, I would have probably gone there as well. The only game I would pay over the odds for would have been the final.

Anyway, back to the game against Ecuador. Here is my match report. Utter garbage but we won 1-0.

Quarter Final - Portugal
A rematch of the Euro 2004 quarter-final in Lisbon was setup in Gelsenkirchen and for the 3rd consecutive tournament, we face a team a team manager by Phil Scolari. Only weeks had passed since Big Phil had told the FA that he would not take the England job while he was still manager of Portugal although if they were prepared to wait until after the World Cup he would accept the job. Well done Brian Barwick and other FA idiots, we now have Steve McClaren instead of one of the best coaches in world football.

The stadium at Gelsenkirchen is probably the most impressive and modern stadium I have ever been to, apart from Portman Road, of course. The roof was closed and they also have the ability to slide the entire pitch outside of the arena to allow the turf to grow under natural conditions.

As for the game, the main talking point was the sending off of Wayne Rooney and the conduct of his Man Utd team-mate, Cristiano Ronaldo. The video of the whole incident has been replayed countless times and you can see the BBC video clip here with comments from Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer, Alan Hansen and Ian Wright

Judge for yourself but I'm convinced the ref was not going to send off Rooney until Ronaldo got involved. He's a disgrace and will almost certainly be hounded out of England as a result. England played for an hour with just 10 men and neither side could score so for the 5th time in the last 7 tournaments, England faced exiting on penalties. Portugal missed 2 of their attempts but in reply, Owen Hargreaves was the only England player to score with Lampard, Gerrard and Carragher all failing which meant defeat yet again for England.

There is only 1 person to blame for this sorry situation and that is former manager (god, that was good to use the word former), Eriksson. He picked an inadequate squad, he didn't prepare the team correctly and his tactics failed. True in the shoot out we missed 3 penalties and the players involved must take the blame for that. In truth, we couldn't beat a very average Portugal side who were without 2 key players. They were there for the taking and we failed due to poor leadership by the manager and poor leadership from the FA.

So now we move to the Steve McClaren era. We had Eriksson in charge for almost 6 years. There were highs, beating Germany 5-1 in Munich, beating Argentina twice. Initially, Eriksson took us forward but ultimately, he under-achieved and there were more lows than highs.

My next entry will be about the FIFA experience at the tournament and then we'll move on to the qualifying for Euro 2008.

Well done Svennis

2006-06-23T08:26:00.000Z

What an idiot. We really do have problems now with just 3 fit strikers (1 is useless and 1 has never played in the Premiership. In Tuesdays day with Sweden in Cologne, Michael Owen ruptured cruciate ligaments after just 1 minute and is unlikely to play again this year.

It's true that Owen hasn't found his best form yet but the same could be said of virtually every player and Owen is a tournament player. His record in the knock-out stages is played 4, scored 4 and losing him is a big blow to our chances.

Almost blindly, Eriksson still refuses to acknowledge there are problems. There was a good comment in the Times which summed up everything better than I could have write;
ASIDE FROM LOSING HIS TOP goalscorer to a serious knee injury, perhaps his senior centre half and leaking two goals with schoolboy defending, Sven-Göran Eriksson claimed that “there were many positive things” that came out of England’s 2-2 draw with Sweden. If he had been Mrs Lincoln, perhaps he would have said that “yes, apart from the shooting, I did rather enjoy the show”.

But enough of the football, lets move onto Cologne. For the third time, in just under 2 weeks, I jetted into Germany and amazingly with no delays for which I'm very grateful. My friend Paul met me at Cologne/Bonn airport as he was struggling for a hotel room so I said he could share with me. TIP: Don't drive in Cologne, it's a nightmare and with thousands of extra people around for the football, life didn't get much easier. The next shock was realising the hotel website hadn't charged my credit card when I made the reservation so I had to pay up for rooms which I thought were already paid for.

Eventually, we made our way over to an area of Cologne on the west side of the Rheine, near the Hauptbanhof to meet friends and get drunk. The first thing we saw was a guy passed out with paramedics sticking a needle in his arm - Welcome to Cologne.

There were thousands of people in the area drinking in the numerous cafes and bars and generally having a good time. The atmosphere was very friendly and at times, a bit rowdy with groups of people singing - English, Swedes and Germans. Sometime after midnight, we made our way back to the hotel and crashed out. The next morning, we went down to the Rheine Energie Stadion as I had to collect to tickets for the last 16 match in Leipzig. Its always good to know how long it takes to get to the stadium as well.

Outside the collection point, I met up with a friend who was looking for a ticket. A tout had quoted 800 Euros which was a lot less than the 1400 Euros we had been expecting after speaking to touts in Nuremburg. This is almost certainly due to the fact England had qualified and people were saving their money for the last 16 match. Later we heard that by kick-off, people had managed to get tickets for under 150 Euros.

We saw loads of Swedish fans in Cologne and as normal, there were tens of thousands of England fans in the city as well. For once, it looked like the crowd would be made up of real supporters. At the ground, we queued to get through the first security gates. This is the gate where they really take things seriously - no big flags, no drinks (you have to buy those in the stadium, of course) and definitely no advertising slogans. The Swedish guy in front of me had a small flag, about the size of a regular photo. In the corner was "IKEA" which some people couldn't read without their glasses. Yup, definitely not allowed to bring that in. Absolutely pathetic. I was less than impressed and being slightly drunk, I questioned the steward (rather loudly), if I was allowed in wearing my shorts as they had a NIKE logo on them as they aren't an official World Cup sponsor either. Luckily for the people around me, I was allowed to keep my shorts.

I won't go into details about the game but our long non-winning run against Sweden continues due to school-boy defending by John Terry allowed Larsson score equalise with practically the last kick of the game. At least it didn't affect who we played in the last 16 and now it's off to Stuttgart to face Ecuador on Sunday at 17:00.

SO now the tournament starts for real. No more messing around with tables, points and goal difference - it's pure knock-out. Draws are no good, winning is everything. England's path seems to be OK with a game against surprise team Ecuador and then after hopefully winning that, we have avoided Argentina in the QF. I'm leaving to fly to Munich in a couple of hours before catching the train to Stuttgart on Sunday morning. Lets hope I have something positive to report back next week

Meeting the Soca Warriors

2006-06-17T08:38:00.000Z

England's 2nd Group B match took us south to the beautiful city of Nuremburg to play the tiny Caribbean Island of Trinidad & Tobago. Their fans, the Soca Warriors, certainly brightened up the city along with 50,000 or so England fans who were also in town, it provided a cracking few days.

Many of us have planned our trips to the games so we arrive the day before but obviously not everyone can do this. Unfortunatley, this cost a few hundred England Fans very dear. On the morning of the game, supporters arrived at Birmingham airport to catch their charter flights out to Nuremburg. At 6am, a TNT freight plane came in for landing and as it touched down, the landing gear collapsed. Thankfully, no-one was hurt but it meant that more than 70 flights were cancelled included flights that were due to take fans to Nuremburg. One of my friends was meant to be on one of these flights and it broke his 35 game run of attending England matches. With most flights to Germany from other airports already booked up, it was just impossible to make it to Nuremburg in time. To compound the sad situation even further, FIFA refused to allow the match tickets to be transferred to England fans who were having to pay up to 500 Euros to touts. FIFA are an absolute disgrace the way they disregard fans. They are far more interested in lining their own pockets. As the teams came out at the Frankenstadion, some children were carrying a banner which read "Fair Play Is My Game". Obviously a case of "Do as I say, not as I do". I'll have a bit more of a detailed rant at FIFA after the tournament is over but for now, there is too much else to write about.

I arrived quite early at Nuremburg and decided to hang around waiting for a friend who was due to land 30 minutes later. While I was there, I saw one someone with a sign saying "Franz Beckenbauer" so I was hoping to get a picture of the great man but he never appeared. I guess men of his stature don't need to go through the plebe section of the arrivals hall. Eventually my friend arrived and we checked into our hotel before heading off to the stadium. Its always good to know where you are heading and have a look around. On top of that, I also had some FIFA tickets to collect. The stadium is right next to the site where the Nuremburg rallies took place. It was quite an experience to stand at the same place where Hitler stood 70 years earlier ranting to 200,000 people although we didn't get a chance to go to the museum. We eventually found the ticket office but for some reason, they decided they weren't issuing FIFA tickets today....and I didn't think my opinion of FIFA could get any lower. Lets hope I can get them in Cologne next week instead.

After a few photos, we made our way back into town and over to the Hauptmarket where there numerous beer tents and TV screens had been set up. The big match of the day was Germany v Poland. Obviously there were a lot of home fans around. Defeat for Poland would mean their tournament was over and given the bad reputation of their fans, there weren't many of us who would be upset at their exit as meeting them in the last 16 was a real possibility. Although we were more interested in talking to other fans than watching the game, we saw bits of it and Germany ended up winning 1-0 and you saw the unusal site of England fans cheering a German win.

The 6pm kick-off gave us plenty of time to have a few drinks before the game. It was only a short trip over to the stadium. The weatherman had promised rain but it was scorching hot and there was little wind too cool us down. One of the supermarkets near the square ran out of water such was the demand. The Hauptmarket was packed with England and Trinidad fans. St Georges crosses hung from every possible location and it wasn't long before the Soca Warriors carnival atmosphere kicked off.

After a few hours in the baking sun, we made our way over to the stadium. We soon passed through the bag search although a number of people had problems with their flags and a number were confiscated. At any England game, you will see flags all round the stadium. Supporters arrived there hours before kick-off in order to get their flags in prime position. However, in Germany, a number of flags have been confiscated. In Frankfurt, some West Ham supporters had their flags confiscated as they had crossed hammers on them. The reason was it was confused for a facist symbol....anyway ever had a close look at the Lazio badge ??? FIFA have since admitted their error on this count and apparently, the supporters were given tickets for another match.

In Nuremburg, there were a number of stories of flags being confiscated as they were advertising something such as a pub name or website. This situation is getting ridiculous, the game is for the fans, not faceless corporations !!!! Other examples of FIFA stupidity were trying to confiscate flags larger than 1m, white plastic bowler hats with a red cross over them (they were thought to be army helmets) and trying to confiscate a QPR (Queens Park Rangers) flag as the stewards thought it may be political.

Before the match we saw Frank Lampard senior near us but didn't get the chance for a photo. Once again, we found the 2 madmen from Luton dressed up as knights and they kindly posed for a photo with that bloke from Village People (see the photo at the top). Once the in ground the atmosphere was better than in Frankfurt but still less than expected for a tournament match. There was one attempt at a Mexican wave which was quickly stopped. Yesterday, I also read that the Serbian fans also refused to take part in a Mexican wave - good lads !!!

The game itself was dreadful. T&T were very well organised and England seemed to struggle to break them down. We had a number of chances, Owen missed a couple but the worst offender was Crouch who put a free header and a volley wide from close range. The humid conditions didn't help the supporters patience but on 58 minutes, the volume in the stadium was lifted when The White Pele, Wayne Rooney made his return after his foot injury. Aaron Lennon also came on and eventually, England found the break through when Beckham put a stunning cross onto Crouch's head. The game was finally made safe in the last minute when Gerrard hit a left footed drive into the top corner.

So there we are. 2 awful performances but 6 points from the first 2 games which is the first time England have done that in any tournament since 1982. Next up is Sweden on Tuesday in Cologne. A 9pm kick-off coupled with a friends birthday means is going to be a very drunk affair. Just as well really as the game has 0-0 written all over it. The Swedes need a point, we need to avoid defeat to win the group. We have a negative manager and they are without star forward Zlatan Ibrahimovich.

The atmosphere in Frankfurt

2006-06-12T21:12:00.000Z

For England's first Group B match in the FIFA 2006 World Cup, I flew in Frankfurt the afternoon before the game to 'sample the atmosphere' which is a very weak euphanism for getting drunk.

Due to FIFA's criminally low allocation to competing teams only 5,000 of the stadiums 48,000 seats would be filled by official England fans. The reality was that over 30,000 England supporters were in the ground. Most of these had probably never seen England play football in their life so there were plenty of England fans left in Frankfurt to watch the game on the big screens.

I landed just before 4pm and my first job was to pick up tickets from both FIFA and the English FA. The stadium is very close to the airport so we drove to the ticket collection point - big queues to stuff that, I'll get them later. The English FA ticket collection point was right over the other side of town. The driver found it easily enough and we chatted a little about football. After I got my set of priceless match tickets it was off to the hotel and then off to find the lads to get drunk.

We had planned to meet in an Aussie bar slightly off the beaten track. In general, we try to keep away from the popular places like the Irish and English bars. They are always packed and are targets for anyone looking to start trouble with English fans. When I got to the Aussie Bar (called Yours), a couple of my friends we already there. The opening match between Germany and Costa Rica was on, naturally we wanted Germany to lose but they let us down. Poland v Ecuador was next and that was a much better result for us with Ecuador winning 2-0. None of the teams in Group A particularly concern me as potential opposition but it would be preferable to play Ecuador or Costa Rica and with Ecudor's victory, the chances of playing them look good if we can win the group.

The atmosphere was incredibly friendly in the Aussie Bar and on the streets. There were people from many countries - England, Trinidad, Togo, Australia, France, USA, Paraguay, Mexico and others which I managed to forget due to alcohol. We spent a lot of time talking to the Aussie supporters who had flown over from Melbourne. There is huge sporting rivalry between Australia and England and we had a lot of good natured banter on both Friday and Saturday nights. Looking at the BBC website earlier today, it seems a couple of them managed to get their photos taken which you can see here.

As the night wore on, we moved from the Aussie Bar to one of the streets line with beer tents where more people were mingling. It really was a good night with thousands of happy people enjoying the greatest show on earth.

The 3pm start on Saturday meant an early start. We met up back at the Aussie bar for breakfast having missed it at the hotel. Just under 7 Euros for all you can eat buffet breakfast seemed like that way forward although I managed to keep off the beer for a while. This meant I would see the game against Paraguay with a clear head, a mistake I don't intend to make again. Some of the lads hadn't made it out on the Friday night depending on their travel plans. We decided to make our way over to the stadium at about 1pm, 2 hours before kickoff as 48,000 people tend to put a bit of a strain on public transport.

There had been a lot of talk about the security and ID checks so we weren't sure what to expect there either - quite a few of us suspected that it was just hype as FIFA are the biggest touts of the lot so there is no way the checks would be too strict. We took a very full train to the stadium which only took a few minutes and then it was a 7 or 8 minute walk to the entrance. The first security check was to take away plastic bottles. The official reason is so they can't be thrown on the pitch but the real reason was to force people to buy the beverages inside the ground. Once through the brief search, it was on to the electronic ticket reader. I just put the ticket into the machine and the gate opened. No ID checks or anything like that - more hype.

I won't go through the match as much has already been written but we left on 83 minutes, as Hargreaves came on. We'd seen enough and wanted to get back out to "sample the atmosphere", if you get my meaning. A quick stop at my hotel to ditch my camera, a quick shower and it was out again to watch 2 interesting games involving Sweden in one and Argentina in the other. We grabbed some food in the Aussie bar which some very noisy Aussie who thought they could outsing us.......they couldn't. Our version of Waltzing Matilda is much better !!!!

The rest of the night was just drinking and merriment. I'd heard some bad things about Frankfurt before I went there. It was meant to be a dull industrial city but we had a great time, one of the best England trips I can remember.

Don't believe the hype

2006-06-11T23:19:00.000Z

Like any major event, the World Cup attracts huge sponsorship which takes tickets away from the real fans and as a result, too many people in the stadium know nothing about the game. Most of them are faceless and for some strange reason need to have trees near their seats to watch the game but I was in Frankfurt on Saturday to witness England v Paraguay in the opening match in Group B and I can name 2 of these people.

The first person was Mexican Marco Rodriguez and unfortunately he was the referee. Now we have been lead to believe that all referees have taken part in fitness tests and exams covering laws of the game into order to be selected. Clearly there are 2 Marc Rodriguez and the one we saw was a donkey. I can't remember the last time I saw a ref who was so fussy and made some very basic mistakes in the laws of the game. I can't remember the last time I saw a goal keeper pulled up for taking more than 6 seconds to release the ball out of his hands, or when so many throw ins were given to the opposition for being taken in the wrong place. However the best decision (and by best I mean bewildering) was when a clearance by Paul Robinson hit to stupid corporate football for retards TV hanging over the centre of the pitch from the roof (more on this later). The whistle goes straight away and Rodriguez gives a drop ball. I must say, I didn't realise that FIFA had introduced a drop ball when their advert screens interfered with play. I thought (and so did many others), that the game should just continue. But this was only the start of it. The diving and cheating by the South Americas went unpunished yet Crouch gets booked for being persistently fouled. The one good thing is that we won't have him taking control of another of our games.

So onto the second person to be named who was in the stadium and knew nothing about football. Step forward Sven-Goran Eriksson, highly paid manager of the England team. Several years ago, the powers that be in England created football academies which would help develop our young players into the cream of world football. Players like Owen, Rooney, Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard etc would suggest that the academies have done their job. We have the finest crop of players anyone can ever remember. So why on earth have we picked a timid, tactical dinosaur who isn't even English to oversee all this talent. Things started well with us scoring a a goal from a set piece after just 3 minutes. So there we are. Paraguay are in disarray losing their keeper with injury, we are a goal up so the nerves have been settled in front of 30,000 England fans. This should end up as a comfortable victory. The rest of the first half was OK but going in at half-time, the players needed a bit of rocket to force the pace and kill the game off. Instead, it just got worse and worse and in typical fashion we end up defending a 1-0 lead showing little interest to score a 2nd. Thankfully Paraguay weren't very good and we held on for the win. Now don't get me wrong, the 3 points are fantastic but this negative attitude is a huge cause for concern. WC 2002 in Japan, 1-0 up against Brazil and eventually lost 2-1. In the 2nd half when Brazil were down to 10 men, we didn't even manage a shot at goal. Euro 2004, 1-0 up against Portugal, Rooney gets clogged and we shut up shop again. On the other bench, Scolari takes off Figo and puts on Postiga who scores and we go on to lose on pens.

It's embarrassing considering the attacking talent we have. At the time he named the squad, I hammered the Swede for not taking 5 strikers. We've played just 1 game and it's already been shown why this is a mistake. As soon as his love-child Hargreaves came on, we were legging it out of the stadium. We'd seen enough. I'm just glad my ticket was only 35 Euros instead of the 850 Euros which was the going rate on the black market the previous night. The press conferences showed players and the manager giving excuses about 3 points being important and it the heat was a problem. Well excuse me, the heat didn't seem to be a problem in Manchester 7 days earlier when we beat Jamaica 6-0.

The game itself wasn't the most disappointment thing. The whole corporate crap is a joke. You can see from the photo I took that parts of the corporate entertainment areas had to have trees inside the stadium. Apart from the lake of atmosphere was the huge TV screen suspended from the roof over the centre of the pitch. Apart from interferring with the game (you remember Paul Robinson kicked the ball against it), it was just a brainwashing ad machine before the game. The annoying jingles only part of it but the worst thing came at half time. The first half highlights start running and Voiceover Man in his best German/US accent combined with incorrect terminology was the most pathetic thing I have ever had the misfortune to witness at a football match. What kind of moron goes to a World Cup match and needs to have commentary telling you what has just happened. You can just hear the conversation "I say, I'm sure I recognise the chap in the white shirt wearing number 7. Wasn't he in those Brylcream adverts?" Bastards !!!

Meanwhile, a number of my friends who have travelled to various friendly and qualifying matches either have to fork out Â850+ on a ticket or watch the game on a giant TV down by the river. Don't suppose we'll be seeing any of the prawn sandwich brigade in Macedonia on that Wednesday night next September for the Euro 2008 qualifier.

Roll on Nuremburg

The Final Countdown

2006-06-08T05:18:00.000Z

It’s been a busy week trying to sort out last minute bits and pieces before I head off to Frankfurt on Friday, I don’t really know where to start. The issue of tickets is never fair away when a tournament is around the corner. As a member of the official England supporters club (Englandfans+ - great name) who travels everywhere, I don’t have to worry about tickets as they operate a loyalty scheme (I believe I detailed the workings at an earlier date).

However, many people I know are not so lucky and the corruption at the higher levels of the game doesn’t help the real fans much. Lets take the example of Trinidad & Tobago. All the tickets allocated to the T&T Football Federation were only available as part of a package from a company called Simpaul. As the tournament draws near, the T&T public haven’t snapped up the £2,500+ packages as quickly as was hoped for so this meant they had a load of tickets to shift.

England fans are never shy of taking tickets but if they wanted to buy tickets for T&T v England, they would also have to buy tickets for the other T&T games in Group B as well (Sweden and Paraguay). Now England fans have a surplus of tickets for games they don’t want to see. Personally, I have a number of contacts in Sweden so it wasn’t too hard to find buyers for the T&T v Sweden tickets. However, the problem was getting the tickets from the T&T to Sweden in time. Naturally, the tickets would have to be sent on via England and this is where the fun begins. The tickets would have to be sent as collection wasn’t possible as the T&T v Sweden game is on Saturday.

After loads of phone calls, emails and no little panic, the tickets I needed have been sent via overnight courier so the Swedish lads could get them before heading off to Dortmund. As I write, I’m waiting for the tickets. It’s an outrageous situation where real fans have to mess around like this to get tickets while thousands of corporate freeloaders probably couldn’t name the city hosting the games they are attending.

The big news tonight is that Wayne Rooney has flown back to Germany after doctors reviewed the results of his cat scan on his broken foot. Yesterday, Rooney took part in light training and was striking a ball without any problems. This is what England would have missed had Rooney not been fit.

So tomorrow is my last full day at work. In between actually doing some work, emails will be flying around arranging meeting points in Frankfurt, discussions about the team and all the normal stuff as well as the small matter of expecting 2 lots of tickets to be delivered to pass on to some Swedish guys.

I leave work at 10am on Friday and head off on my motorbike to the airport for a 2pm flight down to Frankfurt. Once I arrive, I have some FIFA tickets to collect and then my England tickets before finding out meeting point to get hopelessly drunk.

Life is never dull following England

Sending off the team

2006-06-05T17:12:00.000Z

What a send-off. 70,000 people were packed into Old Trafford to witness England score 6 goals against a very poor Jamacia team. It was men against boys as Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick.....I repeat.....as Peter Crouch scored a hat-trick (40-1 for the Golden Boot). The strange 2pm kick-off time was at the request of the BBC who wanted to cover some horse race as well.

After the first 45 minutes, the game was over as a contest as England led 4-0. We had started the game without the injured Wayne Rooney and Gary Neville as well as Ashley Cole and John Terry who had picked slight knocks. Apart from Rooney who has a scan on Wednesday, everyone else should be fine. Reports over the weekend said that Rooney had been kicking a ball in training which is the news all England fans wanted to hear. A fit White Pele is vital to our chances in the later stages of the tournament.

But onto more important and disturbing things. It raised it's ugly head against Hungary and was again with us on Saturday. I'm talking about Mexican Waves. Those hideous happy-clappy things crowds do when they aren't capable of creating a proper atmosphere. It started back in the World Cup in 1986 and has sadly caught on. For years 2 things have been unofficially banned from England games; Mexican waves and club shirts. We don't wear club colours to prevent division amongst fans due to club rivalries. We are all there to support England. We don't do Mexican Waves because we don't do something to comply. We are England fans, different from everyone else in the world. I remember in the ABSA Stadium, Durban in May 03 when the whole crowd was trying to get a 'wave' going. As it game round to our section, we booed and jeered. In short, Mexican Waves are gayer than Wales. We don't like them and we don't do them. Any England fan who says they like them have probably only been going to games for about 12 months.

4 days until I fly out, 5 days until our opening match !!!!!

With St George in my heart

2006-06-02T05:04:00.000Z

Its just a week until the World Cup kicks off in Germany and I can't wait. Before then, we have one last friendly in Manchester against Jamaica tomorrow. Gary Neville has a slight hamsting strain so he may not play but it'll be the opportunity for us to give the team a send-off.

A feature of any England game is the number of flags on display. It's usually quite a battle (not literally) to get your flag in prime position. At tournaments, people are there 3 hours before the game and as soon as the gates open they run (yes, run) into the stands to put their flags up. I've done it before but now I'd sooner spend more time in the pub.

The issue of flag flying is starting to cause discussion in the UK. A number of companies, councils and other assorted do-gooders have been banning people from flying flags. Here are the ones I've found reported in the press recently:

Tesco banned delivery drivers from displaying flags in their games (despite selling flags in their store) - the ban has since been over-turned
Hampshire police have warned drivers that they could face assault charges if a flag flies off and hits a pedestrian (remember these a polyester flags)
Cheltenham Council have banned taxi drivers from flying flags from their vehicles
Construction workers at Heathrow terminal 5
Birches Head High School in Stoke on Trent have banned pupils from wearing badges or carrying flags during the world cup (since overturned)
Cable TV suppliers NTL have banned their drivers from having flags on their vehicles
Taxi drivers in Blackpool have been banned from wearing England shirts
Firemen in Barking have been banned from flying the flag from their station

To me, it's beyond comprehension why anyone living in a country would be banned or offended by seeing the nations flag flying. These morons who are putting these bans in place are obviously in the minority and probably isolated cases. However, crimes like murder are also relatively isolated but it doesn't make it any more acceptable.

Now it seems the football authorities are getting in on the act. A number of people at Old Trafford for the Hungary match were told to remove their flags from sponsorship boards. WHY !!!!!! It's our game, our flags and our stadium. Hopefully, good sense will prevail at tomorrows game.

Hungary preview

2006-05-30T16:04:00.000Z

4 years of wasted friendlies and no plan B. Plan A is, of course, 4-4-2 with Rooney up front. Now the White Pele is injured, the Swede finally has to attempt to earn some of his outrageous salary and this is what he comes up with.

Initially, he name a squad short on forward (2 injured, 1 giraffe and 1 toddler) whilst packing it with midfielders of varying abilities from Gerrard right down to Hargreaves.

Logically enough, he wants to play his strongest side in the 2 remaining friendlies, against Hungary tonight and Jamaica on Saturday. Now comes the experimenting. Reports suggest he's going to play 1 up front (Owen) and push Stevie G forward to hopefully produce the same form he has for Liverpool all season. To replace Gerrard as the holding midfielder he has a number of options. How about the Swede's love-child Hargreaves ?? Or the untalented Jenas ?? Carrick is another option.

No, instead the Scandinavian genius goes for Carragher - a defender. Fantastic, how to upset 3 of your squad all at once. The question is, if Carragher is pencilled in for cover in midfield, why name so many midfielders and so few forwards.

The answer is simple. Carragher played in this position for England B last week for 45 mins. Now if only the idiot had used the friendly matches for the last 4 years properly instead of turning them into farcial practice matches, we may be in a better position to win this tournament.

If England do somehow win the World Cup, it will be in spite of Eriksson, not because of him

Rooney-watch

2006-05-29T18:33:00.000Z

5 years ago, not many people had even heard of a metatarsal, never mind knew what it was. Today, you can barely open the sports pages of any newspaper without find a reference to it somewhere. For the uneducated, a metataral is a bone in your foot and its something that England footballers tend to break with alarming regularity, especially when a major tournament is around the corner. This year victim, as every schoolboy knows, is The White Pele aka Wayne Rooney.

There have been endless twists and turns. The Swede has definitely not picked enough strikers in his squad assuming Rooney still goes. Rules state he can be replaced up to 24 hours before England's first match. A recent scan showed the break is healing nicely but its not ready yet. He will have a second scan on 7th June, just 2 days before the deadline and a decision will be made whether to take him or not. Its definitely a risk to take him but he is such a talent, its difficult to leave him behind. Personally, I would have taken him although I would have made sure there were another 4 strikers in the squad.

Its not a World Cup unless the Jocks aren't involved. No, of course I don't mean actually sending a team, they are far too awful for that. I mean the endless drove incomprehensive, cross-dressers (kilt ??? No, it's a skirt you girl) banging on about how they will support whoever England are playing. They really are a very bitter and twisted nation. The latest sweaty to mouth off is tennis player, Andrew Murray. He was being interviewed on Eurosport at the weekend when he made his comments. Fair enough, he speaks his mind and says what he wants - I just hope the Wimbledon crowd remember his comments in a few weeks time and give him the support he deserves.

Countdown

2006-05-24T15:59:00.000Z

The countdown is really on now. It all kicks off in Germany in just over 2 weeks. Tomorrow night is the 1st of England's 3 final warm-up games. It's a 'B' international fixture against Belarus at Reading. The more established England players will sit out the game although it gives Michael Owen a chance to build up a bit of match fitness after missing so much of the season through injury.

17 year old Theo Walcott will make an appearance at some stage which is more than Arsene Wenger has managed to provide for him this season. Until he actually plays, we won't know if he's up to it or not at the moment but one thing is for certain, he has pace that will frighten any team in the world.

The news of Wayne Rooney is very encouraging. Tomorrow he has a scan which should hopefully show the injury has healed up and he can start training on Friday. With 2 weeks to go, it means he would almost certainly play some part in England's group matches.

Living outside the UK, I'm spared the pain of waiting for my World Cup tickets to be delivered, instead, I will have to pick them up in Frankfurt. Having heard the stories from other fans about their tickets, I can't say I'm upset. The FA have decided to use a company called SMS to deliver the tickets to fans. Now, in case you hadn't realised, World Cup tickets are highly valueable so there is plenty of money to be made if the tickets get....er......lost. I've heard stories about delivery men forging signatures and pushing the tickets through doors so they don't have to re-deliver tickets, tickets being left without signatures, tickets being delivered to wrong addresses. The whole situation is a joke.

It's not really surprising when my Jamaica tickets still haven't arrived. The game is in 10 days time and I'm flying in for the game. I called the ticket suppliers and they said I can collect the tickets before the match. However, it's not very convenient for me as it'll eat into my drinking time. I wanted them to send replacements to one of the other members of our group but that was obviously too difficult. Customer service seems to have gone out of the window. I predict a riot next week if my tickets haven't arrived.

Swedish Clown's Squad Stuns Fans

2006-05-08T20:13:00.000Z

I can't remember the last time I was so angry. The man is an absolute f**king w**ker. I'd have no objection to Walcott if everyone was fit. Instead he picks just 4 strikers - 2 are injured, 1 is a giraffe and 1 is still in nappies. Then he doesn't even pick the leading English scorer in the Premier League on standby. Andy Johnson is shite. There isn't a single aspect of his game that makes him better than Darren Bent. He's never even seen Walcott (who looks like a mini Craig David) play so his listens to that food poisoner Wenger. If Walcott is so ready for the World Cup, lets see him on the bench for Arsenal next Wednesday. No ?? Thought not. Hypocritcal tosser

Campbell is an emotional wreck and looked dodgy against Wigan on Sunday.

He leaves out Ledley King who has a broken foot and then picks Rooney who also has a broken foot. Worzel Green hasn't played for the scum (norwich) for 6 weeks but he gets into the squad.

He says he's taking Walcot and he knows it's a gamble. I quote "He is a great talent. I have 23 players, why not take one gambling?"

If that was the case, I'd agree but it's not one gamble. That over-paid, over-sexed and over-here grandad is gambling on Rooney, Walcott, Owen, Campbell, Green and Lennon.

On top of that, he's taking his lovechild Hargreaves, presumabley because he can speak German and set up the Swede with some local chicks. He's definitely not in on ability. I don't care what he's done for Bayern. He's always been crap for England every single time I've had the misfortune to watch the inept fool.

What I can't understand is why for the last 3 years he has picked all his favourites for all the friendlies who turn up, perform at about 30% then as soon as a major tournament comes round, he abandons those players and brings in loads of people for the first time.

£4m a year for that c**t is a disgrace. The sooner he f**ks off the better. If only Bobby Robson was 25 years younger

Svennis ar en fita !!!!

If you care, the 23 man preliminary squad can be found here - England Squad
WARNING: Not suitable for anyone with high blood pressure

The preliminary squad is named tomorrow

2006-05-07T11:18:00.000Z

The Swede names his preliminary squad tomorrow, 7 days before the final 23 have to be announced. So just who will be on the plane? The squad for England and all other teams can be found on my FIFA World Cup 2006 website as they are announced which can be found here

Goalkeepers: The 3 keepers look pretty much sorted. Paul Robinson is the undisputed first choice with the dodgy David James and useless Robert Green as back-up. It is possible that Liverpool's Scott Carson could replace Worzel Green which gets my vote

Defenders: Ashley Cole seems to be winning his fitness battle after coming through 90 minutes against Man City in the week. This is excellent news as it'll mean we have our first choice defence all available. Fat Sol has made a comeback and should go but I can't see him starting line up. It looks more and more likely that Ledley King and Wayne Bridge will miss out so The Swede has a bit of thinking to do regarding who else he will take. Losing Ledley King would be quite a blow as he has never let England down and can play in a number of positions which is very useful for a squad.

Midfield: God I hope Hargreaves doesn't go. I really don't see what he offers England but for some reason, the Swede rates him. I think it's probably out of guilt. He capped him a couple of years ago to stop Germany or Canada getting him and now it turns out he is rubbish, he feels obliged to play him. While the Swede hasn't managed to dream up a plan B now Rooney is injured, there is talk Gerrard could be pushed forward just behind Owen and bring in Carrick as the defensive player. Gerrard has said that he's barely played 45 mins for England in his preferred role for England. Sean Wright-Phillips has suffered a poor season and must fear for his place, especially with the emergence of Arron Lennon and Stewart Downing. Joe Cole has made left midfield his position. Jermaine Jenas is also struggling with injury so it may be that Bolton's Kevin Nolan could get involved although the Swede will probably pick Phil Neville.

Forwards: It looks almost certain that Rooney will be taken to Germany as there is a rule that allows an injured player to be replaced up until 24 hours before a teams first game. I can understand the hype and desire that take this exceptionally talented player but I'm wary that the Swede could play him when he's not fit. If Rooney does go, the Swede would be mad not to take along another 4 strikers. Those 4 will almost certainly be Michael Owen, Peter Crouch, Darren Bent (a tractorboy) and Jermaine Defoe. Andy Johnson has been touted by some but he's a donkey. Boris Johnson has put in a much more convincing performance in an England shirt recently as you can see by this video clip

The new manager is unveiled

2006-05-04T15:42:00.000Z

God dammit !!! Steve McClaren has just been appointed England manager......and they gave him a 4 year contract.

I'm too depressed to write anything.

Black May Day Weekend For England

2006-05-01T18:41:00.000Z

It's been an awful weekend for England supporters. Saturday lunchtime's game at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Man Utd was the clash of the day which would see Chelsea crowned champions if they avoided defeat. In the end, the game will be remembered as the day the Curse of the Metatarsal struck England yet again. Near the end of the game, Chelsea defender Paulo Ferreira put it an inoculous challenge on Rooney who collapsed in pain and was stretchered off. It turns out that Rooney has broken his 4th metatarsal and the expected recovery time is 6 weeks. England open their world cup campaign against Paraguay in 6 weeks. The big problem is that Eriksson has to name the England squad in just 2 weeks so a big decision has to be made.

If the Rooney injury wasn't bad enough, John Terry also left the ground on crutches after having 11 stitches in a foot injury when Rooney tackled him, although it's not thought to be serious. That wasn't the end of it, as Michael Owen, making his comeback for Newcastle against Birmingham came off saying he felt some discomfort. Thankfully, reports today say Owen is fine and should be OK.

All the news was a follow on to the news that Big Phil Scolari had withdrawn from race to become England manager. He cited the fact that there had been 20 reporters camped outside his house since news broke that he was the FA's first choice and there were also reports one of his children had been threatened. This is a real embarrassment for the FA and Brian Barwick. You may remember a couple of years ago, the debacle with ITV Digital going bust owing millions to lower league clubs. Take a guess who was in charge of ITV Digital at the time.......thats right, Brian Barwick.

The whole managerial merry-go-round is in full swing. Now or in the near future, there are likely to be manager vacancies for England, Newcastle, Charlton, Villa, Portsmouth, Middlesborough and possibly Birmingham. Favourite for the England job appears to be Middlesboro boss, Steve McClaren. He has just lead Boro to the UEFA Cup final against Seville and is already part of the current England setup. For me, that is where the problem lies. I'm no fan of the way things are done. 19 a side friendlies played with no pride or passion are a joke. Eriksson has shown that a number of players are all but undroppable and I'm not convinced things won't change if McClaren gets the job. The sad fact is, there is no obvious candidate for the job and whoever we get is definitely going to have short falling in one or more areas. The important thing is to get stability asap as once the World Cup is over, it's only a few weeks until the home friendly on 16th August and the start of the Euro 2008 qualifiers. Paulo Ferreira

Player of the Year Awards

2006-04-24T20:58:00.000Z

Last weekend saw the PFA Awards Evening. These awards are the main awards for players as they are voted for by their fellow professionals. For those who don't know, there are 2 main awards; The PFA Footballer of the Year and the Young PFA Footballer of the Year.

For me, the outstanding player this season in England has been Thierry Henry.....if only he was English. What a partnership him and Rooney would make. The biggest shock was that Henry only came 3rd. He was beaten by Frank Lampard (2nd) and Steve Gerrard (1st). Wayne Rooney won the Young Player award.

These awards really go to show the high esteem that main England players are held in by their fellow professionals. In addition to the top 3 for the main award, the other 3 players are all England regulars; Wayne Rooney, John Terry and Joe Cole.

In a couple of weeks, the Football Writers (ie, clueless journalists) have their awards evening. However, I'm with Eric Cantona when it comes to my opinion of journalists. Their criticism is often ill founded and based on emotion or more likely, the need to make a big story. If you discount their opinion when they write bad things, you must also discount their opinions when they write good things. Cantona once said that one word of praise from a respected manager meant more than 20 years of praise from a journalist......and he is right.

The latest gossip on the England managers would suggest it's a 2 horse race between Phil Scolari and Steve McClaren. If that's the case it's a no brainer. It's like being offered a naughty night with either Dannii Minogue or Bella Emberg. McClaren is not the man for the job !!!

Injuries and the new manager

2006-04-19T21:20:00.000Z

I haven't posted a report for a while as I've been catching up on other things as well as enjoying a week in the sunny Red Sea but naturally, football can't be out of my life for very long. I'm all prepared for the World Cup and looking forward to a good night weekend in Manchester the week before the tournament starts at the Jamaica friendly. 8th May is the date that has been announced when Eriksson will name a provisional 23 man squad. The final squad has to be handed to FIFA a week later.

Personally, I'm all set to go. Tickets, flights and hotels are all arranged and the only tricky situation that may arise is if England get to the final, it happens to be the same weekend as my girlfriend's birthday - I'm sure she'd love to see Berlin.

The biggest concern now is that none of the players get injured. We are told Michael Owen will be fit despite not having played this year. In truth, he could use the 2 friendlies and group matches to gain match fitness. We'll need him fit for the knock-out stages. Other casualities at the moment are Sol Campbell, Ashley Cole, Wayne Bridge, Luke Young and more recently, the versatile Ledley King. Players like King are important in a squad as they can cover a number of positions. He broke his metatarsal but Spurs believe he could be fit in time. Experience from 2002 suggests otherwise.

Thankfully, the teams containing most of the key players have little left to play for this season so the players will hopefully stay clear of mishaps. I strongly believe that the England starting XI if all fit are as good as any team on the planet, including Brazil. The difference with Brazil is that they have a wealth of world class talent sitting on the bench. England does not have the same strength in depth. That's not to say the players are bad, of course they aren't but players like Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard are irreplaceable.

The race for the England job looks almost certain to go to an Englishman or should I say a Brit. The leading foreigners have either taken jobs (Hiddink to Russia) or have ruled themselves out (Scolari). The 4 main contenders seem to be Alan Curbishley, Sam Allardyce, Steve MacClaren and Martin O'Neill. The perfect candidate does not exist, all 4 have their faults so it'll be interesting to see who adapts to the job best of all. Some people are cut out to manage at the highest level and some aren't. Rijkard and Van Basten are doing wonderful jobs for Barcelona and Holland but Klinnsman isn't having the easiest time with the German national team. Hopefully an annoucement will be made in the next 10 days or so.

The next job for Eriksson also seems to be a point of interest for a number of people.........but not for me. Bye bye Sven, mind the door doesn't hit you on the arse on the way out. Hopefully the next manager will treat ALL England matches with the respect they deserve.

The tickets are mine

2006-03-27T20:34:00.000Z

22nd March and the slimy, inept touts trading under the name Ticketmaster have just debited my bank account for my World Cup tickets. Having seen prices on Ebay, I'm immensely relieved that I don't have to go via the black market to see the games. If you want to see all 3 group matches involving England, it's going to set you back no less than €1,500.

I was watching Germany v USA last week on TV and I was shocked how inept both teams look. I know the German's have a lot of internal problems and there is talk that Klinnsman could be replaced. Somehow they won 4-1 against a US team ranked 5th in the world. If that doesn't show what a joke the FIFA world rankings are. Based on this performance, neither side will make the quarter-finals but that said, England fans know better than most that performances in friendly matches aren't always a good yard-stick.

The biggest threat to England's chances of winning the tournament (apart from the moron in charge of the team) is injuries. Michael Owen has been out for months now although doctors think he will be fine. The fact is, Owen needs to be playing in the next few weeks in order to get match fit. England have friendlies on 31st May and 3rd June against Hungary and Jamaica. The group matches against Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago and finally, Sweden would give Owen 5 matches before the KO rounds start. One player who will miss out is Chris Kirkland who is injured and will not be fit in time.

Fingers crossed no more injuries will hit the squad.

Ticket Fiasco

2006-03-20T19:44:00.000Z

The ticket situation for England fans is a disgrace. A huge number of fans who have travelled to away games haven't managed to get a single ticket for the finals. Naturally, there is uproar and its not surprising when you see the figures. Under 4,000 tickets have been made available to England fans (bear in mind we took 8,000 to Denmark for a friendly) with around 18,000 applications. The FA are coming under fire with the allocation to the so-called 'Football Family' but ultimately, FIFA must come under fire for firstly, giving such inadequate allocations to competing teams and secondly for refusing to switch venues so the better supported teams play in the bigger stadia as happened in Euro 2004.

This, of course, has created a huge black market which FIFA are doing nothing to control. In fact, they have even set up a procedure to allow people to change names on the tickets. Couple that with an easily accessible venue for the finals and you have a touts dream.

To give you an idea of the ridiculous prices being paid on the black market, look at this list

England v Trinidad and Tobago, 2x Cat 1 tickets €1,561
England v Sweden, 2x Cat 3 tickets €1,011
England v Sweden, 1x Cat 3 ticket €376
England v Paraguay, 2 tickets €506

It's a disgrace the way football is being taken away from the supporters.

B International
The FA have announced a 'B' international against Belarus to be played in/near London on 25th May. It's been a while since we had one of these. In fact it was also just before a tournament and it gave the fringe players a chance to stake their claim in the squad. However, this time, the fixture is to be played 10 days after the squad must be named so I have no idea what the point of this game is.

Wembley Stadium
This whole project is rapidly turning into a huge embarrassment. God knows when it will be finished. The lates incident was when a girder in the roof fell 3 feet causing the site to be cleared and a days work lost. We are due host a friendly on 16th August (rumoured to be Germany) and we kick off our Euro 2008 campaign at home to Andorra on 2nd Sept. You really have to wonder if the stadium will be ready in time.

Finally, we get our tickets

2006-03-06T22:33:00.000Z

After what seems like an eternity, the English Football Association finally announced the allocation of tickets to supporters in the England Fans club. With 25,000 members and less than 5,000 tickets available for each game, you don't need to be very bright to realise a lot of people were going to miss out.

England probably run one of the fairest ways to distribute tickets to their fans. People who go to away games get awarded 2 caps with 1 cap for home games. For any over-subscribed away match, 70% of the allocation goes to the top-cappers and the remaining 30% is in an open ballot. This rewards loyalty but also doesn't make it a closed shop. Of course, it's not perfect but things never are when demand outstrips supply. There has been an extra level of complication for the FIFA 2006 World Cup as there are 4 price categories of tickets (1 being the highest price). Not everyone was prepared to pay for the higher priced tickets so the only way the top cappers were guaranteed a ticket was by stating on the application form they would pay for every category. If you were allocated a category you were not prepared to pay for, no alternative was offered.

For the top cappers, travel reservations haven't been a problem. You may remember from an earlier Blog entry, the frantic hours on the internet following the draw to reserve hotels and flights. The borderline cappers, however, had a dilemna. Should they book flights without a ticket. Unless you book business class, airlines won't offer refunds and hotels aren't being much help either. Each person will have made their own judgement but you can be sure there has been a flurry of activity on the airline and hotel websites tonight. For the record, I got a full collection for Cat. 4 tickets - total cost £340.

We also learned our fixtures for Group E in the Euro 2008 qualifiers. After a 2nd meeting between the competing teams finally saw the fixtures confirmed. Due to deadline problems with Wembley, it now appears the first competitive match at the newly renovated stadium will be the opening home fixture. The opposition for this prestigious match will be.............Andorra. Obviously, it's not the most glamorous team in the world but football is a global game for people at all levels so in a strange way, maybe it's the right thing that a smaller team is the first to play a competetive match at the most famous stadium in the world.

The Uruguay friendly and tickets

2006-03-01T22:38:00.000Z

With just 100 days to go until the start of the World Cup in Germany and England played host to Uruguay at Anfield in the first of 3 friendly matches as part of the build-up to the tournament.

The saw a minutes silence for former manager, Ron Greenwood who died last month and also for Chelsea legend, Peter Osgood who collapsed and died at a family funeral today at the age of 59.

Charlton striker Darren Bent (and former Ipswich Town striker) was given his full debut along side Wayne Rooney in the absense of Michael Owen. The game didn't provide any special moments until Uruguay took the lead with a stunning 30 yard volley after a corner was only half-cleared. After that, the visitors were happy to sit back and although England had plenty of possesion, they didn't really make the keeper work. Joe Cole was definitely pick of the players and it the 75th minute, he whipped over a cross for Peter Crouch to head England level. But Cole wasn't finished there and won the game for England with the last kick of the game when he finished a Wright-Phillips cross from close range. The biggest down-point of the evening was when Wayne Bridge was stretchered off but early suggestions are the injury is not too serious.

The other leading nations suffered some bad results with France losing 2-1 at home to Slovakia, Argentina losing 3-2 to Croatia, Germany losing 4-1 in Italy and Spain were struggling against Ivory Coast.

As part of the build up to the finals, I've added the match schedule to the World Cup 2006 Information website. After the tournament, it will be a detailed statistical record of the finals

The ticket situation for England fans is a joke and it's all FIFA's fault. The FA have done well and managed to secure extra tickets but so far, they have still not been able to confirm the category of tickets being provided so the FA have been unable to allocate them to supporters. We are hoping to hear this week but I'm not holding my breath.

Racism has again reared it's ugly head in Spain. Real Zaragoza fans were hurling so much abuse at Barcelona stirker, Samuel E'to on Sunday, he threatened to walk off the pitch. He was persuaded to stay on the pitch by team-mates but this sort of situation is a disgrace and sadly far too often. What's even worse is the totally inadequate response of the Spanish authorities. They have acted quickly and fined Zaragoza around 10,000 Euros. To many people, that's an insult and they would have been better just ignoring the incident. To hand out such feeble penalties is hardly going to encourage people to stop. If the Spanish can't deal with the problem, then FIFA should. We had a problem in England and for the most part, it's been dealt with so it can be done.

Wembley Stadium

2006-02-22T06:35:00.000Z

The whole situation with the rebuilding of Wembley Stadium is a national embarrassment. Multiplex, the Sydney-based company building the icon of English football have failed to guarantee that it would be ready in time for this years cup final in mid-May so the game has been switched to Cardiff's Millenium Stadium. The same applies to the play-off finals and the 2 scheduled friendlies against Hungary and Jamaica. The England games will be moved to Old Trafford.

There is little doubt that once the stadium is finally completed, it will be one of the finest, if not the finest stadium in the world. So what has gone wrong? The cost is beyond belief - £757m....and the company are making a loss !!! This figure dwarfs the amount that the Portuguese paid for ALL the stadia for Euro 2004.

I just don't understand how it's taking so long and costing so much money. Whether it's red tape, bureaucracy, lazy workers or any other reason, it needs to be addressed and steps taken to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Think about this. The last game at the old Wembley was when Germany won 1-0 in Kevin Keegans last game in charge. That was in September 2000......over 5 years ago. London have been awarded the 2012 Olympics which is in just over 6 years time. Before then the Olympic Park at Stratford has to be built, the transport infrastructure of London upgraded and countless other construction projects. I don't fancy the chances of everything being ready in time and to think, the press slaughtered the Greeks over the 2004 Olympics saying their facilities wouldn't be ready in time. I don't think the Greek papers will make pleasant reading come early 2012.

Moving ahead (or back) to the Euro 2008 qualifiers, the FA are meeting in Zagreb tomorrow to try to sort out our fixtures which will start in September. There is huge amount of excitement and anticipation amongst England fans with some great away trips coming up - Russia, Estonia, Croatia, Israel, Macedonia and Andorra (Barcelona) will all be interesting places to visit. Once the fixtures are announced, they will be put on the ever expanding Euro 2008 website http://www.euro2008info.com/qualifying_groups.htm

Finally, I'd just like to wish Manchester United's Alan Smith who broke his leg recently, a full recovery. Whatever you think of Smith's abilities as a player, this type of injury is awful and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.

England Fans Expect

2006-02-11T13:01:00.000Z

As the calender passes into February, we England fans are waiting for several pieces of news. The first is tickets for the World Cup. I'm talking about the allocation for the English FA, not FIFA tickets. It is well documentated that the criminally low 8% of stadium capacity will be nowhere near enough to satisfy demand from England fans but thankfully, the FA have managed to secure extra tickets. We will now have 5,500 tickets for the opening game against Paraguay in Frankfurt which takes us to near 13% of capacity in the Wald Stadium. Our allocation for the other two games has risen to about 4,500, around 10%. Now England fans are very resourceful when it comes to tickets so it probably doesn't mean there will be extra fans in the stadium. It just means they will have paid face value instead of the €500+ per ticket that is going rate on the black market.

Our hysterical media have been having a field day with speculation as to who the new England manager will be after the World Cup. Early favourite, Steve McLaren, has signed a new contract at Middlesboro and looks to be out of the running (thank god). The leading English candidate is Big Sam Alardyce. He would be an interesting choice as he has done wonders with Bolton Wanderers although he does get criticism for his style of play. However, you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear (or as a friend says, "You can't polish a turd"). I think he's quite inventive with ideas he has for the game and could be an interesting appointment.

The leading foreign candidate appears to be Gus Hiddink. He took South Korea to the World Cup semi-finals in 2002 and has just lead Australia to their first finals since Captain Cook upset some of the locals. On the surface, these seem impressive acheivements but I need to play devils advocat here. In 2002, South Korea had home advantage but more significantly, the squad were together for 6 months before the tournament. This is a luxury that few if any other international coachs will get. You do wonder how they would have got on with just 2 or 3 weeks preparation together. We also won't mention a couple of dodgy decisions that helped them along the way. Australia again can be put down to law of averages. Australia winning their qualifying group is one of the safest bets in the world and every 4 years they end up in a 2 leg play-off. Usually, they lose but this year they won, beating Uruguay on penalties. Again without wanting to belittle their achievements, you can't keep losing play-offs.

This week, a leading FA figure said they would ideally be looking for a British candidate. The use of the word British, instead of English immediately kicked off a frenzy in the press that Martin O'Neill was high on a shortlist. Football wise, O'Neill would seem to be a good choice but there is a problem. It's not his wife's tragic illness but his roots. Rightly or wrongly, his time at Celtic and comments he made mean that he will almost certainly never win over a number of England fans. The Euro 2008 draw is fairly easy so if O'Neill took over and won every day, it would be no more than expected. If he dropped any points, he will get a lot of stick. I do think he would be in a no-win position until the 2008 finals in Austria and Switzerland.

One thing is certain, there will be plenty of speculation and mis-information until the FA finally make an annoucement.

The FA is having a meeting with all other teams in Group E to sort out the fixtures for the Euro 2008 qualifiers. The meeting will be held on 23rd February in Zagreb. Details will be found on www.euro2008info.com/groupe.htm when they are confirmed.

The away game in Russia will personally be a good trip for me. I spend a lot of time in Moscow and have been speaking with a travel agent there to help arrange trips for supporters. More information when the packages are finalised. There is plenty of travel information for Moscow on www.travel-2-russia.com

Euro 2008 draw

2006-01-28T09:29:00.000Z

What an outstanding draw !!!! England will be facing Croatia, Russia, Israel, Estonia and Andorra. Personally, I have 4 new countries to visit and there isn't a bad away trip amongst them. In addition, as we only have to finish in the top 2 of the group, we have to strongly fancy our chances. The bookies have been quick install England as favourites for the draw. The fixtures themselves are still to be announced but you can see the full draw on our Euro 2008 website: http://www.euro2008info.com/qualifying_groups.htm

Awaiting the Euro 2008 qualifiers draw

2006-01-26T20:02:00.000Z

Tomorrow lunchtime sees the draw for the Euro 2008 qualifying groups. It's seems at the moment there is always something happening in the football world. The World Cup is just round the corner, Eriksson has been given the boot, there is the anticipation about tickets for matches in Germany and tomorrow, we'll find out the next set of away trips for England.

The fixtures themselves won't be announced tomorrow. The draw is just to put the teams together in groups. Then the various FAs meet to decide the fixtures between themselves. As top seeds, England can bully the other teams to get our own way. The first games will be in Sept 2006.

The seeds have already been announced and England are one of the top seeds. All the pots can been found here http://www.euro2008info.com/qualifying_groups.htm The observant amongst you will notice there is a 'spare' team in Pot 7 which means 2 extra games for the teams in 1 group. Last time round, they kept England, Spain and Italy (I think) out of the larger groups as the players from those countries generally have more matches due to being more successful in the Champions League and UEFA Cup.

Looking at the teams, we could get quite a nasty group but whoever England draw, we should have no problems finishing in the top 2 which will mean qualifying for the finals. My ideal group for England would be:

England, Romania, Israel, Lithuania, Cyprus and one of Azerbaijan, Kazahkstan or Malta.

Once the games starting, you'll be able to keep track of the results and tables on www.euro2008info.com If you want results from previous finals, you will find them http://www.euro2008info.com/previous_tournaments.htm

Since the news Eriksson was quitting, there has been plenty of speculation regarding the managers job. One thing is clear though, there aren't too many people sorry to see the back of him. If you look at results, he doesn't have a bad record but there is a strong feeling who should be doing a lot better with a very talented group of players. My own preference for next manager would be Martin O'Neill. He commands a lot of respect and always managed to get 110% out of his players, something which has not been happening with the current manager.

More comments at the weekend after the draw

We need a new manager

2006-01-23T22:34:00.000Z

Nope, not an opinion, this time its a fact. The FA have just announced the Swede is getting the boot after the finals in Germany after newspaper revelations. Personally, I don't think it will affect his attitude towards the job. If he can get England to win the World Cup, he'll virtually be able to write his own pay cheque when the next club or country comes along for his services.

The big question is who next. The appointment of a foreign coach was a huge point of debate last time so the FA may want to avoid that again. If so, which Englishmen could do the job. The favourites would be Steve McLaren, Sam Allardyce and Alan Curbishley.

McLaren is already involved in England but I think appointing him would be a bad move. You have to look at what Middlesboro do week in, week out to see why he shouldn't be involved.

Sam Allardyce would be an interesting choice. He has done wonders with Bolton but they tend to play a physical game which may not go down well with supporters who will want to see a passing game.

Curbishley has been managing Charlton in the top flight for several years and is another strong candidate.

One thing is certain, there will be loads of speculation between now and a new manager is appointed.

Happy New Year

2006-01-01T18:10:00.000Z

Happy New Year to one and all. With any luck, in just over 6 months time, we'll be witnessing similar scenes to the picture on the left. The initial frenzy of flight and hotel bookings has subsided although many people are still waiting to here if they have been allocated tickets or not.

My application has gone in and although I'm guaranteed tickets, I'm not guaranteed the price I will pay. We have to pay up front for all 7 tickets which will hopefully take us to the final. If we get knocked out before the final, the money will be refunded in July or August.

Due to the pathetically low allocations from FIFA (8% of ground capacity), many England fans will have to resort the black market for tickets. These come through official agents (I've no idea how these are allowed to continue trading) and through individuals. Quickly browsing the online ticket agents, for once, it appears, England fans will not be paying the top price on the black market. Instead, that dubious honour goes to Japan. Cat 1 tickets for Brazil v Japan are going for $2595 while you can get England v Sweden tickets for 'only' $1450. In the bargain basement is Angola v Iran for $155. You can find out more information about tickets at our World Cup 2006 Tickets page.

The ballot results for the latest FIFA sale and the England Fans will be announced in the coming weeks which is the last hope for fans to secure their tickets. After that, it's beg, steal or borrow. However, England Fans are in a much more fortunate position than many other competing teams. I'm not aware of any other national organisation basing their allocation on a loyalty scheme. Australia allocated there tickets on a first-come, first-served basis and Sweden will run a ballot of their entire allocation if any fixture is oversubscribed. I can imagine that supporters from these countries who have travelled all over the place to watch qualifying matches will not be impressed if they lose out on tickets to people who haven't been to a single game.

Now the fixtures have been announced, it will be easier for supporters to plan their trips to Germany. Our FIFA World Cup 2006 Information website has several useful links for you. There is a new RSS Newsfeed available from the main page and also a new spreadsheet so you can keep track of the results.

If you want to find out more about the 12 venues for the games in Germany, you can find out more at of World Cup 2006 Venues page. Getting to Germany is fairly straight forward due to it's excellent road, rail, sea and airlinks with the rest of the world. For information about the choices available to you, have a look at our World Cup 2006 Travel page. Accommodation in Germany gives the supporter a variety of options. Although you can never guarantee anything with a North European summer, the weather should be nice so camping is a cheap option. Personally, I've got my hotels arranged and despite the stories of price hikes, there are still some bargains to be find, they just tale a bit of searching out. More information can be found on out World Cup 2006 Hotels page.

On the field itself, there has been good and bad news regarding the England forwards. Peter Crouch has finally realised where the goal is and has been scoring regularly for Liverpool. On the downside, Michael Owen suffered a broken metatarsal bone in his right foot while playing for Newcastle against Spurs on New Years Eve. Recover time is expected to be 3 months which should be in time for the World Cup.

The next big event for us supporters is the UEFA 2008 qualifying draw which takes place at the end of January. You can follow the draw from our Euro 2008 website where there is an RSS Newsfeed available. The seedings have already been announced and you can read more about the draw on our Euro 2008 Qualifying Draw page.

Tickets and Friendlies

2005-12-23T16:04:00.000Z

Once the draw was made on the 9th, tickets was the first thing a lot of people thought about, except many of us who are guaranteed tickets. We got straight into action, if you recall, booking flights and hotels.

The location of this World Cup has definitely had an influence on demand. Germany is fairly easy to get to from all over the world and Europe is a hotbed of football. As always, it's a nightmare trying to get hold of tickets for England matches, I do feel sorry for fans of teams drawn against us as there is always a huge number of England fans who are prepared to pay over the odds. The problem for us is, the touts know this and take huge advantage of it.

The official England fans club has 25,000 members but FIFA have decided to allocated each team just 8% of stadium capacity. We will get around 3,500 tickets for each of our group matches. Now, it doesn't take a marketing expert to realise that demand will easily outstrip supply especially when you consider in recent away games, there were 5,000 England fans in Demark and in the region of 15,000 in Geneva when we faced Argentina - and those were friendly matches.

A quick 'Google' (is that a verb now ?) for "England World Cup Tickets" brings up 3.28m websites. A visit to the first one (I won't advertise it) reveals they are offering a Â45 ticket for England v Trinidad and Tobago for $895. The cheapest I could see was Iran v Angola for $139. A Cat 1 for the final, face value Â600 is on sale for $5,750. Quite simply, regardless of what FIFA say, they are allowing this practice to happen. These prices are criminally high and many genuine supporters for all countries will miss out on seeing games.

Other England fans without tickets I have spoken to, fully expect to have to pay Â£300-500 per game in the group matches and prices will increase as the tournament progresses. Thankfully, our supporters club have a system in place to reward supporters who hatraveledled around watching friendlies and qualifying matches. Supporters who have been to more games will have priority on tickets. To my knowledge, all other competing teams are just having ballots for all applications regardless if they have been to a game before or not.

And so onto out the build up. 3 friendly matches are planned prior to the tournament and the FA confirmed the first of these earlier today. Hungary will be the first team to play at the new Wembley on Tuesday 30th May. Back in November 1963, the 'Magnificent Magyars' were the first visiting team to beat England at home, the score was 6-3. Personally, I can't wait to see England playing at the new Wembley. From the outside, the stadium looks awesome with the 133m high high dominating the skyline for miles.

The remaining 2 fixtures are still to be confirmed. There will be a home game on 1st March, rumoured to be at Anfield against Uruguay. The other fixture is almost certainly going to be against Caribbeanean team, this time rumoured to be Jamaica.

2005-12-10T11:56:00.000Z

Last night, the draw for the groups for the World Cup was drawn in Leipzig. While TV viewers were letching of the gorgeous Heidi Klum who was making the draw, England supporters planning to make the trip to Germany next summer didn't have time for all that. Due to the large numbers of supporters who follow England everywhere, we are seen as a cashcow for airlines and hotels who maximise their profits from the fact that demand always exceeds supply when England are involved. So I thought I'd share my evening of hard work with you.

We knew last Tuesday that England would be a top seed in the group and that the would also been Team 1. This was important as it meant that as soon as we knew which group we were in, we would also know our fixtures. So the travel plans were underway. Spreadsheets were drawn up listing all the dates locations for Team 1 in every group. Groups A and F had already been allocated to Germany and Brazil so our choices were narrowed down to 1 of 6 sets of fixtures.

The time between Tuesday and the draw was spent working out flight options and possible hotels. The theory was that once we knew which group we would be playing in, we would know exactly what we needed to book. Another factor in the equation is that many fans who meet up for games, don't live anywhere near each other so contact had to be kept with each other as well to see which hotels were being reserved. Thank god for Skype and MSN Messenger !!!!

So Friday night came around and I was set. I had my 3 credit cards in front of me, a list of fixtures and selected flights. I had 8 internet sessions open ready to search for flights and hotels. I was also online to friends. I was watching the draw on Sky Sports News and we were told things would start at 20 past the hour. The anticipation grew but still nothing. The FIFA officials were far too interested in the sounds of their own voices and it was another 20 minutes before the draw started.

The draw procedure dictated that the seeding teams would be allocated into their groups first. The draw started. The teams would go into the available pots in order B, C, D, E, G, H. First team out was.......ENGLAND. For a second, the world stopped. It was the calm before the storm. Then I got a message appear on my screen from one of my friends. It simply said "b1". Of course it should have been "B1" with a capital letter but this was no time to correct his English. All hell was unleashed via internet terminal all over the place. We would be playing in Frankfurt on 10th June, Nuremberg on 15th June and finally Cologne on 20th June. The opposition was irrelevant. We'd be there regardless. Immediately I went for Frankfurt hotels. The cheap prices seemed to be there but every one I chose showed no rooms left. How could this be happening? Could so many people be typing quicker than me?

I gave up on Hotels.com, nothing available and went onto another site. Eventually, I found a hotel with rooms but it was Â£125 a night. No matter, book it and move on. Nuremberg was next on the list and this was the first real nightmare. I couldn't find a hotel with rooms anywhere. 6 hotel websites turned up nothing. Meanwhile, the draw was still going on but my friends and I were oblivious. I was getting text messages from other friends telling me what was happening but I ignored them. There was no time. The Nuremberg situation was a concern. By now, I was on the phone to one of my friends. He was struggling with flights on the low budget airlines. I told him I couldn't find Nuremberg hotels, he in turn, told another friend who started looking. I moved onto Cologne hotels and this was better. Fairly quickly, I got rooms for Â110 a night. I would btravelingng to Germany from Denmark so luckily for me, flights were easy. I quickly booked up Frankfurt and Cologne for Â£100 each.

Meanwhile, my friends were having their own problems. Some were booking on the low cost airlines and coming back from Germany at 4:15am the morning after the game. No hotels needed for that night, just stay out drinking all night and go straight to the airport. Not a bad idea but not my style. Another friend was watching prices for flights change in front of his eyes. Time was moving on and I took a few seconds to see who we would be playing. Paraguay, Trinidad & Tobago....and Sweden. Got to be happy with that but Sweden. What is it about them. We play them all the time and just can't seem to beat them. It's been 37 years but maybe 2006 will be our year.

Sweden's position in the group meant we'd meet in the final game in Cologne. If all goes to plan, both teams will have qualified by then. Our opponents will be from Group A, Germany's group. The Group A games will be finished during the afternoon so when we play Sweden, we'll know our opponents based on finishing 1st or 2nd.

But back to hotels. I still hadn't got anything booked. Then I get a website and they have rooms. Soon, I've got rooms near the centre of Nuremberg for €90 a night. Outstanding and a quick visit to Opodo and the Nuremberg flight was soon confirmed. Job done - flights and hotels all booked, total cost £800

So I finally relaxed, feeling rather smug. I checked the time, it had been 4 hours since the draw was made. How could booking flights be such hard work !!! One of my friends said he was staying in Munich for the Last 16 match. Our game will be there or Stuttgart which is a short train ride. Another £100 for a flight to Munich and that's about as much as could be done.

Sound hard word ? Yes
Are we mad for going through all this ? Yes
Was it worth it ? Yes

Today, I looked the prices for Cologne where we will play Sweden. Flying from Copenhagen which is right next to Sweden, the price had double to £250. I guess that justified the night of booking madness.

Thank god I'm guaranteed match tickets.

World Cup seedings for Friday

2005-12-06T18:01:00.000Z

FIFA never cease to amaze me. After weeks of concern (mainly in the press) that England wouldn't be seeded, it turned out that we have been seeded only 2nd to Brazil. England will be one of 8 seeds, the others are Germany, Brazil, Argentina, Spain, Italy, Mexico and France. The USA missed out on being seeded by a single point. The exact formula for seedings has been kept a secret but the important thing is that England are seeded. The only thing for certain is that we will face another European side.

As most things to do with FIFA, there is a curious aspect to the draw. Germany have already been allocated as team A1 and will take part in the opening game. However, Brazil have also been allocated into group F. As yet, I have found no explanation for this but looking at the structure of the competition, Germany and Brazil will not face each other until the final, assuming both sides get there. Given the controversial circumstances that surrounded the award of the 2006 competition to Germany in the first place, you could be forgiven for being suspicious about Brazil being put into group F before the draw.

For a full explanation of the draw on Friday, have a look at this fantastic website. Feel free to have a bet by joining one of the bookies via the advert (blatant marketing plug)

Meanwhile, England fans are talking more and more about tickets. Quite clearly, demand will far outstrip supply. There are 25,000 members of the official travel club but allocations in the stadia could be under 3,000. A loyalty program is in place for supporters in which we earn 'caps' for games we go to. 1 cap for home games and 2 for away games. 70% of the tickets for each game go to 'top-cappers' and the remaining 30% are awarded on the result of a ballot. The official FIFA allocation for each country taking part in a game is 8% of stadium capacity. Both the FA and Minister of Sport have made approaches to try to secure more tickets for supporters but with FIFA seemingly more interested in looking after sponsors and corporate customers than genuine fans, we don't hold out much. Personally speaking, I have enough caps to guarantee me tickets for every game.

So now we wait for Friday's draw.

It's never a friendly against the Argies

2005-11-14T16:05:00.000Z

The history between England and Argentina meant this was never going to be just another friendly. Going back 39 years to when the Argentina captain, Antonio Rattin refused to leave the field for 10 minutes after being sent off at Wembley, England v Argentina has always been special. It's not just on a sporting level, in 1982 Argentina invaded the Falkland Islands and after a war, British rule was reinstated. Just 4 years later, Maradona showed both sides of his character in the space of a few minutes. First he cheated by punching the ball into the net and then he scored a fantastic individual goal. In France 98, Beckham was sent off in a fiery encounter which England lost on penalties. He laid his ghosts to rest in Japan 2002 with the penalty that won the game 1-0 as the Argies crashed out in the group stage.

So off we all went to Geneva for the latest episode. For years now, England friendlies have been a joke. Multiple substitutions and a lack of passion have lead to some pretty bad performances and results but for once, the players all seemed 'up for the game'. There were 8,000 official England tickets but as normal, thousands of others got their hands on tickets all over the stadium. In total, I would say about half the 29,000 was England fans. Around 6,000 were supporting Argentina with the rest being neutral.....or as neutral as you could be in the cauldron. The atmosphere was like a tournament match. Both sides at were at full strength, the players didn't want to miss this either. For some reason, unknown to anyone with an IQ above 37, the United Nations had chosen this game to represent friendship. Are they mad ?? I think we all know the answer to that one.

The UN friendship game started off well with the Argie players being filmed singing and chanting some some which dates back a few years and questions the England players sexuality. No England fans I know were particularly offended by this, it's all part of it. England fans were singing songs about the Falklands conflict. These are the reasons the atmosphere was so fierce and the game was played with the passion that was shown by everyone on the field.

Still, the UN hadn't got anything more important to worry about and after the game, still reeling from their 3-2 defeat to England, Argentina were reprimanded by The United Nations Peace Envoy for Sport. The UN had selected the match as a vehicle to promote good sportsmanship but have been angered by Argentina's reported behaviour prior to kick off in Geneva. Jose Pekerman's squad are alleged to have engaged in anti-English chanting in a bid to bate their opponents; actions which have drawn an angry rebuke from Adolf Ogi.
"It is totally unacceptable," said Adolf Ogi.
"I can only apologise to the English people for what has happened."
And Ogi is determined to seek answers from the Argentinean FA after the UN were left with egg on their face.
"I will be looking into the incidents and asking the Argentinean authorities for an explanation," added Ogi.
"We have tried to use this game as to promote peace through football.
"It is not the sort of behaviour you expect."

Lets look at that last quote again "It is not the sort of behaviour you expect". Yes, it is you moron. There is a long history between the sides. Do you think it's going to subside because the UN earmark this game in yet another one of their stupid campaigns !!!!

Anyway, I digress. Onto the action. For once, an England friendly wasn't going to be a dull, drab affair. There was skill and aggression on display, it was clear we were in for a good afternoons entertainment. Michael Owen had the ball in the net early on but it was ruled out of offside (never!!!). Then the Argies took the lead. Wayne Bridge was easily beaten and as the cross came in Crespo was given the freedom of the penalty area by John Terry and Rio Ferdinand to score. The lead didn't last long and the White Pele (Wayne Rooney) calmly finished to level the scores. He also hit the post with a stunning piece of control and chip that beat the keeper but not the woodwork.

There were chances at both ends with Robinson looking assured and the Argie keeper looking like David James. The second half continued in the same vein but it was the Argies who took the lead again from a set piece. More comedy defending allowed Walter Samuel a close range header (how embarrassing cos he is a donkey) and the Argies tried to break up the game with their trademark diving and cheating.

Ironically, this was to be their downfall. With just 3 minutes left, own found space at the back post to head home Gerrards deep cross. We were jubilant having saved ourselves from defeat but the drama wasn't over. Beckham rattled the crossbar and then with seconds left, sub Joe Cole put a cross into the area and Owen headed home again to give England the victory the traveling army of fans craved. We had scored the winner in the injury time added on when the Argies were faking injury. Talk about poetic justice.

The final whistle brought huge celebrations on the pitch and in the stands. Songs were song as loudly as possible. This is what it means to support England....and it was only a friendly. God knows what will happen if we meet them again next summer.

Sven names the squad to take on the Argies

2005-11-07T19:39:00.000Z

Peter Crouch, David James - Sven is an idiot !!!

Why do we bother going to watch friendlies, paying ridiculous prices for tickets only to have to put up with these 2 in an England shirt. They simply are not good enough (and they aren't the only ones). I'm not blaming the players, far from it. Most England fans will back anyone wearing the shirt BUT in addition, most England fans also agree that these 2 players are simply not up to it. James has a history of mistakes for England and is also getting on a bit so why not take a younger keeper along instead ?? And as for Crouch, mathematic laws mean he doesn't have a goals per game ratio for either club or country this season. He is a 6' 7" (2.01m) striker who can't head the ball. I wonder how many of the strikers in the Brazil, Holland, Italian or Argentinian squads haven't scored a goal this season.

The frustration is mounting amongst the supporters. We have the best collection of players for well over 30 years, coupled with the fact, the tournament is being played in Europe, this gives England's is most realistic chance of winning the World Cup that we've had since that great day at Wembley back in 1966. The problem is we have a manager who continually makes baffling tactical and player selection decisions.

Bar one or two teams in the world, England should go into every game looking to impose themselves on the opposition knowing if we play to even 80% of our ability, we will win the game. I, and others, had hoped the Poland match in Manchester last month had marked a turning point as England played exciting, skillful, attacking football. Hopefully, our fears of a return to the boring, dull, tactically inpet performances we've witnessed in friendlies for the last 3 years, will not be realised in Geneva on Saturday. We fans expect England to use this game to put down a marker to the rest of the world. Beating Argetina with a convincing display would make people sit up as we start the build-up for the finals in Germany.

£30 to watch Peter Crouch against Walter Samuel. I can't wait !!!!

Welcome

2005-11-02T19:43:00.000Z

Welcome to the World Cup 2006 blog of an England fan. Having set up a website (www.2006-worldcup.biz seeing as you asked) to provide information for supporters planning to travel to Germany for the World Cup next summer, I though it only fair to give an insight into the ordeals that football supporters go through leading up to a tournament.

Having made harder work of qualifying that we should have done, England finally topped Group 6 ahead of Poland who also qualified. Several England fans have been less than satisfied with the performance of the manager and many of the players. The strange tactics and player selection coupled with endless inept performances going back nearly 4 years have severly tested the limits of many fans with some simply refusing to attend home friendly matches.

The final qualifier against Poland was probably England's best performance for over a year, in fact I'm struggling to think of the last time the team played so well....possible the 0-0 draw in Turkey to qualify for Euro 2004. Now we will have 5 or 6 friendlies in preparation for the finals in Germany. The first game is against old rivals, Argentina, in Geneva on Saturday 12th November. As ever, England will take a large following with over 7,000 official tickets sold and many, many more in other parts of the stadium.

Hopefully, both teams will treat the game seriously and we'll witness a great game between two of the favourites to win the World Cup next summer. For those of you who don't know, England away matches are a great social event, it's not just a football match. The group of lads I meet up with come from Sunderland, London, North West, Midlands and other places. Flights and hotels are always booked up as soon as a fixture is rumoured, never mind confirmed. So we're all set for the trip to Geneva. Flying in on Friday evening for 2 nights in the Swiss city before heading home again on Sunday morning. Thankfully for once, an away match means that we don't need to book time off work.

Next update will be when the squad for the game is announced. Check back to read the reaction