An England fans view

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.

Labels: capello, england, england football, england manager, fabio capello

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 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 !!!!

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.

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.

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.

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?'"

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.

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.

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 !!!!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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 €850+ 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

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