Come anticipate English football's exciting new era under Steve McClaren with me

www.fandmpublications.co.uk/pages/EveningStandardHeadlineMaker.htm

Chuffed for JT. We're all anticipating a one minute's silence from the Grievers at the Charity Shield on Sunday.

xpost

(Old Trafford, 16 August)

Goalkeepers:
Robinson (Tottenham), Kirkland (Liverpool), Foster (Man Utd).

Defenders:
Bridge (Chelsea), Brown (Man Utd), Carragher (Liverpool), A Cole (Arsenal), Dawson (Tottenham), Ferdinand (Man Utd), G Neville (Man Utd), P Neville (Everton), Terry (capt, Chelsea), Young (Charlton).

Midfielders:
Downing (Middlesbrough), Gerrard (Liverpool), Hargreaves (Bayern Munich), Jenas (Tottenham), Lampard (Chelsea), Lennon (Tottenham), Richardson (Man Utd), Wright-Phillips (Chelsea).

Strikers:
Ashton (West Ham), Bent (Charlton), Crouch (Liverpool), Defoe (Tottenham).

That's one way of looking at it, the other is to say when Owen Hargreaves is your best player then it's time to go back to the drawing board

Kirkland is on loan at Wigan
Foster is on loan at Watford

My dears, the dark ages are departed and we face the bright dawn of a new era.

Kevin Nolan
Scott Parker
Gary O'Neil
Nigel Reo-Coker

Also will McClaren bring back England B Internationals, to give players too old for England U21 more international experience ? i.e primarily players aged 22, 23, 24, 25

Should he?

B internationals can get stood on as far as I'm concerned, what a waste of time. You can field some over-21s as part of the under-21s, if you're desperate.

Gary O'Neil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_O'Neil

Harry tips O'Neil for England honours
http://uk.sports.yahoo.com/060718/1/ljho.html

I want to know what you think about the burning 'B' internationals issue, but I want to see evidence of you thinking systemically, please. You don't have to show your workings.

[Exeter City will slump into mid table obscurity. Oxford United and Stevenage Boro will get promoted.]

England B internationals, bring them back with say Germany, France, Italy in a mini league: home and away fixures through the season.

Gives a change for fringe players to impress in an international context.

I expect to see it announced next week.

You might be right about City being mid-table (and you're definitely right that I've been paying attention to that not the Premiership, what do you expect?) although your opinion seems to coincide with every other pre-season forecast and they usually turn out, y'know, wrong.

I wouldn't have dropped him though, apart from his trademark telescopic passes, he seeems to be quite good with the younger players, boosting thie confidence, giving them nicknames, etc.

Perhaps McClaren can find him a role somewhere. Such as running the tuckshop.

"On the bus after the game Wayne asked me: 'What do you think about the wink?'

"I said: 'Honestly, Wazza, if we were playing Spain and [Liverpool team-mates] Xabi Alonso or Luis Garcia winked at the referee or gave a signal for me to be sent off, I'd never speak to them again.'"

to be fair, though, i was chatting to xabi, and i asked him about it, and he said "of course, stevo, but you forget one thing of course, as a foreign footballer, it is important to say 'of course', this is important, of course", and, to be honest, i had to agree with him, to be fair. to be honest, it was important to him, and to all the lads. its a new season now, though, and, to be honest, with a little systems thinking, and matty taylor in defence, and plank sven out, i think we have a real chance

Wtf.

The guy is from the same town as me, they said "a history of mental illness", leading to much local speculation about whether it was a well known local weirdo or not.

Perhaps you should have made THIS THREAD England manager then, ho ho ho!

I might watch the highlights tonight but only if it sounsd like it was a good game.

The England frontline is pretty depressing. I'm sure Bent and Defoe are relieved but of course there's a real sense of 'well there's bloody no-one else anyway'.

Daft to ask perhaps but did the gunman KNOW that it was Steve Staunton he was confronting? (come OFF it hapless TWUNT SteveM is told).

1. This will be a dogged, tenacious, unnattractive England performance of the kind we haven't seen for some time. As opposed to a timid, insipid and unattractive England performance like we've been seeing for years.

2. Dropping Beckham and making Terry captain are good signs. If one thing categorised the Eriksson era it was indulgence of top players, the feeling that if you play the best 11 players in the country something wonderful will automatically happen. The midfield didn't function in the slightest - putting Gerrard out right removes that. Beckham will be able to curl in free kicks and pinpoint crosses til the day he dies. Not much use if he can't run enough to get into the positions to make them. I hope there's a real 'no one is undroppable' attitude to McClaren's reign.

3. At some point Lampard will be removed with Gerrard playing in front of Hargreaves and Lennon/Downing on the wings. That could be interesting.

4. Jermaine Defoe will score.

I'm upset every time England win now cos it delays McClaren's departure.

SO TRUE.

an england win became inevitable as soon as lampard's absence was announced.

USA 94 had Ireland beating Italy, England weren't necessary

I'm upset every time England win now cos it delays McClaren's departure

Yes, it's like in the Thatcherite 80s when I used to hope the economy, unemployment figures etc were terrible in the hope that that might hasten her departure.

I'm upset every time England win now cos it delays McClaren's departure

extraordinary - you are more concerned about who the manager is than how the team is doing?

USA 94 had IrelandItaly beating ItalyNorway, England weren't necessary

Fixed.

I don't imagine he'll be upset if England win the Euro 2008 final Mark! Think long term, dude.

Looking at how countries are playing right now I think nobody will win Euro 2008

maybe Poland

Aren't they rubbish? Good goalkeeper.

scotland will win!

I have good reason to support Poland if England don't qualify.

Poland are top of their group btw

FIFA require that every side that England plays has a "great keeper"

Maybe, but they've qualified for lots of tournaments and been shit once they got there (xpost)

scotland will win!

They won't even qualify! (xpost)

Scotland would definitely have qualified had they been in Norway's group in place of Norway. I think France will narrowly beat Scotland - can see Italy beating them too which is annoying thinking back to how close Scotland came to beating Italy a couple of years back. But Ukraine look shite now so 3rd place should be theirs at least.

Can't see England getting 6 points from Russia - would take 4 now definitely...maybe even 2!

RIONALDO!

"That defender got merked"

that keeper has played his last game for russia

James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden James McFadden

Further to my previous comment I think I just don't care about England any more.

they've won me back! for now...

amazing result for Scotland too - v chuffed for 'em

Did I hear things correctly or have England really won their past four qualifiers 3-0?

TBH I would probably put a fully-fit Wayne Rooney back in the team however well Emile Heskey played in both games, but I really want to see the Barry - Gerrard partnership given a few more games, really impressed with Barry. Ditto Ricards-SWP. Is Beckham prepared to fly half way across the world to sit on the bench, I wonder?

Also Michael Owen is a lethal marksman again! How long til he breaks his leg then?

Plus I knew Ian Wright wouldn't be able to resist making a 'Jerkoff' joke.

Just think what he'd have done with Celtic's unlamented Brazillian Raphael Scheidt.

Weir, Tebily, Scheidt, the greatest defence that never was.

That was a pretty good night.

My shoulder feels kind of overexposed without the Barry For England chip on it any more. Maybe Fat Frank will be scandalously restored to central midfield and I can angry up mar blood again.

Scotland!

McLaren must be hoping for some injuries now to help his team selection again. If he brings back Lampard and Beckham and they play shit he gets mega abuse again.
Wonder if he is brave enough.

Scotland!!

I shouted louder over the Scotland goal than anything non-Barry related in the England match. I generally keep up a constant patter of verbose pro-Barry mantras throughout my entire waking life anyway though.

Barry, to further something I said on the other thread, was beyond deity for the first 25 minutes.

I've never rated him previously, but well done McLeish for getting the tactics right - and describing McFadden (accurately) as "gallus" in his post-match interview. Even better to beat France, a team of overrated fanny-dancers if ever there were: Malouda, Ribery, Trezeguet (the man who makes Pippo Inzaghi look like a footballer).

Ribery is not a fanny-dancer :(

Ineffective with a ten-mile high capital "I"

But looks good running around, I'll grant you that

First time "looks good" has ever been used wrt Ribery, surely?

Ireland were pretty poor, the thing is I actually think we have a good team now, just a crap manager. How Stephen Hunt didn't start is beyond me, he single handedly lifted the entire team when he came on.

The only enjoyment of the Irish match last night was watching Eamon Dunphy tear into Steve Staunton afterwards. "He doesn't LOOK...like a manager. He doesn't THINK....like a manager, he doesn't TALK....like a manager. He's like a guy you'd have in the Phoenix Park!"

Then when the other pundits tried to be more moderate in that "Ah Eamon come on" way he said to the anchor "Bill, were you born in that seat? Were you? YOU WEREN'T. You worked your way up to the job".

Then somebody said in a half assed way "but Eamon lots of football players become managers with no experience" and he just replied "Would you let him drive the train to Cork? WOULD YOU? WOULD YOU LET HIM DRIVE THE TRAIN TO CORK TOMORROW MORNING?"

He really is great when you actually agree with him, nobody was spared, not the FAI, not Staunton.

And all 3 panelists reckon he should be sacked now, not at the end of the campaign. I definitely agree. Czech Republic are so poor too, with a good manager we had a great chance of second place in this group.

Ronan, when you next get a moment can you please give us an Eamon Dunphy tribute thread? YouTube links essential.

Scotland are the New Republic

Then when the other pundits tried to be more moderate in that "Ah Eamon come on" way he said to the anchor "Bill, were you born in that seat? Were you? YOU WEREN'T. You worked your way up to the job".

Then somebody said in a half assed way "but Eamon lots of football players become managers with no experience" and he just replied "Would you let him drive the train to Cork? WOULD YOU? WOULD YOU LET HIM DRIVE THE TRAIN TO CORK TOMORROW MORNING?"

That's superb :)

I'll put it up when it's on youtube. He also went on a rant which culminated in "we are a country with the greatest gaelic footballers and hurlers in the world". erm...I can see a reason why that is!

I'm assuming you've all seen "the greatest Irish TV episode of all time" TM. I know Matt has, but I like to watch it once a month to restore my lack of faith in humanity. This one

Is that train journey (to Cork) a particularly difficult one?

Would you do it Steve? Would you?

wellll...OK!

RIP Kevin Keegan: killed for not supporting England

God I thought you were joking. RIP.

"The court was told he had drunk the equivalent of 28 pints and taken three ecstasy tablets and cannabis."

Bit excessive for a night in front of a telly, isn't it?

There was always some idiot that ruins it for the rest of us.

Snakes On A Plane!

why is this a thing now?

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/music/maconie460.jpg

Has this been posted elsewhere?

Steve McClaren speaks in broken English and a Dutch accent to make himself understood

"What you call it ... 'underdog'?"

The man is a legend.

best case scenario: he did that as a bet
worst case sceanrio: every other possible scenario