Fantasy Football (soccer to the uppity colonials) part five

Before the lurker comes in and says, "we get such a bad press compared to everyone else" there was comment of how many german and polish scumbags were 'pre-emptivley arrested' before they got to the trouble. The English didn't suffer that fate until the Equador game.

It focussed mainly on not organised hooligans but the drunken louts, starting off being agressive, a large gang of english fans tearing a flag off a Brazilian before spitting on it and burning it then launching their beer all over him, to full scale riots in the squares.

Huddersfield can't be too happy as four of its supporters were named and filmed on numerous days on the front line of the trouble. The mentality of some of those arseholes was hard to believe!!!

And rememeber when there was real trouble somewhere and the police were accused of heavy handedness by rounding the english up?? Reports on the tv, radio and press were it was only a couple of bottles that started it? Well the undercover cameras were in the middle of it and the German police should be thanked for the way they dealt with it.

knew there was something i wanted to watch last night!

i watched the series the BBC did a few years back, and that was quite an eye-opener.

i'm not surprised there was a fair bit of trouble - english fans, along with the serbs and turks, are some of the nastiest cunts going. and their reasoning...

i know a couple of the local yobbos - banned from all grounds in the UK - and they apparently do it for "the honour of the town"

deepest, darkest yorkshire isn't it? places like that, along with similar ones like burnley in lancashire don't half provide the world of football with some arseholes.

fortunately not that many of them are smart enough to form gangs, otherwise we'd still have the "bad old days"

What was troubling and remarked upon was that the majority of the trouble was not from organised hooligans anymore as they had been stopped from going, but instead just the drunk up louts you see in any town centre on a friday night spoiling for a fight! Scumbags!!!!

Note that this was proper undercover, so undercover that the undercover teams got banged up in the cells for the night of the ecudor game when the trouble started

in other news, liverpools pre-season has so far consisted of them getting twatted...

great preparation for wednesday

Beaten 5-0 by Mainz 05!

Not too concerned, it's only a friendly, it shouldn't have any bearing on how we fare in the upcoming league season...

And the Championship kicked off today, and we managed not to be totally humiliated by the ex-Premiership club...

^yeah, but i suspect brum will do a man city and shall shortly be visiting the slums of division 1, so don't get too hopeful!

Meanwhile, it's emerged that Frank Lampard, currently in the States with Chelsea, has taken up that quintessential American occupation - cheerleading.

Must...Remember...Green...Room...

That is quite uncanny

Though she looks like she lacks Lumpalards appetite for the pie.

Becksy wecksy has been dropped by the McClaren. Not a bad decision, but can't say the same about his choice of captain.
His new squad is pretty unimpressive too:

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).

I've highlighted the frankly stupid choices made by the new man, although picking Ashton was a smart move...I'm sure Scruff would agree. Also another 'appy 'ammer, Reo Coker should be there along with Nolan of Bolton ahead of Jermaine fucking Jenas.
I don't see why SWP, a Chelsea reserve should get picked but Jermaine Pennent doesn't. And Richardson?
Some lame choices there but the squad should be good enough to beat Andorra in our first qualification match.

Whats wrong with Jenas and Richardson? Richardson is very definatley a player for the future while Jenas just needs to fullfill his massive potential.

I think Andy Johnson should have been in there right enough. Also, as soon as England fuck up, the same media players who have been shouting for becks to be dropped will be begging for his inclusion.

BTW wasn't he dropped because he's been injured, not because he's past it??

No, Becks is fit as a fiddle, he's been dropped because he's shite. Doesn't explain why McClaren has included the even shitter P. Neville tho.
Jenas is just crap IMO. He certainly is no better than Parker, Reo Coker and Nolan.

How many games has Shaun Wright-Phillips played since moving to Chelsea?

By all means drop Becks from the team occassionally but he deserves to be in the squad. I can understand this choice for a friendly against some no-hopers but if this is permenant (as it seems to be) then I think McClaren has made a mistake.

Totally, you can't tell me that one of Real Madrids starting 11 is not one of the best 23 English players available!!

Im not saying he's as good as he was, but he's been made a scapegoat. Its all the same with the British press, build someone up and then knock them down. It was Beckhams turn.

England need to prepare for a future beyond Beckham but to do that by just cutting him out seems extremely stupid. Everyone raved about how much more exciting Lennon was when he came on, and he was, but it was Beckham who scored one and made two.

Maybe he doesn't work with having to play Lamps and Gerrard but surely you want the option to bring someone like that on? AND: he would sit on the bench, the guy is desperate to continue! Get that! A superstar prepared to do that! I can just see Figo doing it...

I think McClaren is just keen to get the media on his side by dropping Beckham, which the press has long called for. He's not serious about wanting a clean break from the past as Gary Neville is still part of his plans and he's been around since El Tel was coach!

Becks deserves to be dropped anyway. All he offers is his dead ball ability, when we don't have a free kick/corner, he's worthless and a liability to the team. I'd much rather see Pennent or Lennon doing something Beckham can't do - RUNNING down the wings, beating players and generally being a nuisance to the opposing full back.

McClaren also has to be brave and drop either Fat Frank or Gerrard as the two cannot play together! If McClaren is thinking clearly then surely Fat Frank will be the one to make way, as Gerrard is by far the superior player.

To do so McLaren will need to have serious balls to drop a player as good as Lampard. One fuckup by the team and it gets blamed on the fact that one of the most prolific midfielders in the world was not included.

I don't see how he can justify dropping Beckham - who did actually score in the World Cup - and still call up that twat Lampard. I agree with PGT and Stallion, it's time to start looking beyond Becks as a starter, but he should still be in the squad.
Oh, and Lampard might be one of the best midfielders at club level, but he's never shown the same form for England - not something that can be said about Goldenballs.
Jenas definitely warrants a chance, IMHO.

Well, in a slight defence of Becks, he certainly deserves to be ahead of Keiron 'ManUre reserve' Richardson and Phil fucking Neville. I wouldn't have any of them in the squad.

And Stallion, after Lampard's rubbish world cup people are finally opening their eyes about the guy (he's only good for taking pot shots from distance) and McClaren would be forgiven for not starting with him.
I for one am fucking sick of seeing Stevie Gerrard pissed all over the place just to accomodate Lamptard, and despite fielding Stevie in all sorts of unfamiliar positions to bring the best out of Frank, the fat bastard STILL plays poorly.

Maybe for once other players should be shafted to accomodate Gerrard? Call me a biased prick but along with the other fat boy Everton turncoat/ManUre's ugly ogre, he is our most talented player and should be given all the help required to get the best out of him.

Well. Let's see.
We're building a team for Euro 2008.

It's a 23 man squad for the finals.

You have to figure that Rooney, Owen, Carrick,
Joe Cole and Robert Green will be included.

So at least seven of the players named today
will not make the team.

I'm a little concerned that McClaren only selected four forwards.

I would like to see a 4-4-2, with Gerrard and Hargreaves
starting in central mid-field.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't include Beckham.
I don't see him playing a significant role in the finals.

loads - he's quite the poker and blackjack king.

ohhhhhh.... you mean football games! you count them on one hand - just ask tasvir.

foster, brown and SWP aren't bad picks, especially for a friendly. fosters a good call for the future, blooding at an england match plus whats likely to be a difficult season at watford will see if he's cut out to be an good england goalie.

browns still a good defender, and SWP must be fair ready to show waht he can do. disappointed that nolans not been picked, and i think that means he'll end up in the irish setup, which really will be englands loss.

terry's a good call for captain, gerrard would also have been a going choice, but terry's the kind of enforcer we've been missing.

as for dropping becks... fuckers barely put a good performance in for two years, maybe this'll make his work for it.

becks is past it, theres times we might as well have had 10 men on the pitch when he's played of late - and being good with dead balls doesn't make up for it.

we need someone with his passing and dead ball skill who'll turn for the whole match.

i'm interested in seeing what mcclaren will do with lampard/gerrard, neither played well during the world cup, albeit gerrard at least had the reason of being played out of position to accomodate lampard

i suspect this is fat franks last chance saloon, mcclaren will give him the opportunity to perform, he fails, he's out.

the fear of mcclaren being sven2.0 appears to be unfounded though.

nope, lampard at least worked hard and had the most shots on goal of any other player in the cup.

had the fucker not bottled it and scored a decent - hell, any - percentage of them we might be viewing the english performance through rose-tinted specs.

The Reds draw first blood as our fringe players comfortably beat Chelsea's strongest side in the Charity Shield.
Now for the Premiership title...