Steve McLaren RIP

Maybe. Same shit players however.

would have saved several million quid's worth of compensation though. could have used it to build a new youth academy

oh man i bet he'll have a book written as well and make further £££££

"why i'm shit"

cheap shot i know

http://onemansblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/06/OJSimpsonIfIDidIt.jpg

question 3: would england have qualified under sven?

Probably would have qualified in second place with some uninspiring performances and a minor scare along the way, then been drawn into a very weak group at the Euro finals yet still made hard work to get out of that group eventually qualifying with p1 w1 d2 l0 f1 a0, then met Portugal in the next round, scored an early goal and tried to defend it for 85 minutes before conceding twice before the end and being dumped out.

http://aycu21.webshots.com/image/36540/2001006496068579038_rs.jpg

excellent.

nice

travisty

There's always the MLS.

If Sanchez is ever England manager I think I will start supporting someone else.

McLaren was the wrong man from the start, why they didn't pick O'Neill when they could I don't know. Actually, I can guess it is because they are stuck-up FA know-it-alls who didn't like his attitude, and didn't care about his record of success.

http://image.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2007/11/22/mclaren_300x180.jpg

I thought you might struggle after Take That

RIP Scotland

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/7108721.stm

It's good that he clarified that he was series, whereas many of the apparently respectable outlets reporting Capello's interest are neglecting to mention that after the quotes in question he immediately laughed hysterically for upwards of four minutes.

I imagine much of the actual speaking beforehand was punctuated with a sort of intermittent, uncontrollable guffawing

like when Charlie Brooker laughs at one of his own jokes before he's finished it and kind of brays with self-satisfaction

Actually, after Capello said that two popular Italian TV comedians walked in dressed as Margaret Thatcher and Winston Churchill, and Capello hit them in the faces with custard pies.

McClaren's legacy will live on:

England will not be among the top seeds in the 2010 World Cup qualifying draw after their failure to reach Euro 2008.

The defeat against Croatia has seen them drop to 12th place - and they have now been leap-frogged by Greece.

This means they are not in the top nine European countries in the draw when it is made in Durban on Sunday.

They are now in the group of second seeds and could possibly face Italy, France or Germany in a potentially hazardous qualifying group.

Thanks, Steve.

I love how the papers are so up in arms about his big payoff.

1) Like how no newspaper proprieters get massive payoffs when they get sacked, ever.
2) and, mainly, Football is awash with money floating round in secret deals, bungs, and sweeteners, right? This means that peopple get paid while they stand on boxes and proclaim that all they are interested in is the fans, their concerns, and treating them with respect. So Steve Mc has the sort of option of saying "no no I was poor, the results speak for themselves, I tried my best but it was not good enough, you keep the money, I'll retire to a semi in Eastbourne, be nice when you see me around, OK, Goodnight Vienna". Or saying "I'm not resigning" and getting sacked/paid off. Which gets the pensioners riled as it's as naked a request for money as you will get.

Mark, I love you like a really distant uncle I never see, but I think maybe football threads aren't the place for you to post.

And now they talk about

1) Reviewing the whole process of how the National team is regarded as an adjunct at best for career footballers who are looking to the EuroChampionship league for their 'real' footballing, at worst a nuisance which might cause them injury and put them out of action for the real footballing (as before)

2) Enticing Jose Mourino with a big pay packet as before.

Heck, if you are/were a football manager and had a thick skin, the England manager role must be the easiest thing. Pick a team, train when you can get them, ring Dom up for a formation, win/lose, keep going for a couple of years, drive the team into a ditch and get a payoff.

I'd do it myself, but I care what you all think of me!

xpost you are probably right. I'll shut up now.

Italy, France or Germany

Now now, that's not as bad as facing Italy and France...

So if Scotland had beaten Italy on Saturday/Georgia a few weeks ago, not only would we have been going to Euro 2008, but we'd have overtaken England in the world rankings instead of dropping down to 14th - God, never thought I'd be saying THAT two years ago.

The ELO football ratings still has Scotland as far down as #33. One place behind Ireland!

If they phoned Dom up he'd rep for the Jagger 2-1-4-3 pentagram formation with Titus Bramble, Jon Stead and Darius Vassell as the three rotating strikemasters

Jagger's formation is pretty simple, it starts off as a basic Christmas tree except instead of an out-and-out striker and a left back you sacrifice both for two men playing behind a striker, who isn't actually there. This gives more space upfront for the central midfield to run into. If you go more than (minutes of game left)/20 goals down, you just get the rightback to cross over into the left midfield position, so you have covered force on the left that you've sacrificed for your support men, and you get the goalie to act as a kind of erstatz centrocampista, except only within his box.

So who's operating the cappucino machine?

In fact, a year ago, I was saying this over on the Scottish football thread:

This has resulted in a slide down the world ranking as a result of not qualifying for any tournaments and by sliding down the rankings we fall down into lower-ranked seeding pots for qualifiers and then we get more good teams in our groups which means we get beaten more, don't qualify, fall further down the rankings, etc etc, vicious circle, blah blah.
I'm not sure how this is going to get better in this hellish qualifying group

xpost to myself

Grout, you're not paying attention, the formation is the capuccino machine

and Beckham is the choc sprinkles, applied right at the end.

I get it now.

They are now in the group of second seeds and could possibly face Italy, France or Germany in a potentially hazardous qualifying group.

About fucking time

"ersatz centrocampista" pretty summarises the state of the English game at the moment, tbh

http://youtube.com/watch?v=4W-tX_Bjbo0

Capello 7/2
O'Neill 4/1
Mourinho 15/2
Redknapp 14/1
Shearer 16/1
Scolari 20/1
Lippi 20/1
Hiddink 25/1
Coppell 25/1
Peace 25/1
Klinsmann 33/1
Pardew 40/1
Morten Olsen 50/1
Hughes 50/1
Ancelotti 50/1

Morten Olsen = the guy from A-Ha?

Rafa for England would be a pretty good call I think, he's got a good track record of making average players play about themselves and knows how to win knock-out tournaments.

The downside is that his teams take about six games to get going at the start of every campaign which is kind of disastrous in international football.

Also, hopefully Rafa would bring the glamorous, sexy, high-scoring brand of football that's made Liverpool so popular amongst neutrals to the England team.

Can we have a sarcasm indicator? I'm losing it here. Something like an (S) would be nice.

Also, hopefully Rafa would bring the glamorous, sexy, high-scoring brand of football that's made Liverpool so popular amongst neutrals to the England team.

You certainly won't be getting anything glamorous, sexy or high-scoring from O'Neill or Mourinho.

They're both good looking guys, O'Neill could do with more hair though.

That's what managing Bobby Petta does to a man.

About time Steve Guppy added to that one England cap

<i>Peace 25/1 </i>

I am frankly amazed that Didcot Town manager Stuart Peace is in the running.

Hey Dave B (The Boyler), I emailed you via this thread, just in case you don't check your ILX connected email account!

The ELO football ratings still has Scotland as far down as #33. One place behind Ireland!

Jeff Lyne in anti-Scotland shockah

Don't Bring Me Down, Jeff

Don't Bring Me Down, Brian.

(Damn, his name wasn't Bruce Barwick, what the hell, used it anyway)