James

The only player actually wearing an orange bib in yesterdays pictures was Emre. Barton was seen holding one, but he may just have been passing it on to someone else if Crumpy is right.

I'm suprised Allardyce hasn't tried to wind him up today.

Capello will be on Football Focus tomorrow practically begging to be given the England job apparently.

Orange bibs suggest that Barton and Emre both start tommorrow.

I can easily envisage either Shearer or Stuart Pearce becoming an interim manager until the end of Euro 2008. In such an instance, I can imagine a Roeder like situation where the FA Committee kneejerk and appoint Shearer/Pearce on the back of some good results. This good Roeder spell may also be the best case for Shearer, as it is clear that he pulled a lot of the strings during Roeder's caretakership.

Dave GeJon NE5 Howaythelads James madras Mick BlufPurdi indi Yorkie-Geordie Kev

In that case the only excuse for not getting him is that we are getting Mourinho or Lippi.

There are actual quotes from Capello aren't there?

Part of the reasoning for my team. Hoddle makes a good international manager. I'd be happy to have him back.

In the end of the day, these are just friendlies we are looking at. Lets follow how the clubs do it, build a team, and then spice it up with some individual quality, but only if these players aren't going to disrupt the harmony of the team. There are players like Osman, Agbonlahor and Young who are all good team players that would play a good role in the squad.

Drop the underachievers, not the whole bloody squad. We'd be having people like Smith and Agbonlahor upfront at that rate. The likes of Gerrard, Lampard, Ferdinand and Neville need the wake-up calls. Neville's finally been replaced as far as i am concerned anyhow, and i honestly can't see Beckham featuring much after he gets his 100th. Drop Rooney, Cole, Owen, Wright-Phillips? Eh? They're the only ones that actually produce on a fairly consistent basis. Nevertheless, i do agree with the incentive to tinker with the squad. Time is available now, after all. I just don't think doing it to such an extent is a wise decision. I never said I wanted to drop Rooney, and the Cole I refer to is Ashley, not Joe - Ashley just hasn't been as good since leaving Arsenal. Wright-Phillips needs to find some consistency. Owen needs to prove he can play more often, as we can't build a team around his talents if we can't rely on him featuring. Its the same for England as it is for Newcastle. My team vs France would be: Foster Neville Richards Ferdinand LB Hargreaves Barry Walcott J.Cole Rooney Crouch with Beckham making regular second half cameos. We attack like Manchester United - Cole Rooney and Walcott have no fixed position when we are on the ball. You are wrong to count out Neville, Yorkie, as he has never let club or country down, Richards is a CB playing at RB for England, and we'd need someone with experience to defend the right flank when he has got a drifting player in front.

He is a name I had thought of, I'm very uncertain though about how he'd do, as the players he likes to play aren't necessary the players available for England. And I'd be a little put off by the fact that he is Lampard's Uncle. He'd either be a great success or a disaster I reckon.

To be honest, I would now replicate McClaren's Beckham treatment on all of England's senior players probably excluding Beckham, Rooney, Crouch, Ferdinand and Neville. That is to say, I wouldn't even have Robinson, Terry, Cole, Bridge, SWP, Gerrard, Lampard, or Owen in the squad. These players would then only be recalled based on how well they respond while playing for their clubs and achieve some objectives that are set for them. For example, Owen will be told that he has to be available for a certain percentage of matches between now and the end of the season, Gerrard Lampard Terry and Cole have to play well in Europe, Robinson has to become a good keeper, SWP and Bridge need to get regular first team football. Then I would reintroduce these players one or two at a time if they respond well. They will be shown the TEAM, told the roles and objectives of the TEAM, told their role and expectation within the TEAM, and told that they better fulfil the role the TEAM requires straight away, otherwise they are straight back out again.

Out of interest, would people who say they are not bothered suddenly become bothered if Shearer was appointed?

As I see it, there are five scenarios: a) We appoint an established manager in the European leagues with a proven track record: Capello, Mourinho, or Lippi b) We appoint one of the better Premier League managers, ie someone who understands the English mentality: O'Neill, Allardyce, Mourinho c) We appoint a manager who has a good track record at managing international sides: Hiddink, Lippi, Beerhakker (sic), Scolari d) We go down the route of other countries and appoint a national hero like Van Basten, Klinnsman or Billic: Shearer, Pearce e) We decide we are best waiting for Euro 2008 to end before going for a) b) or c), so we appoint d) in an interim role, then kneejerk when we beat an experimental France team 1-0 and go the full hog.

Capello has announced that he wants it.

The FA are holding an emergency board meeting as we speak regarding McClaren's future, and journalists reckon the vote will be 8-2 in favour of sacking him.

I'll be cheering on the Czechs and the Turks (Assuming Roz and Emre are still here) plus the countries of any other international that signs for us before then.

By the way, if we get through, we are probably going to get Pot 3. Although Pot 1 is probably going to be Greece, Austria, Switzerland and Holland. The Dutch will be unlucky to be the best team atmo, as they are effectively in a bad pot.

he must've been too busy managing the spice girls. think you mean simon clifford! he introduced futbal de salao to the uk, originally in middlesbrough after talking with juninho iirc. Thats who I mean. Fuller, Cowell, Clifford, all the same to me.

Not in the squad. Seriously? Fuck's sake. Can't believe i dropped Benjani for Torres. ... fucking superb news. Serves you right for wishing injury on a player.

I hope that we win because we deserve to and not because the opposition's best players get injured.

Arsene Wenger reckons that England have got their U17's sorted, and that he'd have the majority of the U17's at his academy if he could. Martin Samuel's article is a little behind the times, as Simon Fuller has got the kids off the big pitches. Initially he only got a handful to work with, two of whom were Micah Richards and Theodore Walcott, but the U17's are the first bunch of kids he spent a good deal of time with, so this looks promising. Incidentally, Allardyce once offerred Fuller a job, and although turned down, Fuller has always been one to advise any club that asks for help. No doubt Allardyce will have swapped some notes with him regarding our academy.

Or hold the ANC in the UK.

Talk about living in the past. Duff hasnt even looked as good as NZogbia, let alone "one of the best in the world". Duff today is an average Premiership winger who works hard up and down, has decent technique, doesnt lose the ball easily, but doesnt do much with it either. A more accurate fact would be to state that our key players on paper are "gifted" players who hit their peak 3-5 years ago. Owen (European player of the year), Emre (looked like hed turn into a top draw international and Serie A deep lying midfield playmaker), Duff (top class winger) are all shiite now compared to what they were when a few years younger, and shouldnt be judged on the level they were at a few years ago as opposed to the level that they are at right now. I think thats down to constantly being injured over several years, and the permanent loss of form as a result, and although these players have still retained some of their abilities, enough to show glimpses of shadows of their form selves occassionally, ultimately theyre not what they used to be and are pretty much average Premiership players now. I wouldnt complain if we cashed in on all 3, in fact im hoping for it, hoping that we'll replace them with better players, since that hope is more realistic than living in the hope of them turning back the clock and performing consistently for us. To top it all off, theyre crocks too. I think it is unfair to say that Duff doesn't do very much with the ball, when last season we had no strikers who would attack the six yard line, and that pretty much made all our wingers useless, except Milner as he was pretty good cutting inside.