The College Dropout

Thought he did a good job here, B'ham and in his first season at Norwich. But he hasn't kicked on and they look terrible. IMO he's still learning as a manager but he'll have to drop back in the championship.

I like Hughton but he's done the minimum at Norwich. The bare bare minimum. Will probably be enough to keep them up but he'll be gone at the end of the season regardless of what happens.

Honestly it's a bad position to be in. Both of them are good on the ball but both lack genuine athleticism and defensive know-how. I would play a genuine flat midfield 3 where the both of them can spend more time deep. I would go with a flat 3 or at least a #10 that is actually a midfielder e.g. AOC instead of Rooney. But even that's paper thin and positionally suspect.

Gerrard & Wilshere isn't the most athletic of CM partnerships.

The £5m we spent on him.

It's a bit late now tbh

The best African players technique is slightly under-rated. He's not directly African but Benteke scored an overhead kick the other day and all I heard was about his power, this was after his goal. Same thing Yaya gets. Talk all day about his power and athleticism but truthfully his footballing skills are under-rated. This year he's scoring and assisting like a prime Gerrard/Lampard with quality finishes/final balls but you'll sooner hear about his athleticism. I wouldn't call it racism. Just lazy.

Former team mate then and an international team mate at the time. Terry was also married at the time.

Girlfriend.

Terry.

He's behind Nastasic in the pecking order right? Ahead of Lescott. In midfield he's 4th choice ahead of that Rodwell. Not that he hasn't been poor at times. But keeping potential England players out the team has mass him a target for the media.

Demichelis hasn't been that bad tbh. He reminds a bit of Colo. Assured on the ball. Likes to anticipate passes and nip ahead of attackers. Also has 0 desire to get involved in a leg race.

I do think under SBR Kluivert could've been a solid signing.

They've got some tough fixtures too, especially at home. The next 2 games are massive, they could easily get 0-6 points. A big win/loss by either them or Norwich will be massive as that would be an extra point. Sunderland & WBA have more quality than the others (except Swansea) but they have to catch up. They also have great fixtures tbh. Norwich have winnable geames in the next few but I don't fancy them to win them all. They'll need a result or two against the top sides.

Btw I'm not agreeing wit he the 10 years shit. I'm not even saying he should have ever been THE England captain. But from '98 to '06 he should've captained England more times than he did.

Oh and former alcoholic.

Went to court for assault. Shagged his team mates wife. Made a racist remark. Cheated on his wife. Being black. I'm not talking about being THE captain either.

With Cashley it's a little different.

Martin Keown, Michael Owen and David Seaman? Nothing wrong with Keown or Seaman. Owen was obviously an abysmal choice of captain but it wasn't just the international manager who made that horrific appointment. Campbell was ahead of Keown in the pecking order at international level when he was given the captaincy over him. Campbell had already amassed 2 of his 3 caps by that point. I'm sure someone will think of an excuse though. A prime Jamie Carragher wouldn't be behind any Michael Owen as captain IMO. Owen captained England a hell of a lot my Gawd. I find it hard to believe that Ferdinand, Cole and Campbell have so little England captain caps for footballing reasons. You can't find any 2/3 white players in those positions with as little.

Martin Keown, Michael Owen and David Seaman?

http://www.englandfootballonline.com/teamplyrs/appsmost.html It's an interesting one. Terry Butcher is the closest to him with 7 captaincies in 77 appearances (Campbell had 3 in 73), in actual fact had Bryan Robson not got injured in the second game of World Cup 1990 Butcher would have ended up with just 3 captaincies himself too. Tony Adams captained the side 15 times in 66 appearances which is the next closest, but he was club captain at Arsenal for donkeys, so that is still surprisingly low to me given that context. Obviously a lot depends on who else is around at the time, but I'd suggest there's more behind this than race, although I really liked Campbell as a player. Very interesting. It's closer than I thought but the next closest has more than double. Then the gap from there is much bigger. So It's Ferdinand's 7 and Adams 14. Campbell's 3, Butcher's 7. I would include Cashley but that's a hot one.

When I first heard the story I thought 'nope. He's wrong here. He was never captain of Arsenal. Only Spurs? And that's maybe.' But now I've thought about it he has a point. That 10 year stuff is balls. But if he where white, half the players that captained ahead of him wouldn't have done so IMO. So there's some merit to his claim.

I'm certain they have some influence. That's Campbell's point anyway. I don't think he's calling out any of his ex-England managers. Just that they where probably encouraged to go the Mickey O route, the Keown route, Seaman route. There's not a white defender of Campbell's class with as little captain caps.

That's not really the issue. He's talking institutional racism within the FA. Most of us would happily have Cheick as club captain.

Back on track. Are there any 2 white CB's with a similar amount of caps as Ferdinand and Campbell with as little captain caps?