Mick

http://www.readytogo.net/smb/showpost.php?p=12350112&postcount=64

I had a couple of mates who went on to become professional footballers, both learned to play on a field with a disorganised kick-about, it's as if we coach the game out of players now, rather than into them.

Things change and we're generally a load of lazy bastards now. I played most of my football on school fields but you can't do that now because most fields have massive fences up to keep kids off them, it's crazy.

Kids these days seem to be more interested in playing computer football then the real thing. When I was a kid we'd spend most evenings outside kicking a ball around because we had nothing else to do, now kids just want to go into a room and play football on a computer against mates who want to do the same thing. I'm not saying our coaching isn't a fault but I do think the pool of young players is smaller than it used to be.

We've just had one of our best finishes in this competition, we've bettered it twice and the last time we bettered it on foreign soil was probably before most people on here were born. The number of foreign players in the league isn't to blame, a lack of English quality is and that's why we have so many foreign players at our clubs.

England has generally underperformed at football tournaments, even when we had virtually no foreign players over here, good excuse though.

Nasri, Ribery and Banzema are always looking to pass to each other, you would think it was 3 a side at times and France suffer because of it. Ben Arfa was in a really good position at least twice when one of those could have probably set him up against Sweden.

He was ok but nothing special, I think the whole team missed Cabaye.

Agreed about Tiote and I go further back than 10 years, I don't know why people think we can replace our better players so easily.

I had to go through mackem land today and noticed a car registration which ended in FTM

I'm sure we'll get him as long as the 2 clubs can agree a fee.

Best debut I've seen by a Newcastle player was Gazza away to Southampton, he looked world class in his first game for the club and controlled the midfield.

I was at your dads debut at Chelsea, the Newcastle fans singing we want 4, then 5 then 6 as the goals went in. When it got to 6 we stopped as things were just going from bad to worse. Also, Stamford Bridge was like a scrap yard and it might actually have been one as one of the corners of the Shed end had either scrap cars in it or it was a car park.

Most of our incoming transfers have been excellent since Carr came to the club, another 8 years of that and I'll be more than happy. I'm not too bothered about how much work he does or who else does what, it's working and that's all that matters and he's playing his part in that.

£20 million would get us a £7 million player on £50,000 a week over 5 years. When we buy players we also factor in wages so selling Tiote would get us 1 or 2 established players and player transfers don't always work.

I wish him well, I hope he goes to a club that can give him what he wants.

I didn't say that we should match offers from other clubs. I do think that we brought him in on the cheap and he's had a very good season so we might have to look at doing something with his contract which we do seem to be doing. He's our player and he's said many times that he's happy here so we should have a good chance of working something out as long as we don't make him feel that he's being taken for granted.

It depends on who "we" is, "we" as a club should keep him and "we" as fans should support him.

Why does it piss you right off that somebody else doesn't share your views on Lampard?

Maybe it is worthy of a thread. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/silky-football-success-on-a-budget-and-stars-852887

I feel the same way and have done apart from when Bobby was manager and Waddle, Gazza and Beardsley were playing. For most of my time as a football supporter England have mainly been a team full of players who play for teams I can't stand during the season so why change once the season is over?

We could have arranged a fixture closer to home.

France are definitely my team for this Summer, I hope that they torture England.