AlanSkÃrare

Milner and N'Zogbia were practically the only players that created something and supplied our strikers. We would probably have stayed up with both of them staying at the club. Not saying they were great at it, but better than what we saw from R. Taylor and Jonas.

Like we did with Hughton? "...if I hadn't fallen ill I think the run we were in at the time would have kept us up" Don't see what you mean. My point is that there was no "run". His last 8 games in charge gave us 2 points from 18 in the league and lost to Hull in the FA Cup. Not saying Hughton would have won those games.

WHAT RUN? If he hadn't been in charge we probably would have carved out wins against Stoke and Wigan and NOT lost to Fulham etc. Get a grip.

I wonder how many of those supporters that actually knew about him before they signed him? They finished 13th in the Turkish league and failed to pay a couple of their players wages due to financial trouble...

Darius Vassell to Ankaragücü, unbelievable scenes starting at 1:30 in this clip...

Nail on. They were actually talking about this during the Semifinal here in Sweden. I think Englands starting 11 had something like 800 premiership appearances or something like that between them where as Sweden had a couple of Premiership appearances, a bunch of Eredivisie and a lot of Swedish Allsvenskan players. And it showed especially in the first half, it was men against boys especially at the set-plays. Where Sweden tried to rely on technically sound players like Bajrami, Elm, Berg, Toivonen and even the full backs Johansson and Lustig to actually outplay the opposition whether it was Italy, Belarus or England, England only tried to be tougher, stronger and wiser than their opponents. And save for THAT crossbar header from Berg in the semis wouldn't have gotten into the finals. I'd be willing to wager that most of the starting 11 in Sweden will be better regarded in the future than the English. Most of the English players will be average PL-players at best IMO. Agreed. This is what I meant a couple of pages back in this thread.

And England are lucky because they scored 3 goals. exactly. alanskarer needs to take his head out of his arse. Yeah thats exactly what I meant, well read. We played the best football in this tournament and deserved to go through. Good luck in the final.

nowt like blowing your own trumpet. how can sweden have one hell of a team in the future if they have players that are error prone then? Didn't mention the ones that were at fault for the goals. Also Bjärsmyr was off the pitch when Onouha scored the second. Wouldn't say any of the ones mentioned are error prone. What is your assessment of Rasmus Elm? Is his talent obvious or is it just us Swedes? I can't remember the last time I saw a 20-year old play that mature...

To be honest: Sweden pissed all over England. The three goals in the first half were all down to individual mistakes and luck. We showed tremendous character in the second half and scored three brilliant goals. If players like Walcott, Richards, Milner and Agbonlahor are supposed to be the future of England, you're going to struggle. Bitterly disappointed and somehow hurt eventhough it's the U21's, but we're going to have one hell of a team in a couple of years time. Berg supposedly going to Chelsea and Bengtsson, Lustig, Elm, Svensson, Wernbloom, Harbuzi, Bajrami, Söder and Toivonen are all great prospects.

I just cant see why Lennartsson/Söderberg doesnt choose Harbuzi instead of Landgren? Its beyond me really. Lennartsson and Söderberg hates black people http://images.biip.no/user/profile/icon/075110.jpg And that is why Martin Olsson: http://www.fansfc.com/UploadedImages/Players/martin_olsson_633567427678593750.jpg is starting, and Harbuzi http://gallery.myff.org/gallery/247790/Labinot_Harbuzi.jpg isn't. Not starting Harbuzi really is weird, but they like two holding midfielders and Harbuzi certainly isn't defensive minded at all.

Pontus Wernbloom and Emir Bajrami(great talent, should be a target for a team of our calibre), two of the best Swedish midfielders with no real replacements, are missing today. Martin Olsson from Blackburn will come in for Bajrami and a much less contributing DM called Andreas Landgren will come in for Wernbloom. I think England will struggle with only Agbonlahor upfront against Bengtsson and Bjärsmyr, although Walcott and Milner will have great advantage over Swedens realtively poor fullbacks.

Almost identical to that old Inter shirt..

Isn't Dempsey a very underrated player? Seems to be great off the ball, often getting into goalscoring positions and scoring important goals from midfield. Also a very enthusiastic player that plays with his heart.

Sweden had another good performance tonight. Too bad Wernbloom and Bajrami will be suspended against England, but it'll still be a very tight game. Looking forward to it!

Don't know if this has been posted... http://ss11i01.stream.ip-only.net/images/blog/images/entries/30/10/18/108544/837d210aed98f55f Fit and healthy? Successful? YOUNG?

Indeed. Getting tired of Daniel Andersson(especially), Henrik Larsson and Mikael Nilsson still getting starts ahead of some of these players.. Btw, in the biggest Swedish newspaper today they had a big article about all the scouts coming to the U21's. In their selection of "big clubs" being represented at the tournament they had Arsenal, Bayern Münich, Chelsea, Everton, Hamburg, Inter, Liverpool, Man Utd, Man C, Lyon, Real M, Stuttgart, Spurs, Valencia, Werder Bremen, Zenit.......and Newcastle, the only big club not playing top flight football.

True. He's never going to come here, also recently signed a new contract with Kalmar and turned down a move to Fulham in January. Rasmus Bengtsson is still a bit raw but could well develop into a very good player. Robin Söder is another one to look out for, scored a lot of goals last season and reminds me of a young Henrik Larsson.

Has he even had an new contract offered to him? We really should offer him a new deal, good squad player in the CC.

Wasn't a midfielder, Ola Toivonen is a striker playing for PSV already. After todays game I seriously think we are in with a chance to win this. Berg-Toivonen is a great partnership and Rasmus Elm is probably one of the best midfielders in the tournament. Some really fantastic goals in the game for those who haven't seen them.

I don't want to be satisfied with him coming back. After what Ashley has done, we deserve something better, not a replacement who we know is capable of appointing bad managers more often than good ones. No.

The three games from 01/02 Man Utd at home, Arsenal away and Leeds away. I couldn't believe what was happening. The football that was played against those teams was so brave and attacking and everything a supporter dreams about. Also the 6-2 win against Everton and 3-2 away to Derby were something special.

How can things so this wrong? I can't imagine anyone, even if they tried really hard, taking over this club two years ago and find themselves in this position today, it's a miracle how badly Ashley has done. It shouldn't be this hard. Just get Shearer in and then work day and night to sell the club, every investor is going to appoint Alan anyway.

Might have been the case, but I think it was more of a case where the game played out in a manner that allowed it to happen. Very hard to play 2-2 on demand, which was what happend. We equalised in the 90th minute and Italy went out!

Lorik Cana is their only good player. Daft statement. Bogdani has played in Serie A with varying degrees of success. Denmark beats Sweden 1-0 thanks to Tommy Kahlenberg. Sweden had 16-3 when it came to shots on target, most unworthy win I've ever seen. Källströms penalty was horrible and then Ibra and Larsson missing sitters. Looks like we're going to miss out on a big tournament for the first time since 1998. Christian Poulsen was fantastic though... I'll be going to Copenhagen for the reverse fixture in October.