Interpolic

The tapatalk app's a bit sexy like.

Seems like a pretty sad and strange existence.

Fucking hell man.

Yeah, I can see it now n'all.

Aquilani is doing decent for Milan. Not very relevant like. I looked at his appearance record and read about his style of play and thought exactly the same as Cajun did, and so it proved.

Yeah exactly, you'd hardly turn Wenger away, would you.

Agree on all points. I was so glad to be shot of him, had lost all patience with him by that point.

Amazing.

It wasn't that simple at the time though, a lot of people still had (unwarranted) faith that we had a top class player on our books that could pop up with a goal. I know his performances were terrible but Shearer clearly thought he could get the best out of him. There's a lot of hindsight bullshit going on with Owen and the relegation season imo - the other options weren't brilliant either and we weren't so aware that he had the heart of a pea at the time. Wrong as I'd have been I'd have generally put Owen in my first 11 and hoped I could get the best out of a player that was the best striker in the country not that long ago. In fairness, I was saying for a while before Shearer took over that we should be starting the likes of Carroll, Viduka, whatever instead of him purely because they'd contribute more to general play - games passed Owen by because our side just wasn't creating the chances, and on the odd occasion we did, he fluffed them (see Pompey and Boro at home). He was also very weak on the ball and his number of touches was minimal. I'd had enough of the little cunt by then, the Portsmouth miss was the absolute final straw for me. The Portsmouth and Boro matches were the 4th and 3rd last matches of the season though. The chances fell his way, he fucked it up, the 'gamble' failed. I know what you're saying, I'm just saying Shearer had 8 games and probably wanted to stick to what he knew. If you were wanting us to play Martins and Viduka up front then fair enough I suppose but I'd be surprised if you were genuinely wanting to see Carroll in the side ahead of Owen versus Portsmouth and Boro. If you were then fair do's. We all know we were pretty much doomed whatever happened man, the whole season was cursed after having started with so much hope with Keegan in charge. I seem to recall The Mag's summer special having a picture of KK in sunglasses on the front, with the headline "Future's so bright, gotta wear shades".

It wasn't that simple at the time though, a lot of people still had (unwarranted) faith that we had a top class player on our books that could pop up with a goal. I know his performances were terrible but Shearer clearly thought he could get the best out of him. There's a lot of hindsight bullshit going on with Owen and the relegation season imo - the other options weren't brilliant either and we weren't so aware that he had the heart of a pea at the time. Wrong as I'd have been I'd have generally put Owen in my first 11 and hoped I could get the best out of a player that was the best striker in the country not that long ago. Where I share Ronaldo's concerns about Shearer is that he appears to have limited football knowledge with regards to other leagues and other approaches, much like most of the pundits you see on telly. I'm starting to think he should have went straight into management to stand a chance of doing it in the long run. Still don't agree with Ronaldo's general jumping on Shearer at any opportunity though, the agenda he has negates any point he makes on Shearer imo, you can't take it seriously.

And I wouldn't want Shearer near the England job btw.

Where does he say Owen would be in his England side if he was manager? It's apparent. Righteo man, you're wandering from one point to the next. Shearer's implied heavily he wouldn't select a player for England that wasn't playing for his club, simple as.

The quote in question: You're talking about what he's implying Ronaldo, but what he's implying more than anything is that no matter how much he's trying to big up his mate, you don't get in the England squad if you're not getting into your club side. He's certainly not saying he would pick Owen if he was in charge.

Graysy and Keysy were talking about this on Talksportsy today and they were both quite supportive of the idea of appointing Glenn Hoddle or Gary Neville.

Link to the quote about him playing Owen please mate. Just for you sake like.

Here's the article I read in the Standard on the way home: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/football/article-23995634-of-course-i-want-to-manage-england-but-ill-only-get-the-job-if-i-am-fashionable.do I would have laughed my fucking arse off if there wasn't a smile-ban on the tube, it's fucking ludicrous how highly he regards himself.

The pressure the media exerts is not the whole issue, much of the issue is how fucking thick and unknowledgeable (yet incredibly vocal) much of the media is. Take for example that Lampard thing the other month. Would the Italian press have gone so insane over an ageing player just coming back from injury being left on the bench? Him being on the bench made perfect sense to 90-odd percent of the football-watching country, yet the media whipped up a frenzy over fuck-all.

It's because he'd be mad to slag off a superstar who's doing Capello the favour of playing for his daft little team in his spare time when he could be shagging grannies and smoking tabs. Players don't like playing for England anymore, it's all wrong. A lot of things that are wrong with the NT were shown up at the final whistle. England qualified tonight, you'd never have known. Montenegro didn't but even qualifying for the playoffs was obviously a source of immense pride to them, do most of the English players have this pride, I doubt it. Honestly, it might sound like I'm over-playing the media aspect but I think they were genuinely just relieved they weren't going to be vilified and stalked for the next few months. "That's that one out of the way, we'll not get ripped to shreds until next summer". The whole thing's completely unhealthy. I do wonder whether other countries have experienced such a drop in interest/ability to identify with their national team in recent years. Obviously Spain don't count.

This shit needs to be dropped ASAP. Absolutely, it's fucking ridiculous.

It's because he'd be mad to slag off a superstar who's doing Capello the favour of playing for his daft little team in his spare time when he could be shagging grannies and smoking tabs. Players don't like playing for England anymore, it's all wrong.

Less egos. Less club 'connections'. Actually build a team, rather than assembling the 'Premier League Elite'. It'll be a while before England win an International Competition, though I'm sure Grassroots Coaches will be blamed for whatever failing lies ahead... again. Grassroots is indeed blamed but my perception isn't that the coaches are getting the flak, but more the wider approach. I've never read anything blaming the coaches themselves but by the same token I've never read any criticism of Trevor Brooking who is supposed to be the guy leading grassroots football in this country, isn't he? The thing is that even if we're doing things at grassroots level now, even simple things like forcing kids to play 5 a side until they're 12 or whatever, the proof of the pudding doesn't come for 20 years or so. And I don't know whether they're even trying to change grassroots football to reflect other, more successful countries. Do you? Does anyone?

I've had similar thoughts but there simply will never be less hype imo. No matter what the squad is there will still be much of the media saying we could/should win it.

Disagree tbh mate. I think the cycle will continue, not least because of the lack of decent English managers. FWIW I think Redknapp might do an alright job with England, it's just a hunch. There's a psychological block there with some of them and he's a proven track record of making players feel good about themselves. Well, apart from players that he ends up not rating like David Bentley, but that wouldn't be an issue with England. Edit: BTW Sam Allardyce now has a column in the Evening Standard and was spinning the usual shite about how he should be England manager this evening.

Yeah, you're a WUM, laters.

You're a WUM or you're slow. It wasn't a strong group. We're surely allowed to draw conclusions on our tournament prospects based on the level of performance we've seen. They are premature conclusions... Let's just wait and see then. Arsenal should have just waited with Bruce Rioch, they were proper thick as fuck to cut that short based on what they saw on the pitch. And I'm not advocating sacking Capello before the tournament btw (there have been whispers of that iirc), I'm just saying we're pretty shite.