The Fan

Who to support for Euro 2008

The Fan adopts a country for June

With England having failed to qualify, how to decide which country to adopt?

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England cruise to second win

England 3 - Russia 0

England continued against Russia where they left off against Israel, cruising to another 3-nil victory.

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England prosper without big names

England 3 - Israel 0

Despite injuries to star name players England cruised past a standoff-ish Israel.

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Platini believes no country should be allowed more than three teams in the competition. The Premiership has four in action.. with Italy and Spain also entitled to a quartet, while France and Germany have three apiece.

From: The Guardian

 

Here’s a cunning idea: why not only allow champions to enter the Champions League - the clue’s in the trophy’s title isn’t it? Oh, and make it a straight knockout tournament again while you’re at it.

The difference in intensity in the recent Chelsea/Barcelona game from the previous seasons’ encounters is evidence enough that the group stages are a waste of time.

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Media knives out for England and McClaren

New coach's honeymoon period over

A sample of the media criticism levelled at the England team and management after their dismal 2-nil defeat to Croatia.

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With Jamie Carragher and Scott Parker included in tonight’s England team, the much advertised five man midfield now contains their 2 full-backs, Ashley Cole and Gary Neville.

Surely that makes it a 5 man defence, rather than a 5 man midfield.

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Who’s running the England team?

Venables to push for his favoured 5 man midfield

Newspapers having been reporting with increasing frequency that England are to start playing a 3-5-2 formation for their Euro qualifier against Croatia. England’s players don’t seem to want it, and coach McClaren seems happier with a 4-4-2. Is Terry Venables finally getting his way?

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When Englishman Justin Hoyte came on as sub in Arsenal’s Champions League game against Hamburg, every player came from a different country.

Jens Lehmann (Germany); Emmanuel Eboue (Ivory Coast), Johan Djourou (Switzerland), Justin Hoyte (England), William Gallas (France) Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic), Gilberto (Brazil), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Alexander Hleb (Belarus) Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo), Robin van Persie (Holland).

While striking in its self, its more surprising that the only English player has join from the bench, and that none of the other players were even British. English teams have for a long time had a huge variety of cultures, but has been rare that some of the team has not come from Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

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A two-tier qualification?

European minnows should face pre-qualification

With the new expanded European qualifiers starting at the weekend, it has become obvious that there are too many poor quality nations competing.

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England cruise past Andorra

England 5 - Andorra 0

Defoe and Crouch score two goals apiece as McClaren’s perfect start as England coach continued.

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