Countries
Wed, May 19th 2010
Gary Lineker is to stop writing articles for the Mail on Sunday after it published a story he says damaged England’s 2018 World Cup bid.
From: BBC
I’ve not been a fan of Lineker recently, but I respect his decision. The Mail’s Lord Triesman story was a case of the paper making news, rather than it happening. While its hard to have sympathy for Triesman, a secretly taped conversation with a secretary he had been having an affair with hardly the same as publicly claiming two of England’s World Cup hosting rivals were corrupt.
It would have been for Lineker to have keep taking his pay cheque.
Fri, May 14th 2010
BBC Sport are reporting that Capello might try playing a 3-5-2 formation in England’s opener against the USA.
“Capello has never played such a system with wing-backs in his time as manager, but I understand he will consider a change in formation if Barry doesn’t recover from his injury.
Nooooo….
The alternatives to Barry do seem absent in the preliminary squad: Carrick (who didn’t finish the season especially well) and Scott Parker (untested at this level recently).
Thu, May 13th 2010
The Italian (Fabio Capello) revealed he tried to persuade Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes to come out of international retirement, but failed.
From: BBC
Not too much surprise here.
Scholes ‘retired’ after he was effectively dropped after the emergence of Lampard and he found himself 4th choice midfielder after Beckham and Gerrard. There’s no doubt he could still have played a role, though, especially after Barry’s injury.
Capello named his provisional squad of 30 players. Amongst them were a few surprises, with inclusions for uncapped Adam Johnson and Michael Dawson, and a recall for Jamie Carragher.
The final squad of 23 must be named by 1 June.
Thu, May 29th 2008
I think Fabio Capello has three realistic candidates to captain England: Terry, Ferdinand and Gerrard
Of these John Terry stands head and shoulders above the other two as a leader. It has been notably this season how his behaviour has improved and now rather than leading the referee-baiting he is pulling players away, and it was striking in the Champions League final how it was he pulling Manchester Utd players away from getting into further trouble with the referee rather than Ferdinand.
In his early England day’s he looked unsure of his place in the team as a junior partner to Ferdinand or Sol Campbell. To give the captaincy to his centre-back partner would threaten to lose one of his greatest assets, his dominance, again.
Thu, March 27th 2008
From: BBC - Capello’s optimism masks reality on England’s lacklustre performance against France:
As one Italian observer remarked, perhaps cruelly: “England do not just need an Italian coach - they need an Italian team.”
Thu, March 6th 2008
From: The Guardian - Sid Lowe finds the Spanish media desperate to put some kind of gloss on the unthinkable - that their rivals across the Med play better football
Over here, people think Italian football is dirty, cynical, talentless and boring. Few Italians have succeeded in Spain because they are rubbish, they say, while few Spaniards have succeeded in Italy because the football is rubbish - and full of cheats.
Fri, November 30th 2007
...this week, 16 Scotsmen played in the Champions League. Only 14 Englishmen could say the same. And three of those - Peter Crouch, Owen Hargreaves and Theo Walcott - were substitutes.
From: Guardian Unlimited: Sport blog: The killer stat that demands a response
Thu, September 13th 2007
England 3 - Russia 0
England continued against Russia where they left off against Israel, cruising to another 3-nil victory.
Mon, September 10th 2007
England 3 - Israel 0
Despite injuries to star name players England cruised past a standoff-ish Israel.