tom pr

Well-known member
Lennon was in the U21s, I think because they had a competitive game and wanted a senior player in there. Bentley's a better player than him anyway.

I thought second half England were good. Cole was the best player on the pitch by miles (God knows what Motty was banging on about with Rooney being man on the match; when you're up front and you miss three one on ones you've not had a great game), and both goals were very good. Gerrard was predictably much better when he moved away from the centre.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
Yeah, all the stuff I've read since says how good Rooney was but I don't think he did that much. On the other hand none of those chances were simple so he didn't have a bad game either, he looked lively enough but wasn't able to lift himself out of the ordinary. Good flick on lead to the second goal though.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Lennon was in the U21s, I think because they had a competitive game and wanted a senior player in there. Bentley's a better player than him anyway.

Ah, should've known that. Didn't watch all the match l;ast night, so don't know too much about how good Bentley was. From what I've seen of Lennon in an England shirt (not too much, admittedly - most of it from WC 2006), he's one of the only players to be able to open up opposiiton defences regularly. Bentley really must've been playing well...
 

tom pr

Well-known member
I thought Bentley might have cracked with the constant Beckham comparisons (why do we have to do this every time a good young player emerges who happens to play in the same position as an old boy) but he was superb. Joe Cole played behind Rooney in a free role and whenever he drifted to the right him and Bentley were having some great little link ups- it was good to watch.

I like Lennon but I reckon he's more someone you'd bring on to change a game. Bentley's a better crosser (even if Lennon really has stepped up that part of his game this year, judging by their drubbing of Arsenal at least) and he gives us a threat from dead balls.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
For me I would put Lennon on the bench at least because he can beat people and that ability is at a premium in the England side. Don't know how much he's improved in the last couple of years though... maybe not as much as people had hoped.
 

hucks

Your Message Here
The issue here is a straight choice between SWP and Lennon, isn't it? I should think Bentley will be a squad regular from now on, then one of those two depending on form. Picking Jenas was interesting last night. He was OK, but you could easily bring Lampard into that formation, when he's fit. I would have thought that's the plan.

Thought the second half was good. Good movement, better passing. Gerrard played as well as he has for England in years, and Cole was excellent for however long he as on the pitch. Agree about Rooney, tho. Hit the target, man! And stop chipping!

And aren't England fans idiots? Chanting Beckham's name after 25 whole minutes, booing when England kept posession in the first half, booing Bentley, booing A Cole, petty little club rivalries all the way through the game. Wembley's a horrible place these days.
 

tom pr

Well-known member
And aren't England fans idiots? Chanting Beckham's name after 25 whole minutes, booing when England kept posession in the first half, booing Bentley, booing A Cole, petty little club rivalries all the way through the game. Wembley's a horrible place these days.
Agreed. I sold my cup final tickets last year the minute I got them- I don't know if I ever want to go to the new Wembley. Cardiff was much nicer; been there three times and the atmosphere has always been great- i think when rival fans have been on a packed train with each other for four hours they learn to accept each other a bit...
 

vimothy

yurp
Where the fuck was Aaron Lennon in his team? Every time I see him on MotD he's electrifying. Him and Joe Cole should be able to prise even the toughest defence apart. In theory.

Evey time I see Lennon on MotD, he's running at speed to the goal-line only to tackle himself and lose the ball to little effect. The man is fast, but he can't cross.
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
And aren't England fans idiots? Chanting Beckham's name after 25 whole minutes, booing when England kept posession in the first half, booing Bentley, booing A Cole, petty little club rivalries all the way through the game. Wembley's a horrible place these days.

No issue with the rhetorical question, but I think that to ascribe A Cole's poor reception to petty club rivalries overlooks the fact that he just, well, comes across like a total prick... Not that other footballers don't, but he's got it down to a fine art.
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
No time to comment now, but this is the football story of the day

http://football.guardian.co.uk/News_Story/0,,2254032,00.html

The Premier League is set to go global from the 2011-12 season with matches being played overseas for the first time. The league and the chairmen of its 20 clubs agreed to explore a proposal today whereby the season will be extended from 38 games to 39 to allow every club to play one extra match abroad.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
So, if I'm reading that right, they are proposing that all the teams in the UK play each other twice and then they play one extra game in a foreign city against randomly chosen opposition with the points counting to the total for the season in the normal way. That means that any two given teams will not have played the same teams over the course of the season and thus their points totals will not be directly comparable - THAT IS AN UTTERLY FUCKING STUPID IDEA!
You expect that kind of nonsense in shitty American sports where the teams in a given conference haven't played the same teams, I even accept it in the rubbish league I play in where if the number of teams doesn't fit the number of weeks you play some teams once and some twice - but I don't expect it in proper fucking professional football. Obviously I appreciate that the premiership is strapped for cash and they need every single penny they can get so that the players can continue washing their boots in champagne and buying their way out of rape accusations but surely not at the expense of wrecking the whole damn competition (not to mention meaning that potentially important games might be played where the fans can't see them).
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
So, if I'm reading that right, they are proposing that all the teams in the UK play each other twice and then they play one extra game in a foreign city against randomly chosen opposition with the points counting to the total for the season in the normal way. That means that any two given teams will not have played the same teams over the course of the season and thus their points totals will not be directly comparable - THAT IS AN UTTERLY FUCKING STUPID IDEA!

Sounds like the sum of it - haven't read the full story yet, but got that far and just went "eh?" Delighted to see NY as one of the proposed venues - I mean, give it up already.
 

hucks

Your Message Here
The practicalities will bring it down, surely? The talk of seeding the top 5 gives them a de facto advantage over the season. It's unworkable.

And on a strictly tribal basis, I hate the idea - clubs deserting their supporters to make money overseas. Good luck with that, Wigan.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
"The talk of seeding the top 5 gives them a de facto advantage over the season."
Yeah, I think (or at least I'd like to think) that any system in which the rules themselves are unfair (as opposed to the systemic problems such as Chelsea or United having more money) will surely cause a revolt.
What's the justification for seeding anyway? Presumably the idea is that the top teams will be so much better than everyone else by then that they can't possibly drop points to teams outside the top five and thus the games abroad will never decide the league.

"Good luck with that, Wigan."
Yeah, you can imagine the excitement in New York when Wigan vs Bolton comes out of the hat. Actually, I guess that's why they want to seed them, so as many ties as possible have a "glamour" team involved.
 

Slothrop

Tight but Polite
The practicalities will bring it down, surely? The talk of seeding the top 5 gives them a de facto advantage over the season. It's unworkable.

And on a strictly tribal basis, I hate the idea - clubs deserting their supporters to make money overseas. Good luck with that, Wigan.
Yeah, it does seem like a particularly good way of underlining the point that clubs are no longer built on devoted grassroots supporters in their home town but are multinational entertainment corporations that are just named after the place where they happen to have their head office.
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
A message posted on the Sheffield United website by a fan last weekend. Don't know for certain but this guy probably wouldn't be in favour of playing games in another country (especially if it had a poncey foreign name like China):

"I'm feeling all angry about these modern day footballers and I know why they have gone all soft. It's because of poncy names. That's what it is. Remember the old days when footy players kicked a fucking ball made out of ten pounds of clay stitched inside a steel reinforced leather shell with laces made out of piano wire? Well, in them days, players could only survive the rigours of the game because they were called things like Albert, Arthur, Bert, Harry, Bill, Eddie, Bob, Jack and Tommy.
Fucking tough names for tough men them was. And what do we have now? Gareth, Jason, Wayne, Dean, Ryan, Jamie, Robbie. Fucking tarts names they are. Great big fucking poofs. No wonder; the balls like a fucking balloon and shin pads are like
slices of bread. In the old days you never saw a Len Shackleton or Billy Wright with a poofy little Sondico piece of paper down his little thin socks.
Fucking shin pads in them days was made out of library books and socks was like sackcloth. Same with jerseys. Fucking shirts with holes in 'em now so they can breathe. Yes and so Jamie's hairless chest can breathe and he doesn't get a chill. Fuck off.
Stanley Matthews used to dribble round Europe's finest wearing a fucking tent and shorts cobbled together from the jacket of his demob suit. Aye he bloody did.
No wonder players fall over whenever an opponent comes near them. And they never used to show their arses at one another either. Can you imagine what might have happened if Don Revie had flashed his ring at Nat Lofthouse during a City-Bolton Wanderers game? He'd have got one of them size 13 hobnail fuckers up his chuff.
Fucking therapy for stress my arse! Stan Colleymore slaps his missus about and he takes three seasons off with stress counselling. What is that all about? In the old days, it was expected for footballers to belt the old sow about a bit, especially after a bad defeat. And the old women used to expect it and so they should have, they was lucky to be married to footballers.
Ernie McShite of Port Vale got run over with a horse and cart one Friday night and still he turned out against Bradford the next day. And he scored two goals. That's cos he didn't have a poof name. Good old Ernie. It is said he broke his hip, both legs, murdered his wife and buried her under the patio and still made the England team for the home internationals. Did he have any stress counselling? Did he bollocks! And drugs?
There was none of that in the old days. Oh no. In them days it was a quick shot of morphine before the kick off and you was lucky if you got that. By half time it had all but wore off so they pumped you full of Laudanum. None of this cocaine sniffing and shooting up class A narcotics.
Goal celebrations? Don't talk to me about goal celebrations. Crawling on the floor and thrusting their hips at the crowd. Huh, I'd have liked to have seen Cliff Bastin do that after a run down the left flank and crossing for Alex James to fire home a winner.
Handshakes that was all you got. That and a wank in the showers afterwards. But it was a proper wank....all man stuff. None of these poofy wanks between blokes that you get nowadays with players like Graeme Le Saux and Stephen Gerrard. Allegedly. It was just a harmless bit of spanking the plank among healthy young sportsmen.
Sixty grand a fucking week! Ha! I wouldn't pay 'em tuppence. Two bob is what Tommy Lawton used to get....a month! And Tom Finney still worked as a plumber four days a week when he was playing for England. It’s true you know.
Players had to work them days just to make up their money. Not like today.
Stan Pearson had to clean sewers and doubled up as the Old Trafford shithouse cleaner. He had to go off during one game because a log jam had built up and blocked the "U" bend. And that Eddie Hapgood, he was a male model, though he never liked to talk about it. So I say we start calling kids real male names again. If you're having a kid don't even consider a poofy name like what people call their kids
these days. Otherwise, what are we gonna get in twenty years time?
The England team full of players called Ronan, Keanu, Ashley and fucking Chesney. Fuck that, call your kids Herbert, Len, Fred and Wilf and let’s get the poofs out of the game once and for all!"
 

crackerjack

Well-known member
Ernie McShite of Port Vale got run over with a horse and cart one Friday night and still he turned out against Bradford the next day. And he scored two goals. That's cos he didn't have a poof name. Good old Ernie. It is said he broke his hip, both legs, murdered his wife and buried her under the patio and still made the England team for the home internationals. Did he have any stress counselling? Did he bollocks! And drugs?

This man sounds brilliant. Anyone fancy holding a whipround for the biopic.
 
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