petrov wrote:honestly jim, i usually agree with most you say, but how is it always the manager? The team is severly lacking, hugely so (as are most the big guns this time around). Pointing out Capello had one bad season at Milan is ridiculous, how many trophies has he, after all thats what England are striving for.... As for the Juve thing, do you really think he'd of got the England job if he was involved?
You've got white tinted glasses on mate... Outside of England nobody really gave them a chance of winning but thought they could make the last8/semi's, which is a much fairer assesment than the blind hype and overrating that goes on at home.
Ashley Cole, Terry, Gerrard, Lampard and Rooney are 5 World Class talents and would get in to most European National sides. There's your spine and you need to work with them to create a Team. They can't manage themselves.
Pointing out Capello had a bad season with his second spell at AC Milan is not ridiculous because the person praising Don Fabio said he'd been a success wherever he went. I pointed out that he'd not been so during his second spell at AC Milan and also during his time at Juventus. I'm not alledging that he was involved with the Match fixing scandal because he resigned around the same time - but he was criticised by Juventus Players following his departure. The likes of Del Piero stayed to get their Team back in to Serie A. Ironically, the situation gave Mancini his first Title with Inter Milan.
I've never believed that England will win this World Cup - but I think the Semi Finals were always realistic. There needs to be a huge upturn in form to make this happen. And some luck, too.