Thought this was quite good, especially the Stuart Pearce bit

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/18308363

Nice to see the BBC take things less seriously for a change

Thought you were joking but you weren't.

Caption bottom right of page says it all "England crashes out of World Cup 2010, will Euro 2012 be any different?"

England invented the game and is home to the most exciting professional league on the planet. But why has its national team consistently disappointed for nearly 50 years?

In truth Woy may well go on and win the tournament. He certainly has the team 'organised' but my God most fans will probably be comatose by the time the team reaches that point.

Note to self: Please hire a hitman to take out that infernal band playing 'The Great Escape' 29 million times during an England match. It was funny about 5 years ago. It no longer is.

I have to agree with the above post. Being tough to beat, nicking a goal and being tactically solid isnt bad. It can win you tournaments.

it won chelsea the champions league !!

tbh, i think teams are generally more capable of getting results against the 'park the bus' type outfits than used to be the case. if we have ideas of getting far in this tournement with this policy, we had better hope parker stays fit. given how easily we seemed to concede 'poor' goals under capello i am pleasantly surprised at 2 clean sheets although we look to be running out of central defenders. 

My view is that there isn't just one cause.

Initially, it was that training from an early age became increasingly focused on stamina and organisation. Meanwhile, other countries were teaching their kids ot be more proficient in the technical aspects. Skillful and tricky players in England all too often had their 'show off' talents drilled out of them in school PE/training. This has somewhat been addressed in recent years with a different approach. But it's a slow progress.

The riches of the Premier League is a huge negative, too. Firstly, it's stuffed with foreign players. This limits opportunities for young and lower-league players who might have 'rough diamond' raw potential. The price of falling out of the Premier League is immense so managers & club owners are loath to take gambles, and will instead recruit an experienced foreign player instead of bring in and [more importasntly] play a player with less experience or from the lower leagues. The other side of this is that the better English players command a premium in terms of the king's ransoms they call salaries. They have no financial incentive to play abroad and so only a tiny minority do. That means their development as players is stunted, as they only experience the confines of the Premier League with its unique, frenetic characteristics (where possession isn't really valued because you know that if you lose the ball, you'll get it back half a minute later because the other side will be just as useless at ball retention), apart from a few ECL games each year for some players. England players would be far better all round players if they spent a few seasons in La Liga/Bundesliga/Serie A/etc.

Saint's point that I've highlighted above is a very good one IMO. Take England's 1990 World Cup team for instance; it had a number of players that had either played, were playing in or were about to play in some of Europe's top leagues. Gary Lineker had played for Barcelona for three years from 1986-89, Chris Waddle was plying his trade with Marseille when he played in Italia 90, David Platt signed for Serie A side Bari in 1991 before later moving on to Juve, and of course Gazza left Spurs to sign for Lazio amid much publicity a year later.

I know that the main reason for Lineker & Waddle going abroad when they did was probably the fact that English clubs were banned from Europe for five years after Heysel (Platt and Gazza both went to Italy after the ban had been lifted), but it didn't do England's performance in 1990 any harm. After all, that World Cup, along with Euro 96, are the only times that they've come anywhere near close to repeating what Bobby Moore & co did 46 years ago.

Gary Cahill out now, double fracture.

Martin Kelly called up

They should just sack Roy now. I've got no time for him. He's completely inept. No Carrick was bad enough, but now he's decided to call up Martin Kelly over Rio. He's lost the plot!

Before Hodgson took the job Carrick had already asked the FA not to be considered so that answers the first point.

2nd point about Rio is that he wouldn't go with John Terry being in team I presume.

Bit hard to blame Roy for that imo, also Michar Richards didn't wanna be on the reserve list.

Amazes me why players wouldn't want to be but there you.

Carrick didn't want to be considered if he wasn't going to be played under Capello. I think his stance has now changed? And anyway Carrick has been better than any of the England Midfielders in the team lately and should be a starter. It's poor from Roy keeping the racist in the team whilst excluding Rio to keep him happy. 

Worth remembering this, as far as I'm aware, is all media speculation. If he really isn't bothered then fair enough, but I'd bet there's more to it than simply demanding a starting place.

We'll on Friday Hodgson stated it in Press Conference when asked why Carrick wasn't in instead of Henderson.

You not think Hodgson might of thought that it's potentially better to have 3 of Chelsea's back 4 together?...from a footballing perspective?

Terry and Cahill have not played that much together and Rio is far superior to Cahill. I don't think this is a footballing decision, because if it was Rio would be in the team.

It wasn't a football decision BUT if it was a " IT'S ME OR HIM SIR" Then Roy would keep John Terry for footballing reason as I stated above.

And also, has Rio played that much since before South Africa 2010?

That's a fair enough point, although this was the official reason wasn't it?

If correct he should never even be talked about in England quarters again, let alone considered for the squad

After a very quick google and without checking sources it seems he had some sort of problem with Capello and didn't want to play under him and felt it would be too awkward coming into the England squad at the last minute for the Euros under Roy but he will be available after the Euros.

Nice of him to tell us when he will be available lol

Grow a pair is what I'd be telling to him, people slate JT but atleast he has broad shoulders, a few could do the same.

I agree with you. Much as I hate Terry for being the odious little twunt that he is at least he's never had a hissy fit in terms of only being avaialable on his, rather than the manager's terms.

If player opts out of playing for England because he can't work for a particular manager then he opts out for life as far as I'm concerned.

PMSL, at this rate we're going to end up with Liverpool when they were managed by er .......Roy Hodgson.

Let's hope Cashley doesn't get crocked. Otherwise, step forward Paul Konchesky.

Jesus wept.