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Owen Coyle..
I liked what I saw of Frimpong this season. But then, I also liked whatever I saw of Abou Diaby.
Ramsey is a good player, over-rated by Arsenal fans.
Bolton play better football now than they ever did under Allardyce and Megson. I miss Jay Jay Okocha though.
Not a chance in hell Cole would go back to Arsenal - he wouldn't want to be fed to the sharks again .
1) CB (jagielka, cahill)
2) DM (toulalan or diarra would have been perfect, i'm short on names but a player like, inler would have been perfect)
3) LB (Baines, Cissokho?, i'd try to steal chelsea's move for alvaro perriera or pablo armero or fuck if chelsea get perriera, steal back cole)
4) spend one one creative attacking prospect player (hazard, martin etc.)
5) or... if possible, get a proper CF and move RVP to LW
1) In talks for Cahill but question is, will Wenger give in to Bolton's demands, also isnt Cahill in his last year of contract?
2) Diarra was at Arsenal but never made it then, now he looks likely to move to Spurs. Arsenal should try for Scott Parker or the best choice would be M'Vila, though hed be expensive.
3) Chelsea wont get Perreira, his release clause is 30m and Porto wont sell unles its met. For Arsenal best choice would be Baines. People talk highly about Gibbs but I see him getting injured every once in a while and that's not good.
4) Martin wouldn't cost much, Wenger has a boner for Hazard and Gourcuff. All three would be good.
Wenger just said today that he will be looking for a striker as Chamakh will be off in Jan to the ACN.
true. But if he's on the out at chelsea.... he's too lazy/lifestyle obsessed to want to leave london
tottenham? ... would NOT surprise me tbh.
@MUF
which CB do you think would help arsenal most- jagielka, samba, cahill or dunn
assuming they only signed one. In an ideal situation they'd sign jagielka + samba or cahill, but that won't happen. They'll be lucky to get one.
I still like Djourou more than Vermaelen, so i think jagielka makes more sense and you can move vermaelen wide
Hope Adebayor goes to Spurs - just to see the reaction from Arsenal fans
Bolton play better football now than they ever did under Allardyce and Megson. I miss Jay Jay Okocha though.
Under Kevin Keegan’s management, there was a chant, ‘If the Nevilles can play for England, so can I’. At the worst moments during his reign, I’d have happily swapped places with the clowns on the terraces.
Things got so bad during Kevin’s reign that it was a relief to be left on the sidelines or injured. It wasn’t all Kevin’s fault. His time in the job coincided with my most miserable period as a player. But the bottom line is that the England job brutally exposes any manager’s failings. And Kevin, as he’d admit, fell short of the level required.
As well as the problems with the team, I was never thrilled about the gambling culture off the pitch. The amount of time spent on horse racing or cards was ridiculous. It was all very old school, completely different to what I’d become used to in terms of discipline, focus and preparation at United.
We’d have a 10-minute coach journey down to training and players would get the cards out. We’d lose a match and the gambling school would start up again.
Gambling is a cancer in a changing room. I remember the only time I got suckered into a heavy card game. On a pre-season tour with United in Malaysia I ended up playing for a few hundred quid a hand. This was big by my standards and it got right into my head. I went to bed thinking about the Jack of Hearts, the King of Spades.
As a man-manager, Kevin was great getting round the table and talking to players. But we didn’t learn. There were seven, eight coaches, all decent people, like Peter Beardsley and Les Reed, but there was no tactical nous being passed down.
That was summed up one day when Les gave one of his lectures about our next opponents — and Kevin fell asleep. He was sitting on the front row and we could see his shoulders sagging, his head nodding forward. He woke up with a start and all the lads burst out laughing.
At Euro 2000, we could have played for 30 years and we’d never have succeeded. We weren’t good enough, not by a million miles. My brother would take terrible stick for the way we went out, with him giving away a penalty against Romania, but he did us a favour by sparing us any more punishment.
I told him repeatedly that he had nothing to feel bad about. ‘We were s***, Phil. We were going home soon enough anyway.’
Eriksson took over from Kevin and made instant improvements. I liked Sven from the start. I would have reservations by the end, but the first few years were as enjoyable as any in an England shirt.
I thought I might even be captain when David Beckham missed a friendly against Paraguay in April 2002. Sven sat me down at the front of the coach on the way to the ground. ‘Gary, I’m going to make Michael Owen captain tonight.’ Typical Sven, he tried to be diplomatic. He practically told me that I was a more natural captain than Michael. He was almost apologising to me.
So why didn’t he give me the job? Nothing personal against Michael, but there were other players, like Rio Ferdinand, Gerrard, Frank Lampard and me, who were more obvious contenders. But Michael was the bigger name, and Sven could be a little weak like that.
And by the World Cup in 2006, we were still way too reliant on an automatic first XI. The big names were guaranteed to play rather than the best team. The experiment during qualifying, when Becks was used in the ‘quarterback’ role in central midfield against Wales and Northern Ireland, proved the point. The team were put out of shape to accommodate the big players.
It seemed to me like a fudge to get around the issue of how to keep Becks, Gerrard and Lampard in the same side. After Wayne Rooney’s sending-off against Portugal and our missed penalties, it was over. My last shot at the World Cup. I stood on that pitch in Gelsenkirchen feeling desolate. That’s it, another chance gone. It’s never going to happen now. Same old story. Why don’t we ever get it right?
I felt sorry for McClaren during his reign as manager. I hoped things would work out for him. I knew he was a good coach and I thought he could thrive in international football. I scored my only goal in an England shirt under him, in my last competitive game. Shame it was in the wrong net.
It was that c**p night in Croatia in October 2006 when the wheels came off the Euro 2008 qualifying wagon. It was a bad trip. The coaches sprang 3-5-2 on us a couple of days before what was a massive fixture. I didn’t know if I was capable of delivering what the team needed.
And it was clear a few of the other players were just as unsure as me. We deserved to lose, and I saw more mistakes in selection, watching from home when Croatia came to Wembley for the return.
It would also turn out to be a mistake dropping Becks, Sol Campbell and David James from his first squad. We could all see what he was trying to do. He was trying to start a new regime. But to drop Becks altogether didn’t make sense. He’s not going to be a cancer in the dressing room. He just wanted to play.
I would have one call-up under Capello, in June 2009, for the trip to Kazakhstan. Training was sharp and focused. Capello didn’t tolerate lateness or slackness in any way. A couple of players were late for a stretch and he pulled them up. Someone had a mobile at lunch and he snapped.
There was a real focus in training. I was impressed with everything he did, which made it even more bizarre when he became so erratic in the build-up to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Tactically, he made the biggest mistake of all. I’ve been advocating 4-3-3 with England for years and I couldn’t understand why Capello didn’t turn to it. He went with the traditional two banks of four, and it looked predictable and out of date. I’m not saying we’d have won the tournament with better tactics, but we’d have got closer.
The England situation is changing and improving but we just haven’t produced enough players of the right technical and tactical quality. That’s easily proved by the very few times we have held our own against top opponents. Holland in 1996 is pretty much the stand-out match, which tells its own story. I don’t go along with the idea that Sven should forever be remembered for blowing a ‘Golden Generation’.
Three quarter-finals is a respectable record, and I’m not convinced we ever had the depth to win a major tournament. Because we win trophies galore for our clubs, people seem convinced that we should be winning with England. But they overlook how much our clubs have benefited from the foreign stars sprinkled through the Premier League. Trevor Brooking is banging his head against a brick wall at the Football Association and has struggled to drag the game forward. Everything at the FA seems to take a lifetime.
Steven Gerrard is undoubtedly a world class player and I wish he'd played for United. I went on a tapping-up mission at Euro 2004 when I knew Chelsea were trying to take advantage of Liverpool
being in turmoil.
'Come play for United,’ I said one day to Steven when we were in the hotel. 'The fans will take to you in no time.' He just laughed, and said: 'I’ll do it if you go to Anfield.'
he has good points on both sven and capello.
Still sven failed a bit more imo cause of players he had.
He had some bad luck aswell to be fair.
02: Beckham went into the WC after breaking his foot 2 months earlier, possible fluke goal by Ronaldinho. No shame in going out to Brazil though.
04: Campbell had a goal harshly dissalowed, Rooney broke his foot against Portugal and we lost to them on penalties.
06: Rooney hadn't recovered from a broken foot and got himself sent off, Owen tore ligaments against Portugal and we lost on penalties.
Neville critisizing Sven about favourites?Extracts from Gary Neville's book:
Sven:
Neville critisizing Sven about favourites?
It was those favourites that allowed him to stay in the team.
Whatever you want to say about Neville at club level Utd fan, he was poor for England.
Neville critisizing Sven about favourites?
It was those favourites that allowed him to stay in the team.
Whatever you want to say about Neville at club level Utd fan, he was poor for England.
better q would be... who was a better RB during that era for england?
I'm struggling to think. He's right.. there was a lack of depth for sure
Really hope Torres scores today and his back to his best.
Me too, hes looked sharp but Chelski's been lacking creatively so with Mata ready to make his bow im optimistic.
Kalou has been poor both the games. With Sturridge still suspended for another round or so Mata should get the nod.
Danny Mills was too much of a disgrace.
Disgusting. Should have been banned for life IMO.
Disgusting. Should have been banned for life IMO.
‘I don’t know why (it has happened).When you sign a player for four years, for example, you have to extend the contract after two years.
'You have to negotiate after the first year. We have people who only negotiate contracts at our club and I come in when it is needed. When you have a professional squad, first-team squad plus players after 16, you have to renegotiate.
'You are always in renegotiations. If you want to keep a player, to protect the value of a player, you have to extend the contract.’