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warspite1 -> RE: European Championship (6/29/2016 6:05:03 AM)
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ORIGINAL: Ambassador
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ORIGINAL: warspite1
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ORIGINAL: Orm
I suppose that England will take some comfort in Wales and Bale?
warspite1
Everyone is different, and I can only speak from a personal perspective as a proud Englishman and Briton.
In football I only support England, they are my country (as we have separate representation). I therefore take absolutely no comfort whatsoever in Wales and Bale. None. I have just seen my country humiliated. Nothing else matters.
That said, with England gone, I wish my fellow Britons the Welsh all the very best and I sincerely hope they win it. I will be cheering them on against the Belgians and hope Gareth, Ben and co can do the biz.
Well, looking at things from this side of the Channel, I never understood why you Britons are stuck with four different national teams, while every other country (that I know of) has one, and only one. Think of it as a waste of good talents spread over four teams. It's as if us Belgians fielded one Flemish, one Walloon and a Brussels teams : would they be half as good as the aggregate ? Wouldn't think so...
But I see this as only one of the problems plaguing your national team, and preventing it (or them) of achieving better results. The other problem is money : the big clubs of the Premier League bring too much money, ergo too many outstanding foreign players are brought to the alpha teams, leaving few space for good English players. In the last fifty years (ie since the victory at the '66 world venue), what are the best results ? Semi-finals, twice at the Euro, once at the World Cup, the last in 1996. It corresponds to the beginning of the era of big money in PL, and while I grew up playing Championship Manager in the nineties, I could see the value of Alan Shearer, David Beckham, Andy Cole, David Platt, Paul Ince, the Neville brothers, Graeme Le Saux, Teddy Sheringham, Paul Gascoigne, Southgate, Scholes, Fowler, Campbell, Butt, countless others, Scots (McAllister, Paul Lambert, Christian Dailly, McNamara, Gemmill,...), Welsh (Gary Speed, Coleman, Ryan Giggs, Ceri Hugues, Gareth Hall,...), Irishmen (Roy Kean, Phil Babb, Andy Townsend, Jason McAteer, Niall Quinn...). Those were giants. Those were stars in their clubs.
They played, a lot. But now ? English/Scottish/Welsh/Irish players are blocked in Premier League, too many foreign players brought in by the money - good players indeed, but that's not how you nurture a good national team.
Look at the English squad for the Euro : youngsters, too many of them. It looks like you lack in the 25-30yo slice, that don't play enough at home : young promising players get their chance, but they're soon phased out in favor of better foreign players. I'm under the impression they're smothered. It's a sad loss in many a case, I guess. Brings up the level of the championship, does no good for the national teams.
Just my 2 cents...
warspite1
We are not "stuck" with four national teams. Ask almost anyone and I am sure the answer you will get is we want our separate identity. You say every other country has one and only one. Well they are one country [:)]. Unlike the Flemish, the Walloons, the Catalans, the Prussians or whatever, England, Scotland, Wales and (what was Ireland) ARE separate countries.
Personally whilst I agree that we may have too many foreigners in the Premier League (there has to be a balance right?) I do not think this is the reason for our lack of success. After all, the Premiership - and the money - is relatively new. (Apologies this is off the top of my head so I may have one or two wrong) but where were we in (all pre- or early premiership):
1968 EC: 3rd Place
1970 WC: Quarter-Final (threw away a 2-0 lead to the Germans)
1972 EC: Thrashed at Wembley 3-1 by the Germans (Gunther Bloody Netzer [:D]) at Q-F stage?
1974 WC: Did not Qualify (DNQ)
1976 EC: Can't remember but I don't think we qualified
1978 WC: DNQ
1980 EC: Did not get out of the group stage
1982 WC: Exited second group stage as could not score [8|]...against the Germans [:D]
1984 EC: DNQ?
1986 WC: Good team and were desperately unlucky to be cheated out
1988 EC: Group stage exit having lost all three games
1990 WC: Semi-finals but look how lucky we were to get there. 2nd Round Belgium battered us but couldn't score. More Germans.....
1992 EC: Group stage exit
1994 WC: DNQ
1996 EC: At Home, semi-finals and were the better side in the semi but were very lucky to beat Spain in the previous round. Ze Germans spoiled the party again.
1998 WC: 2nd Round
By now the Premiership is starting to gear up. But as can be seen, the results are hardly stellar are they [:(] Oh and our performances pre-1966 were pretty uninspiring too....
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