Why on earth are they playing Denmark when they could be in the home nations thing thats going on.? The mind boggles.
Because international football is utter shite.
Just gets in the way and ends up with Liverpool players risking an injury. Abolish internationals altogether I say.
Because the dumb ass engerland fans would want to fight everyone , chant no surrender etc, and generally be a pain in the arse!! However not a bad first half gor a change, well I'm still awake!
I'm watching it but I'm really struggling to care.
Bent's doing OK, getting into good positions.
Might spend the second half on the turbo trainer.
A nation shrugs.
I actually winced when I heard that Wilshere was limping.
A nation shrugs.
I'd have thought they'd be better off playing the home nations tournament too. At least it might mean something to a few of them. Bleedin' meaningless friendlies.
Still, Wayne Rooney's on fire.
Not literally, which is a shame..
so it's not just me. Don't get me wrong, I love football and I'm inconsolable every two years when we fluff it up AGAIN, but for the first time in ages - I JUST CAN'T EVEN BE ARSED TO TURN IT ON.
Perhaps his genitalia are still on fire Loddrik.
[i]I'd have thought they'd be better off playing the home nations tournament too[/i]
England couldn't possibly gain anything from that. Win and "well, you'd expect to"; lose and it's "ha ha ha let's all laugh at England"
But like theotherjonv, I love my football but I long since lost interest in anything Engerland do, on or off the pitch. Think it might have been just after Italia 90, when England were penalties away from a World Cup Final. they've been cr@p ever since. I didn't even watch any of the England world cup games last summer.
Mind you, I lost interest in the Premiership prima donnas when my team got relegated, when was it, 2004,5? Maybe next year, we have a good chance of getting back there at last after 3 long years in League 1 and the well published financial meltdown.
Club v Country? Club every time. MOT
Also Englands best midfielder not even in squad.
well it's a "friendly", isn't it. He'll be "injured". Not to worry, he'll be ok for the weekend.
Whoever he is 😉
every two years when we fluff it up AGAIN
Well, every four years. We usually screw up getting into the Euro lark.
Also Englands best midfielder not even in squad.
Who's that?
Joey Barton.
I've got to assume that's a joke.
Except it's true?
I don't believe that you actually believe that.
Joey Barton has passion something England lack!
He's also a nasty piece of work. He's a worse footballer than Gerrard, Lampard, Wilshere, Milner, Barry and countless others.
Joey Barton, a worse footballer than Gerrard, Lampard, Wilshere, Milner, Barry.
😆
Excellent! STW Classic.
Went to the U20 game between England and France tonight, the French were considerably better, we were lucky it was only 1-2.
That sounds about right.
Seriously. And I think Barry and Milner aren't England quality. The fact is, Barton is not very good.
whoops i forgot my 😉
He's better than the above mentioned.
Wilshere is already twice the player Barton is.
Sawyer, do you really believe that or is that based on a prejudice towards Barton due to past misdemeanours?
Fact is there is no midfielder in the league playing better than Barton at the moment. The England team isn't one picked on form but instead based on image and media. We are still awaiting the changes from the world cup fall out.
So you saying that, Barry, Milner, Parker, Wilshire, Lampard are all currently in better form than JB?
Agree in general with the Barton comments, he is a nasty man, but the fact is that if he wasn't Joey Barton then he'd be in the squad at least on current form.
Wilshere looks a good player but PLEASE get him out of Arsenal before he becomes another one of Arsey Whinger's offspring.
Listen Jack. You were 4-0 up. You had a player rightly sent off. You then bottled it against a team with far more passion and conviction(s !!) than you. Don't go bleating to twitter about the ref afterwards. Grow some and admit it that for 45 minutes you got murdered and you couldn't hack it.
I think the big decisions went the barcodes way in that game.
I do too. But that hits my point exactly - some teams, some players will seek any excuse but their own frailties to blame. A couple of big decisions went their way - The Diaby sending off was right, the ref pointed out is was for a combination of both incidents. Nolan was possibly lucky, it was one incident though. The second pen (given by the linesman) was debatable but he was dreadful all game (Leon Best was miles onside for the disallowed goal for example)
But that doesn't excuse the way they folded up and then blamed the ref for it.
Your right the decisions did go our way however the goals didnt score themselves with Barton coolly slotting his penalties and Tiote's wonder strike.
Bartons tackle was clean and strong - it was only becasue Diaby was so late to the tackle he got hurt. So i wouldnt say the ref made a bad decssion there - maybe the 2nd penalty was dubious but the disallowed goal we had was a goal.
What I'm getting at is yes a few calls went our way but it still took great determination and fight to claw it back and I think a lot of Arsenal fans are missing this.
That's true, it's a shame cos when it goes it there way they are unplayable, they've got the throwing the toys out of the pram mentality of their manager.
Anyway regarding England - it's quite obvious why we played well & won last night - no Steven Gerrard. Now before you say I'm a hater, you could've quite easily swapped him for Lampard, as long as only one of them plays we do ok - it seems to be only a succession of England managers who think they can play together, whenever one or both of them is missing England have a much more balanced & better side.
prejudice towards Barton due to past misdemeanours?
That's tantamount to re-writing history, he's a convicted criminal and thug.
[i]He stubbed out a lit cigar in youth player Jamie Tandy's eye[/i]
[i]Barton sparked a ten-man brawl in a friendly match against Doncaster Rovers on 25 July 2004 after "hacking" at an opposition player[/i]
[i]Barton was sent home from a pre-season tournament in Thailand after assaulting a 15-year-old Everton supporter[/i]
[i]Barton was fined £100,000 and suspended by City until the end of the 2006–07 season on 1 May 2007, following an incident during training when he assaulted his team mate Ousmane Dabo[/i]
[i]CCTV showed Barton punching a man twenty times, causing him to lose consciousness,[/i]
[i]On 10 November, in a 2–1 defeat to Blackburn, Barton again acted violently, punching Morten Gamst Pedersen in the chest.[/i]
[i]when he appeared to direct homophobic remarks and a lewd gesture at Fernando Torres[/i]
Think you would call that 'form'
Who's rewriting history? the question was whether it was really believed that Wilshere was 'already twice the player Barton is' or whether that is born from the fact it is Joey Barton.
No-one's covering that up, the comment is only that once over the white line he's actually a pretty decent player, and doesn't go crying like a little boy when things go against him.
It will be interesting to note what teams the Barton supporters support...
I wouldn't have him in my team simply because of his history - he can't be a good influence on other players. I wouldn't care about any 'over a white line' rule. B'loxs to that.
I'm a Reading fan, but I do have a soft spot for the Mags as that's my mum's home town and my grandad used to take me to SJP in the 70's.
I understand what you're saying and I was 'against' signing him actually. But that's not the point here. Take the who out of it, he's playing bloody well currently.
Barton is a nasty sh*t, but that doesn't mean he shouldn't play for England.
I'd worry that Barton's type of "passionate" football just doesn't cut it at international level. If he tackled Xavi, Schweinsteiger or any player with any sense, the way he did Diaby, he'd probably end up off the pitch as they wouldn't get up and throttle him, they'd be rolling around on the floor while their team mates berated the ref. We know the refs in England let a lot of the harder tackles go as it's considered part of the game here.
He's a good club player and maybe he should get another chance for England, but the only midfielder in the current squad that I'd swap him for is Gareth Barry. He got found out in the world cup, too slow and not smart enough to make up for his lack of pace.
Barton is bully and a thug. It's a shame that Mathieu Flamini doesn't play for Arsenal anymore as he would have put Barton in his place.