Never met the Head man. Although he was the head man at the time. Only really met the bloke in Ricky who came to our house in Ricky at the time and convinced my dad (and me) that maybe I should take a punt with the Palarse. Must have been watching me somewhere or other.
No “fabulous Pozzo scouting network” (TM) for WFC in those days, eh? We should invite @I Blame Bassett over to this thread as Mr IBB is a supporter of the Palarse.
Good evening! I believe Bert was the Palace boss when we signed Ross Jenkins. Mr IBB is still miffed with Croydon Roy, for a meeting at The AELTC a few years back when: a) Roy didn't recognise him* b) He didn't remember the John Ruskin School song! * Roy was at the same school. He does delight in telling anyone that Roy didn't make the school team,but he did.
As I remember it, it went something like this. I went for some sort of kickabout training session thing starting at 10 a.m. That was followed by lunch. Egg&chips I think. Then I was invited back to play in some sort of close-season friendly against an amateurish south London team at Selhurst. So still in the frame then. I really can't remember against who now. Could have been South Norwood Junction F.C. or some such. Anyway, us Palarse juniors lost that one 1-2 despite my having played one of our (black - a rarity back then) forwards in with a cleverly weighted ball for our (the Palarse) goal. I never got invited back. I'm not sure why. Maybe it was because I didn't 'track back' enough. Or maybe it was because I told them I would never play in the same team as that diving canute Zaha and anyway, I was already signed up with WFC and Harry the Hornet. Who knows. On a more serious note. I was in with a chance. Despite going to WBGS where they only played rugby. So, post eleven, my football enhancement was pretty much down to me. My father (despite being a school football coach) wanted me to be a cricketer. A batsman. I hated f.cking batting. A big, red, hard ball coming down the wicket to hit me in the b.llocks. Bowling with its subtleties? Much better at that. Anyway, the moral of this story is this. If your offspring, or your pupils, show sporting prowess then encourage them in the sport they actually show talent in, rather than the one you would rather wish them to show talent in. Failure to do that will lead to long term resentment. I carry the scars to this day.
Kelso and I have something in common. I too had a trial at Crystal Palace. Actually at Croydon Magistrates Court if I am to be precise.
Maybe, but of the two Man U England defenders I wondered why the poorer and more injury-prone one has been chosen. Perceived versatility?
Some of the provisional WC squads. Ruben Neves misses out for Portugal as does Alves for Brazil with injury. Aguero reckons he now has a new knee and will be fit the for the start of the tournament. A list of all the WC officials. Shamefully none from England. The BBC trailer for the World Cup. A bit underwhelming. Preferred this.
Belgium leaving out Nainggolan is just mental. Only a handful of players, sadly, wear their heart on their sleeve these days and he is one of them. Kabasele is in the squad,though.
Ashley Young is in the squad. Young, Valencia & Bailly look the part of top level defenders. Smalling has some presence in the boxes. Jones is lamentable.
Kabasele sadly looks nailed-on to be one of the 5 cut from the squad looking at the names in it. Plus he’s only got one cap, 2 years ago.
Martinez has made a rod for his own back. You can understand that the player is volatile but a good manager puts their arm around such a player. His formation of 3-4-3 does not suit the player as well. He isn't the only omission which will raise eyebrows and cause huge ructions with supporters should a team stumble out early. Mauro Icardi joint top scorer in Serie A has been left out in favour of perennial three time choker Higuain. Again the reasons are probably not to do with playing performance but off the field activities and other players who dislike Icardi for his partner.
I’d say Icardi hasn’t gone because he’s similar to Messi and Aguero in physical stature and Higuain offers something different in that respect. A good striker was always going to miss out for them. Naingollan is a stupid decision though. I see Martinez’s reasoning was that ‘he’s had such a good season with Roma and he’s one of their best performers and on that basis we can’t offer him a similar role’ - so they don’t take him at all but take Fellaini and Januzaj?!
Icardi is a classic nine and is not similar at all in build to Messi or Aguero. He was up against Higuain for selection and has been better than him all season. Not to mention he could not be accused of missing three gilt edged chances which has cost his team three titles. As with Radja it's off the pitch issues. Namely he is married to a woman who used to be married to a close friend of Mascherano.
Smalling is a better defender than all of those mentioned. If he was playing for Burnley/ Newcastle/ Brighton, he'd be their star and people would be saying that he should play for United. United could do better, but he's been a mainstay in the best defensive side in the PL (City conceded fewer but played so well that their defence barely had to do anything). He's good enough for Mourinho and kept Jones and Bailly out of the team. It makes no sense that he isn't good enough for Southgate. I say this with incredible bitterness as he's far from world class, but he's probably our best CB. Saying all that, Lascelles should be on the list too.
Sounds like we won’t agree on this haha! I think Smalling is truly awful, he’s not better than Bailly and I don’t believe he’s better than Lascelles and certainly not Dunk.
Argentina squad. Romero is out and replaced by Nahuel Guzman. No big loss as Armani is the best keeper outside of the top European leagues and a target for Juventus. Mercado is still an injury doubt. Upfront and out wide the weapons to beat any team in Meza, Pavon, Messi and Aguero capably supported by young Lo Celso. Defence is reasonably solid if it sits deep (although Pezzella who has been superb in serie A is a major omission over Rojo) and will probably be Sampaoli's swamping type defence. Issues are defensive midfield. Biglia and Mascherano the only recognized DM's are past it. Omitting young Asascibar of Stuttgart who has been outstanding in the Bundesliga and is very reminiscent of Kante is a terrible mistake. Icardi should have gone instead of Higuain but off the pitch issues seem to have affected Sampaoli. There is a meme on this forum about obtaining information at petrol stations about players and their futures. Well the Serbian preliminary squad was announced by their manager at a gas station in this little memorandum sent to all sports journalists there. EKO deliver petroleum products so that is the reason why.
Iceland's WC squad. Some seemingly poor results in Mexico & Peru as part of their preparation but that team fielded many new caps. Should be a tough proposition for Argentina, Croatia and Nigeria. And who can forget this chant....
Siggursson, the ageing puffin hunter and Aggnettirsdottir the seamstress were the only notable exclusions from their squad. Everyone else in Iceland was included.
There are bound to be a few decent relitively unknown players who come to the fore at the W C Finals, and I would not be surprised if we were go in for one or two of them, after all it's the Pozszo way.
Really? Signing players at maximum inflated price while their public exposure couldn't be higher is surely the opposite of the Pozzo way?
Yeah but he was talking about the Pozszos. Don't know them myself but they sound Polish. Interested to hear more.
If it’s anything like the last World Cup, we’ll sign a couple of unknowns from lesser nations, who then deceive us all by putting in 3-4 outstanding performances against quality opposition, leading to months and months of desperately hoping said unknowns remember how to play football again once they’ve joined up with us.
It's an odd one at first look, but for Germany he moves centrally. A lot. For City he pretty much stays wide. He's been great for City but utterly useless for Germany. Low obviously thinks that spot could be better used by someone else that's better at the role he wants rather than trying to fit him in when he doesn't belong. Iceland must be rubbing their hands together with glee after watching Nigeria haplessly defend set-pieces against us at the weekend.
Well Low is a World Cup winner so probably knows what he is doing and the German media don't seem very surprised and back up your view he hasn't performed for the country. Maybe we should try to get Sane to become English - fit in perfectly then!
Apart from England winning it, my dearest hope for this world cup is that the 'small minority of English fans' go looking for trouble, and find it in f***ing spades.
