Lingard just called up to your squad. Is that genuinely down to a lack of english talent or is it simply the 'big club' factor again?
He's played, what, three games for Man Utd this season? What do you think it is? Lingard isn't Messi, so why is he called up ahead of Ward-Prowse? His club manager said he wasn't ready to play for England - in fact he even laughed at the question. Roy knows better though. He's a disgrace, his squad selections are a disgrace and I will happily cheer when we go out in the group stages and he ****ing quits having taken the team no further than when he started. Easy ****ing retirement fund money for the clown.
Probably because he scored a good goal the other week... Somebody made a good point elsewhere - is this an example of why our youngsters don't really progress. They have one or two good games then get called up which probably means they feel they've made it.
Hopefully Lingard won't actually play and he's only in the squad to make up numbers and provide an emergency option off the bench, in case of injuries. Somehow I doubt it. Hodgson seems to have listened to those who criticised previous managers for not giving youth enough of a chance. It's a shame that he's implemented it terribly and brought in players far before they're ready. Lallana, Barkley, Delph, Shelvey, Alli and Dier were all already in the squad - why put a huge amount of extra pressure on Lingard when it's not needed? Saying that, I'd actually say the same about Alli and Dier, but at least they've been consistent through the first three months of this season and there are several injuries. I'd prefer to see a safe option like Tom Cleverley brought back in, or Mark Noble who should be in anyway, or even Charlie Austin as a third striker.
Would love for Hodgson to explain how Lingard is worthy of a place in the squad over someone like Deeney.
It's going to be an unreal atmosphere on Tuesday, and I would think no kind of match for anyone to play in, especially a debutant.
Not a huge amount of pressure in a footballing sense, I suppose - even if England lose, I can't imagine more than a select few would see it as more important than Friday's events. Still a terrifying prospect for any of the players involved.
Looks like the Irish have qualified, would love to get them in our group now EDIT: They've just qualified, hopefully James McClean breaks his leg on the last game of the season now
Ah right, for some reason I thought they were in pot 3. Probably for the best as it would probably end in some sort of trouble if we did play so better not playing them in that sense
Was half hoping that the Irish wouldn't qualify. It'd serve them right due to the amount of turncoat Northern Irishmen in their team that turned their backs on their country.
In their defence, there isn't too many of them, they are targeting the youth players from a Catholic background. What actually happens is that a lot switch to ROI and then their careers go down hill a bit, i.e Eunan O'Kane (although he is in the PL now, so maybe playing for ROI?) and Rory Donnelly. Wouldn't mind as much if they didn't come through our youth system and take the place of someone who wanted to play for NI. Then there is the strange case of Shane Ferguson who switched to ROI and has now come back and is doing well for us, albeit as a back up player. I don't see why the players do defect to the ROI, Windsor Park now has a large portion of Catholics who attend games and our manager and plenty of players are Catholic (McGinn, McCourt, Clingan, Ferguson, Boyce, Lavery). The players who defect act like they have been forced to which has a knock on effect on the younger Catholics coming through. Some of our best players through the years have been Catholic too: Pat Jennings (most caps), Pat Rice, Gerry Armstrong, Martin O'Neill, Mal Donaghy, etc.
The pity is that there is a need to categorise the players according to their religious backgrounds. Some day there may be a nothern irish team made up entirely of atheists (the common enemy). What to do then?
Listening to the players being interviewed last night, most of them sounded more like an England team, as a lot of them had English accents! I expect a lot are like me, born and bred in England with Irish parentage or even Grand Parents!
I have no idea what you mean? Northern Irish fans no longer view players by religion and haven't for a long time. There was a large backlash at the Belfast Telegraph recently as they ran a story on Michael O'Neill being a Catholic. Any player from any background would be supported by NI
Good point! Although you can tell from the areas players are from, i.e Sammy Clingan had a song and one of the lines were 'He's from the falls' and thats a very Catholic area. Some of the others are easily identified by name, such as Michael O'Neill and Caolan Lavery. And McGinn and McCourt used to play for Celtic so that's a given. Its quite different here to England, a lot of the time you can tell someone's religion from name, where they live, accent and even what they wear! (And what sports they play). Although NI fans will know the religion/background of players, they wouldn't judge them on that anymore
Ridiculous comparison. Barnes never came through Jamaica's youth teams, so it's not like any money they spent on his development went to waste. England and Jamaica are also not arch-rivals.
A leg break? I was hoping he would miss the Euros... In saying that I wouldn't be disappointed at all if his career did end, its not as if he'd be stuck financially or anything. Can't stand the man. Didn't a lot of WFC fans laugh when Savage broke his leg against us?
