A Long Way From Glory

Qualification for a major competition should be seen as exciting and a welcomed achievement; but for England fans, last night’s two-all draw in Montenegro just typified the current mentality and capability of the England national team: it doesn't amount to much. While Spain qualified some time ago for Euro 2012 at a canter, winning all their group games to date, for England it was more of a struggle and they seemed to crawl over the finish line - albeit with a game to spare. While Spain were the undistracted hare, England were most definitely the tortoise.

A side with so much capability fails to produce on so many occasions, and the scepticism amongst the England fans is now at its highest. I think it’s time to call a spade and spade and admit that our chances in Poland and Ukraine next summer are severely slim and our chances are actually dwindling as we play more matches.

The ever-changing England team are failing to gel and as a result are playing poorly. The catalyst, surely, is the manager. Fabio Capello, in his time so far managing England, has divided opinion and more often than not has failed to win over a large chunk of the English contingent. Although a highly regarded coach and a very good appointment by the FA, Capello seems to be producing an England team that is boring to watch, and he has rightly come under criticism for this amongst other things. I've never been a fan of Capello and he is yet to completely win me over. I don’t believe that he the man to lead England to victory, but I'd like to see him prove me and a lot of England fans wrong.

The players of England must also shoulder some of the blame of this dwindling form of late. The main criticism of the England team is that they underperform, underachieve and fail to entertain. I don’t expect a team of players who play against each other more than they play with each other to click automatically every time there is an International fixture; but surely the class and experience of these footballers, playing regularly in the Premier League, should allow them to put on better performances then those we are witnessing at the moment. It’s lackluster, it’s not entertaining and frankly: it’s boring. This is exactly why a lot of people find it hard to be patriotic and passionate about the team any more. Thankfully, I’m not one of those people, but I can see their point: why be passionate about a team who don’t look passionate themselves?

I can see I’m painting a bleak picture here. Of course it isn’t all doom and gloom: we have qualified, which is more than can be said for our last Euro campaign, but the manner in which we qualified is disappointing. It’s all well and good trying to defend the England team “it’s next summer, they’ll be better by then” – but will they? They always seem to crumble under the pressure of a big tournament and let the monster that is the English media get to them. I don’t expect England to win Euro 2012; I just expect them to play a little bit better than they have done during the qualifying campaign, or it’s going to be a very, very short stay in Poland and Ukraine next summer.

Club Favouritism: We can see it Fabio.

At first glance, it's a head-scratcher: Chris Smalling called up to the England team. Upon closer inspection, it's a little easier to see why: He plays for Manchester United.

I'm all for giving players chances, it's rare you see Championship players called up for England so I'm happy Bothroyd has been given a chance even though I don't rate him, but when you see players called up and even better players not getting a look in, to me, it's nonsensical. It's ridiculous. And it points to the one thing the England manager won't want to admit: club favouritism.


I'm starting to think now that for Roger Johnson to get called up to the England squad he'd have to dance naked in front of Fabio Capello waving a DVD of 'RoJo's best bits' from last season in his face. The thing is though, Capello has actually watched him on several occasions: he came often to St. Andrews on Joe Hart watch, and saw what Johnson gives to a team. He's your real English centre back: He puts his heart on his sleeve and would put his limbs in the way of an oncoming train. He's the type of player that would play with a broken leg; he'd get up, dust himself down and hobble on until the end of the game. He doesn't like losing; he's said so himself. He doesn't like defeat; that's why he always carries on. He's always shouting at the other players; because when something isn't right, Roger will tell you. In fact, Roger should be telling Fabio it's not right, because if he were to stick on a Chelsea shirt or a Man United shirt tomorrow and play for them, he'd get an England call-up just like that.

The same goes for Gary Cahill. Although he's been called up before - and done everything to warrant being called up again, may I add - he's also being overlooked again. No one gets it, in fact I think the only people who get it are United fans who are, understandably, happy for their player and Capello himself. It's come to a point now where no one else gets it though. It's been said for years England managers show club favouritism and now it's becoming a joke.

This desision has caused a lot of talking points, and the names being thrown about are the two i've mentioned: Roger Johnson and Gary Cahill. They are two great defenders who really deserve a chance, and two defenders who are better than Chris Smalling. I'm sorry Chris, but you probably even realise it yourself. Even Scott Dann, who sometimes even looks more assured than Johnson, and has played at Under-21 level is still being ignored by the England set up.

From the start of last season, Roger Johnson has played every single minute of every single Premier League game for Birmingham, showing not only his obvious defensive talent in the games, but his body-on the line mentality and his never say die attitude. He is the type of person every England fan would love to see playing for their team, and I'm not being biased when I say this, because England fans are all saying the same thing.

Gary Cahill has been a top defender for years. Blues tried to sign him before, but - don't quote me - I think this is when he transferred to Bolton. And he's been doing great there. He's the rock of their defence and, like Johnson, he puts his body on the line. He's more experianced and probably more technically able than Roger, which begs the bigger question as to why Smalling was called up ahead of him. For experiance for the young lad who has played just twenty minutes of Premier League football this season? Please don't make me laugh. It's because he has a red devil on his chest and the Glazers put the money into his bank account every week. And we all know it is.

The sad truth is out there, and unfortunetly even the players know it. Roger Johnson was interviewed back in October and he said, and I quote: "When it comes to a move or an England call, they are things that I have got to look to do. If a big move comes in then I would have to think about it." - because that's what players have to do nowadays. Lets face it, the Bolton's and Birmingham's of this world are seen as inferior. How can they produce good players? How can we call up players from their teams and ignore players at Manchester United?

It's becoming and unwritten rule for England managers and I wish Capello would have the balls to pick players on form, like he says he does, rather than players by what club they ply their trade for.

Here's to new beginnings

This ‘England revolution’ being talked about lately isn’t really that much of a revolution. Sure, there’s new players coming through, which is exciting, and talk of a brighter future is also promising. But labeling it as a revolution is probably a bit too far fetched. I prefer to think of it as a new start.

The World -Cup-slate has been wiped clean; players such as Emile Heskey have left England behind for good, and a new crop of fresh, exciting talent is coming through. It’s a new beginning for England and hopefully this means a new start for everyone: no moaning about Capello’s World Cup decisions (although the whole country including me stands firm on the ‘Joe Hart should’ve played’ point - I don‘t think that will be let go anytime soon) and no ‘Wayne Rooney is rubbish’ comments (rubbish being a lighter term that most fans have used recently). Just a fresh start. Starting with the Euro 2012 Qualifiers.

And that’s just what we got.

A new-look England team took centre stage on the new Wembley pitch last night and played out an impressive 4-0 victory. That ‘oh-so-awful’ Wayne Rooney set up three goals; Jermain Defoe got a well-deserved hat-trick; young Adam Johnson came on and got his first England goal; Joe Hart showed everyone why he should’ve been picked for the World Cup, no, he showed Fabio Capello that all managers get it wrong sometimes.. And all in all it was a great team performance. This new England, complete with new kit, that everyone had been asking for, was displayed last night.

Sure, the first half was less-than exciting, even after going 1-0 up courtesy of Defoe’s first on his way to a hat-trick. But the team looked calm, collated and in control. The second half was much better, and we won with not so much if an ease, but with a total team performance.


The defence looked solid (barring a Dawson slip and a Johnson near-own-goal) and Joe Hart was playing his game as he always does; like he’s playing in the park with his mates - he is without doubt one of the calmest players I’ve ever seen (again begging the question of the ‘how is he too inexperienced’ topic, but, moving on…).

Playing Steven Gerrard in the centre is what we had all been crying out for: and last night Fabio Capello played him in the centre and probably wondered why he didn’t during the World Cup. Him and Barry together were great. So great, that most of the time you don’t even notice that they are there, because they just do their job. And they’re so good at it. Simple but effective.

Admitting Milner was a great player when he played for Aston Villa, for me, was hard. I thought he was decent, but not World class. Since he’s gone to Manchester City, I don’t know if it’s because I’m actually now watching him play without a pillow or my hands in front of my eyes; but the man is a machine. Bombing down the wing is his specialty, and didn’t he do just that last night. The guy was brilliant. If I were wearing a hat I’d be taking it off to him. He’s fast, powerful and skillful, and he’s just what we need. Down the other wing were Theo Walcott and then Adam Johnson, who are both similar players; expect Walcott has speed as his asset and Johnson has shots as his. Walcott made way for Johnson and almost immediately he showed just why shooting is his specialty, chipping in with England’s third goal of the night for his first goal for England. The midfield was great last night, and it begs the question; Will Frank Lampard come straight in when he comes back from injury?

Playing Rooney just behind Defoe was a tactic that worked brilliantly; Rooney, although still to scoring as prolifically as we would like, set up three goals - two of them being Defoe’s - and he put in a much better shift than all four games at the World Cup combined. He is definitely regaining whatever he lost in the Summer, and hopefully very soon we will have the Wayne Rooney that we all know and love back.

That brings me onto Defoe. He was brilliant. He played his game; got into the right positions and the way he finished off his hat-trick was sublime. People describe ‘The Perfect Hat-trick’ as one with your left peg, one with your right, and one off your head - Defoe’s wasn’t 'the' perfect one, but it can be described as ‘A Perfect Hat-trick’ because it was.

There’s one last player I haven’t talked about in depth, and that’s Joe Hart. Being a fan of Joe doesn’t take much effort: he’s a grounded lad, a brilliant footballer and one of the nicest people I have ever met. What is not to like about him? Nothing, is the answer, if you didn’t sense that it was a rhetorical question.

What that man doesn’t know about keeping calm under pressure isn’t worth knowing. Last night he played his first competitive game for England and he looked like he’d been between those sticks for ages. The first save he had to make was from his own defender Glen Johnson, who tried and failed to clear the ball, sending it straight at Hart who, always ready, pounced on the ball just on the line. Now, most ‘keepers would get up and shout a bit, maybe tell Johnson off. Not Hart. Joe got up, turned around and was laughing. His own player had nearly scored an own goal, and he was laughing.

But that’s what he brings to a team, if nothing else - which we all know he brings plenty else, but for the sake of argument - he brings some kind of aura of happiness. To put it another way: he just loves to play football, and because of that he always has a smile on his face whilst doing so. In my opinion, that makes the rest of the team a little calmer. If you know your goalkeeper is that alright about everything that may be coming his way, you know he’s got confidence in abundance. And that’s what we’ve been searching for in a ‘keeper for a while now; and it seems like we’ve found the perfect one - or near as dammit.

He was also involved in the fourteen or so seconds that made the match. 1-0 up, and Bulgaria go on the attack; the ball is fired, straight at Joe Hart so it was a relatively easy save to make, but he made it all the same. Next thing you know, the ball is at the other end and Defoe is slotting it calmly into the net...

If Bulgaria would’ve scored, England might have had a torrid time of it. 1-1 and the fans get on your backs slightly; 2-0 and the game is over. And with help from Joe Hart; the game was over.


England showed promise last night, but we shouldn’t get too carried away. I think we’ve all learned our lesson now not to go too over the top after winning just one game - see 2010 World Cup qualifiers, and then 2010 World Cup... In fact, on second thoughts, I advise you not to relive that again…

It’s time to look to the future; and with exciting players such as Joe Hart, Adam Johnson and James Milner (the ‘Man City’ revolution) and more experienced players such as Steven Gerrard, Jermain Defoe and Wayne Rooney; England seem to have the solution to success. Or at least, it looks that way.