Tragic Football Stories - Let us Kick Around the misshapen Jabulani that is English football right here

spanish centre soft

silent pleas...i don't understand

Liverpool's new £20m midfielder has done little so far to suggest he is worth all that money

excellent

Hands clasped, beseeching look? god knows really. xpost

he's chased a lot of players without catchin them, tbf to dude that's not his gane

Yeah bet Liverpool are so pissed that he isn't performing for a different team.

england good when the blood's up what what

i'll read this all back in a minute but having just watched that farce my impression is that Spain don't know how to kill a game they're bossing and England are gash

yeah that seems to've been the general opinion

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/13744518.stm

didnt catch the match but lol at all this ^^

At last! Someone identifies the problem. ENGLAND NOT ARROGANT ENOUGH!

Not sure I've seen arrogance identified as a Spanish trait before, footballwise - it's usually German, Italian, Dutch, Argentine or French arrogance (never Brazilian, curiously). I guess this is the sign confirming that Spain have finally made it.

stuart pearce is so fucking stupid

idk man, is he

could any of us, even in jest, have come up with such a breathtakingly savant contortion of logic

i wonder

The FA remains convinced that Stuart Pearce is the best man to manage the England's Under-21s despite the team's early exit from the European Championship last night and an FA source has confirmed it has no intention of withdrawing the two-year contract extension that has been on offer to him since before the tournament.

jobs for the men who can't manage the boys

he did manage them to the final two years ago tho. i don't know what happened in that game tho, not really interested tbh.

Well I'm scandalised that this guy's still got a job doing reasonably well with a team I never pay any attention to

for those who don't want to know what happened to the England U21s in the 2009 final, look away now.

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THEY GOT FUCKING GUBBED

Did Josh McEachran play at all in this tournament? Was he even in the squad? Looks a better prospect than anyone except Wilshere.

not in the aquad, he's a couple years younger than most of the squad

so bbc runs yet another article about the dude who backed ashley young at watford when everyone said he'd never make it.

"When he got to 15 or 16 there was a school of thought at Watford that he wasn't big enough, strong enough or quick enough to make a professional footballer. I felt I knew him best from working with him and thought he had bags and bags of ability. I really felt there was something there and I think you have got to trust the people who work with the players more than anyone else.

"I'm not one of those that believes you have to be six-feet plus to be a good footballer. I just saw a fantastic footballer and luckily they listened to my opinion about Ashley and kept him there.

okay ashley young is not leo messi, but like, you read this and kinda think how many ashley youngs are getting turfed out at 15/16 in england? i mean there are tons of great players who aren't big...it's not rugby.

isn't he p quick/big now?

he's still tiny but is very quick.

Who's the Watford guy? Not Graham Taylor?

http://forward-football.net/Features/chris-cummins/

Can anyone think of a good centre back who wasn't/isn't particularly tall or physically imposing?

i always think puyol is tiny and his hair is half his height, dunno if that counts?

Bobby Moore

Think there must have been plenty of small quick dude/tall jumpy dude combos throughout football history

are you just looking for english centre backs? roberto ayala if not.

ok i lied Moore was taller than he looks

Cannavaro

Yeah Puyol seems tiny to me too. Wiki says he's 5'10".

x-posts. Any nationality really. Just trying to think of 'unlikely' CBs. Read somewhere that Jay Spearing started out as a CB, and the Ashley Young thing got me thinking.

Baresi wasn't the tallest

'The greatest full-backs of all time' seems to be the answer here

ivan cordoba

anthony gardner

Three Lions of Africa, examining England's World Cup failure in South Africa, will be broadcast at 1930 BST on Tuesday, 28 June. Former Football Association executive director David Davies will present the programme and host a studio discussion immediately afterwards.

a) what a fucking lame title
b) didn't lineker already do this programme six months ago?

hey blueski

i. Yeah
ii. Yeah but can't be overstressed innit

''One mistake and you could be absolutely slaughtered,'' Carragher told BBC Radio 5 live. ''At your club, you know you will not be criticised as much and perhaps three days later there will be another game.

''With England, it could be months before you have another fixture. There is a fear at times when playing for England.''

He added: ''The intensity of the press does get to the players. Sometimes I think players would prefer the press guy to think they had played well, rather than the manager.''

Carragher also claimed the players were bored in South Africa where they spent most of their day in a hotel, saying: ''You stay in a hotel all day but you are at a World Cup for a long time and should be able to experience different things.

''I wouldn't want players holed up. Take away the boredom, embrace the country we are in more. You never see anything.''

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/930750/jamie-carragher:-england-suffer-from-fear-factor?cc=5901

Did Josh McEachran play at all in this tournament? Was he even in the squad? Looks a better prospect than anyone except Wilshere.

So still a chance Scotland can nick him then?

don't make any mistakes, pro tip. You're playing slovakia and algeria.

" One mistake and the ref could take action, if a limb is severed he might even book you. It's not like at home, where they understand that, as an England international, you've already proven yourself enough and ought to be supported in your half-arsed efforts"

See, I think this is an interesting admission because I have always surmised that this is England's weakness; a certain timidity born of the disconnect between England's self-image and how good (or poor) they actually are then magnified by a relentless press. It's a terrible timidity, too. Just look at the difference in style of play in '10 between the Germans and the English.

knowing how good you are is a pretty important part of preparing correctly, i don't know how much leeway i'd give there.

And they rarely manage expectations going into the things. Next time, let's have wazza saying 'just happy to get out of the group, when you look at the players we have you've got to be realistic havent you'

yeah they completely contribute to their own stupid hype, but really if we can't find 23 professional footballers who can deal with the pressure of playing in a World Cup then maybe we shd give up and stick to darts or something

Imagine it without the hype though, it wouldn't be very entertaining.

i don't know the Scots always seemed to enjoy themselves

Managing expectations would be a good thing but also telling them (and the English collectively) to just go for it; you're not as good as you think you are but thinking that you're hot shit when you're not actually makes you play worse. It's okay to try and hold onto a 3-0 lead but England have a tendency to try and hold onto 1-0 leads for 60+ minutes which is psychological madness.