Warnock - Little Englunder Eejit extraordinaire
Warnock has blamed England's inability to complete at the international level on too many foreign players in the English premiership. He claims foreign players have better technical abilities and the reason English players lack those skills are because foreign players are in the Premiership. This would only make sense if English players were making way for foreign players which is not really the case if you look at England's squad.
Warnock is advocating restrictions on the number of foreign players in the league. He's clearly right. If all foreign players were removed the league could revert back to playing the long ball and players' technical skills would clearly blossom by competing against comparable or inferior opponents.
If you want to be the best, you got to play the best. F%*k off back to the First Division.
posted by Chris P at
10/12/2006 12:35:00 PM
10 Comments:
Warner is a rent-a-quote idiot. All those foreigners who play in Serie A, where foreigners were common long before Ruud Gullit and co arrived in England, didn't seem to affect Italy during the World Cup did they?
I am sure English players like Walcott, Rooney and Cole will tell you that training daily with the likes of Henry, Heinze and Makelele has made them worse players.
Always a new excuse with England(from the media and pundits that is...most English fans I know get it). Its never that many of the players are overrated as a result of playing in the over-hyped Premiership and the manager is average at best.
England will qualify again, which is more than we will do, but get no further than the last 8.
By
TheBusbyBoy, at 4:34 PM
It's also a bit rich for anyone from Sheffield United to disparage "technical abilities" in the premiership. As if they play total football at Sheffield United and then play beach football in Brazil during their break.
By
Chris P, at 4:46 PM
I actually dont think Warnock is too far wrong, he just dramatically overstates his case.
Looking at England's national side, we have been crap now for ages - barring one late victory against Argentina we have been horrible to watch, battered by Denmark, beaten by N Ireland, lucky to beat Wales, any game we played in the World Cup was a shambles... and then this week.
The players we had on paper seem great but despite all the foreign influence they often seem exposed at international level as very unimaginative and ordinary. I am a huge proponent of foreigners in the Prem but I want to see limits as by 2010 and 2014 we wont be qualifying for tournaments as our player pool will be tiny and like Ireland/Wales etc we will be forced to play guys who dont play regularly for their clubs.
I want top class foreigners in but i want to see clubs forced to impose limits so that they stop bringing in foreign filler (POrtsmouth loaded with crap foreigners), Liverpool right now have a ton of fellas I have barely heard of, Spurs have how many God knows who they are types...
THere has to be a balance - i like Bergkamp, Cantona, Henry, Ronaldo etc.. these guys really bring something to the game but then you have Akotto, Sonko, Cygan (thankfully gone), Evra, etc.. who add next to nothing.
By
WhatsupWheaton Simon, at 1:06 PM
Heres your mistake "The players we had on paper seem great"
Really great? Or "sky tell us these players are great so we pay our fees for the pleasure of watching them every week" great?
Gerrard and Rooney are the only two who might ever flirt with greatness.
By
TheBusbyBoy, at 4:04 PM
Hmm tough one - Gerrard and Rooney are great, both of them can turn games by themselves, this is proven week in and week out in the Premiership where they do it against top quality.
Ashley Cole/John Terry/Gary Neville/Rio are all part of a very very good defence when they arent playing 3-5-2. Beyond that, they are average i agree: Crouch/Defoe/SWP/LampPost are all mediocre to me but capable.
WHen i judge great though i base it on Prem performances against many of the World's best - certainly not on Sky telling me that Lampard is deserving of being runner up to Ronaldhino etc...
As a keeper do you think Robinson should have controlled it first? Or do you think its daft to kick it directly back to goal from Neville to a player gifted with his hands? Should he have played it to the side?
By
WhatsupWheaton Simon, at 4:34 PM
I don't agree with you Simon. The league is not that inundated with foreigners that players can't break in. The possible exception to this is Wayne Bridge but he would be a starter at any other club and actually is being another English player at Chelsea. Same with SWP, it's his fault he went to Chelsea. You don't see SWPs withering on the vines at other clubs.
Rather than blame foreigners this group of overpaid prima donnas should look in the mirror. There used to be pride in playing for England. For lack of a better word, they're soft as shite. With Beckham they were more focused on their hair and other things than football. Now they are also just plain stupid tactically. Blame the foreign gaffer if you like on that one.
If they're unimaginative, how is going back to the long ball going to happy? Also, are you seriously blaming foreigners for Neville being a muppet?
This doesn't make sense. Also, why is it alright for clubs with plenty of dosh to have foreign players but not smaller clubs like Pompey, albeit financed now by a Russian.
To John's point, you should also blame the English press. There is a premium attached to English players. Tottenham would have been lucky with half the fee they got on Carrick if Carrick weren't English.
Blaming foreigners for England's woes is a weak argument full stop.
By
Chris P, at 5:21 PM
I quite agree Chris, i would never blame foreigners for England's woes. They have certainly raised the technical skills of the Premiership - though i think its debatable how much they have raised the technical skills of the English. I dont think English players are that technical, never have been really barring the odd few (Joe Cole is in that category but few are). For me the hope is England kids watch the Bergkamps and Cantonas and learn from watching them and dont just rely on set pieces which is over emphasised in English schools.
The problem is English clubs (Arsena, United, Liverpool and the rest) are buying abroad cheaper players and the result is less opportunity for English players and thus less of a player pool.
The fault there is 2 fold - one the Press gets these players bought at a premium by building up the local talent and two, the clubs are able to buy better abroad in a global economy. England has money and players want to come here. Undeniably this is causing the Prem to be very foreign and clubs are fielding now all foreigners - particularly the top clubs that play in Europe. English players arent getting into the C-League very often.
Economics is the problem, global market, but domestic money. With so much talent abroad it automatically increases the price of talent unearthed at home hence clubs avoid it and make the problem worse.
By
WhatsupWheaton Simon, at 5:46 PM
The Robinson thing was just bad luck I think. Crazy he is getting such abuse over it as, from what I saw of the highlights, it seemed like he was man of the match apart from that. There is always a scapegoat with the media though. Thats the tragic part of it be it P Neviile, G Neville, Seaman, Beckham, Southgate, Rooney...Jesus you don't even have to be on the English team (Maradona and Ronaldo). I didn't see the game but it sounds like Croatia deserved their win. If you are a reporter for some rag, its a lot easier to blow up the Robinson incident rather than actually offer constructive analysis about what went wrong and what needs to change.
Ya, I suppose if you were coaching kids and trying to tell them what was done wrong you would say Neville should have played it wide of the goal and Robinson should have taken a touch but it was incredibly bad luck. The backpass was given at a nice pace to his kicking foot and there were two Croatians geting very close so maybe he didn't want to risk a bad first touch. Kicking is a really strong part of Robinson's game.
Anyway, it finished 2-0 I believe.
By
TheBusbyBoy, at 1:32 AM
I love the shot of Mclaren making notes when the goal went in. What a bluffer. I would love to know what the note is "Tell Paul after the game to take a touch" Ya, its definitely worth making a note though in case he forgets about this incident after the game.
Nice shot of Borat behind the goal too. That movie got some great advertising out of this.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOQpPddPxWg
By
TheBusbyBoy, at 1:38 AM
Good God! I turn my attention to marathon training and an intelligent conversation/debate breaks out here. Wonderful to feel the passion of the pundits on RTC; all valid complaints.
Two observations:
(1) All progress is change, but not all change is progress. A complete overhaul of the FA system is not in order, nor are extreme limits on foreign players. The EPL can afford to have the best players in the world playing alongside the home-grown talents. The removal of rigidity in developmental training at the youth level, though, must occur. England play like robots for the majority of their matches against quality opposition: on display at WC06, certainly. They don't "decide" to do this - they are simply the products of their environment. Actually, they are beginning to play a bit like the USA's team...afraid to make mistakes, afraid to play with passion, frightened almost as much of success as they are of failure. SGE did not have the requisite fiery character as manager to change this to the extent that my boy, Stuart Pearce, does not yet have the match-management maturation to deftly make tactical adjustments. But, you can't simply blame the senior squad manager for a decade plus of repetition in training that has encouraged a certain style, or certain reactions at critical moments of a match. The impetuous nature of certain players at crucial junctures is a clear sign of the frustration of being out-classed by technical and tactical prowess. Not athleticism, not ball skills, but match awareness and positional responsibility. When was the last time you watched an England match and commented on the beautiful flow? Maybe the Argentina friendly a year ago? The FA youth committee should focus on developing vision and creativity in their ranks, not automatons.
(2) Manage the expectations. How tired and tawdry the media has become with these colonial attitudes of inherent domination! Too much pressure is piled upon these players - and I argue against the premise that they are professionals and millionaires and should deal with it - because they are, like all of us scrubs, just human beings. The England side is continually set up for disappointment by the press and it really becomes just a self-fulfiling prophecy. All of the songs and jingles and highlight videos do not silverware make. At some point in the future, a leader needs to emerge who basically says "roll up your sleeves, boys, and start tackling" instead of worrying about hairdos and fashionable attire. Question is, who is that leader? It wasn't Becks. Can it be Terry? I don't know. But the team leadership among the players must come from within - not from people in the television studio or even from the coaches on the touchline. They have to focus on themselves and not worry about the outside influences. Again, they're human, easier said than done. If they are proud to play for England, they had better act like it. If they lost 7-0 to Croatia, fine, as long as they all had to be carried off the pitch at the end because they were too exhausted from hard work to walk themselves. But don't lose 2-0, or lose to N. Ireland, or whimper off on penalties without leaving every ounce of blood, sweat, toil and tears on the field. I might be a bit romantic here, but I stand by that particular mental attitude over the haughty nature that most of these wafer-thin backbones possess currently (especially on the world stage).
By
GAC, at 11:53 AM
Post a Comment
<< Home