(20 Jun 2014, 9:49 pm)Andreos Constantopolous wrote Right... Have thought long and hard about this, so...
England were poor at the World Cup.
I predicted we weren't going to get out of the groups and we didn't.
Whatever is said about the performance against Italy and Uruguay, England weren't good enough.
We have qualified using the older, more experienced players - yet when it came to the crunch, Hodgson decided to go with a blend of youth and experience.
Granted, that was probably a good thing, but why not start with the youngsters in qualifying?
At least they would have had a tad more experience going into a major tournament.
The next point is about the Premier League and the amount of foreigners playing in it.
I read somewhere, approx 1/3 of players in the Prem qualify for England.
Haven't done any maths, but it would be interesting to see how many wc goals or appearances have been scored by players plying their trade in the Prem.
I have no idea whether it is EU law or not, but there needs to be something done, to encourage teams to play English players.
Look at Micah Richards. In my opinion, twice the player Glen Johnson is, yet he is rotting away in the reserves on massive wages - with foreign players being picked season after season ahead of him, all of varying quality.
Zabeleta, the fella who was there just a season and left cos he was past it (his name escapes me), Corluka, Boateng and now they have Sagna coming in.
Then you have Luke Shaw - who wont get a game when he leaves Southampton for a top three team (Jack Rodwell anyone? Andy Johnson? Scott Sinclair?).
You have other teams, buying quick fix foreign players - that can be sold on for a quick profit too (Newcastle...).
Granted, encouraging native players into the first team, wont solve everything.
Bobby Robson gave caps to some poor, poor players in the 80's for example.
However, what we also had during that period, was a handful of pro's playing across Europe - in part because of the UEFA van on English clubs.
However, there is no doubt, those moves helped the majority of those players become better.
When I heard Tom Ince was interesting top clubs abroad, I was pleased.
However, it looks like he is going to a mid table Premier League team of some description.
Getting back to England - forget the old guard and start again, with youth for the Euro's.
I agree with pretty much everything you have said there mate, as for the team Hodgson took, everybody asked for youth to have a look in, Hodgson went for youth and it never paid off, but out of the starting XI last night the average age the 11 on the field must have been well under 30, with Stevie G being the oldest, at least the young lads have had some valuable experience.
The problem I see with England is we are like the Dutch in the late 80's right through the 90's, 11 fantastic individuals, not very good as a team.
The time to start rebuilding is now, England is a team in transition now and we need to getting the best out of the young lads, Jack Wilshere, Alex Chamberlain, Luke Shaw, Adam Lallana, Daniel Sturridge, Gary Cahill etc.
As for quotas on foreigners, I am also not sure about EU law, but I am sure if we start capping on EU players that would be against EU laws, restriction of trade, I'm not 100% sure. As for developing young English Players that is supposedly what the idea of a B Team League Is For, So Youngsters can Get More competitive Experience.
England were not good enough, it is that simple, but there were moments when we looked half decent, I personally reckon Gerrard will retire from International football in the near future and I reckon Charles* Hart will get the armband.
The inquest will have pretty much started into what happened at the World Cup and despite a vote of confidence by the FA I will be surprised to see Woy in charge in 12 months time