Thread for anything bar PNE

**themaclad** · 30-11-2016, 18:34

So from now on expectations will lower and we may surprise someone although not holding my breath

**St Charles Owl** · (This post was last modified: 30-11-2016, 19:04 by St Charles Owl.)

I don't think the FA have ever really said what their expectation is for any tournament. Obviously qualification is a definite expectation and progress out of the group stage should also be in there but after that its down to the draw and the manner of any defeat I am sure. Currently England should consider getting to the quarter finals as par for the course, any more is a bonus and any less is a cause for concern.

Most of the expectation pressure seems to come from the media and the fans anyway, thats where expectations need to be reduced and take some pressure off the England shirt and allow them to develop and play as a team.

**themaclad** · 30-11-2016, 19:11

Somehow suspect that in about 50 years or so there will be nobody alive who wil have seen us win a major tournament like I did 50 years ago

**St Charles Owl** · 30-11-2016, 19:19

(30-11-2016, 19:11)themaclad Wrote: Somehow suspect that in about 50 years or so there will be nobody alive who wil have seen us win a major tournament like I did 50 years ago

While ever the PL is full of non-English players we will struggle to win anything. I was listening to Danny Mills (I think it was him) on a podcast I downloaded and he said back in his day he would leave his club to join the England team and it was noticeable that the quality in the team was distinctly higher than in his league side. Now England players turn up at St Georges and when they look around the team they see players who are not as good as the ones they left at their clubs. We have produced a domestic league that in my opinion is the best in the world, where teams from top to bottom as competitive on any given Saturday, where its rare that any team gets hammered by any other and the quality of every team is high, but it has been at the expense of young English players getting in the first teams of the top clubs. Without players being given a chance they will stop progressing once they reach late teens/early 20s and while sending them on loan gives them match time etc, it will not improve them as players playing week in, week out against players in League 1!! Maybe the one benefit from Brexit is we do not have to automatically allow any decent player from any EU country to walk into the prem and force the clubs to have a higher number of English players in their matchday squads.

**themaclad** · 30-11-2016, 19:44

Very true sadly for the time being it's better to bring in from abroad then wait and develop your own, and for the Prem clubs England is second on the list not first

**themaclad** · 08-12-2016, 16:15

FIFA want 48 teams to compete in the World Cup finals with 16 groups of three teams each that should work well in the football wasteland that is Qatar, ludicrous.

**themaclad** · 12-12-2016, 19:35

When you lose your team in a plane crash would seem a bit harsh to receive a fine for non fulfilment of fixtures but that is what the Brazilian FA have done to Chapeconense

**themaclad** · 16-12-2016, 23:18

Morecambe, Southend, Notts County and Bolton all have winding up orders awaiting them In the High Court. Not good news especially as the top division is awash with money.

**St Charles Owl** · 17-12-2016, 20:28

I thought Bolton had sorted themselves out with the takeover??

Astonishing division by the Brazilian FA if they follow through with that fine!!

**themaclad** · 17-12-2016, 21:27

No Bolton were taken over by people who had no money and still haven't losing 800,000 a month as well