Steven Gerrard will lead out England tonight in Sweden in the process making his 100th appearance for the country.

It’ll be met, as it has done already, with platitudes and plaudits that don’t merit what has actually occurred in those 100 games. It won’t be talked about in any honest way. No one will ask what has Steven Gerrard done in an England shirt to be worthy of doing it 100 times.

I’ve been posting on here for ages that Gerrard’s exploits on England duty haven’t been worthy of him being picked for the next squad time and time again. Pointing out that of those previous 99 caps you can count the number of decent games – not even great games, just decent – can be counted on one hand. Two of them were against Germany over a decade ago and the others were against the likes of Andorra and Trinidad & Tobago – the latter being achievements against teams that shouldn’t be down on the CV of any England player, never mind one who is captain and about to reach triple digit appearances.

Hell even his chief cheerleader and autobiography ghost writer, Henry Winter, mentions the paucity of Gerrard’s decent performances in a recent piece where he states Gerrard should be classed as good and not a great.

But in another puff piece Winter describes classic Gerrard: self-critical, humble, patriotic, hungry. When the player states that As far as playing for England goes there are 11 heroes [The England World Cup winning XI of 1966]. The rest haven’t really delivered. If they [Moore and Charlton] are 10s [in the ratings], I’m six or seven..

Six or seven? How self critical, how humble what humility. Six or seven? More like two or three. Point for turning up, point for turning up on time and a point for getting the name spelled right on the back of his shirt. That’s about the maximum.

Gerrard’s England career can be summed up by one thing – other than England have done bugger all while he’s played – his passing success percentage. It’s 47%.

So every ball that Gerrard has played for England is not even a 50/50. Now that’s pathetic.

And he’s still been picked 100 times for his country by successive managers that can’t look beyond the name, the media darling reputation and what he’s done for club that’s never been replicated for country.

And they wonder why England fail.

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

I take it rain interrupted play or was it bad light?

After the debates about the merits of the likes of San Marino being included in the qualifying process for the World Cup or Euros – which always comes around after England have struggled against such sides – I have to say I’ve mixed feelings.

On the one hand they are a waste of time. Bunch of no hopers who bar one ply their trade in San Marino and that trade isn’t football, that other one plays in the Italian fourth division. In the 115 games since their first outing at the “top level” in 1990, they’ve avoided defeat 5 times. One win and four draws.

That win must be a real blight on the record of the Liechtenstein national football team, a team you feel are in the same bracket though they came into the qualifying set up 6 years later than San Marino. Liechtenstein only lost to England 2-0 in both the qualifiers for the 2004 World Cup and just narrowly lost 2-1 to Scotland for the Euros just gone.

But on the other hand watching England struggle at home to the joint lowest FIFA ranked team in the world is frustratingly fun to watch for a masochist.

Masochist that watches it on the telly, or computer, rather than fork out good money to actually watch this spectacle. Even with prices at £20 to £40 quid that was a ridiculous price for a game against San Marino. Though obviously not ridiculous enough to stop the place being almost full.

Maybe people were enthused at the idea of finally seeing an England side without the Golden Generation of Failures. No Gerrard, Lampard, Terry, Ferdinand or Cole.

I did win a small bet on the night, I said they wouldn’t score within the first 20 minutes, even with the stoppage for the visiting ‘keeper wiping out Walcott, they comfortably managed to see out 20 minutes before conceding with the opener coming after 35. I did lose another bet when after Walnut’s substitution I lengthened my prediction to the full half. Only 10 minutes off that. You’d be surprised to learn the talk of that cricket score I heard on news reports throughout the day were met with some derision.

Now if they England, at Wembley, had gone at the break at nil, nil, would there have been boos and if so what would the reaction of Rooney have been in his official capacity as England captain?

Whatever you think about booing your own side going in at half-time without scoring against San Marino deserves bird.

Other than all that what is there to say about the game. Nowt much.

Other than it showed how dim the lot in white were in figuring out how to get past the flat back 10. Constantly coming inside into the completely congested area just in front of the San Marino box was bleeding ridiculous.

Someone needs to take a video of the second goal and show it repeatedly to Lennon and Walker, so both club and country can benefit. How many times this season has Lennon been played a ball through the channel that he can run onto, get to the byeline and cut it back and it’s resulted in a goal? And how many times after that has happened have you seen it happen again in the same game? Well whatever the answer to the first one is the second one is “bugger all”.

It’s the perfect ball to Lennon. Not the high cross field pass to him having to jump on the sideline. Not the ball to him as he’s facing his own have. Not the ball to him when he’s stationery.

Now we just have to wait for Roy to bring back Gerrard, Cole and Johnson for the Poland game. What joy.

England 5 - 0 San Marino

click to play

So only consolation, well unlike 1993 they didn’t concede this time out. Though like last time will they regret not doing a better job of putting the visitors out of site. Some say 5-0 was par, well they put a net 12 past them in ’93 and not doing more resulted in a wasted trip by yours truly to the U.S. in ’94 – well it wasn’t that wasted – with goal difference being the clincher for the Dutch qualifying before Graham Taylor’s England.

San Marino 1 - 7 England

click to play

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

Who’d have thunk it the dolt of a defender – a transfer target of one ‘Arry Redknapp, let me remind you – did his bit for England by first helping getting rid of Fabio Capello and now, finally, after nearly a year John Terry.

Thanks Anton.

Terry’s “retirement” from England was the only way we would get rid of him as Roy Hodgson was desperate to keep him the set up, as shown by his reaction to the former England captain’s announcement. Roy would have kept on with Terry no matter what punishment the F.A. come up with this week. It’s one of the first things Roy has got badly wrong, it wasn’t the last.

Now this isn’t as many pundits have jumped to saying a way to get Rio Ferdinand back into the England fold. Yes Roy didn’t pick Ferdinand because he went with Terry but even if he didn’t mean it and was covering there are footballing reasons not to automatically bring him back into the fold. It’s time to move on. It’s not like Ferdinand has been outstanding, when he’s not poncing out of blocking shots he’s giving the ball to the opposition so they can score as he did at the weekend. Along with the fact Roy has Ashley Cole as his first choice left-back – another error – who Ferdinand doesn’t really get along with these days.

The disconsolate duck is dead.

The problem being who does play, especially with Roy being so enamoured of Lescott. A player who looks permanently confused. He’s useless without the ball and even worse with it. Jagielka might fair better on the international stage without being alongside Lescott. Cahill deserves another go, hasn’t done a poor job.

It would help massively if Jones and Smalling weren’t injured. Don’t know about Jones is he someone how is always going to be picking up injuries and never gets a good run of games. Then if the manager does get a chance to play him of course he’s in at fullback or holding midfield rather than at centre-back.

f Caulker gets a run of games for Spurs the he could be a choice and of course it’s the way things should be moving. Get the kids in, get them games, get them ready and playing as a team. Don’t go turning the clock back to old failures of the rather tarnished “Golden Generation”.

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

Now I’ve never met the ex-Juve and France man but I’ve come to the conclusion he smells, just by looking at him. He looks like he stinks of stale fags and booze.

Now I know Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy always leans over to the side in his seat at White Hart Lane but sat next to Platini there seemed to be extra distance between himself and that adjacent seat. All honesty I don’t know if the little fella could lean any further.

It should have been the UEFA boss that was looking uncomfortable in his seat but as the perfect replacement for Sepp Blatter once the FIFA job becomes open he looked oblivious to what was going on. His big thing is the two new officials behind the goal, he’s very proud of introducing them to the European competitions. The only problem being for the most part they’re a useless waste of time. Last night they joined the line runners in that.

Platini’s officials stopped Spurs winning their opening Europa League game, quite comfortably, and despite what those brains of the British game Andy Townsend and Gordon Strachan, deservedly.

True to his word AVB played a strong team, the one against Reading in the league a the weekend with a few required changes. Getting the likes of Caulker and Dempsey game time as well as the need to appease Lloris with a start. For what dolts like the previous manager or indeed Gary Lineker think about the competition – the latter obviously spending far too much time around Hansen and Shearer.

Winning trophies is what it’s all about. Even if it is Thursday night ITV4.

Surprise choice of Lennon as captain seemed to give the player a bit of a boost unfortunately while he was receiving the type of ball he should – behind the defence on the run – he was wasting it. Could have, should have had two goals. His frustrating worse, not going for goal and dithering.

Spurs were playing in a controlled confident manner of a side that is getting pretty comfortable with the way the new manager wants to play, ball on the floor, keeping control and pressing when out of possession. New boys fitted in well, though Dempsey understandably maybe looked a little rusty. Lloris was acting more a sweeper ‘keeper than Brad does, showed good hands coming for a the odd ball. Distribution was hi and miss, though might show a bit more promise than Friedel’s humps up the park. Caulker looked very comfortable, few errors on his European début, alongside Vertonghen it looked like the partnership for the future. Dembele again showed what a bargain he is at any price. The ease with which he glides past players is a joy to watch.

The officiating howlers didn’t take long to come. Just past the 20 minute mark and Bale puts a cross from the right onto Dempsey’s head. The Italians are playing like Italians, quick step up and the Spurs number 2 is incorrectly flagged offside.

They then came regularly throughout the game. Three from set pieces, one where I can’t remember which Spurs player it was but hey were rugby tackled inside the box by Klose, penalty not seen by the three officials in the area. Sandro missed a clear header from in the box mainly because he was on the end of a massive shove in the back, penalty missed by all the officials again. Then Caulker has the ball in the back of the net only for the goal to be chalked off because of an apparent foul by the Spurs defender. Except of course it was him being fouled as the Lazio player played the old if I fall down I’ll get the free-kick routine. Which they only do because it works, as the three officials in the area fell for it.

They did get one right. Defoe had the ball in the net but in the build up Dempsey hesitated and by the time he played the ball through for Bale’s cross the winger was offside. So 4-1 in the decisions and quite frankly hat wouldn’t have flattered Spurs no matter what the aforementioned pundits reckoned.

Lazio by the end were being very Italian, plenty of fouls, very cynical fouls, more cards should have been shown, maybe even red ones the way it was going. And while the players were playing up to their national stereotype on the field the fans were playing up to theirs in the stands.

Monkey chants you could clearly hear aimed at Defoe and mention of it being aimed at others. What will Platini do? Cock a deaf ‘un. We all know their history in cases like this, you get a bigger fine for showing some advertising by a company not associated with UEFA than you do for repeated offences. While they’ll stand there pointing the finger at the F.A. over John Terry.

Platini, UEFA, the officials, the Lazio fans, the Lazio cynicism, the pundits. Which stank most?

Tottenham Hotspur 0 - 0 Lazio

click to play

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

click for full size

With a Kevin Pietersen orchestrated mess. Though in classic Andrew Strauss style he played down the chance to stick the knife into someone who totally deserves it right between the shoulder blades.

It was from the debacle of Kevin Pietersen’s 3 test tenure as England captain, alongside Peter Moores as head coach that Strauss was finally given the job he should have got some time earlier.

It came as a shock to no one that Andrew Straus stood down as England cricket captain yesterday, after the hastily arranged press conference, the fact he was giving up the game completely did come as somewhat of a surprise. Had Pietersen’s antics caused Strauss to fall out of live with the game that much?

Well he claimed the decision had been in the making well before any texts were sent to the visiting South Africans. The last six to twelve months in fact. The period when both he and the team had been struggling after reaching the number one spot in the Test rankings after stuffing India last summer. His form had dropped over the last year, really struggled in this last series as the top spot was taken from them and that seemed one of the overriding reasons.

Funny that Sir Geoffrey was criticised a bit back for having a go at Strauss in his column a few days before this announcement – from a reader whose address was in Middlesex. Surprise, surprise – but Boycott wasn’t sticking the boot into Strauss. He was pointing out that it’s easier for a captain to get away with a loss of form when the team are winning but it’s much harder to get away with averages around the 20 mark in lost series. He also pointed out two, small, areas where Strauss could make the changes that would probably turn things around. Simple front and back foot movements. getting closer to the pitch of the ball with the front foot and covering up the stumps more with the back.

It’s a shame that he didn’t feel like fixing things and carrying on at least through the tour of India later in the year.

Maybe he had been thinking about giving up the captaincy for a while and the whole Pietersen thing just made his mind up to go the whole hog and pack it in completely. A seemingly honourable man, from the outside, you could tell over the last few weeks what went on in and around the dressing room with Pietersen had left him looking miserable. Of course the results didn’t help either.

Again it’s a shame Strauss has gone out like this, Losing the test series to South Africa, meaning also the loss of the number one ranking spot, a poor test with the bat and that awful way of getting out in his last ever at bat as a professional, in his 100th test.

So where does he stand in the great scheme of things. Well first off it’s strange to think he was only in the job for three and half years and as I said earlier it should have been longer than that as he should have got the job rather than Andrew Flintoff after his successful first stint in 2006 – 3-0 victory over Pakistan in 4 tests. And should have been the safe hands to take over after Flintoff’s failure rather than the left field choice of Pietersen. from the off he was far better suited to the role than either of them.

Only Michael Atherton and Vaughan has captained England in more games. He certainly ranks above Atherton. Alongside Vaughan it can be split between type of captain and success. Vaughan along with the likes of Mike Brearley are above him with regards on field tactics, Strauss was a pretty conservative captain, fields spread early if runs were coming but then maybe he didn’t have the players at his disposal.

But when it comes to success his win percentage was just below Vaughan’s and while Vaughan was in charge as England won the Ashes for the first time in nearly 20 years Strauss won the Ashes home and away which only two other captains have managed. Brearley and Sir Len Hutton. You can almost discount Brearley’s as most of the best Australians of that era had joined the Packer exodus and weren’t in the official test team.

So while not maybe being the first choice as England’s best ever captain he had a record that put him up there with 50 matches in charge winning almost half of them, leading England on a great run of series wins including those two Ashes series which stand out above everything. While being a man most respected inside and outside the dressing room.

So Cook is the new man, no surprises the ECB went in that direction. Not exactly having the best time himself with the bat, slightly overlooked because the eyes being on Strauss but will now be under the microscope because he holds the top job – have a word with Sir Geoffrey, he knows where you’re going wrong Cooky. All honesty was there really any other contenders? No, not really. But hard to tell if he’ll be a success.

A finally a number think with Strauss’ departure it makes it easier to reintegrate Pietersen into the side. It shouldn’t. No matter what Strauss said to the contrary Pietersen’s behaviour has lead to the breakdown of this team and the captain to stand down. It should signal the end of Pietersen’s involvement with England totally. He can bugger off to the IPL or any other meaningless Twenty20 slog about going on round the world until each of the teams he’s involved with get sick of him and his baggage and bin him off like so many have done previously without a regret.

I suppose it’s yet again a shame that this post along with so many other articles about Strauss, thanking him for his great service, should even mention Pietersen.

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

England in subcontinent conditions against a side that had lost one of their previous 15 one day internationals and had just stuffed them three zip in the test series. I think those odds will have been pretty high.

And the return of the ego. Now I was proved right that getting rid of Bell was good for England but Pietersen finally did something to merit his place. Things made easier in the third game as his nemesis Rehman was out though back for the fourth and final game the ton Pietersen got when he was missing probably went some way to negate the mental effect of a left arm spinner coming on.

What also helped was the lack of close fielders in modern one day cricket. It was a thought brought up by Simon Hughes in commentary on TMS during the fourth game. England struggled when the Pakistan spinners were on and they were crowded by close catchers. Couldn’t hit over and couldn’t knock singles, things just got bogged down and they got themselves out. But with the stereotyped one day captaincy the field in this series was spread as far wide as possible within the fielding restrictions.

So much of the pressure is removed. You just wonder what would have happened if they’d played it like one of the test matches. It would have removed any sort of comfort zone from batters who had really struggled like Pietersen. ODI cricket needs a captain to do something like that or they’re just gonna keep changing the laws to combat it becoming predictable and stereotyped, played by the numbers – so many overs do this, next do that, every game.

On that basis, though Cook did well with his two tons – as did Pietersen – they were match winning in a way I would have given the player of the series to Finn. His bowling was outstanding when you consider the last game was his worst statistically when he only took two wickets and went for a whole 4.2 runs per over. Thirteen wickets for 134 runs in 40 overs – so only 3.35 runs per over and wicket average 10.3 – for a paceman on those pitches. Think that might deserve it a bit more.

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

Hours after being found unanimously not guilty of tax evasion charges Fabio Capello chucks the dummy and walks out of the England job.

Triffic.

Now a day later as before the case came to court everyone has ‘Arry as the next England manager, especially those ManUre players it seems. Now why would they want the team behind them in the league suddenly destabilized by losing their manager? I wonder.

Well we all know why Rio Ferdinand would want ‘Arry because he knows he’ll be straight back into the fold – triffic player, love ‘im – after being shoved out somewhat by Fabio. This was one of the few things Don Fabio eventually got right. And that’s one of the reasons I really don’t want to see ‘Arry given the top job. I can just see that first line up consisting of the past failures – midfield of Beckham, Lampard, Gerrard, Joe Cole with Parker in there for good measure. Though would he pick Terry alongside Ferdinand?

So yes John Terry has only been charged and is still innocent until proved guilty. Though as someone pointed out he is guilty of being John Terry. But for once the F.A. having finally got something right. They were spot on in removing the captain’s armband from Terry. They can’t go round taking the moral high ground while they’re captain is up on racism charges.

It was typical of Fabio to then whinge on about it being the wrong thing to do and that he’d been undermined by the F.A.’s actions. He just doesn’t get it, he never really has. And it’s not just lost in translation.

We’re finally shot of him. How many months too late? How costly?

Should have gone after the South Africa debacle. In reality shouldn’t have been in charge before then either. Strange that he has the best winning percentage of any England manager but that just proves that stats mean bugger all. England never looked like anything much better than they did under Svennis or even the McClown. Well for the most parts it was the usual suspects.

Now the hunt is on for the next lamb to the slaughter and back to ‘Arry. Well do we all remember the last time there was so much clamour for one man to get the job, from players and especially the public? Well they got what they wanted. Keggie Keegle. That went well didn’t it. The people’s choice. Then the last time it had to be an English manager we got the McClown. Learn from history people.

Stuart Pearce takes over as a caretaker. Well I once thought he could go on and take the top job after a stint under a more experienced boss. Hmmm probably go that one wrong. We’ll have to see after the Holland friendly but wouldn’t hold my breath.

If they do go with ‘Arry they’ll have to wait until the season is over and it points up that does the England job need to be full time? What exactly does the England manager need to do for the vast majority of the year bar watch games every week. Which means that if someone does a club job as well it’ll mean they at least will stick around to the end of every game they watch. And at a club like Spurs what exactly does ‘Arry do on international week? Most of his squad will be off in various parts of the world. So why can’t he be off with the England squad. If he wants.

And we know he wants it, despite the post aquittal comments he’s made that he’s looking to the next Spurs game.

Moot point anyway. Guus Hiddink should have been given the job before Capello, before McClown, before Svennis saw out his dying days.

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

Is allegedly being racially abused by John Terry the best thing Anton Ferdinand has every done during his rather undistinguished career on a football pitch?

Could this finally rid the England team of not only Terry but Ferdinand’s brother Rio as well?

Now everyone is innocent until proven guilty but as Jonathan Liew of the Telegraph just tweeted…

John Terry is, of course, innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, he’s also John Terry until proven guilty.

— Jonathan Liew (@jonathanliew) October 26, 2011

…and with the history of the England captain you can see why pretty much everyone outside of Chelsea / Terry fans are ready to believe that he said to Ferdinand fucking black cunt… fucking knobhead. And that it wasn’t prefaced by I didn’t call you a… as Terry claims or indeed it was blind he said not black as many jumped to defend him when the video first went viral. They also pointed to the fact Ashley Cole is in picture when the what ever it was, was said but then Cole’s ex-wife didn’t she have a moment like this before they were wed?

Terry has been guilty of many scummy actions in the past – added to that there is his family, now you shouldn’t be paying for the sins of the father, mother, mother-in-law, brother, but it doesn’t look like the apple fell very far from the tree and it was rotten when it landed – all have been overlooked as he was first given the England armband and then regained it. Will they gloss over this as well?

Now Anton didn’t come straight out and make any claims public, he still hasn’t, which you would think proves a point in Terry’s favour but then no one really explained an incident nearly 5 years ago, when Terry was sent off against Spurs. An incident clouded in mystery as Terry looked to have said something that sent the normally placid Ledley King a bit mental, along with Zokora and Chimbonda. Three black players it seemed took great exception at something, as Terry took his marching orders with a pacificity that you just never see from the player when a throw has been given against his side. Terry commentated that I have known Anton for a long time, sounds a bit I’m not racist, some of my best friends are black doesn’t it?

You can just see Don Fabio sitting in his luxury pad head in hands crying that this is going to destroy our chances at next years Euros. I was going to team JT and Rio and we win.

Far from it, even if found not guilty or maybe the Scottish not proven would be the better verdict it’s a great excuse to rid us of another of the Golden Generation that’s served us so well over the years.

Many have pointed that this could have a knock on effect with regards Ferdinand senior, Rio. Like Wayne Bridge would he want to be in the same dressing room as Terry after this? Well here’s a two birds with one stone situation. Rio is another that can be jettisoned quite easily. No matter what those that unfollow you when you slag him off think Rio doesn’t deserve to be thought of for England duty. He hardly turns out for his club and when he does he is a liability, as so expertly shown at the weekend as Citeh ran riot.

Said it before, and I’ll say it again, back in ’02 Rio was at his peak, an outstanding defender, best in the world. The only ones that couldn’t see it were FIFA as he somehow was overlooked for the World Cup team of the tournament for Judas Cuntball. But playing that well got him his dream move to ManUre and since then, well cruising on easy street. With an undoubted talent and playing for Utd he was picked game after game no matter what. So these last 9 years have seen him poncing out of blocking more and more shots and costing England more and more goals.

For all his faults bottling it on the pitch the way Ferdinand does when jumping out of the way of shots is something you can’t level at Terry. But that one slight on the pitch positive get’s nowhere to being a reason to overlook everything else…even if he is found not guilty.

So could Anton Ferdinand be England’s saviour?

Not holding my breath…

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

England to be ahead at half-time, full time draw and Wayne Rooney to be sent off. Think the bookies took many bets on that, maybe round the Liverpool area?

So Fabio’s mob stumble into the 2012 Euros on the back of a completely unconvincing draw away against the might of Montenegro in which Wayne Rooney again covered himself in glory in an England shirt. It just fills you with great confidence for Poland and the Ukraine next year.

I heard last night and read this morning about how for 44 minutes of that first half England were outstanding, with Rooney in particular running the game as the destroyed the hosts. When what we actually saw was a completely disjointed half against a side that seemed either in awe or completely disinterested as they were saving themselves for their last qualification game.

In that 44 minutes England produced two decent bits of football and scored two goals on the back of it. Three players providing their only contributions of any real decent note in them. Rooney at the start of both moves, Walcott’s cross for the opener and Bent for the tap in second. Walnutt may have had a piss weak attempt straight at the ‘keeper but bar Rooney’s later kick at the legs of Dzudovic the three of them were inept.

Welbeck coming on late in the second half showed more in the 14 minutes he was on the pitch than Bent did in little over an hour. Oh wow he’s scored in four away games. Four seconds where he’s finished off the work of others in four games and done bugger all but hide behind various opposition players. Bent shouldn’t be ahead of Wellbeck or Sturridge.

It was another tactical masterstroke by our great leader. Along with player Jones at fullback, yes Jones should have been in the side but not crowbarred in out of position – yes I know he’s played a few games there for ManUre but on his England début how about playing him in his position. Problem being Terry and the fact he’s only in there because Fabio gave him the armband, which is a problem with English football, captain always guaranteed of his place because even when it’s obvious he’s not worthy of it.

That added to the strange make-up of the midfield come the second half substitutions which saw Lampard coming on for Bent and of the middle three now on the park with Barry, the left footer, on the right and Lampard, the right footer, on the left. That worked well. Then Downing came on. Yeah I don’t know why either but we live in a world where Downing has 30 England caps.

I can only guess at the newly installed Montenegro manager’s half time talk. He would have been happy at that last gasp goal before the break but probably was asking his side how they could be losing that that shower of…

So when they came out after the break you could see the belief that England were there for the taking and that it wouldn’t take much for them to do it. And it didn’t.

Ashley Cole repeatedly found out as not quite the greatest left-back ever in the game. Jones lucky not to give away a penalty. Cahill and Terry dithering and slack at the back and Parker being Parker in the middle. As the bloke next to me asked has he tackled anyone yet, second half this was. No, he hadn’t he was doing what they’ve all raved about him doing in his four outings for Spurs so far. Nothing to get excited about, in any way shape or form. Said bloke also wanted to know how many forward passes there was form Parker. We started counting out at that point. We didn’t need our other hand. Poor man’s Ray “the crab” Wilkins.

So yes all Parker did was run to get the ball off Terry or Cahill and then when he had plenty of space, run around in a circle, pass it sideways, back or on very few occasions forward, that was normally to an England player with a man on. Tackling, no it was the usual running alongside someone in possession, intermittently waving his arm out to try and grab the player and then give up. There was one attempt to win the ball but it was much like Wigan’s goal in the recent game against Spurs. It barely made an stab at the ball and then danced away, yards from the action, so while the Montenegro player has a shot at goal from about the middle of the D of England’s box, Parker has danced out to mark no one at left back.

He looked knackered late on in the second hOalf, as he did at the weekend against the scum. I think back to the German side flying past our midfield at the last World Cup, I don’t see a midfield of Parker and Barry changing that situation.

So to Rooney. As we say at that last World Cup it doesn’t work to pick him when there’s off field stuff going on. I mean if someone was to get themselves sent off for certain off field reasons, well the ref was going to do nothing else but show a straight red for such a kick out.

Only thing more ridiculous than Rooney’s action is the reaction of Joe Hart who stated that it was I saw it all. It was pretty pathetic. It was supposedly a kick but it was pathetic. It was the most pathetic sending-off I’ve seen in my life.. Shut up you buffoon.

So it’s another heart break at another tournament to look forward to. Well only if you’re stupid enough to expect great things from this bunch.

Montenegro 2 – 2 England

click to play

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →

At Yankee stadium, Five for five, a homer for the 3000th and batting in the winning run.

Who writes the scripts for Derek Jeter?

Read the rest of this crap at Toxic Web →