Thetownend.com

Scouser in chief announces retirement from England duty

shouldnt be up to him

Overrated. When was the last time he had a decent game for England. Woeful captain as well.

Agreed. Should've gone after his pathetic performance in 2010.

The only problem is now they'll give the captaincy to Rooney, who is never captain material.

We could have Messi playing in midfield and we would still complain that he is shite.  It's part of the English mentality unfortunately.  Will never change.... 

Rooney should retire from international football, he hasn't had a good game for England in years, we need to bring the youngsters in now & let them gel for the next few tournaments like all of the successful international teams have done.

Yep spot on. Half of our population would have retired him at 25 when he hadn't done it at international level.

He was our best player in 2010

And 2006. And 2012.

Part of the reason good players don't perform at international level is because they don't enjoy it, too worried about fucking up because of the abuse they get...  Look at Germany, Holland etc. you can see the players enjoy playing, are playing for each other and are proud to play for their country...  I'm not sure ours are, it's not worth the shit they get..

No way. He was asked to do a captain's role and play on the left hand side of midfield...but he kept on coming in more and more centrally, leaving that side exposed....and the Germans took full advantage by breaking down that side.

Remember a time when it was down to the manager to decideto put players into the international wilderness nowadays players are all to quick to 'retire' to prolong their club career so the can continue to earn mega backs.

Just dont think players care about playing for their country as much as playing in the champions league

In an age when we consistently bemoan players who don't want to play for their country and (with increasing amounts of evidence) even actively shirk international duty, often at the behest of their clubs, Gerrard stands out as a player who wore the shirt with pride and gave his all when he did.

Whereas this thread provides ample evidence as to why some players might well be reluctant to do so. Have a bloody word with yourselves

Yep

Don't blame them.

Look at this forum as a prime example of why.

If people really believe there's less pressure on players who play for Germany,  or Spain, or any other successful national team then they're deluding themselves. English players at the top of their game  just can't handle it. It's not the fans, or the press, or anything else external,  it's them. The money excuse is also bollocks. I don't think anyone in the German side is struggling financially.
Poor tactics, poor selections, poor attitudes and mentally weak. Those are the real reasons we're shit at major tournaments.

Thats pretty much what I was going to say but you've said it so much better.

Fully agree.

Germany were a good example during the WC of a team that didn't panic, they wanted to play their game and it worked for them.

Agree to a certain extent, but we can only pick from the players that we have at our disposal.  I can't think of a better central midfielder than Gerrard, since Scholes retired and Gazza before him that would have made England better in the past 6 years.

Was he as good for England as he was for Liverpool? No. Was the group of players he was playing with for England better than Liverpool, probably not for the majority of that time (bearing in mind they worked day in day out with each other), was he doing his best for England with the players that he was playing with?  Of course he was.

I just don't get the "should have retired years ago" jibes when a player decides to retire, and "he's shit anyway", we didn't have anyone better.  I was saying the same thing when people were calling for Rooney to be dropped in the WC, we have nobody better than him likely to put the ball in the back of the net.  You can blame Woy for the tactics and formations, but you can't blame him for the level of player that he has to pick from, and getting on the players backs and slagging them off is hardly going to make them better.

wouldn't say less pressure but alot lot less susupport of our national team Steve.Most of these players have shown at club level they can handle pressure no problem but i think when your own fans boo you during an england game jusj because you play for liverpool or cheated on cheryl cole they probably stop giving a fuck

I'm not sure that Daniel Sturridge has been booed by England fans (although I don't go & watch them anymore so he may have).
However, he missed three good chances in one of the games in the world cup (can't even remember which one as I have purged most of it from memory) which he would have scored for Liverpool.,

It's not because he is shit, so the only thing I can think of is that it was the pressure or weight of expectation of playing for his country.

Players generally get the reception they deserve and I can't think of a player who can't win the crowd over by either a good display or showing they give a fuck or by not being a cunt. Players get booed, players from another club get slagged. So the fuck what. Get over it. Do German players never get booed. Do Spanish players not get booed. How about Suarez. You can either prove the booers wrong or prove them right.

Fairly certain you missed my point unless you genuinly believe the uruguay fans boo suarez. In that case you are wrong.As for not being a cunt tell me what Ashley Cole done wrong as a England player to warrant being booed by his own fans

The Brazilians boo'd Fred. The rotters.

Has anyone on here ever booed a town player?  :hmmm:

I booed Andy Monkhouse, but he had just scored for Hartlepool.

A fair few. I can take lack of talent, we are a 3rd division club. What I take exception to is lack of effort, no excuse for it...

Never - although I was extremely vocal for a long time against McMahon.

'Get that Scouser out!'

Call me soft or whatever but some of the shit I've heard going towards Town players, just for having a bad game, is complete OTT. For a lack of effort, yeah give them a bit of stick but full on abuse is out of order IMO.

And no, they shouldn't expect it. If you genuinely believe that you are a tool.

Abuse is totally justified for a lack of effort. Professional footballers should never give anything less than 100% and then expect fans not to pick them up on it.

Out of interest what was the reason for all the hatred towards McMahon? My first year as a ST holder was 96/97 & was only a kid back then so was only really interested by what was going on on the field!!

ok so what if a player does give a fuck gets abused just for cheating on his wife for example?

Read my post again. I'm talking about abuse for a lack of effort ON the field.

McMahon wasn't a very nice person, he ripped the heart out of the club with his treatment of loyal and able back room staff like Andy Rowland and John Trollope; tbf to McMahon he probably did this because Rikki Hunt used to send him on management courses, run by his RH's company, in which they espoused newspeak management bullshit.  He then replaced them with his Scouse mates.

We also used to play some fairly horrendous 5-4-1 football at times....tbf he wasn't all bad, but on balance, his departure was welcomed.

It was sweet when he got 'run out' of Highworth one evening!

Scouse fucker

Cole falls firmly into the cunt category. Suarez was a bad example.
I'm happy with what I said and happy to be a tool

Gerrard reminds me of John Barnes, brilliant for Liverpool but bar a few really good games generally wank for England