Thetownend.com

i would just like to say....f off to owen hargreaves, no one knows who you are, you are crap, and why did you get bought on ahead of carrick, when you are shit.

thankyou.

Is it too late to throw him out of the squad?

I really don't rate him, never have, he was shocking in the England B game, although in his defence he is not a right back.  what the hell is he??

You lot just don't get it do you....every side has to have an Owen Hargreaves...if it wasn't Hargreaves then it would be Phil Neville....the role is to make all the others feel good about themselves, by attracting the flak, and allowing the other fellas to think...I'm better than him....so I should be in the England squad.

 At the last WC Brazil had a choice.. Roque Junior or Kleberson....this WC look out for Fred.

 8)

Headline in one of todays papers

"If Hargreaves is the answer, what the hell is the question?"

its never too late.

reg, i know every team has there crap player, but it doesn't mean sven as to play him!!!

 You're just jumping on the tabloid/ pundit bandwagon Johno.....join the free thinkers.... avoid the thought police.

How the hell has owen hargreaves got 30 caps of england. He must something on sven that cannot be leaked out to the press.

 :wink:

Similar to Mark Robinson and Hoolit having something on Swindon managers of the past.

 Simply, he's played for Bayern Munich for all that time, so at a high level of European football,  at the last WC he was England's fittest player according to the tests they run....he turns up, does what the manager asks uncomplainingly, which are the sort of reliable attributes a national manager wants.

 Think its difficult for the fella, as he rarely starts and rarely plays the same position twice....for me though he's got to be better than Phil Neville.

Better than Phil Neville - definitely. I still wouldn't pick him even ahead of the often poor Jermaine Jenas, let alone Carrick, Reo-Coker (i know he's injured) and Parker though.

 Sven's yardstick is the champions league....he will always pick a player who's playing regularly at that level, over a similarish player who's not.

You're probably right. Do you agree with this way of deciding?

No, if he'd applied this to Rooney for the '04 Euros then we'd have been out in the group stages.

From what I’ve seen of him at Munich he’s done very well but just doesn’t seem to have bedded into the England side quite so well.

 His versatility is a massive plus, he can play anywhere across the centre but his best position is in that holding role while we usually see him come on as a late substitute never really letting him settle.

the bayern fans and german media think he's ace. can't help that he's never been given a run of starts in the same position

I think its fair to say that the better the players around you, than the better you look....which is why the likes of Phil Neville had he played for Bolton wouldn't have got one England cap let alone 50.

  You got to base selection on some criterion and that sems as good as any.

Everyone says...."Oooooh, Sven's in love with Hargreaves" and such like but I look at the other way and say he's never actually been given a fair crack of the whip. Yes, he's got 30 caps but 23 were as a sub FFS!!!!! In the other games which he started, I have no idea how many he got a full 90 minutes or even 75. Only one or two at the most, I suspect.

He needs a decent run of games in the side, not half a game at right back here and 20 minutes in midfield there. Magath doesn't pick him week in week out in the Bundesliga and Champions League just for the fun of it.

Eriksson does not seem to know what the blue blazes he is doing unfortunately.

This is absoultely true Reg, and something I have often pondered on.  There must be some rule written down by FIFA that all FA's also ensure is carried out at league level.

STFC for example, even during one of our best periods of the early 90's had Shaun Close sniffing around the team.  Arsenal in their 1980's George Graham period had plenty of players taking on this mantle.  Man Utd had Phil Neville and even Chelsea insist on playing some big lump of nothing upfront for a lot of their games.  Real Madrid even find space for Bravo amongst their highly paid galaxy of stars.  Last season, we took this to new levels by trying to have only 1 good player in the team each week!

yes hargreaves is versatile which is good for the squad if needed, but whenever i have seen him play he has been crap. he started at right back in the B international and was pretty cack.

Jenas can play across the midfield....he is better, don't need a cover for defence, we got enough.

Indeed, if there was a champion of 'being a bit shit' it would have to be Perry Groves.
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Based soley on the England B international I'd say Jenas was even worse than Hargreaves!