Football Soccer Football Soccer Football Soccer

[The Ox]

The time is upon us.. with my man Sadio out injured there is only one man who can step up to the plate... enter THE OX.

You all are about to see why we paid £40m for this once in a lifetime talent, there will be eggs upon many faces in this thread come Saturday mark my words.. ManUre defenders are in for the worst time of their lives.

Put your money on it being The Ox show on Saturday, that is when the journey to the Ballon D'Ox beings.

[BodiesInFlight]

I wish I taped that Lithuania game. But I think the DVD will be out in time for Christmas

I threw a little party for that game mate and celebrated deep in to the night.

I wish we could do the whole campaign all over again.

[E-Thug]

Holland given the talent level they have/had over the years.. arguably more embarrasing then England

What? How?

Holland's problem is there is too big a generation gap from the older gen to the newer one. The older generation (Van Persie, Huntelaar, Robben, Sneijder etc) are too too old and the younger gen (Quincy Promes, the kids at Ajax whom we beat in the Europa League final) are too too young

They have no players nor the right manager to bridge the gap between the 2 generations. They have no players in the now. Van Gaal cobbled a makeshift squad in 2014 which expertly masked their weaknesses but the problems have been there for years.

Gutted the Internationals are over. So I'll offer my closing thoughts.

England have been putting the world to rights. Restoring national pride to an all-time high.

These foreign melts are quivering in their sartorially exquisite shoes.

They get to switch off for a month or so hiding in their leagues and lighting up our own premiership with their quality, until they again have ponder the impossible problem of how to deal with a midfield duo of Jordan Henderson and Eric Dier and their purposefully ponderous build up play.

Pep Guardiola invented the pressure cooker style full of quick, short passing. We have the slow cooker style of dead slow and obvious passing. Everyone knows when you cook something slow you cook the absolute shit out of it until it is soft as fuck and has no structural integrity whatsoever. I can't think of a more brutal team than England.

The Germans have statisticians locked away in a lab somewhere trying find fault in Jordan's Henderson's ability to take about 43 seconds to control a ball and then get on the half-turn, or just how they can deal with a player like Dier who by anyone's standards is fairly tall.

Football's coming home. The rest of the world should amalgamate their squads together in the summer to provide an 'all-star' squad to avoid embarrassment. 'All stars' is an oxymoron of course when it comes to football, we have all the fucking stars.

I've also found out my Missus is prego. Which is great because I'll probably get paternity around the world cup. Definitely going to blog about the World Cup. Got to record it for prosperity. I am so glad I'll have a kid who will be born into a world where England are the rightful Kings of Football.

Au revoir England Sparked, can't wait to see you back in time for our friendlies and of course, our coronation as World Cup winners in 2018

If I ever see you around in Manchester, drinks on me. But only bottled water, as that's what Gareth Southgate likes to get hammered on

Stayed up for the Argentina game (one of my housemates is Argentinian). They are absolutely diabolical. The fullbacks and midfield especially, dross.

Presumably they'd have finished about 8th without Messi who they just pinged balls at all night and hoped for the best. Luckily for them he is Lionel Messi.

Also it's a bit of a shambles that South America only get 5 qualification places. Chile missing out so that dross like Panama and Slovakia can get in. Should just merge the north/south American qualifying and split them all into 2 groups.

Slovakia didn't get through but agree - why Chile aren't in and **** like Peru are is beyond me

Argentina are ****e. It's a one man team made up of just Messi and no one else. Sparked noted how the beauty of our England side is the accountability. For the Argies, barring Messi, there is absolutely zero accountability. Nobody apart form Messi and Mascherano gives a **** lol

Great, didn't know normal boring football is back this weekend.

Yawn.

Oh well, internationals are back again next month. And friendlies to boot

I threw a little party for that game mate and celebrated deep in to the night.

I wish we could do the whole campaign all over again.

agree, who gives a flying **** about league football?

[Sparked_26]

Just watched a video of Gazza tearing it up at Lazio.

It is a shame that our footballers are probably too expensive (inflated prices) for foreign clubs to buy them.

I'd be right behind Harry Kane is he went to Real Madrid. I even think RLC should leave Chelsea and go abroad, physically that kid has everything.

I know Lampard was a Chelsea legend and probably my favourite ever player apart from JFH and Dennis Wise but I even wonder whether he could have gone to Inter Milan himself and improved himself even more. That guy maximised his talent in every scenario.

Steven Gerrard is another one who could have gone and didn't.

In fact any of our 'best' players should have gone at some stage. Scholes, Terry, Ashley Cole when he wasn't a fossil, Rio Ferdinand, and Wayne Rooney.

It does make you think if the Premiership had a lower profile then the national team would be better. Not because more English players would play in the league but more English players would play abroad improving tactically and becoming more resilient.

I don't mean to pick on Walcott who seems like a nice lad. But he should have left Arsenal about 5 years ago and gone abroad. He'd be a better, more resilient player now. He's been in a bubble his whole career.

[Sparked_26]

Just watched a video of Gazza tearing it up at Lazio.

It is a shame that our footballers are probably too expensive (inflated prices) for foreign clubs to buy them.

I'd be right behind Harry Kane is he went to Real Madrid. I even think RLC should leave Chelsea and go abroad, physically that kid has everything.

I know Lampard was a Chelsea legend and probably my favourite ever player apart from JFH and Dennis Wise but I even wonder whether he could have gone to Inter Milan himself and improved himself even more. That guy maximised his talent in every scenario.

Steven Gerrard is another one who could have gone and didn't.

In fact any of our 'best' players should have gone at some stage. Scholes, Terry, Ashley Cole when he wasn't a fossil, Rio Ferdinand, and Wayne Rooney.

It does make you think if the Premiership had a lower profile then the national team would be better. Not because more English players would play in the league but more English players would play abroad improving tactically and becoming more resilient.

I don't mean to pick on Walcott because people always do and he's seen as someone who never had great talent but he seems like a nice lad. But he should have left Arsenal about 5 years ago and gone abroad. He'd be a better, more resilient, more tactically aware player now. He's been in a bubble his whole career.

Joking aside, time for English players to move abroad. Not just the fringe players but our best players, imo.

[F l i c k e r]

I can agree with that notion of English players going abroad.

I think the main issue is the English guys don't want to learn other languages. Not the best example but Ravel Morrison was apparently well liked at Lazio, the manager though he was a good player but he didn't take the steps to integrate himself into the fabric of the club and the nation.

The manager pretty much said Ravel doesn't try to speak Italian doesn't try to be apart of the club.

If a player like Jack Wilshere went to Italy, I'm sure he would tear it up. I think his skills set and the more tactical base of the league, he wouldn't get hurt like he does in the athletic/physical league of England but if you're not trying to be part of a club there, how well will the experience be?

Townsend would probably become better in Germany where they run like 15k a game, words of Piazon. Not saying the running is going to make him better but his style of play and their tempo of game, he'd probably become more incisive. In theory.

[Sparked_26]

Andros Townsend is a poor man's Arjen Robben and that's a pretty big compliment. Always said that.

He's not made the best of himself. He's very dangerous if he simplifies his game.

He is good at international level when it is so stale because all he wants to do is cut in and shoot. I don't know what Raheem Sterling wants to do, tbh. He has a role at City but for England I feel like he wants to be like Eden Hazard or something but obviously doesn't have the talent.

Townsend, head down, cut in and shoot. Fine.

He should always start for England, even now.

[BodiesInFlight]

Just watched a video of Gazza tearing it up at Lazio.

It is a shame that our footballers are probably too expensive (inflated prices) for foreign clubs to buy them.

I'd be right behind Harry Kane is he went to Real Madrid. I even think RLC should leave Chelsea and go abroad, physically that kid has everything.

I know Lampard was a Chelsea legend and probably my favourite ever player apart from JFH and Dennis Wise but I even wonder whether he could have gone to Inter Milan himself and improved himself even more. That guy maximised his talent in every scenario.

Steven Gerrard is another one who could have gone and didn't.

In fact any of our 'best' players should have gone at some stage. Scholes, Terry, Ashley Cole when he wasn't a fossil, Rio Ferdinand, and Wayne Rooney.

It does make you think if the Premiership had a lower profile then the national team would be better. Not because more English players would play in the league but more English players would play abroad improving tactically and becoming more resilient.

I don't mean to pick on Walcott because people always do and he's seen as someone who never had great talent but he seems like a nice lad. But he should have left Arsenal about 5 years ago and gone abroad. He'd be a better, more resilient, more tactically aware player now. He's been in a bubble his whole career.

Joking aside, time for English players to move abroad. Not just the fringe players but our best players, imo.

Yeah Gazza was quality for Lazio, shame he was injured so much for them but they still remember him fondly today. They invited him as a guest when Spurs played Lazio in Italy a few years back.

Read a quote the other day from Nesta from his time at Lazio when Gazza gave him 6 pairs of shoes and a fishing rod but never said why lol.

Ince was another one who was quality abroad. It made watching Football Italia even better watching some of the England boys over there along side some of the best footballers of the time in one league.

And then later of course you had Jay Bothroyd at Perugia or whoever it was .

[Sparked_26]

See.

League football was boring.

Liverpool and United. Two boring fucks going at it.

That match was the football equivalent of what would happen if Tyrone Nurse fought Clone Tyrone Nurse.

Dreadful stuff.

[MOTHERDUCKER]

Legendary performance by United.. Mourhino set them up well.. didnt want them to get too tired before the actual important match in the CL this weem