I remember my disappointment when in the early 90's Petts Wood Football Club announced that Palace player Gareth Southgate would be presenting the trophies at the annual awards ceremony in Bromley. After the ceremony , whilst walking back to my car with my two kids proudly clutching their McDonalds happy meals, I noticed Southgate walking the other side of the car park. Like any proud Charlton supporter who had endured life at Selhurst I gave him my opinion on both himself and the team he played for. He turned, laughed, and then started to walk towards me. He offered me his hand which I shook, now feeling like a bloody fool. We talked about David Whyte and Paul Mortimer. He didn't rate Whyte that highly, but he thought Morts could go to the very top. I told him what I thought of Pitcher in no uncertain terms. We shook hands again, he spoke to my kids and then disappeared into the night. Good luck Gareth, you can't remove the eagle from your back, but your a class act and a real gentleman.
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England are a mess. The FA is a joke. The players aren't good enough. Shearer was right when he said England are a laughing stock. I bet no top team fear playing us.
I understand why he got the role as caretaker, but if they gave him the gig full time I see another inept tournament display coming up in Russia
I remember when he got married he didn't sell the rights to Hello magazine, but happily posed for photos outside.
He'll then oversee England getting knocked out in the last 16 or maybe even the last 8 (as soon as we play a decent side) and he will be a useless manager with no experience, no tactics, no plan B, no charisma and no clue.
His club career wasn't stellar, but his second season (after a successful first season) at boro possibly isn't indicative as funding was seriously cut. Plus his club management career was a long time ago. He's been in the England set-up for quite some time now. His success or failure will be more an indictment of the FA's coaching programs than of Southgate's club management career.
He became their Manager in 2013 and has taken England U21s to one European Championships with the record of W1 / L2 which saw us finish bottom of the table when in our last match we just needed to avoid defeat against Italy to get through to the Semi-Finals... Still that was his sole Tournament and like any U21 boss, he's got to deal with kids being withdrawn by their clubs because they need Summer rest and shouldn't have that with the Main Team.
One thing I did notice though was that in a Daily Mail article the other day, it was mentioned that his PE Teacher saw a lot of his potential and was none other than Steve Avory
How did we miss out on him ourselves?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36410296
I have a lot of sympathy for his "game I love but business I don't like" quote that was doing the rounds the other day.
I also think he spoke very well in his first press conference the other day, his point that English players lack the tactical awareness and discipline of their continental counterparts was one that particularly struck a chord with me.
He's as equally well, if not better, qualified than most of his english competitors for the job. He certainly has way more relevant experience.
Like all England mangers though, he'll be hamstrung by the non cohesive approach to playing style across English football, the lack of available talent, the millionaire egos in the dressing room and the ridiculous levels of expectation and media pressure.
Ex Palace or not, I hope he manages to rise above all that though as he definitely one of the good guys in the game.
Every goal they score against these minnows should be followed by a heads-down jog back to the halfway line.
I didn't watch tonight, and I don't care about what happened. It's meaningless.
Do the crowd get told to keep quiet when that twat plays his trumpet?
Francis was asked about his superb debut for England back in the day. He said it was the easiest game he ever played. Alan Ball gave him the ball and told him where to play it and he just did what he was told. Said that Alan Ball was the best player he had ever played with and that is the class we have just not got.
We do have better midfielders than Rooney though.
Unfortunately because of his physique his career ended at 27. We got 10 years out of him, he's not capable of playing in the modern game
Thought this was a great article:
https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2016/oct/07/wayne-rooney-fall-guy-england-flatlining?CMP=share_btn_wa