England v. Algeria

Yes, Andy rivalled Jack Charlton and Bobby Robson for his confusion with names. You think you had trouble, what about me sitting on the bench beside him and getting a bollocking for not pushing forward?

That final at Okehampton was the first ime in that cup run I got dropped from the team that had got us there and I guess it was a message to me really.....................I lost my midfield place to goalkeeper Bobby Gray who got used up front as "a big nuisance", character forming eh, or was it Andy's problem with names again? Anyway it had it's compensations, I was able to laugh at you lot playing in borrowed green shirts and a variety of underpants AND I didn't get to face a kicking from Peter Darke in the Heavitree side!

The game I played in that was the most memorable for having Andy play alongside us was not the Newquay one but one at Wadebridge when "someone" put his name on the team sheet as sub even though we had enough players and then ensured he had to come on by "going down injured" ......................puffing and effing, we thought old Bill was going to have a heart attack as Wadebridge tore us apart on thet great big sloping pitch of their's, despite us also having Ian Twitchin and Don Mills in the side!

Did you play in that one Stefano, or were you "away with England" that weekend?

You want to be careful mate, the locals down there might force you to marry her!

I'm in the second camp on this issue...................the manager especially, needs to maintain an aloofness and concentrated mind, he needs to instil a concentration and focus into the players' minds and the players need to shut out all the pandemonium and emotion of the crowd.

Watch the Germans, watch the Italians; they have won eight World Cups between them and that's how they do it. The ultra telented Brazilians are a different kettle of fish, but even they too are now going down that road under Dunga ~ certainly if what I saw of them up close both in training and playing against Ireland back in the Spring is anything to go by.

The last thing you want is Wayne Rooney running around like a demented bull with tears of emotion running down his face because he is so proud to wear the shirt, but so wound up by belting out the National Anthem he's forgetting his role in the pattern of play.

Sorry Dave, it's just not like that at the top level. The English mentality is best served and best seen when we are backed into a corner with no option but to fight to live. Maybe too many foreign coaches and fellow players have diluted that mentality amongst those remaining Premiership players qualified to play for England amongst the pathetic 49% that are currently contracted to play for the elite clubs in England.

As we have shown time and time again during stuttering World Cup Finals Qualifying Groups, the will to stay in the competition and steely resolve to survive does shine through..................eventually. But, more than ever; it will need to be allied to a mental awareness and totally concentrated set of minds tuned in to just who does what in opposition to some very focussed and well drilled opposition.

The story of the difficulty that Dom Fabio was having just to get his goalkeeper to retain the instruction to roll the ball out to his nearest defender rather than belt the ruddy thing up the middle during one of the preparation games the other day is indicative of the culture difference and weaker concentration regime endemic in the English mentality when set against the Italian physche...............a mind set planted and grown through the "training camp" culture so long established in Italy where even when teams are playing at home they have to go into camp for a couple of days "concentration" for their club matches. That's whay historically AC Milan manage to prolongue the careers of ageing stars whilst the likes of Ashley Cole and John Terry are rampaging around London town acting in a totally alien fashion to that ultra professionalism.

If I were England manager, I wouldn't let characters like them anywhere near the England set up............there are plenty of young, talented and still focussed, dedicated young men perfectly able to fill their places. Sure, it would upset the popular press and idiots like James Corden and his gang of hangers on; but they melt into the ether once the publicity factor diasappears and it's us, the genuine football public of this country; left with the disappointment and anguish for another four years.

What goes round, comes round and it seems the further we progress in time; the further our top players drift away from that level of professionalism and allow even those of a lesser ability level to compete on equal or even advantageous terms due to their greater dedication and mental agility.

Merse I don’t want our players running around with tears in their eyes, but I do firmly believe that passion and pride are strongly linked and do play a big part in any team gaining any success. I do not see any passion from our players last night or any player that looked like he was so proud to be wearing the shirt.

I have watch Johnson on the TV playing for his own club go on great over lapping runs and putting great balls into the box or even creating his own good shooting opportunity. Last night he let players go past him with far too much ease and played so many poor passes. Your Anthony would have put far more into making his pass a good one and one that reached its intend target. There was so much careless passing taking place all over the pitch by far too many players and you have to ask why they could not make passes that even players in the South Devon League would have made.

I know I’m so often guilty of looking at things in far too simplistic ways, but for me a good defender knows where he needs to be on the pitch, a good winger knows how to get past his man and just where he needs to deliver the ball into the box and a good forward knows where he needs to get into the box to get on the end of such balls.

How many times did an England player on the ball look up and saw no real options on? Far too many times and the reason is because players did not want the ball or were not making the runs and creating the space to receive the ball. So the question I ask is why was that the case? Well I’m happy to believe it’s because the players lacked the real passion needed in such an important game and then that leads to the question just why that was so.

I do believe along the way from the days when footballers played for the love of the game to the current times where players are earning silly money for just kicking a ball around, the players have lost some of the passion that players in the past had in abundance.

How good the current English manager is as a coach and manager of the England team will show itself the longer he stays in the job, my point about his English was last night millions of English fans were watching the game in the UK and around the world and when they needed the English manager to give them some answers in the interview that was being conducted, due to his very poor English (not knocking him for that as I can only speak English) he was unable to do that.

Once again I will add how I believe I would feel and not how it might really be, but if I was in the dressing room and he was the one doing all the talking, I do feel attar a time struggling to even understand what he was saying; I would soon find myself switching off.

What a dire performance by the English team yesterday. Their play lacked everything. Bloody millionairs all of them but they can't work out ONE decent flowing attack all night.

None of the big players taking the game by it's throat and most worrying no belief at all.

If Capello's paid around 8 milion quid (euro?) and his team play like this...

News reports revealed that Osama bin Laden has released another video to prove that he is still alive, in which he says that the England football team were shockingly poor in last nights game. Apparently our Security Services have dismissed it and said that it could have been made any time in the last forty years