Anyone explain the thing with English football?

I am into rugby, but my 7 year old is going football bonkers so I am trying to learn.

There was a big fuss the other week about something called the "Champions League" which I think is only European Teams? The final was Manchester United versus Chelsea which, to a layman like myself, means English clubs must be pretty jolly good at this football thingie.

Then next week we have something called Euro 2008. Which seems to be the National teams from Europe? Blimey - sounds like we could win something like that based on the above.

Err...but we're not actually in it?

So, does this mean basically that the English clubs are jolly good at footie 'cos they don't have any English players? And when we need to put a national team together we don't actually have anyone good enough to get us into the top 16 in Europe?

If that is the situation - correct me if I have missed something obvious - how can you get all excited about watching Arsenal, when they don't have any English players???

It's like English clubs are best in Europe, and English players the worst. Just all seems mad/sad to me.

The answer is yes.

Not to mention that the national team's coach was a wash-out, i.e. quite the opposite of the league coaches.
Oh, wait - the two finalists had foreign coaches ...

Well Man Utd's manager is Scots, so yeah, he's foreign.
Plus Liverpool who lost to Chelsea in the semis have a foreigner in charge too.

IMHO it's a total lack of Bullards. John Terry crying? What the fuck was that all about? I thought he was a stiff-upper lipped Englishman. Never say die. Backs against the wall and slay the opposition with just a handful of real men. If John Terry cries when he misses a bloody penalty, just imagine the state he's going to be in when his mummy dies. We're English. We don't cry. We pick ourselves up and fight on to the death. The problem with the English footballer's mentality is the problem, stemming from years of poor management. Hopefully, the Italian chappie now in charge can install a bit of backbone into the shower of pansies and teach them all to fight once more as a single unit, rather than a bunch of overpaid starlets. However, I fear all he will do is to improve their dress sense, in true Italian stylee.

I think it is now fully appropriate to utter the word "ARSE!"

Maybe he was crying with relief that he would get his £150,000 a week salary, regardless of his performance during the shoot out. Who's to know?

There were 9 English players in that final last week, the biggest club game in Europe.

The problem is, that at national level we have 11 players and no TEAM !

Holland always have the same problem whilst Germany always operate on a team basis and their results show that it works without the need for a Gerrard or a Rooney or whomever.

Have you gone mad? You're talking about an Italian. At best, he will show them how to dive better, and at the same time cry better, which can be crucial when faking a broken leg for a penalty.

My first experiences of watching England play football was seeing them win the world cup and it’s all been downhill since then. My only hope is that having all these world class players working in England will eventually up the level of skills there. Watching Ronaldo play in the Champions League final, I couldn’t help thinking that he even made Rooney look second rate and stodgy.

There was an article in the Torygraph yesterday about the dearth of English players in the Premiership. Only 34% of Premiership players are English, compared to over 70% of Italian players in Serie A. Capello can basically choose from a squad of 40. All other potential England players are languishing in the second division, or whatever it's called this month.

Looking at each club individually, West Ham and Aston Villa have the most English players, with an average of 6.61 and 6.42 Englishmen in the starting line-up respectively. They're followed by Middlesborough, Wigan Athletic, Everton, Derby, Newcastle and the mighty Tottenham. At the other end of the table come Chelsea with 3.63 English players, Blackburn Rovers (2.68), Fulham (2.42), Liverpool (2.34) and right down at the bottom of the table, with a shameful, shameful average of only 0.34, are the Arsenal scum. They have just three English players in their squad of 27, who between them started just 13 games all season.

Fabio Capello's England players are sliding down their own Premier League table

No wonder theres a problem.

There must be horrific injury problems after fielding 0.61 of an Englishman.

One should also consider the money being poured in to English football. If the number of foreign players are capped, so will the money. England certainly lack quality managers at the highest level.

Good news chaps! That Italian fellow in charge of the England team has already figured out what's wrong.

In fact, he's also decided who's going to miss the crucial penalty in the 2010 semi-final. Against Germany.

I think as a nation, we have low self esteem, and there needs to be more emphasis on national pride introduced in to our society. If the whole country is riddled with self doubt and guilt, then how can we hope to win at international football?

And it don't bleedin' help when the whole soddin' game starts with some tart warblin' on about seeing spangles and then our boys are supposed to look all digni-fuckin'-fied mouthing the words to the Britisch national anthem. Seconds later at kick-off they must be thinking, "What country are we again? Who are we playing for?". If I was the manager they'd be sitting together watching Henry V storm the gates of Harfleur, slaughtering French nobility for sport and eatin' the sanguine cow and steamed rice just before coming out of the tunnel while stiffening up their collective sinews, summoning up blood, disguising any notion of an Englishman's fair nature with hard-favour'd rage, and lending eyes terrible aspects. I'm sick of seeing the backchat. So the ref is a wanker. What's new? Keep Mum, button yer lip, and play around whatever the twat's decision was. Yellow cards for petulance deserve the player being drowned in the communal tub... especially if it's an important game. I'd drop Rooney for a few games now too, until he grows up... oh! and learns how to pass accurately like any other humungously overpaid international adolescant. Well pleased with Barry. Fat Frankie looked shagged from the start. Stevie G was OK. Hargreaves was magnificent. Had nightmares last night about Becks in that gold cap and matching wife's gold thong. We beat the USA 2-0. Am I impressed? Not yet. This was a very poor USA team that created few chances and were easily dominated. Trinidad & Tobago won't give us much of an idea either, but the Czech's will be better sport in August. We need to be playing the Argies or Italy to get a better feel.

Where's Jimmy Bullard?

Well put. During my time in the UK, I found the general british attitude towards everything to be somewhat "Well, it's all a bit shit, innit? Let's at least try to have a laugh and a drink." Sorry, that's a drink and then a laugh.

When you look at how english football fans behave towards their national team, it's not hard to understand why england always f*ck up. The fans are bloodthirsty. Whinging is also a national sport in the UK. There has never been a nation so full of armchair managers who know best. I've never heard people think so negatively of their own team. But it's the same perhaps with anyone in the spotlight - British people I've noticed slag someone off the entire time they're in office, then when they finally go they say "well, he was alright actually".

but back to football. Sven Goran-Eriksson isn't so "pathetic" as he used to be, now is he? It's just the natural british inclination to tear something to shreds before reluctantly accepting its value (unless it's funny, then it's brilliant). Footballers are also people, so when your alleged supporters tear you apart, how are you gonna play? I can imagine this explaining how Rooney behaves internationally. he probably hates playing for the English fans - the pressure of it all makes him pissed off. "F*ck, not this shit again." and so on.

Plus, teamwork amongst men is not an English mentality, from what I observed. It's more a "f*ck off, I'm a hard c*nt". I dunno, I'm just throwing ideas out there, but perhaps this is why all these council flat kids don't get along.

It could of course all be due to Ashley Cole.

Well then stop being a wimp, smack him around the head & plonk him in front of the telly on Sunday (K.O. 3.30pm Sky Sports 1..RFU) & tell him to watch a real mans game

@JE: im sticking to rugby!

But not one to let the issue get away from sticking his proverbials into the obvious, ja, da ist ein großes probleme! or verts along zose lines...
According to recent reports, we have the lowest level of English qualified players available in our top leagues... The money from Sky (and us via the licence) is at the highest levels and... well it doesn't take two footballing geniuses with the brains the size of Goldenballs... well balls to derive a fairly obvious link...

Money attracts the talent (like all good capitalist systems) and strangely we English are not too good at competing with the talent on the Continent... not least because we think we're worth it (we're not) and l'Oreal are French... but because we do not have the encouragement to develop real technical talent from an early age - just go out there and boot it son!

so rugby for me although i will be supporting France in EM2008 (except when DE are playing... obviously!)