England are out of the World Cup

NGONGE · June 29, 2010

Criticism of the England coach, Fabio Capello, has been unjustified, says Roy Keane.

Roy Keane has launched a passionate defence of Fabio Capello and believes the blame for England's World Cup exit lies solely at the door of the players.

The Ipswich Town manager said England's players "get away with murder" for a series of poor performances.

"To keep criticising and questioning the manager is crazy. He didn't do anything wrong in the qualifying campaign and now, all of a sudden, he's not the top man any more," Keane said.

"The goals they conceded against Germany, particularly the first couple, had nothing to do with Capello's choice of system or tactics. It wasn't a case of getting overrun in midfield. It was just very bad defending."

"They should just leave him to get on with the job. He is absolutely brilliant and England are lucky to have him."

Keane, who walked out of the Republic of Ireland's 2002 World Cup camp after a spat with his manager, Mick McCarthy, believes the majority of England's players are overhyped.

"They have to take a long hard look at themselves. They get away with murder," he said. "I wasn't really surprised by the Germany defeat. I keep saying it – good players don't necessarily make good teams. People keep talking about world class players but who are they?" he added.

"There's probably only Wayne Rooney, who had a brilliant season. But look at the goalkeepers. David James was relegated with Portsmouth and Robert Green just about stayed up with West Ham. Glen Johnson did okay at Liverpool but they had a poor enough season.

"John Terry? He had his issues and I don't think he had a great season. Chelsea may have won the Premiership and FA Cup double but that was more down to some world class attacking players.

"Matthew Upson didn't have a great season at West Ham and Ashley Cole, to be fair to the boy, has just come back from injury.

"James Milner had a good season but Gareth Barry was very average for Manchester City. Emile Heskey started the World Cup up front but he only scored three Premiership goals for Aston Villa."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

nuune · June 29, 2010

lool Roy Keane always on the spot

Abtigiis · June 29, 2010

Cudurka kaa gala fardaha, hadii laga gubo dameer,...,

Dawada lama gaadhayee, go'aankii hore u daayoo..

Khadra Daahir, waah waah!

Dhagax-Tuur · June 29, 2010

Say what you want about every other member of the England squad, but A Cole did marvellously well. He was the only member of the team who played to World Cup grade footie.

Gaal dil, gartiisana sii, dee.

BOB · June 29, 2010

Originally posted by NGONGE:

Criticism of the England coach, Fabio Capello, has been unjustified, says Roy Keane.

Roy Keane has launched a passionate defence of Fabio Capello and believes the blame for England's World Cup exit lies solely at the door of the players.

The Ipswich Town manager said England's players "get away with murder" for a series of poor performances.

"To keep criticising and questioning the manager is crazy. He didn't do anything wrong in the qualifying campaign and now, all of a sudden, he's not the top man any more," Keane said.

"The goals they conceded against Germany, particularly the first couple, had nothing to do with Capello's choice of system or tactics. It wasn't a case of getting overrun in midfield. It was just very bad defending."

"They should just leave him to get on with the job. He is absolutely brilliant and England are lucky to have him."

Keane, who walked out of the Republic of Ireland's 2002 World Cup camp after a spat with his manager, Mick McCarthy, believes the majority of England's players are overhyped.

"They have to take a long hard look at themselves. They get away with murder," he said. "I wasn't really surprised by the Germany defeat. I keep saying it – good players don't necessarily make good teams. People keep talking about world class players but who are they?" he added.

"There's probably only Wayne Rooney, who had a brilliant season. But look at the goalkeepers. David James was relegated with Portsmouth and Robert Green just about stayed up with West Ham. Glen Johnson did okay at Liverpool but they had a poor enough season.

"John Terry? He had his issues and I don't think he had a great season. Chelsea may have won the Premiership and FA Cup double but that was more down to some world class attacking players.

"Matthew Upson didn't have a great season at West Ham and Ashley Cole, to be fair to the boy, has just come back from injury.

"James Milner had a good season but Gareth Barry was very average for Manchester City. Emile Heskey started the World Cup up front but he only scored three Premiership goals for Aston Villa."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2010

NGONGE

I told you that Heskey should've never gone to the World Cup and Mathew Upson come now...I mentioned those two in particular but you laughed at me but guess who's laughing now?

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^^^^Naah not me mate....it's your friend A&T waxa kugu qoslaya.

Peace, Love & Unity.

NGONGE · June 29, 2010

^^ If you must hint at things I said, at least do it right, saaxib. I have, at no time, said that Upson was a good player who should be in the world cup. However, I still maintain that Heskey IS. He did well in both games that he started and he keeps getting picked by managers with knowledge and understanding of the game (Roy Keane not being one of those).

Abtigiis · June 29, 2010

Comedy of England's humiliation through Scottish eyes

Graham Spiers

Craig Levein earns a ballpark £300,000 a year as Scotland manager. Fabio Capello, we are told, earns a ballpark £5.5 million to manage England. Well, you pay for genius, don’t you?

Last Sunday afternoon the Scottish sabbath was intermittently disrupted by the roars emanating from pubs as Capello’s players locked horns with “the Germans”. To be accurate here, it is not the case that, north of the border, the Scots were all roaring over England’s demise. For one thing, plenty English people live in Scotland, and the Three Lions were well represented in the watering holes of Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Inverness. For many others, though, haughty England’s sad collapse made a comical spectacle.

It was impossible, watching Capello’s post-match “interview” (I use the word generously) with the BBC’s Gabby Logan, not to witness some sort of final indignity. Just about incapable of understanding a single question Logan put to him, we were suddenly taken back to the politically-incorrect days of Fawlty Towers, and Manuel, the inept Spanish waiter with his incompetent English, being grilled by an aggrieved Basil. Frankly, was Logan in her utter despair about to whack “Manuel” Capello over the head with a frying-pan?

Following this Logan-Capello exchange it was swiftly back to the BBC studio in South Africa, where the men who just three weeks earlier had been lauding Capello to the hilt were now reduced to a pile of disconsolate vipers, poised to apply their venom. Alan Hansen, never a man to knowingly underuse language, had abruptly traded in his previous Capello hymns of praise, now using words like “incompetent”, “incredible” and “a shambles” to describe England’s performance.

Like the FA, the England fans, the media and everybody else, it has taken Hansen, Alan Shearer and Co little more than 15 days to execute a complete intellectual sommersault on whether Capello is any use as England manger.

Let me get this right. Three weeks ago he was a very fine coach. Now he is a dolt.

No wonder many Scots looked on at this whole spectacle with a sense of mirth. This is an old Biblical scene being re-applied to Capello: not weeks earlier he had arrived in South Africa riding on a kingly *** with the palm-branches showering him. Now they are shouting: “Crucify him! Crucify him!”

To add to the whole barmy scene we have the unspeakable incompetence of the FA and their treatment of Capello. Paying him £5.5 million a year might seem a ********* in itself, but to have removed the break-clause in his contract just weeks before South Africa 2010 seems a baffling lunacy. Someone, somewhere, surely is about to reveal that, if England do sack Capello in 13 days’ time, it won’t cost the FA in the region of £12 million. For heaven’s sake, someone just say it, please.

I’m afraid I need to turn here to Robert Burns, a Scottish poet with a fine insight on the human scene – especially on themes of love, pride and valour. Burns famously wrote: “Oh, if only we had the power / To see ourselves as others see us.”

It is a frightening concept when you stop to think about it, and right now it applies emphatically to Capello and England.

People – not just Scots – find it funny when haughtiness, self-belief and a kind of bumbling, presumptuous arrogance are brought to their knees like this. It is summed up in the type of coverage the BBC in London has served up on England’s World Cup appearance in South Africa. My goodness, the fanfare, the trumpetry, the great citations from Shakespeare and the rest – it was all there. But the final act? That was Gary Lineker, Hansen and Shearer suddenly groping around incredulously, gazumped by their own lack of foresight, trying to find the words with which to summarise this abomination.

I’m sorry to say this, but it was very funny. Years ago, after Argentina 1978, the Scots learned a painful lesson in humility. 32 years on South Africa 2010 has been England’s very own Argentina.

xiinfaniin · June 29, 2010

dutchka Brazil aa duugaysa , Germaynina Argentina

BOB · June 29, 2010

Originally posted by NGONGE:

^^ If you must hint at things I said, at least do it right, saaxib. I have, at no time, said that Upson was a good player who should be in the world cup. However, I still maintain that Heskey IS. He did well in both games that he started and he keeps getting picked by managers with knowledge and understanding of the game (Roy Keane not being one of those).

Like I said before I fully understand why you and A&T get along so well...you think Heskey is a good player while he thinks Kaka is better than Ronaldinho...what does that say about both of you?

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Waar Kubada Soo Barta

PS. I think Portugal will knock your Spanish out. :cool:

Peace, Love & Unity.

Hales · June 29, 2010