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David, with all due respect, are you being serious when you said, "Getting paid out is merely a good gesture"?
I’d say it’s more something they have to do. By using the term ‘good gesture’ it’s almost as if you’re suggesting they don’t have to pay you out, but when they do we should be grateful.
It’s also nothing to do with their computers not recognising the revised result. In a Ladbrokes shop, which also uses a computer system to settle results by the way, punters were settled out on both results almost instantly the stewards revised the outcome.
The reality is that someone, somewhere hasn’t done their job properly. Simple really.
More radically have one blank day a week, Monday unless it’s a Bank Holiday or winter Sunday’s and it will be easy to absorb a 500 meeting reduction and (apart from the blank days) most punters wouldn’t even notice.
As much as it sounds good, you and I know this will never happen in our lifetime.
Since it’s introduction, Sunday racing has generally been a success (though I’m yet to back a winner on a Sunday lol), so I don’t think there’s any chance they’ll drop racing on this day, and even less a chance of them dropping racing on a Monday.
Not really fella, it was a weak race with only a few runners, in which
he started at ‘seven on’.Workforce was running against high class horses, that’s the long and short of it.
You’re talking about the wrong race Matthew, the 1/7 shot was in the first race and won by 5 lengths
But you’re right in what you say, the race that the horse won by 7 lengths was a very weak affair. The second favourite needed to lead but missed the break, the third favourite pulled too hard, and the winner got the run of the race, bagged the rail and just kept going.
The winner finished sixth in the Epsom dash last time out, and was now in a seller/claimer (don’t know which one exactly without checking) so was fully entiteld to win by a wide margin.
And my final final point is;
Arsenal, Man Utd, Liverpool and Chelsea very rarely play 4-4-2. These four clubs provide a large percentage of England’s squad.
So why, if they don’t play 4-4-2 throughout the season for their clubs, should they be expected to play 4-4-2 for England when it involves at least a few of them playing out of position.
**** it, I wan’t the England job – it’s not about ego, high wages, pride etc…. it’s about good old common sense.
DEFINITELY NO MORE ON ENGLAND FROM ME…. until next time anyway
So why didn’t Capello;
1) Play Rooney up front on his own, with Gerrard just behind him?
2) Take Johnson ahead of Wright-Phillips (we already had Milner and Lennon in that position but had no natural left midfielders other than Joe Cole)?
3) Play Joe Cole on the left, Lampard and Barry in the middle, and Gerrard just ahead of them, meaning everyone was playing in their most favoured positions, and positions they played at their clubs?
4) Take Bent instead of Heskey. If Capello wanted a ‘lanky’ striker he already had Crouch?
The last two or three England manager’s may have ‘failed’ with England, but does that make them poor managers? If what everyone is saying is right and we clearly aren’t good enough, then that’s an unfair reflection on all three of those manager’s abilities. Mclaren especially, who was made such a joke of at the time seems to be doing alright for himself at the moment.
The Gerrard debate could go on and on, but I agree with Capello and manager’s previous to him, that at this time he was our best option on the left… Overall I don’t think he did that bad a job and I certainly can’t think of anyone who could have done better on reflection, Johnson maybe in the future?
In answer to your 4 questions…
1) Why suddenly throw everything out of the window what we’d done before.
We cruised through qualifying winning 9 from 10 and played 4-4-2 in all 10 games with Rooney finishing top scorer.
Why qualify like that and then change when we get to the tournament? Imagine if Capello would have gone in with just Rooney up front and we came home early because we were too negative only playing one up top and weren’t good enough…hell…the man would have been ridiculed!
2)Somewhere at some point I made the exact same point that I would have taken Johnson over either Lennon or SWP because we had 3 very similar wingers and Johnson IMO would have offered something different. Capello did have a look though and must have thought him not ready and gone with the little bit more experience of the others. I still maintain, I think Gerrard was a better left option than any of those (at this time).
3)I don’t think Joe was fit enough in all honesty. After the first two games people were screaming for the creativity of Cole (me included) but now with the benefit of hindsight the amount of football he has missed has clearly had an affect and he was nowhere near the player we know he can be in this tournament… a real shame.
4)Probably part of the answer in 1 and 2. Heskey partnered Rooney in 6 of the 10 qualifying games chipping in with a couple of goals. Bent is certainly the more prolific scorer at club level but he’s certainly never convinced me in an England shirt,
take away his goalscoring threat and he offers nothing
to me as his all round game is pretty poor. Heskey on the other hand, may lack goals at times, but had the edge in experience and has proven at times to be an able partner for Rooney. This one was an absolute no brainer for me!
Don’t give it up mate…debate is good and helps a bit to get over the disappointment of our early exit.
Come on Zam, are you trying to pull my plodder?
As I’ve highlighed from you post, "take away his goalscoring threat and he offers nothing". WHAT ELSE DO YOU WANT HIM TO DO OTHER THAN BE A GOALSCORING THREAT?
Maybe Capello didn’t take him because, although he was the top English goalscorer last season (apart from Rooney), he was sh*t at keeping goal. Or maybe he wasn’t that good at defending corners
.He’s a frigging goalscorer for Christ’s sake, we don’t want anything else other than him to be a goalscoring threat
And as for sailing thrugh qualifying with a 4-4-2, the majority of these games where with naturaly left midfielders, Joe Cole and Downing for example. What about our warm up games against Egypt, Mexico, Japan etc? We were garbage in every game, outplayed for the most part, and only because of a few ‘own goals’ that we got the odd wn.
Right, I’m definitely not talking about England again… unless you say something stupid again that is
Great to see the England players in fits of hysteria as they got off the plane earlier
Ok, someone might have told a brilliant joke (perhaps someone said England were a good team) or someone might have let rip (men laugh at these things) but surely they would have known the eyes of the world would be watching them as the plane landed.
To exit the plane in fits of laughter after this miserable campaign is an insult to every paying England fan in South Africa.
Looks like you must of all missed this post
But you’ll be talking about it tomorrow (or later today) as it’s now hit the front pages of a few newspapers.
I’ll say it again, for the players to be in hysterics knowing that the cameras are on them is a complete insult.
And it’s no surprise to me that Ashley Cole is at the forefront of it. This is the guy who prior to the World Cup bought a pair of £50k ear-rings, so that he could ‘show them off’ at the World Cup (his words).
Cole is an world class left-back in my opinion, but boy does his antics off the field leave something to be desired.
Completely had enough of England talk now, that’s it from me
I’d love to be reincarnated as an England midfielder..
Put it this way…if I was I would cut off my right arm to play anywhere on the field…I wouldn’t sulk and moan about it I’d be totally honoured to represent my country and give absolutely everything I had for my manager, team mates and my country.
Gerrard started out left because he wasn’t considered good enough to start central and was in the manager’s opinion the best option for the left. It’s not the first time and Capello’s not the first manager to employ this tactic either, so figure that one out…
Gerrard may well be a hero for Liverpool but IMO has never transferred that kind of performance to an England shirt when playing central and as I said earlier I would have Frank Lampard in that position over Gerrard every day of the week.
That’s just my own personal opinion though, and funnily enough that of the last two or three England managers too (pretty good manager’s with good records to boot!)
To be fair to Gerrard though, despite being named on the left I thought he was allowed a bit more freedom than that and was still able to get in plenty of good positions in and around the box and had plenty of very good goalscoring chances, certainly more than you would expect an orthodox left winger to have.
I agree with most of this Zam, but to be fair, those last two or three England managers that you refer too (who I make Capello, McClaren and Sven by the way – so they didn’t have good records at all at international level) have failed/so far failed miserably with England.
You also say that Gerrard started out left because he wasn’t ‘considered good enough’ (your words) to play in the middle. This is wrong mate. Capello was simply insistant on playing 4-4-2 and he obviously didn’t like Joe Cole, Stewart Downing or Adam Johnson out left – so putting Gerrard there was his way of a solution.
I’m now going to state some facts (ok in some cases they might be opinions, but strong ones at that
) and I’d like you to tell me why Capello didn’t, or couldn’t, see this;1) Rooney had the best season of his career last season playing as a lone striker for Man United
2) On being signed from Middlesbrough, Adam Johnson was always selected ahead of Wright-Phillips on the right side of midfield for Man City. Johnson is naturally left footed and played on the left for Boro.
3) Steven Gerrard has played better as an attacking midfielder, when playing behind a lone-striker, for most of his career for Liverpool
4) Joe Cole is an affective left-midfielder who, although can play anywhere across the middle, has grew up playing left midfield and is arguably best in that position
5) Heskey has scored less league goals in the last five seasons than Darren Bent scored the whole of last season
So why didn’t Capello;
1) Play Rooney up front on his own, with Gerrard just behind him?
2) Take Johnson ahead of Wright-Phillips (we already had Milner and Lennon in that position but had no natural left midfielders other than Joe Cole)?
3) Play Joe Cole on the left, Lampard and Barry in the middle, and Gerrard just ahead of them, meaning everyone was playing in their most favoured positions, and positions they played at their clubs?
4) Take Bent instead of Heskey. If Capello wanted a ‘lanky’ striker he already had Crouch?
Right, that’s it from me on England; I’ve had enough
I’ve played football for 2o odd years, not at a bad standard either, and one thing that stands out like a soar thumb to me is even at that level the better class of players are comfortable playing anywhere.
‘That’ leve being what exactly – International? I doubt it.
When you play at internation level it’s the best of the best, the best against the best. So playing someone out of position might not appear a problem to someone who plays [whatever level you played at], but at that level it’s pivotal.
Lionel Messi is a competent attacking midfielder who can play wide right or support the attack – just like Gerrard. How many times has Messi been asked to play left midfield? And I tell you what, Argentina’s left midfield isn’t that great, but even Maradona doesn’t resort to playing people out of position at international level.
And what about Spain? How many times have you seen Fabregas or Iniesta asked to play on the left?
I could go on for ages but I’d bore you to death.
Steven Gerrard has been at the forefront of people’s thinking when it comes to the World and European Player of the Year for the last six or seven seasons. Tell me, how many times did even the Barmy Rafa play Gerrard on the left of midfield?
And you think playing out of position shouldn’t be a problem just because it isn’t a problem a ‘your’ level. Seriously Zam, you need to be reincarnated as an English central midfielder, and then get asked to play out wide. Then tell us how you feel.
I can almost guarantee that when Gerrard next releases a book he will absolutely ridicule the decision by Capello to play him out wide. Mark my words on this; the Steven Gerrard we saw in South Africa wasn’t a happy bunny, not a happy bunny at all… and I’m talking off the field.
Interesting opinion from Roy Keane….
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/worldc … ds-newsxml
Think the last paragraph especially, is spot on!
Here’s the same interview I think on Youtube
Shock horror… manager defends a manager… whatever next
I’m sick of this tug of war regarding laying the blame on the manager or laying the blame on the players. Both camps should take responsibility in my opinion.
He’s a tremendous jockey and very strong in a finish. RUK touched on this earlier this afternoon when they said that Fahey hates finishing second, which is why he employed Hanagan.
I think Hanagan has every chance of being top jockey this year; that’s not saying that he will, I’m just saying that he will pick up many many rides on the back of what he’s demonstrated already this season; a bit like Seb Sanders did when he was in the hunt for the title.
Wouldn’t it be great if we had another Sanders/Spencer-like battle for the title by the way? As much as the horses stick in the memory of all of us racing fans, the season that Spencer and Sanders went head-to-head was purely brilliant.
But yet again why doesn’t a manager just come out and be honest? Why doesn’t he just say that England weren’t good enough?
Why does he have to come out and say he thought Rooney played ok, that he thought England played ok yesterday, and that the reason we’ve been knocked out is because the players were ‘tired’
Tired my a***
Loionel Messi played more than 70 games for Barcelona last season and is playing almost every minute of this tournament in the same fashion as he was for Barcelona.
Wayne Rooney played 44 games for United last season – yet according to Capello he is tired
As the BBC have just pointed out, Germany’s best four players (can’t remember which ones exactly) from yesterday played
more
games than Terry, Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney. Yet Capello says today that our players were tired
Before the tournament Capello said England were in great shape, the preperation had been perfect, the hotel/facilities are ideal, and that they were raring to go.
Today he says the reason we performed poor at this World Cup is because they were ‘tired’.
Capello would gain far more respect if he just came out and said we played below par, we weren’t good enough, simple as. To hide behind the tired excuse is extremely lame and annoying
Sorry, but when have you ever heard any manager directly rubbish players – it just doesn’t happen.
I would love him to come out and say what did you expect from a bunch of wasters who couldn’t care less about playing for their country.
The eleven players themselves should be hauled out. First question – why were you so pathetic? See how they field the questions.
Nobody’s asking him to come out and directly rubbish players, where do you get that idea from? Or is this just something that you want?
All I’m asking is for honesty, and for him to come out and say that the players weren’t good enough collectively and that he didn’t get things right tactically. And when you add those two up it equals poor performances.
But to come out and say that England played well and the reason we failed was because the team were tired is an absolute insult. Especially when he says this just a few weeks after saying that England were in great shape.
There’s two aspects of football management that I detest. One is a manager needlessly playing people out of position, the other is a manager to come out and say things that aren’t true, as if we are all idiots and we haven’t just seen it with our very own eyes.
Me, you and next door’s dog know that the England players weren’t good enough, the tactics were wrong, the team selections were wrong to a certain extent, and that there was disharmony in the camp. So for Capello to come out and think we didn’t see all this, and instead blame our rubbish performances on tiredness defies belief. Still shaking my head, as I have done since this tournament started lol.
But yet again why doesn’t a manager just come out and be honest? Why doesn’t he just say that England weren’t good enough?
Why does he have to come out and say he thought Rooney played ok, that he thought England played ok yesterday, and that the reason we’ve been knocked out is because the players were ‘tired’
Tired my a***
Loionel Messi played more than 70 games for Barcelona last season and is playing almost every minute of this tournament in the same fashion as he was for Barcelona.
Wayne Rooney played 44 games for United last season – yet according to Capello he is tired
As the BBC have just pointed out, Germany’s best four players (can’t remember which ones exactly) from yesterday played
more
games than Terry, Lampard, Gerrard and Rooney. Yet Capello says today that our players were tired
Before the tournament Capello said England were in great shape, the preperation had been perfect, the hotel/facilities are ideal, and that they were raring to go.
Today he says the reason we performed poor at this World Cup is because they were ‘tired’.
Capello would gain far more respect if he just came out and said we played below par, we weren’t good enough, simple as. To hide behind the tired excuse is extremely lame and annoying
He wasn’t right at all about England being a kick and rush team. I saw no evidence of England just hoofing it forward yesterday. We tried passing it but we failed, that doesn’t make us a kick and rush team. We were awful yesterday, but that wasn’t by means of kicking it 60 yards up field all the time.
In fact, take a look at Germany’s first and fourth goals. You don’t get more direct than a huge punt forward from your goalkeeper/defender for someone to rush on to it.
But whether he’s right or wrong is slightly away from my point. My point is he’s an idiot, an idiot for making comments about other teams whilst his own nation are trying to win the World Cup. As I’ve said, at least three German players and the German manager distanced themselves from his comments and I bet their wishing he would just shut up. There’ll be something said about the Argies in the next few days I bet.
He’s had his time, he was a fantastic footballer and a great manager. But there’s a saying in this world that goes, "If you haven’t got anything good to say then don’t say anything at all". I doubt very few people are interested in what he has to say now unless he’s saying something good about the World Cup in general or his country. Criticising other nations is just poor.
You didn’t see Sir Bobby Charlton making comments to the media about Germany did you?
Great to see the England players in fits of hysteria as they got off the plane earlier
Ok, someone might have told a brilliant joke (perhaps someone said England were a good team) or someone might have let rip (men laugh at these things) but surely they would have known the eyes of the world would be watching them as the plane landed.
To exit the plane in fits of laughter after this miserable campaign is an insult to every paying England fan in South Africa.
I thought he had a point with his first comments about kick and rush, certainly based on the first two games.
Think it unlikely that he would be bitter over 66
, given his subsequent successful career.
The second set of comments he made about England being ‘stupid’ not to win the group were a bit silly and unneccessary. After all, if you start criticising footballers for being stupid, you’d never stop
Are you sure about that Andrew? Today he’s come out and said Lampard’s goal was "revenge for 66".
This guy has gone way down in my estimation for his comments during the last week or so.
Isn’t there a rule that jockeys are only allowed to ride at so many meetings a week, perhaps 10?
If this is the case then Ryan’s days off may simply be down to him picking and choosing his meetings and the result being that he rides at least two meetings per day four or five times a week.
Asking for sportsmanship in football is like asking for 10/1 for a 1/3 chance from a bookmaker. Aint never gonna happen. To much money involved in the game for fair play. Where theres money involved there are parties that will corrupt the game and twist the rules to suit them.
Whilst I agree Sportmanship is very unlikely to take a turn for the better in football, I disagree it has anything to do with money.
There are golfers out there who earn more in a season than some players earn in a lifetime, yet they have no problems doing the ‘gentlemanly’ thing.
I think it’s more the fact that football is a team sport more than anything else. Can’t back up my opinion with any solid reasons I’m afraid, it’s just what I feel.
.