England: Martin O'Neill going nowhere

England cannot keep the ball. In warmer climates like that were major championships are played england will fail. I simply believe the players are not good enough as a team and Scott Carson..well I can't see how he can recover from such a confidence blow. The whole English FA needs reforming and fans need not be dissapointed because our team simply isn't good enough. England International football is in turmoil.

Scott Carson played in one match - a match we were lucky to still have as a chance to qualify. He had an excellent game and there cant be any blame on him for England not qualifying.

The problems started when second choice Steve got the job - because every one knew he wasn't good enough.

John Gregory for England! The only ability the England manager needs is to motivate the team and get them playing football for 90 minutes of EVERY match. Gregory can do that - second choice Steve clearly couldn't.

well steve mcClaren finaly got the bullet,martin oneil has been named favourite to take over the job [hope not]but we will see also how all this is going to affect scott carson and barry etc
we will find out by saturdays match, the papers gave scott a right battering will he ever get over it i,m not so sure, although the whole of the set up should be looked at from the top who appointed the england boss in the first place to the coaches,players etc.

Its not the manager. Its simple. The players are simply not good enough. The evidence is incriminating. Just look at every single tournament since 1998 that this so called 'golden generation' have been involved in.

Agree completely, changing the manager won't make any difference.

Not sure MoN will turn it down tho. I've just got this nagging doubt. Will be horrified if he does go.

Damian, Martin O'Neill has indeed told us that he is committed, but i wouldn't trust that as whole heartedly as you suggest. I can't help but think that that is the traditional line to push out whenever speculation gets high. I still believe that if Barwick comes to him and offers him the job, he'll probably take it. I very much want to believe that he will stay and do the job that he has promised, but I won't blame him too much if he does leave.

Robbie

If England had gone through last night I'd be worried .. but going for the England job now would be pointless - what would he be going for?

O'Neill will be staying .. for now - he wouldn't lie to us would he?

"He had an excellent game and there cant be any blame on him for England not qualifying."

Damien did you watch the 1st and 3rd goals against us? The first goal created the tone for the rest of the match. It was a catastrophe and his worst goalkeeping mistake since Robinson scored on him last year, which should have been his career worst mistake. The 3rd goal had him rooted in insecurity until is was too late and his physical attributes weren't able to suck him out of his grave (IE. not quite long enough). He shouldn't have been picked to start in goal to be fair, but FFS a school boy would have done better.

Damien, there is a lot of blame to be laid on Scott Carson. Get your head out of your arse mate.

I think this is exactly what I said a few weeks ago - MON is the kind to say 'you had your chance'. There's no way at all he's going anywhere.

Damien, I don't know much about what you think of John Gregory - obviously you really liked him?

I don't agree that we need limits on the number of foreign players in each team. Italy manage fine and Serie A is full of foreign talent and tonnes of money; they're world champions and consistently do much better than we do.

I think we need a manager that commands serious respect. We need sommeone to get the playing attitude right, stick to 4-4-2 and get players to do the same job that they do for their clubs every week. Anything else just won't work. We have plenty of world-class players in Terry, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Lampard, Rooney, Owen etc so we should not have any problems qualifying for these tournaments if the man-management is half decent.

The ideal choice is Mourinho - make him an offer he can't refuse. If we can't get him, we should take our time and maybe give 4 or 5 different managers the reins for 2 friendlies each over the next year to see how they perform, and then make a decision.

we need mon and england need jose. i hope mon doesnt go to england now or ever im irish so villa mean more then england. maybe ireland and the 4 home nations can have a mini euros next summer we wont be doin anything else. english and irish fans were let down by their FAs at the start of qualifing 2 muppets put in charge of the teams

The whole of English football needs a shake up, but more importantly, the FA need a plan going forward, not just to chuck some sucessful club manager in at the deepend and demand that he delivers results instantly.

With the disappointment of not qualifying comes an opportunity (and the kick up the a$$ we needed) to sit down formulate a plan to turn english football around. Not a quick fix to paper over the cracks, but a long term plan to deliver a continual string of players (and managers) cabable of delivering at the very highest level. Whether that is a 2, 4 or 10 year plan, we as England fans will have to patient for the sucess that we crave.

at Villa W****r

how can scott carson be in any way be blamed for england not qualifyign to fool? he played 90 minuites of 1080 qualifying minutes and if russia had won the other night it wouldn't have mattered

4 Foreigners? Brilliant, we've probably only got 6 foreigners in the team! We'll win the league every year ;)

England just need to get their act together and play like a Premiership club would. There's enough ability there, just no blend or balance. Lampard and Gerrard shouldn't be called up together, let alone play alongside one another. Owen and Crouch with Rooney as sub.

We need two wingers. SWP is shite and Joe Cole isn't left footed. Dare i say it, Barry should go back to left-wing.

fair comment damian. its the quailifying over 12 games that counts. i was happy playing carson but when i saw the pitch, i immediatly thought it was a bad idea. the reason he spilled it was because he was bricking it and much of that was brought upon him by the state of the pitch, fact, even if it was an elementary mistake.
hope and think your right about mon. i think the deciding factor will be the fact england cant potentially play in an international tournament for another 2 and half years.

If MO'N accepts the England job than he is a mug. They had their chance after Sven and they picked McClown. He's not available for them like the first time around and hopefully MO'N isn't sorry enough to take this pointless job playing friendlies till 2008.

What complete bo***x 4 Foreign players? That is plain silly. Surely the best way for players to get better is to play in the best league in the world with the best players playing the best football? I don't think the prem without the foreign players would be a good place to play. We need the best in the world, to become a great player you need competition and all this about foreign players is just whinging from teams with English players trying to stop the likes of Arsenal playing the best football there is.

oscar - i'm not saying i have all the answers - but 55% of the players in the league are foreign - of the near 30 league goals arsenal have scored this season, not one is from an english player

i even said it's lots of things that need to change. but i also agree exactly with what you say - that players need to play with the best players - but i think you'd also agree that there are some quite average foreigners in the league ..

He won't go! The next major tournament is 3 years away, so it would be pointless going there. He has started something at Villa and I think he will continue with us.

I didnt see that match as i went to see Jimmy Carr (seems like the right decision now) but i read some reports and whilst they said Carson was at fault for the first goal them said he made a couple of very important saves to keep us in it. Ive just seen the highlights and whilst i obviously cant tell how Carson played for the whole game, the second goal was definatly not his fault and the 3rd i dont think was either. Croatia had already scored 1 from outside the box so i dont know why no players closed him down. I think he recovered well from his mistake which quite frankly was awful, ill be honest i dont think he can blame the pitch for that one. Alot of the scores have been less than complimentary about the players and i think the whole team have been abit rubbish apart from Crouch. We dont deserve to be there and im glad because now we can start building properly. If we had been there would we have done anything? No not in a million years!

Carson i dont think should be no.1 at the moment but lets be honest, out of our 3 keepers not 1 of them hasnt made mistakes. I think its James turn (if he is still playing) for no.1. Carson will definatly be the no.1 in a few years.

I disagree about the whole limiting foreign players thing. I dont really think that would make the England team that much better. If the English players were good enough they would be playing at the highest level. I think the prices of English players is the biggest problem. I hope MON doesnt go to England.

UTV

To Villa W****r - wasn't robinson's goal against Ben Foster ?

It was against foster

Birmingham need a manager, McClown needs a job

Match made in heaven

I would love to believe the whole spin you are putting on this Damian but ive got a few concerns of my own. When asked about the England Job months back, MON said England will still qualify it's over 12 games. in october he said the same again, yeterday he came out and said the "take it one step at a time" was a lie. but not the speculation. He said he is committed to villa but this was when it looked like england would qualify when we only needed a point. what i'm getting at is not once has he said "i will not take the england job if its offered" like alan curbishley did, that is why our special one is favourite at 3/1 and curbishley is 33/1

at villa w***r
u r talkin out your ass mate,Robinsons goal was against foster u dumb s**t!! get it right, and i also remember wayne rooney giving away a penalty against russia which we ended up losing, he didnt get much blame did he!! so shut your mouth you no nuthin bwt football!!!

i dont think they will want mon. they need a manager who is more of a prima donna than all the players.... only one man springs to mind, jose!!

I think MON is both honest enough and has enough integrity to keep his commitment to Villa, Randy and MON seem to have an excellent relationship and that could be the key. Basically the current Villa board would not chastise MON the way England's media would if they started performing badly. But there are a couple of things that are key in all of this:

1. Will the FA give MON free reign over his leadership and allow him (and only him) to bring in who he want's, and do what he want's (which is essentially what Lerner does)?

2. Will the FA allow MON to operate on a rolling 12 month basis like he did with Celtic and Villa?

Whatever happens now the next few weeks are going to be crucial, putting the speculation to one side, MON has the monumental task of repairing Carson's (and possibly Barry's) confidence following the debacle last night, and we also do not know how the talk of 'MON for England' will affect our players who seem to have a good relationship with MON and could become unsettled.

I Want Lippi as Manager & Shearer as his assistant manager.

I don't want that clwon shearer the boring b******. Carson was clamity and he has the personality of a rocking horse. Send him back to liverpool now and don't waste any money..he cost us that game last night..I personally thought he was at fault for all 3 goals. Micky adams and John Fashnu is a dream partnership for the england job. Don't you think the timing of the departure of the elephant man-Steve Bruce is a little bit suspicious? Spud head for England?

my uncle works in the betting industry and he informed me today there has been big bets on MON to be the next manager and said he is now firm favorite. I have just checked William hill and he has been backed in to 2-1 favorite already. with mourinho at 4-1. He also said if his money was going to be anywhere it would be on MON as thats who everyone in the industry thinks will be appointed

The occasion was too much for him last night, McClaren should never had started him in such a big game he was under to much pressure but after that mistake he got on with it and made a few important saves i just hope he recovers from it he is trully world class and if you remember Peter Shilton made a similar mistake and he arguably went on to be the best in the world.

If players were in it for the wining that would be good

but these days they are all money mad. and if you say only 4 foreigners to a team then a team has to make up more english

in turn this would result in class players not going anywhere because the money

and the top 4 would now become the top 2 and the rest would be shit

oooo i spot a filter :P

look at arsenal lol chelsea and man u maybe top 2

I think there are two separate problems...The state of the national team, and the state of the English game in general.

If the clubs can't be counted on to develop young talent properly, which is probably never going to happen across the board, then something needs to be done by the FA to create a proper academy and development program. The youngsters have to get better on the ball, improve their skills. From that will come composure, and the ability to play smart football. I believe that's how the French went from having crap football to producing so many stars.

If, instead of being distributed unevenly amongst the various clubs and their separate youth systems, the clubs could let their most promising players get developed via the academy, it would be a win-win for both. The players would get to play with each other over several years and develop a comraderie and sense of identity, as well as getting familiar with each other on the pitch. Just selecting players for the various England teams isn't enough. They train a bit, but aren't getting any sort of comprehensive development.

MON is in some ways doing a bit of this by bringing together some of the best young English talent. But unless the England manager calls them all up together, England won't necessarily benefit.

At any rate, it's time to basically chuck all but a couple of the experienced players and essentially spend the next couple years bringing along a new, young team.

in my opinion its outrageous what you have stated as i don't believe that it is foreign players that are wrecking our game its the fact that england are simply not good enough and simply not run by a good enough manager

we finally get ourselves a good manager, finally get ourselves headin in the rite direction and things are lookin good for the villa, if MON leaves it will be just our luck!

i dont see how they can blame carson anyway, yeah ok the 1st goal was a blunder but the defense should of closed him down quicker he shouldnt be allowed to shoot from there plus we pulled it back to 2-2 then england just sat back n were like ok we will go thru at a draw and that didnt work, the defense were all over the place, the whole england team were rubbish.

at K

it's not just about foregin player - i've said above that i think it's a few things. but when 55% of the league are foreigners - more than italy, france, spain or germany - then in my opinion, it is a factor - but not the only one

What's all the papers on about saying McLaren had no shame by not resigning. I think that's admirable. He's basically saying "I did wrong, punish me for it" not in a kinky way of course.

If anything he deserves respect for that. And why is it always the manager they point at when England go bad? McLaren chose England's 'best' available squad, and they fucked up.

They were the players running around like idiots, no manager in the World would tell their squad to do what England did.

And of course we can blame Carson, whether it was a big game or not, he's a professional. And it should be like every other game. If he wasn't ready he would have told Macca he wasn't.

I don't care if he's a Villa player, he made a horrific and schoolboy error. But he's only human, and therefor, it doesn't matter.

Just on the BBC - O'Neill is going nowhere.

The reason there are so many foreigners is because they are better than English players.

Our youngsters are picked purely on size. Skilled players get squeezed out of the game for physical players at a young age. We need a good combination of both but just going for the biggest lads doesn't work.

I've heard if time and time again that when clubs get schools to send players for trials they pick the biggest lads and not the best players.

It's not even the Premierleague that's the problem, it's much much deeper than that.

Nice to actualy see martin rule himself out of england job on sky sports news big thnaks to him for showin his commitment to our club

Give the man the freedom of the city he is a ledgend to me just for ruleing himself out of the england job

As for england go and get big phil scolari he will get us playin proper football and will kick the players arse if the fuck up

Lampard terry and a few others in the england team are worried about one thing and one thing only that gettin the money every week i would blame gerrard to but he really dose fight and give his all


SACK TERRY SACK LAMPARD SACK EM ALL AND REPLACE EM WITH THE UNDER 21S

it's now sortid MON isn't going anywhere, it's great t see a manager with that kind of commitment to our club well done MON :D ;D

Woohoo! been watching my RSS feeds regularly waiting for that story to emerge on the BBC site

[url]LINK[/url]

I think we also need to ask ourself why very few of our players play outside of england.

It's very rare we send our players out on loan or sell to any other nation. If you think of all of the top footballing nations, they have players playing all over the world gaining experience of different forms of the game.

we dont have anything like that and put that up against teams like argentina, Italy, France or Brazil who have players playing all over the globe i think we will allways come off second best. how can this be changed? i have no idea but im not head of the FA

Great that MoN has come out and commented on this. But, his responses do not exactly reassure...
He never explicitly rules himself out of the frame. He never says that if the job was offered he wouldnt be interested.
Reading between the lines (especially if you listen to the interview) he could just as easily be implying that if the FA [u][/u]did[u][/u] approach him, then he might well be interested, but as things stand because they havent contacted him then he doesnt want to say either way
He also says that he is committed to the Villa, and he wants to see through that commitment - ALTHOUGH am I right in thinking that he only has a 1 year rolling contract...?!? Therefore that "commitment", strictly speaking, is not exactly a long term one
Seems to me that he is being very cagey. We all could do with an "If they offered me the job, I am not interested" type of comment, but that is certainly not what he gave on the BBC interview

Yes, indeed. Well done, MON!

Now we can maybe be happy about England's loss...An overdue wake-up call without Villa getting screwed.

It occurs to me that what's happened to English football is a bit like American basketball. The rest of the world have focused on fundamentals like shooting and solid teamwork, and have closed a rather large talent and experience gap.

If there were an English academy that was focused on finding players with skill on the ball, composure, vision, along with some pace and strength (better to have a big center half than a tiny one, all other things being equal), and forced them to play largely two-touch football (control and pass) with instructions to build scoring moves and not lump the ball up, you'd develop a core of players over time who can play on the ground and play with a lead.

Pace is wonderful, as is size, but the ball is always faster. Finding good positions, being able to pick out those players with accurate passes, and learning to maneuver up and down the field this way will always be effective.

It just demands a commitment to develop at least a generation of players this way. This is where the FA can step in, and the clubs will have the benefit of having their young players trained up properly by someone else. But obviously, it takes a commitment across the board to implement.

I agree with kohoutek - we in America were in complete disbelief when our stars got taken out. Perhaps the FA could give bonuses to English players for winning the Premier League. I've got some other thoughts at LINK