Home Internationals

The possibility of bringing back the Home Internationals has been discussed to death over the years, although perhaps not amongst the younger fans who weren't alive at the time.

Yes, I remember conflict on the terraces and outside the grounds and even the breaking of a certain Wembley crossbar by naughty fans once.

I think we SHOULD bring back the home internationals and this is my reasoning:-

England and the Republic of Ireland have been dumped out of Euro2012 with a whimper. Everyone knew neither team would achieve anything because neither country actually has a team that COULD achieve anything.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland didn't even qualify.

Now, before anyone slates me to say that the Republic weren't even in the old Home Internationals, you are of course correct ever since the country divided into 2 new countries (as it were!)

General opinion is that national teams don't get enough time to train and play together and this is the main reason we never progress in tournaments. Another opinion is that our leagues are crammed full of foreigners so the naturals don't get a chance to nudge into teams, particularly in the English Premier League. Both are fair points.

But if we brought back Home Internationals when would we play them? The players and clubs get little enough time without this new burden.

EXCLUDE PREMIER TEAMS FROM THE SMALL CUP COMPETITIONS!

The English and Scottish League cups spring to mind.
Until a team has been knocked out they would play approx 1 game per month in these Mickey Mouse cups. This is game time which could be used to play Home Internationals and get our national teams real match practice.

I'm sure it wouldn't be looked upon as another silly tournament as the local country pride would shine through I'm sure.

Please don't jump all over me for this article, just that I can't think of how any of our countries are EVER going to achieve anything!

What are YOUR ideas?