England Future

" and what did they win? "




Might of not won anything but were a lot better than the c rap we had to watch in recent times. Euro 96 and France 98 were memorable tournaments as England fans where as everything after that in this supposed " golden generation" was disappointment after disappointment. This new fresh brand of England players is the way to go and that proved it with the introduction of Townsend

The young players have deserved their chance because the old stalwarts were horribly overrated and gutless when it mattered, probably worried about their fragile ego's being dented by the ravenous media.

We have qualified from a group which in all reality was fairly easy. Let's see if these players have the strength of character to play in a finals competition without messing their shorts with a good team spirit and the belief in themselves.

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

And we were extremely unlucky against Portugal having our star player Rooney get injured early on, and having the ref wrongly disallow a Campbell goal.

if your best players 'fail' by getting out of the groups and getting knocked out by an eventual finalist or on penos.....................I know...........play even worse players because the others didn't win it all.

That'll work.

What are you on about Don Tottenham

Euro 96 was a home. We played very well against Holland and average to poor in the other 4 games, difference was we managed to win one penalty shoot-out so got past the QF's for a change.

France 98 we lost in the 2nd round to a team who didn't get past the QF's, having finished 2nd in a mediocre group, losing to a Romania team who also lost in the 2nd round.

We were a much better team 2002-2006 when most of the aforementioned world class players were at their peak. We were very unlucky in 2004 and probably should have won that tournament, certainly should have reached the semi's and were clearly one of the best teams in the competition. Easily the best England team I have seen (I am 32).

They didn't call themselves the golden generation. It was a noose around their neck given by Adam Crozier. They were clearly a more talented bunch of players than we have had before or since though, but unfortunately did not make the most that talent as a team.

I fail to see how France 98 can be deemed 'memorable', other than for a couple of brilliant individual moments from Owen and Beckham.

Euro 96 was certainly memorable, but we didn't play any exceptional football. We well beat the worst Dutch team for 30 years, drew with mediocre Switzerland, beat a mediocre Scotland, drew with a nothing Spain team and drew with a mediocre (by their standards) Germany team. 2 wins in 5 games, at home, is hardly earth-shattering.

Comment Deleted by Site Moderator

I was only 9 for Italia 90 so obviously can't remember it properly.

I know from reading and listening though that we actually didn't play particularly well at all.

That's what cup competitions are all about.

Interesting that this qualifying campaign has been the first since '90 that we went unbeaten.

Not saying it means anything, but Hodgson (and Neville) have certainly made us difficult to beat. It's all a bit weird as we are worse defensively for me than for a while, but it seems to working some how.

Pretty sure we can't be as dire as we were in South Africa 2010. in a group that included England, USA, Slovenia, and Algeria.
Drew with USA, drew with Algeria, beat Slovenia 1-0, just managing to stumble through the qualifiers in second place, before being shown to be the poor team we were by Germany.
This current team, as limited as it is, seems like a breath of fresh air in comparison.

Remember that 2010 team breezed through qualifying and looked good.

It's all about team spirit and how they deal with the pressure when there.

The team has looked good at home this week, it's still a huge step to look good in Brazil though.

I don't recall many exciting performances in the away qualifiers.