Is it not about time the English football faithful wake up and realise the team just really isn't that good? It's like watching a moron run AK v QQ at evens.
I said at the time Sven was a good manager and maybe people will start to realise what he did with such a poor team was pretty impressive!
To be fair, virtually everything Sven did well (run to the QF of the world cup where we led agaisnt brazil before being beaten, beating germany 5-1 away etc) came on the back of Michael Owen's goals.
Michael Owen is an outstanding goalscorer and any team in the world would badly miss a player of his calibre.
Having said that, Steve Mclaren is probably one of the worst appointments for England Manager there's ever been. Unispiring, unimaginative and most importantly with zero pedigree (getting to the final of the uefa cup against mediocre opposition with a premiership team is no great achievement).
At least Graham Taylor had a shot at the title with Aston Villa before he became england manager.
An evil part of me hopes we don't qualify so that he can be replaced quickly and not oversee what will be the a bland, insipid period of football for england.
I don't agree England have a poor team at heart.
Ferdinand, Terry,A Cole, J Cole, Gerrard, Lampard, (owen, if he recovers) are all players who deserve to play on the biggest stages and anyone who has watched Lennon play this season realises what a star this kid's going to be.
But you still need a very good manager to shape and get the best out of these talents in highly pressurised situations, and I don't think the banal platitudes of steve mclaren are going to do that.
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