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**Official** English Football Season 2024/25

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Tony Cascarino likes this.
My favourite story was from 15 years or so previously, when Terry Mancini was called up by Ireland due to some fairly distant family connections. As the national anthems were playing before his debut against Poland, Mancini turned to team mate Don Givens and uttered the immortal line “‘For ****’s sake, their anthem goes on, doesn’t it?’ Givens looked at Mancini and pointed out that was actually the Irish one.
 

Ali TT

International Vice-Captain
It's good line, but I suspect that Ronan may be too young to remember the Irish team and manager in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
I mean he only had to look at the English manager to see an Englishman who played 40 times for Ireland.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
It's good line, but I suspect that Ronan may be too young to remember the Irish team and manager in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
Still think it's wild that Ray Houghton got capped 73 times because he wasn't good enough to play for Scotland.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Still think it's wild that Ray Houghton got capped 73 times because he wasn't good enough to play for Scotland.
Yes, I must admit that I thought Houghton had been born in England until I looked it up this morning. And then wondered how he didn't get to play for his country of birth. I suppose that Scotland when he first came along were rather stronger than when he finished. You'll know better than me of course. Good player though.
 
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Furball

Evil Scotsman
Yes, I must admit that I thought Houghton had been born in England until I looked it up this morning. And then wondered how he didn't get to play for his country of birth. I suppose that Scotland when he first came along were rather stronger than when he finished. You'll know better than me of course. Good player though.
Never really got a look in at youth level, missed out on the 1986 World Cup at the age of 24.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Never really got a look in at youth level, missed out on the 1986 World Cup at the age of 24.
I suppose he hadn't really stood out by 1986; still playing for Oxford United, and he didn't join Liverpool until 12 months later.
I'm guessing that Scotland had a decent bunch of midfielders in 1986, but he was certainly the one that they missed. He scored what were arguably the two most famous goals in Ireland's history.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
I suppose he hadn't really stood out by 1986; still playing for Oxford United, and he didn't join Liverpool until 12 months later.
I'm guessing that Scotland had a decent bunch of midfielders in 1986, but he was certainly the one that they missed. He scored what were arguably the two most famous goals in Ireland's history.
In 86 we still had the Magnificent Bastard, Strachan, an up and coming Paul McStay as well as Bannon and Bett who were mainstays of excellent Dundee Utd and Aberdeen sides. Iain Durrant and Derek Ferguson were also breaking through at Rangers, although neither would end up reaching their potential for different reasons.
 

Skipper Pup

U19 Vice-Captain
Rough few days for Arsenal. Merino injured, Rice suspended and now Odegaard goes off with what appears to be a pretty serious ankle injury.

We may finally see Havertz back in midfield. Either way going to make for an interesting game v Spurs and their fixture list looks very tough
 

Chin Music

State Vice-Captain
We beat Italy twice in the last set of qualifiers as well. Lots to knock Southgate over, but beating the Irish 2-0 hardly sees Carsley surpass the guy who took England to two Euro finals and WC semis and quarters
I might be late to this, but I would say that Southgate started to get stuck last autumn. If you look at the set up with the Ukraine game in Poland and North Macedonia, England were laborious and the use of some players was questionable. The personnel may have changed slightly by the time the Euros came, but the approach really didn't. Prior to that England had been a lot more positive, recalling the Italy home game in particular, however, I think Southgate got a little bogged down with the idea that maximising a defensive outlook was the key to success. Great if you have Alessandro Nesta/Chiellini or perm any outstanding Italian defender from the last 30 to heck 80 years but England doesn't have them right now. Hence me thinking of the youtube memes of Harry Maguire to the Benny Hill theme...
 

Molehill

Cricketer Of The Year
Heard an interesting point last night in that Carsley has a far more simple selection process at the moment without the likes of Foden, Bellingham or Palmer available. It actually gets much harder working out a system when he has the full squad at his disposal, when also expectations will rise too.
 

wpdavid

Hall of Fame Member
Heard an interesting point last night in that Carsley has a far more simple selection process at the moment without the likes of Foden, Bellingham or Palmer available. It actually gets much harder working out a system when he has the full squad at his disposal, when also expectations will rise too.
Yes, I was talking about that with someone the other day. And obviously, whoever he doesn't pick or doesn't play in exactly their current club role will be grounds for some serious moaning from the usual quarters.
 
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Molehill

Cricketer Of The Year
Fair play to Carsley for bringing Gomes in, seriously impressive performance. Looks the perfect partner for Rice.
 

sledger

Spanish_Vicente
"My life is so hard because I have too many good/world class players" is the most First World footballing problem I can think of.
 

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