So, what can be said about Steve MclAren's reign and the way it ended on Wednesday night? Whatever I say about it usually involves a few expletives!
We can all look to Wednesday night's game against Croatia at Wembley and say we lost that and that's why we aren't going to Austria and Switzerland next year, but in truth that's not it at all! The whole campaign has been rather shit. Drawing to teams have of England haven't even heard of, let alone know where they are! The main problem we've had is not scoring goals when we need them most.
Before we lost 2-3 to Croatia, we'd only let in four goals in the whole Qualifying Campaign! Not bad. My Rockbeare Rangers side would have been proud of a record like that! So it certainly wasn't defensively we've struggled... with John Terry and Rio Ferdinand at the back we have one of the best centre back pairings in the world (obviously Kolo and Willy Gallas are better!). With Micah Richards coming through and other able deputies proving they can move up to the next level, like Nicky Shorey at left back, English defending has rarely looked stronger...
...until Wednesday night!
Back then, when you shove a 22 year old goalie between the sticks for his competitive debut in a MUST-NOT-LOSE game, that's a helluva lot of pressure! And fucking up the first thing he had to do probably didn't help. Was Scott Carson to blame? Not in my opinion... it's McLaren's fault for gambling in such a crunch tie. David James wouldn't have let any of those goals in.
On a plus note, I loved Crouch's volley. I was calling for Becks to come on (I love him, in a completely heterosexual way) and he did what he does, pings a superb cross in. And ol' Lanky did the rest.
Everyone now is going to blame the decline on English football, as they usually do, on foreign players at English clubs. Bollocks. If we had good English players coming through, and if the prices for home grown talent weren't so extortionately high (how much for Gareth Bale?!) then Mr. Wenger, who usually gets the brunt of the stick, wouldn't have to nick half of Barca's youth team!
Trying to limit the amount of foreigners that can play for a club is against everything the E.U. stands for these days and is never gonna happen. If bloody Exeter can fill up with bloody Poles who run off owing you £400 (that's another story), then Arsenal can have a few French blokes and Chelsea can have all the nationalities under the sun. Of course, Man Utd should never have been allowed that diving, crying, whining little fuck.
The English CLUB game is the best in the world. Arsenal, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea are amongst the elite clubs. We have overtaken Italy and Spain as the club footballing world superpower and Arsenal's football in particular is a joy to watch!
So fuck it. England's national team and McLaren himself got what they deserved. Nothing. We'll go on the come third in a home nations cup next year (behind Scotland and Northern Ireland!) and I'll carry on watching Rockbeare Rangers steam up the local leagues...!
