[Flawed]

Well the fave at the mo believe it or not is Harry Redknapp! ER!?

I recon Murenioe ( close enough? ) should be given the job, it may give us some style and flair and heart.

As for that cup you've mentioned Binder. Thats such a blatant " lets cover up our sh!tness " cup, that i will boycot it in typical '31 year old handsome man who never was any good at sport but still thinks he is the best and knows it all' fashion.

Skills

[polishgenius]

Macca's been sacked already, so yeah.

Capello's declared interest, he'd be alright but he dislikes English players... I think Redknapp would be the best English option. At least he grasps tactics and motivation.

[Mezla PigDog]

Well done Chill. You guys totally deserved the win and to top the group. However, don't you know how football works? The team that has already qualified ALWAYS plays for a respectable draw! Always!! Anyone would think your country has PRIDE or something!

The Euro's won't be the same this summer. I'm still glad there'll be a tournament on to watch but without my team in it *sigh* Now I know how it feels to be Welsh. Still, always look on the bright side. We are spared the quarter-final heroic come-back against superior opposition and the inevitably painful exit on penalties. Hopefully the millionaire players will be suitably shamed into producing a few decent performances for the next World Cup. You can blame McLaren so far, but considering the quality of players we had through the whole qualifying campaign, they didn't play to their potential.

[Thelomen Toblerone]

We're also spared the hordes of chavs in their shitty hatchbacks driving around horns blaring with flags hanging out their windows, on the plus side.

[caladanbrood]

It would have been somewhat farcical had we managed to qualify, so this result was justice. Plus, Croatia played much better, and deserved to win.

The way England have played throughout the qualifying has been abyssmal - if we'd managed it when Scotland didn't, I would have been ashamed, honestly.

[Grumble]

@ TT

Sorry for the delayed response.

You make many good points ..... Lumpalard & Gerrard cannot play together and eveyone knows it except McClown our now ex-england manager.
To bring in Frank Carson in goal for such a big match was lunacy ( it's the way I miss them )
I am going to disagree however over Micah 'MIA' Richards he has got to stop relying on his undoubted speed to get him out of trouble and concentrate on his defending.
Cole I agree 100% all tricks and no delivery.
Most of this team were not first choice and never will be.

The new boss, and it will take a brave man to do the job, has a lot to sort out not least of which is how to get a bunch of overpaid & overrated bunch of muppets to show a bit of pride in pulling on the England jersey.

[polishgenius]

England's new manager needs to be Ian Holloway. Who's with me?

[Illuyankas]

I live in Plymouth. HOLLOWAY IS THE ENEMY

[caladanbrood]

If Ian Holloway is in charge of an England team, I'm emigrating so I can support someone else.

[Dancer+]

Why don't we pull out of the hat?

Just get the top one thousand intellectuals in the UK, put them in a hat (a rather big hat) and then see who we pick out. Test their efficacy and problem-solving skills, if they don't meet the criteria, slaughter them. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.

[caladanbrood]

They should start another ownafootballclub.com and instead of ebbsfleet united, the fans chose for ENGLAND

[Tremolo]

So England joins Denmark in not going to the next round...sigh...I share your pain

[Flawed]

I think this little ditty should go in here aswel:

Ahem!!!

McClaren - Right, Tel, thanks to Israel I can still get us through to
the Euros and can't afford any mistakes. Goalkeeper - who's the best in
the country?

Terry Venables - Rob Green

Mc - Don't know him. Is he in the squad?

TV - No.

Mc - Who have we got - I can't afford to play that clown Robinson again?

TV - James and Carson.

Mc - Who would you go for?

TV - Well James is in good form and has more experience.

Mc - Hmmmmm, James cost Sven a few games, I'll go with Carson. Defence
picks itself; Nev, JT, Rio and Ash.

TV - They're all injured, Steve.
Mc - Oh. Well, Micah at right back, Ledley and Carra in the middle and
the other fella who can only kick with one foot on the left.

TV - Ledley's injured, Steve - and Carra refuses to play for his
country.

Mc - Who does that leave me?

TV - Lescott and Sol.

Mc - There must be other centre halves?

TV - They're all foreigners, Steve.

Mc - Lescott? I thought he was a left back, never mind, he's in.
Midfield is easy Becks, Lamps, Stevie G and Joey.

TV - I wouldn't start with Becks, Steve. Not fit and playing in a Mickey
Mouse league.

Mc - Well I saw him a few weeks ago and he scored twice in a 14-12 win.

TV - Save him towards the end in case we need a get out of jail card
like against Greece.

Mc - Good idea - so we'll play the little fella on the right. You
know,quick with no end product.

TV - Lennon?

Mc - No, the other one. His Dad will be in the TV studio, so that should
go down well. So that's SWP, Lamps, Stevie G and Joey.

TV - Steve, you know Frank and Stevie G can't play together, even my old
mum knows that.

Mc - Only because neither one is defensive. I'm going to put another man
behind them, Barry. That'll fool Bilic. Now, up front. I think we should
play the two that caused Russia so many problems here.

TV - Heskey and Owen?

Mc - Yep.

TV - They're both injured.

Mc - **** - who would you play?

TV - Rooney and Ashton.

Mc - Excellent, two class players, they're in.

TV - They're both injured.

Mc - **** me, have I upset the big man up there?

TV - Who, Barwick?

Mc -No THE big man.

TV - Crouchy won't let you down.

Mc - How many goals has he scored this season?

TV - None

Mc - None? Is he the best we've got?

TV - We've got Defoe and Bent as well. They've got one goal between
them.

Mc - One goal between 3 of our best players, why is that?

TV - Too many foreigners in the Premiership.

Mc - Tel, I'm struggling here, do you think I'm out of my depth?

TV - Don't be silly, look at your CV, how many major trophies have you
won?

Mc - None.

TV - I've just remembered, I've got to speak to my solicitor about
redundancy compensation.

[Anomander Rake]

I''ve only just seen that Shearer's name being thrown in the hat by some of the newspapers for England Coach, which has quite surprised me. Though when I think about it, and compared to all the other choices, I think it might not be such a bad idea.

My vote is going to Shearer, if he'll take the job.

[chill]

@Flawed - nice. Have some rep:)
@Mezla - nothing personal, really. It's just that we always do our best:D
Besides, Macedonia kicked our ass, so it was a question of pride to finish the qualifications with a victory.
However, I have to point out that we will either get to the semi-finals or not pass the groups at all. We qualified to every Euro and World Championship since 1996 (except 2000.), but have done nothing special (except 1998.). I respect Bilić and his work, but I'm sceptical about our chances.

[polishgenius]

Shearer? No managerial experience, average grasp of tactics as a pundit, no personality whatsoever? Nah.

[Dancer+]

Inspirational leader, experience as captain and leading a team, must understand tactics, not afraid to be somewhat contraversial...

Give Shearer a chance.

[caladanbrood]

Anomander Rake;227183 said:

I''ve only just seen that Shearer's name being thrown in the hat by some of the newspapers for England Coach, which has quite surprised me. Though when I think about it, and compared to all the other choices, I think it might not be such a bad idea.

My vote is going to Shearer, if he'll take the job.

I think it somewhat suprised Shearer too, judging by his comments! But I don't think you can give a guy the England job as his first coaching role, however awesome he was as a player.

[Binder of Demons]

I've seen oo a lis of candidates recently the name of a certain Mark Hughes. Now it's questionable whether he'd walk away from Blackburn with how he's been building them up. But in his favour, he was a great player, he's always demanded commitment from his colleagues and led by example. He was definitely a winner.

As a manager he has done really well at Blackburn I think, they play good football and fight hard (sometimes maybe too much emphasis on the fight?). His major plus point on top of all that, is that he has International management experience. OK, the Welsh team was rubbish for a while after he took over (as his first management job!), but he eventually got them playing really well, and they were very unlucky not to qualify for euro 2004 (which was only because wales didn't have enough players to cover injuries).

He seems like a strong personality, his players seem to respond well to playing for him and he's seen it all before. I was surprised to see his name on a bookies list, but when i thought about it, it made great sense. And, as a final incentive, it would probably cement his chances of getting the Man Utd job after Fergie if he went and managed England for a few years and did well.

We couldn't convince him to do the Ireland job instead, could we? I've seen Terry Venables name being linked to the Irish post. God Help us!

[Coco with marshmallows]

well, well, well, well, well.

so, the world cup:

your lot (England) have pulled:
Andorra,
Belarus,
Kazakhstan (cue the Borat jokes)
Croatia (again)
Ukraine.

The mighty Jocks have pulled:
Holland (ouch)
Iceland
Macedonia
Norway (could be tricky)

first thoughts - Scotland are probably going to get pumped by Holland (our last competitive game against them they battered us)