mumpleaser, i am impressed by your calm and balanced reply, i was expecting the whole forum to be in uproar. oh well.
however, when i say world class, i mean world class, ie the best of the best or thereabouts. on the irish team for example: roy keane(R.I.P.), and damien duff. thats all for us. there are others who are close and might get there in the future, stephen carr, john o shea, robbie keane(that'll be the day) but only the one for us for now.
now england: michael owen. i'm sorry everbody but that's it for me. gerrard will be but isn't consistent enough yet. ferdinand will be, same applies. and of course, unless he goes the way of gazza, rooney will too. now before you say anything about mr. beckham, think about it. he is more hype than anything. a good crosser, decent technique, brilliant pr. he is slow, prone to bad spells, and makes an awful captain with all the leadership of roy keane's baby finger.
the key to a good international team that doesnt have that many world class players is spirit and guile, and a bit of cockiness thrown in. the english team have none of these qualities. spirit? not a chance, when there is bickering behind the scenes at a lot of the recent tournaments. guile, sometimes but its been blown out of proportion by the media with that whole english lion thing, reminds me of how the americans pore over their flag at any given opportunity. and finally, cockiness. the english have it in the wrong way, it seems misplaced. its like how the italian media talk of their team. while they have the right to do so, the english press do not.
a sign of hope though is the reaction to the quarter final exit in the last world cup, there wasn't the usual whinging and complaining and the public seem more willing to stick with the manager for a longer amount of tiime.
again, sorry to have bored you with my thesis here, but im bored at work
