World Cup 2014 thread

[Unknown Soldier]

Originally Posted by William_the_Bloody

In Canada England is always hyped up because they're seen as the best football representatives for the Anglophone world, but as a soccer (football) fan, I just roll my eyes when the media begins speculating if this could be England's year.

The reason they're hyped up, is because of the UK press which loves to build the team up and then tear them down again......... it sells newspapers!

The fact is they're are just not a world class team like the Germans, Brazilians, Italians, ect. They haven't made it to the semi finals in 24 years, the finals 48 years, and their recent WC record risks putting them on par with the United States.

The problem is the Premiership, which despite not being the best and most technical league in the world is probably the most popular and best marketed, which is why everybody thinks England should have a great team, especially the British public.

I disagree with your comment on foreign players though, I do think the Premier League has crowded out young English talent in the last decade, the foreign players on the heavyweight teams are phenomenal in comparison to most German and French team leagues, so I imagine things will get worse before they get better.

I think if you check the leading squads of the other big leagues they have just as many foreign players in their starting eleven as we do. Also going back to the 80's and 90's when only three/four foreign players were allowed per team, all the other leading national teams were still better than England as well, so regardless of how many foreigners play here England always under-performs.

The other problem with England is their population pool, it should be team United Kingdom, Gareth bale anyone...ah but sadly that will never happen, will it?

I can't see that making much difference, as you'd probably get about 2 or 3 at most Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish players in a British squad anyway.

Originally Posted by Christian Benteke

The Premier League hasn't really crowded them out imo if you're good enough you'll likely play.

One thing I don't like is English players are just too ignorant to move abroad and get first team experience that way if they're not playing for their clubs. Plus the ones that do show some promise join clubs like Man. City and Chelsea who end up ruining them; Rodwell, Sinclair, Wright Phillips, Daniel Sturridge (thankfully worked out at a proper club for him), Steve Sidwell, Scott Parker etc... Now you've got Nathaniel Chalobah, Josh McEachran, Ryan Bertrand just wasting away at Chelsea... the list is endless. Something has to be done about Chelsea and their stockpiling/loaning.

They very rarely take up offers to go abroad for some reason, I can't believe it's because they miss mum's cooking.

We have a population of 50m

You shouldn't listen to what William says and then just quote him, because we have a population of around 63m.

which is more than enough to compete with the likes of Germany & Italy when you consider Uruguay and Costa Rica, but you are right with the UK team point. What I would do is compete in the World Cup and Euros as a British team and bring back the Home Championship instead of pointless friendlies.

Uruguay has a population of just 3m and Costa Rica 4m which proves football is a lot more than just population pools.