England
- Thread starter jazper53
- Start date
In London it's one for one, the population staying roughly constant while swapping about a quarter million people every year for over a decade. One third of Londoners now were not born in Britain, the same number of British born Londoners having gone. So nothing decisive about that either way.
As for knocking Britain, would you prefer the "We are wonderful so let's do nothing" complacency of the earlier decades that brought us to where we are now, or attention drawn to what we get wrong?
What happened was...we stood still...and 'the rest' caught up........( after we taught them in most cases )...and then...somehow...we let them overtake us !!!
I think, as a nation, we have some serious 'sorting' to do......we could start by believing in ourselves a bit more, stop letting the national press dictate our mood......and just start being proud of ourselves again......I still think we are the best....well, at least our hearts are in the right place.......we ARE wonderful but we need to do more and recognise where we have gone wrong...then...fix it
Hmmmmm....maybe easier said than done....but, hey.....we're british......we can do it
Lynda
Quite a lot. Rod Stewart - the sex pistols - David Bowie - Duran Duran - sheesh - I mean LOTS has happened. Then there was Blair - and all that - and Brown - and the crash - and now here we are. And thats the long version.
But more importantly I bought an Oxygen e-bike which is an excellent form of transport - I've just got back from a 5 mile ride across the hills and dales around my Mum's place in Devon - riding across a deserted field at nearly 10 pm with still plenty of light and the mist and the oak trees and nothing around for miles and miles and the only sound is the tyres on the wet grass and a gentle breeze - hey - life doesn't get much better than that.
.....and not forgetting the gentle purr of that brave little motor, empowering those in their later years to return to a simple childhood pleasure.... riding a bicycle.
No but I do wish people would not just spend all their time moaning about whats wrong and a bit more on realising we have a lot more right and compared to most of the world we are pretty well of.
Last edited:
But many I meet with that view are complacent Garry, and that is just as big a problem. There are many things that we are getting very badly wrong and complacency allows that to continue, the politicians only too happy with that situation of course. Occasionally these things come to light, a famous example being the expose on school meals:
Britain 37p per pupil per day; France, £2.50 per pupil per day, Italy, £4 per pupil per day.
That wasn't slightly bad, that was appalling and it's still hardly any better now.
And then there's state pensions and other social security benefits which are very much higher in our neighbouring countries, often more than double.
The fact is that Britain is pretending to be a major world power with vast expenditures on such as Trident, other major defence items like aircraft carriers and wars alongside the Americans, financed by short changing the people in such ways as I've mentioned above.
We pay the taxes but then are told under the "Big Society" we have to provide for ourselves.
And the con-man who tells us that also wishes to opt out of the Human Rights Act which protects us, and instead have his Bill of Rights, for which read Bill of Removal of Rights.
Complacency covers up all of that.
.
Last edited:
I am a passionate England fan, but this loss did not upset me half as much as Italia 90, or Euro 96 as I genuinely felt we could have won either of those competitions and I simply didn't have that level of belief this time around. For me, England were second best throughout 80% of the game against Italy. Had we been fortunate enough to win the penalty shoot out I think we would almost certainly have lost to the Germans in the semi finals, or Spain in the finals. Tactically we fell short against Italy having limited possession, tactical mistakes and so many of our ambitious passes going astray. On a positive note, I think Roy has started to generate some confidence and team spirit and needs to be given time to get it right. The passion and determination was there for all to see, Roy will recognise our deficits and will no doubt try to get a team that is more comfortable on the ball and one which is more adept at snuffing out threats posed by players such as Pirlo who orchestrated much of what was good about Italy on Sunday. I hope for once we as a nation can be patient and not ridicule the poor guy in favour of a perceived quick fix.
Rustic, I agree with all you have said and I hope Hodgson is given the time to produce a side better equipped to compete at the highest level.
That said, I do worry about the structure of English football, particularly the FA and the people who comprise that body. While Roy Hodgson is a nice man with wide-ranging experience, I really believe he is the wrong man for the England job. The FA has some history in appointing managers unlikely to embarrass the nation or the sport of football rather than the best coach available. They didn't select Brian Clough many years ago and more recently, they chose not to employ that Jack-the-lad Harry Redknapp.
There were others, besides those popular among newspaper journalists, who might have been better choices in my view: Pep Guardiola and David Moyes spring to mind and though neither is English, nationality clearly doesn't bother the men at the FA, given their previous choices.
That said, Hodgson has a great opportunity now to dismantle the current player pool and introduce some young blood who will mature before the next major competition. I wish him well.
Indalo
The Italy v Germany result a few minutes ago shows that England were far from disgraced in losing to Italy.
They took the Italians to a penalty shoot-out, the Germans in contrast were totally outclassed by Italy throughout the game, losing 2-0 in full time and were very lucky to get a consolation goal in extra time.
By my reckoning that places the England team second only to Italy at this stage.
.
They took the Italians to a penalty shoot-out, the Germans in contrast were totally outclassed by Italy throughout the game, losing 2-0 in full time and were very lucky to get a consolation goal in extra time.
By my reckoning that places the England team second only to Italy at this stage.
.
It was not the England results, but its performance through the tournament, lack of ambition, unable to run or feel comfortable on the ball, and seems to lack basic ball control skills that runs right through the team. I just hope Roy Hodgson brought his magic wand with him because he will need it.
That may be, but those tactics still gave a far better result against Italy than the previously very good German team could manage against them.
I didn't see the England v Italy game, but can't see how they could have been as bad as you describe yet perform so very much better than Germany who were destroyed by Italy. I saw Germany's previous games and they were a class act in those, illustrating just how good Italy are now and how well England did to hold them to a draw in normal time.
Sure they could be much better, but on this evidence that's eminently possible.
I didn't see the England v Italy game, but can't see how they could have been as bad as you describe yet perform so very much better than Germany who were destroyed by Italy. I saw Germany's previous games and they were a class act in those, illustrating just how good Italy are now and how well England did to hold them to a draw in normal time.
Sure they could be much better, but on this evidence that's eminently possible.
The problem with Germany would appear to be that their defence was useless.
In previous games they had been so dominant that it was not a issue but once a team with a good strike force met them they were completly undone. Where the hell was the defence for Italy's second goal Balotelli had meters of space on all sides !!!
Englands issue was in midfield and attack (probably not helped by missing players like Barry)
In previous games they had been so dominant that it was not a issue but once a team with a good strike force met them they were completly undone. Where the hell was the defence for Italy's second goal Balotelli had meters of space on all sides !!!
Englands issue was in midfield and attack (probably not helped by missing players like Barry)
<rant mode on>What happened was...we stood still...and 'the rest' caught up........( after we taught them in most cases )...and then...somehow...we let them overtake us !!!
I think, as a nation, we have some serious 'sorting' to do......we could start by believing in ourselves a bit more, stop letting the national press dictate our mood......and just start being proud of ourselves again......I still think we are the best....well, at least our hearts are in the right place.......we ARE wonderful but we need to do more and recognise where we have gone wrong...then...fix it
Lynda
I blaim the pundits on the sidelines and the way they analyse the game. The average
commentator seem to pander to familiar clieches when describing the game. You've heard it all before i'm sure, Commitment, passion, belief. Which we do in spades, but it takes alot more than this to win a tournament. We were sorely lacking in imagination and creativity.
What we lack is intelligence. Our coverage of the game seem to center on the defenders and the goal scorers. The play makers, to read the game and pull the strings, aren't to be counted in our headlines. We pander to stats, eg numbers of shots on goal, passes completed, which doesn't begin to describe the game, yet looks good on paper.
What we sorely lacked was a couple of individuals in the midfield, to hold the ball, read
the game and control the attack. We lacked the understanding between team mates which you will find a club team. That last third of the pitch was a complete enigma, which amounted to little more than a game of chance.
On the rare chances where we had goals, the relationships or partnerships which were evident in those goals, was changed for the next match. we had a system of players before we had relationships of team members.
I think there's a limit to the typical squad mentality, which we haven't yet sussed...
<rant over>
We should stop knocking the country, problem is as Flecc's post shows, there are a lot of things to be knocked and rightly so.
Still, when it comes to football, I am glad that I am not English!
Still, when it comes to football, I am glad that I am not English!