England Vs Australia: A fans comments

By G Beaumont
February 13 2003

First things first… what a lot of tosh! But for me the most disappointing thing was Beckham and Sven after the game. I have a lot of respect for these two people but their defence of the performance was unbelievable. I so want to swear and tell them what I think of them but that’s not going to help.

What peeved me of most was that these two people claimed the booing would not help the younger players. Well perhaps David and co should have tried a little harder and they would not have had this problem. If the younger players have an once of intelligence (which they obviously do) then they would realise that this booing was aimed at the result and the performance of the England team in the first half. The simple fact here is that so called managers of the premiership do not give a toss about the performance of the national team. Strangely the players who seemed most effected have non-English managers. This is where perhaps the blame should be directed. I am not calling them racist nor am I being racist, but what I am getting at, is that these managers would not benefit from their players being in the national side. Perhaps Alex and co should realise this when buying players such as Rio.

If I were national team boss my stance would be; I pick the players and I say how long they can play. If they did not like this then I would tell them to eat my sick. It does not matter if it comes from the FA, the England manager or Rod Jane and Freddy, but as long as someone stands up to these top level managers and quickly. Whilst they dont then these problems will continue. If I were England boss I would rather not pick these players atal than play them for half a game when there hearts are not in it.

Gary Lineker made a very good point that young players will only learn and benefit if they are played in an experienced squad. Sven needs to toe the line and show some pride when making these decisions. Perhaps we should look at attitudes of other England managers towards the match, these being Glenn Hoddle, Terry Venables, Graham Taylor, and Bobby Robson. These all showed support for the England team and a few were present to witness the erm farce. Its about time Sven and the FA take note of the supporting managers and only pick players from these types of clubs. Only players willing to play their hearts out in every national game should wear the England colours.

I have had enough on dire performances and selfish managers and its about time the FA done something about it.