As we're unlikely to see terraces again at football, this is the virtual equivalent where you can chat to your hearts content about all football matters and, obviously, Arsenal in particular. This forum encourages all Gooners to visit and contribute so please keep it respectful, clean and topical.
DB10GOONER wrote:First of all, commiserations to our English viewers. I'm a bit torn on this as I'm not English and the team was chock full of vermin players I have no great love for them, but then they do represent the league I've been a viewer and supporter of all my life so it's disappointing to see that league humiliated.
The usually moronic Eamon Dunphy and Didi Hamann nailed it last night on RTE when they said that the problem is the PL is not as elite as most people think it is, the technical level has dropped and the likes of Rooney, Sturridge, Rose, Alli, Diar, Vardy, Walker, Smalling and Hart are not international quality players. Wilshere??!! A talented player but he had 2 games before the tourny - ludicrous to bring him. The media picked Roy and the media picked his "populist" team. They also said that too many of these players are millionaire's before they hit their mid-20's and have achieved very little to nothing in the game.
The money paid to players has to be reigned in. There is no motivation for these kids to excel. They are handed ludicrous sums for delivering next to nothing. Players should be motivated by success, not money. Yeah I know it's a short career and they should earn enough to live their life after the game as they do sacrifice a lot in their early years (or should do!) but the pendulum has swung way the fuck too far in the other direction now; a player only needs to get 2 - 3 years in the PL under his belt and he is a multi-millionaire at 19 or 21 years old. Ludicrous.
Have to say that hamann was bang on the button last night and he absolutely tore into English football - he almost got angry when talking about the English public and media hyping up the premier league as the best league in the world when it is actually country miles behind the Spanish and german leagues. He criticised the policy of giving young unproven players too much money too early - us Gooners all have a moan about players like wally, ramsey and bendter crazy contracts in their early 20s, but for me the problem starts much earlier than that. In my opinion there should be a salary cap on all players under the age of 18 - if under 18s are deemed as kids and unable to drink legally or vote, then how in gods name are they allowed to get contracts giving them north of £10k or £20k per week and be expected to handle it ? How does a manager or coach earning less than his players, try and tell them where they are going wrong and what they need to improve on ? More likely than not most young players would be thinking "why the fcuk would I take advice from some numpty on £500 a week" ? Call me old fashioned but I like the old system where kids would have to clean the boots of the senior players and do chores like that - it isn't a power issue but it is a way of keeping them grounded and letting them know that they have a long way to go before they can make it
I also have to say that the attitude towards the game is all wrong over this side of Europe and it starts with parents - we prioritise endeavour over skill and always demand that kids put in a shift. Parents place a huge emphasis on winning games now and that transfers to the kids - this is a very short term view and does nothing to develop players for the future. In my own local club we had a manager of our u-13s a few years ago who on one week trained them without using a football even once - when I pulled him on it I was told that the only way that they could compete with the bigger clubs was if there were fitter than them and my point about coaching kids for the future fell on deaf ears........he got his p45 at the end of the season
Yep, agree 100% and a lot of us have been saying this for years, augie. The PL is the best league in the world - to watch. But at a technical level it is behind Spain, Germany and Italy. I agree 100% it has to be addressed at roots level.
In Oireland (and it's the same in Ingerland from what I've read) as kids we were taught win at all costs; be fitter and stronger, not more skillful. I still see it in my son's team. We played on full size pitches as 10 year olds! Ludicrous. Kids need to be taught technique and skill and they need to be grounded. I see kids on my son's team with the earrings, the hair gel and over-elaborate hairstyles, the wristbands, and with their initials on their day-glo green and orange boots, and they dive and they pose with planned goal celebrations - I'm just waiting for one of the little fuckers to turn up in a fake beard!
Kids should be put through the apprentice system as you say. Make them clean boots, clean showers, put out the cones. Make them appreciate it when they get the bump to the senior team. Wage cap them.
I've just had a chat with Nicola Sturgeon. She suggested that as a large minority of us won't accept last night's result we should raise a petition to have the game replayed or we should approach UEFA to ask if we can be allowed to continue in the tournament because we don't want to be out of it.
You mean the German league where they have one super club that wins everything every year? Or the Spanish league which has been a duopoly for fuck knows how long. Or the Italian league which has been shite for the best part of a decade playing to half empty stadiums?
The PL is the best league in terms of entertainment and general quality of football. Just because the top 3 clubs in the world have the best players does not make their respective leagues any better. Barca and Madrid tonk league teams 6,7,8 nil every other weekend. Munich do the same in theirs. Both leagues are piss poor.
We lost due to poor coaching and tactics, that simple. Any half decent manager could have beaten Iceland with that squad last night, but Hodgson isn't one.
Kids should be put through the apprentice system as you say. Make them clean boots, clean showers, put out the cones. Make them appreciate it when they get the bump to the senior team. Wage cap them.
Didn't work for Wally or Jack ! They are both feckin posers.
Well done Iceland - pity you didn't score 2 more in the second half.
Ray C wrote:Kids should be put through the apprentice system as you say. Make them clean boots, clean showers, put out the cones. Make them appreciate it when they get the bump to the senior team. Wage cap them.
Didn't work for Wally or Jack ! They are both feckin posers.
Well done Iceland - pity you didn't score 2 more in the second half.
And it won't work for 100% of the players that come through it. But it will work far better than the current system of "here you go, you are 17, you've done fuck all, here's £20,000 a week and some shiny boots".
I made the point a few years ago, that it is only over this side of Europe where kids games are played on full size pitches and full size goals from under 12 upwards - I debated this with a guy that was tasked with over-hauling the development of kids in our schoolboy league a few years ago, and he said that he agreed 100% with me but that the clubs will not accept that cos it would mean less players playing on a team and kids will just fcuk off altogether. The latest brainwave that the clubs are coming up with is that teams can list as many as 7 or 8 substitutes for kids games and all can be brought on - how does it make sense to change an entire starting line up ? Instead of having one team with either 7 or 9 players getting almost full games, these clubs are opting for one team with some kids maybe getting 5 or 10 minutes of action
Herd wrote:Well that was funny , Pick a team, full of spurs players and what do you get ?
Yup Shit !
Most spineless capitulation by a team since...last Month in St James Park when a relegated team beat a team having their best season in decades. 5_1... Common denominator???
MrT wrote:You mean the German league where they have one super club that wins everything every year? Or the Spanish league which has been a duopoly for fuck knows how long. Or the Italian league which has been shite for the best part of a decade playing to half empty stadiums?
The PL is the best league in terms of entertainment and general quality of football. Just because the top 3 clubs in the world have the best players does not make their respective leagues any better. Barca and Madrid tonk league teams 6,7,8 nil every other weekend. Munich do the same in theirs. Both leagues are piss poor.
We lost due to poor coaching and tactics, that simple. Any half decent manager could have beaten Iceland with that squad last night, but Hodgson isn't one.
Too simplistic. Those leagues you deride produce international teams of players that mostly (to varying degrees) play within those leagues, having come up through their youth systems, and regularly do better than England in the world cup and Euros. Half empty stadiums or how boring a league is has no bearing on the technical level of the league. England have had many managers over the last 20 years and all have failed. It goes far deeper than "coaching and tactics" - do you honestly think that team last night would be that much better with a different manager (BTW, who, for example?) or different tactics, without addressing the fact you had players out there that cannot cross a ball or string more than 2 passes together at pace?
We are not talking about those leagues being "better" (whatever that means) but talking about them producing more accomplished technical players. Which they do.
Red Snapper wrote:I've just had a chat with Nicola Sturgeon. She suggested that as a large minority of us won't accept last night's result we should raise a petition to have the game replayed or we should approach UEFA to ask if we can be allowed to continue in the tournament because we don't want to be out of it.
MrT wrote:You mean the German league where they have one super club that wins everything every year? Or the Spanish league which has been a duopoly for fuck knows how long. Or the Italian league which has been shite for the best part of a decade playing to half empty stadiums?
The PL is the best league in terms of entertainment and general quality of football. Just because the top 3 clubs in the world have the best players does not make their respective leagues any better. Barca and Madrid tonk league teams 6,7,8 nil every other weekend. Munich do the same in theirs. Both leagues are piss poor.
We lost due to poor coaching and tactics, that simple. Any half decent manager could have beaten Iceland with that squad last night, but Hodgson isn't one.
Red Snapper wrote:I've just had a chat with Nicola Sturgeon. She suggested that as a large minority of us won't accept last night's result we should raise a petition to have the game replayed or we should approach UEFA to ask if we can be allowed to continue in the tournament because we don't want to be out of it.
But hey - we (and by "we" I do mean the ubercunt John Delaney and his corrupt as fuck mafia colleagues in the FAI) tried it after the Henry handball. The FAI even begged FIFA to let Oireland in as an extra team because our fans are so nice. If somebody had nuked us because of that, I'd not have complained to be honest.
In the end FIFA bought the FAI off with a few euros and a bag of jerseys so KERCHING!! - quids in!!
MrT wrote:You mean the German league where they have one super club that wins everything every year? Or the Spanish league which has been a duopoly for fuck knows how long. Or the Italian league which has been shite for the best part of a decade playing to half empty stadiums?
The PL is the best league in terms of entertainment and general quality of football. Just because the top 3 clubs in the world have the best players does not make their respective leagues any better. Barca and Madrid tonk league teams 6,7,8 nil every other weekend. Munich do the same in theirs. Both leagues are piss poor.
We lost due to poor coaching and tactics, that simple. Any half decent manager could have beaten Iceland with that squad last night, but Hodgson isn't one.
How much German football do you watch?
Ooh, our resident German-based viewer is on the case.
MrT wrote:You mean the German league where they have one super club that wins everything every year? Or the Spanish league which has been a duopoly for fuck knows how long. Or the Italian league which has been shite for the best part of a decade playing to half empty stadiums?
The PL is the best league in terms of entertainment and general quality of football. Just because the top 3 clubs in the world have the best players does not make their respective leagues any better. Barca and Madrid tonk league teams 6,7,8 nil every other weekend. Munich do the same in theirs. Both leagues are piss poor.
We lost due to poor coaching and tactics, that simple. Any half decent manager could have beaten Iceland with that squad last night, but Hodgson isn't one.
How much German football do you watch?
Ooh, our resident German-based viewer is on the case.
