First and foremost i’d just like to say that in terms of England, I can shelve the hatred of certain players (such as Gary Neville, John 'hide your wives' Terry, ‘fat’ Frank Lampard, among others), but my worry is, can the players do it?
Our league is so competitive it has to make it hard to shelve that competitiveness and play together as a cohesive unit for a month. The World Cup is the grandest stage of them all when it comes to International level and we have flattered to deceive, 40 years of hurt, a so-called penalty/Quarter final curse, the list of excuses can go on forever, but it’s those players on the pitch who need to make it happen. No matter what’s going on off the pitch the players need to be unified and focused and I think Capello is the right man to do it. With his authoritative stance, the media circus that has distracted players and the distractions that have supposedly cost us in Germany in 2006, in Japan & South Korea in 2002 (as well as other instances) should be a thing of the past. In relation to John Terry being stripped of the captaincy i’d like to say this, anyone who didn’t expect Terry to be stripped of the captaincy or was surprised when it happened, has a very short memory, reason being is that from day one Capello said he isn’t going to accept any stupidness from his players and one of his 1st mandates was that if we get to the World Cup, then the WAG’s will be banned.
On the Bridge vs Terry Situation in general i’d like to say this, we don’t know all the details and the dirtsheets (aka the tabloids) have a nasty habit of embellishing upon any slight thing (perfect case in point being an image of Beckham jumping over the hoardings before he got injured, with the headline ‘was this the point?’ written above it). There are a lot of things we don’t know about the Terry, Bridge, Perroncel love triangle, but as a person I totally understand Bridge’s decision (because it’s difficult for anyone to be unified and want to play alongside a guy who’s face you’d happily smash in if given the chance), but as a footballer (at Amatuer level admittedly) I can’t agree with it, and the reason being is that with Ashley Cole’s injury, Bridge is the best left back we have so he would have pretty much automatically been in Fabio Capello’s squad for the World Cup, but still, it’s his decision and you’ve got to respect him for it as it must have been a difficult one. Now back to England’s World Cup chances, I personally think that we have a great chance of winning the big one, but the team has to be unified, because it’s through unity that we can find a fighting spirit and a belief that we can win. Just look at the African teams who have played in the World cup, like Ghana back in 2006, who were very tactically naive against Brazil, but their work ethich and team spirit were second to none (in my opinion you can’t play with your defensive line on the halfway line and expect to beat a team with the attacking prowess of Brazil, but that’s another subject). Another example is Senegal back in 2002 when they shocked the world and beat France that year (and sealed certain players lucrative moves to the Premiership, i know this firsthand being that i’m a Liverpool supporter and we bought Diouf and Diao, but again, thats another issue). Another team was South Korea back in 2002 & Greece back in 2004 in the European championships, both of these teams didn’t have the best players individually, but their team spirit, work ethic and unity brought them success (especially in Greece’s case) and I think that with the players we have, who are gifted to say the least individually, need to put the club rivalries behind them, come together and win the big one at long last.
For some players this is their last chance, so they need to seize it, we proved that on our day we can beat anyone (with Capello in charge look at our record in the qualifiers), but squad unity must prevail along with a unified focus and determination to win if we are to bring that golden trophy home and earn our place among the top 10 teams in the world, if not the top 5.
This has been the Straight Shootin’ Blog, and that’s my opinion!
Straight Shootin’ LJA
Be honest, Be vocal, Have an opinion, Make your voice heard – The Straight Shootin’ Mantra (Cos suckas gots 2 kno)
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