Congrats to Chelsea: they deserved the Championship....

this season.

Good one...as much as it pains me to say it, congrats to Chelsea..they deserved it although they do have a number of twunts on that team...Drogba, Terry, Lampard. Some people may think that Man U has a similar # of twunts....Neville, Berbaflop and Ferdinand.

yeah i guess you cant really argue... the team with the most points deserves it

drogba is really selfish though. he was having a massive whinge when he didnt get to take that penalty

Provisional squad announcement

No Gary neville thank goodness.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...uad?CMP=AFCYAH

I don't know about that - Neville's played some good games recently, and rendered Robinho invisible during the Champions League matches. He's been far more valuable to United recently than Carrick - who seems a bit of a liability.

Walcott's hardly played for us this season beause of injuries, and now he's off to the World Cup where he'll probably get injured again!

Capello's got Carragher out of retirement even though carra rarely ever got a game for England before now despite being one of the best English defenders, who could play in any one of the back four positions. There's no guarantee that Barry will be fit again in time either, and James is such a great goalkeeper that his team got relegated this season (not completely his fault though).

If I were England's World Cup opposition, I only see five players in that squad who'd I consider worth worrying about, and most of those are defenders.

i just don't think walcott is that good... he's got pace, and can beat a guy, but a lot of the time there is no end product. he's still got some time to go, but i probably wouldn't be taking him to the world cup

i'd agree with your second statement. but that doesn't mean england don't have a chance. england look to have a reasonably solid defence. which means any kind of creative spark from the likes of gerrard, lampard or rooney could win you any game.

having said that, id put england as the best team in the "2nd favourite" group, if that makes any sense. ie. the group of teams behind the ones who can consider themselves serious contenders

Goalkeepers Joe Hart, David James, Robert Green

Defenders Leighton Baines, Jamie Carragher, Ashley Cole, Michael Dawson, Rio Ferdinand, Glen Johnson, Ledley King, John Terry, Matthew Upson, Stephen Warnock

Midfielders Gareth Barry, Michael Carrick, Joe Cole, Steven Gerrard, Tom Huddlestone, Adam Johnson, Frank Lampard, Aaron Lennon, James Milner, Scott Parker, Theo Walcott, Shaun Wright-Phillips

Forwards Darren Bent, Peter Crouch, Jermain Defoe, Emile Heskey, Wayne Rooney


Which seven would you kick out?

SWP, Upson, Warnock, Barry, Heskey, Huddlestone & Walcott for me.

All three goalkeepers and a random other four.

I like your selection but I would take Walcott over Bent. And I would keep Heskey and lose Johnson (just not seen him play enough).

The reason being is that Walcott can play as a winger and striker so provide more cover. I don't think Bent will get near a game at all with Defoe and Rooney both doing what he does better and Crouch and Heskey being used as target men.

Quarter finalists but not quite semi-finalists???

quarter finalists for sure (unless you meet us in the 2nd round )

after that, who knows. you only need to win 1 game from there to be in the semis, so its definitely possible


as for the seven, i'd lose warnock, upson, king, walcott, SWP, johnson and milner.

The final 23 doesn't have to include everyone from the 30.

Walcott is good enough, he's just not consistant enough for my liking. In my opinion Walcott would be useful as a squad player as he can play winger or striker, and can use his speed when brought on as a sub against tired defenders.

The 30-man squad seems to have the usual problem of too many right-sided midfielders, and not enough left-sided ones. Ashley Young would have made a difference.

Are you hinting there is a way in thru the back door for our top player Owen H?

Impossible to say at this point without knowing the fitness status of several creaky old defenders isnt it?