[QUOTE=Dead Badger]
I think you were pretty sniffy about it, and I say that as an Englishman. You’ve got to admit that we’d never have beaten Spain 3-0, and had we been in Scotland’s group we’d have been fucked from the word dot, so to turn around and say that not a single non-English player would make a GB XI is just crazy. If our lot had had half the pride Scotland showed in their campaign, maybe they’d have been twice the players they turned out to be, and we’d have qualified. As it is, I’d take Scotland’s team in toto over ours right now.
Now, while it’s a given that a “united” GB team is never going to happen, let’s have some fun.
Craig Gordon would walk into a first XI, and for me would probably be one of the first three names on the teamsheet - that lad is gold. Healy and maybe McFadden would surely come above Jenas, Heskey, Defoe and all the other jokers that supposedly vie for front line honours when Owen’s crocked (i.e. days ending in “y”), and while I’m a big fan of the Crouchigol it takes a huge amount of faith to pick him over Healy, who has 33 international goals in 60 matches; a better record than Shearer, for what on paper is a massively inferior team. I’d take Giggs in a heartbeat over any of the supposedly world-class players we’ve got in midfield (I know, he’s off international duty these days, but still), and having seen the way he’s coming along I’d have Bale in defence ahead of almost anyone except Micah Richards. I’d say Hartley has as good a chance of anyone at taking a spot in the consistently dysfunctional midfield, as well.
And that’s only looking at it in terms of “who can we swap out from the England team”. Given the disparity in results achieved with a given level of resources, a GB XI should really hand the reins over to McLeish, and let the English fans hope that maybe Gerrard or Crouch gets a chance as an impact sub. I don’t see the point in pretending that our players are manifestly superior, while handwaving away the insipid performances and still less edifying results. If they’re really that good, they’d be winning. As Slaven Bilic said: wake up! I wouldn’t bet on us against Scotland right now, and that just doesn’t tally with a claim that every one of our players is better than every one of theirs.
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That is more or less true, dead badger, apart from the pride in the shirt bollox. If you’re talking about international performances than plenty of the names you mention are ahead of their English counterparts. The puzzle lies in the fact that none of those Scottish, NI etc players are in the same street when it comes to the EPL. Healy and MacFadden in particular are average players (I watch MacFadden play a lot) - they both have no pace or strength so cannot flourish in our domestic league. The premiership version of Stevie G la kidder la could take on the combined midfields of NI, Scotland and Wales singlehanded, Chuck Norris style.
We’ve seen that a reasonable manager in Sven can translate this EPL quality to the world stage in a limited fashion - England were competitive albeit playing an atrocious brand of football. A great manager could do a lot more.
