[Archived] Owen Has A Pop At The Idiot

[Tris]

Seems like they are queueing up to put the boot in...

Owen leads the way as players lay into Sven

We'll see just how clever these jumped up faggots are with tactics and training once they finish playing. Except we probably won't - because the tabloids are so uber-keen to top up their scandalous salaries that none of them will ever need to work again.

Owen would never have said a word if the injury hadn't happened - which has probably ended his top level career as a player - so his agent has lined up a lucrative series of interviews with ITV during the tournament. Probably his last big earner ever - because he's hardly Alan Shearer in front of the cameras! And we all know Owen will never play for England again.

But my own guess is that none of the other players have intimated any of those comments - it's all agent and tabloid generated crap. The squads where there WERE problems / disagreements / fall outs / stories are well known precisely because they leaked out during or before the tournament.

The rest of that Guardian article shows just how far the paper has tumbled towards the rest of the tabloids - it's a pathetic mix of non-quotes and adverts for forthcoming mid-career ghost written trash:

"A leading agent who works with several of the England squad said:"

"Lampard has privately castigated Eriksson to friends"

"A source said the Chelsea midfielder was frustrated"

"Lampard is likely to air his thoughts in his forthcoming book, Totally Frank, next month."

"Rooney himself is understood to be ready to vent his frustrations in his own book, My Story So Far, which is due out in early August. The player's spokesman refused to say last night if he would condemn Eriksson, but said: 'Wayne will give his clear and honest observations of the World Cup, the part he played in it and the events surrounding it in a chapter of 10,000-12,000 words"

"Sources close to Rio Ferdinand say he may also apportion some blame to Eriksson in his autobiography in September, which is being co-written with Shaun Custis, who ghost-writes the defender's occasional columns in the Sun"

"A source in the England camp said: 'Players are banned from doing newspaper columns during the World Cup but apart from that are free to say what they want"

Think what you want about Sven and England, but don't try and justify with rubbish like this Guardian article, constructed with second hand agents quotes from the Sunday tabloids. I don't think I have ever seen anything quite so pathetic in what is meant to be a serious newspaper.

Edited July 10, 2006 by Tris

[FourLaneBlue]

To which all I can say is: Thank God he failed to show up for the Rovers Manager job he was supposed to be taking after Ray Harford's departure!

Yep...thankfully we ended up with Hodgson as manager.

Oh...wait a minute...

[thenodrog]

It's amazing what these journo's make out of ghostwriting a best selling autobiography. He had to brown nose big time but getting the job of writing Fogarty's set that Neil Bramwell up for life. Literally.

[ABBEY]

the honourable one

[roverich]

It's alright slagging off Sven for a poor WC but can't you see that things are unlikely to improve. Our next manager was chosen BEFORE the tournament started and happened to be the current HEAD COACH. Normally the head coach is expected to take a hand in making big decisions, discussing tactics/formations and picking the team. Our future England manager in all probabiltity made more decisions regarding these issues during the WC than Sven himself or if he didn't should have had the common sense and tactical knowledge to advise Sven against some of the decisions.

[FourLaneBlue]

Lampard is having a pop at Sven now...

Too little too late? Why not complain before the World Cup rather than after?

Frank's damning Sven verdict

[greggyk]

Fat Frank needs to have a look at his own performance before Svens

[78]

Lampard is having a pop at Sven now...

Too little too late? Why not complain before the World Cup rather than after?

Frank's damning Sven verdict

There was a rumour going round that Lampard lost a bet to Terry during the World Cup. Terry bet on that Lampard wouldn't score a goal.

It will be interesting to see how Lampard performs this season.

[rover6]

Lampard is having a pop at Sven now...

Too little too late? Why not complain before the World Cup rather than after?

Frank's damning Sven verdict

What a total plank. I'm no fan of Sven he should be thankful for the Swedish fraud for picking him no matter how crap he has been for England in the last two tournaments.

Sickening that someone could be so myopic. I would be embarrassed to criticise anybody - whether it be tea lady or manager - if I had been given the full backing of everyone and given an unconditional starting berth and performed as miserably as Lampard.

[broadsword]

Don't be a lemon all your life.

You're telling me seriously that Lampard can't criticise the Ikea Egghead because he was a regular under him?

That's like saying I can't criticise the company I work for as they keeping paying my wages.

You've got some very funny ideas.

[rover6]

If you are an under-performing employee who has been unconditionally supported by your employer - you have no right to criticise the methods of your company imo.

Lampard was quite bad in Euro 2004 and worse in the last World Cup. I notice that Gerrard has stayed quiet, no doubt because he realises that whilst Sven is an idiot, he didn't help the cause one bit with his crap showings.

I have not read any quotes from Lampard conceding that he under-performed or apologising for being so poor and letting down his country in another tournament, Once he's done that, perhaps, he is in a position to criticise the Swedish Fraud.

What attitude did you have towards Martin Andresen when he left Rovers at the end of his loan spell, bad-mouthing Graeme Souness' training regime? I think the general consensus was 'f off you crap Norwegian nobody.'

Not - "despite being decidedly average and picked regularly by Souness, he has a right to criticise."

(I can't say for sure that you, Bryan, held that view but I know - because people were slagging me off for suggesting Andresen had a point - that a lot of people did.)

Edited July 30, 2006 by rover6

[78]

I agree with Rover6 on this one.

One of the Sven's biggest mistake in the World Cup was not dropping Lampard for Hargreaves, thus givin Gerrard more initiative and responsibility in midfield to support the striker(s)

Had it been Hiddink, Lippi or Scolari, they wouldn't have tolerated that performance from him.

It's easy for everyone to have a pop at Eriksson, noticeable it's the ones that didn't perform that have decided to.

If Lampard or Owen think Eriksson was bad, well let's see what they say about McClaren- the real conman

[LeChuck]

Lampard was quite bad in Euro 2004 and worse in the last World Cup. I notice that Gerrard has stayed quiet, no doubt because he realises that whilst Sven is an idiot, he didn't help the cause one bit with his crap showings.

Quite bad at Euro 2004? Wasn't he our top scorer in the tournament with 3 goals in 4 games? I'd argue strongly that he was our second best player after Rooney. Lampard was also the top scorer through the World Cup qualifiying campaign.

Still...don't let stats get in the way of your pointless rants.

[broadsword]

I don't know what experience you have of the working world, rover6, but I think you'll find that it is sometimes difficult to do a good job if your manager is useless.

Why the hell are you comparing the player voted second-best in the World with some Norwegian geezer who has vanished from sight? I think the opinions of teh former carry just a little more weight.

Bottom line: Lampard is entitled to his views and I can't disagree with anything he's said. The fact that he has had a bad tournament doesn't in any way invalidate what he's said.

[jim mk2]

.

. The fact that he has had a bad tournament doesn't in any way invalidate what he's said.

Yes it does. If I were Lampard I'd be shamed to show my face in public after the embarrassing way he performed in Germany, never mind having the gall to criticise the manager.

Even Ferdinand, one of the few to play reasonably, admitted to being nervous venturing out of the house when he returned form the World Cup.

Erikkson was an overpaid plonker but so were the so-called world class "stars" he picked.

[Anti Euro Smiths Fan]

Just a week before the World Cup tournament began, Frank Lampard robustly defended Eriksson's tactics.

Link: "I have complete confidence in Sven," says Frank Lampard.

So Mr Lampard has gone from having "complete confidence in the manager" to now pinning the blame onto Eriksson for his shockingly inept World Cup performances.

"My legs were really heavy," complains Frank. This is the biggest tournament in the world - something that comes around only once every four years. Sven's training ground routines may well have been poor and inadequate - I'm not defending them - but Lampard still had a personal responsibility to ensure that he was in a good physical condition during the World Cup.

The players had an extra week off before the tournament, following Eriksson's request. The Premiership finished a week earlier and we were told that all the players would be fit. Instead, the poor little lambs complained about being tired and their legs feeling heavy.

By implication, Lampard is criticising Steve McClaren as well as Sven, because I gather McClaren did much of the "work" on the training ground while Sven often watched from the sidelines. It hardly bodes well for the future under McClaren, considering that he was the man whose coaching left a lot of England players clearly unfit.

Lampard may have some justifiable criticisms of Sven (who he previously had "complete confidence" in) - but Frank is a man who earns well in excess of a hundred thousand pounds a week and he firstly needs to look at himself in the mirror and question his own performances, which were certainly not up to scratch.

No doubt Lampard will make another large packet by flogging off his autobiography. Supporters who travelled over to Germany and paid hundreds of pounds to see the tripe on the pitch from England are now being encouraged to cough up eighteen pounds or whatever to buy Frank's book of excuses.

There's going to be a rush of football autobiographies out this summer, with Steven Gerrard and Rio Ferdinand joining Lampard in putting books out in the market. 20-year-old Wayne Rooney will also be telling us his life story and about his embarrassment at paying for sex with cheap harlots in Merseyside. Ashley Cole has a book coming out too. Cole has the audacity to criticise Arsenal for what he says was a "lack of loyalty" from them. This from the greedy parasite who sat down at a hotel for secret talks with Mourinho and Peter Kenyon.

The players (and their agents) hoped they could cash in on flogging books this summer after a World Cup triumph. After their abysmal performances, I hope that the public gives them a miss.

Lampard now says that he wants to become England captain and that he "knows he would do a good job". But he hardly did a bloody good job in Germany, so why should he suddenly play out of his skin with the captain's armband on?

Peter Crouch has also complained that his legs were heavy and that he was too tired. Frankly I think that "too tired" is just a euphemism for being unfit. I feel the managers, coaching staff and the individual players themselves all have a responsibility to ensure they are adequately fit.

Lampard complains that Sven was giving the players days off when they should have been training. The players should have all got together and told Sven: "We don't need all these days off. Please let us train harder to ensure we are properly fit."

Instead, some of the players were no doubt busy enjoying their days off in the company of the so-called 'WAGS' - those vacuous bimbos like Cheryl Tweedy who don't function properly unless they are burning holes in the players' credit cards and being photographed out on the town dancing on tables.

There's a big difference between the dignified way the wives of 1966 behaved compared to the shameless set of vain hussies we have today, with their designer clothes, fake tans, hair extensions and endless shopping for clothes - tottering in stilettos back to their hotel rooms in the early hours of the morning.

During a few of the England matches, the TV cameras briefly flashed to a couple of the WAGS sitting in the stands, and as soon as the girls realised that the cameras were on them, they were flicking back their hair and seemed to be saying to each other: "Oooh look, we're on camera." Publicity-seeking trollops!

I certainly don't think it did the England squad any good to have these WAGs staying out with them in Germany. Some board members may think this is irrelevant, but if we're talking about fitness levels and working hard on the training ground, then I don't think the presence of the WAGS helped at all.

There was a lighthearted piece by John Nicholson during the World Cup (in the link below) which puts forward the view that the WAGS did more harm than good....

Will England WAGS Make Our Boys Wilt?

[colin]

Top post AESM, agree with the lot of it.

Mind you Lampard is apparantly being paid loads of dosh by The News Of The World to serialise his autobiography.

So the words "sorry I was cr@p, I was just trying to win a bet that I would score a goal - so screw the rest of the team, oh yes I really played cr@p" will not be printed.

I wonder if Frank would stamp on a hamster in front of a bunch of primary school children if someone offered him enough money.

I reckon £100k would do it.

£200k to stomp a panda cub.

[Drakefyre]

How does he expect to be England captain if he's behind John Terry at Chelsea?

[Paul]

Excellent post AESF, plenty of very good points. There are some simple truths about England which many people seem to have real difficulty getting to grips with.

The manager was a first class idiot who has wasted 5 years, £25m and our finest talent in 40 years

The team, collectively, are very, very poor. Neither they, nor the manager, have managed to put together more than five memorable results throughout SGE's tenure

The players clearly either couldn't give two hoots about the WC or lacked the courage and/or fibre to tell SGE "this isn't working." If the players really cared, there would be no problem with putting in the performances needed. These people are professiomal footballers at the peak of their careers, and they need a manager to tell them how to play? Don't make me laugh. There are no excuses, England are, and will remain, awful.

It's hardly surprising is it? Our game is run by a bunch of self-interested amateurs who can't even build a football stadium. How on earth do we expect them to employ a quality manager, motivate players and win a tournament? If those who run the game were competent and/or cared about the England team these discussions just wouldn't happen. The structure and organisation of English football is archaic, designed to look after the top clubs and squeeze every penny out of the fans, Until there is a fundamental change England will win nothing.

[rover6]

I don't know what experience you have of the working world, rover6, but I think you'll find that it is sometimes difficult to do a good job if your manager is useless.

Okay, I correct myself, if you are an under-performing employee who has received the unconditional backing of your employer or manager - you cannot start criticisng their/his methods until you have looked at your own failings.

And in this case, not only should Lampard 'look' at his own failings but he should publicly announce them before he even begins to publicly target anyone else or look for excuses.

[Ricky]

Does the lad not have any pride either. I for one would not be happy to let the News Of The World serialise my book if they had been responsible for running a story on me like they did on Lampard.

They were quick enough to print the video of his threesome in Ayia Napa. He refers to it in his book as one of the lowest points of his life.. If it was that bad why go to the NOTW with your book!!

[Eddie]

All about the money.

[CAPT KAYOS]

Excellent post AESF, plenty of very good points. There are some simple truths about England which many people seem to have real difficulty getting to grips with.

The manager was a first class idiot who has wasted 5 years, £25m and our finest talent in 40 years

The team, collectively, are very, very poor. Neither they, nor the manager, have managed to put together more than five memorable results throughout SGE's tenure

The players clearly either couldn't give two hoots about the WC or lacked the courage and/or fibre to tell SGE "this isn't working." If the players really cared, there would be no problem with putting in the performances needed. These people are professiomal footballers at the peak of their careers, and they need a manager to tell them how to play? Don't make me laugh. There are no excuses, England are, and will remain, awful.

It's hardly surprising is it? Our game is run by a bunch of self-interested amateurs who can't even build a football stadium. How on earth do we expect them to employ a quality manager, motivate players and win a tournament? If those who run the game were competent and/or cared about the England team these discussions just wouldn't happen. The structure and organisation of English football is archaic, designed to look after the top clubs and squeeze every penny out of the fans, Until there is a fundamental change England will win nothing.

Paul can I submit your name please for Prime Minister or at least head of the FA?

[broadsword]

Just a week before the World Cup tournament began, Frank Lampard robustly defended Eriksson's tactics.

Link: "I have complete confidence in Sven," says Frank Lampard.

So Mr Lampard has gone from having "complete confidence in the manager" to now pinning the blame onto Eriksson for his shockingly inept World Cup performances.

"My legs were really heavy," complains Frank. This is the biggest tournament in the world - something that comes around only once every four years. Sven's training ground routines may well have been poor and inadequate - I'm not defending them - but Lampard still had a personal responsibility to ensure that he was in a good physical condition during the World Cup.

The players had an extra week off before the tournament, following Eriksson's request. The Premiership finished a week earlier and we were told that all the players would be fit. Instead, the poor little lambs complained about being tired and their legs feeling heavy.

What?! So he was responsible for picking and choosing what club games he played in? I mean, what are you saying that he did, that he shouldn't have done? Was he bingeing on pot noodles every day? Come on, what did he do wrong? An extra week off isn't going to make any difference. Lampard was knackered after a long and hard season, and should've been dropped. That was the manager's fault.

blah blah blah ...

No doubt Lampard will make another large packet by flogging off his autobiography. Supporters who travelled over to Germany and paid hundreds of pounds to see the tripe on the pitch from England are now being encouraged to cough up eighteen pounds or whatever to buy Frank's book of excuses.

There's going to be a rush of football autobiographies out this summer, with Steven Gerrard and Rio Ferdinand joining Lampard in putting books out in the market. 20-year-old Wayne Rooney will also be telling us his life story and about his embarrassment at paying for sex with cheap harlots in Merseyside. Ashley Cole has a book coming out too. Cole has the audacity to criticise Arsenal for what he says was a "lack of loyalty" from them. This from the greedy parasite who sat down at a hotel for secret talks with Mourinho and Peter Kenyon.

The players (and their agents) hoped they could cash in on flogging books this summer after a World Cup triumph. After their abysmal performances, I hope that the public gives them a miss.

Good one with Rooney visiting the prostitute, keep the moral indignation coming! You start off by saying that Lampard will make a packet out of his autobiography, then conclude by saying you hope the public boycott it. But I agree that it must have been disappointing for fans to pay so much money to watch a load of bilge, for this, blame the manager. Other than that, this part is a "footballers are in it for the money" diatribe, well blow me down, what a shocker!

Lampard now says that he wants to become England captain and that he "knows he would do a good job". But he hardly did a bloody good job in Germany, so why should he suddenly play out of his skin with the captain's armband on?

Try to look beyond the World Cup and see that he is a World class player who's played well for us in the past. But I don't think he should be captain either.

Peter Crouch has also complained that his legs were heavy and that he was too tired. Frankly I think that "too tired" is just a euphemism for being unfit. I feel the managers, coaching staff and the individual players themselves all have a responsibility to ensure they are adequately fit.

Lampard complains that Sven was giving the players days off when they should have been training. The players should have all got together and told Sven: "We don't need all these days off. Please let us train harder to ensure we are properly fit."

Are you a sports scientist now or something?! It's down to the manager to get the players fit. It really is as simple as that. Players can voice their opinions, but at the end of the day, the manager's decision is final, otherwise the players are running the show and the manager is an on-looker.

Instead, some of the players were no doubt busy enjoying their days off in the company of the so-called 'WAGS' - those vacuous bimbos like Cheryl Tweedy who don't function properly unless they are burning holes in the players' credit cards and being photographed out on the town dancing on tables.

There's a big difference between the dignified way the wives of 1966 behaved compared to the shameless set of vain hussies we have today, with their designer clothes, fake tans, hair extensions and endless shopping for clothes - tottering in stilettos back to their hotel rooms in the early hours of the morning.

During a few of the England matches, the TV cameras briefly flashed to a couple of the WAGS sitting in the stands, and as soon as the girls realised that the cameras were on them, they were flicking back their hair and seemed to be saying to each other: "Oooh look, we're on camera." Publicity-seeking trollops!

I certainly don't think it did the England squad any good to have these WAGs staying out with them in Germany. Some board members may think this is irrelevant, but if we're talking about fitness levels and working hard on the training ground, then I don't think the presence of the WAGS helped at all.

I've got half a mind to think this is sexual jealousy on your part. Reacting when a camera was on them? Like no-one else in the crowd does that! Does that make all fans publicity-seeking trollops?! How do you know that they were burning holes in the player's credit cards? Probably a lot of tehm were, but ("vacuous bimbo") Cheryl Tweedy was actually quoted in the press as saying she's never go shopping with her boyfriend's cards, and had her own credit cards.

But I'd agree with the general point about player's wives staying away from the players.

To summarise your post then:

- Players are responsible for their own fitness, and should be telling the manager what training they should do. I would say that they are responsible for making sure that they don't do anything stupid like getting drunk or eating junk, and they should voice their opinions about training (how do you know that they didn't?) but other than that it's down to the manager.

- Players are money-grabbing bar stools - so what else is new?

- More stuff on players being responsible for their own fitness - see above

- A load of Mary Whitehouse Victorian-throwback stuff, which I do actually agree with despite the way it's written.

Now get back to the cellar Bob Cratchett and get on with filling out the ledger!

[speeeeeeedie]

I'm with AESF and Rover6 on this one. We had a month of positive party line talk from every England player before the World Cup, then they performed like donkey's and blame someone other than themselves afterwards. Very annoying. Lampard was pants, Eriksson was pants. England were pants.

Alan Shearer has also turned down McClaren, preferring to sign a 4 year deal with the BBC. I'm not doubting Shearer's knowldege of football but am I correct in thinkng that he doesn't have his UEFA pro licence yet? If so, why is it a requirement for top level managers in England? Roeder, Southgate, and now Shearer have been offered top jobs without having the necessary qualifications. Sam Allardyce was complaining about this around the time he was being snubbed for the England job. It's no wonder that English players still can't control a ball as comfortably as the rest of the world when the FA and its member clubs consistently bend the rules to allow for the court of popular opinion to succeed.