FA given Permission to speak to Roy Hodgson over England job

[luckyluke 2]

 

"......And you can read my four page Euro Diaries, who should start, who to leahve aht, what formation we should be starting off with and who will be my star men of the tournament.........starting in tomorahs current bun! We lahve it!"

 

I couldn't see the picture last night, I was certain it was going to be of Viz's Cockney Wanker. Disappointing.

[Christmas Tree 4821]

Sun front page wading straight in this morning. Someone else will have to copy and paste.

Edited May 2, 2012 by Christmas Tree

[Howmanheyman 33827]

 

 

I couldn't see the picture last night, I was certain it was going to be of Viz's Cockney Wanker. Disappointing.

No it wasn't the Viz cockney wanker, it was the PL's cockney wanker instead. Sorry to disappoint.

[Gemmill 46021]

"Let's get this tournament out of the way and do the best we can."

 

In other words, you can fuck off if you think this one's my fault. I'd love to see him blood a load of youngsters and clear out all the old twats but he also talked about how those who got England to the finals are the ones deserving of consideration.

 

Hopefully that's him saying let's give these arseholes one last go, then it's Roy time.

[Happy Face 29]

Did Capello ever manage to get to any games at SJP btw?

 

Hopefully Woy will be a bit more pwo-active.

 

EDIT: obligatory speech impediment applied.

[Andrew 4856]

http://www.skysports.com/opinion/story/0,,15205_7721120,00.html

 

Merson proving once again that he's a complete cretin

[TheHonourableMember 0]

[Happy Face 29]

Harry has the experience needed because "His son has played for England"

 

 

Fuck me rough!

[Ayatollah Hermione 14047]

Paul Merson, man. I kna at Sky they all just get jobs for their mates but SURELY, the criteria for punditry has to be changed from "played football before and knows Jamie Redknapp" to something a bit more substantial.

[Brock Manson 0]

"I'm gutted when I play Championship Manager and I don't get offered the England job, so I can't imagine how he must be feeling."

 

[NYD 0]

Sun front page wading straight in this morning. Someone else will have to copy and paste.

 

Discracefull headlines, a horrible newspaper full of absolute bellend reporters.

Edited May 2, 2012 by NYD

[luckyluke 2]

He should ban them from his press conferences. They're going to do their best to hound him out anyway, he might as well get his own back.

[Tooj 17]

http://www.zonalmarking.net/2012/05/01/england-appoint-roy-hodgson/

 

 

If the decision was between Harry Redknapp and Roy Hodgson, England were choosing between two very different coaches.

 

The debate should not have been about ‘experience at big clubs’ or ‘how much the players like him’, but about the style of coach required: in Redknapp and Hodgson, the FA were choosing between two men at complete opposite ends of the football coach’s ideological spectrum, the most stark contrast of managerial philosophies you can find.

 

Redknapp

 

Redknapp is all about individuals. He denies he’s a ‘wheeler-dealer’, and to imply that he is only a transfer specialist would be unfair; he clearly gets on with people (summed up by his relationships with both players and journalists) and is regarded as a good man-manager and motivator. Whether it is bringing them in or firing them up, Redknapp’s skill is that he gets the best from individuals.

 

His tactical ineptitude can be overstated – Redknapp is generally very good at making substitutions midway through a game, as he showed, for example, with a fantastic turnaround at Arsenal eighteen months ago – followed by a perfectly reasonable and rational explanation about why he made the changes.

 

Yet Redknapp’s sides retain a certain anarchy, epitomised by Tottenham’s win away at Norwich late last year, when Redknapp told Gareth Bale and Rafael van der Vaart they could “play where they wanted to”. In that game it worked, as Bale scored two fine goals in a man-of-the-match performance. “He gets in those holes, and when he gets the ball and runs at you, he’s unplayable,” Redknapp marvelled. Yet in recent weeks, Bale’s desire to roam has been indulged at the expense of shape and structure, and Tottenham have been in terrible form.

 

Van der Vaart is another who has enjoyed that freedom at Tottenham. “There are no long and boring speeches about tactics, like I was used to at Real Madrid,” he says. “There is a board in our dressing room but Harry doesn’t write anything on it. It’s not that we do nothing – but it’s close to that.”

 

How much does Redknapp value the system? He’s perfectly honest about it. “Whether it’s 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3 – the numbers game is no the beautiful game in my opinion,” Redknapp once said. “It is 10% about the formation and 90% about the players.”

 

Hodgson

 

Hodgson is the complete opposite, the ultimate ‘system’ manager. His teams are very simple – they defend the same way, with two banks of four supplemented with two outright attackers – either two forwards or a lone striker supported by a number ten. Whereas Redknapp employs an army of coaches to do his work on the training ground, Hodgson personally drills his players relentlessly in training so they’re completely at home with the zonal defensive system, going through the same exercises again and again.

 

“We work on it every day,” Simon Davies, who played under Hodgson at Fulham, told Jonathan Wilson. “Every day in training is geared towards team shape on the match-day coming up. I’ve been working with the manager three years now and every day is team shape, and it shows… I don’t want to give any secrets away, but he gets the 11 that he wants on a match-day and he drills everything in that he wants. It’s certain drills defensive, certain drills attacking, and we work very hard at it. There are no diagrams. It’s all on the pitch with the ball, nothing unopposed.”

 

Whereas Redknapp doesn’t care for formations, Hodgson is a member of UEFA’s technical study group and will tell you about 4-4-2 all day long:

 

“The back four gives you the best possibilities of covering the width of the pitch defensively, and it also gives you great options, in my opinion, to get the the full-backs forward…one can go forward and the other three can shuttle across and you’re still playing with three defenders. When you play with three defenders, you lose that possibility.

 

The other six players? One could discuss. There’s no doubt you need one forward…you need a point of reference…if you play with two of them, you have the added advantage that whoever receives the ball has someone in close support at all times, and if balls are going to be played forward, you’ve got someone to threat the back of the defence. If you take him (the second striker) out, the threat to the back of the defence has to come from the midfield, you need midfield players bursting forward. It’s interesting to play with two – though these days many teams are playing with them vertically, rather than alongside each other.

 

The central midfielders do an important job for you, they’re going to protect the back four, and they’re also going to be the catalysts for attacks. The wide players are the ones you’re looking for to use spaces.

 

With 4-4-2, you’ve got ‘twos’ all over the field. I would always be looking to find a team that can play with a back four. Amongst the front six there a lot more options.”

 

Decision

 

So which type of coach is needed? England are in a state of complete confusion. Going into a major tournament having appointed your coach a month beforehand is embarrassing enough. Then there is the problem that Wayne Rooney, the star attacking player, is suspended from the first two games. Jack Wilshere, assumed to be one of England’s key midfielders a year ago, will miss out through injury. A generation of very good individuals (though never remotely a cohesive unit) are now past their peak, while the next crop are not established enough to base a successful team around.

 

This complete failure to have any long-term project in place deserves first round elimination – an outcome that would have been regarded as ‘best for England in the long-run’, had they not consistently failed to learn lessons from previous failures.

 

Templates

 

All this should make even the most ardent England supporter realise that the team is currently a rank outsider. And the only way outsiders have overachieved in recent major international tournaments is by being defensive and functional. Uruguay won the 2011 Copa America in this fashion, and Zambia triumphed at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations with the lowest pass completion rate in the tournament, something also achieved by Greece in Euro 2004. Uruguay (again) and Ghana were the surprise performers at the 2010 World Cup, both being inherently reactive, defensive sides. It’s difficult to name a recent underdog that has overachieved by playing attractive football.

 

Only the best sides can contest international tournaments in an open, attractive style and succeed. For the Euros, this is probably limited to Spain, Germany and Holland. (Even they are more cautious than one might expect – this is a Spain side that won the World Cup scoring eight goals in seven games, while Germany who were thrilling in South Africa, but mainly on the counter-attack, and a Holland are considered one of the least ‘Dutch’ sides in history.) Those three can at least hope to play beautiful football. Everyone else must focus upon being well-drilled and rigid.

 

If a disciplined, organised style of play is perfect for leading an underdog into a major international tournament, there is only one choice. Hodgson’s successes have generally been with underdogs; the only problem anyone can have with his style of management suiting England’s situation this summer is if (a) they refuse to accept England are underdogs, or ( they are frustrated at the confirmation of England’s status as underdogs.

 

(All this ignores long-term goals: granted, this is a major reason why England are currently in their current situation, but it’s difficult to see what long-term planning England can do between now and the Euros – regrouping after the summer is more logical. Talk of abandoning any attempt to compete at Euro 2012, in favour of a long-term approach looking forward to World Cup 2014, is a nice idea but assumes qualification and a reasonable idea of who would be in the side in two years’ time. Future international XIs are notoriously difficult to predict – predicting this year’s XI is difficult enough. In 2006 England took Theo Walcott to the World Cup, and though he didn’t play, he picked up ‘good tournament experience’, supposedly. This was totally useless when England didn’t qualify for Euro 2008 or when Walcott wasn’t deemed worthy of a place at World Cup 2010, and it was a wasted place in the 2006 tournament. To ‘do a Walcott’ with an entire squad would be suicidal.)

 

Caveats

 

There are two questions about Hodgson’s suitability. The first involves whether he’ll have enough time at international level implement his strict positioning correctly. This is a genuine issue – coaches who have had two years to prepare find it difficult, Hodgson only has a month. It will mean Hodgson’s style of football is probably even more boring than usual, as he would focus on defensive drills before planning any attacking moves. In that Davies interview quoted earlier, the Welshman finishes by saying, “We’re two-and-a-half years down the line now, so we’re all converted.” Hodgson does need time – when he arrived at Fulham, the team started poorly before a sharp recovery.

 

The second question is whether England’s players would respect Hodgson and be willing to follow his instructions. This is a problem for any England coach, though: Fabio Capello was ‘too distant’, Steve McClaren was ‘too chummy’. Hodgson isn’t stupid, and will be able to work out which type of players will be on board – he must be brave enough not to select anyone he believes will be a significant problem.

 

Conclusion

 

The point here is not that England have no chance of winning the tournament – it’s that they had no chance of winning the tournament by playing the anarchic football favoured by Redknapp. The type of football Hodgson offers is, in theory, the type of football that will maximise England’s chances of getting out of the group. In the current state of confusion, that must be regarded as a sensible target - although if Hodgson states this or voices satisfaction when this target is reached, he will be slaughtered for lowering expectations.

 

England must attempt to win the tournament; the chances are extremely slim, but have marginally increased with this appointment. England don’t have good enough players to be open and indulge individuals, and therefore Hodgson’s system-first approach makes sense.

[Gemmill 46021]

Jack Wilshere referred to as a "weasel" by the Sun's Steve Howard for tweeting his support to Roy Hodgson. Sunday Supplement this weekend will just be four blokes sat round a table crying.

[wykikitoon 20712]

Last night on 5Live they had Chapman, Claridge and some Jock cunt.

 

Everyone bar this Jock agreed that the Sun's piss take of Hodgsons speech impediment was waay below the belt. He (The Jock) said "well what about people taking the piss out of Cappello not speaking English"

 

Yeh, because thats the same thing you bell cheese. Hodgson has an impediment, Cappello was just unwilling to learn English, nonce.

[ChezGiven 0]

The FA have written to The Sun to tell them it was unacceptable. There were lots of complaints to the PCC too.

 

This from the newspaper who ignored the Leveson report on Monday. What a set of cunts.

[Gemmill 46021]

The Sun response today is to stick Jonathan Ross on the front page to tell everyone it's alright to take the piss out of speech impediments. I wish people would wake up and stop buying that shitty rag.

[wykikitoon 20712]

The Sun response today is to stick Jonathan Ross on the front page to tell everyone it's alright to take the piss out of speech impediments. I wish people would wake up and stop buying that shitty rag.

 

That Jock on 5Live tried saying that too, said Ross has made a load of money out of his impediment.

 

Apples and Oranges.

[Gemmill 46021]

 

That Jock on 5Live tried saying that too, said Ross has made a load of money out of his impediment.

 

Apples and Oranges.

 

Aye putting his stupidity on front street just by making the comparison.

[ChezGiven 0]

The jock saying it on 5Live is just repeating what News International's PR team are asking him to say. They got instant negative feedback yesterday morning and mis-read the mood. Unsurprising when you think they all were desperate for Redknapp, thought the whole country expected it when in actually fact most fans hate the saggy faced cunt. Once they realised that the story was backfiring slighly, media contacts are mobilised to seed messages that will form part of the limitation and defence process. Thats what PR departments do every day. Not sure who the jock is being referred to but what makes him even more of a tit is that he will be in some way, either directly or indirectly, remunerated by NI.

 

Thats all supposition of course.

[sweetleftpeg 0]

The press are just devastated after phase 1 of the plan (get Capello the sack - despite qualifying with a near perfect record) worked yet phase 2 (get in our mate Arry) failed. Facts are this, Hodgson was the FA's first choice. They approached him first. They did not approach Good Old Arry ©. That makes him first choice, what the fuck is the problem?

[ewerk 31195]

 

Harry Redknapp joins BBC Sport Euro 2012 team

 

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp is to join the BBC Sport team as a pundit during Euro 2012.

 

 

Kicking off on Friday 8 June, BBC coverage will be led by Gary Lineker and will feature Jurgen Klinsmann, Clarence Seedorf and David James.

 

BBC Sport will broadcast 16 live games, including a potential England quarter-final, both semi-finals and the final.

 

Redknapp, who had been linked with the England job, said: "I'm looking forward to working with the BBC team again."

 

Redknapp, who was part of the BBC team at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, will join up with regulars Alan Hansen, Alan Shearer and Lee Dixon, broadcasting from the state-of-the-art studio based at BBC Sport's new home at MediaCityUK in Salford.

 

Using the latest technology, the team will bring the atmosphere and flavour of every live game to audiences across the country.

 

Jake Humphrey will lead the coverage from Poland and Ukraine, while Gabby Logan will bring all the news and updates direct from the England camp.

 

In addition to comprehensive TV coverage, the BBC will provide full coverage of the tournament across radio and online platforms.

 

On radio, all games will be covered via BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live Sports Extra while a raft of online tools, alongside live streaming of BBC games, will mean viewers can follow the tournament wherever they may be.

 

Philip Bernie, Head of TV Sport, said: "We are really looking forward to our top team covering the European Championship.

 

"We have an excellent line-up of talent to present and comment on all the action and hope to see England progressing as far as possible, with the BBC showing all their knockout matches live."

 

No surprise there.

Edited May 3, 2012 by ewerk

[Andrew 4856]

quite like the sound of Klinsmann, Seedorf and James though

[luckyluke 2]

He was part of the 2010 team tbf.

 

Bet Linekar et al are gutted that they haven't got a jolly abroad this time. I don't usually get in a fit about "license payers' money" but the amount of cash that it must cost to fly those bellends and all the support staff out, put them up for weeks and broadcast from some prime location like they did in Berlin and SA when they could just as easily do it from home, "in these austere times" takes the piss a bit.

[Gemmill 46021]

I like it when the punditry teams are on location tbh. I bet they'll be there in Rio, but they'll be understandably less keen on Ukraine. As if that team of fanny rats is gonna miss out on Brazil though.