For The Irish

Thanks to Biopunk for this, a song for Gobby and all the Irish fans ahead of their final Euro 2012 game against Italy tomorrow.
I reckon they need to start searching those ancestry records like Jack Charlton used to, as this could be a final fling for players like Keane, Given, Duff and Dunne :(

Flash

Lightning at Shakhtar Donestsk stadium.
I'm not sure if this picture is from yesterday's game as the crowd seem to be missing, but it looked like this :)

Enger-land

Still the best :)
John Barnes's greatest performance (apart from that goal against Brazil).

Mashed Swede

Getting better all the time, as I knocked off work early at 6 I told everyone "Andy Carroll hat-trick" while all the doubters could only come up with "we might scrape a draw".
I'm starting to think I'm the only person who thinks England aren't that bad and might even get a few wins?
When the game was about to kick off tosspot Lineker and serial knob Lawrenson keep trotting out the line that England never beat Sweden and all the others are negative about us.

The game starts and we look pretty good and even Milner isn't playing too bad, then Gerrard's cross and a great headed goal from the all new fit Andy Carroll :)
Despite Lawro's constant moaning I thought we looked pretty good for the rest of the half.
The moaners must have been in heaven as we switched off at the start of the second half and somehow conceded two goals to the average Swedes, had to feel for Glen Johnson who was really unlucky with the own goal but overall had probably his best defensive game for England.
I still thought England could come back as surely our pace would tell against the ageing Swedes.
Hodgson didn't hang about and put Walcott on for Milner who had reverted to type, and within minutes he had scored the equaliser with a shot that really shouldn't have gone in, Isaksson who had just made a great save from Terry's header somehow totally misjudged or didn't even see Walcott's shot as it shot past him.
Then about 15 minutes later Walcott burst through and crossed behind Wellbeck who brilliantly back heeled into the net. Altogether now ... You're going home, you're going home ...Sweden's going home :)

Four points but we still need at least a draw against the Ukraine but I reckon we would have to play really bad and get a seriously bribed ref to lose, we shall see on Tuesday.

My Ratings -
Hart 7, Johnson 8, Cole 6, Terry 7, Lescott 6
Parker 7, Gerrard 8, Young 5, Milner 5
Carroll 8,Wellbeck 8
Subs - Walcott 9, Oxlade-Chamberlain 6

Bye Harry

I've heard the rumours over the last few days but didn't really believe them, but it seems he has been shown the door by Tottenham?
Only a few months ago the press were telling us the sun shone out of his arse, and Tottenham were talking about a multi-million pound compensation deal if England called.
They didn't, and now it seems he's been dumped because he asked for a contract extension
I've not been the biggest fan of Harry as a manager and think his inflated reputation is a lot better than his actual achievements, but he is always good for a laugh and maybe he should now stick to punditry, but I expect there will be a queue of clubs waiting to take him on.


I cannot see that anyone will get them higher up the table with their present finances than what has been achieved in the last few years but obviously the chairman thinks differently.
David Moyes is one of the early favourites, and it would be interesting to see what he can do if he actually had some money to spend but I reckon he is still one of the favourites to replace Fergie when he finally quits so he might stay put for now?

Le Bribe

A draw to start and probably deserved, some people rated France as better than us but it didn't show, to be honest both teams cancelled each other out.
Lescott was probably England's best player and deserved the goal, Joe Hart had a mixed night with some great saves and a few errors and you would have expected him to save Nasri's goal.
Great to see Oxlade-Chamberlain in the starting line up although he didn't see too much of the ball but did ok, still not convinced Milner is an England player and he missed a sitter early on after doing the hard bit of taking it round the keeper, Gerrard still seems to lack the confidence he shows for Liverpool but was solid.
England played a bit defensively which meant Young and Wellbeck had limited chances to shine, but we looked more solid than we have in years.
Luckily the French didn't have any opportunities to go down in the box, as I'm sure the ref was dying to give them a penalty.

My Ratings -
Hart 7, Johnson 6, Cole 7, Terry 6, Lescott 8
Parker 7, Gerrard 7, Oxlade-Chamberlain 7, Milner 4
Young 6, Wellbeck 7
Subs - Henderson 5, Defoe 7, Walcott 5

Rio Rant (Bad Language Warning)

I have always lked Rio Ferdinand from his Hammers days through his Leeds days and even now he's at United but I'm getting sick of hearing his name now :(
The parasite scum press and media cannot talk about England without keep bringing up "the Rio question" every time, and I for one have just about had enough of it.

Why bother paying an England manager to pick a team when all that useless bunch of cunts know better?
We all know the real reason he wasn't considered but if he had wanted a divided dressing room he might as well have called up Joey Barton to replace Lampard and if the experience reason is key why wasn't David James called up to replace Ruddy.
Don't forget Capello took Rio to the last World cup and he didn't even make it to the first match before he was injured, Alex Ferguson says he can't play twice a week, he hasn't played for England for over a year and has only made nine England appearances in the four years since the last Euro's.
Is he better than Martin Kelly? probably but I reckon Kelly might be a better right back when injury prone Glen Johnson gets a knock at some stage, when Lampard got injured why wasn't Mark Noble called up or even ageing Paul Scholes? there are probably dozens of players better than Jordan Henderson but there wasn't a story there.
The only way I can see the press giving Hodgson a break is if we win the tournament with substitute defender Martin Kelly hitting the winner .. here's hoping :)

Gagged

England have revealed their plan if there's racist chanting during an England game.
The players will tell John Terry to shut the fuck up.

With Rooney suspended for the first two games and Defoe going home for family reasons, we're left with only two striking options ... Danny Welbeck's right foot, and his left foot.

Greece were poor yesterday ..... They are still poor today.

Apparently John Terry was seen crying during the England teams tour of the Auschwitz concentration camp ... He couldn't find the souvenir shop.

Euro 2012 Predictions

If anyone is interested here's the Euro 2012 Predictions game :)
Copy and paste this lot into the comments and add your own scores, 3 points for a correct score, 1 point for a correct result with the wrong scoreline.
Will add the QF, SF and Final games later and the highest score after all 31 games will win (or 32 if there is a 3rd place play-off?).
** Join in at any time - only 2 games a day so plenty of time to catch up **

8 June  
Poland v Greece
Russia v Czech Rep
9 June
Holland v Denmark
Germany v Portugal  
10 June
Spain v Italy
Rep of Ireland v Croatia  
11 June
France v England  
Ukraine v Sweden
----------
12 June
Greece v Czech Rep
Poland v Russia
13 June
Denmark v Portugal
Holland v Germany  
14 June
Italy v Croatia
Spain v Rep of Ireland
15 June
Ukraine v France
Sweden v England
----------
16 June
Greece v Russia
Czech Rep v Poland  
17 June
Portugal v Holland  
Denmark v Germany  
18 June
Croatia v Spain  
Italy v Rep of Ireland
19 June
Sweden v France  
England v Ukraine
----------
QF 21-24 June
SF 27-28 June
F 1st July

FIFArghh!!

Human rights ... not FIFA's problem.
Racism ...  not FIFA's problem.
Corruption  ... not FIFA's problem.
Ban beer at football grounds  ... FIFA say this cannot be allowed!!!

FIFA demanded changes to the Brazilian legislation that banned alcohol at their football grounds since 2003, ahead of the 2014 World Cup.
Coincidentally Budweiser are one of the main FIFA World cup sponsors :(

Battersea FC

Sadly it seems Chelsea's move to the Battersea power station has been scuppered by some more rich Malaysians who have outbid them for the site.
I really couldn't see it happening but was interested to see how they would fit the pitch and enough stands to hold an increased capacity into a building that cannot be knocked down.
The picture above is the actual size comparison of the power station and Stamford bridge, the pitch would fit into the turbine hall and you could hang the floodlights from the chimneys, but I really can't see where the crowd go.

Selling Your Soul?

I thought this was an April fool's joke, then realised it was June.
It seems Cardiff have agreed to be "re-branded" to appeal to Asian markets meaning they have to change their colours from Blue to red? the fact the club are globally known as the Bluebirds adds to the confusion.

The Malaysian owners have promised "major and significant investment" although we haven't heard how much.
I think I would be looking for a cast iron agreement for the sort of money that is made available by Sheik Mansour and Roman Abramovich before I would even consider such a change, and I don't think they have that much money, but on the other hand if the club is going to the wall as it might have been before the Malysians came in, maybe it's a price worth paying??


If West Ham were forced to change to red, I might move to Norwich as I've always liked Green and Yellow :)

FIFA Rankings

Never too sure about these as looking at the way the points are handed out just doesn't seem right to me, our win over Belgium was worth slightly more than Uraguay's draw with Venezuala but only half as much as Australlia's 1-0 win over Iraq and Argentina's win over Ecuador was worth 3 times as many points?

Here's the current rankings for the Euro 2012 teams, I assume Poland and Ukraine are so low because they didn't play any qualifiers.

1st Spain
3rd Germany
4th Netherlands
6th England
8th Croatia
9th Denmark
10th Portugal
12th Italy
13th Russia
14th France
15th Greece
17th Sweden
18th Republic of Ireland
27th Czech Republic
52nd Ukraine
62nd Poland

Euro 2012 Getting Close

It all starts Friday and I'm getting the buzz ... finally.
The press have started slagging off our manager over the Rio Ferdinand affair, but does anyone care? Martin Kelly might not have been the ideal replacement but he's 22 and Rio is 33 and even his own club manager said he couldn't manage 2 games in 4 days so is Fergie wrong too?
I like Ferdinand but I reckon Lescott and Jagielka are currently better players, and where Hodgson did make an initial mistake was not having cover for Glen Johnson which he has now remedied.

Anyway like most in this country I'll cheer England all the way even if that is only 3 games? I
just pray we don't have to suffer a humiliation like at the last World Cup.

France, Sweden and Ukraine all winnable or loseable?
France are coming back to form and have some good players but players like Ribery, Benzema, Nasri, Ben Arfa, Malouda can all look pretty average at times (like some of ours) I fancy us to sneak a win in this one.
Sweden have Ibrahimovic but the only other names are Seb Larsson and maybe the Olssen's and a couple of other former prem players, the trouble being that we never beat Sweden in major competitions although we did manage a 1-0 win over them last year in a friendly our first win in 43 years :)
Ukraine should be our easiest game but they are at home and will need the points to go through, a draw should see us through? :)

After that who knows we might get a Quarter final against Italy the team I usually support after we have been knocked out ... but I'm getting way ahead of myself here as I've just downloaded my customary Excel spreadsheet and put the scores in and we're in the final against Germany hahahaha :)

Anyone up for a Euro predictions competition?

Who's Left?

Here is the revised England Squad For Euro 2012

Goalies - J Hart, R Green, J Butland
Defenders - J Terry, A Cole, G Johnson, J Lescott, L Baines, P Jones, M Kelly, P Jagielka
Midfield - S Gerrard, T Walcott, A Young, J Milner, A Oxtail-Chamberlain, S Parker, S Downing, J Henderson
Forwards - W Rooney, A Carroll, J Defoe, D Wellbeck

Four withdrawals so far with Frank Lampard, Gary Cahill, Gareth Barry and John Ruddy all out injured and there are still injury concerns over Parker and Terry.
Liverpool's Martin Kelly is the latest call up even though he wasn't on the original reserves list, I'm sure Daniel Sturridge would have volunteered to play right back if he was asked :)

It seems Micah Richards is the latest player to have a strop after not being called up in the original squad following on from Michael Carrick last week and the two goalies Foster and Robinson who took the choice a few years back.
 So we now have six Liverpool players in the squad, and as someone said on the radio this week "is that good news for Brenda Rogers or bad news for Roy Hodgson"?
Kelly hasn't looked too bad when I've seen him, Carroll is finally looking like an England player, Gerrard is a bit past his best but still good enough to warrant selection and Glen Johnson still looks better in the opposition's half as he always has :)
Henderson and Downing probably don't deserve a place on their season's form.

Sad for Gary Cahill who found out just how solid Joe Hart is as his jaw bounced off him, but Lescott looked quality against Belgium so hopefully we won't miss him, the midfield is a concern with Gerrard still injury prone, Parker possibly injured and always likely to get sent off and Young and Walcott who can be brilliant but both can go missing in games, and Milner has never impressed me.
I think Oxlade Chamberlain could be given a go in the centre where he played really well for Arsenal against Milan this season.
Up front with Rooney missing the first 2 games he could either go with one up probably Wellbeck or if he goes for 2 up I reckon Carroll and Defoe could work well together, Judas is always likely to score if he gets a chance and if Carroll won a few headers he could make those chances, but I don't think either of them could operate as a lone striker.

Westerns

Talking about cheap shirts I found this "quality" website :)
Not only can I buy "Western Ham United" shirts or "Shits" as it says here, but I was surprised to find out that we had been League champions in 2004/2005? ... must have slept through that :)

Westerns make you think of cowboys, and I'm guessing that is who you would be giving your credit card details too?

Cheap Shirts

Don't usually advertise here but thought this was a good offer, JJB are doing the newish England away kit for only £12.50 and the home kit for £25 till Tuesday, I'm not sure if this is just an online offer or it's available in the shops I'll pop down tomorrow if they are open and see as I quite like the away one.

Had a look through some of the other new kits (sadly at full price) and I feel sorry for Man U fans with their new tea towel pattern home shirts, Chelsea's new one is better than last years, Everton's new black and gold away kit is pretty cool and I'm undecided about the new Barcelona home shirt, which as with all footy shirts these days is now spoilt by having to advertise some dodgy company on the front.

With the cost of advertising these days why can't we all claim money back from these companies when we go out wearing a shirt with their logo on the front?  I don't really expect to get anything as I had no luck trying to get Tesco's to give me a discount for advertising their company by using their crap plastic bags :)
Now I just take several superior Morrisons bags with me and when they say "do you need bags" I say "no it's ok I've brought my own" .... they never seem too pleased :)

Goal FX

Love this, goal celebrations with added effects :)
Arsene's horse is classic.
.

Ten Nil

West Ham's 10-0 League Cup win over Bury in 1983 this was the 2nd leg of a 2nd Round tie, we had won 2-1 away but none of us who were there probably expected a score like this.
As it goes it wasn't really the greatest game except for the score, Bury were terrible and it seems hard to believe we signed their central defender Paul Hilton not long after? although he did have some good games for us over the next few years including playing as a makeshift striker.
Tony Cottee scored four, Alan Devonshire got two, Trevor Brooking hit two (but one was given as an own goal), Alvin Martin and the obligatory Ray Stewart penalty made up the scorers.
Dave Swindlehurst who was our centre forward at the time failed to score, he never totally impressed in the couple of years he was there, although he did get about 15 goals in this season.

The 1983-4 season started well and we led the league early on and were top 3 for most of the season, but a disastrous run of only 2 wins in the final third of the season saw us slip to 9th :(

The commentary is very quiet so you'll need to turn the speakers up, and he is a bit annoying pronouncing Cottee as Coaty, and calling Billy Bonds Bill.

Euro 2012 Songs

I know it's only the European Championship and nobody fancies us to do well but I'm surprised not many have bothered to knock up some new England songs, so far I haven't heard anything worth talking about on the radio, and a quick hunt through You Tube hasn't found much, most of the songs listed as Euro 2012 are old ones and feature the likes of Beckham and Capello etc but I'll keep looking.
Best one I've found so far is this, it might be old but there are some nice girls in the video :)



If anyone can steer me in the direction of something better please let me know.

Edit - Thanks to Gobshyte here is the Irish official song :)