‘Embarrassing’ reaction to Carsley not singing national anthem as he joins special England club

Lee Carsley has joined Sam Allardyce in the 100 per cent club as the England interim manager won his first match in charge. The Mailbox reacts to him not singing in the national anthem, Declan Rice and Jack Grealish, Caoimhin Kelleher’s performance, price rises, deadwood and much more…

Send your views on all subjects to theeditor@football365.com…

Taking the soup 
Does anyone on this island consider Rice and Grealish as actual Irishmen playing for England? No, absolutely not.

Was it a bit cynical of them and their advisers to use the Irish jersey as a vehicle to progress their respective careers? Absolutely yes, but you have to take your opportunities when they present themselves.

The Irish underage setup formed a part of their strategic career development and once they saw the England side as a viable option, it made perfect logical sense to declare for the country of their birth, especially given the potential marketing opportunities for an English player playing for England.

Frankly, I enjoy the jokes and craic about them being turncoats who took the soup but best of luck to them both footballing wise. Is the booing of their every touch necessary? Also yes, it’s all part of the fun, nothing too serious. Both of them scoring honestly made it even funnier.

And remember, we cheered Cascarino and we all know how Irish he was.
Eoin (never take the soup) Ireland

Anthem Schmanthem
Having read Mediawatch every day for a number of years now I thought I was used to the absolute nonsense the British Sporting press comes up with but that changed on Saturday when I read Jason Burt in the Telegraph along with Sami Mokbel and Jeff Powell in the Mail with their takes on Lee Carsley not..sorry NOT..singing the British National Anthem. Nothing but embarrassing Little Englander nonsense. I wasn’t surprised at Mokbel having read his shit stirring anti Irish crap before the last England v Ireland game nor was I surprised at Powell considering what he wrote about  Sven Goran Erikson being appointed manager and his vile piece on Raheem Sterling but I was surprised at Burt who I’ve always liked. I sincerely hope now Carsley gets the job and wins every tournament England takes part in without ever singing the National Anthem so I can enjoy the sputtering outrage that follows.
Seán. St Patricks Athletic, Dublin

Might’ve been a cricket score if not for Kelleher
Three lions looking sharp on Carsley debut, he certainly got traction from a sensible and uncontroversial team selection.  Who cares he swerved the anthem, the footballing was nice (though did greatly enjoy pre-match cameras passing near enough on Harry Kane’s beautiful mug to clearly make out a crispy lispy “gawd thave tha keengh” from the legendary no 9…  so comical yet glorious, that).

I did want to mention the Irish side’s keeper if only because I reckon most the prem clubs would trade theirs in for him with not a second thought, even big 5/6/7 clubs.  Kelleher is consistently an immense pair of hands in goal for both club and country, maybe England even take him ahead of a Pickford in a universe without borders.  As it is I’d have him easily over the likes of Robert Sanchez whose default resting face is one of constant befuddlement, a Guglielmo Vicario that is about as flimsy as they come at this level, and he’s outright just better than Biscuithands full stop.  For the most part I objectively rate Kelleher > just about everyone in the league but for the pair of Brazilians, and maybe (maybe) David Raya…

Anyway, gawd thave tha keengh.  Kelleher thave everytheengh else.
Eric, Los Angeles  CA

Well done Lee Carsley for reaching the heady heights of Sam Allardyce as being the only English managers to have a 100% record.
Chris, Stourbridge

Sterling or Gordon?
Lots of blind alley running and lack of end product, doing a tour of the big clubs of England with his top PR team.

Am I talking about Raheem Sterling or Anthony Gordon?

Answers on a postcard
Fat Man (same ol’ England+1 goal)

Carsball
I wonder how F365 are going to play this. Having spent the last number of years under the editorial line that Gareth was best and anyone that disagrees doesn’t understand England football, how does it work with a new manager in charge.

Does anything that carsely achieves come as a result of the foundations that sir Gareth has set. If he wins it’s because of the foundations sir Gareth set. If he fails, well he is Irish and he doesn’t want to sing about protecting a man lucky each to be born into a lucky family!

I like to think sir Gareth was at home tonight, kicking the cat, when the right back, who he ignored, played a defence splitting pass to a wide forward who was eager to make a run in behind leading to a goal.
J Belfast

A word about deadwood 
It’s a phrase that crops up time and again when talking about bloated superclub squads (at least as I hear it – do Rotherham fans moan about deadwood?). A human footballer has a contract which, through circumstances beyond his control, outlasts the usefulness he serves. Seems like that’s more the clubs’ fault, and frustrated fans who perceive their clubs to be underperforming. The more fires there are, the more deadwood there’s going to be.

So what’s the analogy here? Scott McTominay gets labelled deadwood because he’s not useful enough to Man Utd to justify whatever they’re paying him; he’s using up a place in the squad that could be filled by a more talented or effective player. He’s deadwood because he’s lying around, getting in the way, not contributing to the thriving ecosystem of This Is Manchester United Football Club We’re Talking About. Scott McTominay is a rotted old stump with big mushrooms growing out of it. Bruno Fernandes, by contrast, is a strapping great oak, a pillar of thriving symbiosis, crowning the forest canopy. Eric Ten Hag is some kind of forest manager, perhaps an overworked council employee assigned to clear out the dog shit and empty baggies, and what the fuck does he do about a big rotted stump rooted in among all the other trees? Not even the Saudis will take this one, and they’ve nary a tree between them.

The thing is, deadwood is really cool and useful stuff. Dead wood, that is, wood that is dead, old trees and branches lying about in the forest. When a tree dies and falls it clears space in the canopy, allowing sunlight through and new plants to grow. The dead trees return nutrients to the soil as they rot down, and the atmospheric carbon that trees capture to build their trunks is transferred into the soil by sapotrophic fungi. Dead wood also provides safe and nutritious shelter for a huge variety of different organisms; a fallen tree has something like 5-8 times the number of living cells by volume compared with a living tree.

Dead wood is carefully managed in many forest environments, and for the general health of the woodland it is usually better to leave a large proportion of the dead wood in situ rather than clearing it, although one exception to this will come in places where risk of wildfire is significant, where dead wood can contribute fuel to an uncontrolled fire. From that perspective, perhaps the sale of Scott McTominay was necessary. Although fungal mycelia were leeching carbon from McTominay’s rotting flesh to sequester in the Old Trafford soil, and various interesting species of beetle had colonised the spongy hollows in his base, the risk of a wildfire being fed by the prostrate corpse of the big Scot was deemed too great. Ship him off to Naples instead, where, because footballers are not actually trees, he can be replanted in new ground and hopefully thrive again.

Also, how about trying to swerve the hoary old cliche? A column used the phrase dead weight recently in its stead, which is just as cliched but at least makes sense. Leave the dead wood alone.
Scriv O’Scoob, Reading

READ MORE: Five ways for Lee Carsley to endear himself to England fans

Price rises
Football fans : we need to spend money to win!!!

Also football fans: How dare you charge more money!!

As a Liverpool fan I’ve actually had disagreements about price rises. It is true that the price of football is pushing out the working class bloke and his kids. But without price rises there is no 300k a week striker, that big money signing doesn’t happen.

The rules prohibit owners from pumping in random cash, and before United fans start pointing at city check your history money bags (that was literally your nickname) you did it too and got caught inflating attendance figures to pump owner cash in.

So you can’t make signings pay good wages without money. It’s a choice, keep tickets cheap and don’t sign these players like Henry, Salah or Ronaldo OR accept that price rises are necessary. Or you can campaign for more corporate boxes since they’re in the tens of thousands per game and usually completely sell out as many companies buy one for ‘business meetings’ to claim against taxes. They’re a genuine permanent money spinner, Chelsea and United built mighty bank balances on them.

I get it, it really sucks. As a Liverpool fan I once queued on the clubline for 4 hours to get tickets for a champion league qualifier second leg against FC haka in which we were 4-1 up because it was the only game I’d been able to get tickets for. It does suck, but everything needs to be paid for (thanks capitalism). Call it profiteering if you like but if you’ve ever looked at club accounts (I have, it’s more interesting than it sounds) you quickly learn player salaries are SERIOUSLY expensive at all clubs.
Lee

What the future holds for Aston Villa fans?
I read with interest the quite justified reaction from Villa fans regarding the blatent profiteering by the clubs owners on ticket prices for the Champions League matches.

What I would say to them is that if they’re lucky a few years down the line they might be well have a Skywalk and their own brewery at the Stadium, get first dibs on tickets to see world class musical acts like Catfish & The Bottlemen and the best paid Chairman in Europe.

Obviously, the pay-off for these wonders is a lack of success on the pitch, but thats not what its all about is it?
Graeme (Apparently we’re going to have a great side in three years time) Barnstaple, North Devon.