Feeling ‘incredibly bad’ for England player who was messed around by Tuchel
Jarrod Bowen has the Mailbox feeling ‘incredibly bad’ after he was given the Andy Johnson treatment. England are on the board under Thomas Tuchel.
Send your thoughts to theeditor@football365.com.
Delulu of Grandu (sounds like a Star Trek episode)
Man, football fans are the stone-cold worst.
Tuchel’s first game was a disaster-huh? Even before getting in to the fact we, ya know, comfortably won a qualification game, against a low-ranked but solid side, without any hint of jeopardy whatsoever – go back and look at the last 5 managers first game in charge:
Steve McLaren – England 4-0 Greece (friendly) – the comfortable “best” result on this list, still nothing impressive in the context of the era (Greece were already a shadow of the side that won Euro 2004), also, this clearly shows that “rip-roaring first game” hardly lines up with “manager will be a success in the role” #WallyWithABrolly
Fabio Capello – England 2-1 Switzerland (friendly) – Spare me the “the Swiss are a solid side” mantra, this was far from peak Swiss
Roy Hodgson – Norway 0-1 England (friendly) – Norway, tbf, did have a solid side and England were a very experimental first XI on the day but this is certainly no better than Friday
Sam Allardyce – Slovakia 0-1 England (WCQ) – Now we’re talking, a decent win this in the context – wait, what’s that, we won by virtue of a last minute Adam Lallana winner after playing against ten men for the last 35 minutes of the game. Still, credit where credits due, Allardici will always be the only England manager with a 100% win rate.
Gareth Southgate – England 2-0 Malta (WCQ) – In the immortal words of Blue – I rest. my. case. A comfortable, if not impressive win, in a qualification game for a major tournament from a manager who would go on to have the best tenure as the Head Coach of England, since Sir Alf manager to be in the seat when the referees had a brain fade at Wembley.
Not to mention, with my tongue planted firmly in my cheek, many of you (as supporters of elite clubs) will definitely attest that these players are all still at peak fitness at the end of the March of a long season – none of them are playing with knocks, or feeling the effects of a long season, or have one-eye on the remainder of the season for their club.
Will Tuchel be a huge success? Who knows, on the face of it statistically it is unlikely, right? However to suggest a comfortable 2-0 win is some sort of failure is absolutely to show that many of England’s supporters absolutely have delusions of grandeur at best, and a thorough lack of understand of the basic principle of the game at worst.
Harold Everton Hooler
P.S – I am aware I could very swiftly come down off this high horse tonight should England fail to beat Latvia – or worse, this mail could be published AFTER such an event to bring everyones most annoying commenter, down with a bang.
MC – Apologies.
Leave them wonting more
I think the only thing i learned from the two England games was in your player ratings, and it being “as is his wont” and not ‘as is his want’. So cheers for that.
England won, but if Tommy T is after ‘repeated patterns of play’ on the pitch then he’s got a lot of work to do, because all I saw was Kane again delivering sod all as a 10, and Bellingham wandering into that space and occasionally playing epic passes like the one to Lewis-Skelly, and those out wide having zero structure for success and just being tasked to come up with some magic on their own.
Felt incredibly bad for Bowen. He hasn’t been playing as anything other than a forward for West Ham, since Antonio’s injury, so to task him with playing out wide for a striker dropping deep against an intransigent back 4 seemed a difficult environment to shine. Like when Sven finally caved to the clamour and gave Palace and Everton striker Andy Johnson a call up to justify his getting 21 league goals in one season, and played him out wide. Brilliant. What’s anyone gonna get from that. England still doing in 2025 what they did 20 years ago.
Tom G
Get your Phil
Dear Ed,
Whenever a player speaks up about the pressures or issues that have affected them (Dele Alli, Aaron Lennon) we are told by yourselves to be kind.
So with this in mind, on the same day that Matt Stead does an article saying how Phil Foden is embarrassed by 21 players for England it comes out that he is suffering and that his fellow players & staff are worried about him– and he reads the reports.
He has also given interviews earlier this season where he stated he felt burnt out and was hurt by the criticism of his performances for England.
The Article by Matt Stead & one by George Simms in the I on Friday are utterly shameful, unless it’s just us fans that need to be kind and not writers?
Keith
Bite Ratcliffe’s dirty, wrinkly hands off
Chelsea would have to pay £5 million to cancel the deal for Sancho (£25 million in the summer).
Now I know the Cheslea owners and board are all morons, but surely SURELY, they can see that they should slap that money over to United and let them deal with him.
I don’t know what’s wrong with Sancho, it may well be stuff behind doors that we don’t know and may never know. But Chelsea shouldn’t persist with a player that’s basically broken and don’t technically have to buy. Most of the rest of the squad are sh*te enough with out him taking up a place.
Will
FFP, FFS
Bit of a long one this as it has taken me a while to figure it out but with the imminent release of the verdict relating to Man City’s FFP charges, the amount of time it has taken and the likely appeals it got me thinking…
What if City just said “Ah yeah soz like – you caught us we wont do it again”.
No appeals, no questioning, the punishments bring an end to the whole thing. Lets say the punishment is the worst it can be. The money doesnt matter, so stripped of all titles (those Community Shield losses will smart) and relegated to National League North. So…who would be affected:
The Owners
Their revenue might be down a bit however it would be a huge story for them to be playing a lot of lesser known teams in England and to be hosting them at their stadium. I think interest, and therefore revenue would be enough to sustain the club all the way back up to the Premier league which wouldnt take too long. Plus they would give it a good go in the cups.
Players/Managers past and present
They werent the ones that broke the rules, the players and managers that were there during this period were just doing a job. It would be unfair to ask them to return their medals when they weren pulling any of the strings so as far as I can see, all is good for the playing and coaching staff.
The Fans
Now this is where it could really hurt. All the titles are gone. Awarded to whoever finished second place. However, City fans will still have the Aguero moment, still have Yaya winning the FA for them and the absolute dominance the recent team has had. Those moments cant be taken away. I liken it to when an athlete is disqualified following a drugs test a year later and the silver medalist is promoted to gold. Nice one you have a gold medal. I dont think they recreate the medal ceremony for you again. Are Man United really going to do an open top bus parade for the title winning team of 2017-18 and bring back Jose and Paul Pogba for it? Naaaaaaaaaa. The point is no matter what the record books say, City fans will never forget those moments, acquired unlawfully or not. Also City Fans, wouldnt it be great rocking up to grounds you have never visited before in the lower leagues before returning to the league that kicked you out, fully compliant and out for revenge. I think that would be a right laugh.
Rival Fans
If City are found not guilty of even one charge, rival fans will still not believe. I think in the eyes of most rival fans, City cheated and should be punished. Any argument to suggest otherwise will fall on deaf ears. By admitting it and taking the licks, rival fans will be unable to use this as ammunition for anything (probably not true knowing what some of the darker recesses of the internet are like).
And….I think thats it. The longer it is dragged out the worse it is for everyone. We could close the book on it right now. It might be a weird couple of seasons for City and their fans but you might also look back at the time you went to Tadcaster Albion and had a great pie and pint.
I’d love to hear what City fans would think if the club admitted the charges – wouldnt it be great to put all this to bed?
Mannix (Boro Fan)
Dispatch from USA
At the moment there is unprecedented negativity in American soccer. Having failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, the American team’s performance at the 2022 edition provided some optimism with a young team playing a different style from what we’ve seen from previous teams. That is all gone now. What happened?
The biggest problem is that USA is a very young soccer country and there aren’t generations of adults who know the sport. Fans here look at our population size and think that will translate into having a good soccer team, not ever realizing that China and India are pretty crap at the game too. It’s a problem with America in general: look at something someone else is doing well and think you can do the same thing better just because you’re American. The line between a can-do attitude and wild arrogance is thin. Young people who follow the sport in America, in my experience, know stats from Playstation games and recognize the badges of big clubs but the understanding doesn’t get much further than that. You’re either Mbappe and you’re the GOAT or you’re terrible and you play for Fulham. There are very few people in America who have watched the game for 20 years. Most soccer fans here are basically Todd Boehly without a hedge fund.
Couple this with a player pool that is largely the spoiled children of affluent upper middle class families who have been called a “Golden Generation” for years and you have the current USA team. Toxic culture. If Pochettino thought the Chelsea job was a headache he’s got his work cut out for him. After the last World Cup Gio Reyna’s parents blackmailed the coach Gregg Berhalter because they felt their precious son (who’s never done anything of note in the game) didn’t get enough playing time. AND HE GOT CALLED BACK TO THE TEAM. Berhalter was hounded out of the job in the most coordinated operation I’ve ever seen in American soccer media. And now that we have a big-name manager in Poch, it’s starting to become apparent that maybe Coach Gregg was the guy who could get a tune out of the players because he blew smoke up their backsides, put an arm around the shoulder, massaged their egos. Christian Pulisic, possibly believing he is the “Lebron James of soccer” (people do say this in America sometimes) instead of just an above-average attacking midfielder, refused to be subbed off in the 3rd place CONCACAF Nation’s League game just this past weekend. All so he could take yet another terrible set piece. And he’s the captain!
“Golden Generation” is a marketing term created by USA sports media to sell this team to the American public. These players are not better than what came before — they are quite clearly worse in every area but left back — but they are the first group to get widespread access to big european academies. So after decades of following players at Fulham (shock!) or Everton (horror!) or Hannover 96 (how embarrassing!), American fans were finally seeing Serginho Dest at Barcelona, Weston McKennie at Juventus, Pulisic and Gio Reyna at Dortmund. A true moment where we’ve arrived, right? Wrong. Dest got shredded at Barca and still can’t defend, McKennie is a utility player for the worst Juventus teams any living person has ever seen, Pulisic has had one good spell for a Milan team that I wouldn’t want to watch, and Gio has been injured and a horrible guy for years. Matt Turner in goal showed promise a few years ago but his attempts to establish a career in Europe have killed his confidence. We haven’t produced a decent center back since Carlos Bocanegra. If there is one bright spot in the team it is Antonee Robinson, who’s the best left back we’ve ever had, and who has spent several years playing for… Fulham.
This is all culminating in what could be an absolutely cataclysmic 2026 World Cup. The Trump World Cup. Rest assured he will dominate proceedings. If the home team aren’t in a good place I feel he might demand they dope like the Russians in 2018. Already the team has a target on their backs because the president is a pr*ck. He threatens and insults countries like Mexico, Canada, and Panama, all of whom have overtaken the USA team recently in results and performances. At this rate everyone in the world would like to get this soft, entitled USA team in their group just for the chance to beat them.
Deadbeat Cat Dad
