Are we a great footballing nation?

[withdeanwombat]

We are a feeble international outfit right now,and the reason we've dominated the "Champion's League" is because our domestic teams in that competition are made up of players from all over the world,not just England.Whether the latter dictates the former I'll leave to you.

 

[Woodchip]

Excellent footballing nation? Yes
Excellent nation at football? No

 

[Dave the OAP]

The reason why we have the best, most successful leagues in the world is because so many foreign and international players want to join English clubs. We need to find English players that have all the talent to win a major int'l trophy.

...ok but how do you relate that to the time when Liverpool, Aston Villa, Ipswich, Nottingham forest were winning competitions in Europe. They had teams of basically British players, Irish, Scottish, English and Welsh. "foreign" players were few and far between

 

[Bold Seagull]

Who says? It's all about trophies in the cabinet. Spain didn't even come close to the final when they hosted the WC in 1982. I think they had reached one Euro final before then. It was always conventional feeling that Spain couldn't win because they are a fragmented nation and national pride is simply not enough for their many regional-minded people, but the last four or five years have shown this to be complete nonsense.

They've had some great teams to watch over the years. In '96 they out played England in the 1/4 final, and could consider themselves to be especially unlucky to have lost. They were also unlucky in '94 when they should have had a pen in the final minutes against Italy. They've always played in tournaments I've watched with passion, flair and attack mindedness and they've always been a fixture I'd watch. England haven't been as good as Spain for a long period, qualification for major tournaments over the past 40 years is testament to that.

 

[Simster]

Incidentally, I thought Roy Hodgson replied to the question very well. It's on the BBC site somewhere.

 

[Davemania]

Good club sides, but we are technically and tactically deficient at international level.

And our top club sides contain mainly foreigners with a sprinkling of british players which goes a long way to explaining why we've been poor at times internationally. That and the fact we've been rubbish at penalties unlike the germans. Historically at international level we could have had some tournament wins had a few shoot outs gone our way in more modern times

 

[Scoffers]

Excellent footballing nation? Yes
Excellent nation at football? No

This is exactly what I was trying to say earlier in this thread, you just said it a lot simpler

 

[Scoffers]

And our top club sides contain mainly foreigners with a sprinkling of british players which goes a long way to explaining why we've been poor at times internationally.

Surely if our players were good enough, they'd be in the team. Simple.

 

[Pavilionaire]

Are we a great footballing nation - yes. We have a love for the game that is unparalleled anywhere else in Europe.

Roy Hodgson should have reminded the twat journalist there were somewhere between 70,000 - 85,000 fans who had travelled from England in Cologne the day we played Sweden in WC 2006. France would be lucky to muster a quarter of that number, and that on the back of some glory years too.