Greg Dyke's 'Grand Speech'

[Rhodes]

There were greater managers before Clough and greater after him.

Like who for example!

[Zippy]

Sir Alf Ramsey

Bill Shankly

Bob Paisley

Sir Alex Ferguson as well.

 

Brian Clough is my favourite manager ever though.

[Eastside Urchin]

Herbert chapman for a start

[Hookey]

Any list of great "British" managers would have to include Jock Stein.

[Zippy]

Agreed Hookey, 

 

He started out life at Llanelli FC as well.

[Zippy]

An interesting comment from Steve Carley of Worcester News:

 

'I FIND it strange that the Premier League is continually blamed for the failure of the England team.

 

Every time the national team fails to do well at a major tournament, pundits are falling over themselves to point the finger at the amount of imported talent — or “foreigners” — in our top division.

 

The argument is that an ever-increasing number of players from around the globe are giving the national manager, currently Roy Hodgson, fewer English players to pick from.

 

This is true and the influx of overseas players has certainly not helped the progression of youngsters from these shores.

 

But, and it pains me to say it being a critic of the league for its exuberance, to hold it up as the main reason England do badly on the international stage is not entirely fair.

 

When the Premier League was launched 20 years ago, there were considerably more homegrown players competing.

 

Yet, having reached the semi-finals of the 1990 World Cup in Italy, England promptly crashed at Euro ‘92 in Sweden under Graham Taylor and failed to qualify for USA ‘94.

 

There was no Premier League or raft of foreigners to blame then, not least because the pre-Bosman ruling of only being allowed three non-English players in a squad was still in force. Back then we just weren’t very good and, if truth be told, we haven’t moved on much.

 

Generally speaking, England have always been decent but not great.

 

Good enough to reach the quarter-finals of most events but lacking what it takes to do any better on a regular basis. Put another way, consistently inconsistent.

 

The trouble is, we seem to have this belief that we have a right to be better than we are based on having won the World Cup in 1966. This is little more than arrogance.

 

We see the likes of Spain, Germany and Italy doing well and think we should be like them but don’t really know how to achieve it.

 

Football Association chairman Greg Dyke doesn’t seem to either. Last week he set England the aim of reaching the semi-finals of Euro 2020 and winning the World Cup in Qatar two years later.

 

At no point did he put forward a realistic proposal of how we would do this, other than setting up a “commission” to have a chat about it and see if they have an answer.

 

Maybe we just aren’t producing good enough players? It’s just a thought. Perhaps the system is failing us.

 

Maybe Dyke should get his own house in order before pointing fingers elsewhere.'

 

Was the same thing not said on the Sportsnight programme by Jimmy Hill on the night that England failed to qualify for World Cup 1994?

[Eastside Urchin]

We don't have less players to choose from,that argument is complete garbage.

It's still the same amount of players,just some are pushed down the leagues but the numbers are still there.

The problem is that too many of our young footballers think they have made it by the time they are given their first minutes football for the first team.

They get paid a fortune,live like kings and then show no desire to actually get better and all the time, the clubs keep paying them more and more because they have potential.

How about paying them fckng less until they actually win things,that's an idea,no??

[Zippy]

Performance related pay?  Dare we do such a thing?

[Eastside Urchin]

No,if we want to stay shit we shouldn't

[Zippy]

It was meant tongue in cheek - I would support capping the Premier League wages at £10,000 a week.  Anybody who can't live on that amount of money each week obviously hasn't got his/her head screwed on straight.

 

As for Qatar 2022, it is going to be a cock up - reckon England and the other Home Nations should boycott it.

[Big J R]

It was meant tongue in cheek - I would support capping the Premier League wages at £10,000 a week.  Anybody who can't live on that amount of money each week obviously hasn't got his/her head screwed on straight.

 

As for Qatar 2022, it is going to be a cock up - reckon England and the other Home Nations should boycott it.

 

 

Again, we agree, Adam !!!!

[Zippy]

Great minds, John

 

I wonder if Mr. Dyke has given any attention,in his thoughts, to the young people described in this video:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Up-4po19meg

 

As I have found out with doing some minor coaching and also via UK Football Finder, there are a lot of good young players out there but if they are from the wrong parts of society (broken homes/dead end council estates) or have self-esteem/mental health issues, or parents who don't care about them or whom vehemently oppose them from playing football then the odds are well and truly stacked against them making it.  

 

I was personally VERY lucky to break away from a dead end estate in South Wales, but other kids weren't and aren't so lucky and are trapped in a dead end society where they don't feel respected or valued.

 

These kids need to be seen and heard - Steven Gerrard was one of these kids, by the way.  As he came from a rough estate in Liverpool (Huyton's Bluebell Estate) he was shunned by Liverpool Football Club who thought it improper for a young player from that estate to have anything to do with the club.  However, when they saw that he was so close to joining Everton and seeing what he had to offer, they relented and the rest is now history.  Imagine if Liverpool had stuck to their guns - they would have made a big mistake.

[Rhodes]

Rhodes, you can try to polish a turd - you can decorate it in glitter and try to make it smell less.  At the end of the day, the turd remains what it is.

Zippy - I'm afraid disagree, like I said Dyke's innovative speech was far better than Churchill's 'Fight Them On The Beaches', Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' put together

[Loose]

Zippy - I'm afraid disagree, like I said Dyke's innovative speech was far better than Churchill's 'Fight Them On The Beaches', Lincoln's Gettysburg Address and Luther King's 'I Have A Dream' put together

Rhodesly - you're losing your touch, you missed out JFK's "Ich bin ein Berliner" - which laughably means something entirely different to what he intended. Berliners politely applauded the idiot though.

[Big J R]

Then there was the Mayor of Hiroshimas quote, circa 1945....

 

 

"What the f*ck was that !!!!"

Edited September 22, 2013 by Big J R

[Rhodes]

How about Margaret Thatcher's Tory Party Conference Speech in Brighton following the heinous IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel the night before, I'm surprised that the standing ovation isn't still going on.

[Big J R]

How about Margaret Thatcher's Tory Party Conference Speech in Brighton following the heinous IRA bombing of the Grand Hotel the night before, I'm surprised that the standing ovation isn't still going on.

 

 

Yes -  I watched the documentry repeat on TV last night regarding 'The Grand' bombing.

[Loose]

Well Rhodesly - what about Bill Clinton's "Ah did not have sexual relations with that woman" eh?

[Rhodes]

Big J R - It was a great programme wasn't it, Maggie didn't bat an eye lid did she following the bombing and recoiled in horror when her entire Cabinet dared to suggest cancelling the Party Conference

[Zippy]

'If you can stay up and listen with a fair degree of attention to whatever garbage, no matter how stupid it is that they're coming out with, til ten minutes past four in the morning... you're in.'

 

Marcel Proust/Peter Cook.

Edited September 22, 2013 by Zippy