Emmanuel Petit questions England absentees

Emmanuel Petit has questioned John Terry and Ashley Cole’s commitment to England.

The Chelsea defenders missed their country’s European Championship qualifying defeat by Croatia last Wednesday after they were not deemed match fit. But, only three days later, both played in their club’s 2-0 Barclays Premier League win at Derby.

Petit, the former France, Arsenal and Chelsea midfielder, said: “I’m talking about very important defenders. Can you imagine me not playing a big game for my country and then three days later I play for my club?”

The 3-2 loss to Croatia eliminated England from Euro 2008 and ended Steve McClaren’s reign as head coach.

Terry, the England captain, had been out of action with a knee injury since October 16, while Cole was unused on the bench at Wembley.

“It was very interesting last Saturday to see players like John Terry – who is the leader of Chelsea and England – wasn’t part of the Wednesday game and he was playing on Saturday,” said Petit, who won the World Cup with France in 1998.

“It was very interesting to see also Ashley Cole playing against Derby and he wasn’t featuring last Wednesday as well. They were not in the national team and they were playing for their clubs three days later.”

“So before looking for excuses somewhere else, putting the trouble on foreign players or managers, people have to be honest. That’s what fans want to hear from players: ‘We failed and we are responsible for that. We are not looking for excuses.’

“I think people are thinking only of themselves, not for football and not for the fans.”

Avram Grant, the Chelsea manager, claimed the decision not to risk Terry had been taken by England’s coaching staff.

“It was on the border[line], I think, with John Terry,” he said. “England needed him badly but when you play an international and you have not played for five weeks . . . it was the right decision by McClaren.”

Terry agreed, saying the England match had come just too soon after a recent operation.

Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/chelsea/article2975173.ece

Mighty good of you Sven

Just a quick post. I really gained respect for Sven today. In terms of a manager, I still think him to be an average and negative manager, someone who learnt his trade in the Serie A (and that’s why I am weary about Fabio Capello taking the England job, but that’s another story) . In a Manchester City press conference he was asked by a journalist if he had any self-satisfaction about the current fortunes of the England team, which now puts his tenure him in a better light. He replied, and I believe him to be sincere on this, of course not. He in fact felt sorry for the team’s failure. I thought that was good of him, and it was not just a diplomatic reply.

I don’t know what to say about England, a lot has already been said in the press, some stuff I believe to be accurate, others to be over the top. I might do a longer post about it later, but just quickly, I honestly think it comes down to the basic fact that England don’t have any depth in their squad,  the starting eleven are a good team, and worthy of a quarter final and possibly a semi-final spot in major tournaments. With an astute manager, like Joachim Löw of Germany, maybe even further. But if injury should happen to befall England, then the team does suffer. So the talk of any possible English talent being drained out of the premier league because of the influx of players from abroad is partly true. There are other factors for England’s failure, obviously McLaren is tactically naieve to say the least, if not completely baffling. Then there is the fact that McLaren continously overlooked good players, especially strikers — Lita, Walcott and Agbonlahor. He also included players whom I thought should have never been chosen e.g. Lescott — who was exposed in both the Russia and Croatia matches.   That’s enough for now!

George Weah: Solo Goal

That Amazing goal by George Weah (AC Milan Vs. Verona [1996]):