My good God, it now appears that Owen's not happy with his comeback. So we could be without Owen AND Rooney.

quote:

Originally posted by .Dave.:
Andy - how about Mervyn Day? He's been involved in coaching for years now, so should have a decent enough idea of what's required. Would he fit the bill? I can't help wondering if Curbishley may have heard something from the FA - perhaps number 2 to the new man. Either that or his interviews with the FA made him realise that he wanted/needed a change of direction.

If not England, I daresay he'll be getting a phone call from Deadly Doug's Football Emporium asking if he'd like to tidy up the mess the current incumbent has made...

As for Mezz's query about the England strikers - given Sven's lack of imagination these days, I'd imagine that Darren Bent will get the job. In the circumstances, though, I'd consider taking five forwards if Owen is included. Owen could easily come a cropper, in which case relying on Crouch, Defoe and Bent to drive England to victory would be on a par with hoping Neville Chamberlain would drive England (and the rest of Britain) to victory in May 1940...

Sadly, that leaves very few options. Of the experienced players, Heskey's confidence is shot to pieces; Kevin Phillips has had a poor season and never really did it at international level; Darius Vassell has been mediocre. That leaves Robbie Fowler, who ticks various boxes apart from the 'will he last the full 90 minutes?' one. The other option is James Beattie.

Not very promising...

Younger players who could be pitched in would be Luke Moore, I suppose, or... er...

A fans view of Mervyn Day is as a first team coach he is very poor. Since Les Reed left the players have been different and players fitness has changed and Day is pretty hopeless. With Curbs leaving i know alot of people are hoping so wil Day and Peacock
lol DOL at The Valley with little money he would do even worse than he has at Villa at the moment mate
We have enough players like Heskey who wont demand as much wages. Upson would be a tremendous signing and so would Jarosik but would we get them who knows. Als MLV you used Ricketts and Stewart as examples of players who have had a fantastic season and fizzle out in the end but i personally think Bent is alot different. If you actually watch him he may at times not be involved in a game but his finishing and runs are lethal he is a complete striker imo with pace, strength when he needs to, deadly finishing and headering. He is very young and has a good head on his shoulders, he knows what he has to do to be a success and works ever so hard. If it wasn't for his goals this season we would have been in tremendous trouble he will come through for us.
I would not be suprised if he met up with Parker in Newcastle or even took over he Aston Villa job, i'd be dissapointed but what can you do. He didn't seem fixated on Charlton and all this England talk just made it alot worse. He does deserve so much in return for what he has done for Charlton it's just such a sad day for the club because we havent had anything different for 15 years we seem lost i think.
Thing is players like Bryan Hughes and Marcus Bent ( ) are players Curbs bought in because they were his favourites. I don't look at them as good so if a new guy came in and thought the same then bang we are another 2 players down. The squad could be very thin and could be in trouble. It's all in the balance i think. Saying that it is a very long summer and anything can happen.
Also my dad told me his mate who is a taxi driver 'apparently' gave Vialli a lift to the valley for an interview. Whether that is true or not remains to be seen but i don't know what to make of that. Maybe it is time for a totally new direction.

I'm trying not to panic too much with regard to Rooney and Owen. Whoever replaces them, our midfield of Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham and Cole at least has vast experience at club level of having to supply (and ultimately compensate for) sh*te strikers.

What's your source for that news, nordic? Just had a brief look around the internet and couldn't find it.

Nordic, when you said you were going to leave the forum, what exactly did you mean?

You may as well leave - it will be the first time you've said something on this forum that turns out to be true.

Is this whole 'six weeks' thing a conspiracy against the rest of world football by the Manchester United medical team, nordic? Please tell me, I'm too naive to know the truth.

Its bloody great news! England without rooney - and owen gona be in awful form with no match practice for 6 months.

Arent you happy Michael La Viola?? I mean you are Italian (from Arezzo) right? Yet you say " 'WE' could be without Owen and Rooney." what fu*king bullshit! Italians dont support england full stop. You are english mate! In fact your'e as english as the man on the beach wearing socks and sandles who puts tomato ketchup on his pasta and eats spaghetti with a knife and fork. If you were italian youd be happy that one of your rivals had been irreversably weakened for the world cup.

Crouch, Bent, Beattie, Ashton, Defoe, harewood -hahaha what a bunch of donkeys!! Luther Blisset and Jeff Astley would be a better striking option!

quote:

Originally posted by nordic_denmarksweden_fix:

Arent you happy Michael La Viola?? I mean you are Italian (from Arezzo) right? Yet you say " 'WE' could be without Owen and Rooney." what fu*king bullshit! Italians dont support england full stop. You are english mate!

Yes. I was taking the piss...

quote:

Originally posted by Saviola:
What's your source for that news, nordic? Just had a brief look around the internet and couldn't find it.

What news was that? Seems to have disappeared.

I rather think that the doom and gloom about Rooney is a little over the top. The midfield has four decent goalscorers, which is better than previous England sides, and I don't think Defoe would be a complete disaster in lieu of Owen.

Indeed, given the fact that the one thing Crouch is really quite good at is getting the ball through to the centre forward (it's hardly his fault that Morientes couldn't score for toffee this season), a forward line of Crouch and Defoe wouldn't be an utter disaster. The French (sorry, nordic - French and co-belligerent former colonies) side in 98 wasn't exactly overflowing with really high quality strikers, after all.

Losing Rooney would be/will be/is a setback, but it's not irreversible. ISTR being told that there was another occasion on which England fans remarked that the loss of their main striker through injury might be a disaster, since his stand in wasn't quite as good. The names of the two? Greaves and some bloke called Hurst...

quote:

Originally posted by .Dave.:

quote:

Originally posted by Saviola:
What's your source for that news, nordic? Just had a brief look around the internet and couldn't find it.

What news was that? Seems to have disappeared.

He claimed that the Rooney news was not as bad as first thought, and that Rooney would only be out for three weeks.

I think it was Nordic nonsense.

At least it would appear that Owen has had an x-ray that reveals no further damage. His specialist has said that it was perfectly normal for 'a certain level of pain to be experienced in the first couple of games back'.

Telegraph Story

It was a hoax about Rooney - I was winding you lot all up!!

But really there is no point England taking Rooney. Ive had this exact same injury twice and you have to spend approximately 5/6 weeks before you can even put any weight on your foot whatsoever. Rooney will be on crutches for at least a month. Once you start putting weight on it after around 5/6 weeks you have to take it really easy and build up your strength very slowly.The area concerned is so tender it is unbelievable and any kind of pressure can set off a relapse if you are not totally healed. It is the kind of injury you can only come back from when you are totally 100% healed.

Take it from me - there is no point Eriksson taking rooney to the world cup. Either hel go and wont get fit or hel go and will have a relapse in training because he overdoes it too quickly.

Call this a hoax too if you want - but remember to remember this post - because the events i have predicted will take place in some order or another !! having said this i dont expect man utd to allow rooney to go the world cup!

It was a hoax..... Wow that was worth it poindexter.

How long did Beckham take to recover from his broken metatarsal back in 2002? I can't remember clearly, but I think he picked up the injury round about this time of the season as Rooney has and still made it, although some would say he never really recovered in time at all as he was fairly ineffective and seemed to struggle towards the end of each game.

I've just noticed an interesting parallel between the Premiership and La Liga. If the Madrid Royals finish fourth, which they have a very good chance of doing, and Barcelona win the Champion's League, then the Royals will be forced in to the UEFA Cup by their bitterest rivals similar to Spurs' situation if Arsenal win the Champion's League.

Even more reason to back Barca in Paris!

54 days for Beckham's recovery in '02, although he wasn't 100% during the tournament, as you say, Mezz. IIRC, the injury occured a little earlier in the season than Rooney's has.

I suppose Svennis has to ponder whether a Rooney operating at 90% is better than a Crouch operating at 110%...

If he has any sense, Sven will choose 22 players who he considers have the ability to carry England into the second round, which would mean a game on the 24th or 25th of June if they get there. That would be a similar timeframe to Beckham. However, Rooney's last injury of this nature took him 10 weeks to recover from.

Having thought about it a bit, you're right about Beckham's injury occurring earlier in the season, Dave. I think his was in a Champion's League game, with Deportivo's Aldo Duscher being the offending Argie, so it was probably late March/early April when Beckham done his foot in.

I suppose it doesn't really matter to Sven if he takes an unfit Rooney or not. He's out the door whenever England's tournament ends, and there will be no repercussions for him regarding whether Rooney should have gone or not...

quote:

Originally posted by nordic_denmarksweden_fix:
because the events i have predicted will take place in some order or another

What about the "you leaving the forum" you predicted?

quote:

Originally posted by Mezz:
I've just noticed an interesting parallel between the Premiership and La Liga. If the Madrid Royals finish fourth, which they have a very good chance of doing, and Barcelona win the Champion's League, then the Royals will be forced in to the UEFA Cup by their bitterest rivals similar to Spurs' situation if Arsenal win the Champion's League.

How is it the same ? Barca already have a CL spot and thus would not need to nick it off the 4th placed side.

quote:

Originally posted by Mezz:
I've just noticed an interesting parallel between the Premiership and La Liga. If the Madrid Royals finish fourth, which they have a very good chance of doing, and Barcelona win the Champion's League, then the Royals will be forced in to the UEFA Cup by their bitterest rivals similar to Spurs' situation if Arsenal win the Champion's League.

I may have missed something here, but...why?

England gets 4 CL places. The top 4 qualify - unless Arsenal win the thing, yet finish outside the top 4. In that case, the 4th-placed team doesn't get in, as England can only have 4 teams in it.

In Spain, however, Barcelona will win the league, (and therefore, obviously they will finish in the top 4.) So if they win the UCL, that won't affect Real's qualification if they finish fourth, as far as I can make out.

Sorry Verno, I didn't see your similar (but much more concise!) post.