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Quarter finalists at best............we haven't played anyone decent yet,crap defensively,run of the mill midfield and just about cutting the mustard upfront....but unproven in the goalkeeping dept.

My prediction:

We'll look great in the group stage. Hammer someone in the 2nd round, beat a big side to get into the semi's, then lose in the semi's via penalty shoot-out, dodgy goal or because one of our 'super-stars' gets himself sent off by being a mindless twat. Every major competition with England in is like groundhog day. Its the same tournament over and over again, because for whatever reason, English players dont have the right mentality to win a world cup or European Cup. They always lose on penalties. Its pathetic. I gave up giving shit about the national team after Rooney's stamping in 06. Just got bored of it.

I'll wear the shirt but don't have much confidence in the team...............a bit like the cricket one really.

Were gonna win it, with a City player scoring the winner.

Agree with OP, quarters at best. We haven't got a decent keeper and Capello doesn't seem to be convinced with Defoe so we are not very effective upfront. To accomodate Barry, which is what he seems to want to do, then he has to put Gerrard out on the left so Lampard can play through the middle. It isn't working. For me, the whole team is unbalaned and Spain & Brazil have far far better teams than us. We'll be very lucky andshould class it as a good World up if we get to a semi-final.

Lose to spain in the final 3-2.

Spain won't get to the Final.

England will win the World Cup, If and only IF, we do not take the likes of Beckham and other spongers to South Africa.

Cappello has proven stellar so far and if he can shut the press up , we'll do ok.

I genuinely believe Cappello wants to win all games , simply to show the world we are not to be messed with.

I'd be glad to have him at City, he knows what he is doing.

I reckon England might win it.
Best chance in ages,ripe team,top manager,right mentality.

zuricity wrote:Spain won't get to the Final.

England will win the World Cup, If and only IF, we do not take the likes of Beckham and other spongers to South Africa.

Cappello has proven stellar so far and if he can shut the press up , we'll do ok.

I genuinely believe Cappello wants to win all games , simply to show the world we are not to be messed with.

I'd be glad to have him at City, he knows what he is doing.

I`d be glad to have defoe as a supersub at City but I don`t think I`d want Heskey

Fair point about Defoe.

Why should Capello let Croatia know what he plans ?. Yesterdays game was a friendly to try a few things out.

Now Croatia have shot themselves in the foot with Corluka getting a red card. Modric out. They really are not firing on all
cylinders. England do need to dispose of Croatia , if only to get qualification out of the way and enable planing to start. Between now and the end of the year I expect Capello to lose interest in players like Beckham and start building a good squad for the next June.

Semis

zuricity wrote:Fair point about Defoe.

Why should Capello let Croatia know what he plans ?. Yesterdays game was a friendly to try a few things out.

Now Croatia have shot themselves in the foot with Corluka getting a red card. Modric out. They really are not firing on all
cylinders. England do need to dispose of Croatia , if only to get qualification out of the way and enable planing to start. Between now and the end of the year I expect Capello to lose interest in players like Beckham and start building a good squad for the next June.

You won't get rid of beckham until he becomes Englands most capped player.Then it's onto the next step with the PR and media circus(and more money from adverts of course)

Doubt that Capello will drop Beckham; probably not allowed to & also because Bentley's head's gone, Beckham is the ony reliable source of set piece delivery with the right foot. Before all the perfectionist fantasists jump on that comment & it's importance; Brazil win most of their games now with set pieces. Sad but true. With wankboy in the squad, we're better at it than Brazil so we'll take him as an option unless Bentley or similar force their way in.

Quater finals at best. Unproven against a good side. Not nearly good enough in the keeper or striker department. An injury to Rooney and you may struggle to get to the last 8.

ross.mcfc wrote:Quater finals at best. Unproven against a good side. Not nearly good enough in the keeper or striker department. An injury to Rooney and you may struggle to get to the last 8.

Agree. We're not a good side. The country will convince itself we can win it again, but even with our mental frailties aside, we're just nowhere near as good as sides like Spain, Brazil, France and Holland.

I am very optimistic we will get to the final. It's the last chance for Terry, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Lampard, Ashley Cole to win anything with their country.

The one place that will let us down is GK, with James we have no chance and i'm not confident about the others.

People underestimate the England side, we went out of the 2002 world cup at the quarter final stage to a fluke goal from the winners, in euro 2004 we went out in the quarters when we had a perfect goal dissalowed in extra time and went out on penalties, in 2006 we went out in the quarter finals on penalties after spending alot of the time with 10 men. We haven't been knock out of a major tournament and deserved to since 2000 and we won't in 2010.

We've got the right manager, right players at the right age and the right climate, it's all geared up for us to do well and there will definatley be no repeats of 2006 off the pitch which failed us BIG Time.

I doubt James will be number one by then i have a feeling Green is being groomed to take over he isnt good enough and i agree that Englands weak point in the team is keeper.For years Seaman was number one and untouchable he would save so many games for England.

after satdi night, i'll say we will get knocked out in 2nd round.

by the time the tourney starts and England havn't played for a while though, we'll be nailed on certs for the trophy and everyone else might as well go home.

personally cant see us doing anything in africa, similar to what crossan said we just dont have it mentally. Also we are nowhere near Spain in terms of quality and I have a feeling one of the african teams are going to do very very well.

Quaters at best for me.

The campaign will start with mass hysteria and "England Expects" headlines in the tabloid toilet rags, with pics of Rooney in an Amy uniform and Terry draped in a Saint George flag.

2 shit performances later and they will all be slagged off as bums, garbage players and no-hopers and the mass call will go up to grandad Beckham, who cant run these days, to come and save us with a barrage of free-kicks over the bar or into the wall, and corners that beat everyone and end up as a throw in on the opposite side of the field.

We will scrape into the 2nd stage, beat a no mark team to qualify for the QF's where once again mass hysteria ensues along with numerous "Its just like the spirit of 66" bollox in the tabloids, with Geoff Hurst being interviewed everywhere and Capello suddenly hailed a genius. However in said quarter-final we will come up against a good team, usually a problem for England, upon which we will show our technical deficiencies, ie the keeper and right-back are bobbins, there's no balance on the left and the strikers are average at best. We will grit out a backs against the wall draw, and all decide that "on law of averages" we must win a penalty shoot-out .... we don't, and lose 3-0 with Rooney missing the third spot kick; the press of course lauds him for the determined way he ran up to the ball, and forcefulness and brilliance with which he spanked it into row Z over the bar because of course Rooney is "world class" - unfortunately the truth is that he's a decent player but a headless chicken with the self-control of a rabid baboon on heat.

After defeat, on pens again, against the first decent team we come up against (again) the team returns and once again the tabloids slag them all off, call them all crap and the country goes into debate and mourning on why we cant win the tournament in the game "we gave the world" and "do we need an english manager?" and the old chestnut of the "failures of our self-appointed golden generation" .... stop me if you've seen this before.