The Football Association has set England coach Fabio Capello the target of reaching at least the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup or Euro 2012.

 

It is one of a series of ambitious aims set out by the FA in an extensive review published on Tuesday.

 

The governing body also plans to appoint an international performance director and has given the go-ahead to the National Football Centre.

 

The project at Burton will be up and running by 2010.

 

The review - which is believed to be the most extensive ever carried out by the FA - was ordered following England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008.

 

Capello was appointed in the wake of that, and has only been at the helm for two matches, but the FA's "Vision 2008-2012" makes it clear what is now expected of him.

 

Source: BBC Sport

 

Now I do think England can at least match these targets as they've the players to do so, and there are some very good up and coming young players but talk about pressure seriously?! The whole reason we failed to qualify for the Euros was because of the immense pressure that McLaren was under - one wrong move and he was hounded by the media. Talk about pressure for the players cna Capello though... too much is being expected.

Until the players we have can be bothered to turn it on in Internationals rather than fearing injury (missing out on 'more important' club competitions to them) then that's just unrealistic.

 

Capello has one of the best CV's but even he can't work miracles.

I think qualifying for World Cup 2010 or Euro 2012 would be a more realistic target tbh...

I don't think it's unrealistic, tbh... You've to to aim high. A team like England should be atleast reaching Quarter Finals of every competition, everything else is a failure. Though I do think we should take it one step at a time, we're in a period of transition now, it's not just going to happen overnight, it'll take a while. But we should still be able to do it.

Sorry, but I think you are falling into the trap all England fans, but especially the media do, thinking you just have to turn up at matches and Johnny foreigner will roll over and let you win.

 

To me England with all their so-called world class players have been massive under achievers for 40 years.

 

You have no more right to reach the semi-finals than say France,Germany,Brazil,Argentina,Holland,Portugal.

 

Once you start winning the matches that really count and not meaningless friendlies you might just get there.

 

Oh and learn how to convert penalties might be a help as well :D

England fans are soooo similar to Newcastle fans :kink:

England fans are soooo similar to Newcastle fans :kink:

 

I agree.

 

England are in a sharp decline at the moment, as we failed to win the World Cup with the "Golden generation" historically regarded by football analysts as the best set of players we've had since the 1960s.

 

Where is the next David Beckham, Michael Owen - I know he is still playing but like Jimmy Greaves he peaked early before illness/injury Took him a step below world class), Paul Scholes, David Seaman, Sol Campbell, Jamie Carragher, Gary Neville, etc as what is coming through now is not as good as what we had a few years ago?

 

I am definitely in the camp that we could & possibly should have won the World Cup. Just look at our World Cup Squad for 2006 and compare it against the winners Italy or finalists France and ours was better. That World Cup was the classic example of a tournament coming too late in the season when (the English squad went into the tournament with a higher cumulative average games played by over +2 more than any other national WC squad & we had Theo Walcott! so were collectively knackered), PFA player of the Year Steven Gerrard (who started playing in July 2005 via the first round of the ECL qualifying & was man of the match with his two goals in the FA Cup final victory against West Ham), & nominees John Terry, Frank Lampard (he'd missed just 4 games in that & the previous two seasons) were worn out after a victorious Premiership title & Spanish PFA runner up player of the season David Beckham were all near ever presents in their club teams, whilst injuries to strikers Wayne Rooney & Michael Owen before the World Cup proved to be fatal as ultimately neither were fully fit going into that tournament as was later proved by Michael Owen's serious injury v Sweden & Wayne Rooney's lacklustre performances prior to playing Portugal and the "winker" Ronaldo (and we did not have alternatives - Jermaine Defoe never will be England, let alone World class, so Sven was right to take Theo along for the ride, as Walter Winterbottom took 18 year old Bobby Charlton to the 1958 World Cup & Glen Hoddle took the 18 year old Rio Ferdinand to the 1998 World Cup when they had had less than 20 games under their belt for their club teams at the time).

 

With less and less English players playing in the Premiership I fear we are going the way of Scotland from their 1970s/1980s hey day into third pot seeds also rans, by 2020 if we are not careful.

 

So the FA are being ludicrous if they expect the national side to finish in the Top 4 of the 2010 World Cup which should climatically favour the South American & Southern European sides due to the likely weather conditions.

 

(Although why can't FIFA hold a World Cup in March, but that is another topic?)

Don't forget South Africa's seasons are different to ours, it'll be their winter when it's there, it's not going to be any hotter than it was in the last World Cup when Europe had a really hot summer which did take it out of our players...

 

And not everyone has to start at a frieghteningly young age like Walcott, Bojan etc... England have some really promising yougsters coming through, whether they will be able to go all the way I don't know but the likes of Young, Agbonlahor, Bentley, Richards, Hart, Onouha, Wheater, Walcott, Lennon, O'Hara, Johnson, Noble, Huddlestone, all under 21 apart from Bentley, all English, all playing Premiership football and all progressing well. Just because they aren't turning out for Manchester United and Chelsea every week doesn't mean they aren't good enough...

 

Talking about Manchester United and Chelsea, the two teams in the final of the Champions League, that's two ENGLISH teams in the final. And I know that people will now come back saying 'yeah, but their teams are full of foreigners blah blah blah' but it's not really the case is it? There could well be 9-10 English players lining up in that final along with Ryan Giggs who's Welsh. I know he's not English but it's never other British countries players that are moaned about by the English for playing in our League. And just as an example, two of the most successful English sides ever were the Nottingham Forest team of the late 1970s and Liverpool team of the early-mid 1980s, the centre-half partnerships of them were Larry Lloyd & Kenny Burns and Mark Lawrenson & Alan Hansen, that's two Scots, an Irish and an English. Did anyone ever complain then? No. And even though over half of the players lining up in that game will be from outside the British Isles would it be any different elsewhere? Would a game between Barcelona and Real Madrid see over half the players on the pitch Spanish? Would a game between AC Milan and Inter Milan see over half the players on the pitch Italian?

 

The only thing I'd say could be improved is that not enough English players play abroard, now Hargreaves has moved from Bayern Munich and Beckham is on his last legs we have no one. But then again, Italian's are notorious for only playing in Italy. Infact they won the last World Cup with their squad of 23 ALL coming from Serie A, and their league has always been littered with foreigners, so even that doesn't have to be a problem.

Edited May 7, 200817 yr by RabbitFurCoat

With less and less English players playing in the Premiership I fear we are going the way of Scotland from their 1970s/1980s hey day into third pot seeds also rans, by 2020 if we are not careful.

 

Hey! We're second pot seeds also rans now! :naughty:

Don't forget South Africa's seasons are different to ours, it'll be their winter when it's there, it's not going to be any hotter than it was in the last World Cup when Europe had a really hot summer which did take it out of our players...

 

And not everyone has to start at a frieghteningly young age like Walcott, Bojan etc... England have some really promising yougsters coming through, whether they will be able to go all the way I don't know but the likes of Young, Agbonlahor, Bentley, Richards, Hart, Onouha, Wheater, Walcott, Lennon, O'Hara, Johnson, Noble, Huddlestone, all under 21 apart from Bentley, all English, all playing Premiership football and all progressing well. Just because they aren't turning out for Manchester United and Chelsea every week doesn't mean they aren't good enough...

 

Talking about Manchester United and Chelsea, the two teams in the final of the Champions League, that's two ENGLISH teams in the final. And I know that people will now come back saying 'yeah, but their teams are full of foreigners blah blah blah' but it's not really the case is it? There could well be 9-10 English players lining up in that final along with Ryan Giggs who's Welsh. I know he's not English but it's never other British countries players that are moaned about by the English for playing in our League. And just as an example, two of the most successful English sides ever were the Nottingham Forest team of the late 1970s and Liverpool team of the early-mid 1980s, the centre-half partnerships of them were Larry Lloyd & Kenny Burns and Mark Lawrenson & Alan Hansen, that's two Scots, an Irish and an English. Did anyone ever complain then? No. And even though over half of the players lining up in that game will be from outside the British Isles would it be any different elsewhere? Would a game between Barcelona and Real Madrid see over half the players on the pitch Spanish? Would a game between AC Milan and Inter Milan see over half the players on the pitch Italian?

 

The only thing I'd say could be improved is that not enough English players play abroard, now Hargreaves has moved from Bayern Munich and Beckham is on his last legs we have no one. But then again, Italian's are notorious for only playing in Italy. Infact they won the last World Cup with their squad of 23 ALL coming from Serie A, and their league has always been littered with foreigners, so even that doesn't have to be a problem.

 

That most seriously sums everything up to a point. While I do think the expectaions on the FA are some-what a little over confident, we certainly have the capability to do so. We've some excellent players coming up who are playing regular first team football (and add those to a large majority of the players arleady in the squad who'll be around for a while yet) we've the foundations for future. Hart should easily become out #1 keeper within the next couple of years, and he looks an excellent keeper, he's pulled off some exceptional saves this season. The thing i'd like to see is though, some of these players making the step up to the senior squad now. Granted they might not play, but being with the squad will help them learn a lot more for the future and is a bigger benefit to them than playing in the U21 team.

 

Going into the World Cup we were a victims of our own success. I genuinely believe that a lrage majority of the England squad thought they'd won the World Cup before they'd even taken part in it. Being over-confident is not good. We had bad luck with some players not hitting form, serious injuries, tiredness etc. but that can happen to any given team. We were over-hyped in the competiton (much like Brazil) and we played poorly and we deserved to go out (albeit with a bit of cheating from Portugal) but that's part and parcel of football. I mean did anyone realistically expect Italy to win the World Cup? France to get to the final? Germany the semi-finals? Not many people did. It's much better to be the underdogs.

I think Germany semi finalists on their own turf wasn't to much of a surprise... But you're right about Italy and France though, neither were favoured at all. In the English press atleast it was all about us, Brazil and the wonderful, free-flowing football of the Argies that got them nowhere..

 

I also disagree with the earlier comment about Defoe. He most certainly 100% should have been at the World Cup. We had four strikers, one notoriously injury prone and had played about twice since January, one injured when the tournament began and one who'd never played in the Premiership or for his current club. How on earth could Defoe going have been anywhere near bad? Not necissarily for another striker but in place of someone like Jenas who never played in the competition.

The Football Association has set England coach Fabio Capello the target of reaching at least the semi-finals of the 2010 World Cup or Euro 2012.

 

Not much, then.

 

With less and less English players playing in the Premiership I fear we are going the way of Scotland from their 1970s/1980s hey day into third pot seeds also rans, by 2020 if we are not careful.

 

We were in the second pot for the World Cup qualifiers.

 

(Although why can't FIFA hold a World Cup in March, but that is another topic?)

 

Simple - the knock-out stages of the Champions League has already started, and that means that players for the big clubs would be pulling out.