I've always loved Becks and his free kicks and penalties...
and his attitude...
and the fact that I don't think he likes The Silver Stoat.

I wonder if he's regretting his move to the footballing wasteland of the USA, now he is back in Real Madrid's first team and playing for England again?

The cameraman`s on the pitch! He thinks it`s all over!
Wonderful brief shot on our manager, I love lip reading!

An adequate cross which any professional player should be able to make, well met by John Terry. I still think that a player who's main talent is to take the occasional decent free kick (and who's hopeless at penalties btw) has no business in a national team. But that's just my opinion.

Why did I get the impression that Brazil really weren't taking this game very seriously? It was more like a warm up exercise.

Anthony wrote:
I wonder if he's regretting his move to the footballing wasteland of the USA, now he is back in Real Madrid's first team and playing for England again?

He's not actually gone there yet, has he?

MONEY MONEY MONEY !!

All is not well with England, and they havent been much of a team since Linekar, Gazza, Butcher and co made up a team to be proud of. I'm not sure where the problem lies. I confess I'm an Arsenal fan, and of course I do have great admiration for Arsene Wenger, but he doesn't appear to get the best from English youth. He was far too quick to get rid of the likes of David Bentley and Jermaine Pennant, and Theo Walcott didn't impress or even start much last season, almost as if Wenger was frightened to play him. Sol Campbell was still good enough for Arsenal, but Wenger upset him, and Ashley Cole is...just a bloody Judas!!

Rant over! Martin O'Neil for England manager please.

Ah, another Martin O'Neil for England manager fan...
He did a great job at Celtic, seems to have his priorities right (looking after his wife) and is very, very sensible when commenting...

He's not Cloughie but I reckon is the guy we need.

Indeed Jonathan. I scratch my head and cannot think of anyone more suitable. A dignified, no nonsense kind of guy and I admire him enormously. McClaren doesn't inspire great confidence and I don't believe he's a motivator of men.

McClaren's strength is as a technical coach. When he left Derby as assistant manager, we went downhill immediately, and maybe it's no coincidence that Man Utd's only European Cup win in decades came during his brief spell as assistant there. His only experience as manager was at Middlesbrough where he hardly covered himself in glory.

The FA's reasoning in giving McClaren the job ahead of O'Neil was that O'Neil didn't give such a good interview. Surely ludicrous. If I apply for a job, I have to give a good interview as the employers don't know anything about me, but surely for a job of that nature, your record speaks for itself.

I'd still favour an overseas manager. The FA won't do this after Sven but the truth is, despite all the media stick he took, his record was way better than anything since Alf Ramsey. In fact, since we're still paying him a fortune for doing nothing, could we not force him to come back? I wonder what the legalities of that are.

To answer ITK's point, no, Beckham is not at LA Galaxy yet, but the contract is signed, so I'm not sure there's any way out for him.

When did O'Neil become a footballing genius? He didn't set the world on fire with Leicester. He inherited an already top team in Celtic. He's now at Aston Villa and again not really impressing. Not sure why people think he should be the next England Manager.

I agree with your point to an extent, Cat, which is why I would favour an overseas manager.

However, his achievements at Leicester, a club of limited resources, were relatively impressive, and they certainly haven't had any success at all since he left. When he took over at Celtic, if my memory serves me well, Rangers were in the ascendancy at the time and he reversed that. Not enough to warrant the England job perhaps, but his credentials were certainly superior to McClaren's.

Exactly. Look what he did with Celtic. He hasn't impressed with Villa, but has had limited resources, but I still believe he could go on to be the best manager England never had. Why the pause in making the right decision?