Ferdinand Dismay!

I understand Ferdinand being *****ed off. Fair play to Hodgson if he was going to impose a new era onto the England squad but keeping lampard, gerrard, cole and terry all in the team suggests otherwise. Not too mention, like Ferdinand, some of these players age (lampard, terry) and injury record (terry, gerrard) has knocked the best out of them and they've been exposed for being truly average players this season yet they still get selected kind of blows Hodgsons 'footballing reasons' out of the water. Ferdinand wasn't selected because someone less fit to represent England was, a certain cheating, racist ex-captain (who's injured with cracked ribs if I'm not mistaken?). Fergies right in saying he's not fit to play a game every 4 days but I don't think he was telling Hodgson to not pick him, I think he was getting at that he can't be a first team regular but more of a squad option to provide experience, as if Ferdinand did go it wouldn't necessarily mean he would play. Still bemused how England's future internationals like Richards, Smalling, Johson and Sturridge weren't selected to be honest whilst dross like Downing, Henderson, Johnson and Defoe got in.

The FA, Hodgson and Terry are at serious risk of ending up with egg on their face if Terrry is found guilty (which I doubt he will be though he evidently is from the video footage, black and blind are two different mouth movements and noticeable from a mile off, with 'ind' being more subtle and 'ack' being more obvious or maybe that's just me). After the FA media parade about condemning comments if it comes out terry was racist and he represented the country then they're going to look like a bunch of fecking idiots, not that they don't already. Richards and Ferdinand are the victims due to one of the biggest (unts in the world being a (unt as usual and the Ignoranus' in charge not controlling the situation properly.

What's laughable is the FA lookin to reform youth football in an attempt to produce more technically gifted English talent but as soon as they hit senior level they might not make it as they don't fit the park-the-bus game plan the likes of Hodgson, Pulis, Di Matteo/Chelsea in general, to name a few employ and will then go unheard of or will be forced to play that boring, negative "football" (if you can call it that) and adapt to it and squander their potential. It's alright trying to produce better talent but ultimately with defence-minded managers they're always going to be wasted.

Rooney plays poorly when he's either marked out of the game, normally by two players due to his movement, work rate and ability, or suffers from a lack of service, something that only either really happens when he plays for England and then he drops too deep and becomes ineffective. He will suffer without players of Wilsheres quality behind him and feeding him the ball and relieving some of the pressure off himself by giving the opposition someone else to close down and mark. Instead he will have to rely on Parker, a guy who can read football but not play it and Gerrard, who's had the best knocked out of him. Not looking promising in the slightest. Hopefully your Chamberlain can prove to be a shining light for us but then with Hodgson he'll most probably opt for Downing wide right because he's more accustomed and fitted to the route 1 over the top football. Personally, with the current squad, I'd like to see Walcott played as a striker with Welbeck and young wide left with chamberlain wide right. An early exit for England I reckon, perhaps a consolation point to hopefully see off the older generation and give them some comfort. In fairness to Roy, it's good to see England being hard to break down (rather than the massacre and woeful defensive display v Germany) but defending is only half the game.

I'd have Rio not Terry. The fact that they have chosen Terry makes me shudder.

Not sure about fear but we might be able to force them into submission by making them ***** theirselves laughing at Downings name on the team sheet to the point where they can't physically play.

20 million on Downing is just one of the reasons "King" Kenny no longer has a job!

The fee does sometimes indicate how good the player is, but in the case of Downing I think it just indicates how gullible the manager that paid silly money was.