2011/2012 English Premier League thread

[NBC]

John Terry: FA set to remove England captaincy

"The Football Association is set to remove the England captaincy from John Terry, the BBC has learned. FA chairman David Bernstein has spoken to board members and the majority view is Terry should be stood down. He would still be available for selection for the national team."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16866149

[NBC]

My apologies for the file size(s) but I just had to post these.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by NBC

John Terry: FA set to remove England captaincy

"The Football Association is set to remove the England captaincy from John Terry, the BBC has learned. FA chairman David Bernstein has spoken to board members and the majority view is Terry should be stood down. He would still be available for selection for the national team."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16866149

About time.

[d_phaneuf]

FA strip Terry of the captaincy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...ptaincy-racism

Terry thinking about making England fans even more happy by threatening to quit the team

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...england-mutiny

[d_phaneuf]

interesting to see who they choose

Gerrard is the obvious choice but with his fitness I don't if you can trust him to play, Rooney is suspended so that's a no, Lampard shouldn't play, same with Rio

The only real certainties to start the opening game of the tournament are

Hart, Jones, Cashley, Parker

I want to throw Sturridge in there as well but I dono if Capello rates him

I think it ends up being Parker/Gerrard in some capacity

and with JT gone at CB they go with Jones and one of King (if healthy it should be him and Jones), Shawcross, Cahill, Dawson, Smalling

[Mightyfire89]

What a classy guy, that John Terry.

Dooooooooosh.

Stevie G has to be the skipper, though I understand the injury issues are a potential problem.

[Locke]

England are a funny lot.

Losing John Terry is a good thing, hes awful, I know it means that some people have to let go of nostalgia, but its a small price to pay.

As is losing Rio Ferdinand. He's unfit and ancient.

Cashley just wants to cross the ball in, he wants nothing to do with armbands, hes said so himself.

Hart, Jones and Sturridge are 'too young!!1!'

Its going to be Stevie, for better or worse. Unless its not too late for you guys to nationalize Vidic and get him some fake papers.

[NBC]

Joe Hart is probably the only guy in the squad that is assured of a starting place. Logistically he might make the most sense - strategically it is a different matter.

Personally I'd like to see the Chelsea crew dropped entirely from the England squad. Maybe Lampard would stick around to come off the bench as a super-sub but Terry and Cole are off. Something tells me that those two are key in all of the questions surrounding unity and harmony in the camp. With Terry banging anything he can and hurling racist abuse at people and Cole being a primadonna drama queen b*tch, I get the sense that they don't contribute much to the overall enjoyment of the England experience.

And Diane was overlooking Phil Jagielka at CB just that - an oversight or do you not rate him highly enough to compete for a place in the squad?

The biggest issue with this entire saga is the media (as per usual). Graham Taylor was recently quoted as saying that far too much emphasis is placed on who the captain is. In reality it doesn't matter as much as it does with a game like cricket. If you have some strong personalities and leaders in the clubhouse it is good. I'm not sure how essential it is for them to do anything other than exhort players when the run of play is against them. Too bad for England that there is no one player who shows strong leadership skills, has the respect of his fellow players and the management and is assured of a place in the starting 11.

Tony Adams, where are you?

[d_phaneuf]

I overlookced Jags, I think he should have been on the team the last 5 years

and I agree on that part, Italy gives it to the player with the most caps and it's worked better for them than England

[Montana Moe]

This Chamberlain kid might be ok. I was hoping someone other than van Persie would show a bit of a scoring touch today.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Montana Moe

This Chamberlain kid might be ok. I was hoping someone other than van Persie would show a bit of a scoring touch today.

I could have scored against Rovers today and I play defense. And I dont score. Arsenal were amazing today, but Rovers let them be.

Scores like this are usually indicative of one team playing really well and another playing poorly, the biggest positive to take out of it is that Arsenal seem to have found their touch again.

[Locke]

United have this game in the bag. Howard Webb is reffing, I dont know why he doesnt just wear a United jersey while hes at it.

[d_phaneuf]

Webby's brown envelope must have been light this morning

didn't give Welbeck a pen early

3-0 now

[d_phaneuf]

Frimpong26AFC Emmanuel Frimpong
Terry Hugging Ramires....Well done John You learning
3 minutes ago

[d_phaneuf]

Webby just wanted to make it dramatic I guess

2 straight pelantys

he's on a hat trick with 20 minutes left

[GirlySports]

how bout 2 penalties now?

[Cecil Terwilliger]

oh boy.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

Webby's brown envelope must have been light this morning

didn't give Welbeck a pen early

3-0 now

Fergie must have waited till halftime to give it to him.

[cheevers]

Did United have a strategy to score in this game other than falling in the box. I realize Webb was reffing but this is disgraceful.

[Locke]

You could practically see Webb contemplating the thought of giving United a third penalty and trying to figure out if that would be too obvious.