Adnan Januzaj

[cheshirevaliant]

Man City and Chelsea have much better squads. Also, Arsenal have a far superior midfield to that of United. The latter will do well to finish 3rd this season.

 

Man City and Chelsea don't have a 25/30 goal a season striker and, as Utd (and Vale) proved last year, they often hide a lot of faults elsewhere on the pitch. Utd will be top 2 at the end of the season, at least.

[Yukon]

Didn't everyone hype Macheda in the same way? Look at him now, on loan at Doncaster.

 

Typical English press mentality, overhype someone based on one or two performances.

 

Who "disliked" this- it's exactly right! Macheda scored one very good goal and has struggled with the hype ever since. It's unrealistic and frankly downright unfair to put this much pressure on a young lad. He could have all the natural ability in the world but if his head goes, he won't make it at the top level.

 

As for the point regarding Jack Wilshire, I think it is a very good way of unnerving an opposition player.

 

As for Brian Mills- he was superb until his career ending illness, so I don't get the analogy

[Fabio]

Man City and Chelsea don't have a 25/30 goal a season striker and, as Utd (and Vale) proved last year, they often hide a lot of faults elsewhere on the pitch. Utd will be top 2 at the end of the season, at least.

 

Aguero seems to be making a good crack at being that 25/30 goal striker... pretty sure Lukaku could have been the man for Chelsea to, surprised as to why he was loaned out.

[aspins-revenge]

Country of birth or parents heritage would have ruled out a lot of the first generation of black players to play for England.

 

Not least of all John Barnes and that goal against Brazil for example.

 

In other sports, it would rule out Mo Farah from representing the UK.

 

I'm sure if we dig beneath the surface the rule would affect loads of players in England and across the continent.

[Yukon]

Where do the England cricket team stay when they're on tour in South Africa? With their parents!

 

Ba boom- I'm here all week

[Bails]

Can't be arsed to trawl through the pages. Has anyone mentioned Owen Hargreaves? Born in Canada, played in Germany, represented England. Mental! If Januzaj turns out to be a worldie and plays for England, then great. We've had Rusedski playing tennis for us, Mo Farah being arguably one of our greatest ever athletes and as Yukon says, the cricket team has been full of South Africans for as long as I can remember!

 

So to say we should reject him if he opted to play for us, then I have no objection. So long as he gave 110% every time he pulled on the 3 lions, he'll do for me.

[Fosse69]

Can't be arsed to trawl through the pages. Has anyone mentioned Owen Hargreaves? Born in Canada, played in Germany, represented England. Mental! If Januzaj turns out to be a worldie and plays for England, then great. We've had Rusedski playing tennis for us, Mo Farah being arguably one of our greatest ever athletes and as Yukon says, the cricket team has been full of South Africans for as long as I can remember!

 

So to say we should reject him if he opted to play for us, then I have no objection. So long as he gave 110% every time he pulled on the 3 lions, he'll do for me.

Cricketers are in no position to criticise anybody.

[Bails]

Cricketers are in no position to criticise anybody.

 

Errmmm OK What has that got to do with what I was saying?

[Fosse69]

How about a new rule, you can only play for the country that you play your league football in? :D

[Fosse69]

Errmmm OK What has that got to do with what I was saying?

Backing up your statement on South African players.

[aspins-revenge]

Fosse69

 

That rule was once in place, in the days before globalisation.

 

That's how Di Stefano played for Argentina and Spain.

 

If it was in place now, England still wouldn't have a chance, as all players at Premier League clubs would come down with mystery injuries prior to England games, only to magically recover their fitness by the following weekend!!!

[For Us All]

Where do the England cricket team stay when they're on tour in South Africa? With their parents!

 

Ba boom- I'm here all week

 

You follow Kevin Pietersen on Twitter then?:D

[For Us All]

If we aren't careful we could end up like the Republic of Ireland team who were so desperate they ended up selecting players who had Irish grandmothers and their godparents drank Guinness.

[Fosse69]

Fosse69

 

That rule was once in place, in the days before globalisation.

 

That's how Di Stefano played for Argentina and Spain.

 

If it was in place now, England still wouldn't have a chance, as all players at Premier League clubs would come down with mystery injuries prior to England games, only to magically recover their fitness by the following weekend!!!

Same with his Real team mate Puskas, World Cup finals with Hungary and Spain.

[aspins-revenge]

Personally, I don't have a problem with non-English born players playing for England, as long as they meet relevant citizenship criteria and want to play.

 

It's likely that this will include a new younger generation of players who feel culturally connected to both their countries of birth/parentage and their country in which they are now settled (like many black players in the past - and including the present England under 19s manager Noel Blake)

 

Very occasionally, it is likely that it will include some-one who arrived here as an adult player and who has a commerical rather than cultural connection with the country (Mikel Arteta would qualify in this category).

 

The emphasis should be on the former rather than latter category for cultural reasons. And, also, if any-one in the latter category was any good, they'd have already played for their country of origin and so wouldn't be eleigible in any case.