Bent left out of England squad

[Matt C]

Shame for him but great news for us that Bent isn't selected.

Missed opportunity with the squad though - same old tired names who've flopped before and will most likely flop again. Should have used the opportunity of a new manager to introduce some younger players.

[paul_e]

Gerrard has been shit for 2 years and he goes along as the captain, Defoe barely gets a kick for tottenham but goes along ahead of sturridge because of experience, pretty much sums everything you need to know about the way football works in this country.

The amount of players in that squad who are picked because of who they play for rather than how well they've been playing is scary.

Fundamentally the FA need to look at that squad and realise that the 'England brand' is fucked if they don't take action.  What frustrates me the most is that the england football team are on the cusp of a huge problem, much like the england rugby team after 2003 or the aussie cricket team in the last 4-5years or the indian cricket team now, where all the experienced players are retiring together.  The difference is the others hit this problem after a period of great success.  England have been mediocre for years and have still let the same players and outdated ideas form the team so we don't even have a golden age to look back on when we're struggling to qualify for tournaments in the next 3-4 years.

The RFU saw what was coming in early 2003, realised they were in trouble for the next 4-5 years so instead concentrated on looking beyond that and putting systems in place to make the next generation the best it could be, and then maintaining that.  English rugby is now getting to a really strong point because of this where we're 3 or 4 players deep in most positions with international standard players.  This being despite the fact that there is nearly as a high a percentage of non-english players in the league as there is in football.

The trick isn't to make foreign players unwelcome but rather to make the english players coming through as good or better than the players that are there so clubs choose to play them on ability not under duress.

[Jon Crofts]

His name is Rio, he watches from the stands

[eric woolban woolban]

If Downing plays for England so can I.

[eric woolban woolban]

Was Les a pilot then?

Funnilly enough he is a qualified helicopter pilot.

[luke25]

Dear me that is a dull looking squad, mind you the FA just wanted a yes man and thats what they've got.

[adrenachrome]

No Villa players in at all. Part of me is glad that we won't have to see him tapped up by the Sky team's cartel.

But 5 ex Villa players, a few of whom Woy will play in the positions they played for us, rather than their new teams.

[NiiLamptey]

No Villa players in at all. Part of me is glad that we won't have to see him tapped up by the Sky team's cartel.

But 5 ex Villa players, a few of whom Woy will play in the positions they played for us, rather than their new teams.

That was my thought!

If we had managed to hold onto out players and still had money to bring in new players oor team would be:

--------------Given-----------------

Lichaj---Cahill---Clarke---Baker

---------Barry-----Milner----------

Young-------Ireland-----Nzogbia

---------------Bent------------------



Assumed we could buy ireland without swapping milner!! lol

Still need more in defence though! ha

[rjp]

From a purely selfish point of view I'm glad he isn't going as if he was and he has a good tournament we'd have at least Liverpool sniffing around.  There's an interview in the Guardian today where he 'pledges his future to the Villa'.  I for one hope this isn't a Dowingesque pledge.

Guardian Link

[JUAN PABLO]

Im amazed Downing is in that squad , and what pisses me off , hes a wanker and doesnt deserve it.

I would have loved it , plays for Villa in England team then he moves to Liverpool , plays a season and drops out of the Euro squad completely .  I would have loved it , just loved it ,  ****** ....

[JJ-AV]

Bent will probably end up the Olympic squad which will be far more detrimental to Villa than him playing at the Euros. It's not good at all.

[VILLA MOLE]

Im amazed Downing is in that squad , and what pisses me off , hes a wanker and doesnt deserve it.

I would have loved it , plays for Villa in England team then he moves to Liverpool , plays a season and drops out of the Euro squad completely .  I would have loved it , just loved it ,  c*** ....

and then some ......

[Holtenderinthesky]

Bent will say he has to leave for England reasons.  and tbh I would not mind too much if we got funds that the new manager could spend

Yeah, sell our ONLY goalscorer.  Good idea. 

[JD]

I'm glad he's not playing in the finals. Better chance of him being at Villa next year

[Brend'Watkins]

I'm glad he's not playing in the finals. Better chance of him being at Villa next year

Playing for England in the Euro's this time might actually do your career some harm.