Michael Owen (pictured doing some ever so subtle advertising work) can not catch a break. First the poor guy was out of form and so - quite rightly - left on the bench for Fabio Capello’s first two games. But he found some serious form recently for Newcastle and could have expected to play against [...]

Here’s the Times, the Guardian, and Football365. More to come from me later today.

This has nothing to do with the national team, but I’m furious, so here goes. The British government has ordered the deportation of Alhassan Bangura, a young footballer from Sierra Leone who fled his home at the age of 15 amidst death threats and violence. He’s created a new life in Britain, married and Englishwoman, [...]

Apologies for not posting - I’ve been moving back to Europe after a three-month stint volunteering in South America. And what’s happened while I’ve been away? Not much.
You might think Jose Mourinho’s decision to rule himself out for the England role is news, but it really isn’t. Mourinho never once said he wanted the job [...]

The Sun quotes José Mourinho:
“You will have to speak to the FA to see if they are interested in offering me the job. I cannot say what I think until they say they are interested. Tell the FA to come and get me. We will have to wait and see, but I rule nothing out.” [...]

The Guardian is reporting (with a remarkable degree of certainty) that José Mourinho wants the England job and will accept if the FA offer it. Read it here. He’s apparently also interested in the top jobs at Real Madrid and Barcelona, either of which might become available before the new year, so if the story [...]

In today’s Times, Tony Cascarino condemns Steve McClaren in terms so damning it’s a wonder the man isn’t the latest incarnation of Satan. He defends England’s players, the English youth coaching system, foreign players in the Premier League, and lays the blame for England’s failure to qualify, in its entirity, at McClaren’s feet. He makes [...]

I’m feeling a bit better about things now after a horrible day of blind fury. So let’s step back and try to assess, rationally, what went wrong. And what went right. And to be positive, I’ll start with that. The Good:
Peter Crouch: Literally the only man on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes who [...]

First up: Croatia.
Croatia:
Goalkeeper: Stipe Pletikosa, a regular in the Croatian national team and the first-choice goalkeeper since the 2002 World Cup (although he was injured for much of Euro 2004). Hasn’t made many mistakes since his Under-21s days.
Defence: On the right, Manchester City’s summer signing Vedran Corluka will turn out for Croatia. He’s 6′4″, athletic [...]

This is only going here because it’s one of my personal axes, but Martin Samuel in The Times has written a brilliant article explaining why English players aren’t as good as their European and South American counterparts. I’ve written about this before on TheOffside.com (check it out here) but Martin Samuel makes a particular persuasive [...]