The dreadful serial killings over the last couple of weeks in Ipswich illustrate (amongst other things) the scourge of drugs. Watching the news reports on television, it appears that the girls who were killed had heroin problems and were out at night selling their body to feed their drug habits. Without heroin, there would be less prostitution and less crime. I hope that the psychopath in Ipswich is caught soon before he strikes again. A secondary issue is that the police need to do all they can to tackle the menace of heroin which is blighting so many people's lives. There's a story in today's LET about an Asian "Mr Big" from Blackburn who has made literally millions from supplying heroin - along with money laundering. LINK HERE (Note: LET links sometimes don't last longer than a day before changing to another news story)

Sensational ?? I'd politely suggest Philip that you're either very easily pleased, or alternatively perhaps sipped a little too much wine whilst watching the match. I thought McCarthy was at best average. A few fancy flicks and a couple of back-heels doesn't placate me. McCarthy could (and should) be doing more for the team. As for his strike partner Mr Nonda, I think he's been shocking in recent matches. I'm not sure what's worse - to have a player like our former Finnish international Shefki Kuqi, who had the first touch of a pub player and all the grace and technical ability of a rhino on roller blades - or a player such as Nonda who does actually have a modicum of talent and skill, but isn't willing to put himself about, make decent runs and work hard for the side. For all of Kuqi's faults (and by God he had a ton of them) , at least he did give the impression that he was trying his best for the team. Shabani Nonda has been a passenger in recent matches. At the highest level, you can't afford to carry players like him. Admittedly the service to the strikers from wide positions has been poor. Some of Bentley's crosses were abysmal on Sunday - but it's still the job of a striker to work hard, make runs and create space. I'm finding the McCarthy & Nonda partnership frustrating at the moment. Without a win in our last six Premiershp matches (four defeats and two draws) , Mark Hughes needs to identify areas for improvement for the rest of the season and he can certainly start by looking at the Rovers strike partnership. No wins in six Premiership games is relegation form. I'm not suggesting that Rovers will be relegated, but there's a danger of being involved in a dogfight unless the situation improves. A number of players over the last month or two have fallen well short of the standards that Hughes should be setting. At the start of the season Jason Roberts ludicrously suggested that Rovers could finish in the top four and qualify for the Champions League. I know that we've had some injury problems, but it just highlights the weaknesses in our squad when we miss players so badly. Other teams have to cope with injuries too. With the ageing Tugay facing a ban shortly, we have bugger all creativity elsewhere in midfield. Nobody with the skill, vision and ingenuity to split open an opposition defence as often as a Premiership team needs. The positives to take from Sunday's frustrating result were that Henchoz and Ooijer generally played well (albeit they did get caught out of position defensively on a couple of occasions) , while Michael Gray had a better game than some of his previous performances.

Please forgive me for a typically verbose introduction. I'll then go on to discuss the aftermath of the Villa Park shambles. On Monday, Mark Hughes joined his former Man United team-mates Bryan Robson, Steve Bruce and Peter Schmeichel together with a number of well-known Premiership bosses such as David Moyes, Martin O’Neill and Sam Allardyce, for a lunch at Manchester's Hilton Hotel to mark Alex Ferguson's 20th anniversary at Old Trafford. Perhaps Mark Hughes, as much as anyone else, was partly responsible (or should I say partly to blame) for keeping the Scottish ogre in a job for so long at United, because in the 1989/90 season, after some disastrous results in the League, such as losing 5-1 to Man City, Ferguson was under huge pressure from the Old Trafford crowd, many of whom were calling for him to be sacked on a regular basis. I don't know for certain if Ferguson would have been sacked if United hadn't gone on to win the FA Cup in 1990, but I do know that with just six minutes left of extra-time in the Cup final with Palace that year, Man United were trailing 3-2, until Hughes scored a dramatic equaliser (his second goal of the match) to level the score at 3-3. Had Sparky not scored that late equaliser, then the pressure on Ferguson may well have reached breaking point after a season in which United finished just five points above the relegation zone. The cantankerous Scotsman unfortunately survived though. United won the Cup final replay 1-0 and the rest, as they say, is history. It was apparently Mark Hughes who first coined the nickname "The Hairdryer" for Fergie. As a player for United, Sparky's wavy shoulder length hair often got blown into place in the dressing room after a match when Fergie let rip with a ferocious rant standing a couple of inches in front of the players faces. Perhaps one or two of the Rovers players who disgraced themselves at Villa Park on Sunday, may well have benefited from a short sharp dose of the hairdryer from Mr Hughes. I don't know if Hughes had a pop at them after the match. But in my opinion, he bloody well ought to have done. Because the performance, just like the shambles at Upton Park a week earlier, was completely unacceptable in my view. Managers can hide behind excuses such as tiredness and injuries, but nothing excuses the woeful lack of effort - indeed the downright contempt that the Rovers players displayed for the fans who had travelled to Villa Park. A team, which as Tris rightly says, couldn't be arsed to perform on Sunday. They lack the individual motivation and the sense of responsibility to put in the required 100% effort in run of the mill Premiership matches. Our defence, previously a strong point of Mark Hughes's management, is now letting us down on a regular basis. After the three previous Premiership matches in a row where Rovers conceded soft goals at corners through dreadful marking, we also now have individual players (namely Zurab) guilty of ridiculous schoolboy errors when in possession of the ball in the penalty box, gifting Villa a goal on Sunday. In midfield our problems are evident for all to see. None of the present team can tackle properly. Mokoena is useless in a midfield four. If I had my way he'd be booted back off to South Africa in January. We're relying on a 36-year-old to provide any semblance of creativity. When Tugay is shackled, as he was on Sunday, then the midfield has bugger all creativity. There's nobody else with the vision and ingenuity to create enough quality clear-cut chances. Finally, the two up front: I'm pleased that Tris and Bing have both recognised how ineffective and idle this pair were on Sunday. It was like a return to the bad old days of Dwight Yorke. I haven't been convinced so far by Mr Nonda and although Benni McCarthy has scored some important goals for us, he can and SHOULD be doing more for us in certain games. At the very highest level, strikers need to do more than just score every couple of games. They need to work their balls off, link up the play and create space and chances for others. I'm afraid I'm not one of those who feels that the sun shines out of Benni's black backside. The top managers in the world will tell you that it's not enough just to score every so often, if you don't also put in the required effort at all times for the overall good of the team. We've had much debate in recent months about attendances, culminating in a very disappointing crowd at home to Basle last week. While not defending the stay-aways, perhaps it's to a certain extent understandable if some fans can't be bothered to attend, when they see players (earning lucrative seven-figure salaries) who can't be arsed to put in the effort on the pitch. In the match prior to Basle, the Rovers players put in a disgraceful first-half display against West Ham. Perhaps some fans who saw that horrendous performance at Upton Park thought to themselves: "Why should I pay money to watch this type of rubbish." After three successive Premiership defeats, Mark Hughes needs to get back to basics and spell out in no uncertain terms to the players that they have a duty to wear the blue and white shirt with pride - and a lack of effort from anybody is completely unacceptable.

You're not the only one Martin. I felt deeply ashamed, embarrassed and angry with our performance today, particularly in the first half, when I thought Rovers were shambolic. What went wrong ? Well I won't type a 2000-word essay - suffice to say we were lamentable in all areas of the field: defence, midfield and attack. Sloppy in possession, lacking any bite in midfield, toothless up front and guilty of giving acres of space to West Ham forwards. There was a desperate lack of creativity in midfield and Benni McCarthy looked isolated up front. I didn't think McCarthy worked hard enough for the team today, but to be fair to the South African, the final ball in midfield was appalling. Antiquated long-ball tactics to McCarthy simply doesn't work. It doesn't play to his strengths at all. I don't recall one single good chance that Rovers created in the opening half. Our first 45 minutes were absolutely abysmal. The second half offered an improvement in terms of possession, but we were still painfully lacking in creativity, width and a quality final ball. For the third successive Premiership match we have conceded a goal from a corner. This just isn't good enough, following on from Craig Bellamy being completely umarked to head home at Anfield and Campo's free header to score for Bolton last week. Very serious questions need to be asked about our defence, which was once the strong point of Mark Hughes's management, but is now letting him down on an all-too regular basis. Perhaps the warning signs were there in pre-season when we lost 5-0 to Olympiakos in a friendly. Against Man City at Ewood last month we could have easily been 5-2 down at half-time after a shocking display in the first half. These are worrying times at the moment and there needs to be a massive improvement in all areas. The trouble is that with the injury problems we currently have, our problems are likely to continue for some time to come. Today's game illustrated the woeful lack of strength in depth to our squad. It's paper thin in vital areas and simply doesn't have anywhere near enough quality. A few injuries to key players and suddenly the squad is exposed for the many weaknesses it contains. We've got a number of players in the squad who are frankly nothing more than mediocre journeymen. With Mark Hughes unable to strengthen his squad until January, it could be a very arduous couple of months ahead. Even allowing for the lack of strength in depth to our squad, today's performance at Upton Park was in my view completely unacceptable.

Alan Pardew has a huge game away to Chesterfield in the Carling Cup on Tuesday night, Nick. West Ham have lost their last seven matches in a row (if you include the two UEFA Cup games with Italians Palermo) and the Hammers haven't scored a goal for over ten hours. If they lose to Roy McFarland's Chesterfield, the patience of the West Ham fans and indeed the patience of the boardroom may reach breaking point. Pardew continues to insist that the arrival of the two Argentinians hasn't affected his players. But something has gone badly wrong with the team. Last season they were in the top half of the table, reaching an FA Cup final and playing some fluent attractive football. This season they have looked a pale shadow of the team which finished 9th last term. Dean Ashton, who was an important player for them last season, has been badly missed. Rovers of course face a trip to Upton Park this Sunday. Knowing Rovers we'll probably be the first team that West Ham beat since the opening day of the season. I remember in the 2002/03 season, West Ham hadn't won a single match at Upton Park until late January when they beat us 2-1. The Hammers were relegated that season with 42 points - the highest points total of any relegated team since the Premiership came down to 20 teams. A few miles away from Upton Park at The Valley, I'm pleased that it's been an inauspicious start to the season for Iain Dowie. It was Mr Dowie who insisted that he was quitting Crystal Palace to be nearer to his family in the north of England. Obviously Dowie's geography matches his stunning good looks. How can we expect players to display a degree of honesty and loyalty when managers like Dowie lie through their teeth to get a bigger pay cheque? I suspect there are four Premiership bosses who are feeling particular pressure at the moment and wondering whether their chairmen will lose patience and give them a P45: Stuart Pearce, whose Man City side were abysmal in a 4-0 defeat at Wigan on Saturday, Glenn Roeder, whose Newcastle team are in the bottom six of the Premiership and Messrs Pardew and Dowie. (Pardew is the current bookies favourite to go first.) Man City chairman John Wardle hits out at "unacceptable" display.

I fully support the reduced prices and offers. I've always argued for lower prices for both Premiership and Cup games. Last month when I made a point about the cost of tickets on the "Old Gate Debate" thread, Den posted: Do you support the current offers and reduced prices from the club Den, or are you fearful that low ticket prices for certain games will lead to relegation?

"The party is over," says Keane After a bright start to Keane's managerial career at the Stadium of Light, it appears as if the players have gone back to their bad old ways again. Keane has had a couple of bad results recently, losing 3-1 to Ipswich and 4-1 to Preston. I've actually got mixed feelings as to how I want Sunderland to do this season. On the one hand, I want to see this odious Irish thug fall flat on his face. But on the other hand, it could be in Rovers' best interests for Keane to succeed at Sunderland. If Keane were to take Sunderland up into the Premiership and transform their fortunes, he could well be a rival for Mark Hughes to take over at Old Trafford when Fergie eventually retires. Keane would certainly be a popular choice among the Old Trafford crowd, and unlike John Williams who said that he would be "delighted" if Hughes became the next Man United manager, I actually disagree with our esteemed Chairman - and I'd like to see Hughes remain at Ewood Park for as long as possible. The 24th November should be interesting, when Keane's Sunderland team travel to Molineux to meet up with his old foe Mick McCarthy at Wolves. Will the two of them shake hands? They both detest each other with a vengeance. I think Keane would rather slit his throat than give McCarthy a big hug. Mark Hughes and Martin O'Neill, incidentally, are both currently joint favourites at 11/2 to become the next Old Trafford boss.

If I had gone along with your prediction and put twenty quid on that at Ladbrokes, it would have been a nice win Clare.... I would have settled for a draw before the game - to get a point at Anfield is a good result - but to lose a lead through poor defending was nevertheless a bit disappointing. Mark Hughes needs to do some additional work on the training ground at defending set pieces, because you can't have players totally unmarked at corners like Bellamy was on Saturday. Without the services of Ryan Nelsen, our defending has looked considerably less secure this season and is in danger of becoming our Achilles heel.

Agreed cletus. I welcome this initiative by the club and I hope it's a success. Crowds of 18,400 against Man City and 17,800 against Wigan were a big disappointment and I'm sure that price was a major factor in those disappointing attendances. The club needed to try something new and I welcome their move. I hope also that eventually the club will take a reassessment of pricing policy overall for Category A+ games, as I personally believe the club got things wrong on that score this season.

True Simon. Some will claim that it's still "early days" as far as his Premiership career is concerned, but once again in Sunday's match he resembled a frightened Dutch rabbit caught in the glare of an approaching headlight. So far, Mr Ooijer has: * Given away a needless penalty against Chelsea when the match was level and Rovers had, up until that point, been the better attacking team. * Scored an own goal and generally looked like a disaster waiting to happen in the 4-2 win over Man City, when we could easily have been 4-2 down ourselves at half-time. * Made a rash challenge on Emile Heskey, conceding a penalty against Wigan - which could have proved extremely costly had Brown not made the double-save. Let's hope that in the future Ooijer does indeed improve and adapts rather better to Premiership life - because at the moment the Dutchman is a liability. Your favourite newspaper The Guardian has often been critical of Rovers in the past Paul. Perhaps it's time to change papers to one with a slightly different agenda. Incidentally, I recall in 1995 after winning the title, that one contributor to The Guardian (or it might have been The Observer) complained about the lack of black players in the Rovers squad. That's one thing that could hardly be complained about now, given our current forward line....

Man City were unceremoniously dumped out of the Carling Cup by lowly Chesterfield tonight: a result which will no doubt increase the sense of unease that City fans have about the direction Stuart Pearce is taking the club. Eight months ago Pearce was being touted as the next England manager. He now finds himself with a fight on his hands to keep his job. City have lost 13 of their last 16 games which is woeful form. Going back briefly to Sunday's game, the words I would use to describe Rovers' first half display would be shambolic and kamikaze. We could have been 5-2 down at half-time. The marking was atrocious with acres of space in our defence, but I wouldn't just blame the back four. We weren't competing properly in midfield and Joey Barton, the obnoxious scouse thug who likes to poke youth team players in the eye with cigars, was allowed too much time and space to get forward into the box. Sloppy passing, pandemonium in defence, alleged bust-ups and rows off the pitch (Mr Todd) , players played out of position and chaos and confusion across the pitch - it was rather reminiscent of the Souness regime in the first half. Hopefully such shambles won't be repeated against Middlesbrough on Saturday. A nice idea Jason, but unfortunately we're living in a country now where black coffee and 'Baa baa, black sheep' are deemed to be racist - so the PC brigade would have a fit with "Whoa, Black Benni, Bam-ba-Lam". And get Colin to do some of the vocal harmonies. Just as long as we didn't have the drummers banging away with them Phil.

Our poor crowds are a definite big concern at the moment. I agree with Blue Phil that the club needs to look at doing something radical with ticket prices, such as allowing kids into the ground for free. Clearly the current situation is not working. There might be a temporary loss of income from allowing kids in for free, but the long-term benefits would outweigh this in my view. Crowds of under 20,000 are not helping the club at all in terms of atmosphere and attracting other players to the club. Who wants to play in a half-empty stadium? The situation has become a serious one and my own view is that the club have got their pricing policy for matches wrong this season and the public are voting with their feet and not turning up. After relegation in 1999, our first home game in the old Division One against Port Vale attracted over 20,000. It has to be a big cause for concern that for a Premiership match against Man City, who obviously have a much larger fan base than Port Vale, only 18,400 turned up. We had a crowd of over 29,000 for a home match in Division One against Huddersfield, when the club lowered prices. Matt Jansen's debut for Rovers against Spurs in January 1999, when we were battling against relegation, attracted over 29,500 to Ewood. In that relegation season we had over 29,000 against Liverpool; over 27,500 for matches against Aston Villa and Leeds and over 27,000 for home games against Everton and Newcastle. The decline since has been alarming. I don't agree with Thenodrog about Lancashire United, but I feel the club do need to have a radical look at other areas including pricing policy. If this doesn't work, at least the Rovers have tried. The present situation unfortunately isn't working.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," wrote Portsmouth-born Charles Dickens. Yesterday, in this tale of two football clubs down at the coast where Dickens was born, it was definitely the worst of times from a Rovers perspective - shocking, spineless and utterly inept. Rovers were off the pace and second to the ball all afternoon. It was quite disgraceful. The warning signs had been there prior to Todorov's opening goal. The defence couldn't cope with simple balls played over the top. In particular, there was acres of space on the left-hand side of our defence. For Portsmouth's first goal, Lucas Neill made a complete hash of things. From the Portsmouth cross, Todorov scored a simple tap in. I thought Andy Todd should have got tighter to Todorov in the box. The defensive shambles continued for the rest of the match. Lucas Neill was guilty of a bad tackle for his first yellow card. From the resulting free-kick, Sol Campbell nearly scored with a header. For the second goal, another ball over the top caused havoc on the left-hand side of our defence. Pompey had time and space to cross from the by-line and Kanu headed in. The third goal came from a diagonal ball lumped in from the right, which was again headed in by Kanu. We were incapable of dealing with balls played into the box. It could have been 4 or 5 nil to Pompey. As well as the penalty miss from Kanu, one of their other strikers missed a sitter towards the end. Mark Hughes prides himself on having a strong defence, but our defending yesterday should set alarm bells ringing. Indeed alarm bells should have been ringing after losing 5-0 to Olympiakos in pre-season. Olympiakos are not Barcelona - they have never been beyond the quarter-final of a European competition. They were thrashed 7-1 on aggregate by Graeme Souness's Newcastle in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup in 2005. So the Greeks aren't exactly world beaters. Without Ryan Nelsen at the back our defending is far less secure. Hughes likes to pride himself on the fitness of our squad, but worryingly Rovers were lacking in sharpness and speed compared to Portsmouth. Not for the first time, Bentley and Pedersen went missing in a match. A case of tripe and black pudding up front Captain ? :ph34r: To be fair to them though, the service they got against Pompey was woeful. It just would have been nice to have seen a bit more movement from them. A couple of weeks ago Jason Roberts ludicrously suggested that Rovers could finish in the top four this season. Welcome to the real world Jason. Yesterday's shambles illustrated the weaknesses in our squad. We lack strength in depth in vital areas. We lost the services of Bellamy for £6m, but only spent around £5.5m on Roberts and McCarthy - spending less money than we received. The LET suggested we had £10m to spend this summer. It's looking rather less than that. How can we hope to compete at the highest level if Mark Hughes doesn't have any decent funds to work with? I blame the Walkers...

Shocking...

Curiously enough though, Scotty was actually one of those members who defended Thenodrog and called for him to be reinstated when he was banned from the site. Perhaps Scotty secretly likes a big cock.... I think the actions of McClaren recently suggest a desperate manager who is going in the same media-led direction. For the Greece game, I would have picked a central midfield of Gerrard and Hargreaves, with Lennon attacking on the right flank. I would have dropped Lampard from the side who had a shocking World Cup. Six months ago, when McClaren's Middlesbrough side were being pummeled 7-0 by Arsenal and humiliated 4-0 at home to Aston Villa - with 'Boro fans tearing up their season tickets in disgust - only a madman or the FA would have suggested McClaren as the new England boss. But after a few good 2nd leg comebacks against fairly average sides in the UEFA Cup, suddenly McClaren was being hailed as a genius. When McClaren came up against quality opposition in the UEFA Cup, against Seville, his side were thrashed 4-0. Middlesbrough languished in the bottom half of the table last season because frankly neither the team or the manager was good enough. Despite spending millions of Steve Gibson's money and the manager predicting a top six finish, the team was often poorly prepared and lacked the quality to be in the top half of the table. One of the reasons the FA gave for employing McClaren was that he's worked at the highest level with Alex Ferguson. So has Brian Kidd, but that doesn't mean that Kiddo would make a good England manager. McClaren has also been involved in three major tournaments with England and Sven, in which the England side has failed to do itself justice. "I'm my own man," said McClaren yesterday, trying on a new pair of spectacles...

Rooney sent off again tonight. When will the Scouse boy ever learn ?

How much more time off did these highly paid athletes need before the tournament began - an extra month? Or did the Premiership need to finish two months earlier to give these "stars" an extra rest? The Italian Serie A finished later than the Premiership did. But Italy still won the World Cup. In comparison it seems that English Premiership players couldn't get themselves into a good physical condition before the biggest tournament in the world. Lampard was rested from Chelsea's final Premiership game of the season against Newcastle. (John Terry was rested from Chelsea's final two matches against Rovers and Newcastle). Some of these pampered players were being wrapped up in cotton wool - and they still complained about being "tired". In any case, Lampard's complaint was that he wasn't being trained hard enough by England and that the players were given too many days off. You say that Lampard was "knackered after a long hard season", but Chelsea were knocked out of the Champions League in the last 16 and were beaten by Charlton in the 3rd Round of the Carling Cup, so it's not as if Lampard had to play about 65 games with Chelsea last season. Lampard is lucky he didn't have to play for Arsenal in 1979/80. That season under Terry Neill, Arsenal had to play over 70 games including four FA Cup semi-final matches (3 replays) against Liverpool, sandwiched in between a two-legged European Cup Winners Cup semi-final against Juventus. Arsenal were playing four matches a week in April back then. Compared with that, Lampard had it relatively easy last season. I think that footballers as well as managers and coaching staff, all have a responsibility to ensure that players are properly fit to last the distance of a match (barring any injuries.) My own view is that if players complain about being "too tired" during the biggest tournament in the world, it's because they aren't fit enough. Compared with how hard tennis players, for example, train their bodies to ensure they can play five-set gruelling matches on consecutive days, some lasting over four and a half hours, I think footballers have it fairly easy in comparison. I know that football is a team sport, whereas tennis is an individual sport, but I honestly don't think that footballers train themselves as hard as other athletes do in certain other physical sports. Frank Lampard, on over 100K a week with Chelsea, should have been able to say to Sven: "This isn't working. I don't feel fit enough. I need to change the way I've been training." At club level, it seems to be the case that players turn up at the training ground at about 10 o'clock, do a couple of hours training before driving back home in their Ferraris and Aston Martins to their mansions. Lampard had about six weeks after his final match of the season with Chelsea to prepare himself for the biggest tournament in world football. But the poor little lamb said his legs were too heavy.

Just a week before the World Cup tournament began, Frank Lampard robustly defended Eriksson's tactics. Link: "I have complete confidence in Sven," says Frank Lampard. So Mr Lampard has gone from having "complete confidence in the manager" to now pinning the blame onto Eriksson for his shockingly inept World Cup performances. "My legs were really heavy," complains Frank. This is the biggest tournament in the world - something that comes around only once every four years. Sven's training ground routines may well have been poor and inadequate - I'm not defending them - but Lampard still had a personal responsibility to ensure that he was in a good physical condition during the World Cup. The players had an extra week off before the tournament, following Eriksson's request. The Premiership finished a week earlier and we were told that all the players would be fit. Instead, the poor little lambs complained about being tired and their legs feeling heavy. By implication, Lampard is criticising Steve McClaren as well as Sven, because I gather McClaren did much of the "work" on the training ground while Sven often watched from the sidelines. It hardly bodes well for the future under McClaren, considering that he was the man whose coaching left a lot of England players clearly unfit. Lampard may have some justifiable criticisms of Sven (who he previously had "complete confidence" in) - but Frank is a man who earns well in excess of a hundred thousand pounds a week and he firstly needs to look at himself in the mirror and question his own performances, which were certainly not up to scratch. No doubt Lampard will make another large packet by flogging off his autobiography. Supporters who travelled over to Germany and paid hundreds of pounds to see the tripe on the pitch from England are now being encouraged to cough up eighteen pounds or whatever to buy Frank's book of excuses. There's going to be a rush of football autobiographies out this summer, with Steven Gerrard and Rio Ferdinand joining Lampard in putting books out in the market. 20-year-old Wayne Rooney will also be telling us his life story and about his embarrassment at paying for sex with cheap harlots in Merseyside. Ashley Cole has a book coming out too. Cole has the audacity to criticise Arsenal for what he says was a "lack of loyalty" from them. This from the greedy parasite who sat down at a hotel for secret talks with Mourinho and Peter Kenyon. The players (and their agents) hoped they could cash in on flogging books this summer after a World Cup triumph. After their abysmal performances, I hope that the public gives them a miss. Lampard now says that he wants to become England captain and that he "knows he would do a good job". But he hardly did a bloody good job in Germany, so why should he suddenly play out of his skin with the captain's armband on? Peter Crouch has also complained that his legs were heavy and that he was too tired. Frankly I think that "too tired" is just a euphemism for being unfit. I feel the managers, coaching staff and the individual players themselves all have a responsibility to ensure they are adequately fit. Lampard complains that Sven was giving the players days off when they should have been training. The players should have all got together and told Sven: "We don't need all these days off. Please let us train harder to ensure we are properly fit." Instead, some of the players were no doubt busy enjoying their days off in the company of the so-called 'WAGS' - those vacuous bimbos like Cheryl Tweedy who don't function properly unless they are burning holes in the players' credit cards and being photographed out on the town dancing on tables. There's a big difference between the dignified way the wives of 1966 behaved compared to the shameless set of vain hussies we have today, with their designer clothes, fake tans, hair extensions and endless shopping for clothes - tottering in stilettos back to their hotel rooms in the early hours of the morning. During a few of the England matches, the TV cameras briefly flashed to a couple of the WAGS sitting in the stands, and as soon as the girls realised that the cameras were on them, they were flicking back their hair and seemed to be saying to each other: "Oooh look, we're on camera." Publicity-seeking trollops! I certainly don't think it did the England squad any good to have these WAGs staying out with them in Germany. Some board members may think this is irrelevant, but if we're talking about fitness levels and working hard on the training ground, then I don't think the presence of the WAGS helped at all. There was a lighthearted piece by John Nicholson during the World Cup (in the link below) which puts forward the view that the WAGS did more harm than good.... Will England WAGS Make Our Boys Wilt?

Glenn Roeder has an abysmal managerial record at his three previous clubs - Gillingham, Watford and West Ham. His one season as manager of Gillingham saw them finish second from bottom of the Football League. At Watford he was sacked after taking the side from 7th to the bottom of the First Division. At West Ham he managed to get a talented Hammers team relegated that contained names like Joe Cole, Jermain Defoe, Michael Carrick, Paulo Di Canio, Freddy Kanoute and Trevor Sinclair. Hardly the record of a "great manager". But I was absolutely staggered to hear Damien Duff describe Freddy Shepherd as a "great chairman". Dear God. This is the discredited odious chairman who laughed at his own Geordie supporters for spending money on expensive merchandise, who called his female supporters "dogs" and mocked Alan Shearer while frequenting a brothel. He didn't even have the decency to resign for good from Newcastle after those disgraceful comments. Within a few months he was back at St James' Park as if nothing had happened. Bobby Robson's autobiography is quite an interesting read. Sir Bobby was strongly critical of Shepherd's chairmanship. He said that Shepherd's only focus was on the first team and he neglected areas like the training ground and youth development. Due to its unkempt state, which Shepherd wasn't interested in improving, the club's training ground is notorious for causing injuries to first team players. Sir Bobby said that while he was Newcastle manager he was deliberately denied information regarding the players' contracts. Robson was kept in the dark about this vital information. Sir Bobby said that he had a gentleman's agreement with the club that he would be able to retire with dignity at the end of his final season. But Shepherd broke this agreement to sack him just a few games into his last season. Freddy hired Mr Souness instead and we all know what a shambles that turned out to be. In Sir Bobby's last three seasons they finished 5th, 3rd and 4th in the Premiership. In Souness's first season with Newcastle they finished 14th - their lowest position since being promoted to the Premiership in 1993. Shepherd is the buffoon who said "only Chelsea are bigger than us in the Premier League" and "Newcastle are the eighth biggest club in the world". Freddy keeps telling the world what a "massive club" Newcastle are, but under his leadership they have won sod all. Indeed they haven't won anything since 1969. A while back Shepherd said that he had "no sympathy" for smaller clubs who were struggling financially. "When we've got 52,000 fans at each home game, the last thing I'm worried about is clubs in the third division," he said. "I've got no sympathy for them." I'm disappointed that Damien Duff has chosen to insult the intelligence of supporters all over the country by describing this loathsome creature as a "great chairman"....

Desperate Steve McClaren turns to Max Clifford for help

Agreed American. And if you take it one stage further and say: "What would have happened if we had won the penalty shoot-out and met France in the semi-final?" - then with Rooney suspended and Owen out injured, we would have been facing the French with Crouch on his own up front and the only other striker option being the untried and untested Walcott on the bench. If Crouch had picked up an injury against France we would have been left with a 17-year-old kid with no Premiership experience trying to hold the ball up against some of the world's best defenders. Paul Jewell: Eriksson's decision-making was at fault Peter Crouch: "We were too tired to take penalties properly." The heat and being down to ten men aren't good enough excuses. Clearly these players, some of them earning over a hundred grand a week with their clubs, are not fit enough. Seb Coe was right.

Well what a wretched tournament for England this was... After all the hype beforehand that this was the best English team for 35 years, this current so-called "golden generation" has failed to deliver - with several of our players simply not doing themselves justice in the tournament. The blame for our woeful World Cup performance I feel is two-fold - with both the players and the manager. With doubts going into the tournament surrounding the fitness of Rooney and Owen, Eriksson's decision to take Theo Walcott as one of only four strikers was a major blunder. It wouldn't have been quite so bad to take Walcott as one of five strikers if Defoe or Bent were also included - but a blind man on a galloping horse could see that taking the inexperienced Walcott as one of only four strikers was clear folly. Why take Jermaine Jenas as one of nine midfielders? Arsene Wenger said that Walcott was good enough. In that case, why didn't Wenger give Walcott a single minute in the Premiership last season? Wenger was happy for Walcott to miss the Champions League final altogether and not to have him on the bench for that night in Paris. Five further points: 1) Apart from Beckham's free-kicks against Ecuador and Paraguay, he simply didn't do enough on the pitch, particularly in open play where he provided hardly any quality crosses from wide positions to cause damage to the opposition. When Aaron Lennon came on in the second half he looked lively, beating players and using his pace. Lennon should be the future for England on the right-wing. 2) Whether he was playing in a 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1 system, Frank Lampard had a particularly poor tournament. About 25 shots on goal, but not a single one troubling the opposition keepers. 3) It is patently clear that Peter Crouch is not a world-class striker. He neither has the pace, the mobility or the overall quality to be world-class. And the temptation for the other players is to hit the long-ball to him, which is a failed antiquated tactic at international level. Would Crouch get into the Barcelona team or the AC Milan team? Not a chance. He only scored against Trinidad and Tobago by pulling at one of the darkies dreadlocks. 4) Wayne Rooney was left too isolated on the pitch at times with not enough support from midfield. We saw signs of Rooney's abrasive Scouse temperament in the match against Sweden when after being substituted he kicked at a water bottle and threw his boots off. Rooney previously disgraced himself in two earlier England games. Against Spain in a friendly he was highly fortunate not to be sent off, pushing the Spanish keeper over the stands and then throwing a hissy fit by ripping off his black armband. (Refusing to apologise afterwards.) Against Northern Ireland, in one of our most humiliating performances in recent decades, Rooney also could have been sent off that night in Windsor Park, using his elbows and then throwing a hissy fit. The young Croxteth chav is a powder keg waiting to explode. My own personal view (although it's difficult to prove) is that his foot into the groin of Carvalho was deliberate. Rooney's eyes were looking downwards when he put his foot backwards into Carvalho's groin. I don't believe that it was an accident and I feel his sending off was justified. Rooney is a highly talented player, but he needs to use his brain more often and calm down. 5) That was a point which Seb Coe (or Lord Coe as he's now known) made on a TV programme I watched on Sunday. Coe said that in his opinion the England squad didn't have the necessary speed, stamina and fitness levels required for the tournament. Coe, probably the finest middle distance runner Britain has produced, said that even allowing for the heat in some of the games, the England squad were not fit enough. And yet we were told by Eriksson that cutting short the Premiership season a week early and having an extra week of preparation for the England squad would make all the difference. This wasn't the case. We can look forward to four more years of Mr McClaren's training routines.... Alan Hansen: "Eriksson is to blame." Don Howe: "Lampard, Gerrard and Beckham are to blame."

So the man who said "I'm extremely happy at Blackburn Rovers and definitely want to stay," - just a few weeks before handing in a transfer request and disgracefully refusing to pull on a Rovers shirt against Cardiff in an FA Cup tie - has been honoured "in recognition for his services to football". Obviously blatant liars who refuse to pull on the shirt of the football club they are being highly paid to represent as captain, can still benefit from the British honours system. I think it's scandalous myself. Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/front_page/5087176.stm

You've got two out of those five results wrong there Floppy Mod.... It was actually England 3 Spain 0 at Villa Park in Eriksson's first match in charge in 2001. (In Sven's only other match against Spain, we lost in the Bernabeu stadium on that shameful night in 2004 when Wayne Rooney pressed the self-destruct button and was lucky not to be sent off for his stupidity.) I can give a number of examples of poor results under Sven - drawing 2-2 at home with Macedonia at St Mary's in 2002, losing 3-1 to Australia at Upton Park in 2003 - even Brett Emerton scored against our defence - losing 3-2 to Denmark at Old Trafford in 2003 and 4-1 to Denmark in Copenhagen in 2005. Plus of course that highly embarrassing night at Windsor Park last year when we lost to Northern Ireland - who are currently ranked below the likes of Rwanda, Kenya, Qatar, Syria and Jordan in the FIFA world rankings. We've had good results under previous managers (4-1 V Holland under Venables) , (3-0 V Portugal under Hoddle) , but I don't think many people would suggest we bring back either of those two managers. Despite beating Germany 5-1 in Munich under SGE five years ago, Sven is IMO a tactically poor manager who more often than not gets his substitutions and tactics wrong. If England do manage to win this World Cup, it will be in spite of our overpaid manager, not because of him.

Although England have won their opening first two World Cup matches for the first time since 1982, I thought this was a dreadful performance for 80 minutes. Instead of crisp, incisive one-touch passing at a quick tempo, we were either hitting aimless long balls forward or alternatively passing the ball around too slowly in midfield which allowed Trinidad and Tobago to get men behind the ball and defend relatively comfortably for much of the match. Michael Owen didn't look sharp at all, but to be fair to him, the service he got for an hour was poor. "It's fair to say that you haven't seen the best of us yet," said Beckham in a TV interview afterwards. I bloody well hope that's not the best that England can play - some of these guys are earning around £90,000 a week for their clubs (120 grand a week in Rio Ferdinand's case) and yet they appear to have difficulty in doing the basics right. Our passing was very sloppy at times, conceding possession too easily. Trinidad and Tobago are the smallest nation ever (in terms of population) to qualify for the World Cup. There are just over a million people in the two islands. The smiling black Caribbeans (plus the white Port Vale guy) had lost to Wales in a pre-tournament friendly and were beaten 5-1 by Guatemala last year in a World Cup qualifying match - they only narrowly won a two-legged play-off match against Bahrain to qualify, and yet England struggled to score against them for 82 minutes. I agree Tcj. Lennon was the only one who troubled the Caribbeans with his pace and ability to get behind the defence. McClaren is a guy who I believe is out of his depth at the top level. Further evidence of that came when 'Boro were thumped 4-0 by Seville in the Uefa Cup. If you look at some of 'Boro's shocking results last season - thrashed 7-0 by Arsenal, losing 4-0 at home to Aston Villa, then I'm afraid it doesn't bode well for the future. A Falkirk reserve player! And England are supposedly second favourites to win this competition.... Overall England verdict: Can and must do better.