Eddie

I suppose and I guess you could argue that Mascherano was only there for half a season.

As he only played half of the season you can understand why he isn't.

He is amazingly 40/1 with a couple of bookmakers to finish top goalscorer next season (Viduka has better odds).

Are you sure your vodka isn't coming from the Russian mafia?

Really does help to get good coaches, take a look at what they are doing and maximise their talent. It also helps having some good physios as well as getting in some good scouts and sending them around.

It's hardly important. No one cares who wins this tournament, it's nice if you do, but nothing more. I can understand people not liking it, but it seems the right decision. If he wants to play for England then he has a good chance of getting in the side next year, a couple of extra weeks of rest might just help him to feel that little bit fresher and might make the difference.

Don't have it hooked up online, plus I only have wii sports at the minute.

You get boxing tasks in the wii fitness? That has never happened to me. I find that the average can drop really easily but it is hard to bring up. I got a 20 and it only took my average (that was at 28) up by 1, but the following day I managed to drop to 35.

I think it would be Carragher who would be annoyed to be mentioned in the same sentence. He has proven himself time and time again in the league, europe and at international level but still can't get a good look in at centre back. He's not exactly old.

I'm sure Bentley is smart enough to realise that he only missed out on his place because one of the best players in the world at the moment happens to play the same position as him. He will see that he can get himself in the squad whilst playing for us and there is no reason why he shouldn't be able to keep himself in it and get into the team if he continues to maintain that same level of performance. I don't think it is an injustice that Bentley didn't get to play. I would have brought him on instead of Jenas against Brazil, but that isn't to say that had I been the England manager I would have felt like I needed or had to bring him on. He's been good for us this year and deserves his call-up, but the real test for him is to show that this wasn't a flash in the pan and that he is really a quality player.

They beat those sides Neekoy, maybe not always with the most impressive of performances, but they won the vast majority of games.

Clement has had a good career and I think he would have done well for us had we signed him.

I've been dying for a football game to do a "single" player career mode for ages. It works so well in several other sports and I have to say that this would be the only reason that I might consider buying FIFA this year.

How is saying that they have the quality of players required to match the best sides in the world over-hyping them? You yourself just said exactly the same thing. England haven't played very well for a few years, but they have done well for the past several years at beating weaker opposition. In every competition they've played in for the past few years up until this qualification phase they have done well against the smaller sides (with a couple of exceptions being Northern Ireland and I suppose you could say Sweden as well). As I said, we will simply have to wait and see who turns out to be right.

Do wii games have regions?

Yes they do, but Italy are behind France; Spain behind Sweden and Northern Ireland; Holland behind Romania; Portugal are behind Poland. England aren't the best team in the world, certainly not, but I think the England bashing that sometimes takes place on this board completely ignores the number of quality English players currently available.

We will see.

They'll qualify, the teams they are up against aren't good enough and I still honestly believe that when push comes to shove they'll produce some uninspiring but needed results.

My drivel is simply that England have good enough players to compete with Italy, I don't think they would laugh at that. I can certainly tell you that French fooball fans have a huge amount of respect for the English game and the England team and probably think more of it then most Englishman. They would certainly think that England are at least on a par with them.

Probably. It isn't all about your performance in the World Cup. On that basis England are just as good as Brazil and Argentina and better than Spain and I'm sure you would disagree with all three of those.

You'd struggle to find a Frenchman who thinks that they have better players.

The difference is that England have the players, whereas we don't. The likes of Italy and France simply do not have a superior bunch of players.

Even good players look ordinary sometimes folks. Anyone want to rewatch the champions league final and then tell me about Kaka's amazing skill? We have good enough players to beat any side in the world, we simply haven't worked out a style, formation, starting 11, etc that allows us to really play well.

I think that is half right. We have the skill (maybe not in the style of Brazil, but no one has that), but I don't know why we chose to play at such a slow tempo, especially as our ball retention isn't even that good when we do it. The only player who looked like he knew what he was doing out there when playing at that tempo was Beckham, but he also looks equally at home when things briefly picked up.

That's true, but I don't think anyone would have been too critical of him for bringing on his only true right sided midfielder for the last 15 minutes of a friendly. If he's selected Bentley then it should be because he's good enough; clearly he doesn't really feel that he is.