[MD_Titus]

take over was in 2008, so that's four years. it's just two years of winning something. and it was certainly aimed at me.

i've always "believed" in the premier league set up, even when we weren't part of it. although how it is something to "believe in" i'm not quite sure. if you really think the reason the england national team performs badly is the influx of foreign talent then you are, quite honestly, parroting the slightly xenophobic excuse mongers among the tabloids. why were we rubbish before the premier league?

i knew a lad who, when he was 11, could hit a 60 yard ball to feet. this was around the same time that gullit was playing for chelsea, and him hitting a long cross field pass to feet earned replays. this lad was told he was too small - not tall enough and not broad enough, and got knocked back from a few trials he had with top flight clubs as a result, although he was, i believe, due to sign a youth contract with bolton shortly before he discovered fags, booze and recreational narcotics was more fun than the training involved. he would've made a superb false 10 - slight, wonderful close control, fast on the ball, eye for a threaded pass... all the kinds of things that people pay through the nose to watch someone like david silva do. coaching in this country, not the foreign players, is the problem. we play god awful football, and don't nurture talent. we'd turn players like iniesta and xavi into cloggers, or worse - injure them when they were kids, or bore the passion out of them with endless non-ball training.