England - Kids are the key to the World Cup

[ollieconnolly]

FABIO CAPELLO SACKED AS ENGLAND MANAGER!!
After the sides abysmal performance in South Africa The FA have relieved Fabio Capello of his duties.
Furthermore they have wasted no time in finding their replacement under-20 manager Oliver Connolly
'we have appointed Oliver because he knows the youngsters well, this is an appointment for the future, we hope to challenge for the 2014 World Cup and deffientley want to be among the front runners for 2018 ecspecially if its in England.'
Speaking at the launch of the new england kit connolly said:
'It may be a shock to everyone else, but i think its a clever appointment, i know these young lads well. We will all develop together and by 2018 we should be in place to win the World Cup.'

Database:
Chris' back to basics 2010 update
custom large db
all european, south american and african internationals loaded
please comment away, you may even sway me to include players in the squad

Connolly now has the difficult balancing act of challenging for the 2012 European Championships and bringing youths into the squad

For those who follow my other story do not worry i am fully devoted to both


We had been drawn in a relatively tough group, we should qualify but there were some tricky away games.

I had completley re-shuffled the pack in terms of coaches and removed all Italian coaches.

We then all sat down to decide on the squad, there were some tough calls who to leave out
we eventually decided on this squad for the two games vs Saudi Arabia and Mexico, my first two games and very impportant friendlies

Missing Ashley Cole due to injury meant i opted for the person who many consider to be his understudy Kieran Gibbs.
Players like Lampard and Carrick were on their final warnings


My first task pre match was my choice of captain -
I opted for Gerrard for me he performed well as the leader in South Africa and was looking forward to working with him closely.
'Steve has for a long time been the heartbeat of Liverpool and he showed last summer that he can do this job for his country too'

My choice of vice - Captain was a little less predictable i plumped for 19 year old everton midfielder Jack Rodwell

For me jack is the future of Englands midfield, he will act as Gerrards sidekick and be by him at all times, by 2014 he will be 23 and maybe not ready for the full captincy but by 2018 he will be 27 and in his prime and will lead England
3rd Choice captain was Rooney

---------- Post added at 11:20 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:10 PM ----------

National Disgrace!!

This is what greeted us all on Sunday September the 5th, did that really happen last night, i had dreams of my young starlets pummeling Saudi Arabia for 8 goals with no reply but it had gone oh so wrong.

This is the team that started the game.

Hugely inexperienced, but this was due to the loss of Gerrard (groin) and Terry (ilness)
the players had to gain the experience at some point right?

England 1-3 Saudi Arabia
Wilshere 74 Al-Jasim 15, Noor 29, Mouath 53

I couldnt believe it, i was disgusted at myself.

Myself and the players were torn apart in all the papers, only Jack Wilshere and Alex Smithies were exempt, 'to young' and 'past it' came up again and again, well i prefered to go for too young?

4 games till our next game what should i do, tactics? players? a team meeting to get everything out in the open? i think not, a good old fashioned bollocking was in order and these players were definnetly getting one

 

[Eds]

Got rid of all the Italians but you've still got a Welshman, urgh.

 

[ollieconnolly]

Welshman now replaced with Tim Flowers

 

[Billy]

Get Wenger in as part of your backroom staff. He knows his way around the kids.

 

[ollieconnolly]

England 4 - 1 Mexico
Agbonlahor 19,20,84 Rooney 45+2 Moreno 90+2

Redemption for the team after the debarcle against Saudi, i made a few changes to the side.

Barry came in for Rodwell, i decided to give Wilshere another start and so swapped Lampard for Gerrard.
I brought Crouch into the middle of the strike force and pushed Rooney to the right of the trio.
Cahill was dropped and replaced with Jagielka

we started really well but after 4 minutes Gerrard had to limp off with an injury, i decided to give Rodwell a more advanced role and the inexperienced midfield of Wilshere and Rodwell thrieved knowing they were protected by the industrias Barry.

Man of the Match: Gabby Agbonlahor, simply for his sensational Hat-trick

Moment of the match: Rodwells incredible assist, a ball played over 50 yards into the path of Gabby who stroked it away for his 3rd of the game.

 

[jthamrun]

Good luck mate, will be following

 

[ollieconnolly]

With Gerrard out injured for 3 months i had to find a replacement, i thought that with losing such an experienced man then bringing Owen Hargreaves in would be good around the camp
Where as Jermain Defoe was brought into to strengthn the attack off the bench

---------- Post added at 12:09 AM ---------- Previous post was yesterday at 11:53 PM ----------

I showed some consistancy by picking a similar 11, Rodwell captained the side a big game for the youngster but he could take comfort from sharing the middle of the park with Lampard and having Barry covering in behind.
Smithies was selected as the number 1 and was now confirmed as just that right the way through to Brazil 2014, he showed promise in the early friendlies and now had my complete faith.
Jagielka kept his place after a fantastic impact against Mexico and JT came back into the side to add some much needed experience to the back four.

Wales 0 - 3 England
Agbonlahor 49,62,66

Another incredible performance from Gabby who is thrieving under the front 3 system, aided with 2 assits from Crouch and one from Rodwell.

Man of the Match: Agbonlahor, another sintilating Hat-trick, keeping players like Defoe out the team and Walcott out the squad.

---------- Post added at 12:27 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:09 AM ----------

After Joe Cole fell awckwardly in a tackle mid-week, i had a decision to make on who to call up in his abscence, i thought of what the squad needed and i thought, that game changer who can come on and completley turn a match.

I went for walcott because his pace can change the momentum of a match in your favour, a ball that would be over hit becomes a good ball to theo, this sort of attribute could really be benificial for the squad.


England 4 - 0 Montenegro
Lampard (pen) 17, Crouch 20,88 Terry 40

a fantastic team performance, everyone was really at the races, captain Rodwell led well, Gibbs didnt look out of his depth but is obviously a couple of years away still. Lampard, Crouch and Terry were all inspired.

Man of the Match: John Terry, barn storming performance nothing could get passed him at the back partnered Jagielka well and bagged himself a goal to top it all off.

Almost always seeking redemption for something, Terry was widley held responsible for 'Meeting-gate' that reportedly crushed Englands world cup campaign. But the British media were very kind to Terry the following day calling it a Career saving, heroic performance

 

[brosque14]

Great start mate

 

[NUFC_Tony]

Great story mate - keep it up!

 

[*James*]

Excellent layout so far mate, keep it up!

 

[ollieconnolly]

England have today dropped to 20th in the latest world cup rankings, falling below sides such as Scotland. Algeria and USA.
This slump has been branded an 'uter shambols' by Trevor Brooking, 'how our national side can ever fall below 5th in the world is beyond belief and too have fallen behind the people north of the border is heart shattering, we must now all fight to move up the rankings. We are playing a friendly against a very good side in Serbia this month and hopefully that will push us up.'
England manager Oliver Connolly took a different slant and was very upbeat. 'Rankings mean nothing to me, who remembers, oh we were 3 places above you for a year 5 years ago? No one does, they remember we win the World Cup, and thats what it's all about for me, i'm not here to be 5th, 4th or 1st in the world if that comes with winning thw world cup then thats what this is all about.

This is the squad i selected for the Serbia game, Gerrard was still missing but we were lucky enough to welcome back Ashley Cole. Unfortunatley however, Micah Richards had suffered an injury and so we would have to go in with the out of form Glen Johnson.

 

[cfc12345]

good story so far mate keep up the good work

 

[ollieconnolly]

We needed a good result against Serbia to silence some critics, but we didnt get one.
Serbia sat deep and we seemed to have no imagination in the first half, only an iffy penalty call enabled Frank Lampard to grab a goal. When Wilshere came on he seemed to play with a bit of freedom, but still we lacked something, Rooney a shadow of the player we had scored for fun for united.

England 1 - 2 Serbia
Lampard (pen) 20 Sulimanjani 25,34

Man of the match: Sulimanjani, two goals away at Wembley so often the highlight of many foreign layers careers

 

[Alcaraz]

Good story mate,will be following

 

[ollieconnolly]

'Ollie is there any truth that you are interested in the West Ham job?'
'Absoultley not, my job is with England'

' Would you not see West Ham as an escape clause? Things with England arnt going to well, could you not see this is a move that would enable you too jump ship?'
'No never, i'm here because i love the thought of guiding England to winning an international competition. You say things arnt going well but two qualification matches, 7 goals none conceded that isnt too bad to me. I could never jump ship and abandone my country.

 

[martinbissett]

great story keep it up

 

[NUFC_Tony]

You're struggling mate, hopefully you can get it back on track.

 

[burkeyoa]

excellent idea mate. Hope it goes well ;D

 

[ollieconnolly]

I managed to recall Micah Richards after his injury, leaving Wes Brown out. Gerrard returned to the squad.
Fabian Delph got his chance in the side, as did Danny Welbeck who replaced the injured Peter Crouch.

On the first day of training Terry suffered a bruised rib, he was ruled out of the side straight away.
After the debacle of playing Cahill and Shawcross at the back i didnt know whether to play the pair together again. Delph would deffinetly feature at some point, i was excited about this prospect.
I also rang John Bostock to let him know he was very close to the squad, for me he will be the 'gazza' in my 2018 world cup squad, i didnt want this to go public though as i didnt want pressure put on the lad.

 

[Chaz Sexington]

Kid is are the key? It's supposed to be kids Getting your title right is one way to improve your story