Semi Final 2 - Germany v Italy

[O Fenomeno]

alright give it rest

[BSOM]

alright give it rest

[time_bomb]

gotto give alot of respect to balo's mum, must of been tough raising a black kid in italy

[Benicio del Toney]

Bruv it is the way they are taught to play football why do you think arsenal always take on so many foreign kids into our accademy ? It how the kids are taught. After England always flop it's always lets adopt this country's philosophy we know what the problem is football in this country is long ball put the lanky kid up front like I said watch that documentry you will see that at grass roots level that type of football needs to be wiped out in this country. That's why more time I can watch any la liga match because the football is good on the eye and it works.

Bro Wenger has been in his job how long now?

He has been there long enough to see kids like Lansbury arrive @ 9 and watch them come all the way through the system.

He should have a team full of English by now if his footballing philosophy was real.

If I were Wenger Arsenal 1-11 would be English by now, but that is not his priority and aslong as it isn't his priority then we have to force managers to implement that change.

[Benicio del Toney]

trust reason fifa dont want to hold a championships here is because england robbed portugal of that title

if anyone done what they done now they would almost certainly be barred from international football and hosting home games in europe for decades

fuck that foriegners rule, they dont have it in any other major nation in europe

Portugal butchered Pele in 66 so they have nothing to complain about cheating.

/

Italy and Spain don't need a foreigners rule cos the majority of their players in their top league are Italians and Spanish.

If any1 is truly concerned about the state of football in this country it should be obvious majority foreigners is not a good thing

Look at these stats, shocking

Arsenal:

1989-90: 19 players born in UK, two born abroad

2009-10: Four players born in UK, 23 born abroad

Chelsea:

1989-90: 19 players born in UK, four born abroad

2009-10: Six players born in UK, 17 born abroad

Liverpool:

1989-90: 18 players born in UK, five born abroad

2009-10: Four players born in UK, 20 born abroad

Blackburn:

1989-90: 20 players born in UK, one born abroad

2009-10: Seven players born in UK, 18 born abroad

The not so bad

Man Utd:

1989-90: 20 players born in UK, one born abroad

2009-10: 11 players born in UK, 17 born abroad

Spurs:

1989-90: 22 players born in UK, four born abroad

2009-10: 13 players born in UK, 12 born abroad

Everton:

1989-90: 16 players born in UK, four born abroad

2009-10: 12 players born in UK, 10 born abroad

Villa:

1989-90: 19 players born in UK, three born abroad

2009-10: 18 players born in UK, 12 born abroad

Apart from Everton and Villa most teams are down UK players by around half.

Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal are down way more than half.

This is UK players remember, not even English, and how many of the TOP teams English players are getting the regular Champions League high level experience that is necessary to become a TOP player?

We are essentially making other nations benefit by playing foreigners instead of English in the top competitions.

The stats don't lie.

[O Fenomeno]

These guys are average

So you would rather your teams was full of Richard Wright/Jeffers/Pennants/Bentleys yeah?

Wenger done the correct thing.

The difference Italians and Spanish have more talented players to chose from.

So Toney

Quanity over Quality yeah?

[O Fenomeno]

So 89-90 what players came through and went to have success at Euro 92 and USA 94 for England?

[Benicio del Toney]

So 89-90 what players came through and went to have success at Euro 92 and USA 94 for England?

Well to answer this question 1st, the European club ban 1985 had a huge impact on English football.

[Benicio del Toney]

These guys are average

So you would rather your teams was full of Richard Wright/Jeffers/Pennants/Bentleys yeah?

Wenger done the correct thing.

The difference Italians and Spanish have more talented players to chose from.

So Toney

Quanity over Quality yeah?

If you are scouting players into your academy at 8/9 you should be able to train them to the appropriate level by 18.

For someone who commands so much respect for his footballing philosophy and approach the Arsenal stats are PATHETIC.

When you take into account Ramsey, Theo and Ox were purchased it gets even worse.

[gattsu]

if English players were better the teams would have more simple as

the rates are stupid aswell ,just look how much liverpool got robbed

young players still are getting better chances because they are big/strong/fast/play with heart

^ untill this changes no matter how many English players there are playing the national team still going to be average

wenger just sees it as if you are good enough you'll play

[O Fenomeno]

Wenger doesn't look at nationalities that's the way it should be

So Toney you would discard a talented foreigner for an average english player yeah?

[Rsonist]

Great article in the Guardian on Cassano

Euro 2012: Antonio Cassano has final say after nightmare ordeal

Striker who describes himself as an Italian 'leader of technique' faces Spain months after fearing death from serious illness

"I started having trouble speaking. I knew what I wanted to say, but the words did not come out. That is when I started to think about seeing my son one more time."

At first, Antonio Cassano did not think there was anything wrong with him. Earlier that night, in October last year, he had come off the bench to play a part in Milan's 3-2 win at Roma. The flight back to Malpensa had gone well and he was looking forward to seeing his family again.

Then, on the bus from the airport, he started to feel ill. His head started to spin and he could not see well with his left eye.

Still, he did not want to listen to the team doctor, who kept urging him to go to hospital. "We argued for half an hour," Cassano recalled later, "before I agreed to visit the hospital. And that is when I started to have trouble speaking and thought about seeing my son again."

Cassano, it turned out, had suffered an ischemic stroke, which occurs when an artery to the brain is blocked. He was operated on four days later and left Milan's Policlinico hospital the following Sunday. No one knew when – or even if – he would return to a football pitch.

Cassano spent the next few months recovering – and pondering the fragility of life. Slowly, slowly, he regained the appetite for football. After all, the "whole world" had been in touch to wish him well and stated the desire to see him in a Milan shirt again. "If I am honest I was afraid of dying, in particular during those days before the operation," he said. "For 36 hours I did not understand anything. I struggled to speak and did not remember what had happened to me. But the important thing is that I got through it and that everyone, from Real Madrid to Barcelona, from Mourinho to Del Neri and even Iniesta phoned me. I know I have the power and the will to return to the pitch and I feel ready. If it is possible then I would like to play against Fiorentina on Saturday."

The interview was recorded on 5 April. Against Fiorentina, two days later, he came off the bench with six minutes remaining and nearly won a penalty. A week later, however, the Serie B player Piermario Morosini collapsed and died before he reached the hospital. For Cassano, it was his worst nightmare unfolding in front of his eyes. It almost proved too much. "I was feeling fine but after seeing perfectly fit sportsmen such as [Vigor] Bovolenta [a former Italian international volleyball player who died a few hours after a match in March 2012] and Morosini die suddenly I just wanted to give up. I seemed incapable of summoning the will to continue. My wife was really upset and concerned. I just sat there on my sofa, staring into the wall. I wanted to finish with football. I said: 'I give it all up, I am playing with my life here.'"

In the end, he was convinced to continue playing, with the Italy coach, Cesare Prandelli, having a profound impact on the decision. "First and foremost I was just pleased to be alive but Cesare Prandelli gave me a real push and desire to return to the game. He was fundamental in my recovery and kept telling everyone, and me in particular, that he would wait until the very last minute to make sure I made the squad for Euro 2012."

And whatever happens against Spain on Sunday, Cassano has already repaid Prandelli. Against the Republic of Ireland, which Italy had to win to progress from the group stage, he scored the first goal. Against Germany in the semi-final on Thursday night, he ran Joachim Löw's side ragged. The assist for Mario Balotelli's first goal was classic Cassano: creating space down the left he got to the ball before Mats Hummels, whom he then turned inside out with three touches of his right foot, before setting Balotelli up with a sumptuous left-footed cross. Balotelli's header was brutal, Cassano's assist sublime.

In the BBC studio, Gianluca Vialli said that Italy's No10 was a mix of Gianfranco Zola and Paolo Di Canio. He has, the implication was, the technique of Zola and the temperament of Di Canio. Vialli knows what he is talking about. The fact that Cassano will line up for Italy in a European Championship final at the age of 29 is a small miracle, even without taking his health scare into account.

His reputation precedes him. Even before he said he hoped "there were no gays in the Italian squad" at Euro 2012, for which he was rightly castigated, there had been enough incidents to suggest that Cassano was a man who was not serious enough to reach the top.

Cassano was born on 12 July 1982, the day after Italy had beaten West Germany to win the World Cup. His mother was forced to raise him alone as his father, Gennaro, was married to another woman, with whom he already had three children. Cassano never forgave the man who gave him his surname and in 2008, two years before dying, Gennaro Cassano told La Repubblica: "For him, I am the devil. When we meet in the street, he pretends that he does not know me, he does not even want to hear my name."

Cassano was not interested. He had his football. He failed trials at Internazionale (twice) and Parma (once) before being picked up by Bari. There he had two successful seasons before joining Fabio Capello's Roma as a 19-year-old in 2001, where he thrived, at times, and then self-destructed. Having already clashed with the Italy Under-21 coach Claudio Gentile, he severely tested Capello's patience, walking out of training on several occasions, leading the manager to coin the phrase Cassanata (Cassano-ism) to try to explain the behaviour of the Barese.

It is indicative that Capello still wanted to take Cassano with him to Real Madrid in 2006. In Spain, however, Cassano's career lost all momentum, which the player famously admitted in his autobiography. "I must have had sex with 600 or 700 women in hotels. And in Madrid it was easy because I lived in a hotel. The bell boy's job was to bring me three pastries after sex. He would hand me the pastries, I would hand him the girl, and he'd return her into the night. Sex plus pastries – could it be any better?"

He left after one season, 19 league appearances, two goals and, presumably, an insurmountable amount of pastries. Overweight and with his reputation on the line, he joined Sampdoria, first on loan and then, in 2008, permanently. It was the perfect move for him.

He regained his fitness and his confidence and the marriage to Carolina Marcialis in 2010 and the birth of their son, Christopher, a year later, calmed him down. And for four years he delighted the fans at Luigi Ferraris, taking the club into the 2010-11 Champions League qualifiers, where he scored a backheel against Werder Bremen. Once again, he had become too good for the top clubs to ignore and signed for Milan in January 2011.

Few thought then that the move would lead to a revived international career but, as Cassano pointed out recently, he has made "3,000 sacrifices" to reach the Euros. His partnership with Balotelli is arguably the most explosive and utterly unpredictable in the history of the European Championship, but it is equally mesmerising.

Cassano may have his faults but he can be endearingly honest and self-deprecating. Asked during Euro 2012 whether he could become a role model for Balotelli, he answered: "A leader is someone who runs more than the rest, and I don't do that. A leader is someone who is always humble, and I am not. A leader is someone who is always available from the morning to the evening, and I am not. Let's say, as Prandelli does, that I am a leader of technique."

Prandelli would not have it any other way and, after the win against Germany, hailed the striker's performance. "That was his best performance of the tournament so far, in terms of intensity, what he showed on the pitch, how he ran and how he fought," he said. "I knew he might be one of our key players at the tournament. He may only have 50 minutes in his legs but these are 50 fantastic minutes."

It is quite a turnaround for a player who feared he was going to die only eight months ago. But, as Cassano said at the time: "I want people to have good memories of Cassano; I don't want pity." Pity seems a long way away at the moment. Good memories, and a European Championship winner's medal, much closer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/jun/29/euro-2012-italy-antonio-cassano-final?newsfeed=true

[Benicio del Toney]

Wenger doesn't look at nationalities that's the way it should be

So Toney you would discard a talented foreigner for an average english player yeah?

Wenger buys majority French though, course he looks at nationalities.

English players need to be coached better in the youth system then, in that respect Arsene has failed.

I don't even think the coaching is the problem cos personally I think they are good enough, they just don't get the chances.

Do I believe JET shoulda been given a chance instead of spending £10m on Gervinho, yeah.

[Francis Coquelin]

don't know why you're debating with a guy who thinks the hoyte brothers are premier league material, let alone arsenal.

[Michel Kane]

English youths mentality for the most part ain't shit TBH, hence why a lot get overlooked.

[Bobby Reds]

I agree foreigners make the prem what it is today

But before they put a cap on the foreigners we have in the prem they might wanna sort out the footballing philosophy so that the English players coming through are of a better quality.

Coz of a cap was put on now this league would be very poor to watch for the next 10yrs

THIS.

[BSOM]

English youths mentality for the most part ain't sh*t TBH, hence why a lot get overlooked.

If your good enough you don't get overlooked simple as, they might try curb your natural game, but overlooked nah.

[Uncle Man]

eric cantona is a poet who expressed himself thru football

frank lampard is a daddys boy faggot

notice the difference between these players and realise you have to raise a generation of superior human beings not just get some privileged cunts to kick the ball thousands of times while listening to the spice girls in there ferraris

in sport the great become champions

in england we live with a sickly masquerade.

none of these faggots are players

they are just nonces waiting to get bottled

[The Somalian]

Tony its pointless this arguement I think is done think it was Hoddle or the black under 19 manager who said yesterday all dutch teams play the same that dont happen in england so it flops its bollocks to carry this on. As you are still in a dreamland not to see how important youth devlopment is

[darkman]

English youths mentality for the most part ain't sh*t TBH, hence why a lot get overlooked.

Don't buy this. A lot of the foreigners Wenger buys aint got the right mentality either

[The Somalian]

C/s but wenger has no trust in the uk youth system

[Benicio del Toney]

don't know why you're debating with a guy who thinks the hoyte brothers are premier league material, let alone arsenal.

d*ckhead.

When have I ever said Justin should play Prem?

I said Gavin shoulda been given a chance, don't make shit up you prick.