Third Man

Don't forget Chelsea will also get the blame for Ronaldo leaving Old Trafford and the perennial demise the game all round the world. I sure Blatter and Platini will come up with something foolish as well.

As with Holland it seems that third game of resting all the major players back-fired they had eight days rest and Portugal did the same as well with the same outcome, might be something in that?

I'm with the Russians

Simon

batman

I'd like to see the Russians do well against whoever wins tonight .... Spain may fall victim to that 3rd game curse!

Edward G

Y Viva Espana!
Congrats to Spain on their victory tonight.
Hope they win the tournament now.

I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

batman

Dreadful match though, totally ruined as a spectacle by the Italians. All the teams in the semis are in with a chance ... even Turkey with their 'never give up' philosophy. After all, the unfancied Greeks won it last time. My cash is still on the Krauts .... a nice £70 comes my way if they do it.

David Brent

I wouldn't go that far

I'd like to see Russia win. That would restore some bragging rights for England fans.
"We were beaten by the eventual champions".
No disgrace there.

Dave.

Edward G

Spain as a major footballing nation have underachieved in the past at national level. I would much prefer to see their name on the trophy than the French or Italians. The game was poor but the Italian tactics helped to smother it. Spain's game in the tournament has been expansive and entertaining. The smart money will be on the ever dependable Germans. I agree Russia would also be popular winners for the neutral but I watch La Liga and would love to see them win out.
As to bragging rights about being beaten by the eventual champions this really makes no difference in the end.

I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

TheParaders

I can't see the Turks turning the Germans over especially with key players missing. Spain v Russia is a toss up. The Russians even when they lost to Spain looked dangerous and hit the woodwork twice and should have scored other chances. Personally I think Spain's best bet would be playing Fabregas from the start although I doubt he'd drop Xavi. Iniesta needs to pick up his game or be dropped also.

Harbottle

Well I would like to see Russia win, but not to make the hopeless England side look better though! Also it would make the clowns at the FA look even bigger idiots for not appointing Hiddink

David Brent

I hope Paul Ince can become a success at Blackburn.

I like the bloke and he seems a real down to earth guy.
It's a huge jump from MK Dons to the Premier League but hats off to Blackburn for giving an up and coming British manager a go.

Dave.

TheParaders

Not sure about that ... didn't he self style himself "The Guv'nor" at MU to which some teamates just called him "Paul" instead. Not exactly down to earth in my book.

Saw the interview with him last night where he said something along the lines of "I hope it encourages the likes of Andy Cole, Sol Campbell, Les Ferdinand to become managers as the first black Prem manager".

Andy Cole - Manager - yeah right ! He wouldn't be speaking to half his team after the first week the moody .... and Les Ferdinand, like he's shown any interest in managing a club.

Anyway, all this nonsense about being the first English Black Premier League Manager is tosh - surely the fact that we've had a foreign black PL manager makes the PL less racist and less xenophobic thrown in.

DB7

I felt he (Ince) has been patronised somewhat. They had Jon Snow (who was clearly out of his depth) interviewing Mark Walters (now an anti-racism campaigner) on CH4 News last night and rather than the debate being about his ability to manage all Snow wanted to talk about was his skin colour; seemingly under the impression football hasn't moved on since the 80s. Mark Walters to his credit did try to keep steering the interview away from the race issue.

I do hope Ince has changed somewhat as he did frequently rub people up the wrong was with his ego.

Third Man

Lets just hope rather than Paul Ince being type cast as the first British black Premier League manager he is a successful British coach, unfortunately or sadly he didn't think it was important enough to take his UEFA coaching badges, something he must complete in the next two years.

For someone who is now in a high profile football job you would of thought he might of been ready for it with the correct qualifications perhaps he just thought he was above all that , if so I fear he might be falling back to earth quicker than he could imagine - I wonder what the odds are for the him being the first managerial dismissal of the Premier League this season or will he get get the chance to finish his UEFA badges before his job at Blackburn ends?

One things for sure he now has a chance to prove that the self imposed title of The Guvnor now actually has some substance.

Simon

DB7

scholes

Ince the person will have hopefully grown up and thus Ince the player and Ince the manager will be two different animals.

A cocky individual, whom I was glad to see the back of when he departed for Inter Milan.
Nevertheless I wish him good luck at Blackburn.
As for the racism element the following article goes some way to explaining the reasons why there are so few black managers in the English game.

BBC SPORT | Football | Focus: Football's black mark

TheParaders

I got as far as "Garth Crooks said ...." and was tempted to give up. Does that make me racist - no !.

Never have I come across an individual who has played at the highest level and knows so little about footall. That's nothing to do with his colour, the same goes for "commentator" Mark Bright - useless, again nowt to do with his colour. Crooks admits he didn't even apply for any jobs.

He then goes on to compare Roy Keane with Paul Ince "both captains of their country" - tenuous to say the least, how many times was Ince captain of England in comparison to Keane and Ireland ? Did he not think that Keane got the job because the Sunderland owners are Irish ? Nobody has commented on the amount of Irish signings made at Sunderland, should we be doing ?

He then mentions that x number of black coaches are higher qualified than Southgate without mentioning that Ince is not qualified. Football is about reputation, who you know and being in the right place at the right time as Bryan Robson ( the Manager ) has luckily found out on more than one occasion.

Point made earlier that it is a very different football world in this country than it was 30 years ago is spot on.

Move on Crooks et al .... there's no story here and the more Crooks spouts the less credibility anything attached to him achieves.