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Went to both games, and at times England looked good, but the start of the second half against Russia we were appalling, had a goal gone in as perhaps it should have it would have been a totally different game.

Lampard, Beckham & G Neville may no longer warrant a place in the starting line up, but we certainly need them on the bench. In both games we had the weakest bench I have ever seen. Other than Crouch against Russian none of the bench have the quality needed at international level, and how P Neville has got so many caps will always be a mystery to me. He is the worst player I have ever seen, I would rather go back and play Carlton Palmer than P Neville, and you should hear me rant about how bad Carlton Palmer was!!!!!!

Exactly.

I also recall 'fuck off' being used for Heskey many moons ago but now he's a 'super star'.

Things change including form so never say never.

I think your average fan doesn't understand the concept of an elite player

You just don't replace once in a generation players over night

As a follow-up, I think also that Maclaren would be mad if he manages to get the England team to the finals of the European Championships he would be insane to have the Beckham circus tagging along. By that I mean his odious wife and her "Wags", so cunningly named by the tabloids.
To say they were a distraction was an understatement to say the least, I for one would definitely ban them, unless they passed an I.Q. test on the country that are hosting the Championship, it's culture, language, etc.

[quote]he would be insane to have the Beckham circus tagging along.[/quote]

Yeah, because England over the past 12 months really improved without Beckham.