Over the FA approaching Adnan Januzaj playing for England once he's eligible in 2018. They bang on about improving football at grass roots level so that we have more talented youngsters coming through and then the next minute, they're grooming a young Belgian lad. I agree with Wilshere, we should be concentrating on giving English players the chance to play for England. I can understand why you'd want to adopt your parents nationality, however for me, living in a certain country for 5 years doesn't make you from that country. Incidentally, Adnan Januzaj is eligible to play for Belgium, Albania, Serbia and Kosovo at present.
If it improves our chances of winning the World Cup, why not? Would France have won the World Cup without all the Senegalese, Ivorians, Cameroonians etc in their team? The German side has players who are Polish plus one of the Boateng brothers who play for two different countries. Would England have won the Ashes without half the team being from outside the country? Same with rugby, athletics and most other sports - you can qualify through residency. If we stick to one rule and everyone else pleases themselves, we're never going to win anything. As for improving football at grass roots level - it's got bugger all to do with it.
IMO he should keep his mouth shut. He is a junior player in the England squad & should be concentrating on getting England to qualify. There are rules that are laid down re player eligibility & players should make their own choices, given the options they have. England should try & have the best team they can. We are hardly overflowing with talent & Wiltshire still needs to prove himself. His arguement : "We have great characters. You think of Spain and you think technical but you think of England and you think they are brave and they tackle hard. We have to remember that." Maybe that's why we are shiite.
I agree. It should be same for our cricket team as guys like Pieterson, Rankin, Morgan etc shouldn't be in it.
Dunno. There's a limit - if you're born abroad and move over as a child, go through our education system etc then it's only fair that the country get the benefits of your talents, whatever that is. With this lad he moved over at 16 specifically to play football for Man Utd. What's to stop the FA bringing over kids in the hope they can nationalise 'em in future?
The point is the rules are the rules. If other countries have the same rules why limit yourself? Not like we are overflowing with talent. Same thing as the old Yorkshire cricket team rules on players born in the county...didn't get em anywhere in the long run, especially as they didn't want to pick english born asians. Things changed & they started winning things again.
Understand that, but it doesn't mean you have to take advantage of them. We're never going to agree mate. Some things are more important than 'getting somewhere'.
I'm not much of a cricket fan, so I don't really know who Rankin and Morgan are, but in the case of Kevin Pietersen, isn't one of his parents English? That changes things. Why should a Belgian born lad, with Albanian parents be given the opportunity to represent England as opposed to an English born player, with English parents?
Scrap international sport altogether, no need for it what so ever, its impossible to decide who plays for who now and it'll only get worse, I've not been able to get passionate about watching Pakistani pastime and rugby for years due to half team not being English any more, not be long before football is the same,
I agree with John Peachy too. However, why Januzaj would even consider playing for England given the talent coming through in Belgium (and therefore the chance to win something), is beyond me. Can't see it happening somehow.
It's a farce. John Barnes father, High Commissioner of Jamaica to the Court of St James' and his son with no ties to this country, plays for England. And this has goes on and on. It should be nations league side that plays for the trophy - forget national sides.
If he was gonna pick the best team at the moment, I agree Belgium have an excellent squad & should be contenders for the next few tournaments. A lot of rhetoric like Wilshire has come out with won't encourage him that he would be welcome in the England camp. Current players shouldn't be commenting on the selection of other players. Not good for team morale on the eve of a big game, or at any other time for that matter. Plus, who would have done the rap on "World In Motion" if John Barnes wasn't there - probably Chris Waddle...
Jack Wilshire is right ffs let's have some pride in what we do. if someone comes from abroad and they are nationalised for genuine reasons fair enough but t nationalise just for the sake of playing a sport for us is wrong imo. We gonna end up watching a team of born and bred foreign mercenaries play for English pride while our own look on, surely it can't be about winning something.
Do you seriously think this is the biggest problem with the England team at the moment? I would have said the FA being controlled by a few large clubs is a far greater problem in the national game.
Presumably at some point the Qataris will take the whole Brazil Under 18 squad, give 'em a massive wad, re-locate them for five years and turn 'em out as their national team, if this continues. I'd say that being born in a country, or having a parent from it are the only bona fide reasons, although I'd probably extend it to permanent relocations before the age of, say, 10.