Some football fans are never happy. During the summer I doubt there was a single football following Englishman who would have turned down nine goals in two games as their country strolled to two wins, one against the European Champions and the other in a competitive qualifier, but for some reason there have been more complaints than plaudits this week as the second emphatic victory result came in.

Of course we’ve got the usual media circus proclaiming Steve McLaren’s England side as the reborn heirs of Brazil 1970 and certain European Champions in 2008 just as a precursor to World Cup glory in South Africa in 2010 (when will they ever learn?) but beneath the gallant flag waving and hope raising there are two more serious issues coming up for discussion: should we have international breaks and should there be pre-qualifying for the qualifying for smaller teams. First up: international breaks.

I read an interesting letter on another (unnamed) football website’s letters page comparing the international break in football to county cricket which carries on regardless of it’s top players being called away on test match duty or not. Counties are made to fill the gaps in their squad wherever they may find players and, to keep disruption to a minimum, they are restricted to only two foreign players in their squad. I won’t get into the foreign player debate today but isn’t the Premiership’s problem, and one of the main reasons it has to shut down completely for internationals, because it is chock full of other nationalities who will also be away on international duty, leaving clubs first team squads decimated over this period.

I’m assuming in cricket that with an England test squad of around 15/16 players (feel free to correct this, I don’t follow cricket that closely) the loss to counties is much more spread out whereas if all internationals left the Premiership for their respective countries there wouldn’t be anyone left. Is the international break for two weeks at this time of the season purely to help the England squad prepare and compete better to qualify for major competitions or is it more grounded in the Premiership reality of no players left if they kept the games running? I know how the FA spin the subject but I want real answers. My breath, as usual, is not being held.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 5th, 2006 at 9:37 am and is filed under International Football News. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. Both comments and pings are currently closed.