A few more years of hurt...

Failure by England. Again. But not even at the tournament this time.

As Mr Creegan pointed out to me earlier, this could be the wake up call English football needed and that hopefully it'll go the same way as France, after their failure to qualify for Euro96.

Here are my thoughts...

By my reckoning only 2 of the 14 who played tonight are regulars for one of the much vaunted top 4. The rest either only play a handful of games for those teams or play for a team who's season's goal is to avoid relegation.

Granted there are a few missing (Neville, Rooney, Ferdinand, Terry) but it just highlights the lack of depth. There are far too many foreigners playing and coaching in the Premiership and it is affecting the national side. Who was the last Englishman to manage a title winning side? Howard Wilkinson, the season before the premiership started.

Until something is done about this the England team will never get anywhere.

Take Italy as a good example - I believe they have around 70% Italian players in their top flight teams. And the majority of top teams have recently had Italian coaches... Lippi, Anceloti, Mancini, Trapatoni. They won the World Cup. I've nothing against quality foreign players in the premiership, there have been plenty over the years who've vastly improved the standard of football in England. But it's getting ridiculous when the majority of every starting side is foreign.

Another question I have about English football is why don't any of the top players play overseas? In this day and age where the world has never been closer together (except billions of years ago when it actually was physically closer), and where players could easily afford private flights and helicopters to get home to their mums for tea, why does not one English player play for a decent European side.

Same goes for the coaches... Our two most successful English coaches in recent times, Bobby Robson and Terry Venereables, both coached at the highest level in Europe.

McLaren has to go. The FA felt they had to appoint an Englishman after the failure of a foreigner, which I agreed with. Even though there was no particularly obvious candidate. But now it's almost certain we'll be back to an overseas search.

If it were up to me (and I'm normally the last to advocate a foreigh coach), it has to be someone who's coached in England with success. Which pretty much leaves only one candidate.... Jose Mourinho.

Gimme some mo...

James Christopher Creegan, get your goddamn hand in your pocket. The mo is taking shape now...

How about a sporting update? The indoor 5-a-side team Rob and I play for recently got promoted to the top division and then won our first game 4-0. Sweet.

Outdoors, the bowls season has started! It seems like ages since the last one ended with us champions of the BBC.

The first week was a washout but week 2 saw us pitted against the team who finished second last time round. We opened up a 5-0 lead, only to be pegged back. It was a tight game and although we were never behind, thanks largely to some good skip bowling from Casey, we went into the final end at 8-8. In the pressure situation Miller and I stepped up to send down our best bowls of the game to win it 10-8.

Good times.

Paper celebrations...

Last Sunday Jo and I celebrated 1 year together. How time flies...

We headed about 30 minutes up north to a town called Whangaparoa to take a stroll in Shakespear Park. As far as the city centre is concerned Auckland is pretty unremarkable. But one of the great things about living here is what lurks on the outskirts and in the suburbs. There are countless nice beaches all within striking distance and all relatively unpopulated. Perfect for the summer that is just about here now.

Here's Jo getting her feet wet with the vague outline of the CBD in the background...

The big prang...

After the liver-destroying 10 days of Lunt's visit a quiet weekend was in order. I worked all Saturday which was pretty profitable but also pretty tiring.

Sunday was a little more action packed. It started early as I got up to watch Great Britain give the Kiwis a good stuffing in the 2nd rugby league test then Jo and I took a drive to the park. Very relaxing. But all that was undone on the way home...

As I pulled up behind a queue of cars at some lights I heard a screeching of tires behind me. It took my body to be thrown forward to realise that someone was struggling to stop in sufficient time behind me.

SMASH!!

Fortunately for me I drive a very sturdy ute with the last couple of feet being almost entirely made of steel. Including the protruding tow bar.

So I came out of the fender bender with a slightly bent licence plate. The late braker, on the other hand, wasn't quite so lucky. My tow bar had burrowed so deep he was probably trying to change gear with it. His car, to use mechanical vernacular, was a right flipping mess.

To make things worse for the guy he didn't have insurance (not legally required in NZ). Let that be a lesson to you kids.

As far as I can remember this is the first accident I've been in since I was a little kid and someone hit the back of my mum's car. I didn't cry this time though, just moaned a little about whiplash. Cue my mum telling me I was 13 when that happened. And Jo telling me it was more than a little moaning this time...

Movember

You may be here because you're a regular reader, maybe you got my email and wanted in on the fun or maybe you're one of those americans who keep getting directed here after googling for pictures of Paul from the Wonder Years.

However you found your way here, no matter, welcome. So today is day 1 of Movember. I have a cleanly shaven face (well as cleanly shaven as my face can be) and I'm starting to think about what sort of mo I want or dare go for. I'll go for a few days of full growth then shave in the mo people want to see.

Below are a few possibilities so please use the comments box to vote for your favourite, or maybe even suggest a new one altogether.

I'm filled with dread - here are a few snaps from half way through last years Movember... Semi-mos

So check out these mos and let me know what you think...

Magnum Mo...

Wario Mo...
Private Walker Mo...

To donate follow the link on the right hand side of my page...