Premier League XIs / elevens / 11s (continued) (cont.) post-millennium ...

A continuation now of my seemingly popular football blogging ... the discussion / debate rages on the best Premier League side since its inception in 1992 (when Sky "invented football" according to the dirty Leeds fan) ... we turn our attention to a hand picked selection of players that you might pick to beat any other eleven ... think on ...

Did anyone watch any of them FA YouTube videos were current and former players picked their best all-time 5-a-side team ... horrendous, I can't believe the FA would publish them ... was it purely to prove how thick footballers really are??? Ashley Young, for example, picked a team of 6 players (for a 5-a-side team), all current England players (of all-time Ashley, seriously?) and included himself (again, seriously?) ... anyway, we thought we'd have a crack at picking our top 11 players that have graced the English Premier League since the Millennium Bug didn't destroy us all ...

So, without any Sheffield Wednesday players to distract me, or bias my selection (oh that will be to come, think on) ... I picked my team from the cream of the crop and thought they were quite good, what do you think? Who would you pick?? Who would you drop???

GK - Edwin Van Der Sar
RB - Gary Neville
LB - Ashley Cole
CB - Jaap Stam
CB - Roberto Carvalho
DM - Michael Essien
AM - Frank Lampard / Steve Gerrard
RW - Christiano Ronaldo
LW - Thierry Henry
SS - Wayne Rooney
CF - Didier Drogba

As you can see, I haven't ventured too far away from the big 4, not at all in fact, which players from outside the top 4 would make it into your first eleven?? JJ Okocha?

Also, if pushed I would go for Frank Lampard in the Lampard / Gerrard debate but I copped out and stuck them both in there ... who would you pick?

And you can still vote on your best Premiership XI here ... Mourinho's Chelsea winning so far ...

Best all-time Premiership side ???
	Manchester United treble winners
	Arsenal Invincibles
	Mourinho's Chelsea
	Current Machester City team
pollcode.com free polls

Disaster … Official SWFC.co.uk World Cup blog …

It's an indescribable feeling being an England fan and leaving the World Cup and the euphoria behind ... I'll just forward the words of Chris Waddle commentating on BBC Radio 5 Live for the game ... he knows the game ... "The FA just sit on their backsides doing nothing, tournament after tournament ... why don't they listen? Why don't they look at other countries and say "how they keep producing talent?" ... we coach talent out of players ... we look upon player like Wayne Rooney and Steve Gerrard who haven't turned up for this tournament ... Steven Gerard’s had a half decent tournament but where do we go? Where's the plan B? ... they say "well, we've got pacey wingers who can do ..." ... WE HAVEN'T !!! We haven't got players who can run ... and the back four can't control it .. Can't pass it ... we lack so many ideas it's so frustrating ... the amount of money in our league is frightening and all they do is waste it on rubbish ideas ... " So there FA ... and FIFA, come on, pull your finger out and get some goal line technology in ... it's beyond ridiculous ... they better have it in the Prem next season ... Vote for me to play at LoveBox 2010 if you would be so kind, thank you very much, it only takes a second ... http://apps.facebook.com/playlovebox/ And treat yourself to a FREE DOWNLOAD of the Adidas Trainers (Stan Smith remix) ... http://www.matthenshaw.bandcamp.com/ Regards, Matt Henshaw

There we have it ... England through, do the do ... Official SWFC.co.uk World Cup blog …

Round 1 down ... but is there anyone else like me still a little disappointed that the last 20 minutes were an exercise in keep-ball rather than entertainment ... I'm as pleased as the next English born fella that we've made it by the skin of our teeth but I wouldn't mind a little flair for my money ... bringing on a cumbersome chap like Heskey to hold the ball up (which he does well by the way) and using someone with the skill and finesse like Joe Cole to keep the ball in the corner when I believe we should be putting in the second and third in the 70th to 90th minutes of the game ... or am I just an unsatisfiable England fan ... I'd probably complain if we won it because they scored an own goal ... although that would be nice if it was someone annoying like Puyol ... So, what can we take from the game? Milner played well after giving the ball away every time he had it in the first 15 minute ... as did Upson (who I had nightmares about messing up against USA) ... Is Rooney still looking haggered by injury woes? But Lampard and Gerrard looked good, finally, would have been nice to see either of them score but as Mick n Keef sang, "you can't always get what you want" ... maybe that should be an England World Cup song along with Three Lions ... it seems a fitting epitaph for the last 100 years of World Cup woe ... sorry? what? It's only been going since 1930 ... yes, well, I've only been around since 1987 but it still seems like 100 years !!! It'll probably be Germany in the next round anyways ... what do you think about that ??? Vote for me to play at LoveBox 2010 if you would be so kind, thank you very much, it only takes a second ... http://apps.facebook.com/playlovebox/ And treat yourself to a FREE DOWNLOAD of the Adidas Trainers (Stan Smith remix) ... http://www.matthenshaw.bandcamp.com/

Owen Hargreaves and I ... Official SWFC.co.uk World Cup blog ...

Here's is the blog that allowed me to become the official SWFC.co.uk blogger for this summer's world cup in South Africa ... I will follow it up shortly with my first proper world cup blog just 4 days before the excitement begins ... it shall be a glorious summer ...

I know this is supposed to be a humorous blog however my entry is laced with sadness ... it was a hot a summers day; the 1^st of July if you wish me to be precise. The location was an well-known Australian themed pub in Derby, in the East Midlands, neither here nor there in the United Kingdom. Penalties. The dreaded “P”-word. Rooney was gone; as too was all hope of seeing the semi-finals, perhaps for what felt like my life time, this was our chance, 2006, the golden boys, led by Golden Balls himself. Christiano Ronaldo with one fell wink had done his damage. Lampard: Miss. Hargreaves: Scores, many wouldn’t have even taken him to Germany. Gerrard and Carragher: both Miss, you can guarantee they’d have put it through the net if they had been wearing red!! Then Ronaldo twists the knife, no-one thought he’d be welcomed back to Manchester again (but who would have predicted the best season of his career?!) So there I am stood by the market square fountain in the middle of Derby of all places. And all the passers-by say something to the affect of “good penalty mate” and/or “at least you scored your penalty mate!” I don’t know what was more depressing ... England out of the World Cup; or that all of these drunken people in the middle of Derby thought I was Owen Hargreaves ... and that I was their mate!

http://www.matthenshaw.com