....and we lose on penalties :( :( :(

Outplayed but showed great spirit to hang on.  Nothing different then.  

Well a semi final and winning a tournament has set the bar. Now for the overpaid seniors to do there part.

I think we have great young players, but the problem has tended to be their next stage of development.  

I hope that if these players don't find they're able to get into a Premier League team, they go abroad to try to develop in Portugal, Spain, France or the Netherlands.  The Premier League isn't the be all and end all and there are opportunities out there if players can put their development ahead of money.  I'm not optimistic sadly.

As a young child I vaguely remember the celebrations after winning the World Cup in 66. We've had a couple of near misses since then to win a major tournament to be fair

But.....  

In recent years we seem to have gone backwards, so I have come to accept that the England senior squad won't win a major tournament while a have a hole in my @rse.

Before the game started, they showed both teams and how many prem league, and bundesliga games the players have played.

Needless to say the German players had played far more games than the English.

There lies the problem.

Quoted from mimma

Before the game started, they showed both teams and how many prem league, and bundesliga games the players have played.

Needless to say the German players had played far more games than the English.

There lies the problem.

Nailed it.  But how many of our team would get a game in the Bundesliga, or Serie A, or the Eredevisie, or Le Championnat?  

I don't know how much of this is that they're not good enough, technically, for the top European Leagues, how much of it is that they're just not emotionally intelligent enough to cope with leaving the UK, and how much is that they're only bothered about the money so don't much care about technical and career development.  

Quoted from HackneyHaddock

Nailed it.  But how many of our team would get a game in the Bundesliga, or Serie A, or the Eredevisie, or Le Championnat?  

I don't know how much of this is that they're not good enough, technically, for the top European Leagues, how much of it is that they're just not emotionally intelligent enough to cope with leaving the UK, and how much is that they're only bothered about the money so don't much care about technical and career development.  

Tammy Abraham is a case in point here. Earns £45k a week at chelski. His club want him loaned out so that he can get regular first team football and just want his wages covering (I say just but it is a disgusting amount of money as it is). A number of teams were interested including Swansea (were he has now gone), Newcastle and Brighton (I have a contact there). His agent insisted that his wages for this loan period went up to £60k per week and that there was a signing on fee (nothing to do with Chelsea). This is thought to be up to £1million of which the player and agent would have split the majority. This is why Brighton pulled out of the race to sign him. Agents are greedy f8ckers who are only interested in one thing, but the player also has to take some responsibility and unfortunately it seems a lot of them are just interested in the money.

Whatever happened to jumpers for goalposts and having a dream of just playing football for a living. Very sad.