New Manager

[Workingman]

Molly, don't worry, our Ostrich is a football

[TheOstrich]

Yes, absolutely, don't mind me, Molly. Any more haggis and I shall be as spherical as a football anyway!

Here's the FH stadium in StreetView. Not exactly Old Trafford, but there you go ....

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@64.07638 ... 312!8i6656

[cromwell]

Get in there Vic!

I wouldn't have anybody that is currently with the FA as the new manager, including Gareth Southgate, and I'd clear the entire backroom staff out down to the kit man, as well as a lot of the players.

The FA is a rich comfort zone and it has done nothing to make the national team any better. Our team were better in the days of the "blazers", before the money men took over.

[miasmum]

I completely agree with Suff.

The day Arsenal fielded a whole team that wouldn't know Highbury if they fell over it I switched off. At that time I loved football, I supported Arsenal and Ipswich. Now I watch things like Euro 2016 but have no interest in the premier league but still support Ipswich.

We need to start bringing players up through our soccer academies and using them not buying talent from abroad and selling our youngsters to lower league clubs. Either that or we need to pick hungry, young, talented players from lower leagues to represent their country, like Wales, N Ireland and the ROI do.

[TheOstrich]

We need to start bringing players up through our soccer academies and using them not buying talent from abroad and selling our youngsters to lower league clubs. Either that or we need to pick hungry, young, talented players from lower leagues to represent their country, like Wales, N Ireland and the ROI do.

There are some signs that soccer "academies" - where aspiring footballers can train with a club while pursuing higher education courses at a linked local college - are beginning to produce a bit of talent. Many lads fall by the wayside, of course, but a couple of local Romulus FC academy players have recently been signed by Notts County, and one to watch is a certain Yohan Rutty-Smith.

http://nplfa.co.uk/yohan-rutty-smith/

[Workingman]

I can 'see' the answer in what Suff and you others are saying, but it will be an uphill task.

Eddie, the chair of the junior club my son played for, wrote to the local FA asking why we never saw any scouts at games only the families and friends of players.

When he got no answer he wrote to FA headquarters asking the same thing and informing them that if they did not reply he would ask the local pro clubs Leeds United, Bradford and the two Sheffield clubs. When all was silent he did write to the clubs and the media.

Not long after one James Milner was taken on by Leeds and one of our lads, Tom, went to Sheff Wednesday. Tom didn't make it and ended up in the lower divisions, but James became an England player.

I think the attitude still exists in the FA and clubs. It is why I see the FA as not fit for purpose. And clubs do not appear to have scouts any more, they have hot lines to players' agents instead.

[Aggers]

I don't think it is right to get players from another country in a football team.

I was brought up in a town where every player was a local man, known to us.

[cromwell]

WM, my son played football for years and we never saw one FA person or scout at matches.

[Workingman]

I saw an interesting point made on the BBC website.

The FA knew that Hodson's contract was up post Euro 2016 so why is it now scraping around for a manager. All the groundwork should have been done and a successor identified and approached.

Had we won Hodgson, at 68, could have been given a decent golden handshake.

More evidence that the FA is worth sweet FA to the game.

[cromwell]

The FA should be renamed the joke shop. The richer our footballers have become, the worse the national team has got.