Football

What can I say? Pants? That England have only managed 9 goals between them and Healy has managed that on his own for Northern Ireland probably says it all. NI were crackingly good value last night against Sweden and are making the most of their small talent pool. England meanwhile seem to be squandering their much more significant resources. McClaren never was 'The Man' and clearly isn't growing into the job. I'd like to see him go but that's just not going to happen unfortunately.

It strikes me there are two main problems - Gerrard/Lampard and our lack of a goalscoring striker. Clearly the answer to the first is to drop one of them. My preference would be to play Gerrard (and make him Captain) as I think he's the slightly better player and he's younger. I think we've seen the best of Lampard and his game will now begin to slowly deteriorate as he gets older.

The striker problem is a biggie. I don't think that Owen is going to turn out to be our saviour. Too many injuries will take their toll now. Anyone who's had knee surgery knows that it upsets the bodies balance - biomechanics I think it's called. I've had years of back trouble since my knee op, something I'd never had before. None of Crouch, Defoe, Johnson or increasingly Rooney look up to the job. My preference is probably for Johnson but I'd like to see a 20 goal a season man up front and currently they are all foreign.