"jbm" wrote:

"Col" wrote in message
"Lawrence Jenkins" wrote in message

England are rubbish Col they are flattered by the foriegn players in the premiership. The
Germans don't have the situation where their league is full of non-German players whilst
ours is due to the money involved, Our national side is in terminal decline.

I think it is too easy to use the foreign infux of players as a scapegoat.
Remember in the 1970s when we failed to qualify for two consecutive
World Cups?

And didn't need to qualify for the previous two! Pretty poor record, if you ask me.

[Someone may like to correct me on this one, but I THINK Scotland had qualified for more
World Cups than England prior to 1994.]

1950 ENG SCO - Scotland qualified, but withdrew from the finals
1954 ENG SCO
1958 ENG SCO
1962 ENG -
1966 ENG - - England qualified as host nation
1970 ENG - - England qualified as holders
1974 - SCO
1978 - SCO
1982 ENG SCO
1986 ENG SCO
1990 ENG SCO
1994 - -
1998 ENG SCO
2002 ENG -
2006 ENG -
2010 ENG -

So prior to 1994 England played in 9 but only qualified for 7, while Scotland
played in 7 but qualified for 8.