Seventy-seven views and not one reply? To hell with the lot of you.

Anyway, for those interested (i.e. me, AIATL and Garcia), here are a few great old clips of Dunphy, Giles and Bill O'Herlihy sifting through the rubble of England's 2-1 defeat by Sweden at Euro 92.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2SFZVjiQO2k&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLu2L1ZyHXA&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JsSatkILfI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAJxxJautHc&feature=related

Hey, I was just about to reply to that!

What a fantastic clip. Now we know where Mark E. Smith gets his moves from.

I spent about an hour on youtube last night just looking at old bits of analysis and some apres match clips as well. Thanks for the link - wish I had known that they would be on the show.

As an aside, it looked like Miriam was totally besotted by Gilesy.

Why do the pundits on Irish TV pretend they wanted England to win, and why do Irish viewers put up with this attitude?

Their analysis is useless as well. "how could England concede a goal to a player who failed a trial at Spurs", FFS. Aren't these guys usually put forward as good examples compared to the idiots at Sky/ITV/BBC etc?

I was just thinking: maybe Dunphy and Venables could settle it once and for all in a croon-off.

I used the initial clip as a stepping-off point for looking at a lot of Dunphy clips, is the time he called Charlton's Ireland "a disgrace" (or something similar) not on youtube?

QUOTE:
Why do the pundits on Irish TV pretend they wanted England to win, and why do Irish viewers put up with this attitude?

Their analysis is useless as well. "how could England concede a goal to a player who failed a trial at Spurs", FFS. Aren't these guys usually put forward as good examples compared to the idiots at Sky/ITV/BBC etc?

Wow, that's completely they opposite view to the one I had when I watched it.

Where did they say they wanted England to win? Throughout the clips they criticised the style of play and the manager's decisions.

I got the impression that they were having a go at Spurs for not signing a player who they thought was too small but he could still beat Palmer to a high ball in the penalty area.

stefan wrote:

QUOTE:
Why do the pundits on Irish TV pretend they wanted England to win

They don't.

They are savage on England, year in, year out, at every tournament. That Sweden-England clip consists of Dunphy and Giles tearing Graham Taylor and his team to pieces, and backing up their views with examples and hard facts.

And they're criticising Spurs for getting rid of Jan Eriksson, not the other way round.

OK, but their attitude is the very same as the English media, namely that England's players should be good enough to challenge for every major international championships, and when they don't (which is every time) it's the fault of the manager.

The only people on OTF who share this view are people who regularly watch Irish TV. Conincidence of course.

The only English player who doesn't get criticised on RTE is Paul Scholes. They'll talk about the flaws, weaknesses and how overhyped the rest of the players are.

Stefan, with all due respect, you're talking out of your arse here. They criticised Graham Taylor for making crazy selection decisions (Andy Sinton going from LB to RW to LB) and style of passing and then for being ridiculous in his interview. They showed were Sweden had played good passing football in areas.

stefan wrote:

QUOTE:
OK, but their attitude is the very same as the English media, namely that England's players should be good enough to challenge for every major international championships, and when they don't (which is every time) it's the fault of the manager.

Erm, at Euro 92 it was very much the fault of the manager.

As well as a thousand other fuck-ups, he didn't bring a single proper right-back to the tournament, and used a central defender (Curle) there in the first game, a midfielder (Sinton) in the second game, and another midfielder (Batty) in the third game.

His tactics were hare-brained and illogical and he didn't have the first idea what he was doing. When he was found out, he began trying to lie his way out of it, claiming that the Swedes had resorted to up-and-unders in the second half.

I was watching those clips myself yesterday evening, and it is hard to believe that Taylor managed to survive Euro 92 and "lead" England into the USA 94 qualifiers.

QUOTE:
The only English player who doesn't get criticised on RTE is Paul Scholes. They'll talk about the flaws, weaknesses and how overhyped the rest of the players are.

Well perhaps, but these examples don't show any of that. They don't offer any insight that Alan Hansen couldn't have.

Sorry for pointing out the flaws, weaknesses and how overhyped the Irish pundits are. Or were. Obviously it's a bit harsh to be judging them on 16 year old clips.

stefan wrote:

QUOTE:

QUOTE:
The only English player who doesn't get criticised on RTE is Paul Scholes. They'll talk about the flaws, weaknesses and how overhyped the rest of the players are.

Well perhaps, but these examples don't show any of that. They don't offer any insight that Alan Hansen couldn't have.

Stefan, have you actually watched Alan Hansen at any point in the past decade? He has nothing to offer any more.

Sure, I spent half of the recent tournament in London.

QUOTE:
Erm, at Euro 92 it was very much the fault of the manager.

Well yes, perhaps with a better manager they might have squeezed past Denmark, which all things considered would have been a good thing. But England have failed in much the same way every bloody time since 1966. The only factor that has not changed over time is the ineptitude of the players.

Well, there's relative failure (say, losing in the quarter-finals) and then there's absolute failure (one goal in three games, no wins, out in the first round).

Taylor was an absolutely shocking England manager, and to suggest that he achieved all that he possibly could with that particular bunch of players (many of whom had reached the World Cup semi-finals two years earlier) is preposterous. How are they meant to win games when the manager is putting midfield destroyers in the full-back positions?

As for Hansen, he never slags off English players because he plays golf and socialises with many of them. He's happy to put the boot into foreigners, though. Witness his comments about Ricardo Carvalho after Chelsea's 3-0 defeat at Middlesbrough a few years ago, in which John Terry had fucked up big-time for two of the goals.