England World Cup Squad Gossip - Ferdinand Sent Home

By blackandblue1 | Friday, June 04, 2010, 18:35

So now that Rio is on crutches and Michael Dawson has been called up, what of further training in the England camp? How far should they push themselves before the tournament kicks off?

I talked to the editor of a football magazine and he thought that even though Ledley King was a surprise call-up, he could now become a mainstay of the team.

Apparently, the Tottenham defender never trains because of a knee injury. He just plays a game, goes home, then when everyone else trains, he works out in the gym and rests his knee, which blows up like a balloon after every game. At the end of the season, he did no more than a game a week, which suprised a lot of people, and his boss, Harry Redknapp, told Fabio Capello that King was fine to be risked in the World Cup squad. There's no doubting King's ability but his fitness and his ability to cope with tournament football has been questioned by some. Yet... there could be just as long between games for England as there would be in a tough domestic season for his club.

You have to wonder how hard they should push it in training, and whether we stand any chance if we lose any more players to injury before we've even got as far as the first match! Surely there must be other ways to train rather than getting in to physical tackles?

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Comments

Who knows what is going on behind closed doors? At the end of the day, it's what happens on the pitch tomorrow that matters. Whatever they think of Capello or whatever their problems, surely they should all want to win the World Cup? I didn't see one player who convinced me that they were really hungry for it. I hope we see some kind of determination tomorrow. Please!

By ALGrace at 21:41 on 22/06/10
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I was amazed to see the interview that John Terry did on the news last night - he was very critical of Capello and I thought at the time that it seemed rather disloyal and quite provocative. He said that there was going to be a meeting when the players would speak their minds to the manager. Today however, Frank Lampard gave an interview which was much more measured, and said the meeting had been no different to previous meetings. I think Terry was just stirring things up - and even if the team is not performing as well as it should, talking to the press like that wasn't going to help at this late stage. Let's hope for a better performance on Wednesday.

By Chrissy4547 at 01:33 on 22/06/10
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Up until yesterday, all the talk of injuries and possible inclusions to the England squad was nothing more to me than journalists doing their best to stir things up. But then I decided to catch the second half of England's final warm-up game against South Africa's Platinum Stars... Well, I know we won 3-0, but it was a bit of a shocker! I am now slightly concerned about games going forward. I have been telling people that I believed England would make it to the final, what was I thinking! They would not only have to improve tenfold, but they would have to put out an entirely different team! As for John Terry coming out today and saying that the team haven't played well because of the altitude difference, well I'm sure it does make a big difference... But half the teams in the world cup will be faced with the same problem and I bet they won't all use it as an excuse if they loose. If England go out early, I hope Capello doesn't suffer the wrath of the press. It's about time we realised that this team just does not gel and no manager in the world can fix that!

By pedigree_chum at 16:19 on 08/06/10
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