England Squad

[Craig_H]

no-one - seasons finished, everyone is at home - they won't get the text till august 1st

[Mattshark]

That is potentially a very sound argument. Still think that the midfield options we have are a bit lightweight. Especially as none of them are natural holding players really. Only Carrick and Barry regularly even play in deep lying roles and at club level both operate best with a more robust partner.

To be fair, I think England in general lacks international class midfielders.

[Rich]

If I was one of the "threatened" players I'd leave my phone off and just turn up at the airport and act all excited, that way you can shame Fabio to take you anyway.

[Exiled_red]

If I was one of the "threatened" players I'd leave my phone off and just turn up at the airport and act all excited, that way you can shame Fabio to take you anyway.

[Shaggy]

If I was one of the "threatened" players I'd leave my phone off and just turn up at the airport and act all excited, that way you can shame Fabio to take you anyway.

[Craig_H]

If I was one of the "threatened" players I'd leave my phone off and just turn up at the airport and act all excited, that way you can shame Fabio to take you anyway.

[Shaggy]

If I was one of the "threatened" players I'd leave my phone off and just turn up at the airport and act all excited, that way you can shame Fabio to take you anyway.

Looks like one of them is doing exactly that

1359: On BBC Radio 5 live and elsewhere, they are playfully speculating that the delay to the official England squad announcement may be because Fabio Capello cannot get through to one of the players. He did say he'd tell the seven unlucky ones before making it public, so there might be some truth in that.

[Rich]

He'll be ironing his shirt and pressing his smart England suit as we speak

[PTP]

can we work out who it is refusing to face his reality?

walcott out, baines out, parker out, bent out, ?????

[PTP]

Incredible isn't it, this? Effectively we are watching the 2010 England World Cup squad being revealed on Twitter by well-informed journalists. It's history in the making.

[Shaggy]

Ledley King is in. That journo was talking ****.

[Pablo]

So the 7 that are missing our so far are:

Walcott
A. Johnson
Baines
Parker
Bent
Dawson/King

Who is the last one?

[Broner]

So the 7 that are missing our so far are:

Walcott
A. Johnson
Baines
Parker
Bent
Dawson/King

Who is the last one?

Huddlestone

[Pablo]

Ah yes, they my guess is it's Dawson/King not answering the phone, hence all the confusion.

[Matt]

I guess he could have held a meeting and told everyone at once, or even in one to ones. I don't think it would have been much better though. The real problem I suspect is that the players are now much more likely to leak information than in the past and have more ways of doing so quickly.

Well I don't think it would be particularly fair to inform the players as a group so it had to be one to ones. And as you say, the media are probably getting wind of things via the players themselves in one way or another.

-

if he had them all toegther it would have been dealt with quicker, easier, and then the announcement made with probably relativiley small leaks - and what leaks did get through, would have disappeared once the official announcement was made shortly after - now we seem to have a period of 3 hours or so from the first player being told he is out to the squad actually being announced.

Perhaps Fabio should have made a pre-recorded message with just the person's name changed, then all get phoned the message at exactly the same time - along with a simultaneous press release of the final 23.

"Sorry [insert name] you're not going to South Africa, unless it's part of your holiday plans and if it is then I hope you enjoy your summer, ciao."

Easy.

I prefer the X Factor style, putting the lucky/unlucky groups into rooms and doing the whole "sorry guys, this year it's a no" or "lads...it's bad news...[pause for effect]...you get no holiday this year cos you're coming to South Africa!!". Cue Hoppipola in the background and much jumping and hugging.

Obviously though if you were in the room with 6 others you'd have an inkling of what was about to happen