Fail Wales

Wales fancied it, no doubt. Young players coming through nicely. England aside, a relatively 'easy' qualifying group. A real chance of the play-offs surely, and a local derby against the big neighbours...and then...who knows? Optimism had returned after six years of rebuilding that garnered some pretty poor results. Some genuine talent amongst a crop of fresh-faced and eager youngsters. Ledley, Ramsey, Bale, Evans, Collison and Church all names talked about as future stars that could just maybe rival Giggs, Rush, Hartson and Bellamy et al. This was a squad to get genuinely excited about.

So much for the optimism. All gone on one fateful Friday night in Podgorica against Montenegro. Let's dispense with the usual 'no easy games in International football' guff shall we? Andorra, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg and San Marino are easy games. Montenegro are not in that category, but the truth is if you have any ambition to qualify for tournaments you have to beat them. Or at least not lose to them. Wales did just that. And not only that, looked pretty fragile and uninspiring in the process.

So what next? Even with the excuse that some of those key players were injured (and there is never going to be enough strength in depth) we should be aiming to post a decent performance against Montenegro and come away with something. That we were unable to do that was particularly hard to take in light of England's comfortable, rehabilitating thrashing of Bulgaria in the same group.

It's time for John Toshack to move on. He's never been a popular choice among the fans and he is seen as a divisive figure (ask Robbie Savage!) by many. Maybe he was the right man to make the transition from the Mark Hughes era but the truth is we have been out of the last two qualifying campaigns before they've even got going and now this. It makes it very hard for the nation to get excited about watching the national team. Seven years ago we were outclassing Italy in front of 72,000!

The talent is undoubtedly there, but something is not right. We can't expect to be world beaters but we should be doing better than Northern Ireland and Scotland who can only look on with envy at the players at our disposal. We need a talismanic figure who can motivate and inspire. Step forward Ryan Giggs, your country needs you!

5 reasons why Gylfi Sigurdsson's departure could be a good thing

It was inevitable. The only surprise might be the timing and the destination, but the Royal's gifted Icelandic midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson is off to Hofenheim to play in the Bundesliga. Cue mass hysteria from a sizable portion of fans, but once again it's time for a reality check for many Loyal Royals. Here's my 5 reasons why this isn't the end of the world for Reading FC:

Back to 4-4-2
Churchy, Long and Hunt don't exactly excel in the lone front man role and we've lost Rasiak, so with Gylfi gone it's an ideal opportunity to revert to the system that took us to glory a few years back under Sir Steven of Coppellshire.

Dump the debt

No football club of our size should be operating with debt, it's not a good foundation for long-term success. Those who think this is all about 'lining Madejski's coffers' I think are being naive to say the least. Our ambition should be to prosper as a club on a firm financial footing.

Bring on the kids

A youth policy only works if you give those youngsters you are developing a chance. Gylfi got his chance and grasped it, what's to say that others won't do the same? Why should we 'reinvest' in older 'established' players who are often overvalued, overpaid and don't deliver the goods?

One-man team

I'm not sure it was ideal the way Gylfi had been portrayed in some corners as the saviour of Reading FC. We need more than one star in the team - and we've got a few players who fit that bill on their day. Of course he'll be missed, but the team can unite and move forward with purpose.

Now we can move on

Such drawn out transfer stories are never going to be a good thing for the player, team and club. Nobody wanted a Stephen Hunt saga. As sad as it is to see the departure of a fine young player, tomorrow it will be in the past and it will be time to focus on the next game.

...and how about some celebration for the fact that the club can nurture and develop talent in this way? Gylfi had not played any 1st team football before the start of last season - now he's valued at £6m. Who is to say we can not continue to do this?

No Gary, there's MUCH to envy about Germany

There can't have been many England fans watching Argentina getting dismantled by the wonderful German side of World Cup 2010 thinking "I admire them, but I wouldn't want anything they've got". But there was certainly one very high profile former England player who expressed precisely those sentiments. Gary Lineker probably wanted to be unqualified in his praise, but sensing the mood of a nation still in the fug of a mauling by Jogi Low's team he mumbled "It's not hard to not envy the Germans". You could read it like this: "We don't really like Germany, but boy they are really good".

Will we ever see people purring about the delights of German football in the way they get themselves in such a lather about Brazil and Argentina? Not likely. It suits many observers to retreat into stereotyping that stumbles clumsily into jingoism and on occasion, casual racism of the laziest kind (Africans don't understand defending, but y'know they can be very skilful). When the pain of having an average at best national side just won't go away then what else is there to make them feel better but to patronise everyone else?

If a nation's football team can say something about how that nation feels about itself then this country must really be in the doldrums. And let's face it- oh the irony - it's those English players who are cold, uninspiring & robotic. German players are excelling at a brand of modern football more technically skilful than Argentina and Brazil, better in defence than Italy (when they were good!), and more enterprising than Holland and Uruguay. They deserve full and unreserved credit. Should they fail to win the tournament they will have still set a standard that others will have to rise to - and it's a standard that England can only imagine in their wildest dreams.

England, your England

I remember when it started.

One of my earliest sporting memories was watching rugby on the TV with my father. I guess it must have been about 1975, and that legendary Wales team were beating absolutely everyone in sight. I liked football, but didn't really watch it much at that age. Hard to imagine for some now, but it wasn't really on the telly much back then. (the first live televised 'top tier' game of the modern age was not until 1983). My old man always said it was full of 'poofs kissing each other' anyway. Not really a man's sport at all. So it was rugby for me, sat in front of the telly for Five Nations matches on a Saturday afternoon. And when my Dad exploded with joy after a Gareth Edwards' try, running around the room like a court jester on amphetamines, I knew the Welsh jersey meant something very special to him. So the Dai was cast as it were.

Despite being born and living in England there was never really a question of ever supporting England. The rugby Five Nations was all about the rivalry between 'the Celts' and the English, with the French thrown in for good measure and the odd gallic shrug. Supporting a fabulously exciting team who chucked the oval ball around with buckets of flair was easy to do, but the truth is I had no choice. "You're Welsh son, don't forget it!" That sort of thing. Except my mother is Scottish. So technically I was a pure-blooded celt who happened to live in England. What's a boy to do?

My love affair with the round balled-game came a bit later after I started playing it. Everybody was playing football. All you needed was a ball and some jumpers. Rugby? I didn't really have the physique. And all those complicated rules, it's not a game for playing down the park. My earliest memories of a football World Cup were of the 1978 tournament. All ticker-tape, bad hair and, well, no England. So of course with no sign of Wales I naturally supported Scotland. Strange to consider now that Ally McLeod's team went to that tournament with serious ambitions to win it. Archie Gemmill's goal aside there was little to cheer for the Tartan Army. But subsequently during the Home Internationals I found myself wanting Scotland AND Wales to beat England. Didn't happen very often, but oh when it did that was something special to savour.

Something strange happened in Italia '90, I found myself out watching the games a lot in pubs and finding it easy to set aside my natural prejudice. Second Summer of Love? The brilliance of 'World in Motion'? Gazza? The legendary Bobby Robson? Can't work out why, but it didn't last.

In the many years between it's been simple really. Wales all the way, through thick and mainly thin. Even saw (and enjoyed) Wales beat Scotland twice in one crazy week back in 2004, once at rugby and then at football! So maybe I'm best described as an Englishman with the blood of a celt. Easy to see why supporting 'Great Britain' (Olympics, British Lions etc) is so appealing for me. No complexities, no twisted loyalties.

So can I support England during this World Cup? No, sorry. I have no axe to grind, no chip on the shoulder. Despite being my country I'm afraid they're just not my team and never have been. The partisan nature of football fans often requires us to ask that old clichéd question: Club or Country? Royals winning a major trophy or England winning the World Cup? Well, obviously for me there's no contest.

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