Former England manager Graham Taylor has blasted Rio Ferdinand, claiming he will never recover from his dip in form this season.
Ferdinand has had a difficult term so far this season due to injury and a loss of form.
Speaking to BBC Radio Five Live, Taylor said: "What I am going to say will probably surprise a lot of people, but I think Rio Ferdinand has lost his legs. Click to continue reading...

So, there, Cummins is gone. Duane Rollins thinks his leaving won't account for much, following his convincing argument the other day for Trader Mo's dismissal as sporting director.
Fine Cummins out, so can we stop the ex-lower level Luton/Newcastle parade now? These are the last of clubs in a long line of Graham Taylor-Watford-Wimbledon eighties style Charles Reep football, and follows a "we need this part to fit in this cog" line of thinking to work properly—you have to have two centerbacks and they both have to be big, you need a poacher near goal with a runner in behind him, and you need a classic lined up midfield to grease that 4-4-2. Click to continue reading...

Turns out that if you do this...

...and then let Kenwyne Jones beat you in the air like this...

... while Fabio Capello watches from the stands ... then you get dropped from the England squad. Fabio Capello has named his England squad to face Ukraine and Belarus, and Ben Foster is not in it.

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"Win every game!" was the advice Graham Taylor offered to his successor as England manager in 1994. Well Fabio Capello has done that competitively thus far, raising expectations in the land of false football optimism once more.In their fascinating new book 'Soccernomics'/'Why England Lose(UK)', out in the States October 27th, Simon Kuper & Stefan Szymanksi argue that the Three Lions have actually Click to continue reading...

The BBC's veteran radio commentator Alan Green has been at it again, this time insisting on Graham Taylor's removal as co-commentator for the recent England vs Croatia match. Mark Murphy wonders aloud whether it is time to put Green out to pasture.

BBC Radio Five Live's Alan Green has been at it again, having a spat with a fellow co-commentator and demanding his removal.

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Hard to argue with this Daily Mail list was probably surprisingly easy to assemble!

10. Keith Curle (3 caps, 1992)
Never an obvious candidate for international football, Curle had spent his formative years on the boggy pitches of the lower leagues.
Graham Taylor's scatter-gun approach to selection saw the Manchester City player appearing at right-back, only to be replaced by the left-midfielder Andy Sinton.

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Good luck pronouncing this one. Liverpool have completed the signing of Greece International centre-back Sotirios Kyrgiakos that's Sot-ear-rios Ker-jee-akos for the Graham Taylor's out there. The deal comes subject to a medical, and the fee is believed to be around the £1.5m mark. With such a low price tag, Kyrgiakos is either a big gamble on [. Click to continue reading...

Something to read while you learn not to trust rumours that start on Twitter and have absolutely no basis in fact: The answer is no, Rafa Benitez did not quit. He managed Liverpool to a 4-0 win instead, which is very much the opposite of quitting. So long to Special1 TV? (Arsenal Offside) It's still overpriced at 1p [. Click to continue reading...

The week's Ultimate 11's is Bobby Richards' England Pony 11. Bobby once scored 2 goals in Hastings as a 20 year old playing for an under 12's side, and was ever present when his Sunday League side took a 12-0, 8-0, and 14-0 battering. So who better quailified to give us his Ultimate England Pony 11!

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• Former Aston Villa Manager Graham Taylor Defends Gareth Barry's Exit - Goal.com

  tags: City

Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here. Click to continue reading...

The Manchester City rebuilding process has already started, as Mark Hughes has wrapped up the signing of Gareth Barry. The former Aston Villa midfielder completed the transfer yesterday in a move that cost City £12 million.

Barry had the chance to move to Liverpool last season but decided to help steer Aston Villa into next season's Europa League.

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YouTube - eamon dunphy euro 92 part 1 YouTube - eamon dunphy euro 92 part 1
Above (and continued below) is RTE's legendary Eamonn Dumphy and team just hammering England manager Graham Taylor after they fell out of Euro 92. Click to continue reading...

Ex-England boss' directional sense on par with his tactics During last night's Uefa Cup tie between Hamburg and Aston Villa, Craig Gardner fired a decent chance to get Villa back in the game over the crossbar. Here's what Five co-commentator Graham Taylor had to say on the matter: "Yes, it's only just over the bar, but over [. Click to continue reading...

Some might say I was fortunate enough not to have witnessed the impossible job first time round, but sat squirreled away on ITV4 this week I got to see second hand the car crash telly that documented Englands attempt to qualify for the 1994 World Cup in America, and call me a sad sentimental old fool, but I still hoped the outcome would be different. Click to continue reading...

Hey folks - here's a quick and very belated note to let you know that ITV is tonight showing once again the landmark Graham Taylor documentary An Impossible Job.
An Impossible Job was broadcast by Channel 4 in 1994 and followed Taylor's reign as England manager during qualification for the 1994 World Cup through to his dismissal after failing to guide the team to the finals in the USA. Click to continue reading...

According to barrister Jim Sturman, via The Times ...

"Some people are raging about this, but, as usual, based on a complete misunderstanding," Sturman said. "It is all in the relevant section of The FA handbook, which you can download from the internet, on wrongful dismissal appeals.

"Clubs have to notify the FA on the first working day after the match of an intention to appeal.

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Yeovil Town 1-1 Brighton and Hove Albion (13:09:08)

Before next weeks trip to Istanbul whereby I shall be sampling the (Turkish) delights of Beşiktaş and Fenerbahçe, I decided to take in a trip to Somerset to watch the blue and white wizards take on the Glovers.

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So, with Euro 2008 at an end, I will leave the in-depth tactical analysis of why Spain won over Germany to others better equipped to do so such as career winners losers Steve McClaren, Graham Taylor, and especially this guy,^ who propelled himself to a career of punditry on a bed of boring cliches that [. Click to continue reading...

BBC Sports asked Graham Taylor about how Germany can defeat Spain in the Euro 2008 final. From a former international manager, what would you expect to be emphasized as the first and most important part of the German strategy to defeat Spain?
....
....
....
....make a guess. Click to continue reading...

Is anyone else fed up with the speculation about Cristiano Ronaldo and whether he will leave the ManUre to go to Madrid?
Yes? Me too. So lets not talk about it.
Lets talk instead about last night's match.
I mean are those Italians spoilsports or what? Their style seemed to me to be characterised by a script along the lines of "We aren't actually going to put much effort into winning but we want to make sure you don't either". Click to continue reading...

Ian Wright Challenges John Doyle/English FA archives

Fifteen years ago today in Foxboro, MA the US National Team recorded one of its most important pre World Cup 1994 victories with a 2-0 win over England. For me personally as a US Soccer supporter, this was the match that proved to both myself and other die in wool US supporters that we could compete at a high level internationally.

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And so it ended, with Steve McClaren standing inane and inert underneath what Simon Barnes aptly called an "enormous and comic umbrella". It will symbolise his failure, just as a turnip did for Graham Taylor. As Dave Warner satirically put it, "The Croatian victory, which effectively eliminated England from qualifying for the EURO 2008 Championship, [. Click to continue reading...