I was talking to a Belgian fella not long ago who put the blame on the Belgian FA. Called them tight fisted crooks. Poor structures, poor managers and poor facilities basically.

Maybe you are right...but main reason that Belgium will never get win a big price....is because they are a divided country....Vlaanderen and Wallonie (dont know the english tanslation). Vlaanderen is speaking dutch and Wallonie french. Rivalry between both parts result in struggling getting team with one vision. Comparable with Spain (Catalunia (Barcelona) vs the rest of Spain)...although they won something lately...................

Yeah. England is very similar in that we are divided into 2 groups too.

One group who thinks John Terry is a nob and then on the other side John Terry.

In other news Martin Kelly replaces Gary Cahill. Good luck Kells.

Who's Martin Kelly??

As much as I like Kelly and that he's a Liverpool player...


BUT come on does Roy even know who Micah Richards is? Amazes me how he always is overlooked. I'd have included him from the start and yet he's not even called up when players drop out..

Oh, and clap clap to Dries Mertens aswell...

Edited at 15:56 Sun 03/06/12 (BST)

Is Kelly in Liverpools first team?? I've never even heard of him before.

Essentially second choice right-back behind Glen. Hope the lad does well though is usually fairly solid and will do whatever job he's asked well.

I don't know why people are struggling with this. Kelly plays RB for Liverpool but he is actually a CB.

Seeing as Cahill a CB was injured it makes sense to bring in a player who can play CB. Micah Richards cannot.

Kelly is 22 years old and has a good future ahead of him. He won't play though. Lescott will and if not him, Jagielka.

Richards is a RB/CB Imo. Anyway, I'm reliably informed it's his fault anyway for refusing to be on the standby list.

Kelly is better than Johnson at RB anyway and not far behind Dagger at CB, I would prob say he is as good as Jagielka too. Quality player he is I really don't understand how Johnson keeps him out the Liverpool team.

Plus Roy obviously has experience working with him and probably knows a lot more about him than most people who are moaning, and if Micah Richards did refuse to be on the standby list then it's his own problem.

Good luck Kelly.

I think Kelly has a long way to go still before he is our first choice RB or CB. Especially now under Rodgers because Agger is brilliant on the ball bringing the ball out from the back and Johnson offers more of an attacking threat than him at RB.

As Mich said Richards refused to sit on the stand by list so he ruled himself out of a place.

Rio isn't happy at all though, saying the FA and the Owl have disrespected him.

Good luck to you Martin Kelly! He has come a long way since being the second choice right back at Warrington Towns youth team

So another one bites the dust, jeez how many more injurys can England get!!! Poor Cahill, and that breaks up the Chelsea partnership... and well... a joke of a replacement lets be honest about it.... Think Roy needs to look at last seasons League Table and see where these Liverpool players finished.

Could easily of brought Rio Ferdinand in for god sakes. Or Michael Dawson for cover if he isnt injured.... not a guy who doesnt even play football for crying out loud dear me.

Not sure whos gonna partner Terry, Lescott probably... does inspire me with confidence that one!

Didnt see the Belgium game but appeared to be another lackluster performance from the boys. But apprantly England look hard to break down, spose thats something.

Oh and where are you getting the 'he refused to be on standby' with these players......

Not long to go! That France Game is gonna be well... its going to set the tone I think!

Trappytony has named the team to play Croatia in the Oirish's first game on Sunday!

Republic of Ireland: Given, O'Shea, Dunne, St Ledger, Ward, Duff, Andrews, Whelan, McGeady, Keane, Doyle

Good looking team actually... hope the Oirish do well and get to the Quarter Finals with England!

I can't see France beating us for some reason. I'm thinking we're going to get past the group stages, getting the country excited just to be shown up in the quarters.

The first game might be a tetchy affair as obviously its the 2 group favourites against eachother so could be a drab 0-0...

England played France in Euro 2004 in the first game and were 1-0 up with 5 mins to go... then some guy called Zindane stepped up and scored a wonderful freekick and then a Penalty to win 2-1... but England still progressed! So even if England lost vs France, can still qualify

Sky sports reported that both Carrick and Richards refused to go on the stand by list. Dawson is out with a knee injury.

France unbeaten in their last 20 internationals! Draw at best for us I think!

It's irrelivant what anybody say I think there's only 1 play that should of been called up and thats Shawcross, why does everybody constantly overlook him...

Even Fergie thinks he's a class player I don't get how people rate Kelly higher than him it's completly beyond me.

I guarantee when he leaves Stoke for a 'bigger' team he'll get the oportunity he's been looking for no doubt about that just same old same old Carroll gets picked over Crouch even though he's got a good England career, it's like if your face fits and obviously the Red n White badge of Stoke City doesn't

It's probably more to do with the fact that Hodgson knows we won't win this year and is looking to the future, Carroll is younger than Crouch, simple. The Kelly and Henderson decisions probably have more to with their good performances for England under 21s than anything.

Shawcross' idea of a tacke is to either go through his man or put his hands all over him.

In the prem he isn't punished for it, but in Europe he will be a foul a minute.

At intenational level you have to be good on the ball too. You can't just give it away hitting it long. You have to keep the ball and build from the back.

Said a while back no class side will want Stoke players in the side, because class sides want the ball.