Your Ideal England Line-up

[chishnfips]

Sadly with the obvious exceptions of shrek and donkey (now at Wigan) the rest are ineligable for England having played for Scotland for so long

The current crop are better compared to Paris Hilton, Nicole Ritchie or the entire clutch of big brother nomarks, all famous for being famous rather than for doing anything useful and getting paid far too much money for doing nothing

Arfie

lol Touche

 

[Underwurlde]

ROFL.


f'in brilliant arfie.

 

[nukeonekitty]

And the states get David Beckham... what a pleasure...

 

[Underwurlde]

For (deep breath now)

One
Hundred..
And..
Twenty..
Eight..
MILLION..
Dollars.

 

[qwikimpss]

Yeah, the MLS got Beckham. His guaranteed contract is worth about 52 million US dollars but over the 5 years there will be about 200 million dollars of product endorsement money thrown in there so he looks to make about a million bucks a WEEK! This is fairly sickening to me 'cuz it's just SO MUCH MONEY!

It will give the MLS a little more exposure because over here, honestly, no one really pays attention to it. The pro-sports pecking order around here goes:

#1 (American) Football (NFL)
#2 Basketball (NBA)
#3 Baseball (MLB)
#4 Hockey (NHL)
#5 Golf (PGA)
#6 Soccer (MLS)

So, yeah, the MLS may get some more TV time and more ad endorsements but it is still an afterthought to most American sports enthusiasts. Most of the new viewers will be tuning in to the Los Angeles Galaxy games to watch JUST Davin Beckham. A majority won't watch any other teams.

Not to mention any real, hardcore soccer (football) fan in the US gets the soccer channels and watches the games from across the pond where the real, premier soccer is, not this second-rate, sad excuse for a league.

 

[nukeonekitty]

I know you said pro sports, but you have to figure college football and basketball are also ranked higher than soccer. To be honest in the states soccer is just an activity to TRY and help keep our children to stay fit and not get fat! I'm not sure if anything would make soccer big here.

 

[Arfie]

For (deep breath now)

One
Hundred..
And..
Twenty..
Eight..
MILLION..
Dollars.

I think that that's potentially One hundred and twenty eight million POUNDS !!! Queens English, proper money, POUNDS Sterling!!!! or $250m according to The Times anyway. It appears to be potential earnings with commercial endorsements, but he'll probably make it.

I think the Americans that think that Football will never be big are unaware of the commercial pull of someone like Beckham, for example you'll get hundreds of thousands of Japanese viewers tuning in to watch him playing along with thousands of screaming girls (and some boys ). The sponsors like Adidas will ensure their investment is seen and will spend more cash jazzing it up and getting it Football more coverage on the networks.

It is just staggering that he will earn 5 times more than the whole of the rest of the squad all added together just in salary though.

Arfie

 

[Tiger Tiger]

GK - Mr Magoo (for obvious reasons)
RB - Goofy
LB - Bugs Bunny
CB - Homer Simpson
CB - Elmer Fudd (because he would spend his time trying to shoot bugs bunny)
LM - spongebob square pants
RM - donkey (from shrek)
CM - Captain Planet
CM - Junior (The fat one from fraggle rock)
ST - Shrek (oops he is already in the team)
ST - Hoggle (The dwarf from the labarynth)

There's my choice, all top class world players and no doubt will do a better job than the current team lol.

I disagree, I think Homer at CB is a big mistake, he can't jump. Although his control with his Belly is outstanding...a real natural. I would put shrek in there and play a 442 and i certainly do not want my midfield shooting my LB.
Put Fudd as Coach........We know he will stick to his Guns


I do think that the way that Beckem was dropped was degrading for him , he served his country well , Drop him by all means but he should have given him a few shouts first.
I still truethfully believe he should still be in the Squad.

Still.......If Rooney is off form next game and Terry not fit we are all shagged anyway.

 

[nukeonekitty]

I think that that's potentially One hundred and twenty eight million POUNDS !!! Queens English, proper money, POUNDS Sterling!!!! or $250m according to The Times anyway. It appears to be potential earnings with commercial endorsements, but he'll probably make it.

I think the Americans that think that Football will never be big are unaware of the commercial pull of someone like Beckham, for example you'll get hundreds of thousands of Japanese viewers tuning in to watch him playing along with thousands of screaming girls (and some boys ). The sponsors like Adidas will ensure their investment is seen and will spend more cash jazzing it up and getting it Football more coverage on the networks.

It is just staggering that he will earn 5 times more than the whole of the rest of the squad all added together just in salary though.

Arfie

I think you need to realize what a big deal FOOTBALL is here... Sorry to say that a majority of Americans think of soccer players as "foot fairies"... we just don't like the sport; we like impact, speed and power. I don't think more than 30 girls here will know who Beckham is... Funny though that a soccer player is making more money than any other athelete in professional sports. The only reason they paid him that much money is because they don't have a salary cap and the rest of the team makes like 6 bucks an hour...

 

[Arfie]

I think you need to realize what a big deal FOOTBALL is here... Sorry to say that a majority of Americans think of soccer players as "foot fairies"... we just don't like the sport; we like impact, speed and power. I don't think more than 30 girls here will know who Beckham is... Funny though that a soccer player is making more money than any other athelete in professional sports. The only reason they paid him that much money is because they don't have a salary cap and the rest of the team makes like 6 bucks an hour...

Oh I do realise how big that NFL stuff is there, what I think many Americans fail to realise is that most of the rest of the world doesn't have any interest in your own sports like NFL (I refuse to call it football as you throw the thing!), basketball and baseball but football is the biggest sport in many countries around the world.

To help you understand the size that real football is on this planet, the superbowl attracts around 98 million viewers, with the World Cup, the draw alone attracted 250 million viewers, the final had over 1 BILLION viewers!!!

David Beckham is quite possibly the most recognised sportsman in the world (not just USA), THAT is why he is being paid that much money. Quite simply he will attract millions of $ in income, with girls flocking to swoon over him and people who are mildly interested in football going to see one of the most famous players in the world and the merchandising alone will bring in hundreds of millions of $$$$.

Then there's the celebrity side of him, with the wife, he's buddies with Tom Cruise, Hugh Heffner is supposedly inviting him to the mansion and that will raise his profile further.

Whilst I know that it won't make Football the number one sport for most Americans, in fact I doubt it will ever get above NFL, NBA or MLB but even raising it to #4 would be a hell of a change and you may well find it being the #2 choice of a hell of a lot of people. And with more hype and TV coverage many more people will watch out of curiosity. The thing that surprises me is that Football is classed as middle class over there, where as in the rest of the world it is a working class sport, because all you need for a game is a ball, no pads, helmets, bats etc.

Just to further highlight the difference in world terms, the best known american team sportsman I know is Shaq, put Shaq vs Beckham into googlefight and look at the difference in searches. I couldn't name you a single NFL player and the last baseball players I can name are Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa so Shaq was the best I could come up with. If you use full names, he even gets more hits than Tiger Woods So while you think only 30 girls will know him, you are sadly mistaken, but ask the majority of the rest of the world to name 5 top NFL/NBA/MLB stars and most (including me) will fail.

Like it or not America, the world capital of Hype has just inherited the King of hype and to be honest, you are welcome to him can you take Wayne Rooney too

So I am aware how big american sports are (in america) but you fail to realise just how small they all are even added together in comparison to football

Arfie

 

[nukeonekitty]

Yeah but how you may view the NFL/MLB/NBA/NHL is how we look at soccer... I know two soccer players... Beckham and Ronaldino (sp?) Detroit just got an indoor soccer team and they are already talking about moving because they aren't making money... Just because the rest of the world like soccer, doesn't mean we will...

 

[Arfie]

I know you (as in america as a whole) may not take to football as I said, I doubt it would ever come close to NFL, NBA etc, what I am trying to explain to you is why they are paying that kind of money for him, simply because the world is considerably bigger than the USA, therefore the potential earnings from making football popular in the USA is staggering.

The other thing to consider is that you aren't into it because you don't get to view it on a regular basis on the major networks, because it's not popular, it's a catch-22, not popular cos it gets no coverage, but gets no coverage because it's not popular. The sponsors will be prepared to spend large sums of money to advertise on TV when they think lots of people will view them (hence superbowl advertising costing so much) if they are prepared to spend a lot of cash, you may find one of the networks being prepared to show football for the advertising revenue alone. Once it starts being shown on TV more people will have the chance to get into it and learn the rules and it will become more popular, as I said, not the number 1 sport but there could be millions watching weekly.

Another factor is that your national team is starting to produce reasonable quality players capable of performing in the top leagues in Europe, once America has a hero or 2 of their own to latch onto that's help it's popularity and as it becomes more popular, more people wil start playing etc etc. The sad thing is that if that does happen, within the next 10 years or so, you could well have a team capable of kicking the crap out of England almost every game

I'm not against american sports, I used to watch NFl when I was a kid, but it was on at something silly like 2am and took 3 hours with all the stop start messing about and it's not good enough to stay up till then. I've seen a basketball match when I was on holiday (Orlando Magic vs Millwauki bucks sp?) and that was entertaining, but again it doesn't get any serious network tv coverage at reasonable times though there is a subscription channel to get them. I could watch basketball as it has a flow to it unlike NFL and baseball.

Arfie

 

[STINKYFEET]

WHO CARES YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO WIN ANYTHING ANYWAYS. ALL THIS HYPE OVER ENGLAND AND IT IS THE SAME AS ALWAYS..... YOU NEVER WIN ANYTHING. EVERYTHING IS IN THE PAST 1966 AND THAT WAS IT. WHAT DID YOU DO AFTER THAT???

 

[nukeonekitty]

I personally just find soccer too slow a sport and mildly exciting. I honestly can say no matter if soccer gets big or not, I will never be a big fan. I'm a hockey player/ lacrosse player for life!

 

[Arfie]

WHO CARES YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO WIN ANYTHING ANYWAYS. ALL THIS HYPE OVER ENGLAND AND IT IS THE SAME AS ALWAYS..... YOU NEVER WIN ANYTHING. EVERYTHING IS IN THE PAST 1966 AND THAT WAS IT. WHAT DID YOU DO AFTER THAT???

Despite the all capitals, you have pretty good English for a Brazilian, or are you maybe German? how about French? Argentinian? Italian? Or more likely just someone from one of the many countries that has NEVER won a world cup or any other major championship for that matter and probably doesn't even have a decent league? How about somewhere that the national coach gets poached to go to a 3rd rate league club :rotflmao:

Nukeone: I usually say the same about american sports, though as I say Basketball could get my attention if it were on TV, baseball ranks right down there with Cricket. Hockey was only played by the girls at my school so I never got into that though I do know someone from a mixed team over here and lacrosse doesn't exist as far as I'm aware

It will be mildly interesting to see what the state of MLS is like in 2 years time, despite resistance it will receive, but there is already talk in the press today that Ronaldo (Beckhams team mate) is also looking to go to the states with New York and he's Brazils top striker, so the Beckham effect could already be happening.

Arfie