11 Teams, One England XI

Eleven Teams, One England XI:

England in recent years
has become a team composed of players solely from three or four teams – usually the bulk of the players have come from teams such as: Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea. However there is still an enormous amount of talent from the other teams; and the purpose of this article is to show that there can be an England starting-XI built up of eleven different teams.

Joe Hart, Man City
Joe Hart | Goalkeeper | Manchester City
Joe Hart is the current, undisputed England number one. The 26-year-old from Shrewsbury has represented the Three Lions 38-times since making his debut for them in 2010; following there disastrous World Cup campaign. This season the 6ft 3 Joe Hart has appeared 17 times in Premier League and made 48 saves, keeping five clean sheets along the way. He is England’s best option between the sticks

Kyle Walker | Right-back | Tottenham 
Kyle Walker, Tottenham Hotspur
Playing in right-back is Tottenham Hotspurs’ 23-year-old first-choice right-back – Kyle Walker. Who in recent times has found himself in first choice RB in the Three Lions; ahead of the likes of Micah Richards, Carl Jenkinson and Glen Johnson. He has represented England ten-times since 2011; with 6 of those appearances coming in 2013, in comparison to Glen Johnson who made 4 in the same year. Walker has an 82.4% pass completion rate, and makes at least 1.5 crucial passes per Premier League game.

John Terry | Centre-back | Chelsea |


John Terry, Chelsea
The 33-year-old former England captain, is England’s best centre-back – although he announced his international retirement in 2012, following a dispute with the FA he still remains a stalwart in the Barclays Premier League. Rejuvenated under Jose Mourinho’s management the London-born Terry has made 196 clearances in his 24 Premier League appearances this season.

Mike Williamson | Centre-back | Newcastle United
Mike Williamson, Newcastle United
Although, maybe, the least talented member of this England XI he – until recently has been in stellar form this season, appearing in nine off Newcastle’s Premier League victories this term. His career seemed to be at a stand-still during the summer transfer window; when Newcastle openly sought to find a replacement for him. However, with injuries to Steven Taylor and Mapou Yanga-Mbwia struggling to find form, the 30-year-old cemented a place in the Geordie-XI.

Leighton Baines | Left-back | Everton

Leighton Baines, Everton
The Evertonion free-kick specialist has in the last two-years became one of the finest left-backs in Europe. The one-time Wigan player was subject to an unsuccessful transfer bid from the 2012/13 Premier League Champions Manchester United in the summer – but Everton turned down the bid; and now they are flying in the Premier League. WhoScored.com has awarded Leighton Baines with an average match rating of 7.26 for his 18 Premier League games this term.
Adam Lallana | Right-midfield | Southampton

Adam Lallana, Southampton
The 25-year-old Adam Lallana is often described as ‘The one who didn’t get away’ by Southampton fans; he came through the renowned Saints academy with the likes of: Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott and Nathan Dyer. Southampton-manager, Mauricio Pochettino was recently quoted in the press describing Lallana as being capable of cementing a place in any international XI in the world. From his 23 appearances this term Lallana has managed 7 goals from 42 shots on goal.
Steven Gerrard, Liverpool
Steven Gerrard | Central-midfield | Liverpool
The Liverpool-born Steven Gerrard has been a main stay in the Liverpool and England XI for over a decade now.  The 33-year old has won countless medals in his time at Liverpool; ranging from the Carling Cup to the UEFA Champions League. However one title eludes the England-captain and that is that of the Barclays Premier League title – he came closest to this honour in 2008/09 season where Liverpool finished four-points behind bitter rivals Manchester United. With  108-caps for the Three Lions, Steven Gerrard should eclipse the England outfield record following Rio’14.
Jack Wilshire | Centre-Midfield | Arsenal
  
Jack Wilshire, Arsenal
The one-time Bolton loanee Jack Wilshire has been heralded as ‘a future England captain’ by fans and pundits. The 22-year-old has been courted by the likes of Barcelona and Manchester City – but he has remained loyal to his beloved Arsenal. This season the Arsenal number-10 has averaged 48.5 passes per Premier League game, assisting four goals from 16 games. If he avoids injury consistently he can only become better, and live up to his potential on the international scene – which is in doubt due to his mere 14 England caps since 2010.

Adam Johnson | Left-Midfield | Sunderland
Adam Johnson, Sunderland
Adam Johnson burst onto the international-scene in 2010, following England’s disastrous World Cup campaign in South Africa. The 26-year-old netted twice in his first four games; and he was dubbed as ‘the next big English talent’. However, he could not hold down a place in the mega-rich Manchester City eleven and he subsequently lost his place in the Three Lion’s XI, behind the likes of Theo Walcott, Ashley Young and more recently Adam Lallana. However following his resurgent form at the Black Cats and the season-ending injury to Theo Walcott, the Sunderland-born Newcastle-fan may have booked his place to Rio.

Wayne Rooney | Striker | Manchester United
  
Wayne Rooney, Manchester United
The 28-year-old Manchester United striker, is without a doubt the best England has to offer in relation to home-grown talent. The Mersey-born Rooney began his career at Everton, making his Premier League début aged 16 in a 2-2 draw with Tottenham Hotspur. He went on to become Everton’s youngest ever goal-scorer when he netted twice against Wrexham in a league-cup tie. In 2004 Rooney joined Manchester United for around £25m and his career has flourished from there – club wise. Picking up five Premier League titles, two League Cups, three Community Shields, one Champions League title and one FIFA Club World Cup. With 38 goals in 88 International appearances, The Red Devil is well on his way to surpassing the England scoring record currently held by former-United player Sir. Bobby Charlton with 49 goals from 106 appearances.


Football Hooliganism in the UK

Football Hooliganism in the UK:
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Arrested Hooligan. Date unknown.
ON May the 29th 1985, Liverpool took on the might of Turin in the European Championship final; the old Champions League. The likes of Michael Platini and Paulo Rossi took to the Heysel Stadium that night as Juventus beat Liverpool by a solitary penalty. However, an even far more sinister over-shadowed this event: The Heysel Stadium disaster – where 39 Juventus fans lost their lives and 600 were injured – through Liverpool fans scaling the walls to their seating quarter. In the immediate aftermath of the disaster English teams and fans were banned from travelling or competing in European competition.

The English-fans were now notorious for ‘Football Hoolinigism’ with the stereo-typical fans being based on the likes of Auf Weidersehn’s ‘Oz’ who is played by Jimmy Nail. However, in 1990/1991 season UEFA lifted the ban on English-clubs to compete in Europe; and violence, and arrests have been very limited in Europe since – at least on an English behalf.

Fast-forward to the 2012/2013 Premier League season: There were 2,456 match-day arrests in total, with 552 of them being for violent conduct, 42 being for racism and in total there was 589 banning orders on English fans.

 Newcastle United had the most fan arrests with 175 fans arrested on match days; in one incidence because a man punched a horse. The Champions- Manchester United found themselves second in the arrest numbers with 145 fans arrested. Cardiff City were –by some way- top of the Football banning orders chart with around 121 of their fans banned for Hoolingism.

Although there was an increase in hooliganism last season, there was a 23% decrease the season before. For example: see chart.

Season
Arrests
2012-13
2,456
2011-12
2,363
2010-11
3,391



However, although the Hooliganism culture is glorified through films such as: Green Street and The Football Factory the proportion of arrests to those attending is phenomenal, 39,000,000 people attended football matches in England last year and there was only 2,456 arrests. Most of the arrests are due to drunk and disorderly instead of violent conduct – which is a massive change from the 1980’s.

Overall, Football Hoolinigasim in the UK is over-exaggerated by the media, and film. But just like every-club in the world there is always the occasional bad fan.

‘Football is a gentleman game, played by hooligans’


Twitter: RyanRowley23