How would England fans (and press) react to Almunia getting a cap for England?

almunia for england. i heard he can get his first cap after december. we already have hargreaves, we've had naturalised aussies and south africans in the england football team for donkeys years, and we have very little chance of getting through world cup quarter and semi finals, extra times, penalty shootouts etc with james in the side, even worse, a james that is 2 years older than he is now. robbo has blown it, he will get it back but who knows when, the others have limited experience or education, like kirkland, carson, foster, hart.

 

Almunia is shiit and blunder prone.
The thread starter is probably the type of guy who thinks we should have had Bruce Arena as manager.

 

I'd be very disappointed, he's cack.

 

But Almunia is only eligible because he plays in England, he's here as a worker, he'd be a total ringer. I personally dont think Hargreaves should play for England but I could certainly believe he's fulfilled a childhood dream by doing so, entirely different scenario.

 

Almunia isn't better than what we've got already, plus we've got a few good young keepers coming through that are better than Almunia already. He'd might be worth the odd cap or two, but if we were goign to start playing naturalized players I think they'd have to be a damn sight better than Almunia.

 

Hart (best)
Green
Carson
James
Foster
Almunia
Kirkland
Robinson (worst)

My personal ranking of the goalkeepers if we include Almunia. And this is a ranking of their present ability, not potential. Did I left out anyone?

 

He ain't good enough for Spain. Why would he be good for England?

By the way, there are better 'keepers plying their trade in England.

 

Hargreaves was born to two English parents. I'm quite happy for him to play for England.

The way I see it is this: if someone has English heritage and is born/lives abroad , but still considers themselves English then who are we to disagree (i.e. Owen Hargreaves). Equally if someone doens't have English heritage but has moved to England and considers themselves English then again who are we to disagree (i.e. John Barnes).

I would have very strong objections to someone like Almunia playing for England for purely professional reasons though, besides which he's shit.

 

people on here actually think that calamity is as good as the arsenal no 1? james hasnt played for a top club for over ten years, and has never even played a single match in the champions league, plus only a handful of games in the uefa cup cup. he has personally cocked up two fa cup finals for two different clubs, could have made it a hattrick last season but portsmouth only had non league opposition to deal with. his distribution is awful, makes three or four outrageous errors every single game, cant catch corners or crosses, fummbles even delicate passes back, goes on insane runs towards onrushing attackers and never, ever gets anywhere near the ball invariably leaving an open net, and, best of all, will be on the wrong side of 40 by the time of the next tournament. and you put arsenes first choice, arsenals no 1 behind this mong?

there are other good young keepers out there, but clearly capello will be going with experience for his keepers. plus none of them would get into a top 4 side, like almunia has done. its easy to say compared to buffon or casillas almunia doesnt rate particularly high, but it is far higher than any other keeper currently available to england.

one question, if these young english keepers are any good, why is no club in any of europes elite even mildy interested in signing one of them? hart, robbo, carson, kirkland, if they were decent why is there so little interest in them from any big sides? none of englands top sides want them, and none of europes top, middle or bottom sides want them either. and dont say its because they are overpriced. apart from the sunderland keeper who is scottish, english keepers are not going for a particularly high price when they move, unlike the outfield players.

 

We don't need Almunia. Extremely over-rated..

 

almunia is just a solid average keeper, better than james imo because his handling of the ball is good and hes not mental like james

id say hed be good enough but hes not a step up from green and foster/hart/kirkland/carson have much more potential

 

btw i mean average compared to the likes of cech/buffon/cassilas

 

As far as I'm concerned the reason I support England is because I'm English and they are my fellow countrymen, that's the whole point of international sport.

If a team full of foriegn players in England shirts won the world cup I wouldn't see that as England winning it so for me it would defeat the object.

 

If a player qualifies for England (and that means both having a British passport and having a nexus with England as opposed to the other "home" countries) then I have no problem with them playing for England. As for Almunia, I really don't think he's better than what we already have. Clearly this is a weak spot for England, but is he really better than Foster and/or Green? A more interesting case would have been Cudicini a few years ago, who I think at that time was better than what we had at that point.

 

The English sports media would probably hype it up for the lack of other things they have to talk about (with Becks gone and all), but it would hardly be a ground-breaking event as its being done all over the place including England. It's sad how national team football is turning into a lower-quality version of top-level club football.

Next we're going to start seeing these foreign players and managers kissing the badges of their newly "adopted" country after every goal and the hurlfest will be in full-swing.

 

Almunia has no link to England. He just works here. He was not born in England. He has no English ancestry. He has not married an English woman. He is only here to work. Almunia should not play for England.

 

precisely. if i'm going to support a team with spanish players in it then i might as well just support spain - better chance of success.

 

i do not think almunia is good enough so we wouldnt need him, james/robinson will do until carson or hart show they are good enough to become englands first choice

 

Don't want him. I don't even consider Hargreaves English, never mind Almunia.

 

Almunia doesnt know how to cover the near post. Witness the idiot goals he conceded in the champions league final versus Barfalona.

 

If we were going to naturalise someone, it would be a better player and with a stronger link to England than this. Cudicini would have been an interesting one, but that one has passed and Almunia is not on his level.

Hopefully Foster gets some first team football and Hart keeps growing, that will hopefully be enough. All we really need is someone who won't make silly mistakes, the defence takes care of the rest, we're not a team that really needs a keeper to make spectacular saves to keep us in matches, just do the basics.