Oliver Holt is at it again. I rally don't know why I read the Times (apart from the crossword):

" Shearer, in fact, is slowly turning into the nation's guilty conscience. His overall contribution to matches has become so negligible that if he is not scoring, he is not worth his place in the side. Increasingly, his goals at international level come against weaker nations, a category in which Germany must now be placed. "

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

Answers

Come the Revolution Geordie.........(:o)

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

I'm going to save these postings and send them to him after England go out.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

"While England were struggling to get the ball away from the Germans, Shearer looked a sluggish and peripheral figure. It was his fellow striker, Michael Owen, with whom he has yet to forge even the faintest semblance of a true partnership, who ignited the fires of English resistance 10 minutes before half-time, when his header forced Kahn to tip the ball on to a post. "

Did I imagine the ball running loose, Shearer covering 5 yards in a flash and threading a pinpoint pass through to Owen who left the German defenders for dead and was scandalously given offside? I would have thought it was quite a memorable incident, since it was one of the only occasions an England player managed to pass the ball along the deck to a player on the same side. Clearly imagined it though, as it isn't mentioned in any of the papers...

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

He fluked it. Bounced of his head. He's all elbows. Too old. Whinging git. Falls over on command. Blah blah blah.

I really don't know why you let it bother you....I don't let anything bother me.

:-)

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

Strangely enough I always thought that it didn't bother me but it does.....it really does....

On Saturday night (before he scored!) I had some (apolgies in advance!) no nothing american asking why Shearer was so crap and why the hell he was playing....luckily someone who knew my affiliations stopped the conversation in it's tracks at this point by dragging the american away....after he scored I was quite happy to point out to all the England fans who'd scored...

Can you see Owen doing Shearers job? he's too easily knocked off the ball or loses it through his own lack of control (very rare to say that of Al!) and Owen attempted one cross on saturday that was desperately bad whereas Shearer provided a number of accurate ones (one bad one I think!).....

Nah....he might not be as good as he was (and that's still open to debate!) but he's by far and away the best option England have!!!

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

The funny thing is that Mr Holt has gone so far, he would completely lose credibility if he retracted. So he's left with the poor alternative of banging on along the same tired old lines, hoping someone's still listening. If Shearer keeps on scoring, he'll have an ulcer by the end of this tournament.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

This business about Shearer's loss pace and him therefore being useless - just how many of his goals for club OR country rely on pace? It's a myth. He may have lost some speed, but he scores goals through knowing when to be in the right position to score, which doesn't always require a sharp burst of speed.

And as you say, he's the only one who keeps posession of the ball and holds the line.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

>>Mr Holt ............. he'll have an ulcer by the end of this tournament

Couldn't happen to a nicer guy! ;-)

Seriously, why bother reading this garbage, we know what they are gonna say. Not worth getting stressed out by these t*ssers.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

Let the detractors wait and see how England play with out him. The England midfield are not good enough to be threading balls here there and everywhere as has been seen in the last year.

None of the rest of the strikers in the squad can hold the ball up sufficiently well to bring the rest of the players into the attack.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

Tossers!

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

I had some relatives from England arrive late Saturday night. Mind you they all live in the South. They were happy England won but all were on the "Shearer" bandwagon. Said he shouldn't be playing. All appeared disappointed when I told them who scored the goal. I finally asked them a couple simple questions....What do you expect from a goalscorer, other than scoring goals?? (Absolutely gobsmacked, they were), and secondly...Who are you going to pick on when Shearer is gone?? Answer..Spice Boy. Seems everyone has to have someone to blame. It's been Al so far. LR is so right. Why let it bother us. We know better, Alan Shearer knows better and Kevin Keegan and Bobby Robson both know better.(Even Lanky knows better) Journos are paid to write shite that sells papers, unfortunately most papers are sold in the South. F*ck em, F*ck em all.

Pete

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

"While England were struggling to get the ball away from the Germans, Shearer looked a sluggish and peripheral figure. It was his fellow striker, Michael Owen, with whom he has yet to forge even the faintest semblance of a true partnership, who ignited the fires of English resistance 10 minutes before half-time, when his header forced Kahn to tip the ball on to a post. "

Obviously thge guy wasn't paying attention to the build up play. Let me refresh, Shearer chased another lost cause, as he had done all evening, as a result England won a throw, which resulted in a cross to Owen. Owen on the other hand ran when he had the ball and then ran off when he was subbed after another poor performance.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

Come on Kegsy. You don't expect a motor racing correspondent to be able to see that sort of thing, do you? And don't start on any of that off the ball nonsense. What good is that to anybody? And holding the ball up/retaining possession - all stuff and nonsense. What strikers should be doing is shooting and dribbling deftly round the defence every 5 minutes. Just like..err..just like..um..Michael Owen and others if they had the chance and were able to play with a decent strike partner. After all, just look at the help Owen gave Shearer in the two games. If it wasn't for Owen, Shearer wouldn't have got near the ball, ever. And that's a fact.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

The trouble is, whoever takes over won't have to do it with the shower AS has to play with now, cos most of those will be gone as well, by the time it matters. Any success the new guy has in a new team, will be down to him being better than AS, not to the fact that he has better support, and that'll start the 'If only we'd played him in EURO 2000' bleats. Shearer is really on a hiding to nowt.

I just hope that he goes out with a real bang in whatever's left for us in this, and one way or another tells them all in no uncertain terms, to get stuffed.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

Worse than Holt was Joe 'Self' Lovejoy in yesterday's Sunday Times. He said that although Shearer had stuffed all the criticism down the critics throats, he still had no more than an "adequate" game. Que?

In Self-love's analysis everyone else was doing all the Shearer- bashing, conveniently absolving himself of his "Shearer must go" comments of last Tuesday.

At least he's consistently been on Shearer's back - that I can live with, knowing that a vile and unspecified disease will ravage him to an early and painful death.

Worst was the Sunday tabloids, nearly all of whom referred to Wor Al as "England hero", "Super Shearer", "Shear Magic" (insert dodgy cliche here). The worst offender was the Sunday Mirror, after it's "78% want Al out" headline, now it seems he's indispensible! If I wasn't sunburnt, I'd have been red with anger!

I am proud of Shearer's performance, and that the old Newcastle boys (Keegan, Fazackerly, Cox and Beardo) have been vindicated in their faith against the most unfair campaign to rid the national side of its best player for a generation.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

>>LR is so right. Why let it bother us.

It bothers me 'cos the moronic idiots that read and believe this shite manage to get tickets to the matches and proceed to jeer Shearer/the team etc..

If you want England to do well you want the crowd behind every single player on that pitch. It's not much to ask for is it?

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

"....I don't let anything bother me"

Patently untrue, isn't it mate :-)

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

Yep they're all tw*ts - the same lot that said Tino cost us the league. What was the option - play with 10 ?

Shearer is definitely only 1/2 fit - but who else in England would have scored that goal ? It weren't easy.

.5 Shearer = > any other English striker as a target = Al plays if he's awake.

-- Anonymous, June 19, 2000

Chris, Holt is at it again. He's got his f....g thick, opinionated, ill-educated way, and he's still slagging off Shearer.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000

Fear not Dougal. He won't be able to say the same old drivel from now on.

-- Anonymous, June 21, 2000