Almunia for England?

[Slough Seagull]

He's good but he is NOT English thus shouldnt play for us...
Also it would concern me should we play spain where would his loyalties lie I wonder?

with the Basque Country possibly? He was born there so may feel no more Spanish than English...who knows...

 

[Jimmy Grimble]

Anything that makes England MORE of a joke is fine by me

 

[cunning fergus]

And you can trace your ancestry all the way back to when? Who and when was the first 'Englishman?' What is an English person specifically?

You're English if you subscribe to being 'English', not because you were bequeethed it by dint of birth. Your nationality of birth is random but your ethics, personality and beliefs can enable you to become a British citizen.

Britain and therefore England is multi ethnic and multi cultural and has been for the best part of two thousand years. You're ancestors just happened to fetch up here a bit earlier.

Or am I being a little bit precious about all this?

An esoteric view on nationality though isn't it?

Bede completed his work on the English peoples in 730 AD ish and the Anglo Saxon Chronicle was around 500 AD so its fair to say the English were a defined 'group' culturally, politically and ethnically then............wouldn't you agree?

Taking you position on what an English person is I guess a few things spring to mind.

1) Language - surely an English person should be able to communicate easily with fellow compatriots (possibly excluding Geordies). If you cannot read, write or speak the language of the people you profess to be part of, then ergo you cannot be a part of that group.

Indeed if you are English you would want to embrace the language of Shakespeare and Wordsworth, not expect your mother tongue to to compete with other alien languages.

2) Culture - This is a big one but their are aspects culturally and politically that I would argue contribute to a definition of Englishness. People have had to fight for their rights in this country over a long period of time whether Magna Carta, Bill of Rights 1689 and womens suffrage.

This should be understood, therefore (for example) you cannot have more than one wife in this country and women have equal rights which should be respected. If not then that's as good as any other 'hate crime' in my book.

Taking an even softer view of England's (and Britain's) culture this country has a strong relationship with booze and the pub. Even teetotallers would recognise the pub as the primary place where British and English to imbibe, meet and chat etc. You must do given your alias.

If people don't recognise this I fail to see how they can view themselves as English either.............I love the pub.

Take a match day, you meet your mates for an eggs and bacon start, then straight into the pub to sink half a bakers dozen before the match. Once the game finishes its straight back to the pub for an autopsy and finish the bakers dozen.

Sausage and chips on the way home; what could be more English than that!

 

[SNOOBS]

Anything that makes England MORE of a joke is fine by me

I don't understand why people love to hate England so much

 

[Brighton Breezy]

Only if he warrants a place in the squad.

 

[Drumstick]

And you can trace your ancestry all the way back to when? Who and when was the first 'Englishman?' What is an English person specifically?

You're English if you subscribe to being 'English', not because you were bequeethed it by dint of birth. Your nationality of birth is random but your ethics, personality and beliefs can enable you to become a British citizen.

Britain and therefore England is multi ethnic and multi cultural and has been for the best part of two thousand years. You're ancestors just happened to fetch up here a bit earlier.

Or am I being a little bit precious about all this?

I think that's absolutely spot on. Going back the English are from all over.

My friend at work gets his British passport in October and whenever I talk to him about it over here, and does he miss home (Jamaica) and he has said 'Home is where the heart is, and as soon as I arrived in England I felt home and settled straight away.'

If Almunia wants it enough, then let him have it.

 

[Flavor Flav]

Get Ben Foster in there! Not some spanish shit.

 

[HP Seagull]

Absolutely no way he will, or should, play for England. He's Spanish.

 

[Sergei Gotsmanov]

There's no English keeper in better form than Almunia....gotta select the best players we can.....we now live in a multicultural society and we need to move with the times....gone are the days of 'Rule Britannia'....if we let so many foreigners into our country in the first place we have to allow them to integrate.

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Half the German team's Polish. A lot of the French side are African. If he's considered an English (British) national then yeah, why not.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Sad state of affairs if you ask me. Canadian Germans, Italians and now Spaniards playing for England. Shame we cannot get a decent crop of home grown players to do well.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Get Ben Foster in there! Not some spanish shit.

Ben Foster, remind me what he has done again.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Anything that makes England MORE of a joke is fine by me

I'm with you on this one.

 

[Marc]

I voted No as skanking a passport just because you've worked here for 4 years does not make you English in my view, if he was BORN here or lived here a vast majority of his life then I'd probably agree too it, or if his mum or dad was English then yeah maybe....but as it is now then NO...we have decent enough English goalkeepers thank you.

 

[sir albion]

And you can trace your ancestry all the way back to when? Who and when was the first 'Englishman?' What is an English person specifically?

You're English if you subscribe to being 'English', not because you were bequeethed it by dint of birth. Your nationality of birth is random but your ethics, personality and beliefs can enable you to become a British citizen.

Britain and therefore England is multi ethnic and multi cultural and has been for the best part of two thousand years. You're ancestors just happened to fetch up here a bit earlier.

Or am I being a little bit precious about all this?

Yeah but the first black didn't arrive here til the late 50's

 

[Don Quixote]

Is there no one good enough out of the 50 million citizens of England that are good enough

 

[¤DãŃn¥ §êãGüLL¤]

Is there no one good enough out of the 50 million citizens of England that are good enough

Some are Female.

 

[Garry Nelson's Left Foot]

I voted No as skanking a passport just because you've worked here for 4 years does not make you English in my view, if he was BORN here or lived here a vast majority of his life then I'd probably agree too it, or if his mum or dad was English then yeah maybe....but as it is now then NO...we have decent enough English goalkeepers thank you.

I agree with Marc. If he was offered a chance to play for Spain in Euro 2008 (maybe Cassilas and Reina were both injured...) would he have said 'no thanks, I'm actually waiting for my British citizenship which I should get in about a year or so. Then I'm going to play for England'? Of course not. He's just being opportunistic (not that I'm blaming him).

 

[Gwylan]

I don't see why this should be a problem - I don't recall any debate about John Barnes, Terry Butcher, Graeme LeSaux or Matt LeTissier when they played for England, so I don't understand why it should be an issue now.

 

[Marc]

I don't see why this should be a problem - I don't recall any debate about John Barnes, Terry Butcher, Graeme LeSaux or Matt LeTissier when they played for England, so I don't understand why it should be an issue now.

NSC was'nt around then