Neville: No more excuses!

[7even]

Gary Neville insists England can have no excuses if they do not win the World Cup.

The Manchester United man believes next month's finals offers him the best chance to taste success with England.

Neville is one of the most experienced players in Sven Goran Eriksson's squad for the trip to Germany and he feels they all need to stand up and be counted for.

"This is probably my best chance to win the World Cup and the last chance," insisted Neville. "I've got to be realistic and I'll be 35 at the time of the next World Cup.

"There can be no excuses from anybody. If it's injuries, or whatever happens to us, there can no excuses. We've talked about this being a tournament that England are going to do well in for six years now.

"Certainly since 2002, it's been said this group of players would be at their peak in 2006.

"Don't get me wrong, we can go on to win in 2008 and 2010, but it would be a different set of players, a different backbone to the side. This for me is the peak for this team.

"The ones below the really experienced guys are at a good age as well - the Lampards, the Ferdinands, the Terrys, the Owens - so there can be no excuses this tournament for us.

"There can be no bemoaning bad decisions, no missed penalty, no poor performance. They're things you have to cope with. You have to take the opportunities when they come.

"The make or break moments in this tournament we have to make our own and if we don't, we'll come home and we'll be a nearly team. It's as simple as that."
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I’m sorry captain marvel, but I have to partially disagree with you. No excuses? We’ve taken Walcott, Lennon, Sol, Hargreaves, Jenas, Crouch and left out super Wes.

[onenedkelly]

Well the fact that neither out main strikers will be match fit might be an excuse you can use Gary.

Saying that the last time I seen Rooney play after a spell out and not being match fit was Fernabache

[Scott]

I think this is the right attitude from Neville. I think that when we come home from this competition, the fans will be moaning about this decission and that decission, but at the end of the day, its up to the players to pull their finger out and win.

After the FA Cup final last year, I spent the whole trip home in the car with my Dad bitching about this, that or the other...but really, the only people we could blame were the players. Thats how I feel about this World Cup. Yeh we do have some things going against us, but if we dont win the World Cup, we can blame the players. We have a first XI that almost matches, in terms of quality players, the best team in the world. They just need to start playing like a team, and playing WELL as a team.

[Busby Boy]

I think the recent interviews of Gaz, Becks, Fat Frank and Steven Gerrard have shown the experienced players have listened to Fergie's calls for them to step-up and take the pressure off our Wayne!