The Poolie Bunker

1966:

Gordon Banks, Sheffield, English
George Cohen, Fulham, English
Ray Wilson, Shirebrook, English
Nobby Stiles, Manchester, Irish/English
Jack Charlton, Ashington, English
Bobby Moore, Barking, English
Alan Ball, Farnworth, English
Jimmy Greaves, Manor Park, Irish/English
Bobby Charlton, Ashington, English
Geoff Hurst, Ashton, English
John Connelly, St Helens, Irish/English
Ron Springett, Fulham, English
Peter Bonetti, Putney, Swiss-Italian
Jimmy Armfield, Denton, English
Gerry Byrne, Liverpool, Irish/English
Martin Peters, Plaistow, English
Ron Flowers, Doncaster, English
Norman Hunter, County Durham, English
Terry Paine, Winchester, English
Ian Callaghan, Liverpool, Irish/English
Roger Hunt, Glazebury, English
George Eastham, Blackpool, English

2026:

Jordan Pickford, Washington, English
Dean Henderson, Whitehaven, English
James Trafford, Cockermouth, English
Ezri Konsa, Newham, Congolese or Angolan
Jarell Quansah, Liverpool, Ghanian
John Stones, Barnsley, English
Marc Guehi, Abidjan, Ivory Coast, Ivorian
Trevoh Chalobah, Freetown, Sierra Leone, Sierra Leoneans
Dan Burn, Blyth, English
Nico O'Reilly, Manchester, Jamaican
Reece James, London, Grenadian
Djed Spence, London, Jamaican
Declan Rice, Kingston, English/Irish
Elliot Anderson, Whitley Bay, English
Jude Bellingham, Stourbridge, Jamaican
Jordan Henderson, Sunderland, English
Kobbie Mainoo, Stockport, Ghanian
Bukayo Saka, Ealing, Nigerian
Harry Kane, Leytonstone, English/Irish
Marcus Rashford, Manchester, Jamaican
Morgan Rogers, Halesowen, Jamaican
Anthony Gordon, Liverpool, Irish/Scottish
Eberechi Eze, Greenwich, Nigerian
Ollie Watkins, Torquay, Jamaican
Noni Madueke, Barnet, Nigerian
Ivan Toney, Northampton, Jamaican

Thank goodness for diversity, where would the England team be without it!!!

Pele did say that he thought an African Nation would win the World Cup by the year 2000.

A little late perhaps, but if England were to win it in 2026, we could claim we tried by having several players representing England who descended from Africa! Although if France were to win it this year, then Pele would only be late by 26 years!!!

Can’t we do away this crap and just say if you were born in this country….you qualify…forget this parents nonsense.
If someone wants to play for another country they need a passport and the surrender of their original passport.

Sport is one of, if not the only, area in which diversity is our strength.

No different with Arthur Féry was born in Sèvres, France, to French parents.[4][5] His mother, Olivia Féry yet has dual citizenship for some reason. Am I right in saying Trump is trying to stop rightly or wrongly kids born to foreigners in The States can’t be classed as an American citizens ?

Are you familiar with the 2018 France squad?

And in this World Cup, 25% of players represent a country they were not born in.

Won't be long before nearly all 'European' nations will have their squads made up of players from African stock!

And Morocco recruiting players not born in Morocco but could trace their steps back to that country.

Cape Verde had I think 15 players in their squad born elsewhere!

Corrected it for you.

Marc Guehi, Abidjan, English
Trevoh Chalobah, Freetown, English

Really!!!!

Yep, they have lived in England since they were 2 years old, they have chosen to represent the England national team, they are English.

And if they were not good enough to play for England, at least they have backup!

I’m sure Jack Charlton would have given them a pint of Guinness and then claimed Irish heritage, which was pretty much the standard when he was in charge there…

As it should be…mind you, both of my parents were born on the Headland….so I’m stateless.

It’s not about colour, it’s about culture.
If you’re born here you will absorb the culture around you and become part of it.

What is the culture in England?
London for example?
Many parts of that city and others are definitely not what I would call English culture!

Shame most of us did not bring our kids up in other parts of the world, then we could say for example, I am English, I have 2 sons, one is Chinese, one is Mongolian and my daughter is Egyptian. Would we hell, we would say they were all English!

Those who come to spend their lives in this country cannot sit in isolation and pretend they’re somewhere else, they’re here and should have to accept that fact and integrate.

Well you might absorb the culture but there is a certain specially favoured group who choose to bask in their own culture and expect us to change ours to suit theirs. So Halal slaughter, public prayers in Trafalger Square lead by Sadiq Khan, cousin marriage leading to birth defects that costs the NHS ( us tax payers) millions. They parade in the streets supporting foreign conflicts and murder us and our children. Yet many of them would have been born in the UK.

Indeed. As we all know, white British are now a minority in our capital. There is no discernible culture because so many different nationalities live there. I live a short distance away but avoid it like the plague.

Leave Trump alone,he hasn't made much of a noise during the tournament ,Jamie..And he knows Farage is being stitched up!.......Believe me.Trump wont hold back when that 'boy in a blazer' takes over.

Rupert Lowe running for London Mayor would be an interesting one Mr S?

That could cause the foreigners to protest n riot in our country!

Apparently the Morocco fans already rioted because their team lost. A lot of damage done in London and Amsterdam. Of course not widely reported in the mainstream media. Wouldnt want to give the impression that diversity is not our strength.

Those shutters they have on houses in France will come in handy if they lose tomorrow night..

Yep, of course it wasn’t. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cly9rl1n7r9o

He hasn’t had time, the Iranians are keeping him too busy on his catastrophic war against them which he has no solution to.Turning on the ‘boy in a blazer’ will only be a diversionary tactic.

Which is what I meant by integrate.

Obviously the recent immigration figures are ridiculous, but anyone coming to this country to carry on their previous life in isolation should not be here.

with the support of many who would not look out of place at the local fete or sunday morning church srvice.

thats the annoying part of it. on top of that the rule on which country you can lay for should be tightened up. if both parents were born here then you can play for england. otherwise you have to be born here. same for all sports and not just football.

Yep, I said it was not widely reported. I did not say it wasn't reported. WIDELY is the operative word. Just imagine if some so called 'far right' types had kicked off? We'd never hear the last of it and Starmer would be calling for 'the full force of the law' but somehow when a certain group kick off, the approach is so noticeably different. Some would say 'two tier'.

I think you’re being a bit paranoid. It was reported by multiple media outlets (including BBC, Sky News, Evening Standard and ITV), the reports contain videos showing exactly what happened, a gathering of people that the police were trying to disperse. There doesn’t appear to have been much if any damage, there were only 4 arrests, only one injury. It’s a lot different to riots containing people destroying and looting property, trying to lynch people, or setting fire to buildings with people in there.

Not concerned what you think about me but the fact is there were police in riot gear dealing with large scale public disorder in our capital city, where objects were thrown at the police leading to one officer being hospitalized. There were only four arrests but it could be argued this is testimony to the attitude of the police to the this particular group rather than to the seriousness of the situation. This happened because of a football match on the other side of the planet but no one from our political class seemed to think it worthy of mention. No reference to 'the full force of the law' My suspicion is that these scenes run contrary to the 'diversity is our strength' lie so the incident was down played but hey, probably just me being paranoid.

Immigrants never ever integrate, no matter their colour creed whatever, that’s where politicians get it very wrong.They form their own communities, open their own shops selling their produce and build their own churches/temples/mosques etc. When did you ever see foreigners socialising down the pub or the club ?

While they may not socialise at the pub, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, people of no particular religion all get along with the British way of life. They dont try to make us change our laws (blasphemy for example) or demand we accept their cultural behaviours such as cousin marriage and Halal slaughter. They dont go on marches to protest about wars that are nothing to do with Britain. They dont expect preferrential treatment. Hindus and Cinese in particular have massive work ethics which is why so many of them shine in our education system. In short, they may not become fully integrated but they are capable of peaceful coexistence. On a side note, a very close frend of mine is a Hindu although he admits he is not all that devout. We go to the pub most Fridays and he came with me to watch Southend v Pools.

Take Aaron Tshibola, who was on loan at Pools in 2015.

Now he was born in Newham, London.
He actually represented England at U18 level.
However he was not good enough for the England senior team but through his ancestry he had the choice of playing for DR Congo.
And was called up for the 2026 World Cup squad for them.

So is he English or Congolese?

In one way I respect his decision to play for the country where he is from, where his family originated from.
He looks like someone from the African continent, in fact he is from Africa, and in my opinion should play for DR Congo, the place where he originates from.
However I suspect if he was good enough for the senior England squad, he would have chosen to be English!

No, he originates from Newham, as you just said.
If Erling Haaland, who was born in Leeds, had chosen to play for England, I'd have money on the fact that you wouldn't be banging on about how he should be playing for Norway.

Well you don't know me very well, because if Haaland had decided to play for England, I would be saying the same thing, he should be playing for Norway.
Because he is Norwegian.

A complex subject: a degree of national pride but also the influence of fame and money. Our new found Wimbledon hero, Arthur Fery, has French parents so could easily have represented France but chose to be British for the purposes of tennis. Why? Well there are almost no decent British tennis players so if he can make progress in tennis tournaments, then fame, money and celebrity are guaranteed. If he had chosen to play for France, he would just be one of many promising young players. Good for him. I hope he goes on to emulate or better Andy Murrey.

He is still French, Ozzy at the end of the day. No one can argue about that!
However the law allows it and there is nothing we can do about it!

We could of course highlight the issue and move to a small African country, ensure we have 11 decent footballers and enter the team as the only white team in the Africa Cup of Nations!

I couldn’t highlight anything. I could move to Devon Island and still not make their national squad.

You missed Muslims/Islam off the list, after Christians the next highest religion in the U.K., for me they rarely integrate.

Here is a reversal players born in England but played for other countries, was it because they weren’t good enough for England or loyalty to their country of origin or a bit of both ?

https://youtu.be/rKnL__IEqxQ?si=2PuVuVM-hQC1I2Ij

but then do we make an effort to integrate with them. i have worked at 3 places with a high level of either muslims , hindu,s and sikhs and manly they all keep to there groups. very rarely have you anything in common with them apart from where you work. actually does it matter if you are not at each others throats all the time.

if he does then he will be english. if he is just a one tournament wonder who will hardly shine again he,ll be french. bit like the x england cricket captain tony gregg who varied as being english or south african depending on performances.

After Christianity (46.5%), the next highest religion in the UK is ‘no religion’, at 37.2% (this is also the fastest growing religion group, increasing from 25.7% in 2011). Islam is 3rd with 5.97%, then “religion not stated” at 5.91%.

If the integration assessment is whether people come out to pubs and clubs, then it’s a bit biased against a religion that forbids the consumption of alcohol.

just how many say they are christian because its either the thing to do or its a way to prove this is a christian country. out of that percentage a guess very few actually attend a church unlike muslims where the vast amount will do.i,d say the no religeon and non church attending christians will be close to 75% of the population.

This is where the present rules are crazy.
If they applied only to the birthplace or citizenship of a country, then players would not have the option of taking the alternative option because those teams are not showing a true representation of football in their countries….by importing what are foreigners .

I remember when England were struggling for a decent keeper ahead of the 2008 Euros, and we were sounding out Manuel Almunia as he had been playing for Arsenal since 2004 and would soon be able to qualify based on residency grounds. He didn’t even have any links to England until he was 27. That’s when it gets a bit ridiculous.