PWEEP!

Blow that whistle, it's almost start-off time in the latest "tournament of football" and after months of careful negotiation, England have teamed up with Wales, Slovakia and Russia to form "Group B" as their entry into the European Football Cup. BUT what does this mean for their chances of winning the competition? Lets go through the teams and take a look......

Wales - Ryan Giggs' experience as a player with the Manchester United Team will stand Wales in good stead. Manchester United are famously good at winning, so Ryan will be able to advise his team mates about how to do this when they play matches in the European Cup. The key disadvantage for Wales will be their relatively small population size, meaning they have less people to choose from when looking for good football players. Their selection pool is halved again when you factor in that around 50% of the Welsh people are female and therefore ineligible for the competition.

Slovakia - Interesting side, although again they lack the large population that has served countries like Brazil so well in the past. Thankfully for Slovakia, Brazil are banned from the competition due to their South American origins, increasing the Slovakian's slender victory margin.

Russia - Many football pundits would spend 6 months in a Siberian Gulag before denying that wing player Didier Berbatov is the ultimate central plank in an otherwise fragile and at times docile national football team, that much is clear.

England - David Platt, Martin Keown, Glen Hoddle and Peter Shilton - these are the names of just some of players who have played football for England in the past. Many of the new squad will be hoping that they will get some time on the pitch, (footie fact - there are almost twice the number of players in a football squad than there are in a team!) as this is something they enjoy doing. The key for England will be to divide the time each player has on the ball equally between them, this will reduce tiredness amongst the players; however if one of them does want to stop running, the manger will swap them with a player who is sat on the bench.

Analysis - how will the Teams work together?

With English being the first language of at least two of the Teams, it's easy to see how this will work. They will choose to speak English and the Russians can speak to the Slovakians in either Russian or another language. With only 12 men from Group B being allowed on the pitch at any one time, the challenge for the mangers will be choosing which of the 48 players to put on the field. The obvious answer is simply to put all the top goal scorers on the pitch, in order to maximise the chances of winning, but is the obvious answer the right one? This well seasoned football analyst thinks not. A canny manager will put just a few goal scorers at the front of the pitch, but leave some defenders and a goalie at the back, just in case the ball ends up there and one of the opposition tries to score a goal. The managers of Group B will do well to follow my advice.

But for now, lets just sit back, watch the competition and ENJOY THE FOOTBALL!