Everton star Phil Jagielka dropped into Umbro House yesterday to chat with our team, so we grabbed the chance to sit him down for ten minutes and ask a bunch of questions that people had asked via Facebook and Twitter. A defender, sometime midfielder and even a goalkeeper on occasion, Phil is certainly the versatile type, which proved to be pretty useful when it came to answering your enquiries…

tookiebunten on Twitter wanted to know: When do you hope to back from injury?

‘I’m feeling quite positive at the moment; obviously it’s been six months now, and I’ve been told that’s the minimum time it’ll take to heal. So I’m hoping to start training again in the next month, and go from there.’

Jack Oliver Reynolds on Facebook asked: What have you been doing with all your spare time?

‘Watching most of the box sets! I’ve watched The Inbetweeners, Entourage, The Wire, loads of stuff. I started to play a bit of golf but my knee didn’t really like that so I had to stop unfortunately. So I’ve really just been lazing around and doing as little as possible. I’ve been itching to get back into training properly, give the lads the opportunity to give me a bit of stick, as I’ll obviously be a rusty when I get back in. You do miss the banter – I went to Benfica the other day and it was nice to be around the lads at training and all that. You miss that when you’re stuck one-on-one with the physio for three months. He’s a nice bloke, but there’s only so many jokes he can tell!’

We here at Umbro got one question in, and asked: What do you think of Everton’s start to the season?

‘It’s been a bit up and down, we don’t normally start the season very well for some reason, and this year was no different. We don’t have the biggest squad, and obviously losing Jolean didn’t help, but hopefully now we’ve got all the people in we can go from strength to strength. Get a few clean sheets and go from there really.’

Elyshia89 wanted to know: Which other clubs would you like to play for?

‘I’m not sure about other clubs. I was a boyhood Man Utd fan, but not sure whether I’d want to play there – there’s a lot of pressure and they play a squad game, so you might play one game and then not play again for a few weeks. I like the situation at Everton; hopefully when I get back to full fitness I can play more or less every game, which is something I’ve always enjoyed.

Jorge Pablo Bonilla Arza asked: Would you ever consider going back to Sheffield United?

‘As far as Sheff U is concerned, I’d never say never. I had a great time there, it was brilliant, and you never know what’s round the corner.’

Harry Norton on Facebook wanted to know: Do you think you could get into Fabio Capello’s World Cup squad?

‘Yeah, I’d love to. I’ve been asked that question a couple of times, but obviously at the moment I’m just concentrating on getting fit and playing for Everton. The little light at the end of the tunnel at the moment would be playing for Everton, and the big light would be being named in the World Cup squad, but so much can happen between now and then.’

Kev_SAFC on Twitter asked: Who’s the toughest player you’ve played against?

‘That’s a tough one, because you get to play against so many top players. I’ve always said that the player I dislike playing against the most is Emile Heskey. You might be surprised because he doesn’t score that many, but once you’ve played against him you know you’ve been in a game. As for someone you’d be scared of scoring if you made a mistake, you can’t look beyond Torres or Rooney.’

Dan213 on Twitter had done some research and wanted to know: What’s the story behind your unusual middle name?

‘It’s Nikodem. Just before I was born my Polish granddad died, and that’s his name, it’s Nicholas in Polish. I got a bit of stick for it when I was younger, but I’m proud of punch about it now. Someone once asked me if I’d ever play for Poland, but it’s not for me. I consider myself English, I was born here, played here, and I don’t speak any Polish, so it’d be quite hard to understand the other players!’

Dylan Keenan asked: What’s the worst kit you’ve had to wear?

‘For feel and look, it’d be the Sheffield United kit just after I made my debut (1999-2000). It was a Patrick kit, and the shorts were like hot pants. The socks were so mis-shaped it was untrue. I’ve not got the smallest legs, so you can imagine how bad it looked on me.’

Dylan also wanted to know: What ambitions in football do you still have?’

‘Going back to the England question, it’d be nice to play in a World Cup. I missed out on playing in an FA Cup final last year, and I must have played in  4 or 5 semi finals now, and only won one. So it’d be nice to play in a final, and if I could sneak into the World Cup squad that’d be brilliant.’

And finally, Howieboss on Twitter came up with another strange question after the one he asked Michael Owen: When lightning strikes the ocean, how come all the fish don’t die?

‘Hmmm…I can’t think of an answer, tell him I liked his question though. Actually, they were all wearing rubber gloves, that’s why they couldn’t get electrocuted, how’s that?
I’ve got a question for this guy actually: in The Shawshank Redemption, when the guy escapes, how does he crawl through the tunnel and put the poster back on the wall in his cell so well? Let’s see what he comes up with to answer that!’

The battle for football gaming supremacy reaches fever pitch later this week, when the next installment of Pro-Evolution Soccer is released. PES2010 arrives in shops on Friday just weeks after its main rival, FIFA10, and has the usual bunch of updates and tweaks to the formula to ensure that it remains at the top of the gaming league.

Earlier this year, Umbro’s England kit was made available for players of PES2009 to download onto their consoles at the same time as it was revealed to the public, and proved to be a massive success around the world with hundreds of thousands of downloads taking place. We’ve done a breakdown of the stats looked into the breakdown of the stats and after the UK, the kit was surprisingly most popular in France, Italy and Spain. Perhaps they wanted to try and beat an England team in the current kit!

PES2010 will feature the iconic Umbro England kit from the start, Umbro footballs and Speciali boots on the feet of players such as John Terry and David James. We were lucky enough here at Umbro to get the chance to play the game ahead of its launch, and we’ve been impressed with what we’ve seen so far. Graphically, the players look incredibly realistic, whilst the introduction of a 360 degree control system has improved things on the pitch, making the game flow much better. The addition of an official UEFA Europa League section alongside the existing UEFA Champions League mode also means you can play for the big prizes with all the official music, balls and kit for an authentic experience – could come in handy if your team gets knocked out early on.

We haven’t really had chance to test the online or management capacities yet, but there’s plenty of talk from Konami, the game’s producers, to suggest that there’ll also be improvements in these areas. All in all, it adds up to a great year for Pro Evo fans.

Virtual England

In amongst all the excitement around the launch of the New England kit, one thing was bothering me. It was going to be at least 24 hours from kick off before I would be able to download the new kit onto my virtual England team in Pro Evo 2009.

Sad I know.

I have bored people rigid, in the office and at home, with talk of what an exciting moment this would be for gamers, and it quickly became one of my favourite bits of the campaign.

I was very lucky to be present at Wembley last Saturday to watch a Rooney inspired England thrash Slovakia, but if I’m honest I would have loved to have been in front of my XBOX 360 as soon as the final whistle blew downloading the kit update.

A notch up on the sad-o-meter.

The next day on the train back north I planned how I could convince my wife that despite being in London on her birthday, I had to ‘work’ on a Sunday night. My ‘work’ would of course be playing Pro Evo as England, in the new kit, for as long as I could get away with it.

I arrived back early afternoon, played the dutiful husband for six hours then made my move. Sat in front of my XBOX 360 (albeit 24 hours later than I’d have liked) I downloaded the New England kit patch, the process was smoother than the Rooney’s finish for the 2nd goal the day before.

Still sad, but now not bothered.

The time had come to play my first game of Pro Evo as England in the new kit. I was brave and decided to go straight into a game on Xbox Live, me against someone called ‘The Destroyer’, England v Portugal.

Everything went according to plan an early goal from Terry put me 1-0 up, my virtual 11 clearly benefiting from the new confident look. Lampard struck the 2nd and then a moment of brilliance from Walcott put Rooney through to score a wonderful 3rd. The rout was completed by Gerrard and another Lampard strike and England had won 5-0.

Sad?

Probably but I’ll go off the scale when I work out how to share the replay of my Rooney goal on Youtube.

For the next few months, we’ve invited a guest blogger to contribute to this blog. Chris Hunt is a journalist who used to write for Four Four Two, The Times, Ice, Uncut and The Sportsman and has also written a number of books on football including World Cup Stories and The Complete Book of Football.  He is also a big England fan going to all games, home and away.  This is his first post, documenting his journey to Seville for  the Spain vs England friendly on 11th Feb 2009.

TUESDAY AFTERNOON
On arriving in Seville, I have just enough time to check into my hotel before deciding on a whim to make the two-hour drive south to Malaga for tonight’s Under 21 game against a fairly full-strength Ecuador first-team. Killing time before the game in Malaga’s old town I chat football with a couple of Manchester United fans in a café. They’ve been passionately debating tonight’s game, but it turns out they are in the country just to watch the Under 21s and aren’t travelling on to Seville for the big match tomorrow. “I’ve got a special interest in the game tonight,” says one. His special interest turns out to be his son, Tom Heaton, the Manchester United youngster on loan at Cardiff and the starting keeper tonight. We talk about the game and the long road ahead for a quality player like Tom if he’s going to stake a claim one day for a full England cap. And then the supportive dad heads off to the ground. “We want to get in to see the warm-up,” he says, keen to get to the stadium.

TUESDAY EVENING
At the 35,000-capacity Estadio la Rosaleda, the attendance is pretty poor given both the number of ex-pats living in the area and the smattering of young stars on display, but as I watch Tom Heaton make a couple of fine first-half saves on the pitch, I find myself sitting next to another proud dad and his seven-year-old lad, Spurs fan Josh. The pair live in Malaga and apparently Josh, who is sporting his red England shirt for the occasion, is a pretty good footballer himself, playing for a local club coached by former Bristol City pro Brian Tinnion.
Despite his age and location, Josh knows the stars of the Premiership inside out and has quite an impressive knowledge of the Under 21s on show tonight. I wonder if we’ll be seeing him wearing an England shirt for real in a few years’ time, but before I can ask him if he wants to play for his country, he’s on his feet celebrating as Frazier Campbell knocks in England’s second goal. “Come on you Spurs,” he shouts. Even an impressive second-half turnaround by Ecuador doesn’t dampen his spirits and he leaves the ground happy. I wonder if the same can be said for Tom Heaton and his father. Even for the most impartial of football parents, it can’t be easy to see your son concede three well-taken goals in quick succession.

WEDNESDAY MORNING
Arriving in the centre of Seville at 11am, it’s apparent that the slow trickle of England fans has already started. Over the years if you travel regularly to away game the faces start to look familiar and odds are that you’ll chance upon someone you’ve met before. Soon I bump into Tom from Sunderland, who I first met in a bar before the game in Chicago in 2005. Like many fans here today, Tom is turning the trip into a short holiday, staying for a few days to escape the snow at home. He points me in the direction of where the fans are gathering and I find myself passing through the Plaza Nueva, where a gigantic flag of St George already dominates the square.
Following the sound of distant football songs, a quick stroll along the Avenida de la Constitución takes me to Flaherty’s, an Irish pub situated in Calle Alemanes. A small side street facing the back of Seville’s famous gothic cathedral, it seems to have become the main point of interest for the day’s travelling fans. Flags are draped outside the bar and the buoyant crowd spill out onto the road, singing and chanting for the watching television crew.

WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON
England fans have been steadily streaming into the city all afternoon and even in a place the size of Seville it’s hard not to be overwhelmed by their dominant presence. Quite simply, there are England shirts everywhere. A group of Canadian tourists enquire what all the noise is about and although they know very little about ‘soccer’, they are suitably impressed that David Beckham is in town.
The fans too are discussing ‘Becks’ and his scheduled record-equalling appearance tonight. Although the majority of the travelling fans love Beckham for the passion he has brought to playing for the team over the years, by equalling Bobby Moore’s outfield record of 108 caps he has kicked-off a cafe debate about the relative merits of the two former England captains, one a World Cup winner and one not.

WEDNESDAY EVENING
The ground is a 15-minute walk from the city centre, easily manageable by most fans, except for the pair who decide to flag down a passing horse-and-carriage and haggle a good price for a ride to the ground. Most, however, arrive at Estadio Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan by foot and by the time I’ve found a seat, the place is full of noise and colour and the match is about to kick-off.
Having come with such high expectations, the game proves a disappointing anti-climax as Villa’s 36th minute goal silences the travelling England fans. Even the introduction of David Beckham after the break fails to lift spirits, and when Llorente scores Spain’s second with just eight minutes remaining, it signals the end of the game for many, who pour out of the ground heading either for their flights home or for the start of the rest of their winter holiday in the sun. By the time England line-up against Slovakia at Wembley next month, wearing a brand new England shirt and looking forward to the World Cup qualifying matches ahead, this game will be a distant memory.

It was great to read in the Sunday Mirror yesterday Capello declaring that the England team has found “the spirit of the shirt”.  He added: “I always look for that because it is the most important thing for the players playing in any team”.  Of course, everyone here in the office agrees whole heartedly but it’s good to hear it from the top!

Here’s a link to the interview: http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/2008/11/23/capello-salutes-team-spirit-in-england-squad-as-better-than-milan-and-real-115875-20918604/

Just like anyone in the office will tell you, it’s great to see our players doing well and coming through the ranks in the international setup. So it was good to see this shot of Michael Mancienne alongside John Terry, Darren Bent and Curtis Davies in the paper this morning. 

Michael has worn umbro boots for 2 years now and is currently wearing the SX Flare boot.

Best of luck for tonight lads!!

Marc Aspland from The Times sent across this pic from the England vs Kazakhstan game at Wembley last month.  Is it me or does it look a bit like a toy game of football from so high up?