Too right, they look at our team and pick holes in it usually, wont give up hope though or else whats the point.
I don't usually put it so strongly but I completely agree with this. I know what you mean, but at the same time I think often the opposition give us more credit than we give ourselves. In the last few years it's all been constant negativity from England 'fans', it's actually become cool to say you don't support England any more. How can you be a football fan and not support your country? :S As for why we'd be favourites, why would history affect it? That's a Leeds thing to say! How many times have other countries been knocked out early on? Generally we just get as far as we should do - getting to the semis would be over-achieving slightly, the quarters should in theory be the best 8 teams and we're probably one of the top 8 but not the top 4 so the quarters is where we should expect to finish. I'd say only Spain have a better team than us (and even then we have more depth in some areas) but then probably Holland, France and Germany have similar quality teams to us so that's 5 good teams. We probably won't win at the Euros but we'll have a decent chance. We just need to remember there are other good teams and we don't all need to start crying and looking for reasons if we don't win. The most obvious reason is that other teams did well!
Germany are far, far better than us Premier but who knows, Chelsea showed the other night that you can survive an all-out assault with ten men so anything is possible, no doubt the Euros will play out a bit differently in some cases because of just that one game the other night and the inspirations some teams/managers might have taken from it
That REALLY pisses me off. Every single time it's due to an injury or a 'refereeing injustice' rather than just admitting we werent very good. Funnily enough the media and fans seem to overlook when we get some astonishing fortune (Spain's 2 perfectly good disallowed goals at Euro 96 spring to mind) or indeed that every single team there will be missing an important player through injury. As for not supporting England, for me I cant see past the fact that every single player bar none (off the top of my head) is a massive odious ****er. I want us to win it for the country, I just wouldnt want to see any of them players win it (if that makes sense). Actually, Joe Hart seems a decent lad come to think of it.
I have this trouble, have to see Ashley Cole for example as the great player instead of a massive cnut that he actually is and separate the two, virtually all the team are bellends as NFU would put it!
I don't know if they are far, far better. They have some good players but so do we. I'd say we're pretty similar. To be honest the refereeing thing is a fair point, I was only 3 at Euro 96 so I don't remember much but since 2004 we've had some shoddy luck in every tournament we've been at and it's knocked us out every time. My point was more that rather than saying "Fair enough, Germany are a good side and better than us on the day." It's always "We're ****, we'll always be ****, they're all ****ers, past it, infidels and generally ****." Or some other such nonsense. At club level people can support their team rationally but when it comes to England people just go way overboard.
OK so bellends in the public eye (not necessarily mine): Terry, Cole, Rooney, Young maybe? Not bellends in the public eye: Hart, Green, Carson, Ferdinand, Jones, Cahill, G. Johnson, Richards, Baines, Parker, Barry, Lampard, Gerrard, Wilshere, A. Johnson, Downing, Lennon, Walcott, Bent, Carroll, Defoe, Zamora. Anyone see my point about going way over the top when it comes to England yet?
Germany are better than us for sure, as for the bellend thing thats open to question really Ferdinand is, Lampard probably, Gerrard is, Lennon open to debate, Caroll open to debate, Defoe questionable so the ones on your OK list are not all open to a few questions unfortunately. Don't get me wrong i want us to do well but like Bum Chin says so many of our players are really dubious characters that it makes you think really.
Steven Gerrard - beat up a dj because he wouldnt let him choose the song he wanted. The laws of being a decent human dont apply to him. Rio Ferdinand - decided he was too important for a drugs test. The rules dont apply to him. Carroll - more centre court appearances than Jimmy Connors. The law doesnt apply to him. Green - put in a transfer request cos 90k a week was an insult. The laws of economics dont apply to him. I could go on....
To be fair, I don't like it when a dj won't play my request and I think a dry slap was quite in order.
But that's the point Im making - it's just not true. We simply focus on when it costs us and brush it under the carpet, forgetting every single time the decision goes in our favour. Michael Owen's disgusting cheating versus the Argies anyone? If that was the other way round we'd have invaded Buenos Aries!
I know what you mean, but at the same time I think often the opposition give us more credit than we give ourselves. In the last few years it's all been constant negativity from England 'fans', it's actually become cool to say you don't support England any more. How can you be a football fan and not support your country?[/QUOTE] I have citizen rights in the UK, South Africa and Australia but support none of them at football, only my club. Why do I need to support a country?
Don't see us being anywhere near the favourites for the Euros. We seem to be more than happy to mill about for months on end without a manager. Whenever they can be bothered, and actually ask someone to do the job, it'd be more or less a miracle if they turned us into genuine contenders in the allotted time.
Why bother posting then Brikki- at the end of the day this forum is for people to express opinions on football, this thread is marked off-topic, if you don't like the thread don't contribute to it. If the board was just Tigers stories I think a lot of people would clear off, hard enough encouraging people to post on here as it is
If there's football on then i'll watch it. Anyone see the Bilboa v Sporting Lisbon match. I watched first half and thought it was class then went to make a cup of tea and some berk turned it over. Think both teams will have offers coming in for their better players in the summer.
Didn't see it but hope Athletic keep their players, they are a great team, think Llorente will go though most likely especially if he starts in the Euros
I saw Guardiola's leaving. I wonder if Jose would fancy a crack at managing his old team, probably cause riots over there if that happened and he left Madrid for them!
