I know things are changing,when I was a kid England ALWAYS came first and BEFORE your club team So I hope England qualify as it makes it a shorter Summer 2014.
Got to be honest........I am finding it harder and harder to get excited about internatiol games now.
Hope they crash out. Crash out of FIFA's top twenty, thirty, forty and finally the FA - EPL with their richest league in the world stop lining their pockets with wealth for a minute and start treating kids coaching as seriously as the Germans and Spanish do. Alternatively they can shamble along like they are the media and SKY can clap footballs coming home and pretend nothing is wrong.
England still matters to most fans. The Premier League and the Champions League are deemed more important, but only a handful of teams in England play for these teams. Not every fan supports a top team. I support England above Bristol City, without a shadow of doubt.
Don't think fans of the game give a **** about Cole, Terry and Rooney anymore. Not like they give a **** about anybody but themselves, AND money. Wembleys been dead for ten years. Full of face painted Hornbyists now with a band telling all how to support the team. England away support "da, da, da, da ... ", Ugh. Who they playing? Come on the other lot. Stick on you tube tell the kids to look at Barcelona, Bayern and Dortmund, Brazil, Germany, Spain there is real football.
Got agree with Wurzel on this one, I can't remember the last time I watched and England game, think it was Montenegro, and I was cheering Montenegro on as they looked like a team who could be bothered. I genuinely don't believe the players could give a toss, and neither do the FA given the fact they employed Woy, who is as inept as they come with big names. FIFA is a farce, and this Qatar business proves that. Full of bungs and brown envelope exchanges. I hope in 2022 no matter whether its a summer or winter tournament nations drop out.
First and foremost I support Bristol City However, I'm English and will always want England to do well.
Made me think this one, I did not realize how unimportant the England football team had become to me, if they win great, if they lose I couldn't care less, I have no attachment to any of the players or manager and the FA are a shambles. I also agree with the points made, we are 2nd rate, governed by cash, media moguls and spivs, gone are the days of pride, love of the shirt and patriotism.. Bristol City are my team....
I look at England the same way I look at City. A second/third rate team struggling in the lower reaches of the rankings. Although I am affected much more by City's results than I am by England's. Other than 1966 it has been year after year of disappointments with the occassional near success or good result? Now why does that sound familiar?
'I did not realize how unimportant the England football team had become to me, if they win great, if they lose I couldn't care less, I have no attachment to any of the players or manager and the FA are a shambles. I also agree with the points made, we are 2nd rate, governed by cash, media moguls and spivs, gone are the days of pride, love of the shirt and patriotism.. Bristol City are my team....' Verbatim.
For all the reasons given I can understand those who have lost their passion for England.. But I have followed the Team all around the world (not the players or the FA,) for a long, long time and I will always want my home country to firstly qualify and then do well. How can there be pride and patriotism if the fans don't show any.! Come on England...
'How can there be pride and patriotism if the fans don't show any.!' And equally How can there be pride and patriotism if the players don't show any!
'Someone needs to go first.!' England fans are always there, 1st, 2nd and last. You being one. Prem prima donnas turn up when they feel like it eg - I'll be surprised if Lambert starts Friday.
The England I followed at two World cups, two European Championships and into the old Soviet states has ceased to exist. Those I went with more or less take the same view. Follow that and you have no pride in yourself. I dislike them and what they stand for. The Three Lions should be changed to pound notes, even Wembley is about cash, every angle is about extracting money out of the consumers pockets.
The support at Wembley is now drawn from a totally different demographic than it was. The England there now are overwhelmingly from a different class and sub culture. 1st, 2nd and last has gone. Wembley is plastic, the support is plastic. The contrast to the vibrant raucous place it once was is stark. I can remember my visits as a kid and that experience lasted for decades, the crowds and its noise its prescience. It all been homogenised. Wembley is a mecca now to commercialisation. A parallel to that on the pitch is Mr Head and Shoulders in goal. As for the rest some of them are absolute ...
I believe a huge turning point, and the lights coming on in so many heads, was the last world cup... Hundreds of thousands of fans traveling to a place like South Africa, spending mini fortunes to watch the intolerable garbage that was on display and then be complained at by the likes of Sir Scumbag himself Wayne Rooney on National TV, is nothing short of shambolic. If you want to question patriotism, you start with the players first, not the hard working, fan who pays their extortionate wages.
Back in the day City's support at England games was one of the best in the Country. Now its probably only 10% of what it was. Lot of lads do euro trips to Dortmund, Lazio - Roma, Sparta Prague and of course Willem II. More City may now watch Willem II once or twice a season than England. Group of City lads doing the Belgrade derby next month.
