England Football Team

[marky]

Glen, at no point have I suggested Sammy should be removed from his post. That would be a stupid thing to do. We're not Grimsby. I'm merely saying that we fizzled out majorly once Joe Lewis departed and so the general feeling of negativity (amongst some) brought about by the second half of last season set the seeds for the reaction to our start to this season. In this calendar year we have won 7, drawn 9 and lost 17 by my calculations. I'm sure these statistics give some indication as to why there might be a feeling of slight negativity (amongst some) thus far. I have no doubt that if we start winning a few that feeling will start to lift but it's the same in any walk of life. If the company you work for hasn't performed well for 8 months then there's bound to be that little extra pressure and negative feeling.

Anyway, let's see where we are by November

[slackAlice]

shrimper

Yes - and wouldn't that be fantastic? Something to celelbrate - what's wrong with that?

Nothing wrong with a celebration and although I would'nt personally be dancing in the streets I'd defend any persons right to do so.

The trouble with the 'England football' celebrations is they have a tendency in the past to get out of hand; by that I mean it 'sometimes' spills over into people getting hurt and things getting smashed. I have a bit of a theory that 'some' parts of the national press /media play a part in whipping up 'National Hysteria'.

I suppose I mean some of the tabloids print 20 /30 good reasons why the English dislike the French or the Germans - a bit of fun for most of us I agree-but to my mind it panders to the extreme nationalism associated with English supporters in the past. I think they also 'inflate' expectations of the England football team a lot of the time - when we beat Andorra 2-0 , the theme is we should be beating teams like Andorra / Israel / N Ireland comfortably ...Why ? Its very similar to the "teams like Morecambe" threads we get.

Then when we beat Crotia 4-1, and thats an excellent result, but now England should beat Kahzakstan and Belarus 5 or 6 nil ? and anything short of that is a poor result ?

I also think this exaggerated press coverage which is pervasive in the English press is counter-productive ; it often means most opposition teams are 'big' underdogs before a ball is kicked and that can give the opposition the 'mental edge'.

[shrimper]

shrimper

I suppose I mean some of the tabloids print 20 /30 good reasons why the English dislike the French or the Germans - a bit of fun for most of us I agree-but to my mind it panders to the extreme nationalism associated with English supporters in the past. I think they also 'inflate' expectations of the England football team a lot of the time - when we beat Andorra 2-0 , the theme is we should be beating teams like Andorra / Israel / N Ireland comfortably ...Why ? Its very similar to the "teams like Morecambe" threads we get.

Then when we beat Crotia 4-1, and thats an excellent result, but now England should beat Kahzakstan and Belarus 5 or 6 nil ? and anything short of that is a poor result ?

I also think this exaggerated press coverage which is pervasive in the English press is counter-productive ; it often means most opposition teams are 'big' underdogs before a ball is kicked and that can give the opposition the 'mental edge'.

Now this is where we do agree - and that's the point I've been making about dismissing a team's (or a manager's) worth after a few games, or even half a season, when they deserve a longer term perspective.

[marky No.1]

Looks like Mr. Blatter is going to 'move the goalposts' for qualification in terms of more of an African involvement so World Cup qualification could be more challenging in the future

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/footba ... tball.html