The English media and the fans are pathetic and deserve the worst
We’ve spent so long criticising and whinging about the England team and the players that we now take it as our god-given right to attack the national team at every turn.
It sucks, it’s weak, it’s gone too far and it must stop.
In the England v Andorra report, you’ll see a half-time video of the fans hurling abuse at the England players and the manager. It’s justifiable to be disappointed, but that kind of behavior cannot be tolerated anymore.
The ‘fan’ is egged on by the media and expectations are built so high by footballing hacks living in their vindictive make-believe worlds that anything less than an overpowering copy-cat performance of club football is deemed a failure.
Yes, the fans have seen insipid performances and for that the players must be criticised. But do they deserve the amount of crap that’s hurled at them by the fans? Definitely not. The pressure on these players is unbelievable. Expecting them to perform 100% when their own fans are turning on them is unfair - on the contrary, the fans should be cheering the players on even more, trying to get them pumped up so that they can improve.
McClaren has made mistakes - he made them in Israel, against Macedonia, against Croatia. He deserves the criticism, but not the form of abuse that is sent his way by the likes of the Sun and other tabloids. He certainly doesn’t deserve to hear ‘Steve McClaren is a wanker’.
The team has under-performed, and for that the players and the management are equal to blame. But should Stewart Downing be given this much grief before he’s even given the chance to play well?
The first half against Andorra was a case of nerves, which wasn’t helped by the get-in-their-faces-and-cripple-them approach used by Andorra. It was made worse by the heckling fans.
Gerrard, that match-winner of ours, put us in front (thanks to lovely assist by Wayne Rooney). Gerrard claimed the second as well before Defoe and Nugent combined for the third.
The second half was a team performance and an admirable one. Overall, England could have done better but considering their recent form, the pressure from the media and the heckling fans, they did well.
Can they do better? Much better. The England team and the England manager have a lot to answer for, and there are many things that must be addressed before we can call England a team worthy of winning international titles.
But what about the media, and what about the fans? Pathetic, absolutely pathetic.
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Yeah, I don’t get it. Finally McLaren gives the fans/media the lineup they wanted with Lampard dropped and Gerrard in the middle and Lennon on the right wing with a 4-4-2. The performance was just ok to be fair. But definitely didn’t deserve the amount of vitriol hurled at Macca and co. A very evil thing, this British media is don’t you think?
My question is this:
If you were a poor footballing nation, with the opportunity to play England, some of the best players in the world, wouldn’t you want to really play football? I mean, you’re going to lose anyway, you might as well create something, take a risk and enjoy yourselves. The Andorrans last night put on one of the worst displays of sportsmanship I’ve ever seen, in any sport. From their diving to consistent elbowing, to trying deseperately to wind up Rooney and Gerrard to kicking Ashley Cole, to slicing through Hargreaves every single time he got the ball (I know the ref is portuguese and therefore anti english, but I think Hargreaves would have been within his rights to punch at least two of the players). I mean, can they look at themselves in the mirror and go, well we tried? No you didn’t, you tried to hurt the opposing team, and didn’t even bother trying to score.
I feel so bad for any Andorran fans. That wasn’t football, it was war. And given the circumstances of the game, it was necessary, nor appropriate.
I’ve always loathed the way our media (mainly the printed variety) act’s towards all our national sporting teams, the football team especially. The problem is they are well aware a poor England performance sells just as many papers as a good one, so to them it doesn’t matter either way. They are not England fans, they don’t have that same desire to see us succeed as the fans do and they don’t have that same gut-wrenching feeling the fans feel when we come home from a competition not giving our best. Yes they have the right to comment and report the facts but not to stir up ill-feeling and play upon the fans love for the game and their team.
The scenes we saw at half-time yesterday was not an outpouring of emotion but a form of hysteria whipped up by the press. Every fan believes they can do better then Macca but in reality this is real life and not a game of champ manager, these type of conversations should be kept to the living rooms and pubs and not peddled to the masses under the guise of ‘news’.
I understand fully Macca’s decision to walk out of that news conference.
That said I still don’t think he’s the man for the job.
I agree with blaming the tabloids but if people continue to buy them, they’ll continue to print this career (and sometimes life) threatening rubbish. If the British public weren’t illiterate and read grown-up papers, there’d be no problem.
Can’t agree - the fans were voicing their opinion as is their right. The media is a reflection of opinion - currently the opinion that McClaren is inept and the team isn’t playing well enough. I don’t need the press to tell me that - I just need my eyes. The fact that the papers are voicing that opinion too is neither here nor there. Do you honestly think that every fan at that game was booing because the Sun told them to? Of course not.
England played abysmally in the first half and were told so in no uncertain terms. The players are professional sportsmen paid millions. If they can’t keep their ‘nerves’ in check and do what their paid to do then we should get some players who can.
I knew that if we won there would be people saying that the media were too harsh on England. We scraped a 3-0 result against a team of part-timers thanks largely to Steven Gerrard and a tap in from Nugent. The entire poulation of Andorra including women and kids would fit into Wembly withn space to spare - there are only 30 or so registered footballers in the whole country.
As for McClaren’s walk-out from the news conference - it just goes to show that he’s given up already. He could have used the opportunity to try and turn around some of the negativity, instead he throws a strop.
Red Ranter, the reason everyone is upset even though Macca picked the right formation is the fact that it was because he was forced to drop lampard, he didn’t do it out of choice. Also it’s because until the one game that diddn’t really matter, our cries for Lampard’s benching has fallen on deaf ears. So I think we have a little right to be annoyed, and frustrated, but I do concede that calling Macca a wanker was going way too far.
If it were not for the fans the players would not be around. Fans pay the players wages, travel around the world out of blind patriotism (Cos it’s not for the football), and they expect the England team to perform.
To be honest with you this has been coming for a few years and now it has come to the point where the fans have had enough.
England players may be superstars in the Premiership but none have proved themselves at international level and therfore can not be called world class.
The fans can do what they want. They are the heart and soul of football. The players are overpaid premadonnas. Can you blame the fans. NO!
You know, Spain wants Gibraltar….the UK could swap Gibraltar for Andorra and avenge the Andorrans’ harsh tactics by engaging in a police crackdown on their miniscule population. Or sanctions! Let’s go for sanctions!
Billy:
Alternately, London could do to Andorra’s Catalan culture what Madrid does to the rest of Catalonia…that is, piss all over its foolish and arbitrary pride with policies that officially marginalize it.
Come on, us fans pay decent money but the abuse was disgusting! These are people and in any profession, abusing someone while they are doing what there job is obviously the only effect it will have is a negative one. I understand fans voicing there frustration but just like a good set of fans can be the 12th man for a team, booing DURING the first half will only make the players rush and try to please. I guarantee if our fans were cheering our boys, we would have scored in the first half. I mean surely its not that difficult to voice dissapointment at the END of a game. I have NEVER EVER known fans to boo their own team during the first half of a game. Its like they went there for the soul purpose of making life hell. Anyone who cant see that seriously needs there head examined. I feel ashamed that our fans can behave in such an apalling way.
2 things.
1) there’s a difference between voicing displeasure and showing hatred and abusing your own team.
2) During the game, the team needs support, not hatred and booing.
Kris: Be careful of what you speak, specially when you don’t know shit about it.
@The mods: If possible delete his racist comment about the catalan people.
england fans has no right to speak,, although Andorra team play very bad football,, england should score at least 1,, you cannot blame the game,, you cannot blame the others,, just take what you are,, racism in football is sucks.. your club or country must have at least 1 other country player,, if you’re better, then go play and show the world how good are you,, rude bastard people of england who pour their hatred in football..