The Yard thinks English football supporters are all stupid for getting angry about useless performances. It’s possible that he doesn’t hang around much with people who have little St George flags on their cars or a big ones hanging from their windows, but in fact both of those patriotic expressions are perfectly consistent with expecting Brazil to win the World Cup or having a few quid on the Argies.
Of course you hope for a win in the same way that you hope your team wins the FA Cup, but what people expect from England is a bit of a run. For the players to be inspired by the big stage rather than shrivel on it, to be more than the sum of their parts and to play at their top level or perhaps a little above, rather than the 35% capacity which I estimate was the team average (Wayne Rooney, superstar of so many ads and endorsements, was at about, generously, 10%). The 1990 team got knocked out by Germany too but they got a heroes' reception and an open top bus. Never blithely assume people are stupid; England fans know the score.
Ha! Didn't Rooney make those Nike 'Write the Future' adverts look ridiculous? Can't see many kids being called 'Wayne' this year.
ReplyDeletedamn! and there I was hankering after a population explosion of baby Waynes.
ReplyDeleteThe press for which he is a part is the problem. And not just the tabloids.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should give the sports editors of Fleet Street a go at running and managing Team England, then they can sack themselves at the first time a opposition scores against us, or Stevie G does not make us his mind who to pass too in the first 1 millionth of a second and instead commits the sin of hanging on the ball for 15 seconds so he can have a good look around to see the options.
It would be fun.
All of last week, around Koln's shopping centre were cardboard cut outs of Wayne, set up by WDR television, with cameras in attendance, Krauts were invited to kick ass. Really!, Germans, don't you just love 'em.
ReplyDeleteA gorgeous Sunday afternoon, 30 degrees, the terrace cafe of the Lugwigs Museum, Two Geordies, one hundred Bosch. Never have so few been humiliated by so many.
Betting against the team you root for is a nice little hedging strategy. If your team loses, you've got the money; if your team wins, there you are.
ReplyDeleteOf course, you have to keep it quiet or you might get beat up, but that's what insurance/NHS is for.