This country's attitude to the national team

Is often disgusting in my opinion. Everyone should be proud that our country consistently qualifies for every tournament. Everyone should celebrate each victory whoever the opposition is. Everyone should get behind the team no matter what. But no. Even after being the only team in Europe with a 100% record there will be no positivity. If we win the 4 friendlies against the European heavyweights we will still get no plaudits. We will go into Euro 2016 with the press ready to get the knives out and a lot of English people almost willing us to fail.

The Leeds type arrogance of a lot of England's fans is also infuriating.

 

Do you think we will win the Euros next year? Or any tournament any time soon? We are a good qualifying team but as often happens we fail to produce when it really matters. We have had an easy group and should rightly (according to the rankings) be expected to beat all the teams in front of us however the team for whatever reason goes into its shell at the world stage. Do we also have world class players? If so name me half a dozen of the current squad who are. I always want England to do well and succeed no matter what sport but expectations and reality are two different issues. Are England football fans today arrogant? I dont believe so

 

The standard of our qualifying group was pretty poor, you're right. However, I don't believe that Holland's group was that much stronger. Certainly not so much better that anyone would have expected Iceland to win it. Even Spain have dropped points in a group which is arguably as poor as England's.

 

I used to love the national team as a kid but nowadays I just see it as an inconvenience getting in the way of club football. I do still get up for the major tournaments though.

The choices of captain have put me off our team as well.

First they gave it to Beckham who got us knocked out of the 98 World Cup & then jumped out of a tackle before Brazil's equaliser against us in 2002. Might well be a nice bloke off the pitch but he's about as far away from a leader as you can get.

Then they gave it to John Terry, a man who at this point had already got a conviction for glassing someone & was on record as been making aeroplane noises & taking the piss out of worried Americans at Heathrow on 9/11. It was well known he was a scumbag & proved it further with the racism & Wayne Bridge saga. Should've never been captain in a million years.

And there's Rooney who got us knocked out of the 2006 World Cup with a stamp & then felt it necessary to abuse our own fans in 2010 after the worst tournament I've seen an England team produce. Never a captain for me.

For wanting us to fail, I disagree with that. I want them to do well but it's time the press gave them a break. We have no world class players, the worst back 4 of my lifetime & players like Cahill, Townsend & Milner get regular caps which says it all. But at the same time there's only 2 quality teams in Europe, Germany & Spain so we've as good a chance as the rest

 

I didn't even know they were playing last night until somebody mentioned that they were 1 up. No interest whatsoever, the money has killed it for me.

 

Will always support them. Only exception to that was when Mick was manager of Republic I supported them, as for me club always comes before country.

I have more interest when Stones is in now too, as I'm sure many do.

Until the crazy money in the Premiership finishes we'll never really have a chance of competing, as not enough English players get to play at the highest level young enough these days. Rooney was a real exception & whilst the lad had broken records for England I think the pressure that has been on him & Gerrard has been too great when its come to finals. If anything lowered expectations & a bit lower standard of teams in the Euros this time may help them a bit, so I wouldn't worry about there being less fervour from the public.

 

I'd agree with a lot of that, especially regarding Terry. What I would say though is thatalthough he's not the sharpest tool in the box, Rooney appears to have matured immensely since his younger days of constant red cards and bondage grannies.

 

Given the amount of quality English players playing at the top i think we are actually over achieving and should celebrate qualification as a success. International football isn't the most exciting as it has moved nearer to the European continental game. Champions league is no different.

We should list the eligible English players playing regular football in their respective top divisions. Its clear to see that there aren't that many these days.

 

Desperately want to say I'm different and that I am proud when we qualify for tournaments, I do celebrate victories and I do support them, but I genuinely didn't know we were playing last night, just found out this morning, so I'm not sure that argument would hold much water.

 

I followed England the length and width of the country when Wembley shut, I went to euro 2004 and done a few other aways too, for a good 6 year watching England was brilliant....the around 2010 my love for the national team went. I struggled to watch the first half last night as it was so boring and the 2nd half I caught glimpses at the gym. I rang my old fella moaning and he rightly pointed out 'you can only beat what's in front of you'.....quite right I replied but it's mainly teams who have players sweeping the streets in their countries!!

Who was the last decent team we bet???

The passion for me as gone and Roy boy is just another F.A yes man!

I remember going to the stadium of light maybe 9/10 years ago when we played Turkey, won 2-0, think it was a Beckham penalty and Vessel scoring that night, when we scored the first I've never ever celebrated a goal like it, the atmosphere that night was unbelievable!! And that now has all gone.....I often wonder if playing every home have at Wembley is the right thing to do?? That roadshow was absolutely fantastic.....

I'll always love and support England and whenever the national anthem is sung it still gives me goose bumps but sadly there's a spark missing theses days for the fans and for the players too......

 

My attitude is that I couldn't give a t0ss for them, I stopped caring years ago. I have an interest when Stones is playing but that's about it. The choice of manager, the picking of players, the players attitude, etc, the list goes on have killed my interest in the national game.

I really didn't know we were playing until I heard somebody moaning that it was on. I still don't know the score from the game.

 

I was at that game and the atmosphere was top notch i remember Sunderland pubs being a bit of a let down though.Liverpool was a much better day out.

 

I think the support for your country should be more conditional than that for your club. I'm not a paying customer of England football, I watch them on TV. I'm in no position to demand attractive, winning football like perhaps I am with Barnsley. If you don't particularly care than that's fine, but the England team get a lot of criticism from people who have never been to a game.

I don't think qualifying for a major tournament is something to be proud of. We are one of the best teams in the world and anything other than qualification is rightly seen as a failure.

However, there are a lot of teams a lot better than us. It's not that we're underachieving like maybe we have in the past. We're just not good enough to be consistently challenging for the euros or the World Cup. Yet it's expected that we do because the premier league is of such a high standard. I think that's the issue here. There's a lot of pressure for us to do well, and anything other than success is disproportionately crictisized which doesn't help our chances in the next major tournament.

Almost the 'in' thing is to criticise England at the moment, and I don't think it will change until we really excel, beat top teams in major tournaments and make it past the quarter finals.

 

England won 9 - 8 in a boring defensive game

 

Barnsley promoted to championship next year or England win euros???

Think we need a Whitey poll for this 1

 

Barnsley success comes first every time for me

 

The best thing about watching England next summer would be Paddy coming on for the last ten minutes in a group game against us and scoring an injury time winner to send Roy's boys home.

Football could stop right there.

 

Barnsley every single time.

 

Barnsley every time.

I used to live and breathe football and he England team. The money's ruined it. The over exposure has ruined it. Idiots like Terry have ruined it. I didn't know we were playing last night until a girl I was talking to in a pub told me. It's all so meh.

Love Barnsley Hate Football

 

Barnsley every time. I went to the Euros in 2012 and had an amazing time, but I can't imagine it would have been much less fun if I'd had tickets for a different group. Definitely having England tickets was the icing on the cake, but nothing more.