Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Well, thank goodness it will start soon, and all the hype & speculation can turn to irony & cynicism, once again, when reality kicks in ;)

- If I'm wrong I'll watch from the quarter finals, on :)

Good luck England, don't get me wrong, but I don't expect a departing manager, an ageing crosser, an injured scouser, the metatarsally challenged shrek, or the untried schoolboy, to gel, much - hope I'm wrong :shrug:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

The reason I have my opinions is because I'm tired of, yes, the media ramming it all down my throat and treating us Celts like second class citizens. If all the home nations are playing one night, guess which team gets the most coverage in the news?

If I was a betting man I'd wager that anyone who thinks I'm exaggerting is English ;)

You guys can't see it - it's perfectly normal for you lot to have your team given prominence in the media.

I'm not entirely bitter, that's why I'd like to see an England win. What would annoy me is the fact we wouldn't hear the end of it til 2046 - but that's besides the point.

Me, I went out and bought a Barcelona top :D

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Do you actually believe the media and think that all English fans think that we are going to win it?

Okay you may be just fed up with the media, but BR's posts do suggest a rivalry issue, not a media thing. I am just on a crusade for honesty ;) :D

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

It's not really about whether or not anyone thinks you'll win - it's about complete media saturation and the only way to ensure it dies down as quickly as possible is an England loss, as has been demonstrated for 36 years.

I refer you to the second post in this thread if you're after my view ;)

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Hmm, you just said 'we have a superb chance of winning'. That smacks of that attitude as well imo. You may have a better chance of winning than in recent years, but superb? I don't know. Realistically, imo, any team that wins it will need (apart from a decent team) a whole lot of luck. Luck in players not getting injured, luck in refereeing decisions going your way. Luck in hitting the target, not the woodwork. Sixteen teams will proceed to the knockout stage. Given their group, I think England will be one of them. Then there's four matches against tough opposition. Hard to call really...

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I think we have a chance of winning it, even if we didn't at least we could be happy in the knowledge that Sven won't be getting his dirty little hands on an honoury knighthood!

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

But my question was do you believe the media and then think that all English fans think that we will win?

Just BR's now ;)

---------- Post added at 23:50 ---------- Previous post was at 23:48 ----------

I think we have the same chance as anyone else. I don't think that we have an exceptionally good squad though. If all our opponents get the same chef as Tottenham did, then we may increase our chance ;)

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

I believe the vast majority of you think you're "in with a chance" - but I see nothing different in this year's squad to that of WC's gone by. Every 4 years we get the same "this is the strongest squad we've ever had" and all the usual pep talks but it never leads to anything. You'll be out by the semis then it'll be weeks of blaming all kinds of things - the pitch, spontanious human combustion, the lack of decent irrigation facilities in remote African countries etc

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Is this belief from what you read in the media or actual fans?

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

The papers are full of the usual post mortem after each World Cup exit but also on tv, tune in to Talk Sport, read online, even read CF (or nthw.com as it was back then) and the fans come out with exactly what the papers are saying.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Don't believe the media ;)

Full of the usual nutcases, who are on the same level as the media.

We are not all blinded... ;)

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Is the average fan like me? As in: omg, I hope we don't **** up. Please let us make it to the quarters at least, semis would be great, after that: who knows?

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

Well I'm like that anyway ;)

It just annoys me that the media has painted a picture of the "English" fan and everyone else believes it :mad:

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

They did used to say that you need three world class players to win the thing, we have five or six, only a couple of other teams can boast that so I'd say we have a pretty fair chance, yes there are a lot of factors that can influence results but generally you get what you deserve, it also depends on what you'd call success is the semi's such a disgrace, were we all so disapointed last time because it could have so easily all been different, I don't know only time will tell I guess, it would be nice to finish the tournament without feeling that we had under achieved whatever happens.

Re: The anyone but England thread!
 

You'll feel the same again this year :D