United> England
Henry Kibirige
The majority of United fans would agree with me when I say the International breaks or the England team overall is an absolute waste of time and money. It completely slows down the rhythm of the Premiership and it’s a weekend and midweek of absolute boredom. It’s absolutely pointless and the worst nightmare is if important players like Rooney and Ferdinand get injured, thus meaning a possible break-up in United’s form.
We had to endure it over the past week, but certain incidents in Russia meant the United fans in Manchester and all around the country were sat at home crying with laughter at the final whistle. Rooney scored a brilliant opener (what else do you expect from a United player), but Pavlyuchenko scored twice meaning that England were staring at the possibility of failing to qualify for Euro 2008. Meanwhile Scotland and maybe even Northern Ireland could be on the verge of actually qualifying. Brilliant.
If this actually happens, it will mean the English United players will get a summer off, and we won’t have to cope with all the ‘1966’ malarkey.
I don’t hate England, (actually I am not sure about that) don’t get me wrong, but I seem to care more about QVC’s broadcasting times than whether England will repeat their triumphs of 1966. I simply don’t care about them. I watch England games (if I can be bothered to) just as a normal football game. The only problem is that I get that funny feeling in my belly when Rooney goes into a 50-50, but other than that, I couldn’t care less. So why aren’t United fans doing what they should be doing, and supporting their home country? Why United?
The thing is that it’s not just United fans that are having the same feelings, it’s generally the fans of the top sides on the Premiership. Arsenal, Chelski or Pool fans prefer to watch their reserves on a cold and rainy Wednesday night that watch England play.
This means that if you go to an England game, you’ll find that the majority of them support the likes of Citeh, Boro and teams in the Championship and below. These are teams that don’t expect to lift a trophy at the end of the season, so they rely on England for a chance to taste some glory. The problem though, is that England aren’t getting that much glory at all.
But for United, there are other reasons, and the first happened in 1998. England of course had pressure and high expectations for this World Cup which was held in France. After doing well in the group stages, England had a vital game against the far more superior Argentina side. It was 1-0 to the Argentines after 5 minutes, but Shearer then equalised. Owen then made it 2-1, but Argentina equalised through Zanetti just before the break.
Just after the restart, Simeone clashed into Beckham, who lay on the floor and for some reason, decided to raise his boot and tap Simeone on the leg. As a typical Argentine, Simeone rolled around on the floor like a scouser trying to persuade the local hospital for accommodation for the night. Beckham got sent off, and England got knocked out on penalties.
The public were outraged. It had to be Beckham’s fault, for EVERYTHING. He made England miss the penalties even though he didn’t take any. It had to be his fault.
Unfortunately it got serious, as the Beckhams received death threats and England fans wanted Beckham’s head. The following season meant that he had to cope with booing and hissing whenever United played away. The United fans on the other hand gave him their utmost support. ‘There’s only one David Beckham’ was always echoing around Old Trafford, and eventually the booing and hissing stopped as Beckham started to put in some outstanding performances. This incident probably started the club vs country rows with United.
Most recently though, were the incidents in the World Cup last year in Germany. After getting past the mighty Ecuador, England faced their toughest test in Portugal in the quarter-finals. Again, it was a World Cup of high expectations, as England fans firmly believed this was their year. In a fairly tight game, Wayne Rooney went into a challenge, and as he tried to regain balance, he trodden on Carvalho’s unmentionables. As any opposing player of any team would have done, Ronaldo went to the ref persuading him to punish Rooney for what looked like a dangerous stamp. But the fact that it was against England means that it’s an unforgivable crime. Anyway, Wayne got sent off and Ronaldo exchanged a wink with the Portuguese bench.
It went down to penalties and Ronaldo added the salt to the wound by scoring the winning penalty, sending England out.
‘Crucify him’, the England fans shouted as Ronaldo was becoming Hitler’s nearest contender for the most hated crown. The booing continued while Ronaldo was single-handedly leading United to a Premiership title. ‘He plays on the left, he plays on the riiiiiiiight…’ became a heavily sang song amongst United fans. The boo boys didn’t last past Christmas with Ronaldo producing some mind blowing performances.
But by this time though, it was understood that United fans didn’t care about England anyway. They actually enjoyed watching them lose in the World Cup. It’s just hysterical how the press get so much on England’s back prior to a tournament, and be utterly surprised and angry when they come back home empty handed. It’s hysterical how the FA make some of the worst decisions in football history. Why on earth did they sack Sven? And bring in Steve bloody McLaren! This decision was made after ignoring the likes of Hiddink, O’Neill, Scolari and even Sam Allardyce.
It’s hysterical how Match of the Day look back on 1966 so much, that at first glance it looks like it happened yesterday. It’s hysterical how the England fans don’t know how to support a team.
So it is true that we don’t care about England, and I hope it stays that way.
(On Oct 22nd, 2007 at 10:23 am)
well, they are part of the reason. The rest of it are the prats who follow the England team around and for reasons best known to themselves choose to boo any United player at the least excuse. For me though, the main reason is the fact that their bosses at the FA haven’t exactly been sympathetic to United over the years, commencing when they asked United to go to Brazil for a silly tournament in the middle of January to appease Blatter the Fatter. When the “national” (read “London”) press got wind of the fact that United were forced into a dilemna, in that they couldn’t be in two places at once and would have to pull out of the FA cup, they saw their chance for uber mock outrage at our expense again. We should’ve refused to go and then suffered the accusation that we’d lost England the chance to host the World Cup. The FA could’ve easily come to United’s aid and taken the responsibility for the decision, but did they? Did they fuck. They sat on their fat arses whilst we were crucified, yet again, in the press. Add to that the ridiculous punishments handed out to Eric (twice for the same offence) Keane (twice for the same offence) Rio and Gary Nev copped unprecedented raps and that’s just for starters. Oh, and the fact that Eric’s beloved “seagulls” seem to have hi-jacked the England team for London’s enjoyment. Well, they need a helping hand from somebody, given their clubs’ abysmal records.