England Are ‘Over Paid And Overhyped Compared To Other Nations’ Said Mark From Exeter

I received an email this morning from a reader called Chris, he told me he was ‘intrigued’ to hear my views about England this weekend, especially after Israel beat Russia to gift England a chance of going through. Well, I was going to write about the circus that England found themselves this morning anyway so no worries Chris.

I don’t like talking much about the England national team. Why? Because half of England don’t like talking about the England national team. I listened to a number of radio phone ins yesterday, and die hard English fans wanted Russia to win. You know when football has gone mad when fans want their own  national team to lose. The main reasons were because England are ‘over paid and overhyped compared to other nations’ said Mark from Exeter. The rugby world cup team had the whole of the nation backing them, the football team hasn’t. Fact is, football has become such as dominant sport people are starting to hate it. Women hate it more than ever and fans outside the top 10 are going off the sport because the top teams are strengthening with such power that lower teams might as well not bother as they know they won’t mount a good run in the league.

Footballers are seen as selfish, over paid and arrogant these days. All of which are true, but if you were paid £40,000+ a week then I’m certain you would be as well. I wanted Israel to win more than ever, and when Elyaniv Barda scored on the 10 minute mark, England qualifying seemed a reality. A good pass from Andrei Arshavin saw Bilyaletdinov strike the ball past the Israel keepers legs and Russia were back in the match. In the 90th minute, the clock suddenly stopped, the players suddenly stopped, because Sychev took a shot that clipped the outside of the post. My heart was beating, my legs felt restless and my brain was throbbing with pain. Funnily enough Israel went and scored straight from Russia’s attack and won.

England have been gifted a chance to qualify for Euro 2008. Hiddink will be fuming, I’m certain Roman Abramovich sat down with the Russia players before the match and said,

‘Listen guys, I don’t like England, I want Russia to win more than ever so don’t let me and all the Russian fans down. I will give you each £25,000 if you win. Simple. Now piss off and win. Or else ! ‘ 

Roman would have been fuming with the players, he will be talking to Guus this morning and demanding an answer for their poor performance. They were miles behind Israel in terms of quality which left me and millions of others in bewilderment, especially after their good performance against England. Roman is an influential character in Russia, he is respected and seen as a legend over there. He has done a lot for Russian football, and if he said he wanted Guus sacked then the Russian Football Union, better known as their F.A, would seriously consider his request. But he won’t want him sacked. Roman loves Guus and Guus loves Roman. Roman wants Guus in charge of Chelsea but he also wants Guus to stay in charge of the Russian national team because Guus has improved the Russians immensely since he took over. Guus goes back to the roots, he goes to the youth of football and looks for long term success.

On the other hand, McClaren is still a hopeless idiot. Just as he has the balls to drop Lampard for Barry and England finally see an excellent partnership in midfield, he decides to bring Lampard back in for Wednesday. Is he deluded ? Lampard and Gerrard won’t work in McClarens tactics. When something is working you don’t change it. This is why we need someone with half a brain to manage England. We all know what will happen; we will qualify, the F.A will say ‘Told you all he was the right man for England’ and in the Euro’s we will lose in the quarters, then Brian Barwick, Geoff Thompson and co will sack him and look for another manager. This happens for every tournament. Now it’s becoming a bit of a joke.

Will we win on Wednesday? Of course. Skybet had us at 14/1 to win the Euro’s before Israels match yesterday, if England qualify, that will go down to 4/1. Therefore, for all the betting men out there, 14/1 would have been an excellent bet. Shame you’ve missed out on it now though.

Ramin