England 1 - 2 Iceland - that is a result that will go down in the annals of sporting history so that generations from now will look back at it, shudder and not want to think what it must have been like to witness that match and live through the aftermath (if you're English that is)...
I have never felt so embarrassed to be English right now... and I AM living through it...
we have been humiliated financially, politically and now, sportingly.
Firstly, before I continue with this rant, I want to congratulate Iceland for a well deserved victory, we must not take anything away from such an awe inspiring achievement.
Now back to that bunch of pathetic sad sacks we call professional footballers... I love football, I'm English and it is in my blood, I played it when I was younger and have supported ever since I could walk. So it's really no surprise that I am well and thoroughly pissed off with what happened last night. I mean, what the hell happened? Did they all have visions of the beach where they'll be spending their Summer holidays? It really seems to me that they simply didn't want to play that game despite the fact that they had the famous Three Lions on their shirts.
This is the problem that we have - it's not the manager, it's the players... and they are a victim of an ever increasingly greedy Premier League. They get paid more and more each season, they are mollycoddled in that everything is done for them off the pitch and, more often than not, they get benched by better foreign talent, yet they still get paid £50,000+ a week! I defy anyone to not get a sense of CBA's when that much money is coming in, it simply doesn't give you the drive to achieve... if I won the lottery I doubt I'd be motivated enough to keep doing my job and I feel this is the same for our players.
Okay you would argue that the Italian players are paid just as much but herein lies the other problem - we are seriously lacking a sense of national pride anymore. We're always complaining: "Shit weather...", "Crap public transport...", "Stupid politicians..." etc. it's in our national DNA to deride our country and I think that, coupled with a stupidly high salary, makes our players think that national team duty is more of a chore than an honour. The Icelandic team played as a team with their heart on their sleeves, so did the Italian team when they beat Spain in the earlier match. Our lot played like 11 individuals who just happened to be on the same pitch wearing the same strip which made them think "Oh, maybe I should be passing the ball to these people?"
Hodgson has gone so the FA are now looking for a new manager, they need to find one that's tactically astute and can kick these players in the arses and get them motivated. Club before Country? Fuck that...
