As England prepares to face Montenegro in their final Euro 2012 qualifying match tomorrow with qualification all but ensured, you could ask ‘Does anybody actually care?’ and the answer from a lot of fans would be ‘Well, no.’
For a long time now fans and in some cases even the players themselves put their club before their country. Most recently, Manchester United legend Paul Scholes, who collected 66 England caps before his international retirement in 2004, said that strong rivalries at club level caused suspicion whenever the players met up for England fixtures, which in turn hampered the team on the pitch.
On the mistrust at international level Scholes said: ''We weren't just footballers, we actually loved the clubs we played for and the rivalry was always there. You can't build a team or a spirit when that rivalry is always close to the surface. It was always too big to get over.''
This was not the first time a player had spoken out on the issue. In his autobiography Carra, Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher confessed that he’d “rather miss a penalty for England than for Liverpool.”
He continued to say “defeats wearing an England shirt never hurt me in the same way as losing with my club. I wasn't uncaring or indifferent; I simply didn't put England's fortunes at the top of my priority list. Losing felt like a disappointment rather than a calamity.”
The way Scholes and Carragher describe their experiences gives the impression that it is true that club does comes before country, and I’m sure if you were to put the current England squad through a lie detector test a high majority of them would admit to similar feelings. So, if nobody cares then what is the point?
England failed to qualify for the last European Championship in 2008 and while there was initially a lot of screaming and shouting along with the removal of ‘the wally with the brolly’ after a few days you can bet the average Englishman got over it and returned to supporting his club team with as much undivided passion as before. Essentially for a lot of fans, the England team is second best. For me it is a case of ‘Oh, England are playing. Yeah, I’ll watch that.’ When really I only care about our performances it at World Cup which usually ends in let-down anyway.
Though not every English football fan is a ‘club before country’ person. There are those committed minority who follow England all over the globe, spending thousands of pounds in the process. But even with current England star Wayne Rooney questioning the loyalty of their support with his infamous rant after last year’s World Cup draw with Algeria, it must not be long before they too begin to lose interest.
For a long time now fans and in some cases even the players themselves put their club before their country. Most recently, Manchester United legend Paul Scholes, who collected 66 England caps before his international retirement in 2004, said that strong rivalries at club level caused suspicion whenever the players met up for England fixtures, which in turn hampered the team on the pitch.
On the mistrust at international level Scholes said: ''We weren't just footballers, we actually loved the clubs we played for and the rivalry was always there. You can't build a team or a spirit when that rivalry is always close to the surface. It was always too big to get over.''
This was not the first time a player had spoken out on the issue. In his autobiography Carra, Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher confessed that he’d “rather miss a penalty for England than for Liverpool.”
He continued to say “defeats wearing an England shirt never hurt me in the same way as losing with my club. I wasn't uncaring or indifferent; I simply didn't put England's fortunes at the top of my priority list. Losing felt like a disappointment rather than a calamity.”
The way Scholes and Carragher describe their experiences gives the impression that it is true that club does comes before country, and I’m sure if you were to put the current England squad through a lie detector test a high majority of them would admit to similar feelings. So, if nobody cares then what is the point?
England failed to qualify for the last European Championship in 2008 and while there was initially a lot of screaming and shouting along with the removal of ‘the wally with the brolly’ after a few days you can bet the average Englishman got over it and returned to supporting his club team with as much undivided passion as before. Essentially for a lot of fans, the England team is second best. For me it is a case of ‘Oh, England are playing. Yeah, I’ll watch that.’ When really I only care about our performances it at World Cup which usually ends in let-down anyway.
Though not every English football fan is a ‘club before country’ person. There are those committed minority who follow England all over the globe, spending thousands of pounds in the process. But even with current England star Wayne Rooney questioning the loyalty of their support with his infamous rant after last year’s World Cup draw with Algeria, it must not be long before they too begin to lose interest.
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