Is it Normal to Hate International Fixtures?

I used to love international football, I really did! It seems a very distant memory now but at one point in life, I was actually excited to see how the Three Lions would perform against our continental cousins. Growing up, we had an amazing team. Even to this day, the hair sticks up at the back of my neck when I think of players like Bryan Robson, Tony Adams, Stuart Pearce and Terry Butcher. I look at the current England team and to quote Bonnie Tyler, “where have all the good men gone?”

Am I looking at the teams of old through nostalgic, rose tinted glasses? Perhaps! It is true that the teams I remember so fondly, won nothing. I guess it’s also true that the teams in the past caused even more pain than the current team because I believed! It seemed possible, no more than that, it seemed inevitable, it would only be a matter of time till an England team won a major tournament in my lifetime. But of course I’m still waiting!

So maybe a lot of my general indifference to International football is not down to the current team at all. Could it be that I don’t like Raheem Sterling because Frank Lampard missed a penalty in the 2006 World Cup? Could my loathing of Daniel Sturridge be down to the mighty Paul Ince missing a penalty in the Argentinian World Cup in 1998? And surely wanting to punch Joe Hart has nothing to do with Gareth Southgate missing from 18 yards against the Germans, that wouldn’t make sense, would it?

They do say, “once bitten, twice shy” so maybe that is it. The unrequited love I had for the England team in the 80’s and 90’s has made me incapable of feeling! Maybe the years of physiological abuse at the hands of the England team have just made me an uncaring shadow of my former self.

My relationship with the England football team does often feel like a relationship that is enduring the last rites. In my head I want to walk away, I want to ignore the voice that says “I’ll change, you watch, this time I’ll make you proud” but so often I fall for it and 90 minutes of tedium later I vow never to put myself through this torture ever again, but I do!
I do have one reason though for not campaigning to have the whole England team assigned to room 101 though! The reason? Without an England team, we wouldn’t get any England football songs! And although the team may be terrible, I will stand tall and proudly declare that we make the best footy songs in the world! You only have to look at songs such as Vindaloo, World In Motion and Three Lions to know what I’m talking about!