Gutted ... are you?

[FlipFlopF]

You did us proud England

anyone else on the i dont give a flying fuck about sports bus?

I enjoy watching some sports - gymnastics, diving, snooker, ice-skating, horse racing and eventing - just not football. Snooker is the only 'ball' sport I like watching (can't play it for toffee, though).

I spoke for the people I knew. But as I said, the press yes, arrogant and hyping it up. The average fan, really not. Maybe you don't know many.

Have not RTFT but can see references about "smug media" blah blah - get real. If your local media are not doing this, it is because your local team doesn't qualify for tournaments regularly enough. I split my time between 3 different generally-qualifying WC countries (England being one of them) and travel for work on a regular basis. A team like England with the potential talent pool and financial backing it has should be expecting to make QF as a minimum and when it does/doesn't either way it's going to occupy a lot of attention and analysis from the media. It is the same in equivalent resource/population football-as-main-sport countries. Yes it's infuriatingly dull if you are obliged to read UK press and have no interest in England/are ABE but it's not going to change any time soon so I'd come up different coping strategy if i were you.

Frankly, the only football team I gave a shit about recently were to Thai Wild Boars.

Re arrogance you do know that the Coming Home song is about supporting a team that are a bit rubbish really but every four years you dream it will be different don't you? It's the opposite of arrogance.

As for hooligans, there are plenty of thug gangs attached to teams all over the world - look at the bloody old firm in Scotland fgs. At least English clubs have made a concerted effort to root it out unlike places like Spartak and Besiktas etc who genuinely don't give a shit.

Do you think there's a teeny tiny possibility you're a teeny tiny bit arrogant or condescending? Or a bit of a wally?

Cutietips. Touché. Accept my condolences.

LarryFreakinStylinson
I had to do that for the Euro 96 England exit.
It's character building. My then 9 year old now works in sports broadcasting but he's never forgotten that night. Nor me.

I did text him to tell him not to cry at work tonight

I don't see this 'arrogance' either. Not saying it doesn't exist - out of all the tens of millions of England fans, you're going to get some tossers - but it's certainly not characteristic of English supporters as a whole. Might have been the case years ago, but hasn't been for the past 10 years at the very least.

I think 'arrogance' is just being used as an excuse to hate England and English supporters. Those who feel that way about England would be better off being honest about their feelings and not hiding behind this supposed 'arrogance'.

Am a bit. Well done though to the team for getting to the semis and bringing some fun and joy to a lot of us. Think some misread the Football’s Coming Home slogan as arrogant when i never interpreted it as literal but as saying England were finally doing better after years in the World Cup wilderness.

@IcedPurple That's something I genuinely don't understand. This is a world cup - if England won this, they would be third in the world for football - why would they not want this status? It's like saying a bronze medal in the Olympics is meaningless.

Sorry, last message was to MadMags of course!

KS34 Wed 11-Jul-18 23:31:41
I think the main thing is getting to the semis, coming 3rd or 4th not such a huge difference. Nice to win of course, but semis are the main thing.

I and most of my family think differently - we're very excited to maybe become the third best team in the World

Why do people keep trotting out this crap? Violent people will be violent people whatever the excuse. There are idiots in every country who do idiotic things - but lets ignore the majority who enjoy football, use it as an excuse for a family get together, and lets face it the news has been horrible recently and this world cup has brought communities together

*tor8181 Wed 11-Jul-18 23:31:15
anyone else on the i dont give a flying fuck about sports bus?

im so glad its over,the way people(minority i know)use it as a excuse for celebration violence is discussing*

Utter bollix

I have mixed feelings. I'm partly gutted and I want to applaud the England team for rising above some very dirty tactics. From what I've seen, they not only reached the semi-finals, they did us proud.

And yet, I can't help thinking that if we'd won this year, readers of the Daily Mail, Express and Telegraph would use it as proof that we were the best country in the world, and that Brexit was a great idea. And their hubris would be sadly misplaced.

Not cared enough to watch but after past performances, we should be delighted. I'd like to think that this gives "us" a focus for Qatar but bloody hot probably won't help.

Well, asking me if I knew what irony actually meant was a tad condescending, no? I was responding in kind.

I'm relieved. I'm also pleased that my sons are not interested in this drivel.
Thinking of all the domestic violence going on tonight. I used to watch it happen to my mother every time manchester united lost.

It's like saying a bronze medal in the Olympics is meaningless.

No, it isn't like that. Football doesn't operate on a 'medals' system.

Nobody remembers who came 3rd at any WC. Any player will tell you that going out at the semi-final stage is the cruellest. Gary Lineker said that yesterday. Coming 3rd in a consolation play-off is something nobody cares about or remembers.

Yes, I'm also gutted because had England reached the final we would have had a massive family get together to watch it. Can't get quite so excited about the third place play off, and I'll watch the final but not quite the same!

Aah, responding in kind? I see, why stoop to that level as a wholly superior non football fan? Baffling.

Re arrogance you do know that the Coming Home song is about supporting a team that are a bit rubbish really but every four years you dream it will be different don't you? It's the opposite of arrogance.

They don't know that because, even though the song was written getting on for a quarter of a century ago, they've never actually listened to it and don't understand that it's classic English dry humour and self-deprecation.

They're just so determined to see 'arrogance' in everything that they've all gone a bit blind.

Violent twats are violent twats. Most football fans manage to watch and accept winning or losing without resorting to violence. Those that don't are disgusting, but I don't think it's the fault of football.

Yeah the third place battle is universally hated, I think. I can't even remember who came third in the last world cup - no one cares, it doesn't mean anything, but they've got to do it anyway. I mean, they haven't won and have no chance of winning, unlike getting a bronze in the Olympics - for them, the competition is effectively over.

Yep, we're generally a bit shit. And the odd occasions we aren't are fantastic. So no, don't see the arrogance.

HONESTLY. If you are were hoping England would win/lose and are feeling devastated/jubilant... just think of the Wild Boar football team being rescued from that cave this week and remember that this is all just total nonsense anyway.

Coming 3rd in a consolation play-off is something nobody cares about or remembers

Well, I'm not a fan so will take your word for it. It surprises me, though. Not quite the same thing, but I was on a train last year in a carriage full of supporters of (I think) Sheffield Wednesday going to an away-match and I was fascinated to hear one man giving a blow-by-blow account of a match that had been played in the same stadium they were going to - in 1972! The chap even remembered what the food stalls were like!