I'm sure many folk are still smiling to themselves this week, when reading newspaper reports regarding the OK start the national team made for the European Cup qualification Campaign, winning 4-0 against Bulgaria and 3-1 against Switzerland respectively. I'm pretty sure fans have had the urge to scream from the top of their lungs "Come On England!", but won't exert their happiness in the usual patriotic ways of old (Pre World Cup). In fact I will go as far to say the only time England might be mentioned today/tomorrow and in the near future is in history and geography classes across the country...
"Why oh why would you make such a ridiculous statement GMAN!!", You may ask!
Erm!!!!!!!! ... Have you all forgotten the dismal world cup displays England gave us! Come to think of it, don't you remember the Pre World Cup HYPE! England promised so much but then produced so little. England!!! Were actually being tipped as potential winners! "I know.... I know, It’s paper talk GMAN, don’t believe everything you read GMAN!! any and all of the 32 teams are in the same position to win GMAN”..., but I mean ENGLAND were being TIPPED; HYPED; DESIGNED; BUILT UP; CONSTRUCTED; MEDIA MANUFACTURED and 'PITCH-TALKED' to be one of the greatest squads of current times. The crop of English lads, who attended the World’s most decorated footballing event were bathed with the title "The Golden Generation" as many of their failed predecessors had been before them. They paced through there qualification group with ease, sweeping aside their counterparts, the whole nation actually started to believe as we always do. The media circus, started to take hold of the nations fickle nature bombarding us with story’s like "ROONEY the next PELE or TERRY as good as MOORE” and as usual the F.A were quick to endorse, these claims and protect their manager and players alike.
Cappello was heralded by the British press as some sort of messiah; better still an Army lieutenant who had just seen England through a covert mission toppling all their footballing enemies. At times it was almost as if Cappello was some sort of cowboy, who was riding aimlessly through the highs and low forests, a journey that came with managing the world’s most dreamy nation. He was like John Wayne shooting down all those who tried to defy or challenge his authority. A most noticeable victim of this was EX Captain John Terry! Need I say any more??
The Italian who now after the World Cup is being spoken of as some sort of Tyrant was back then considered to be a saint. The only man right for the job in changing the English mentality into a winning one were the claims being thrown about. But How! Why! Who changed this opinion so fast? I don't know!
Now when looking back at the tournament and before the tournament, the paper talk was all about a fairytale ending! We'll for Cappello and his boys. This fairytale soon curtailed into a nightmare. Cappello was no longer the beauty that the papers had moulded, over night he had manifested into an image of a beast, the world of journalism was out to take KING KONG Cappello down. And in hind sight it’s hilarious because as British citizens we face the same fate each time a new tournament pops up. We have been through it so much we know the coo, in fact the tabloids tell us what they will do and what the most likely outcome is and we cannot do anything about it. Tabloids/media all like to build up the status of England before the Tournaments. England are the best this, England player are best that, but as they do this they also see the need to cripple individual personnel within the team and we as goosip/news hungry fiends buy into this, Tap ups, espionage, photo evidence all used in generating a worthy news stories. The England team therefore is never that far from some sort of controversy.
Personally a crazy thought of mine is the National media of all forms within this country are working together to destroy England’s chances of success in football, in order to make maximum profit from the stories they can print. There’s only so much money they can generate with good stories but with bad press they can spin all day, even create imaginative stories up that would have you or I as reader deliberating on whether there is any truth behind the story.
As usual the world cup campaign commenced in the same fashion, as any other pre tourney England received praise from everywhere even opposing nations threw their hat in the ring to say how good we were; how frightened they were of us; Rooney is as good as Messi (Bulls) and slowly as readers our minds are conditioned to expect the best, plus good news cross promoted with Carlseburg/ fosters/ Bulmas ect adds to the euphoria of good times ahead. However then follows the kick in the teeth, after weeks of good news plus cross promotion of alcohol, summer holidays and potential good weather for Bbq gloom settles in weeks/days before the tournament. WHY, you may ask?? The press only just decide to go and print/broadcast news of Captain John Terry's illicit affair with team mate and former best friend’s wife. This becomes the news of every household in the country no matter if you loved or hated football, and the press didn’t stop there in their pursuits to kill the buzz and maximise profits, extensive reviews on Cappello’s removal of the captaincy from terry which was expected was the next headliner but to make things harder for Cappello the papers/broadcaster alike decided to split their decision on whether this was a good choice by Cappello or bad one and some even decided to start chiselling away at the godly armour they had built around him. David Beckhams Achilles injury then out shone the teams preparations literally this became an ongoing saga until the tournament started. Beckham basically used the media to force his way into the England coaching set up, so his £16million face could still do right by its sponsors and this to me undermined Cappello as a manager and man. Cappello was also caught slipping when he verbally attacked the savage media frenzy which camped outside England’s training complex in South Africa 24/7, and there were also the reports of splits in the team how true they were no one will know, we’ll not until james Milner writes his latest autobiography “£24Milllion and haven’t done S***”. Oh yea and let’s not be forgetting Heskey, do I really have to go there with this one...
With all these things bubbling in the camp how on earth can any team cope. We the fans are as much to blame as the press even though they do seem to go into overkill mode when it comes to printing negative stories about our ballers and they may argue it’s because “SEX, VIOLENCE & CONTROVERSY SALES” but so does news of justifiable achievements. They may turncoat and then use the other argument “we’ll all we are trying to do is tell the news as it is and inform people what is happening in this world”. We’ll I’m sorry hanging someone’s dirty laundry in public is not telling people what is happening in this world. Stories of player affairs and driving bans are not going to affect a mum of 5 benefits or unemployed dads rights in getting a job. But in saying that these sensationalised stories which dismantle lives, marriages and ruin families are the type of stories the great British public like.
So for those of you that may be reading this at work, home or on your HTC, BLACKBERRY or IPHONE on the train/bus you may want to think about as we go into the next 2 group games in October do you really want to follow the trail of the newspapers and broadcasters by supporting England bullishly, going through the whole media mind games again, where at the end the most likely outcome is disaster and you endure sleepless nights, cold sweats and a host of disciplines for bad conduct at work, eventually being laid off for gross misconduct. Which then leads you down the pitfalls of alcohol, a weed addiction and potentially abuse of crack (like Phil Mitchell), reducing you to spend all your money on drugs and in bookies and eventually ending up homeless having to keep yourself warm with the same papers you used to read on your way to work or are you going to be a tad little more realistic in your approach and not expect too much??
These views have been brought directly to your door
By Gavin C Henry aka Da G-Man
"Why oh why would you make such a ridiculous statement GMAN!!", You may ask!
Erm!!!!!!!! ... Have you all forgotten the dismal world cup displays England gave us! Come to think of it, don't you remember the Pre World Cup HYPE! England promised so much but then produced so little. England!!! Were actually being tipped as potential winners! "I know.... I know, It’s paper talk GMAN, don’t believe everything you read GMAN!! any and all of the 32 teams are in the same position to win GMAN”..., but I mean ENGLAND were being TIPPED; HYPED; DESIGNED; BUILT UP; CONSTRUCTED; MEDIA MANUFACTURED and 'PITCH-TALKED' to be one of the greatest squads of current times. The crop of English lads, who attended the World’s most decorated footballing event were bathed with the title "The Golden Generation" as many of their failed predecessors had been before them. They paced through there qualification group with ease, sweeping aside their counterparts, the whole nation actually started to believe as we always do. The media circus, started to take hold of the nations fickle nature bombarding us with story’s like "ROONEY the next PELE or TERRY as good as MOORE” and as usual the F.A were quick to endorse, these claims and protect their manager and players alike.
Cappello was heralded by the British press as some sort of messiah; better still an Army lieutenant who had just seen England through a covert mission toppling all their footballing enemies. At times it was almost as if Cappello was some sort of cowboy, who was riding aimlessly through the highs and low forests, a journey that came with managing the world’s most dreamy nation. He was like John Wayne shooting down all those who tried to defy or challenge his authority. A most noticeable victim of this was EX Captain John Terry! Need I say any more??
The Italian who now after the World Cup is being spoken of as some sort of Tyrant was back then considered to be a saint. The only man right for the job in changing the English mentality into a winning one were the claims being thrown about. But How! Why! Who changed this opinion so fast? I don't know!
Now when looking back at the tournament and before the tournament, the paper talk was all about a fairytale ending! We'll for Cappello and his boys. This fairytale soon curtailed into a nightmare. Cappello was no longer the beauty that the papers had moulded, over night he had manifested into an image of a beast, the world of journalism was out to take KING KONG Cappello down. And in hind sight it’s hilarious because as British citizens we face the same fate each time a new tournament pops up. We have been through it so much we know the coo, in fact the tabloids tell us what they will do and what the most likely outcome is and we cannot do anything about it. Tabloids/media all like to build up the status of England before the Tournaments. England are the best this, England player are best that, but as they do this they also see the need to cripple individual personnel within the team and we as goosip/news hungry fiends buy into this, Tap ups, espionage, photo evidence all used in generating a worthy news stories. The England team therefore is never that far from some sort of controversy.
Personally a crazy thought of mine is the National media of all forms within this country are working together to destroy England’s chances of success in football, in order to make maximum profit from the stories they can print. There’s only so much money they can generate with good stories but with bad press they can spin all day, even create imaginative stories up that would have you or I as reader deliberating on whether there is any truth behind the story.
As usual the world cup campaign commenced in the same fashion, as any other pre tourney England received praise from everywhere even opposing nations threw their hat in the ring to say how good we were; how frightened they were of us; Rooney is as good as Messi (Bulls) and slowly as readers our minds are conditioned to expect the best, plus good news cross promoted with Carlseburg/ fosters/ Bulmas ect adds to the euphoria of good times ahead. However then follows the kick in the teeth, after weeks of good news plus cross promotion of alcohol, summer holidays and potential good weather for Bbq gloom settles in weeks/days before the tournament. WHY, you may ask?? The press only just decide to go and print/broadcast news of Captain John Terry's illicit affair with team mate and former best friend’s wife. This becomes the news of every household in the country no matter if you loved or hated football, and the press didn’t stop there in their pursuits to kill the buzz and maximise profits, extensive reviews on Cappello’s removal of the captaincy from terry which was expected was the next headliner but to make things harder for Cappello the papers/broadcaster alike decided to split their decision on whether this was a good choice by Cappello or bad one and some even decided to start chiselling away at the godly armour they had built around him. David Beckhams Achilles injury then out shone the teams preparations literally this became an ongoing saga until the tournament started. Beckham basically used the media to force his way into the England coaching set up, so his £16million face could still do right by its sponsors and this to me undermined Cappello as a manager and man. Cappello was also caught slipping when he verbally attacked the savage media frenzy which camped outside England’s training complex in South Africa 24/7, and there were also the reports of splits in the team how true they were no one will know, we’ll not until james Milner writes his latest autobiography “£24Milllion and haven’t done S***”. Oh yea and let’s not be forgetting Heskey, do I really have to go there with this one...
With all these things bubbling in the camp how on earth can any team cope. We the fans are as much to blame as the press even though they do seem to go into overkill mode when it comes to printing negative stories about our ballers and they may argue it’s because “SEX, VIOLENCE & CONTROVERSY SALES” but so does news of justifiable achievements. They may turncoat and then use the other argument “we’ll all we are trying to do is tell the news as it is and inform people what is happening in this world”. We’ll I’m sorry hanging someone’s dirty laundry in public is not telling people what is happening in this world. Stories of player affairs and driving bans are not going to affect a mum of 5 benefits or unemployed dads rights in getting a job. But in saying that these sensationalised stories which dismantle lives, marriages and ruin families are the type of stories the great British public like.
So for those of you that may be reading this at work, home or on your HTC, BLACKBERRY or IPHONE on the train/bus you may want to think about as we go into the next 2 group games in October do you really want to follow the trail of the newspapers and broadcasters by supporting England bullishly, going through the whole media mind games again, where at the end the most likely outcome is disaster and you endure sleepless nights, cold sweats and a host of disciplines for bad conduct at work, eventually being laid off for gross misconduct. Which then leads you down the pitfalls of alcohol, a weed addiction and potentially abuse of crack (like Phil Mitchell), reducing you to spend all your money on drugs and in bookies and eventually ending up homeless having to keep yourself warm with the same papers you used to read on your way to work or are you going to be a tad little more realistic in your approach and not expect too much??
These views have been brought directly to your door
By Gavin C Henry aka Da G-Man
