My opinion on England

It’s apparent to me that most Arsenal supporters don’t care about England and to be honest I can totally understand why. We haven’t had many English players under Wenger and when he buys English they don’t turn out to be worth it. But we all know that Wenger’s philosophy is if they’re good enough, they’re old enough, and he doesn’t look at where they’re from, just as long as they have what it takes to make it at Arsenal. Also, why would you want to support 11 players (10 players if Walcott’s there) during an international tournament that you would otherwise hate during the Premiership season? It’s a perfectly logical question and I always ask myself that.

But then when England qualified and Walcott was involved I was lapping up all the success from the qualification group and I was well up for seeing Walcott possibly help England to win the tournament. Especially his hat-trick in Croatia. I was in a Spurs pub with my Arsenal shirt on, Walcott printed on the back and I was going MAD! No matter how much I hate all those players, when they come together as England I just support them. Because I’m passionate about football and my country.

Well, what a fucking let down that was!!! Walcott wasn’t even included in the fuckin' 23 man squad and not long before he was axed I had ordered my fuckin' limited edition England shirt. I was gutted. More for the fact that I didn’t think I’d be able to support England as much without a single Arsenal player involved. I got over it and watched all the games with my mates and had a quality time watching them. And when I say I had a quality time, I don’t mean the actual football England played, if you could even call it that, but just getting pissed up with my mates and singing the songs and chanting for 90 minutes. The atmosphere was brilliant.

Another reason why I love supporting England in the big games is because it gives me that knock-out round feeling. That feeling where if you lose, you’re fucking gone. You’re going home. There’s no way back. And that is what football is all about. I feel it for Arsenal in the Champions League and the big games in the Premiership and I feel it for Spain in the World Cup and the 2008 Euro’s. Plus, all my mates are Spurs fans unfortunately so because they’re my mates and I get to support a team with them it feels even better. I'm awlays desperate to support something or someone with my mates and because they're all scumbags (no offence boys) it's quality that we're rivals until we watch England.

Anyway, England were shit. Cappello SHOULD have taken Walcott in my opinion, not that I think he deserved to be there as he was inconsistent during another injury plagued season, but because he would’ve been another brilliant wild card. Lennon deserved to be in the first team as he was very effective for the scumbags down the road for the first half of the season before his bad injury, but if Lennon is ineffective (like he was for the whole fuckin’ tournament), who are you going to bring on? Wright-Phillips? Are you fuckin’ joking? That’s like for like therefore will STILL be ineffective. Joe Cole? Ok, maybe for the games where England have to try play football and not just run round people. Milner (unless he’s already on the field)? Yea, maybe, again for the same reason as Joe Cole, therefore another player that is too similar to make a real change to a game.

Walcott can play in the big games, he’s proved it. Not consistently enough I know, I can admit that, but he’s shown plenty of flashes of pace and precision and on the big stage. He scares defenders and as shown in the Japan and Mexico friendlies teams stick 3, sometimes 4 players on him and shut him out of the game. So when there are 4 players hovering around Theo, USE THE SPACE AVAILABLE PROPERLY AND YOU WIN GAMES!!!

So Theo wasn’t taken, he got a well needed rest and England were shocking and all those players I hate in the Premiership that I supported for England, I hate even more! So that’s what you get for supporting England. NOTHING! Get rid of them all! No more big egos, no more players that are ONLY successful for their clubs. We now need competition for places, make Lennon, Joe Cole, Milner, Walcott & Wright-Phillips compete for ONE place, not just include them all for the sake of it. If Lampard and Gerrard can’t play together, no matter how much they’re fuckin’ paid, get rid of one, better yet, both. Forget Barry, play a different system. Forget Heskey, which was an absolute joke pick, and to be honest, forget Rooney, not a single world cup goal to his name. Use Crouch if you’re gonna take him, use Bent if he’s the second highest English goal scorer, or whatever his stats are, get a team of 11 players and stick to them.

What does the future hold for England? God only knows! BUT, I do like the fact that Capello apparently mentioned Wilshire and Gibbs. This got me thinking, we have a few more youngsters at Arsenal that are English and are good prospects, then it got me thinking deepers, we have LOADS of young, English quality waiting in the wings in the reserves or lower league loan spells.

I will always watch and support England in the major tournaments, even more so with Arsenal players in and I would lov’ it (Kevin Keegan style) if we won England the World Cup at the Emirates and Wembley in 2018, LOV’ IT!!!