England players refuse to talk to media

[pasty]

I think the players were right in what they did. The stuff from The Sun with the "donkey or James" thing was pathetic, and I don't blame the players one iota for refusing to talk to the people who publish such rubbish. The sad thing is, the people that write and publish all that sort of crap, probably think themselves soooooo funny. Well its not. When I buy a paper it is for information and news about the game, fair unbiased reporting, and an honest report of games played.

Unfortunately though, the only thing that will ever put a stop to such crap, is people stopping buying the damn things in the first place. I would love it, just love it if The Sun, The Mirror etc went bust.

 

[Row Z Creased Shirt]

I think the players were right. let's face it most of the press want England to lose anyway, why should they give a shit about them.

Anyway its the red tops that suffer as the 'broadsheets' are stuffed with journos who are capable of thinking for themselves and writing a decent article about the game without relying on a banal and cliched quote from one of the players.

Quite frankly I'm not interested in what the players have to say as they rarely say anything worth listening to in the first place. I just want them to get the result on the pitch, and last night they put in a good performance and let that do the talking for them.

 

[Schrödinger's Toad]

I'm fed up with the England clique and the various members of the Press in equal measures - I can understand the players and the managers being pissed off with people like Jeff Powell printing endless vitriolic shit about Eriksson whatever he does, wrong or right, purely because of who he is. Then again, surely the players understand that their actions reflect badly upon them to the fans, who are the people who suffer, not the press. People like Defoe and Robinson suffer because the older clique players - Beckham, Neville and James etc. are too selfish to allow others to take the credit they deserve.

 

[Harold]

If the crux of their displeasure was the donkey thing then I'm amazed. It's was a cartoon poll for heavens sake in a paper where you know exactly what you're likely to find inside (every single day) before you buy it. Not very mature or nice I admit but at the end of the day, a donkey in goal...jeez, how thin are their skins. The whole silent protest was not the behaviour of grown men and a big fuss over very little if you ask me. If they feel the need to be equally as petty and personal, then by all means refuse to answer questions or give any time to those they feel to be the main perpetrators.

Feel a little sorry for Defoe who has been robbed of the chance to wax lyrical about one of the finest moments in his career. 'Well it come to me from Becks and I just sorta got somefink on it'. Ok. Maybe we didn't miss anything enlightening but I worry about the influence some of the 'senior' pro's have over the England team off the pitch. Unfortunately it's less evident on the pitch from the likes of Beckham, Owen, Gerrard, etc. Seems to me that a few senior faces, who are rightly receiving stick for their poor performances over a long period, have simply flexed their muscles again.

 

[Beach Hut]

I don't blame them for one minute.

The donkey business was the same as the insults at Tony Adams and Graham Taylor, far to personal.

 

[dougdeep]

The players were right. All the press do is set them up and knock them down.

 

[portlock seagull]

What's wrong with Terry Butcher's piece (see BBC sport headlines)? Yes it was critical of Beckham but he's a journalist and what's more he's right! It wasn't spiteful or personally insulting to Beckham. Not unless you have a huge ego and think you're above criticism. Nice to see yet another decent comment from Paul Hayward too in the telegraph:

"If they want to go on the counter-attack with the media, I think that's a good thing. There should be more of a dialogue between journalists and players and I would welcome the opportunity to have a debate with them about what they feel has been in the newspapers this week."

Can you imagine Beckham or Neville in a debate with our My Hayward?! "I'd luv it" as Keegan would say, only one winner in my book. He'd wipe the floor with England's "brat-pack" that's if Beckham didn't bore him into a deep sleep first!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/3640176.stm

 

[NMH]

Fair points El P.
But instead of throwing their toys out of the pram and turning their back on the media, whats to stop the Captain striding into a press conference, holding up some examples of the juvenile, pathetic and embarrassing articles in papers such as The Sun and saying something along the lines of:

"This is a load of crap which frankly insults the intelligence of YOUR readers. By all means write about the performances on the pitch, criticise mistakes where its fair, but cut out the personal stuff and the feeble attempts at humourising it, and start treating your audience like adults. In short, try to behave like professional journalists and stop pretending you write for f***ing Viz".

I would have infinately more respect for the England squad if they came out all guns blazing and REALLY hit back at the newspapers, instead of hiding behind some FA media spokesman giving some glib statement about "wanting to make a point".

Have some bollocks, for christs sake.

Too right. What's up with communicating succinctly and getting the real point across ? 'Getting in a huff'
doesn't impress, and I doubt the papers will be forced to review their stance on anything with this protest.
In fact, they might get worse, and become more Viz-ionary than visionary.

 

[Kev the Ape]

not being rude but they are bunch of toddlers, david james is the worst england keeper i have ever seen and he needs to go back to man city and never put on a england shirt again!! paul robinson and rob green are england future and ben roberts (but thats another story).