The Large One
Who's Next?
I've just been reading an article on the BBC website about hype, hope, expectations and so on. It made the point that (or rather I inferred from it) that the media set the agenda (or try to) for football fans' expectations. Conversely I found them, for the most part, out of step with how I felt about England in South Africa.
I feel that they like to set themselves up not only to be the nation's emotional barometer, but to try and influence and manipulate it. Granted, they've largely reined themselves in in comparison to the cringeworthy headlines of the past, but - and this is where the crux is - how much do they know of how most fans think?
To answer that, you'd have to get inside the mind of 'most fans'. The important point is that I find that the papers (and I am including some of the higher quality sports writers here) and the radio (to a lesser extent the TV), when talking about how we're supposed to be feeling, are mainly addressing the occasional supporters, or those who only get excited about football once in every four years - not necessarily the people who have the intellectual maturity to appreciate that football has its ups and downs, and is all not steeped in glory, fame, money and OK! magazine features.
How any given individual expects England to do, and how we cope with success and failure can often be (though certainly not always) in line with the individual's political leanings, but the media so rarely go that far to get that viewpoint over - it's the soundbite we're treated and not much else.
Fact is, I have not found one person who feels angry or bitter or cheated (I'm sure some might; maybe it's just the circles I move in); it's been more a sense of finally accepting that English football (certainly the 'top end') needs to take another good, hard look at itself, combined with the despondency and lack of expectation that anything particularly positive will emerge from this.
I'm not getting that from reading the newspapers; what I am more getting is little more than a sense of wounded national pride, which is not what I feel.
But then, that might just only be me.
I feel that they like to set themselves up not only to be the nation's emotional barometer, but to try and influence and manipulate it. Granted, they've largely reined themselves in in comparison to the cringeworthy headlines of the past, but - and this is where the crux is - how much do they know of how most fans think?
To answer that, you'd have to get inside the mind of 'most fans'. The important point is that I find that the papers (and I am including some of the higher quality sports writers here) and the radio (to a lesser extent the TV), when talking about how we're supposed to be feeling, are mainly addressing the occasional supporters, or those who only get excited about football once in every four years - not necessarily the people who have the intellectual maturity to appreciate that football has its ups and downs, and is all not steeped in glory, fame, money and OK! magazine features.
How any given individual expects England to do, and how we cope with success and failure can often be (though certainly not always) in line with the individual's political leanings, but the media so rarely go that far to get that viewpoint over - it's the soundbite we're treated and not much else.
Fact is, I have not found one person who feels angry or bitter or cheated (I'm sure some might; maybe it's just the circles I move in); it's been more a sense of finally accepting that English football (certainly the 'top end') needs to take another good, hard look at itself, combined with the despondency and lack of expectation that anything particularly positive will emerge from this.
I'm not getting that from reading the newspapers; what I am more getting is little more than a sense of wounded national pride, which is not what I feel.
But then, that might just only be me.
