Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Euro 2012: Why I'm watching England with indifference

After 26 years of watching mediocrity and underachievement. I've refused to get excited by this current England team. I've decided to adopt an attitude of indifference.

I quietly applauded the opening goal against France, and was surprisingly entertained by the Sweden performance, but my overall feelings about the team could be summed up with French style shrug of the shoulders.

I've realised that this is the way forward when it comes to supporting England, and I may continue with it for the next 35 years!

Despite tonight's 1-0 victory against Ukraine, I still refuse to get excited about England's prospects. Ok, we've made it to the Quarter Finals for an intriguing game against Italy, but it's still only the quarter finals.

It's like me going to work and performing one of my basic tasks in my job description and then telling everyone who will listen that I'm a world beater! I'm not - in reality I'm just doing what's expected of me.

A quarter final appearance is really the minimum we should expect from any England team, even if expectations were low this time round, many of us thought getting out of the group would be an achievement.

After the 2006 World Cup I decided that I would only believe in England if they reached a Semi Final of a major tournament. Get to the semis you can start believing, anything before that means nothing.

I'm sticking to that decision despite the growing expectation that started to develop after the Sweden game, and the ridiculous hype surrounding Wayne Rooney's return after his suspension.

My message to any other England fans is to embrace indifference, don't be surprised or upset by anything that England do, ignore those in media who you know will go over the top.

Just enjoy the tournament (so much better than the World Cup) and if England some how make it to the final, then just perhaps we can start getting excited.

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